The Empire in WW1

The Empire in 1914

### Location

South and Southeast Asia, Inecuria, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, South China Sea

### Result

Treaty of Haguun:Nesarian Empire dismantled along national lines
Urilian-dominated postwar states established

### Attackers

Quadruple Alliance, Asian Elements:Nesarian Empire
Anti-Western Asian Resistance

### Defenders

Allied Powers, Asian Elements:United Kingdom
British Raj
Republic of France
Republic of Portugal
Japanese Empire
Kingdom of the Netherlands
United States of America (1917-19)
Anti-Imperial Asian Resistance

### Attacker Strength

1914: 4,000,000 soldiers, 240 ships1918: 11,000,000 soldiers, 245 ships

### Defender Strength

1914: Combined 3,000,000 soldiers, 190 ships1918: Combined 13,000,000 soldiers, 240 ships

The Nesarian Empire was involved in the **First World War** on the side of the Quadruple Alliance, known in Europe as the Central Powers. They did so to honour their alliance with Germany which had been signed in 1907, which had been formed once it became clear that Germany had established itself as a rival to the western empires of Britain and France, which had been bitterly despised in the Empire ever since the East Indian War.

The Empire was initially successful in retaking the Asian territories it had lost to the Europeans during the East Indian War, but progress was slower than initially anticipated, largely due to the Imperial Army overestimating its logistical capabilities. This gave the Allies time to launch offensive operations to reinforce the territory they still held and to retake some lost land, but these offensives soon ground to a halt. By 1916, any significant manoeuvres were absent; the armies of both sides were locked in a bloody stalemate, each incapable of striking a decisive blow against the other, with any gains being small and often reversed within months - very reminiscent of the situation on the western front in Europe.

However, unlike in Europe, the war in Asia saw frequent naval actions between heavy ships, as both sides recognised that victory on land could only come through denying the enemy supplies and reinforcements through naval supremacy. Heavy ships also served as extremely valuable mobile artillery platforms for bombarding enemy positions on land, making naval control doubly important. Although naval engagements were more decisive in nature than land engagements, both sides remained unable to completely break the other. The war at sea is characterised by historians as being the only theatre of war in history in which steel battleships saw frequent active use, and it is sometimes described as the "golden age of the dreadnought".

The war in Asia dragged on for much longer than it did in Europe; unlike the European situation, neither side held a clear advantage in resources or manpower, and many onlookers commented that both sides had the capacity to sustain the war indefinitely. This changed due to the intervention of a clique of wealthy Urilians known as the Frozen Few, who either held or had influence over many high positions in the civil administration and in the military. Recognising that a potential path for complete domination over Inecuria lay open to them, the Frozen Few began a large-scale operation of disinformation, espionage and subversion to obscure the largest naval invasion in history; a massive Allied two-pronged invasion force which landed on either side of Inecuria itself at the turn of 1919, catching the Empire completely by surprise.

The Empire had not believed an invasion of mainland Inecuria to be possible, and so only guarded the continent with a token force of inexperienced troops. The Allied invasion forces were able to make significant gains extremely quickly, and the Imperial Navy scrambled to the defence of Inecuria, desperate to interrupt the transport vessels that were pouring Allied soldiers into Inecuria on a near-daily basis. In their desperation, the Imperial Navy neglected the defence of Asia, allowing the Allied fleets to surround and blockade the islands which held the bulk of the Imperial Army.

The morale of civilians and soldiers alike rapidly plummeted. The inconceivable possibility of enemy soldiers on Inecurian soil had happened, and there was no chance whatsoever of the Empire being able to muster a sufficient defence force rapidly enough. Relieving the surrounded armies in Asia looked impossible, and the disorganised Imperial Navy was being humiliated in its clumsy attempts to rectify the situation. In just a few months, the Imperial situation had turned from stable to catastrophic. Seeing the reality of the situation, and told by his intelligence department that a third Allied invasion force was on the way (one which did not exist and was fabricated by the Frozen Few), Emperor Faltas V had no choice but to call upon his soldiers to lay down their arms and to meet with the Allies to offer his surrender.

In October of 1919, Faltas was forced to sign the extremely punitive Treaty of Haguun. Unlike in Europe, the peace treaty came rapidly after the armistice, since the treaty had been already designed by the Frozen Few several months in advance, and the Allies had agreed to enforce it in return for their aid. While the treaty did not demand excessive reparations as was the case with the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty did completely dismantle the Empire along national lines, and divided up the Asian territories between the victorious Allies. The states created in the wake of Imperial dissolution were all republics or constitutional monarchies designed by the Frozen Few to favour the Urilians and their interests.

