Imperial War of Independence

### Result

Invaders retreat from Inecuria, Nesarian Empire re-affirmed as legitimate by the United Nations

### Attackers

PTO (USA, UK and Commonwealth, Thailand, France)IPA (Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact, People's Republic of China, leftist militias)

### Defenders

Nesarian Empire
Spanish aid (secretly)

### Attacker Strength

PTO: Combined 750,000 at peakIPA: Combined approx. 1 million at peak
Militias: Unknown, estimated 100-200k at peak

### Defender Strength

Imperial Armed Forces: Highly variable, estimated 7 million at peak

### Attacker Losses

PTO: 416,332IPA: Approx. 500k
Militias: Unknown

### Civilian Casualties

Approx. 5 million

The **Imperial War of Independence**, also called the **Inecurian War of Independence**, fought from 1947 to 1958, was a three-sided war in Inecuria between the Nesarian Empire, the Pacific Treaty Organisation (PTO) and the International People's Alliance (IPA). The Nesarian Empire was eventually victorious as the IPA retreated in 1956 and NATO in 1958, and the Empire's legitimacy and territorial integrity was re-affirmed by the United Nations.

The War of Independence was a direct continuation of the Second World War. Many historians consider the distinction between the Second World War and War of Independence to be artificial and arbitrary, as there was no real break in fighting between the two wars - though there was a distinct lull. However, it reflects a distinct change in the style of fighting and the goals each faction was trying to achieve, as well as the opening of hostilities between the PTO and the IPA, whereas the two were allies during WW2. The Imperial War of Independence is considered to have begun on the 10th of January with Emperor Adrion's famous "While We Still Live" speech, but in reality the Empire had always been at war with the invaders since 1940-41.

Although the terms PTO and IPA are used for the two invading factions, the two alliance systems did not formally exist until 1948 and 1949 respectively, after the advent of the war. Some historians instead refer to them as the Allies and Communists for greater clarity, but these are not popular terms, particularly since the usage of Allies leads to confusion with the Allies of WW2. The PTO forces encompassed the USA, the UK and its Commonwealth, Thailand and France, whereas the IPA encompassed the Soviet Union and its puppet states (which would later become the Warsaw Pact) and the People's Republic of China, as well as armed socialist, communist and anarchist militias native to Inecuria.

Both factions desired the total defeat and occupation of the Empire, but had opposing geopolitical and ideological interests concerning how a new Inecuria should be politically structured, which rapidly led to conflict and eventually open hostilities. The Imperial Civil War was the closest the western and eastern blocs of the Cold War came to open warfare; though no state of war officially existed between them, their armed forces were directly engaged with each other on numerous occasions. Some historians have argued that the infighting between their invaders and their split into the PTO and IPA was what saved the Empire, whereas others maintain that a total defeat of Inecuria was always impossible, and the infighting simply made things easier.

Although the war ended in 1958, in truth it had been winding down ever since 1956. The death of Stalin that year led to significant shifts in the Soviet Union's policies both at home and abroad. One of the first changes was withdrawal from the "unwinnable" war in Inecuria, which subsequently led to the IPA retreating entirely - though it would take several years for them to sign a peace treaty. Later the same year, the Nesarian Empire would successfully detonate its first nuclear bomb in a widely publicised test; the dreaded possibility of nuclear war combined with the threat of a more focussed and coherent enemy caused the PTO to halt all offensive operations and open negotiations with the Empire.

Fighting continued for several months as the Empire attempted to retake lost ground, but a ceasefire was eventually called at the beginning of 1957, which was briefly broken several times until a peace treaty was signed in 1958 which finally put an end to the conflict. The Nesarian Empire retained its sovereignty and was allowed to join the United Nations, and all PTO forces immediately withdrew from the continent. However, the Empire had to give up all its claims beyond the territory of Inecuria, and Emperor Adrion was made to sign a declaration admitting fault for beginning the war, voiding any claims to compensation, reparations or concessions. Though the open war had ended, conflict soon began once again as the Nesarian Empire entered the Cold War as the third major axis.

