Prestige Wars

## **History**

The collapse of the Briayonish and Lindoncian colonial empires in the Americas, left the image of the monarchies of both nations in bad shape. Following the loss of their American colonies, the two nations found themselves entering a downward spiral. Debt was growing rampant and escalated taxation on the lower classes of society was leading to a breakdown in law and order. On top of that, the ideals of nationalism and liberalism from the Garecian Republic and Republic of Laurada were beginning to influence the suffering populations of Western Europe. This would see the monarchies of Briayon and Lindonce overthrown and replaced with new republican governments. Yet once these new governments came to power, they faced immediate opposition from the rest of the continental powers.

The Holy Yonderan Empire was the first critic of the new regimes, and the two strongest members, Mrassia and Destburg began a mass mobilization along their borders with Lindonce. Things further escalated when in 1795 the HYE formed an alliance with the kingdoms of Alesta and Chanboda, and Stelegal joined the alliance in 1796. Now being surrounded on all sides, the republican states were growing ever more paranoid, and began to rapidly invest in military development. Yet the last moment of peace would come in 1797 when the jacobin republicans took over in the former Kingdom of Tatiland. Refusing to accept another anti-monarchist state in Europe, the HYE declared war on Tatiland. In response, the Briayonish and Lindoncian consuls, Thibaut Auclair (Lindonce), and Joel Hughes (Briayon), already under pressure from the more radical jacobin factions within their governments, declared war on the HYE. In response to the acts of the republics, the Holy Kingdom of Yondera under Pope Sixtus I announced his support for the HYE, and the Kingdom of Alesta and Kingdom of Chanboda also joined the anti-republican coalition. Now calling itself the Restoration Coalition. The Prestige Wars, the Holy Yonderan Phase, had begun.

### **Holy Yonderan Phase (1798-1799)**

Emperor of the HYE and Destburg, Hannes V, gathered his men and set up defenses in the closest major city to Lindonce, Oldenholz. When the Lindoncian army arrived, under the lead of general Maxime Gounelle, the Destburg forces were defeated and the Principality of the Riher was exposed. Soon reinforcements would push through Casqueland and regroup with Gounelle in Oldenholz. Meanwhile down South in Paytunica, the army led by Ludovic Lucroy was seeing significant successes. Yet after reinforcements halted the Lindoncian advance in Setinia, Gounelle and his forces still in Riher marched South straight through Alesberg and Miekberg. In the following battles  the Lindocnians were victorious. Alesta and Chanboda, seeing the way the war was going, withdrew in November 1798. Paytunica and Setinia surrendered to Lindonce in December.

In the North Sea, the Briayonish and Tatilandish navies worked side-by-side against the HYE forces, and in October 1798, successful naval invasions saw the capture of several major port cities, crippling the economy of Emistad. Then after securing Emistad, the army under Joseph Holmes linked up with Gounelle before moving to aid the Southern flank. With the crushing defeats in the West, the HYE was in disarray. With the emperor retreating to Anzing, the republics breezed through with ease. By January 1799, Anzing was surrounded and captured. Then on February 1, 1799, the city fell and Hannes V called for peace which was accepted, and the peace negotiations were dictated by Gounelle and Holmes themselves, which was controversial.

In the peace negotiations with the HYE, Tatiland gained major borderlands, Briayon gained Emistad as a puppet state, forming the Emistadish Republic with Alexander Moore at the helm. Lindonce annexed the Riher, and puppeted the states of Casqueland and Paytunica. Setinia and Maribali were merged into the Republic of Setinia-Maribali. Yet with the victories abroad, the government back in the homelands were facing trouble. The victory against the HYE led to Gounelle and Holmes becoming  ever more ambitious, and the governments in Clacton and Pendel were growing suspicious of the two generals’ goals.

