Piedmonti Civil War

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Piedmonti Civil war
Date February 28, 2022 - September 24, 2022

(6 months and 27 days)

Location Union of Piedmont
Result Piedmonti Victory
  • Treaty of AP City
    • Abolished the Federal Provincialist Commonwealth and ordered the arrest of the members of its government.
    • Reincorporated the Provinces of Harris-York and Myers - as well as the Region of Meadow Wood - into the Union of Piedmont.
    • Recognized several new, Union-aligned micronations, along with the formation of the Eastern North American Cooperative.
  • Sedgewick Ceasefire Agreement
    • Ended formal conflict between the Union of Piedmont and the Civic Authority.
    • Established a non-aggression pact between the Union and the Civic Authority
Belligerents

Union of Piedmont

Paddocks Left Front

Gold Hill Defense Force

Sawyer's Goons

The Knights

Kingston Regiment

New Japonincan Legion

Holt's Legion

Federal Provincialist Commonwealth

Civic Authority

Kophazi's Legion

Commanders

Presley Bartlett

Leg. Rex Hayden Renner

Leg. Rex Larissa Feliciano

Adm. Randall Land

Abigail Domingez

Sawyer Looms

Ramon Prieto

James Guiles

Gary Fellows

Adam Holt

KL

TL

RL

Greg Tonosh

Joel Kophazi

Strength
~200 ~75 - 200
Casualties and losses

The Piedmonti Civil War (February 28, 2022 - September 24, 2022; also known as the Provincialist Revolt, or L's Rebellion) was a domestic conflict between the Union of Piedmont alongside its partisan allies, and the secessionist Federal Provincialist Commonwealth (often called simply 'provincialists') - aided by the Civic Authority. The conflict started on 28 February 2022 when the L family, at the head of the Federal Provincialist Party (FPP), attempted a coup against the presiding Union Government in order to depose Consul Presley Bartlett and create a new constitution. This coup was the culmination of months of protesting and sabotage by the FPP orchestrated by Senator KL in opposition to the Fieldstone Convention revisions to the constitution that were implemented in 2021. Conflict started on 28 February when Kaylee's father TL led a large mob of protesters and paramilitants towards the Piedmonti capital of New Albertville but were stopped by the Riverview and Solaria Legions at the Harris-York / Riverview border. The attempt to storm the capital would rapidly devolve into a stalemate at the border, and the Ls would continually expand the scale of the fighting until the conflict had become a full-blown civil war.

Background

Prior to the civil war, KL was revered as a founder of the Union of Piedmont second only to Presley Bartlett. She was the leader of the Dominion of Harris-York, one of the earliest and strongest proponents of independence during the Henatan colonial period, and the first signature of the Proclamation of Ascension that formed the Union of Piedmont in 2017. In addition to her family's influence in Harris-York, KL's close personal friendship with Presley Bartlett also afforded her great political power within the early Union. Together they founded the Green Party which dominated the Union nearly unopposed in the years after its founding. At this time, KL served as Senator from Harris-York and the First Person (speaker) of the National Assembly. Under the first Constitution, KL's positions ensured she was the second most powerful person in the Union, challenged only by Consul Bartlett herself. When Bartlett declined to run for a second term as Consul, and Secretary of Science Ryder Causey was elected in her stead, KL would seize on this opportunity to muscle out the far less influential Causey from the political process.

The Senate Crisis

Causey's entire year (2018-2019) as Consul would be defined by the power struggle between KL and himself, in what would come to be known as the Senate Crisis. During the rule of the first constitution, Senators not only served as their province's representative, but also their chief executive - giving them an immense amount in influence into both the creation of laws, and their implementation. On top of this, both houses of the National Assembly (the Senate and the Hall of Delegates) were led by a single, internally elected member. This First Person of the National Assembly had the powers to gavel the National Assembly in and out of session, moderate discussion and debate, and determine the schedule of the Assembly and what bills ever reached either house for a vote. This constitutional concentration of power allowed KL to entirely circumvent office of the Consul, override his vetoes, and determine the Union's entire political trajectory. As a result of this power struggle, Causey's administration would be remembered as an era of stagnation, when the nascent nation faltered in its state building efforts, derailed by inter-governmental squabbles.

The Seante Crisis was a large contributing factor in a growing political movement that called for Bartlett's return to the office of Consul to reestablish the balance of power, the situation had grown so dire that even Consul Causey was reaching out to Bartlett to serve a second term. In late June 2019, Bartlett would answer these calls and not only announced her intentions to run for Consul, but also called upon the National Assembly to call a constitutional convention to create a permanent solution to the Union's checks and balances. Privately, KL adamantly opposed changing the constitution and surrendering any of her power, but the pressure from the rest of the Union Government and the Piedmonti populace forced her to publicly support the extremely popular calls to revise the constitution.

