And so after looking at how long it was since my last Tianxia update I have finally posted my latest one. I have worked with Zen on this one and I appreciate all the help. I will try to finish both the last Tianxia update on China and do the four Cyberpunk updates that I still plan on doing before June or July.
Tianxia-Legacy of the Great War:
North Eimerica
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Meskwaki Empire = Orange
Kanatan Confederacy = Green Blue
Meskwaki Empire
“Where I come from, we have a saying: ‘It is good to be a Fire Warrior.’ We are the rangers of the great Asin-Wati Mountains, guarding the forests of our Empress Dohumme against poachers and bandits. It is a prestigious and envied profession that many Meskwaki soldiers aspire to, but only a few earn the honor. When I was a young man at the beginning of the war, having just come down from my mountain village to enlist after hearing promises of quick victories and promotions, I was one of them. Perhaps you’ve come to hear my story of glory and valor, of how we held the Tó Baʼáadi twelve times against the Kanatans? Eventually we won, but only after obtaining what we could commandeer from the locals. We were less of soldiers and more of bandits, like those the Fire Warriors were tasked with protecting against. It was not a story of heroism but one of survival. I do not wish to speak of such matters. The Great War was long, arduous, and ultimately pointless. But the fruits of victory were good to me. They say it was China, the Celestial Empire, that won us the war. I would not know, nor would I care, of the actions of an empire in the far west. I only thought of my brothers who I fought with in the trenches and forests. In truth, the relations between us and our so-called benevolent allies have become strained in recent years. Always, I hear of emperors squabbling over this or that Pacific island or the autonomy of the overseas provinces. Now I hear rumblings of a new Russian autocrat along with leftists organizing in the former Reich. The Mexica, our ancient enemy, are divided biding their time, and our Scandinavian and Lithuanian allies are occupied by rumblings in Central Europe. Now the people of our Empire squabble as well. Words like autonomy, historic rights, and compromise yelled by politicians on both sides of the aisle are thick in the press. Even at home people argue and argue about what it means to be Meskwaki, of whether we are giving too much to the Mexica, the Tsalagi, the Haudenosaunee, the Ngaikien, the monarchy, or whatever. Whatever boogeymen the radicals cry about matters little. After the war, I decided I had had enough of politics, so I made the rounds as I have done every day since the war ended. I have a son now, and he too will be a Fire Warrior. If I pray for anything, it is so that he could enjoy the peace that my youth did not know. I pray that our Empress Dohumme will find guidance and steer the Empire though these tough times ahead. I pray to keep the peace that was promised when the Great War ended, when we stood upon the battlefield wastelands and told ourselves ‘never again.’ I pray that those lessons are not forgotten in Paris and Bengaluru so that I may end my days ranging these beautiful mountains and not in another trench. After all, it is good to be at peace. It is good to be a Fire Warrior.”
The story of the Meskwaki Empire can be told alongside the House of Opeatako and Osceola. The early members of the tribe that would one day rule an empire began on the banks of the Meskwahkīw-Sīpiah River. After a series of wars, they migrated to what would later be known as the new Meskwaki homeland—the imperial heartland. Their most fearsome enemy, however, would be the Mexica Empire. During their early rise, the Mexica swept all before them. Driving the Mayapan out of the Yucatan, they would go as far south as Tawantinsuyu and as far north as the Meskwaki homeland. Faced with a never before seen threat, all of the Meskwaki tribes rallied under the leadership of the chief of the Opeatako clan and the banner of the fox they flew. Meeting the Mexica army at the town of Shikaakwa, the united Meskwaki tribal confederation slowly but surely drove them back.
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Naval Battle near Shikaakwa on the Inoka Siipiiwi in where Meskwaki warriors battle Mexica forces.
Over the next few centuries, the Meskwaki would continue the fight against the Mexica, and as the tribal confederation evolved into a kingdom, with the Opeatako clan and later its cadet branch the Opeatako-Osceola reigning as kings and emperors from the political and religious center of Michilimackinac, they would seek to usurp Eimerican hegemony from the Mexica. Eventually, they would grow to control territory stretching from the Tó Baʼáadi and Kchitegw rivers to Chinese Fusang in the west. Later on, the imperial house of Opeatako-Osceola would inherit the monarchy of Tsalagehi Ayeli, the other major Eimerican power. Although the name Meskwaki Empire was retained, some of its constituencies began referring to it as the Dual Monarchy due to the significant political influence the Tsalagi (inhabitants of Tsalagehi Ayeli) wielded in Michilimackinac.
