The Mariposa uprising

The Conflict

Prelude

To many islanders and most outsiders, Bacaras ruling family is simply called the Cartwright dynasty. But the rural poor and indigenous people of the islands call it by a very different name. 'Yi'abai Katawaita.' The curse of the Cartwrights. A curse brought upon them in the 14th century when the infamous Lundish privateer Richard Cartwright invaded the islands with the leave of his king, claiming it as his personal domain. After a long and profitable career of brutally plundering Dielovese ports and ships up and down the Alosa sea he retires to the islands, builds cities and plantations, floods seized land with Lundish settlers and brutalizes and enslaves most of the native states. While never recognised Bacara had always operated as an autonomous polity ruled by the Cartwrights. They rule the island similar to most other powers of the new worlds, their own take on constitutional feudalism. In this way the Island was considered the property of the Cartwright dynasty and was divided into smaller fiefdoms ruled by their supporters. This ruling class was given ownership of the largest industries while the Lundish and Astasian descended settlers made up a semi privileged citizen class who enjoyed freedoms such as voting rights, the right to own property and move freely about the islands. Though homesteaders and yeoman farmers of settler backgrounds are frequently dispossessed and exploited. The island however was a slave nation. By the turn of the sixteenth century up to six million enslaved natives toiled in horrific conditions in plantations and factories, were forced to live in poverty and treated with the upmost cruelty. 'Free natives' fair little better. They are looked upon solely as a labour class either confined to communities reserved for them deep in the jungles or confined to squalid districts in the cities. They are excluded from all economic participation and routinely looked down upon. So that family had inflicted these horrors on the island for two centuries, but a drastic change is coming. An unlikely alliance has been formed thanks to a now infamous freedom fighter named Anik Coida. The Cartwright administration had labeled him "No more than a free native rabble rouser." But in truth he had spent most of his adult life forming an effective insurgency to burn the Cartwrights out. He was of the Teni'ipa, Bacaras largest and most From city to jungle, arm to plantation he traveled in secret banding together fighting people from all tribes as well as anti Cartwright settlers, trying to band the many grassroots opposition to the Cartwrights into a single movement. In the cities he banded together the movements inspired by Prosperian philosophies and the pan Alosan revolutionary rhetoric of Manuel Solares. While working through a network of spies he made contact with resistance leaders on plantations and prepared them to orginise a massive, simultaneous slave revolt. This united front which had members of all backgrounds and tribes chose the jadewing mariposa as its symbol as the insect is sacred amongst all tribes and much beloved by none natives. Armed with weapons donated from sympathetic nations such as the Auroran commonwealth or stolen from the police and army and knowing full well the reprisals that will be visited upon them if the fail, they await the inauguration day of the young Morgan Cartwright to position of lord governor of Bacara on the 17th of high sun to strike against the Cartwrights.

Deployment

The Mariposa rebels had carefully planned their attack to catch the government off guard and disorientate them enough that they couldn't effectively fight back. Rebels had made strongholds throughout the islands mostly in rural villages and sympathetic boroughs in the cities. they had spent almost a year carefully smuggling weapons and explosives to the many cells and gathering intel on they're targets. When the moment came they could launch shock attacks from anywhere and then hide. A main force of rebels would fight from the Orchid mountains and advance on the capital when enough damage had been caused.
The police and army were not prepared for a full scale armed uprising. Any unrest they had to put down were mostly unarmed protests and slave revolts and high command could not conceive of any kind of mass uprising. They're intelligence had completely underestimated the movement and failed to prevent a significant quantity of arms from entering the country for the rebels The Cartwrights did however have a well trained and heavily armed reserve force of Bacaran paramilitaries and members of the infamous Savannah mercenary force they could add to a fight.

The Engagement

The rising

The night of the 17th of High sun came and the opening operation was put in motion. All across the island rebel cells armed themselves and moved on their targets with the aim of sowing disarray in the defence forces. They assassinated key figures in the defence force and government in their homes, launched attacks on police stations and sabotaged barriers, roads and bridges. They burned down the stock exchange in Guildersport and a cell violently hijacked the government radio station in the capital Belle town, broadcasting a call to arms throughout the city. Even the Cartwright's personal residence came under attack by a group of rebels who stormed the gates and sprayed bullets into the main house before getting gunned down. Police and security forces were put on high alert but were hampered by the volume of attacks, sabotaged infrastructure and lack of training for this kind of situation. By the end of the first night over eighty five towns, cities, farms and military installations were under attack. The capital of every province had been hit in one way or another.

