First Republic of Lesovia

## Republic of Lesovia

flag of the Republic

The **First Republic of Lesovia**, officially the **Republic of Lesovia**, was a short-lived democratic republic in modern-day Lesovia. The republic was formed in February 1915 during the 1915 Lesovian Revolution, and officially dissolved in late October of the same year by Kastelon general Escamillo Cadrilla, who would rule Lesovia as President of the Second Republic of Lesovia

## History

### Background

By the 1910s, the Kingdom of Lesovia had been ridiculed as a backward state in Eredan, humiliated by its defeats in the Marinta War and Riveria War, lagging behind its neighbors industrially, and socially discriminating against the majority of its population due to state-sanctioned Lespian Supremacism. Numerous revolts by the impoverished Kastelons and Krasna, along with the refugee wave brought by the Cataclysm further destabilized the country, ending with the monarchy's overthrow in the 1915 Revolution by the Republican-Socialist Coalition and Kastelon military officers

### Resistance

As the monarchy and Lespian supremacism's legitimacy came from the Catholic Church of Lesovia, the new leftist, secular republican government targeted the Church, nationalizing the church's properties and banning schools owned by religious organizations. The Catholic nations of Eredan sanctioned Lesovia as a socialist nightmare, and the largely religious, conservative populace revolted against the new republic. The Krenadite Liamists declared the province of Krenats et Laansa as an independent Liamist Republic. Most of the Lesovian military's commanding officers were against the leftist Republic and were either arrested, fled the country, or had rebelled against the republic. Due to this, the republic was forced to elevate Kastelon and Elzenese officers to the ranks of General, and used them to fight against the counter-revolutionaries.

### Rise of Cadrilla

Escamillo Cadrilla, a popular Kastelon officer from the Marinta War, was promoted to General and sent to suppress the Liamist Republic of Krenats and the Marquis of Gavia's revolt. Though he succeeded in doing so, Cadrilla promised the people of Krenats and Gavia that their traditionalist, religious ways of life would not be affected, earning the respect and support of the conservative populace. When Cadrilla returned to Lostana, he found that he had become more popular than the republic he fought for. Cadrilla himself, like most of the republic's generals, was religious and disliked the republic's secular policies, and soon hatched a plan with several other generals to overthrow the republic

### Dissolution

On September 17, 1915, Cadrilla and several other officers, including José Luis Correa and Joaquim Alcantara, launched a military coup against the republic. The country was put under martial law, the constitution was suspended, parliament dissolved, and the leadership of the First Republic imprisoned. The First Republic still existed in name until October 30, 1915, when Cadrilla announced the Constitution of the Second Republic, officially establishing the Second Republic with himself as president.

## Government

The First Republic was a parliamentary democracy, like the monarchy it preceded. Unlike the monarchy, however, the President was purely ceremonial, with no power to appoint or dismiss ministers, dissolve parliament, or declare martial law. Due to the state of chaos 1915 Lesovia was in, as well as the short lifespan of the First Republic, no elections were ever held. The parliament consisted of the 1915 Parliament of the Kingdom of Lesovia, however nearly 35% of its Members had fled the country, been arrested or joined the revolts against the First Republic. Those who remained were mostly from the Liberal Democratic Party, CNT-FAL, Lesovian Socialist Party and other leftist parties that made up the Republican-Socialist Coalition.

Although freedom of speech, press, association and other liberties were guaranteed by the Republic, the government had violently cracked down on opposition in the capital, especially after Avelino Fernando took over the position of Prime Minister. Newspapers and people who spoke out against the Republic's secular policies or complained about the food crisis would find themselves imprisoned without a trial, or sometimes even executed on the streets. Although the First Republic was in theory democratic, the fact that no elections were held and opposition were arrested and purged for being against the republic has led to some scholars to argue that it should be classified as a Socialist Dictatorship.