By the 20th century however, rising nationalism threatened to tear the multicultural empire apart. Beaten by the Norse in multiple wars, the Meskwaki could only watch on helplessly as their northern allies were absorbed into the Scandinavian colony and later independent Kingdom of Kanata. To the west, the Jin Dynasty was united with the Ming, Tran and Song Dynasties into the new Chinese Empire, which started to industrialize at rapid speed. Despite the danger posed by its neighbors, the Empire grew poor, with its rural and vast territories sliding away and becoming a second-rate power even in North Eimerica itself. The House of Opeatako-Osceola, major players in North Eimerica for centuries, now stood as the symbol for outdated and decrepit feudalism.
As kindred peoples united into new nation-states, the Meskwaki desperately tried to prevent the same from happening with the minorities living under Michilimackinac. But eventually the Empire was viewed with contempt from both within and without—loathed by Kanata and its allies, preyed upon by Mexico, and despised by revolutionaries. By the time the Roman crown prince was killed, Michilimackinac had become dependent on Chinese economic and military aid. To combat the power of the Reich and its allies, the Meskwaki Empire and its Eimerican Federation joined forces with China and its Tianxia in an alliance of convenience, with many politicians on both sides believing it would end once the Reich was defeated. Even with Chinese military support, though, the Meskwaki Empire’s abysmal performance during the Great War saw the Empire become a laughing stock and fueled internal debate on how it was managed.
The year 1916 saw the death of the Roman Kaiser Franz Joseph. Records say he suffered pneumonia, with the Meskwaki press saying that like their elderly Kaiser, the Reich was living on borrowed time. The assassination of his successor, Karl I, soon afterward led many in the Tianxia-Eimerican alliance to expect the Reich’s collapse sooner rather than later. Riots broke out in cities like Constantinople, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Cordoba, Toledo, Carthage, Rome, Paris, London, Baghdad, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Antioch, and many others, with even Berlin experiencing protests. With the Megas Domestikos out at the front, the Chancellor tried to keep the embers down.
The Meskwaki Empire, meanwhile, was not doing much better. Since the elevation of Tsalagehi Ayeli to equal status with the Meskwaki imperial core, the Empire had been walking on a tightrope. If the Crown catered too much to the old Meskwaki elite it would risk upsetting the Tsalagi politicians, Mexica insurgents, and even reformist elements in the Imperial Clan Council. If they chose to reform, it would untangle the web of hereditary dependencies that governed the different tribes’ clans, now raised to nobility within the Opeatako-Osceola court. A direct move either way would tear the Empire apart, and so the Empire stumbled on by doing as little as it could to anger either side, despite everybody agreeing that something had to be done. This balancing act and the lack of real progress that ensued led many to call the Empire the Sick Man of North Eimerica.
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An captured Roman barrel and some Meskwaki soldiers rolling down a deserted street in Helluland.
Shortly before the war, the Imperial Clan Council, as well as the semi-democratic Council of Tribes, had become paralyzed over the issue of Ngaikien language rights and use of the Chinese writing system. Meanwhile, Tsalagehi Ayeli, despite being more democratic than the Meskwaki core, had effectively become a one-party state as conservative elements strove to prevent change in Michilimackinac. The war did not do the Meskwaki Empire any favors, and instead it did away with the idea that the empire was slowly lumbering from a monarchical autocracy to a federal democracy. The Meskwaki Paramount Chief Megedagik was the leader of a conservative and pro-Chinese cabinet which dictated decision making by decree, bypassing both the Imperial Clan Council and the Council of Tribes by declaring martial law. Tsalagehi Ayeli was far from the democracy of centuries earlier. The Tsalagi people were deeply conservative and stuck in their own ways of doing things. The Tsalagi Uku, Usti, relied on covert and secretive tactics, like restricting voting rights to certain clans, to keep his coalition secure. With democracy in decline, confidence in Michilimackinac reached rock bottom. In P’osuwaege, representatives took to the streets against their lack of voice and the authoritarian policies of the regime. In Catawba, the ruling coalition feared that the descent would spill over even as famine loomed. The Mexicans, Kanatans, and Romans came knocking, eager to exploit its weekend state.
The closing war years were marked with a rapid succession of parliamentary crises for the struggling empire. For the imperial domain to survive the Great War, bold action was not just necessary but vital. With few other options, Empress Dohumme embarked on a series of reforms aiming to stem the turmoil and save the empire from collapse. Sometime later, Paramount Chief Megedagik was assassinated by political rivals. The Empress appointed Askuwheteau to lead a more reformist cabinet. However, to restore the Councils, Empress Dohumme still required the backing of Meskwaki nationalist factions. These nationalists had no love for the Crown's progressive reforms, so for their support they demanded a heavy price. For their backing, the new administration would have to pass a long-time nationalist demand and solve so-called Ngaikien Question. Meskwaki would become the sole official language of the Meskwaki half of the empire for the nationalist bloc to agree to any restoration of Parliament.