All of a sudden the radios exploded. Reports of natives armed with automatic weapons attacking police were coming in every few seconds and we just couldn't keep up. We didn't know where to send officers and protocol went straight out the window. One was so close I could hear the shots. Six attacks in Windbrook county alone and I don't know how many in the neighboring ones. It was madness.

cpl Percy Mason- Bacaran national constabulary
On the same night spies in plantations broke into slave quarters, gathered those participating in the rising, looted the armouries and wrought havoc. They dragged overseers and planters out of their beds to either kill or torture them just as cruelly as they had been tortured themselves. Outnumbered security guards on some plantations desperately called for help but with security forces in complete diseray they are on their own and are soon gunned down. Now heavily armed the former slaves take their families to the jungles where they join with other rebels and prepare to keep fighting.
As planned the defense forces had been caught totally off guard but it didn't take long for them to start fighting back. Throughout Bacara the Police and defense force formed special combined units to launch a series of counter offensives. They hunt down suspected rebel strongholds in the cities but the rebels and their sympathizers have turned every building and alleyway into fortresses. They drop soldiers in the humid, scorching jungles in an attempt to hunt down the rebels with large battalions. The rebels run circles around them and inflict terrible casualties on the defense force. They resort to attacking sympathetic villages on the edge of the jungle. Unable to penetrate the jungle Morgan Cartwright ordered a large bombing campaign of the orchid mountains and the controversial implementation of manticly enhanced weapons. Pyromantic artillery caused huge bush fires and military planes sprayed a mantically enhanced defoliant hoping to choke the rebels to death. Anticipating this the rebels had dug a massive network of bunkers and using plundered anti aircraft weapons set up ambush blinds for the planes and helicopters. They used decoy fires to get the air force to expend ammunition and in the dead of night send sabotage parties to blow up aircraft and artillery. In the cities daily battles leave entire neighborhoods devastated. Armed militias patrol the streets and often take anger out on civilians they suspected of being rebels. The native neighborhood of Burrow street in Kinwick suffered a full scale attack by a pro Cartwright militia who killed, burned and looted there way through the neighborhood killing eighty three people. Only six guns were found.
For almost a year the Mariposas fought this way and the armed forces were battered and bloodied. Believing the time was right the full might of the Mariposa movement emerged from the orchid mountains and advanced south to Belles town, while other cells stormed into Guildersport, Entilora bay and Cermont. The only hope for the battered Cartwright government was the mostly unused armour divisions. Rebels utilised mortars and rotor propelled explosives when they could but the preferred tactic was to swarm the tanks and either throw grenades into them or pour flammable liquid into them, setting fire to the inside. Tanks resort to peppering each other with bullets to stop the attacks but they couldn't hold the rebels back for long. The Cartwrights quickly flee finding sanctuary in the Imperial Confederation of Astasia who have a vested interest in Bacara. The next day all loyalist forces in the west of the country surrender. Anik Coida heads the rebel force that storms into Belle town where a massive crowd gathered in front of the presidential palace. In just a ten minute speech he declared the birth of a nation that would be nothing like the old one. A Bacara that would no more see the blight of slavery or be ruled by a dynasty of tyrants. He encouraged the remaining security forces to surrender and though he was prepared to give them amnesty he set about the eradication of the old elite. Mariposa rebels and their sympathisers began rounding up all who they considered a threat from politicians to wealthy planters. They started holding trials and court martial and got ready to mobilise their forces to finish off the remaining resistance in the west of the island. But the jubilation would be short lived for little did they know, they were in for a harder fight than ever.

Astasian invasion

The eyes of the Imperial Confederation were firmly glued to Bacara. They have been watching the various anti fudalist revolutions throughout the world and having suffered several in their own dominions they have organised a special task force to respond to such forces. Now with a revolution on their doorstep they embrace morgan Cartwright and agree to put down the rising. However seeing an opportunity to expand their territory into a land they sought after for years, they only agree to help if Cartwright consents to the island becoming a dominion of the Confederation and later a member state with him as governor general. Cartwright accepts and a huge Astasian counter revolutionary task force is formed to invade Bacara.
Air raid sirens scream all over the island as the Astasian aviation force launch strikes on all rebel-held cities while dropping special forces into cities where the fighting continued. The Astasian navy bombarded key points throughout the islands to make way for the army and marines to make landings. The technologically and numerically superior task force attacks rebel positions relentlessly but they will not go down so easily. Once more barricading themselves in the cities the Mariposas fight relentlessly to hold them. Astasian fire-teams hurl themselves forward fighting from building to building. Despite this the Cartwrights had insisted on preserving the structures in the city. Without airstrikes progress for the Astasians slowed to a bloody snails pace. In the mountains and jungles Astasians use similar tactics as the defense force before them to hunt rebels and are met with the same fate. The rebels lead them down dense thickets and winding trails, launching ambushes and inflicting high casualties, but no matter how much damage the rebels do to the invaders they could replace their assets ten fold. In Guildersport the Astasians surround the rebels in their enclaves. Disregarding the Cartwright's request the marines pound them with mortars and send unit after unit into the fight. Entire neighborhoods are leveled and the rebels fight to the death. In rough Blackvine country Astasians force their way into the jungle utilising the defense forces mantic weapons but on a much larger scale. They advance into the thickets under heavy fire again suffering horribly. However they reach the old reservations within and burn them to the ground.

