Pogrom of the Caphirians
| Pogrom of the Caphirians | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Rakin, Qian controlled Peratra |
| Date | August 1758 |
| Target | Caphirians, other foreigners |
Attack type | Daxian racialist reaction |
| Deaths | 1,500 |
| Injured | 3,500 |
| Perpetrators | Daxia |
The Pogrom of the Caphirians also known as the Rakin Pogrom was a pogrom that took place in Qian controlled Rakin, Peratra in August of 1758. The attack originally targeted wealthy Caphirians residing on the port city but eventually extended to other inhabitants of foreign origin. The pogrom was carried out by large mobs of Daxians and their Polynesian slaves over approximately five hours before the authorities managed to disperse the throngs by force; during this time at least 1,500 Caphirians and other foreigners were killed in their homes and on the streets while another 3,500 were wounded with knifes or bludgeoned with clubs. Accounts on what exactly started the massacre differ greatly, according to some witness statements the riot began when a wealthy Caphirian slave trader named as Baldogilo Serentesi whipped his Daxian maid in front of his house before ripping apart her dress whereupon an incensed mob set upon him with sticks and rocks, killing him. Afterwards the mob began to burn Serentesi's manor and all other adjacent houses in the Caphirian Quarter while also attacking other non-Daxians they came across; the violence escalated into a city-wide riot. The pogrom affected Rakin's popularity as a port of call and disrupted the dominance of Caphirian traders over the eastern end of the Southern Route for several years.
Background
The beginning of trading by the Qian dynasty with Sarpedon by way of the Southern route brought the Daxian people into regular contact with 'civilized western' foreigners outside of naval action and slavery. Exchanges with the Third Imperium and the Carto-Pelaxian Commonwealth proved so profitable that certain aspects of the long held Daxian Racialism espoused in Zhangwo ideology were quietly loosened. Regulations on foreigners living on Qian-controlled Peratra were adjusted to be less restrictive and this caused an influx of traders and businessmen of all stripes choosing to settle in various ports. Cities like Port Bondor, Rakin and Yishi developed their own foreign quarters in time; Rakin's Caphirian Quarter was noted to be very safe and clean. Nonetheless not all were pleased by the increased presence of outsiders, several secret societies existed among the settlers of Peratra that proclaimed the subcontinent as a Heaven granted land for Daxians, the presence of unenslaved foreigners was a violation. The arrival of ships and the disembarkation of their rowdy foreign crews also routinely increased tensions with locals. Instances of conflicts arising from deep seated Daxian racism, the drunkenness of foreigners or refusal to pay for goods and services and the presence of 'western' slaves (which might incense their compatriots) were common but usually quickly contained by the authorities. In the 1740's a sect of Daxian supremacists named the Lushan Brotherhood had begun growing in eastern Peratra unopposed. Their numbers on Rakin were such that they walked around in groups openly with semi concealed weapons. It was one such group who happened upon the Caphirian merchant Baldogilo Serentesi whipping his Daxian maid in front of his home and in full view of a street full of passerby. Baldogilo had done such things before and had been warned not to do it again. The group then proceeded to brutally attack him with their knives and several onlookers joined in on the attack, a surviving autopsy report of the magistrate's office counts at least ninety stab wounds on his body. The cells of the Brotherhood then roused themselves across the city, spreading the false rumor that foreigners were attacking Daxians in the Caphirian Quarter; in this manner was the population of Rakin turned into a mob.
Pogrom
It is believed that between 200 and 300 members of the Brotherhood acted as instigators and leaders of a mob of citizens that may have numbered as high as 10,000 people or a third of Rakin's population. The mob converged on the Caphirian Quarter from all cardinal directions and began killing any foreigner they came across. Small mobs led by Brotherhood members enacted a house by house search, killing the inhabitants as they went and setting fire to the buildings. Terrified wealthy foreigners were handed to the mercies of the mob by their own servants and killed on the spot or hanged from trees. The crew of a Caphirian merchant galleon armed themselves and marched into the city to relieve their compatriots, coming to within a few city blocks before being engulfed by the rioters and cut off. Some stragglers managed to retreat back to the ship, pursued by the Daxians who threw pots of pitch and torches at the ship, setting it afire. A few even commandeered the cannon of a nearby docked ship and fired at the burning vessel. The fire at the docks alerted the authorities that something more than a common riot was going on. When news of the massacre underway finally reached the Governor of Rakin, he organized the 1000-strong garrison of the Rakin Seafort into battle formation and marched them towards the Caphirian Quarter. The garrison soldiers fired at the mobs, causing it to disperse in panic after three volleys; the fires of the city were controlled only after battling them for two days and nights.
Aftermath
The tally of the dead and wounded was beyond what anyone remembered in the area. Approximately 1,500 people were killed, the majority of them foreigners but also about a hundred rioters killed by the garrison, dying in the blazes of the burning buildings or killed by their own in the confusion of the massacre. The pogrom greatly damaged relations between the Qian and the Imperium and for a time it seemed the Truce of Caserges would crumble and war would break out; a Qian embassy to Venceia later in the year was able to placate the waters. The damage to Rakin as a trading port was done however, many ships chose to avoid it in favor of Truk or Port Bondor.