This upset not only the Ngaikien but also the Haudenosaunee and Mexica, leading to Askuwheteau recalling the Councils with a promise to give in to the nationalist demands. However, Askuwheteau reneged on his promise at the last hour. This was perceived as a weak move unbefitting of the office of the Paramount Chief. Soon Askuwheteau lost his remaining support and credibility, and his government fell just a month after his appointment. He would be replaced with the Chinese-backed Askook, who did not do any better as he was seen as equally incompetent and incapable of negotiating between the Meskwaki and non-Meskwaki peoples of the empire. Despite this, Askook remained, mainly as the result of Chinese Great War politics. The Emperor of China even threatened Dohumme not to replace Askook with the progressive politician Nosh, who favored imperial reorganization. Once the war ended and the Chinese no longer cared, Askook was immediately sacked, with hardly anyone in the Empire remembering him fondly. Despite his black sheep term, Askook did make some reforms to the Food Ministry during his term, ushering in the so-called Maize Peace that helped the Empire through its darkest time in the final days of the war.
The Tsalagi portion was plagued with many of the same issues as those of Michilimackinac. While Dohumme ultimately removed the inflexible Usti regime, there was no faction strong enough to fill the resulting power vacuum. Eventually the conservative and pragmatic Atohi took charge. Despite being a conservative, he ended up being more flexible on some key issues. Even though his mandate was small, Atohi was able to implement small reforms for suffrage and Mexica autonomy, laying the groundwork for the later creation of Aztlán. The great war's third year was marked by slow political process and some battlefield successes. The Treaty of Teiaiagon had knocked Kanada out of the war, followed by the beleaguered Mayapan. This secured two flanks of the empire, with only the Mexica being the last direct front that Meskwaki troops were fighting on. However, the empire would remain paralyzed despite these victories, due to a new political bloc taking advantage of the deadlocked Councils and stagnant imperial court. This new force would come from the streets uttering words feared by any politician: “general strike.”
This image was taken in the Roman quarter of Shackamaxon during the strike.
The General Strike of 1918 could have been the death knell for the Meskwaki Empire. Instead, Michilimackinac was on the cusp of an early political spring. By this point, Kanata and Mayapan had been kicked out of the war, and Mexico was on the backfoot. The front lines of the Great War were moving further and further away from the Empire, restoring public morale. In Michilimackinac, victory was in the air, and quick concessions to the workers extended the lifeline of the Empire once more. Under the Nosh cabinet, municipal electoral law was democratized as local councils of the Empire's many constituent kingdoms and confederacies introduced universal suffrage. Democratic elections were called for 1919 and a reformist mood overtook the Meskwaki part of the empire.
It was not just Meskwaki core that experienced calls toward reform. In fact, throughout the whole empire the status quo was changing. In 1918, Nosh and the Tsalagi Uku both agreed to create a new constituent Kingdom of Aztlán. This kingdom consisted of lands inhabited by Mexica and Muscogee from both Meskwaki and Tsalagi territory. Although the new kingdom had its troubles, the move did much to ease Mexica tensions. In the north, reformists got their way with a constituent Ngaikien Kingdom, established to appease the Ngaikien people after the language rights issue. While Meskwaki nationalists remained strongly opposed to all this, they had become marginalized by 1919. The Ngaikien crowned Dohumme as their Queen on September 28, 1920. Unfortunately, after this wave of progressive reform, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction as a wave of reactionary and conservative Meskwaki conspired to take down Nosh. The right-wing attempted to dismantle the reforms that had empowered the Ngaikien and Mexica. Despite the nationalists succeeding in taking down Nosh and his coalition, they soon found out they overplayed their hand. When the elections were held, the people blamed the nationalists for another round of political infighting. Instead of choosing between the two of them, they overwhelmingly threw their support behind a third faction, the Social Democratic Front. The SDF’s leader Etlelooaat became Paramount Chief after an electoral upset in 1921. He wasted no time trying to solve many of the issues plaguing the empire.