Not wanting their power under any more threat, the consul of Lindonce, Thibaut Auclair, attempted to send Gounelle to the Kingdom of Alisica and support a jacobin revolt in the country, yet the operation in Alisica was a failure, and the government was humiliated. Soon Gounelle would discover that Auclair set him up, and exposed the government for its manipulation. In response, Gounelle and his supporters began planning a coup. On April 9, 1799, an assassination attempt by Lorenz von Stroheim, an exiled jacobin from Destburg, was used by the Gounelleists to convince and force the Auclair government to sign over power to the Gounelleists, which succeeded after using military force by April 15th.

Following the Gounelleist coup in Lindonce, Joseph Holmes pushed to do the same. Up until this point, the government was divided between the conservative, liberal, and jacobin factions. Holmes stated in May 1799: “How are we expected to survive as a republic when men in the halls of power do nothing but squabble over pathetic matters?” Following his anti-government outcries, he and his men marched on Pendel on May 29, 1799, forcing the incumbent consul, Joel Hughes to resign or face the consequences. With the instabilities in the West, the monarchist powers of Europe once again declared war on Briayon and Lindonce, hoping to score a victory once and for all. This time, the Jayassian Empire under Tsar Vladislav II, led the charge, sending hundreds of men to the HYE to help defend. Beginning the Jayassian Phase of the war.

### **Jayassian Phase (1799-1800)**

Before the Jayassians could send men to the frontlines in Central Europe, the republics launched their attacks. The HYE forces, once again underprepared, were forced to fall back until reinforcements arrived, and with Holmes and Gounelle in charge of Briayon and Lindonce, their armies were reorganized and better tactics were adopted to increase efficiency. Holmes was the first to implement a live off the land doctrine, so that he and his men would not have to worry about slower supply wagons. Gounelle would soon do the same a couple months later during his campaign against the HYE and the Jayassians.

In the North Sea, the Briayonish navy clashed with Kendena and Reanord in December 1799. During the battle, Holmes was on his way to the mainland, and he expected the Scandinavian resistance to be nothing but a weak obstacle. Yet when the two sides confronted each other at the Battle of Unforgiving Waves, the Kendenan and Reanordic navies proved to be a threat to be reckoned with. Yet with a thick fog setting in, the Briayonish navy led the nordic states into a trap, leading to a bloody fight, resulting in  a Briayonish victory. After that, Holmes headed South and invaded Nannover, meanwhile another half of the fleet was sent to attack the coast of Kendena. On March 1, 1800, Holmes landed on the Southwestern coast and pushed inland to take the Kendenan Capital of Koperhalsen, which fell on March 17th. Following the fall of Koperhalsen, the king of Kendena sued for peace, and Reanord surrendered two weeks later.

Lindonce swept through the Northern realms, yet in August 1800, their advance was halted by the Jayassian army, setting up defensive positions in the mountains of Huvaria and Salvaria. To break the deadlock, Gounelle and his men invaded through Zuxony to encircle the Jayassian forces, which succeeded by September 10, 1800. Securing the surrender of every man in the trapped pocket. From there, Gounelle secured the rest of Zuxony and Huvaria. Later on September 29th, he would launch yet another offensive to take Anzing, which fell on October 3, 1800. Following the humiliating defeat, Jayassia withdrew from the war, and the second restoration coalition failed.

In the second peace negotiations, Destburg was forced to give up independence to Salvaria and Huvaria. To make matters worse for the Destburgians, the Western realms of the HYE were merged into a new joint Briayonish-Lindoncian puppet state, the Riher Confederacy. Following the major defeat of the Destburgians, the kingdom of Mrassia under Christoph VII was growing anxious. For the last several decades, the Mrassian army was expanded and modernized, yet the monarchy was cautious when confronted with the issues abroad. The HYE and Nordic states were utterly destroyed by the Western republican regimes. During the Jayassian Phase of the war, the Mrassians refused to get involved directly, yet by the last half of 1800, many in Mrassia wanted revenge for the defeat of the HYE. Plus, many commanders of the army feared that with the final defeat of Destburg, Mrassia would be the next target, as stated by general Aayden Lechner.