Faltas V was permanently disgraced by the Empire's defeat at the hands of the Allies. He was eventually deposed in the March on Capera by his cousin Adrion, a revanchist and nationalistic radical who pledged to avenge the Empire's defeat and punish those responsible. He not only blamed the obvious candidates of Faltas and the Urilians, but he also considered democracy, liberalism, capitalism and "avaricious financiers" to be significant contributors to Imperial defeat. The traditionalist, anti-capitalist, nationalist ideology he espoused would come to be known as Inecurian Fascism, but - as is described in further detail in its own page - this name is something of a misnomer, as Adrion's beliefs actually share little in common with other fascists abroad.

*The exact details of the war, as explained below, are a work in progress.*

## 1914: Just as Planned

Unbeknownst to the Allies, the Nesarian Empire had been planning for a war in Southeast Asia practically ever since the Civil War had ended, routinely updating their plans as technology progressed. With the Agadir Crisis in 1911, it became clear that the situation in Europe was deteriorating. The Imperial Government correctly guessed that this could soon spiral into a crisis which would open up an opportunity for the Empire to retake the lands it lost in the East Indian War. They began putting the early phases of their plan into action and, slowly but surely, began transferring more and more soldiers to their positions. In 1913 the Imperial Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Nesarian Empire was signed, which was (as it happened) just in time for the war to erupt in 1914.

The Imperial Armed Forces were highly confident in their ability to deliver a rapid hard-hitting strike against their enemies. Though the East Indes were hardly undefended, the Allied forces were greatly outnumbered by the Imperial presence, and reinforcements would come slowly. While they were not perhaps as zealous as the Europeans, who infamously proclaimed the war would be over by Christmas, they nonetheless expected to win before the same time next year.

### Invasion Plans

The Imperial invasion plan was split up into multiple different forces of varing strength and different goals; the Burning Claw (BC), the Storm of Steel (SS), the Flaming Hammer (FH) and the Iron Wing (IW). In addition to these forces, there were a number of "free" ships and reserve army units which could be deployed where necessary as the situation demanded.

* The Burning Claw was the largest of the invasion forces. In its first phase, it would sweep through the lightly defended Portuguese islands, then promptly move onto the southernmost British-held islands. The Imperial Armed Forces anticipated that most of them would fall easily but Java - the most well-defended - would put up stiff resistance, so they included a high concentration of ships with heavy guns to bombard enemy positions.
* The Storm of Steel was the second-largest invasion force and the only wholly land-based one, tasked with invading the Dutch-held portion of Borneo from the Imperial-held north. Although the Storm of Steel force itself contained no ships, it was expected that some spare ships would be used to assist the force once it reached the coast, to prevent the enemy from safely fleeing (thereby forcing surrender) and to bombard enemy positions.
* The Flaming Hammer was the third-largest invasion force, tasked with invading Dutch-held Sulawesi and the surrounding islands.
* The Iron Wing was the smallest invasion force, tasked with invading Japanese-held Taiwan.

Once the Burning Claw, Storm of Steel and Flaming Hammer had completed their missions, they would be combined and split into two new invasion forces, named Thunder and Lightning.

* The Thunder force was the larger of the two and was tasked with invading Sumatra. Large numbers of land forces were expected to be needed for this operation.
* The Lightning force was tasked with invading Malaya. This force had a greater proportion of ships compared to the land forces expected to be deployed.

The Empire expected to make peace with the Allies once the West Indes had fallen, offering generous terms and only demanding the land they had taken with no further concessions. If the Allies initially refused, the favoured course of action was to force their hand by invading French Indochina.

### The Reality

Although the Allies had noticed the slow build-up of forces in the East Indes and had bolstered their defences in anticipation, they simply were not prepared for the torrent which was thrown at them almost as soon as the war began. Naval combat began on the first day, and it was merely a week before the first Imperial troop carriers set sail for enemy land. Although the Allies outnumbered the Empire in their ships, their efforts were poorly coordinated and their forces were slow to move, compared to the rapid and highly organised Imperial movements.

#### Burning Claw

The Burning Claw was highly successful, capturing the Portuguese islands with virtually no resistance; only Timor required shots to be fired in order to fall, as all the others simply surrendered when they saw the sheer extent of the enemy forces. The smaller British islands likewise fell without a fight, but resistance increased as the Burning Claw advanced closer to Java. Upon the island of Java itself, the outnumbered British force put up more resistance than was expected, successfully opposing the first landing attempt but being decisively beaten back on the second when targeted by a high concentration of heavy naval guns. Progress across the island was slow until an act of subterfuge, engineered by the Urilian general Daiyan Mazkari, had the natives stage simultaneous pro-Imperial coups in the major population centres. When the British military force learnt of this, they admitted that victory was impossible and surrendered on the 4th of October.

#### Flaming Hammer

The Flaming Hammer was also highly successful, taking the smaller islands without resistance and quickly beating into submission the Dutch forces on Sulawesi through naval artillery bombardments and superior numbers. The Dutch presence on Sulawesi formally surrendered on the 1st of September.

