History of Urcea (1798-1902): Difference between revisions

== Crown Regency and Red Interregnum ==

Behind his public persona, FitzRex worked to consolidate power by moving away from the bourgeoisie-backed [[Crown Liberalism|Crown Liberal]] system of Urcea into a more dictatorial, military, technocratic apparatus. This division between the urban [[Social class in Urcea|privilegiata]] and the military privilegiata created most of the political fissures in his regime. In 1897, the Crown Regent announced that provincial Governors would not be elected as per the Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892, but rather would be appointed directly by the Crown-Regent with approval of the provincial legislatures, most of which were lead by FitzRex loyalists. This lead to widespread protests, and by July 1897, the [[National Pact (Urcea)|National Pact]] had been outlawed by the Crown Regency on account of it being a "criminal conspiracy against the stability of the state". National Pact leaders fled [[Urceopolis (City)|Urceopolis]] and rallied clans in the [[Ionian Highlands]] into open revolt. Civil war had begun, and it took the historical name "[[Red Interregnum]]" for the blood spilled during the conflict, though some historians use that term to refer to the entirety of FitzRex's administration.

While the initial revolt was largely between disaffected [[Crown Liberalism|Crown Liberals]] and the Regency, leaders of the uprising pledged to recall the [[King Patrick III|Prince of Halfway]] of [[House de Weluta]], then living in exile in [[Burgundie]], to the Throne. The promise of restoration motivated [[Catholic Church|Church]] officials to lean towards the side of the revolutionaries, and the liberal National Pact successfully forged an alliance with traditionalist conservatives. No large scale fighting occurred in 1897, but by the end of the year a portion of the armed forces had defected to the rebelling parties, which were now calling themselves the "''Legitimists''". Facing a larger coalition, [[Gréagóir FitzRex|FitzRex]] began to move his technocratic regime in an increasingly socialist direction in an attempt to bring the lower classes to his banner, a move that many historians claim was successful and politically shrewd though in complete contravention of FitzRex's stated rationale for his alliance with Caphiria. Early 1898 saw a campaign of [[Royal and Imperial Army (Urcea)|Royal Army]] forces trying and failing to break into the [[Ionian Highlands]] in an effort to capture Legitimist leaders, and the failure to do so - culminating with a decisive Legitimist victory at the Battle of Goldvale in April - put the Regency regime on the defensive for much of the remainder of the war. Various states of the [[Holy Levantine Empire]] - citing the illegality of Urcea's planned secession and answering calls from within Urcea - declared war following the battle in an effort to help the restoration. In May, [[Burgundie]] began an invasion of Urcea in the newly formed province of [[Burgundiemarch]] in what would become known as the [[Overland Campaign]]. FitzRex had anticipated such a move and heavily fortified the province, leading to Burgoignesc forces being bogged down quickly and leading, ultimately, to operational failure. The presence of large foreign armies on Urcean territory provided FitzRex with the pretext to indefinitely suspend meetings of the [[Concilium Daoni]], leaving total control of the war government in the hands of his handpicked [[Concilium Purpaidá]] ministers.

Although the Legitimist Front was active within the [[The Valley (Urcea)|the Valley]], the [[Royal and Imperial Army (Urcea)|Regal Army]] was having better success keeping most of the allied Imperial forces bottled behind the [[Ionian Mountains]]. Attempts by [[Burgundie]] and other Imperial nations to bypass the mountains via the Julia Bay were no less successful, as combined efforts of the [[Royal Navy (Urcea)|Regal Navy]] and Caphiria's [[Imperial Naval Fleet]] successfully managed to interdict allied efforts to break through for most of 1898-1901. Despite the availability of machine gun technology, it was not widely employed during the early war, making the Red Interregnum the final major [[Occidental world|Occidental]] conflict to employ traditional cavalry charges and other traditional techniques. The early parts of the war saw employment, on both sides, of technology that would later have significant use but was not yet technologically ready for warfare. Most prominently, [[Caphiria]] and Urcea collaborated on the creation of fifteen armored cars for use in battle, but each of the fifteen broke down on the battlefield and the idea was scrapped for a decade. The failure of the forces of the [[Holy Levantine Empire]] would be temporary, however, as the internal successes of Legitimist forces - which, by February of 1899 induced defections of entire [[Ranks in the Urcean Armed Forces|Cohorts and Regiments]] at a time - opened the doorway for external aid. Defections within the Regal Navy meant that an organized Legitimist navy - sailing out of bases in [[Gassavelia]] - took to the seas by the summer of 1899. By August 1899, the Regal-Caphirian joint naval operation no longer held absolute dominion over the Julia Bay. On land, the Overland Campaign continued to falter, but the Regal Army was defeated in battle at [[Northgate]] and was forced to retreat, allowing Levantine armies to link up with Legitimist forces. Despite this, allied forces could proceed no further as regrouped Regal forces created a successful defensive perimeter stretching from Westglen and Goldvale.

The war would continue as a stalemate through the end of 1900, when [[Burgundie]] called off the [[Overland Campaign]] following two years of failure, and in the north Imperial-Legitimist allied forces were unable to break the defensive perimeter, beginning a period of trench warfare. This would be the end of FitzRex's fortunes, however. The abysmal turnout in the November 1900 elections resulted in a victory for socialists in the 1900 Daoni election. FitzRex accepted the new Daoni in an effort to court revolutionaries, but this move alienated policymakers in [[Venceia]] and resulted in a gradual withdrawal of [[Caphiria|Caphirian]] material and military support. With the beginning of the 1901 campaign season, Burgoignesc and Legitimist forces defeated the Regal Navy and established a blockade of Cana, capturing the city in June in the decisive [[Fall of Cana]]. With the port city and most of [[Canaery]] under its control, allied forces could now enter the Urcean plain by land or by sea, as control of Cana gave a vital base from which to raid and land soldiers. Imperial forces began to stream into Cana and across the countryside, taking much of southern Urcea from the Crown Regency. By the end of 1901, the forces of the Crown Regency were reduced to an area approximately covering the [[Urceopolis (Archduchy)|Archduchy of Urceopolis]] and Eastglen, and most of the remaining navy had defected to the Legitimist cause or surrendered, leading to a blockade over the winter.

The "Promised Crown" scandal would embroil FitzRex's government and largely serve to discredit the regency in the eyes of most moderates and especially moderate conservatives. Publicly, FitzRex continued to offer his guarantee that a new King might soon be found on schedule with Urcea's withdrawal from the Empire in 1905. Privately, however, FitzRex soured on the prospect of monarchy given the ability of [[King Patrick III|Patrick, Prince of Halfway]] in the field and in the public imagination; though FitzRex would not pick someone as strong willed or capable, the position was a threat to him all the same. In August of 1901 the Crown-Regent privately began to draw up plans for reforming the Apostolic Kingdom into the "United Provinces of Urcea" with a strong executive Presidency, which he of course would fill, allowing FitzRex to exercise permanent legitimacy in office. Whether or not FitzRex thought the United Provinces plan would work is unclear, but historians believe he was planning on floating several "trial balloons", so to speak, in advance of revealing the full plan. Government officials leaked the plan at the end of August, outraging the public and forcing FitzRex to entirely disavow the plan. Despite his public disavowal, the Regency began to lose the support of committed constitutional monarchists, who had already been weary of working alongside socialists and professional military officers.