Due to the syndicalist revolutions that had recently engulfed the Reich, this left-wing shift stoked paranoia within the Chinese government. The emperor of China and his court were concerned with potential syndicalist incursions into their sphere of influence. Relations between the Meskwaki Empire and China had become “polite” at best, and the thought that Michilimackinac would seek closer cooperation with Paris made the Chinese nobility nervous. In Chinese newspapers, Dohumme was mockingly called "Comrade Dohumme" or “The Red Empress.” At the same time, it seemed Etlelooaat’s administration had solidified the Meskwaki Empire into a federation of equals. Chauvinism had given way to the popular SDF, which rode a wave of reformist fervor. Etlelooaat encouraged many other leftists to join the government, shifting the ideological balance to the left. Many were worried that the growing influence of equalists would over time drive the empire into the arms of syndicalism. As a result, the SDF was forced into a balancing act of its own, unable to pass too many of its reforms, with its only true break from tradition being the enfranchisement of women within the patriarchal tribes and men in the matriarchal tribes. Etlelooaat focused on social and economic reforms, like better access to social housing in cities like Michilimackinac, Wequetong and Waawiiyaataanong. Schools at all levels were secularized, and the tax system was overhauled. Tsalagehi Ayeli also experienced a reformist wave and saw social democrats surge in popularity under the equalist Uku Mingan. Like in the Meskwaki core a year before, Tsalagehi Ayeli fully democratized after the 1922 election, with universal suffrage being finally introduced. Furthermore, Mingan undercut the long-held power of the older and larger clans by introducing major land reforms. Under Mingan, the Cheasequah Laws were repealed, ending centuries-old cultural assimilation of the constituent tribes within the Tsalagi half of the empire. Additionally, both Michilimackinac and Catawba pushed back against the militarism that had severely harmed civilian rule both before and during the Great War. After a series of budget cuts to the military, a sense of peace and prosperity under responsible and representative government had washed over the imperial core. In the end, this era of optimism would be mostly gilded. It came to an end in Tsalagehi Ayeli with Mingan overstretching his resources and facing conservative resistance, while in the Meskwaki core the end of the leftist experiment came quickly and unexpectedly.
In 1926, a general strike in the Reich turned violent, sparking solidarity strikes throughout the Meskwaki Empire. The government both silently and explicitly condemned the strikes, but it faced growing backlash from anti-syndicalist forces which now lent their aid to the conservative factions. It would not be long until the Roman strikes escalated into full revolution with first Britannia and then Gallia. With Roman loyalists fleeing everywhere to escape the red menace, panic swept the Meskwaki domains. Led by the devout sage Kesegowaase, Meskwaki conservatives pressured Dohumme to dismiss Etlelooaat, fearing the empire would share the same fate as the Reich. Although shaken by the revolts, she refused to dismiss Etlelooaat and undo years of progress, due to him fighting to restore democracy early in his administration. Despite her support, Etlelooaat’s government still collapsed following the proclamation of the Union of Albion. After their success in Albion and Gallia, some factions even began whispering of world revolution. Even though these voices were marginal at best within their movements, Meskwaki newspapers and radios ran with the story, with the Chinese lending their support. The sympathy strikes were suppressed, and a conservative government was put in power. Syndicalism was now the common enemy of all Meskwaki, and the economic pendulum swung again.
In Tsalagehi Ayeli, the Mingan government went out with an even bigger bang. Whereas Etlelooaat was mainly silent on the sympathy strikes, Mingan endorsed the revolutionaries. After calling on a sympathy strike with government support, his coalition collapsed almost immediately. Chaos erupted in the streets of Catawba, and he was ousted in a no-confidence vote. Local Tsalagi militia battled pro-syndicalists in the streets of the Catawba for days. Following the chaos, numerous prominent Tsalagi leftists fled the country to Gallia in the hopes of mounting Syndicalist resistance from abroad. The progressives' days were now numbered, as new conservative cabinets were formed throughout the realm.
Conservatives were now in full control of the Meskwaki Empire, and a red scare gripped the population. Due to fears they would foment a similar revolution, the social democrats were sidelined and their reforms halted. The collapse of the Tsalagi Mingan government left a bitter taste, causing many to support the old guard. In 1926, the 81 year old Cheasequah rose to power again, forming a cabinet of anti-equalists and Tsalagi nationalists. However, he reshaped his legacy into that of a moderate conservative. In the last years of his life, Cheasequah wanted to become the architect of a new political consensus. This ambition was met with derision from many minority groups, who saw him as the architect of the hated Cheasequah Laws. These repressive Tsalagi supremacist laws were removed by the previous government, but true to his word, Cheasequah did not reinstate them. Perhaps the wisdom of old age had softened the Grand Old Man of Emerica. Even so, the new Tsalagehi Ayeli was much like the old only now bolstered by the fear of syndicalism. Those who weren’t with the government consensus were with the revolution. Cheasequah enjoyed popular support as he began rolling back the previous regime’s socialist reforms and taking the country in a nationalist and traditionalist direction.
Fearing the syndicalists more than their own elite, many welcomed the sense of normalcy the government seemed to offer. The government was further bolstered by steady economic growth. Both in the Meskwaki core and Tsalagehi Ayeli, the standard of living had risen and business was booming. Radios, vacuum cleaners, and electric lighting became common. Although the conservatives took credit for the prosperity, and the people thanked them for it, much of it was only possible thanks to the reforms of previous years, and such progress would prove to be rather fragile indeed. Dark clouds were gathering outside the Empire as well. By the 1920's, cracks were forming in the fragile sphere of influence the empire had gained from victory in the Great War. To understand the Empire's precarious position on the world stage, we must go back to 1919 and the end of the Great War. When the empire emerged from the Great War, it was not in any condition to annex vast swathes of land as China had done. The Empire chose to only minimally adjust the border with Mexico and annex some territory in Kanata. While Tawantinsuyu to its south vastly overstretched itself, the Meskwaki Empire took a careful approach. Like the famous chief Wesa had done just over a century before, the empire would find its power not through military but through diplomatic, dynastic and economic ties. Its future was never certain.