Rulkhar saw the most intense continuous fighting, coming to an infamous brutal head in the Battle of Atsvar in 1950, but bloody battles were waged all over the continent on the four major invasion sites; in addition to Atsvar, which saw both PTO and IPA invasion, there was Qarohayn in Kalzuranur (IPA), Ribalouse in Roulonne (PTO), and a short-lived incursion in Kyçenil (PTO). Although the Battle of Atsvar was the bloodiest single engagement of the war in terms of total numbers, it was the prolonged Battle of Bouliers in Ribalouse from 1952-3 which had the highest proportional death toll.

The mass mobilisation of the population not only into the army but into paramilitary groups and militias led to the mass proliferation of firearms, with virtually every household on the continent possessing at least one firearm. This led to a shift in attitude from the Imperial Government towards favouring firearm ownership amongst the common people, something which stands to this day.

## Pacific Treaty Organisation (PTO)

The Pacific Treaty Organisation is widely considered a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and was essentially a testing ground for the alliance model that would bind the western bloc together in 1949. It consisted of the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, France and Thailand. The PTO was dissolved at the end of the war in 1958 as it was considered obsolete.

The PTO was not in full agreement on what a post-war Inecuria should be. The USA wanted to resurrect the Federal Republic of Inecuria proposed by the Republicans of the Imperial Civil War, constructing a democratic federal state with essentially the same political structure as the USA. Many American officials also proposed the establishment of a new capital city - imaginatively named Inecuria City - in the multicultural, multi-ethnic Nesarian Colonies, separating the federal capital from the Nesarian capital in a symbolic gesture.

On the other hand, the British and French both wanted to break up the Nesarian Empire into its constituent states, but sought to avoid the catastrophic results of the last attempt of doing this by establishing the Inecurian Union, an economic union between the newly sovereign states of Inecuria allowing for the free movement of trade and people, with no hard borders between them, instead sharing one common border with the outside world. The model that they proposed had many close similarities with the European Union and Schengen Area that would be established later in Europe, though it is unlikely that either the British or French intended for their proposal to serve as inspiration for Europe.

The British and French believed that their model of separate but united sovereign states would make Inecuria easier to control and pacify and prevent a new warlike ruler from rising, whereas the Americans believed that separating the Empire for a second time would be politically impossible and that Inecuria would be more likely to remain at peace if the people of Inecuria actually got what they wanted, which was a stable and united continent under one banner. The Kingdom of Thailand did not particularly care about specifics so long as the Empire was crippled and disabled and prevented from ever touching their borders again, and remained neutral on the issue.

All members of the PTO were nominally equal, but all parties also recognised the reality that the USA was by far the strongest member of the organisation, and it took on a leadership role - though British and French commanders were also keen to stress that they were not America's subordinates. Despite occasional friction, however, the PTO was for the most part highly cohesive; after fighting together as allies for so long during WW2, the PTO had already established effective methods of organising themselves, co-ordinating resources and communicating information, and they knew when to submit to each other's command when necessary. The superior organisation of the PTO compared to the IPA is generally agreed upon by military historians to be the key reason for their greater success, despite both forces being more or less equal in manpower and firepower.

## International People's Alliance (IPA)

The International People's Alliance was, from the beginning, a much shakier alliance than the PTO. It consisted of the Soviet Union and its European puppet states (which would later become the Warsaw Pact) and the People's Republic of China, as well as several armed leftist militias native to Inecuria who sought recognition from the IPA as sovereign socialist republics. The IPA was dissolved almost immediately upon the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Inecuria in 1956.

The IPA sought the establishment of a federal People's Republic of Inecuria (or Union of Socialist Inecurian Republics, or Democratic Federation of Inecuria - many names were proposed) with organisation along similar lines to the USSR. They believed that splitting the continent was a recipe for disaster and would simply result in another irredentist Emperor rising to power, as Adrion had done. Inecuria would instead be kept under control by "total conversion" into a socialist society, purging reactionary elements of society and "educating" the common people. This would be done by an IPA occupation force at first, but could be continued by an indigenous socialist government once peace and order had been established. First proposed by the PRC, the IPA eventually added the relocation of the capital to Onshi as part of its aims, both as a practical measure - since it has a more central position within Inecuria - and as a symbolic gesture to move power away from Nesaria.