Under Lechner’s guidance, the military began planning for a possible sneak attack against the Riher Confederacy, taking advantage of the separatist movements in the territory. On November 12, 1800, a rebellion against republican rule was staged by none other than Lechner himself. The rebellion was difficult to crush. Once the rebels gained a foothold, Christoph VII sent an ultimatum to Gounelle and Holmes. Either leave the Riher or face war. Feeling confident, Lindonce ignored the warning and even declared war on Mrassia. Soon the kingdoms of Reanord, Jayassia, and Tiyikaria announced their support for Mrassia. Thus began the third phase of the conflict. The Mrassian Phase.

### **Mrassian Phase (1800-1804)**

The Mrassian army was quickly pushed out of the Riher and was forced to retreat Eastward towards Eastern Mrassia. Kulster after a long and bloody fight was captured on January 10th, 1801. Meanwhile in the Yonderan peninsula, the Holy Kingdom of Yondera was finally crushed and the pope was forced to step down from his religious title and renounce his leadership of Catholic Europe, upsetting Alesta, Chanboda, Stelegal and Matiland. To the North Sea, Kendena was once again invaded by Holmes and his army, capturing and shelling the city of Koperhalsen once again by March 21st. However while Kendena was defeated for the second time, the Reanords set up defensive positions in the mountains, and the recently expanded Reanordic navy held off the attackers until 1803. Tatiland pushed into Mrassia, securing its Northern coastline and crippling the Mrassian navy.

By June 1803, Mrassia officially surrendered, yet those stationed in Eastern Mrassia kept on fighting. In response, Lindoncian leaders put ever greater pressure on the liberal Abalandish Empire to join the war. The Abalandish emperor, Tytus V was eager to secure its borders from all foreign threats, and wanting to defeat the rising Mrassian threat, joined the war on December 18, 1803, securing the final defeat of the Mrassian remnants by January 5th, 1804. In outrage, Jayassia declared war on Abaland, dragging the rest of the coalition to do the same. Beginning the fourth phase, the Abalandish Phase.

### **Abalandish Phase (1804-1810)**

At first, the Jayassians managed to secure their first victories in the entire war, pushing deep into the Critanian half of the empire. Abaland was failing to mobilize right away, yet Lindoncian and Briayonish reinforcements arrived and pushed the Jayassians back to the border by February 1804. By this point the war reached a stalemate. Briayon was beginning to struggle against the Reanordic defenders, and the Reanords even managed to liberate some of Kendena’s territory by 1805. By mid-1805 supplies were beginning to run low, and the constant wars across Europe were beginning to take a toll on the republican economies. In an attempt to fix the problem, the Holmes government in Briayon proposed a unified economic and trade alliance between the Western republics and their puppet states. The official pact was agreed upon, and on July 20, 1805, the Continental Treaty Organization or the Organisation du traité continental was formed.

To make up for lost men and supplies, the CTO began targeting neutral shipping and blockading neutral states into submission, bringing it into confrontation once again with the several kingdoms of Iberia.

In 1807, the Jayassians had fully retreated from Abaland, and from there, Lindonce, Abaland and Briayon launched the largest offensive of the war yet. The invasion of Jayassia had finally come and the republics refused to back down. From September 1807 to 1809 the invasion would be a slow trudge to Pelvograd. To slow down the enemy advance, the Jayassians adopted a scorched earth policy, and on April 11, 1809, before the invaders could reach Pelvograd, the city was abandoned and the royal family fled North to St. Adamsberg. When Pelvograd came under CTO occupation on November 27th, 1809, and the city was found invading, the Jayassians closed in on the North and the South and encircled the invading armies. Tytus, Holmes, and Gounelle were in the city during the encirclement process, and in the following retreat, the three leaders lost a majority of their armies.