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Mexica Nahuatl resistance during the Battle of Tlaloca in 1878 against the Meskwaki occupation.
Countless times, the country had tried to rebound and rebuild. The tumult of 1926 had shown how fragile the empire truly was. The economic problems of the realm were alleviated but never solved. Both social democrat and conservative policies had accrued a staggering amount of national debt. With the economy leveraged to the breaking point, Michilimackinac and Catawba were always a minor setback removed from a full-blown financial crisis. The day of reckoning would come in 1931. That year, the largest bank of the empire defaulted one final time. It had reported a loss of 140 Million Yuan on May 8 and was forced to declare insolvency three days later. What followed was a complete collapse of the Michilimackinac Stock Exchange. People scrambled to rid themselves of their economic assets and shares, as a run on the banks pushed the already fragile financial institutions over the edge. In what seemed like just three days, an era of stability and progress had come crashing down. In an attempt to alleviate the financial crisis, the Meskwaki government stepped in and restructured the banks. Unwilling to commit to radical economic measures, the conservative government split the shareholding between the state and the wealthy Degotoga firm in Michilimackinac. While this prevented the crisis from turning into recession, it made the country more reliant on Chinese loans. The fiscal strain of the crisis proved too much for the empire to keep its influence over its neighboring nations, with Mexico and Kanata acting swiftly to remove bankrupt Meskwaki institutions from their territory. In friendlier states like Mayapan, economic ties simply dwindled into insignificance.
By 1931, the Meakwaki Empire’s fall from Great Power status was complete. Such a fall from grace would have been a crisis in the best of times. Unfortunately for Michilimackinac, it came in the darkest days of the 1930's. In Europe, the 1930's saw the rise of revanchist Syndicalism and the resurgence of Russian nationalism. In Nanjing, Catawba, and Michilimackinac, the words "Second Great War" were never far from anyone's lips. If there were to be a Second Great War, the Empire's position would, cynically, be much like during the first. The Meskwaki Empire would be divided, unstable and alone. Internally, Meskwaki, Tsalagi, Ngaikien, Haudenosaunee and Mexica vied over the direction of the Meskwaki Empire. Despite all its reforms, the constituent kingdom system that empowered the Tsalagi most of all was still largely intact. The empire was as brittle as it was two decades prior, and its neighbors were even more eager for revenge. Once again, the Meskwaki Empire arrived at the same crossroads. Would it be able to resolve the issues inherent to the monarchy? Would the nation stand bright as a beacon of democracy? Or would it once again falter, weak and divided and be driven back into Chinese arms? Darker tongues saw the turmoil in Michilimackinac and Cusco and thought otherwise. To them, the aging Meskwaki and Tawantinsuyu empires were irrelevant relics of the past, living only on time granted them by China. The new world order that had emerged at the end of the Great War had already begun to falter. There was only one power in the world still strong enough to hold back the syndicalists and Russians alike. According to such defeatist, there was no hope. There was no future. There was only the Celestial Empire.
Kanatan Confederacy
The lands that would become the Kingdom of Kanata was inhabited by numerous different people before the arrival of the Kavdlunait. Kavdlunait settlement of Kanata would be attempted under Leif Erikson in the tenth century, but full-scale colonization would not begin until the sixteenth century, leading to the establishment of the Scandinavian colony of New Vinland. A series of wars between the Meskwaki, Scandinavia, and the Reich would see New Vinland gain and lose territory. By the late 17th century, it had come to control most of the territory of modern Kanata. The New Vinland Colony declared independence from Scandinavia on May 11, 1674, starting the Kanatan War of Independence. It was a war that lasted for five years with fighting mostly limited to Europe, where Romans and Russians fought Scandinavian and Lithuanian troops in Denmark and Eastern Europe. Independence came on March 19, 1679, when Scandinavia signed a treaty recognising its independence. Five days later, in a unanimous vote, the provinces of New Vinland elected Duke Gnupa af Steinvikholm, general of the independence forces, as the first King of Kanata. What followed was the restructuring of the colonial administration into a semi-autonomous federal kingdom along Roman lines. Over time Kanata acquired new provinces and territories that more than doubled its size. It experienced a brief stint with radicalism in the mid-19th century, when corporate forces took over the country. After the corporatist defeat Kanata would reestablish itself as a regional power with many observers at the time claiming that the young Kingdom could eclipse Scandinavia.