The Somerton Convention began on 6 August 2019, and very quickly it was decided the original constitution had to be scrapped and a new one drafted. The convention adopted the Constitutional Charter of the Union of Piedmont (the second constitution) on 13 August and a new Union Government was formed over the following weeks. The second constitution preserved many of the Union's core institutions such as the Consulship and the National Assembly, but what did survive was greatly reformed. Most relevant of these reforms was the empowerment of the new Popular Assembly as the dominant house in the National Assembly. Under the second (and current) constitution, all legislation must originate in the Popular Assembly, preventing the Senate from acting contrary to their partner house. Additionally, the role of First Person of the Assembly was abolished, and each house was given their own presiding officer- the Presidium of the Senate, and the Delegatus Primus of the Popular Assembly - allowing the houses to establish their own schedules. The approval of consular appointees and the ability to override a consular veto or administrative order were also powers given exclusively to the Popular Assembly. These measures were all in the name of preventing the Senate, which represented the provinces, from dominating the National Assembly at the expense of the more democratic lower house (the Hall of Delegates, alter the Popular Assembly). To ensure the office of Consul was not circumvented again, the cabinet and the Consul's administrative powers were given constitutional authority, and the requirement that the Consul be a sitting member of the National Assembly was abolished. Thanks to KL and her allies' tireless efforts during the convention, Senators retained their simultaneous roles as their province's Chief Executive, allowing them to continue exercising discretion when it comes to what laws were enforced in their jurisdictions and how.

The constitution produced at Somerton was near universally praised for solving many of the Union Government's systemic problems, and due to its popularity, KL would express nothing but support and enthusiasm for the reorganized government. It was, however, discovered during the civil war that KL had despised the second constitution from the moment it was drafted, and expressed to her closest allies that she was determined to abolish it and reestablish the power she had once held. Her resentment would only greaten when she lost the 2019 leadership election in the Senate to Kristalin Yerty, who would become the First Presidium of the Senate.

The Caucus Crisis and the Formation of the Liberal Union Party

Though Bartlett and KL would outwardly remain strong political allies, the events of the Senate Crisis and the ratification of the second constitution drove an invisible wedge between the two. Even Bartlett had not noticed, but KL was rapidly drifting away from her sphere of influence, starting with her covert involvement with the Union's next political crisis. In January 2020, Consul Bartlett announced the first wave of her 'Social State Plan,' a large legislative package intended to expand Union government services and control over the economy. Almost immediately, right-wing elements of the Piedmonti political scene - namely the Mercantilist Party - began throwing around accusations of a communist/socialist takeover. These claims were mostly disregarded as fearmongering, but KL and some of her allies attempted to stoke this 'red fear' among their own Green Party. Little is known about what happened behind the scenes, but on 12 March 2020 8 members of the Union Government - mostly Delegates to the Popular Assembly plus former Consul Ryder Causey - announced their opposition to the Social State Plans and the establishing of the Green Party as a "Marxist-Leninist ruling party." The group then formed the Liberal Union Caucus, a distinct wing of the Green Party that supported the party's progressive social policies but opposed any economic policies that skewed from capitalist neoliberalism.

The Caucus Crisis, as political commentators of the time called it, lasted no more than two and a half weeks before the impending storm of COVID-19 forced a political compromise. Bartlett promised to exclude centralization and economic planning powers from the next Social State Plan legislative package, and appoint Causey Tribune of the Compact, in exchange for the disillusion of the Liberal Union Caucus. The Liberal Union Caucus was largely seen a political stunt, especially after 6 out of 8 former caucus members would go on to vote in favor of the second Social State Plan, but it did create a permanent rift within the Green Party. Though not formalized, the Green Party developed two wings, the majority who supported the party's original ideology and had no qualms with overt socialism; and the liberals who began to increasingly identify as 'anti-communist.' This divide would be encouraged and exacerbated by KL, who worked to strengthen the liberal wing, despite never formally joining the Liberal Union Caucus.

Bartlett and her allies managed to maintain unity in the Green Party through the 2020 general election, but with the turn of a new electoral cycle, a group of ambitious liberal Greens headed by KL broke away and formed the Liberal Union Party (LUP) on 18 November 2020. This event cascaded to the Mercantilist Party, whose leadership was greatly disappointed by their far-below-expectations results in the election, causing them to abolish and reform into the Civil Order Party only a week later - losing many members to the Piedmonti Tunnist Party in the process. These massive and sudden changes to the Piedmonti political landscape triggered the National Assembly to vote for an emergency special election. Though the Bartlett administration expresses hesitation, pressure from the National Assembly, and the remnants of her own party, gained her approval. The 2020 Popular Assembly Special Election was scheduled for 20 December, and in the meantime, the largely intact Green Party reformed itself into the Maquis Socialist Coalition (MSC) - taking its name from the political activism group the Maquis Socialist League, started by Bartlett a year prior.