Revolutionary War
The Columbian Revolutionary War, or simply War for Independence, is a historical conflict in the world of Arknights.
Background
Columbia was originally a Victorian colony founded by its Royal Governor Duke Cannon Goddodin in the year 990 following a geographical expedition that uncovered the region's rich Originium veins. Within fifteen years, the once barren wilderness west of Bolívar quickly developed into the most advanced and populous colony in the region as immigrants across Terra flooded in the region to build its economy. But as Columbia developed, conflicts between the colonial settlers and their homeland ensued. For two decades, the frontier pioneers fell victim to Catastrophes, wild beasts, and ravaging highwaymen, yet they rarely received any official response from Victoria. Furthermore, the ruling King of Victoria, King Frederick III, sought to exploit the colony's development in response to the ever-increasing threat from Gaul.
In the year 1011, the Parliament issued the Frontier Taxation, Public Safety, and Infected Individual Control Obligations Act, or the "Obligation Act" for short, which aroused the colonial settlers' anger towards their homeland. This new act not only overloaded Columbia's taxation policies by replacing local tax collectors with envoys dispatched from Victoria and imposing heavy taxation on property owners, but also it established a "loose autonomy" upon the colony in terms of medical control on Oripathy by handling the procedures all by themselves even though the settlers lacked proper infrastructure to care for their patients. Furthermore, the new act forced the Duke of Goddodin to give up parts of his rights to his political rival – the border duke, Duke of Tybalt, who was infamous for his oppressive methods and egoism. Since the Obligation Act, there were waves of independence movements in the colony led by rebelling frontier pioneers and local militias who were heavily influenced by the ideology of Columbia's founding father, Maylander Selene. In the meantime, the Duke of Tybalt began stationing more armies in the colony in the name of both response to threat from Leithanien and protection of the civilians' properties.[1]
"Colonial Rebellion"
The Revolutionary War broke out in Terran year 1016 starting from the injury of a Victorian envoy and two accompanying guards by local bandits. Although the pioneers arrested the bandits, they refused to extradite them back to Victoria for trial under the envoy's order. In response to their rebellion, the Duke of Tybalt declared a state of emergency over the colony and dispatched his troops to suppress local militias. Furthermore, King Frederick III forced the Parliament to allow Tybalt's military operation so that Victoria could focus more on repelling Gaulish and Leithanian invasions upon the homeland's border rather than arguing over Tybalt's reckless action, and the king fully entrusted him to quickly repel the rebellion alone. With enough authorization, the Duke of Tybalt launched a war against the Columbian colony under the name of crushing the "colonial rebellion."[1]
In the early stage of the war, the colonial militia reorganized themselves as the Revolutionary Army to repel Tybalt's troops. The newly born rebels, however, were in no match with the duke's army due to their low morale, size, and weaponry while facing Tybalt's landships. In turn, the Revolutionary Army heavily relied on foreign merchants and mercenaries in the frontlines. Taking advantage of the situation, Gaul provided military aid to the Revolutionary Army in order to further weaken the Victorian forces in the region. The Gallians even retrofitted four Columbian nomadic cities into mobile fortresses to withstand approaching Victorian landships. Despite their efforts, the Revolutionary Army kept losing and was on the verge of defeat.[2]
Participation of Mark Max
The turning point of the Revolutionary War was the participation ― or rather the "discovery" ― of Mark Max into the war, the super artificial intelligence who was later venerated as a legendary war hero and elected as the one and only President of Columbia. In the year 1017 in the second year of the war, the colonial pioneers led by Maylander Selene excavated the site and discovered his core machine. Venerating him as a "prophet" who could aid the colonies resisting Tybalt's forces, Maylander decided to cooperate with him to harness his full capacities in the Revolutionary War. At first, Max disguised himself as a mere speaker behind a microphone who proclaimed that he was just an accountant in a mine of a border duke, and he described his reason to have an incognito identity was to protect his family living in Victoria from political purge. His calculation was not accurate enough in the beginning which resulted in several retreats. This caused the colonial army to greatly distrust this ambiguous man; even Gaulish envoys aiding the war suspected that Max was a spy from Victoria. However, the constant defeats predicted by Max caused many to slowly trust his predictions, causing the colonies to fully side with him. Not only Max helped modernize the colonial army by reforming its military strategies and political structure, but also he intercepted intel networks of Victorian spies who sought to eliminate him but in vain. All of a sudden, Max became the most beloved general in the Revolutionary Army.[1]
Under Max's perfectly calculated strategies, the Revolutionary Army were able raid and recapture occupied zones from the Duke of Tybalt. By the spring of 1081, Tybalt's troop fell into a tug of war as the duke dared not to risk sacrificing his soldiers to eliminate a small number of Revolutionary soldiers in dangerous areas such as Originium mines. Tybalt even put down his ego to beg for military support from Londinium, but the king and the Parliament refused and stood by in callousness to witness Tybalt's demise.[3]
Battle of Babbage
The Battle of Babbage in November 1018 was a decisive victory against Tybalt's troops. The Revolutionary Army focused themselves on developing their own heavy cannons in their underground hideouts, and these new weapons enabled them to capture ten landships from Tybalt's fleet in the span of six months. With full preparation, the Revolutionary Army made a surprise ambush attack on Tybalt's lead ship. After a clash between the two forces, the Victorian soldiers were forced to abandon the landship, and Tybalt was severely injured during the battle. The Revolutionary Army celebrated their victory on the landship as they yelled out their slogan which later became Columbia's national motto: "Terra Blessed Us." The Battle of Babbage forced the Victorian troops to quickly retreat south, and the Revolutionary Army gradually repealed their enemies out of their borders. Tybalt did not survive the injury as he presumed he contacted Oripathy and sought to remove his "illness" with his sword.[4]
Aftermath
The Revolutionary War ended with peace negotiation between the Parliament and the Revolutionary Army. The Parliament dispatched its Messenger to admit surrender to the Army and apologize for Tybalt's ruthless action. King Frederick III agreed to recognize Columbia's independence and negotiate the withdrawal of all Victorian assets in the colony.[4] With the signing of the Articles of Confederation established by Maylander Selene and other colonial leaders, Columbia formally declared its independence and the birth of a new nation on Terra by early 1019.
Following Columbia's independence, Maylander and Max negotiated to share their power. Max was appointed to be the President of Columbia while Maylander himself retreated from politics to establish a deep-state under the guise of a charitable foundation—the Maylander Foundation. The first general election was held to the public, and Max surprisingly won a landslide victory. Proving himself as a good leader, Max's office helped developed Columbia to a modern superpower. And thanks to his trait as a hyper-rational terminal, President Max's execution was always perfect for Columbia's survival. Due to his ever-rising popularity, President Max earns a permeant seat in the government, and the general election was instead set to elect Columbia's Vice Presidents, a human being who could assist in Max's calculation.[5]
The same year following Columbia's declaration of independence, Corsica I was crowned the Emperor of Gaul. As a payback for their military support during the war, Gaul sought to convert the newly established country under its vassalage. Many political observers back then presumed that Columbia would eventually accept the offer as many nations would not accept a former colony gaining independence. But to their surprise, President Max persuaded Gaulish envoys to settle in Columbia and become its citizens, and Columbia's action resulted in diplomatic disagreement between the two nations as Columbia sought to be treated equally with other superpowers as a modern nation without a king. Gaul continued to assert political pressure upon Columbia for the remaining twelve years before its utter disintegration in the War of the Four Nations.[4]
References
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