A soldier during The Kanatan War of Independence.
That all changed in 1914 with the assassination of the Roman crown prince and the Kingdom of Kanata joining the war on the side of the Reich. When the Great War began in 1914, the Kingdom had a population of less than 8 million, with an army of just 3,110 men and two training ships. But by the war's end, 600,000 men would join and gain a reputation as a highly effective military force. When the Reich declared war on the Commonwealth, Kanata joined the war as its ally. Norse Kanatans, who still celebrated their victory in the War of 1814, expressed high enthusiasm for the war. Even before mobilization, which demanded a force of 20,000 to be raised, there were already 100,000 men volunteering. The first contingent of thirty thousand men departed to the front in October of 1914. The Kanatan Army, together with the Roman Expeditionary Force (REF), would see its first major action at the Battle of Nundawo in April 1915. On April 22nd, the Meskwaki released 168 tons of chlorine gas which killed thousands of Romans and forced thousands more to withdraw, leaving a hole in the line. This would be filled in by the Kanatans, who took heavy losses themselves at the Fólkvangr Fields during a second gas attack.
As the Roman Expeditionary Force grew to 4 divisions, Roman leaders insisted that divisions fight as a unified Roman unit, as opposed to being joined with different elements of the Kanatan Army. Many leaders in Markland were worried that a unified command would erode some of their own power. This would lead to infighting among the different High Commands. This infighting would come to a head when the Meskwaki Army, deploying almost a hundred thousand men, achieved a decisive victory at Hindarfjall Ridge by capturing many heavily entrenched Roman positions on a strategic ridge overlooking the Brávellir Plain in Northern Haudenosaunee. Furthermore, the Kanatan Army soon ran into a manpower shortage as the initial war enthusiasm wore off. The Kanatan State Minister Vott Halladsson had raised 300,00 men by 1916, but the government had promised to raise 500,000 by the end of the year. But by then, many Kanatans had turned against conscription, notably farmers, pacifists, and union leaders, who decried the diminishing work force and opposed forcing men to fight.
Opposition was particularly strong in the Niðavellir Autonomous Region to the north of Markland, where many Skraeling from the western provinces who had been settled there during Meskwaki rule were resettled by the Kanatan Army. During the war, many in Niðavellir saw the war as a campaign against their fellow Emericans and protested. In spite of that, the Kanatan 22nd Regiment was formed as the only Skraeling regiment of the Royal Army. The Military Service Act, which began conscription, was enforced after January 1, 1915, but the Act allowed for many exemptions, and of the 404,385 men who were subject to conscription, 385,510 actually got an exemption. Protests and riots broke out constantly. For example, on Þorrablót 1918 a massive riot began in Kjalarnes with an estimated 15,000 protesters. The government called in the army to quell the riot, and the two groups clashed. Hundreds on both sides were wounded, and 4 rioters were shot dead. It was a culmination of a bitter social and political rift that would reverberate to the present.
The war itself wasn’t going so well for Kanata. In 1916, the Meskwaki Empire invaded the western provinces of Kanata. The invasion force was led by General Tecumseh, a Shaawana. His father had died in the Great Eimerican War in 1878, while his older brother died fighting the Mexica in 1896 and his brother founded an anti-foreign religious movement. These influences informed Tecumseh’s anti-Kanatan views, and he instructed his forces to spare Eimericans but show no mercy to Kanatans. After making significant progress into Kanata, Tecumseh’s army met the Romans and Kanatans at Okolnir in July 1916. In the ensuing battle, his troops suffered casualty rates upwards of 90%, yet the survivors pushed on, proclaiming that the liberation of Kanata’s Eimericans was at hand. In honor of their perseverance, Dohumme bestowed the epithet “Chosen of Wisaka” on Tecumseh’s army.
As the casualties mounted, the Kanatan Army struggled to replace its losses, and its supply lines also started falling apart. On December 6, 1917 in Mniku, Mi'kma'ki, a Roman relief ship collided with a Kanatan ship carrying 2,653 tons of explosives. The collision was minor, but it caused sparks which ignited benzoyl on the deck of the Roman ship. The crew abandoned the ship before it exploded, devastating the city and killing nearly 2,000. It is the largest man-made explosion in history and serves as a reminder of Roman and Kanatan incompetence. By the end of the war, only 24,132 conscripts had actually made it to the front line. During the Hundred Days Offensive between August 8th and November 11th, 1918 near the end of the war, the Kanatan Army lost 45,835 men in failed attempts to take territory. It became clear that the war in North Eimerica had not gone in Kanata’s favor. On November 6, 1919, the peace conference in Markland saw Kanata give up much of its land in Haudenosaunee and most of the Wabana'ki Mawuhkacik.