The retreat from Jayassia would last for a whole month, before finally arriving back in Abaland. Yet the crippling defeat at Pelvograd would prove itself to be a turning point in the war as a whole. The Jayassians once again invaded Abaland with the help of Critanian ans West Yurchakian rebels. The Abalandish capital fell by 1810, and Mrassia was restored. Seeing the successes of the restorationists, the Destburgians joined the war, beginning the Destburgian Phase. Meanwhile back in Lindonce, Briayon and Tatiland, the political scene was in chaos. The massive losses in Eastern Europe led to the leadership coming into question. Holmes returned to Briayon, crushing an anti government riot, killing and arresting the participants. Meanwhile Gounelle had a different approach. He turned his attention to the Southwest. Iberia. Gounelle was skeptical of his Southern neighbors eventually taking advantage of Lindoncian defeats and launch an invasion. To prevent this, Gounelle gathered his forces along the Chanbodan border, and on September 8, 1811, he declared war on Judicia, Chanboda, Alesta, Stelegal and Conuus.

### **Destburgian Phase (1810-1812)**

Gounelle easily invaded the unprepared Iberian states. Chanboda fell quickly and the Alestian capital of Vevega was exposed. Vevega fell to Lindonce on April 1, 1812. While the city was a drop in Alestian morale, the biggest effect were felt in its overseas empire in South America. One by one, the vice royalties and colonial dominions broke away, declareing their independence. With the collapse of authroity in the country, Alesta was mostly occupied and Stelegal was invaded. Soon the Stelegalese empire would collapse and its colony of Lonada proclaimed its own independence. Republican control of Iberia would never be fully secured, as Iberian rebels would take up arms against their Lindoncian occupiers. The invasion of Conuus failed, and denied Lindonce any more victories.

May 1812, the Mrassians would retake their Western territories and Destburg would retake Huvaria and Salvaria. In Scandinavia, Holmes was back in Kendena to halt the advancing Reanords. Then on May 30, 1812, Koperhalsen was liberated and the Kendenan monarchy was restored. June 3rd, 1812, Briayon retreated from the North and set up defensive positions along the Briayonish coastline. With Kendena secured, Reanord shelled several port cities in Tatiland, and the following naval invasion would see the Tatilandish Jacobins surrender by June 25th. From there, Reanord and Mrassia would take back land in the Riher Confederacy. With the war turning in favor of the restorationists, the Riher Confederacy collapsed by July 19th, 1812, with each individual province breaking free and joining the war against Briayon and Lindonce.

On August 1st, 1812, Reanord and Kendena launched a full-scale naval invasion of Briayon with the help of the Celtic states to the North. Holmes retreated to Pendel to force the government to stay in the fight, yet all his supporter had already fled the capital, leaving Pendel to its own devices and only Holmes and his weakened army left to defend it. Pendel was encircled and later captured by August 28th. 3 weeks later the Republic of Briayon announced its official surrender, and Holmes was arrested and locked up in Reanord. Lindonce remained the last republic standing. By September 1812, the Iberian rebels pushed the Lindoncian invaders out of the Peninsula, and the Kingdom of Matiland which has resisted Lindonce for years, finally likerated the Holy Kingdom of Yondera, and the remainder of the Northern Yonderan States. The Republic of Setinia-Maribali collapsed and the two halves rehgained their independence from the Clacton overlords.

October 11th would see Reanordic forces invade Castony and Emistad, and with that, the Lindoncian frontlines collapsed and the restorationists rushed to Clacton where the final seige of the city commenced. The encirclement lasted for another month and on November 14th, 1812, at 10:39 in the morning, the city finally fell and Gounelle was captured and forced his government to surrender. The war was finally over. In the peace negotiations, Briayon would restore its monarchy under Arthur XI, and Lindonce would do the same under Eugène X. The borderlands of Lindonce and the coast of briayon would come under foreign occupation until 1820. Until then, the borders were rearranged to re-establish the balance of power in Europe. While the republics were defeated, their ideology of liberalism and nationalism would stick around across Europe, leading to a turbulant 19th century ahead.