Summer Revolts of 1849

In the Summer of 1849, almost every country across **Uropa** experienced a mass outbreak of civil unrest at nearly the same time. Citizen riots barricaded sections of many large cities and demanded additional rights from their governments.

## Pangs of Hunger

In the years leading up to 1849 a number of terrible crop failures caused by mysterious new strains of plant diseases caused food prices to soar beyond the ability of many people to purchase necessary food staples. In addition, a severe drought followed by a deluge of rain that resulted in flooding overstressed the already-crippled agricultural sectors until the point of failure. In many nations, food riots turned into anger at the governments which were perceived as not doing enough to mitigate the problem. Putting an end to food riots only instilled more outrage at the governments and these flames were fanned by political radicals with revolutionary agendas.

## The Portent of Bayernia

All over Uropa, major cities began to experience unrest throughout 1849. One of the first outbreaks of actual conflict was in the **Grienzen state** of **Bayernia**, wherein King Karl I of Bayernia had taken on a mistress outside of wedlock the week before. This spurred denouncement from all sides and this grew to a head in February of 1849 when students staged widespread demonstrations in Marzahn, the capital of Bayernia. They demanded moral oversight within the government to keep this sort of sexual deviancy at bay, citing the traditional Bayernian religion of Synenolicism as their moral pillar.

King Karl I first attempted to make a token offer to appease the rioters, by promising to create a Virtue Oversight Committee to ensure that a proper investigation of immorality among government officials could take place. His offer was roundly rejected due to the powerless nature of this council, and with condemnation from other sources within the **Synenolic Church** began to pour in, the King abdicated in favor of his son.

This was the extent of the revolt in Bayernia, but the success of it was taken as a sign for many malcontents eager to instigate the outrage at food shortages across the continent.

## A Spark in Gallia

The shaky reign of Queen Marie I of **Gallia** that had started in the previous round of revolutions in 1830 came to a sudden end in early 1849 shortly after the resignation of King Karl I in Bayernia. Several days of political demonstrations in Gallia turned into looting of stores that still had food, which then developed into the looting of Paree's arsenals of all firearms to arm the mobs. The Paree Defenders met heavy resistance when trying to bring about order, their own ranks proving disorganized, poorly trained, and ill-equipped. Ambush tactics including the use of boiling water and firebombs tossed from upper story windows within the city inflicted heavy losses on the Paree Defenders. This spurred on indiscriminate gunfire and even cannon barrages, which only rallied more mutinous citizens to the fight.

Within three days, Queen Marie I fled the capital to take up exile within **Grand Breteyne**. Both of her sons had maintained high-ranking positions within the military, and they departed to accompany their mother, instructing the military not to quash whatever government the revolutionaries created to replace the limited monarchy. Across the next several months, a new government took shape out of the masses and the Gallian Republic was born anew. in much the same way as the last one had: vigorous executions of monarchist loyalists and ascension of the loudest of rabble-rousers to positions of authority amongst the self-proclaimed egalitarian new government.

## Ascendancy of Man

A vast majority of the revolutionaries belonged to the **Yhassuatic religion** and used their ethnoreligious networks to connect and plan uprisings. Many Cassumite professors and students at universities lead the younger generations into open conflict with the police while presenting demands for greater rights and equalities under the law. These demands were in line with the policies of the **Ascendancy of Man** that had begun in the Gallian Republic, and now were being spread all across Uropa, often by the light of firebombs and at the tip of knives.

While it might seem odd for members of a financially-advantaged, religiously-insular community to foment societal movements aimed at disrupting traditional morality and the current economic class systems, Cassumite philosophers and agitators took up the forefront of the struggle. They communicated across borders to incite their co-ethnics to take up the cause in cities all over the continent. Everywhere the red **Banner of Man Triumphant** flew, rioters began to burn cities and build barricades in the street to block traffic and the movement of troops.

## Perfidy in Preusvia

Early on, the **King Walter II** of **Preusvia** sought to head off the issue by instituting a sweeping set of programs to ensure that the populace still had work and would be provided with the necessary amounts of food to keep them from starving. To do this, he had to call together the Preusvian Representative Council to have them approve of the increased government spending for this new program. To the king's surprise, the Council refused to approve this spending unless he ratified a new state constitution that had been prepared by the Amschels, the Cassumite international banking family. This new constitution would have left Preusvia entirely exposed to foreign interests through relaxed financial restrictions, and King Walter II rejected it outright upon this realization.