Kanatan troops were demobilized from 1919 to 1920, when the last troops had been withdrawn from the different theaters of the war. Despite China’s victory, the Kanatan’s did not see themselves as losers, but rather as having fought bravely to the end. Therefore, the Treaty of Markland became known as Peace with Honor in Kanatan media and propaganda. Kanatan State Minister Kolfinn Thorormsson received a column of troops headed by the tenacious and well-beloved Kanatan general Geirleif Lytingsson, who was regarded highly by both sides of the war for his brilliant leadership of the Royal Army. State Minister Thorormsson, dogged and tired after holding a Royalist Government together for the duration of the War, appeared visibly strained and prematurely aged as he proclaimed, "I welcome you home from the fields of war, from which you knew no defeat!" Kanatan attitudes towards the war itself, though, were divided. While patriots and imperialists took some comfort in the fact that the kingdom had not been outright defeated, the fact that the war ended in an unfavorable draw heavily in China’s favor kindled great resentment, especially in Niðavellir, where conscription riots and opposition to the war seemed to be justified in the light of the Chinese domination of the Pacific and western North Eimerica.
In the lead up to the end of the war and following peace negotiations, the governing coalition started falling apart. Thorormsson had led the nation for almost ten years, and most of that leadership had been controversial. It started with censorship and the limitations on political freedoms at the start of the war. But by 1917, Thorormsson used all types of tricks. This ranged from granting women’s suffrage to get the votes he needed to enable the draft, which led to riots, to the formation of the 1917 Royalist Party ticket to guarantee he would stay in power regardless of the outcome. Despite these authoritarian tactics, it was agreed on by many in the Royalist Party that the coalition would need to be maintained for some years postwar. However, since the ceasefire and the Treaty of Markland at the end of 1919, many in Kanata felt that the coalition was no longer needed after the war’s end. Thorormsson not only disagreed with that notion but insisted on the exact opposite approach. He felt that the Peace with Honor was a loss for Kanata, and as a result the coalition needed to stay in power longer. By this point, the coalition itself had become controversial, and so to many the idea of keeping it around for five more years sent earthquakes through Kanatan politics. This almost brought the Royalist Party tumbling down. In an effort to try and save his party, Thorormsson announced that he would step down and call for new meritocratic examinations in 1921. The party chose Hardbein Iulisson, the long appointed successor to Thorormsson, as its new leader. While the rest of the Kanatan establishment lambasted the government, these changes helped to stabilize the party. Despite what naysayers claimed, it still had a monopoly over the government, and a majority of European Kanatans approved of the Royalist ticket. Having appeared to weather the storm, the party felt that it could put up a united front for the 1921 campaign.
An Anti-Syndicalist Poster in German for Romans who fled to Kanata after the revolution.
The main obstacle that the Royalist Party would face would be from Iulisson himself. While Iulisson was popular with many European Kanatans, the idea of campaigning for someone so tied to the image of the conservative establishment felt too close, for many, to just campaigning for the conservatives. Many realized that the longer Thorormsson stayed in charge, the angrier the public got. As long as he wasn’t able to do anything outside of the confines of the Royalist ticket anyways, it might be beneficial to have him around as long as unity lasted. In 1921, Iulisson stepped down in favor of Øybiorn Hottsson. The Royalist Party and Hottsson would go on to win a secure majority, ensuring that Hottsson’s idea of - essentially a Royalist Era could be realized. This ensured there would be a wholly establishment-led transition for Kanata back to peacetime.
For most of Hottsson’s postwar guidance, all the Royalist Liberals would eventually, as the years rolled on, rejoin their fellow party members in the opposition. It would be clear to many that the Royalist Party would not get a full term, but at least they would manage to fulfill Hottsson’s stated goal in 1920. It would take until 1925 before the government would fall apart. The reason was that while many of Kanata’s political parties would agree to work within the framework of the conservative establishment, they were always too divided to take Kanata into the future. Former Liberal State Minister Baug Arnisson’s optimistic prediction that the 20th century would be a Roman century seemed laughable now to most Kanatans. Arnisson had passed away during the war, taking with him what many now saw as the sunny prosperity of his leadership in the late 19th century. Shortly after he made the call for an Examination in 1925, Hottsson passed away at his home. His last words were worries for the future of Kanata.
After Hottsson’s death in 1925, Iulisson became the leader of the Royalist Party. But he was defeated in the examination by Kapapamahchakwew, a Cree from Kanata’s Niðavellir Autonomous Region. His victory was helped by growing Meskwaki and Chinese immigration into the Kingdom. However, the examination also saw a plebiscite held on the same day in which Kanatans were asked if they wanted to join the Meskwaki-les Emerican Confederation. It passed with 99.73% in favor, with a 99.71% turnout. But it is believed leftists and those of European descent were not allowed to vote.