The Soviet Union clearly dominated the alliance, as its European allies were outright puppets and the People's Republic of China was far inferior in material strength - however, it was not inferior in pride. Soviet and Chinese commanders frequently argued over military decisions, geopolitical interests and ideological convictions, mirroring a growing divide between the civilian governments of the USSR and PRC. Both parties regarded each other as undermining the socialist cause through stubborn arrogance.

The IPA was therefore far less coordinated than the PTO; they did not combine their logistics and pool their resources effectively, and general communication was poor and sometimes led to disasters - most notoriously in the Battle of Mashuram, when the Soviet forces made a risky lunge around the Imperial flanks in the belief that they were part of a pincer movement and would join with Chinese forces flanking from the other direction, only to find that the Chinese had not advanced at all. The unsupported Soviet forces were subsequently encircled and forced to surrender, eventually forcing the IPA to retreat from Mashuram.

Imperial spies quickly learnt of the growing divide within the IPA and successfully inflamed it on several occasions by planting evidence of deceit and dishonesty, causing a major rift between the Soviet and Chinese high commands that delayed a major impending assault in Qarohayn long enough for the target to be reinforced. Many Soviet commanders in the war would later blame the poor performance of the forces under their command on Chinese interference - which military historians see as proving the success of the Imperial espionage operations, rather than proving the notion that the Chinese were actually undermining the war effort.

## Nuclear Weapons

The Nesarian Empire had been developing nuclear weapons since early 1945, but the tribulations of the war seriously slowed their efforts. Their first nuclear weapon test came in 1956, but it is unclear how long the Empire already had nuclear arms in its possession before this, due to the infamous Carella Telegram of 1948. The telegram, named after Pelon Carella - the Minister of Military Research from 1943-1959 - informed the invading Allies that the Nesarian Empire had access to nuclear bombs and was in the process of developing ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, and that the Emperor would authorise their use in response to a nuclear attack.

It has long been debated how truthful the Carella Telegram was. Most evidence of the Imperial nuclear program prior to 1958 has either been destroyed or remains strictly classified, meaning there is little evidence to either prove or disprove the existence of Imperial nuclear weapons before the first test in 1956. Some historians assert the telegram to be a complete bluff, designed to buy time until the Empire could openly prove that it did have nuclear capabilities. Others believe that the telegram was merely an exaggeration, overstating the scale of the Empire's nuclear arsenal when in reality it likely only had a handful of bombs (or perhaps just one); this is typically given as the reason why there was no test until so late, as the Empire did not want to waste its very limited supply of nuclear weapons. The notion that the telegram was completely telling the truth is not taken seriously by mainstream historians.

The PTO and IPA, for their part, also doubted the validity of the telegram. The Soviets in particular believed it to be a complete lie, but nonetheless did not bring nuclear weapons to use in the war in Inecuria; they instead wanted all of their nuclear arsenal to be prepared for use against the West. The PTO collectively did not completely believe the telegram, and the military leaders of the coalition argued for calling the bluff and using nuclear weapons to destroy Imperial military bases and production centres - however, the civilian governments overrode them and prohibited the use of nuclear weapons against Imperial targets.

In a series of messages that have since been declassified, the civilian governments stated that it would be a waste of their nuclear arsenal to use such weapons against a target with unknown nuclear capabilities. The extremely expensive weapons were better put to use against enemies with *known* nuclear capabilities - that is, the Soviet Union - in order to respond to a nuclear attack. This was particularly the case given that the Carella Telegram made explicit that Imperial nuclear weapons would only be used in response to a nuclear attack and not as a first strike. Prime Minister Attlee of the United Kingdom, in a remark that has become somewhat famous, stated to his allies that "it may well be the case that the Imperials are lying, and I do not fully believe them myself - but I will not risk condemning millions to death to satisfy my curiosity."