#### Storm of Steel

The Storm of Steel encountered heavy resistance, as British forces present in the region were quickly moved to reinforce the Dutch. The difficult terrain made it easier for the defenders, who were well-equipped with artillery, machine guns and barbed wire. The Imperials also had plenty of artillery themselves, though, and they possessed a key weapon which the Dutch lacked; native support. Imperial agents contacted the Bornean natives and convinced them that they would be better off under the Empire, comparing the current Dutch rule to the old Imperial rule and - arguably correctly - stating that the Empire provided more autonomy, more trade opportunities and lower taxation. The Allies soon found themselves fighting on two fronts between the Imperial Army and rebel militias, and they were steadily pushed back - though not without a fight. They valiantly defended their positions until they took the offer of surrender on the 28th of October.

#### Iron Wing

The Iron Wing encountered little resistance, receiving the surrender of the Japanese soldiers there after a week-long siege. As a result, many of the soldiers and ships sent to conquer Taiwan quickly left to join the other offensives, as they were not considered necessary. It was at this point that the Japanese fleet, which had been expertly concealing itself, sprung into action, utterly destroying the remaining fleet left behind to guard the island and unloading virtually the entire Japanese army onto Taiwan. The Imperial soldiers on Taiwan retreated to a hastily erected fort near the southern coast, which was soon surrounded and besieged. With the Imperial soldiers running low on food, sleep and sanity as a result of the siege, they surrendered to the Japanese on the 4th of September.

### November: Thunder and Lightning, with a Vengeance

After their successes, the forces of the Burning Claw, Flaming Hammer and Storm of Steel were re-organised. Some time was given for administration, gathering of supplies and rest before the invasion resumed on the 1st of November, with the Thunder force aiming for Sumatra and the Lightning force aiming for Malaya. Though resistance had been stiffer than expected and the Iron Wing force had been destroyed, in addition to the lack of ships as many had been destroyed and many more had to stay to ward off the Japanese navy, the Imperial Armed Forces were nonetheless still highly confident in their ability to quickly win the war in the East Indes.

#### Thunder and Lightning

Both the Thunder and Lightning forces were split into two elements which would attack their targets from different directions. Thunder 1 (TH1) would invade Sumatra from the south and charge northwards, meanwhile Thunder 2 (TH2) would invade Sumatra from the east and join up with TH1 heading north. Lightning 1 (LI1) would invade Malaya from the south and head north, whereas Lightning 2 (LI2) would invade Malaya from the north and head south. A naval detachment named the Vengeful Hawk (VH) was also created in order to harass the Japanese fleet and prevent it from advancing further. By coincidence this happened to be an excellent move, as the Japanese fleet was spotted heading towards Hainan virtually as soon as the Vengeful Hawk set sail. Imperial spies also soon reported that the French were preparing for a two-pronged naval invasion of Hainan from Indochina, which was presumably why the Japanese were heading there.

Thunder 1 managed to land on Sumatra without difficulty, but they were soon opposed by British forces. Thunder 2 also made an un-opposed landing, but on the journey they had to fight off several British ships which were all forced to flee. Lightning 1 shared the same experience, whereas Lightning 2 encountered significant naval resistance. Though Lightning 2 did eventually make it to Malaya, they had lost many ships and their force was significantly smaller than expected when they arrived on the Malayan shores. The survivors of the sunken ships had to be left behind, and approximately two thousand soldiers and sailors drowned, with thousands more taken prisoner, most of which were taken to Indochina.

#### Vengeful Hawk

The Vengeful Hawk fleet quickly found the Japanese fleet and began chasing them, but they could not manage to close the gap until the Japanese actually arrived at Hainan. The Japanese gambled that they could land their troops on Hainan before the Vengeful Hawk could pose a serious threat, but they misjudged; the Vengeful Hawk began their attack whilst soldiers were still being unloaded, and many of their ships were sitting ducks for Imperial guns. As a message warning of the attack had been snuck past the Japanese lines to the Imperial forces on Hainan, the Japanese were simultaneously bombarded by artillery and machine-gun fire from the land forces on the opposite side. The Japanese cut their losses and stopped the unloading, sailing away to safety and leaving thousands of soldiers stranded on the Hainan coast. The Vengeful Hawk decided to not chase after the fleet and instead continued to bombard the soldiers, who held out for two weeks before surrendering.

The two French advances on Hainan were not opposed as successfully. Despite the heavy resistance offered by Imperial soldiers, the French successfully established a beachhead on the west and south of the island, allowing for reinforcements and supplies to come pouring in.

#### Conclusion

By the turn of 1915, the Imperial forces were advancing through Sumatra, but at a slow pace due to the difficult terrain and British resistance. The Lightning forces on Malaya had made barely any progress since they first landed, and the Battle for Hainan had just begun. Confidence in a quick victory was beginning to wane, but the Empire nonetheless still had no doubts that victory would be theirs.