What followed were a series of clashes between the government and those of European descent calling themselves the Order of Odin. This event, known as the February Uprising, started when Order members fired on Meskwaki police who were attempting to enter the Order’s headquarters in Ganaraske to search for weapons. The uprising quickly spread to Markland and other areas of eastern Kanata. The Order put up a valiant effort, but the superior numbers and firepower of the Meskwaki police and Imperial Army quickly put an end to the uprising. In the end, the overall death toll was believed to be about 350. But the ensuing government response was brutal. What followed were mass arrests and executions along with the banning of the Order. May 1925 would see the Kanatan meritocratic constitution replaced by the constitution of the Kanatan Confederation, with the Eimerican Unity Front as the only legal party.
In the resulting chaos, the King and his family fled to Scandinavia, alongside the majority of the Royal Navy, which conducted a mass evacuation of nobles and loyalists. To make up for the massive population decrease, the Confederation government sponsored a mass immigration campaign in which citizens of the Meskwaki Empire could settle in the Confederation. In the end, tens of thousands of settlers crossed the border. There would be so many crossings that the trains and the holding facilities along the border were often crowded and filled to capacity, and women and children had little to eat. This event was known as the Great Migration. Those migrating were generally on the lower end of the political ladder or those with no hope of earning a decent living in the Meskwaki Empire, but some notable figures were among them, including various politicians, the hero Tecumseh, military officers, administrators, businessmen, and smaller noble clans. Government figures documented the arrival of half a million Meskwaki settlers. Kapapamahchakwew, leader of the Eimerican Unity Front, remained as the State Minister, having won the 1925 examination and earning much praise for driving out the Norse monarchy and the European establishment, but public sentiment soon turned against him due to his slow response to the Migration. He initially welcomed the migrants, but their numbers and the speed at which they arrived strained Kanatan institutions, and he was also met with hostility from many of those same migrants. Tecumseh went into politics and founded the Meskwaki Union Party, which called for the Confeseration to be directly annexed into the Meskwaki Empire. He had the direct support of the Meskwaki government, which told Kapapamahchakwew: "We must take in every possible advantage to make our Empire stronger." Kapapamahchakwew rejected the demands, however. Having gained significant support among the migrants, Tecumseh next called on the Confederation government to resign and be replaced with Meskwaki administrators. Kapapamahchakwew again refused, rejecting any suggestion of Meskwaki rule or involvement. The Confederation may have been founded on opposition to the Europeans, but annexation was out of the question for Kapapamahchakwew. In the end, he was forced to a compromise: Tecumseh would be crowned king of the Confederation and take up residence at Bilskirnir Hall, while Confederation land forces were merged into the Meskwaki Army, although the navy remained separate.
Despite Kapapamahchakwew‘s efforts, he couldn’t stop the country’s rightward and pro-Meskwaki shift. The Meskwaki settlers took up crucial positions within the government and economy. Those with power, like the clans, military officers, and politicians, were appointed to Tecumseh’s Privy Council and the Meskwaki Union Party. By the 1930s, the migrants controlled the legislature, and the Confederation government had become an extension of the Meskwaki one, reflecting nearly every trend happening to the south like the red scares.
Throughout this, Kapapamahchakwew continued to clash with the Settlers for a different vision for the Confederation’s future. Although he was in favor of an alliance with his southern neighbor, he rejected attempts at annexation. Other conflicts during the 1930s would take place between Tecumseh and his two sons. His oldest son, Catahecassa, took over many of his fathers duties. He was handsome, charismatic, and unmarried. But had many scandals from his many affairs with married women. This caused Tecumseh to favor his second son, Hokolesqua. However, he was shy, socially awkward and had a massive stammer.
In the 1930 Examination, Lalawethika of the MUP, with support from Tecumseh became the new State Minister. Despite having a 100% Kanatan cabinet, he relied on guidance from the migrants. Soon after taking power, Lalawethika stated that the ultimate goal of the Confederation would be to unite with Meskwaki. This led to protests from pro-independence forces, with Lalawethika’s government collapsing in 1931 and letting the EUF and Kapapamahchakwew back into power. Over the next few years, Kapapamahchakwew recognised another war was coming. With instability in Europe and rising tensions in Africa and Asia, it was unavoidable. Instead of joining the Meskwaki Empire, Kapapamahchakwew embarked on a policy of reconciliation with what he called the Lost Ally—China. In the event of war, China could once again prove to be a vital ally against syndicalism. To strengthen its position for war, the Confederation army was reorganized and brought back to full fighting strength by 1935. But manpower remained a major issue. Starting in 1928, the navy was built up to become a naval power in its own right with an emphasis being placed on long-range ships.
On January 20, 1936, at 11:55 pm, King Tecumseh died. The following days a Coronation was held for Catahecassa, who would become the new King of the Confederation. And as the crown settles on his head, the winds of change once again begin to blow for Kanata…