This left the king in the unenviable position of appearing to be refusing the reasonable requests of the Council which was attempting to help the people, as the newspapers soon accused. The capital city of Buchou became home to a particularly violent mob of revolutionaries who refused to discuss their demands until King Walter II had abdicated. His attempts to walk among his people to talk to them were met with thrown refuse and rocks, and his refusal to have his soldiers fire upon his own citizens eventually lead to his palace falling under siege by the rabble.

## The First Step to Anarchy

Unable to secure the removal of any major heads of the Grienzen states, the organizers of the Summer Revolts soon turned to other options to undermine the monarchical authorities of the various countries; they began to push for Grienzen unification. Not under a strong leader of course, but one rendered weak by legal burdens and responsibilities to many governing bodies who could leash him and direct his limited powers. To this end, the rioters were pushed to begin demanding their individual governments to send delegates to discuss the formation of a single Grienzen state, and of course many of the individuals pushed to fill this role were in league with the Ascendancy of Man's goals.

This effort was finally agreed to by the middle of 1849, as nearly every Grienzen state sought to take whatever method they could to reduce hostilities and destruction of property. Many of the insurrections were threatening infrastructure that would only worsen the food shortages by preventing agricultural aid from getting to farmlands in need of assistance. Only **Kierstia** had refused to participate, turning its attentions instead to maintaining its control over **Karpania** and **Seruiani** and foregoing involvement in the affairs of the Grienzen states. As such, the Constitutional Council convened in the neutral **Lesser State** of Schlussfalen, where the delegates felt they would be safe from reprisal by Preusvian or Kierstian soldiers disrupting the proceedings. There they argued and debated and set in writing all of the stipulations and demands that they wanted, to fully castrate the authority of the king of this new Grienzen nation while removing all of the current monarchs of the individual states from power.

## The Refusal of Decline

By the time the Constitution had been drafted and approved by many of the exasperated Grienzen kings, the Autumn of 1849 was coming to a close. Already the food shortages were growing less severe due to the efforts of government programs to overcome the drought-induced water shortages on farms across the land, and replacement crops for the blighted ones were beginning to produce food. The common man had grown tired of the rabble laying siege to their cities and looting everything they could to continue their stubborn protest against governments working hard to improve living conditions.

The culmination of the Constitutional Council in Grienzland was the concession to create a centralized Grienzen state with a powerful constitution that limited greatly the powers of any monarch put at its head. When the collection of leaders of the various Grienzen states saw what they had acquiesced to, they turned to the Preusvian King Walter II to take the position of King of the Grienzens. They begged him to be the leader of this new Constitutional Monarchy, putting all of their expectations on him to make the most of this dire situation. It was at this point that King Walter II of Preusvia spat upon the letter, crumpled it up, and sent the messenger back empty-handed, with the renowned response:

> "I will not place my neck in the stockade to appease brigands, even if it were painted gold."
>
>

With a promise not to intervene secured from the **Rossiyan Federation**, King Walter II dispatched the Preusvian military to Schlussfalen with orders to arrest the traitorous Connotational Council members for plotting to destroy the God-given duty of kings to rule their people in accordance to His Will.

## The Return to Normalcy

The Council members panicked upon hearing that they had been declared criminals and abandoned their position, many of them fleeing the country for Grand Breteyne or the Gallian Republic. With the swift departure of many of their thought leaders, the rioters in the cities all across Uropa were left directionless and confused, and one by one the state governments - with the assistance of the Preusvian army - marched into the streets to tear down the barricades that the criminal activists had erected. The general public welcomed the end of the uncertainty and chaos, even coming out in support of the harsh methods of quelling the revolts as it finally meant a return to peace and propriety.

By the beginning of 1850, very little remained to be shown for the insurrections outside of the Gallian Republic. Only King Karl I had stepped down from his position, and that had been accomplished peacefully due to righteous indignation over his iniquities. His son still ruled the country in his place, and all other heads of states remained. Some had given token assurances to the people to establish monitoring councils to regulate the agricultural industry to ensure sufficient crop variety so that a small number of new blights could not devastate the food production of the entire country. These were implemented to great success, but of course this was not the actual goal of the Ascendancy of Man, and a small number of loyal fanatics continued to harbor resentment and long-term goals of societal disruption which would fester and resurface at a later date.