When the Empire publicised its first nuclear test in 1956, the risk of a nuclear exchange was immediately taken far more seriously. The western public, already extremely weary of the war, grew fearful of the possibility of a nuclear attack and began to demand an end to the fighting. Faced with this public pressure, and also concerned that this show of force meant the Empire may have abandoned its no-first-strike policy, western governments opened up communication with the Empire and proposed a negotiated peace, letting go of the goal of unconditional surrender.

## Treaty of Jakarta

Coming into effect on the 11th of June 1958, the Treaty of Jakarta ended the war between the Nesarian Empire and the PTO. Peace would not be officially reached with the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China until later, but the war with these two powers had already ended in practical terms in 1956. The treaties made with the USSR and PRC, in 1959 and 1960 respectively, had very similar provisions to the Treaty of Jakarta.

According to correspondences that were declassified after the war, the British and French had originally proposed for Singapura to be the seat of negotiations, but the Americans strongly protested and insisted on meeting at Jakarta instead, believing - likely correctly - that the Inecurians would feel extremely insulted and humiliated at being made to sign another peace in Singapura after the 1847 treaty in that city ending the East Indian War took away their entire overseas empire.

The treaty is generally regarded to have ended the war in a stalemate, returning all borders to the state they were before the Empire's entry into WW2 in 1940. The Empire formally gave up all its claims to all land beyond Inecuria except for the Far Western Islands; this provision irked the British, who had successfully invaded and occupied the territory of Alérumére and had to vacate the islands with nothing gained. In turn, the members of the PTO had to commit to the "full and complete" decolonisation of Southeast Asia, however no deadline was given and no specific details were laid out, and in practice this commitment was entirely meaningless.

The Nesarian Empire and Emperor Adrion personally accepted fault for beginning the war, voiding any claims to reparations or resitution for damages incurred by PTO military activity in Inecuria. Emperor Adrion strongly resisted demands for reparations to be paid to PTO members, instead agreeing to provide "reconstruction services" to lands that had been attacked by Imperial forces during WW2, which largely meant providing funds, resources and manpower for infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia, mandating that at least 50% of the workforce had to be comprised of local natives in order to provide employment.

The Nesarian Empire was recognised as a legitimate state with legitimate authority over its recognised territory, with the Emperor as its legitimate ruler, and was admitted into the United Nations. Emperor Adrion insisted upon the Empire becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council, but the wording of the treaty only stated that this would become the case "if possible"; in reality, the PTO knew that this would be vetoed by the Soviet Union and China, which it indeed was.

### No-First-Strike Pledge

Perhaps most importantly for international relations, the Empire pledged itself to a no-first-strike policy against any PTO member or their allies, promising to never use nuclear weapons against them unless in retaliation to a nuclear attack upon itself or its allies. In the short term, this led to tensions significantly easing; the West could rest assured that a nuclear exchange with the Nesarian Empire would never happen without warning, and the Empire - though now in a weaker geopolitical position - still retained its ability to deter aggression through mutually assured destruction, and was still freely able to use nuclear weapons against states unaffiliated with the PTO if need be. Retaining the ability to strike first against the USSR and PRC in particular was considered necessary by the PTO, as both sides hated these shared enemies more than they hated each other.

However, in the long term, both sides soon discovered that this let them get away with more serious conventional aggression without risking a nuclear exchange. The USA knew that it would never incur nuclear wrath so long as it did not use nuclear weapons itself, enabling it to freely wage numerous conventional proxy wars against the Empire's interests and allies. The Empire was in a more tenuous position, as it could cause a nuclear response from mere conventional action, but in the event of a nuclear exchange it had a significant advantage in international reputation.

Both the Empire and the USA knew well that it would be easy to paint the USA as hypocritical and unreliable for responding to conventional action with nuclear force against a state that had pledged to never strike first, alienating the USA from the international community and giving more power and influence to the USSR - which would stand unhurt and unbroken compared to the two other superpowers which had devastated each other in a nuclear exchange. Whilst the Empire was prevented from striking first by treaty, the USA was prevented from striking first by practical reality.