We keep beating them back but they just send five times as many men after us and we have to give ground. My gun keeps overheating I've shot it so much and we've barely made a dent in their force. I've decided that we can't win anymore. But I'm not giving in. Me and my comrades will die here for Bacara.

Merokiba' Ya'nto- All tribes defence force.
By 1530 they have clawed back control of every major city but the undisputed ruler of the Jungle and mountain was the Mariposa. Aiming to starve the rebels into submission they take on a siege mentality. Back and forth they struck each other with attacks and retaliations. Rebel prisoners were publicly executed and Astasian fire-teams and armoured convoys harassed rebel positions. On the other hand rebel bombings, ambushes and assassinations increased in brutality as a two way war of terror raged for a further three years.

Either lacking the willpower or the strength to conquer the interior the Astasians kept to the cities and lacking the resources and firepower to force out the invaders the rebels kept to the jungles. It became obvious that there was no end in sight and so swallowing his pride and much to the irritation of his Astasian allies Morgan Cartwright opened dialogue with Anik Coida.

Ceasefire

It was a strange sight. Cartwright sat in an immaculate grey tropics suit and Coida in torn and bloodied combat fatigues. The negotiations were tense with neither side willing to give ground. Despite the strict racial limitations of citizenship in Bacaran and Confederation law Anik's demands of equal rights for natives and the abolition of slavery were seen as too extreme. They talked and talked and threatened and stormed out, with a return to violence narrowly being avoided when after much convincing and soul searching Morgan took yet another gulp of pride and edited his demands. He offered pardons to the Mariposa fighters as well as the total emancipation of Bacaran natives, but other servile peoples could be transported to the islands. The Confederation government would offer limited citizenship to the natives thus permitting them to own small tracks of land and operate small businesses. Along with this if the Mariposa movement laid down their weapons they would be given status as a legal political party. This along with various other lenient raising in status was not the equality Anik had fought for but he knew that if the war continued the Mariposas would be wiped out. Anik agrees but adds a condition of his own. He demands that the Imperial confederation of Astasia will not Incorporate the island as a member domain unless done democratically. He demands by the year 1560 and under the supervision of the league of nations, the Island holds a special majority referendum on wither the island is to confederate or become an independent state open to reform. Outraged Cartwright and imperial representatives try to retort but this position is non negotiable. Under intense pressure to end the fighting the Imperial representatives relay the message back to Astasia. Surprisingly the chancellor herself gives consent to agree to the terms. The two men shook hands and the agreement was signed. Morgan Cartwright was sworn in as governor general and Bacara was annexed into the Imperial confederation as a dominion. And so the revolution that almost ended a dynasty spanning two centuries ends not victorious but hopeful. A scarred and tormented land moves to rebuild with natives able to build something of a peaceful life for themselves. Not equal but a bit more free, ready to take the next step when it comes. The mariposas however did not hand back all of their weapons. Stashes dot the mountains full of guns and explosives ready to re-arm the Mariposas at a moments notice. But unfortunately Anik will not live to see any such escalation as the following year he dies from a brain hemorrhage.

Outcome

After the ceasefire the Astasian controlled Cartwright government gives Astasian natives special exceptional status. Meaning they are given limited citizenship under Astasian law. They invest heavily in rebuilding the nation and compensating the slaveholder class by shipping in slaves from Astasia as the ceasefire deal made clear no Bacarans would be forced to return.

Aftermath

In 1560 the final condition of the ceasefire agreement is about to come into effect. Under the watch of the league of nations the dominion is about to hold a special referendum to decide either Confederation with Astasia or independence. Governor general Morgan Cartwrigh heads the Confederation camp with Itsi Coida the daughter of the late Anik spearheading independence.

Conflict Type

Rebellion

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

1527

Ending Date

1533

Conflict Result

Temporary rebel victory, Islands under Astasian occupation, Cartwrights are re-instated, Guerrilla war ends in ceasefire.

Location

Bacara

Belligerents

Mariposa movement

Led by

• Anik Coida

Cartwright government

Led by

• Morgan Cartwright

Strength

All tribes defence force- 33,000
Young Bacara - 28,000
Bacaran Mara Dawnist free army- 33,000
Bacaran Solaresian revolutionary front- 10,000

Bacaran national security force- 28,000
Police force of Bacara- 13,000
Cartwright private army-18,000
Pro cartwright militias- 9,000
Restoration league of Bacara- 2000
Pro cartwright mercenaries- 4000
Imperial confederation of Astasia- 45,000

Casualties

24,000 dead, wounded or captured
37 villages raised to the ground
12 hideouts discovered
42,000 sympathetic or otherwise civillians killed or arrested

57,000 dead, wounded or missing
4000+ tanks, aircraft and millitary veichles destroyed
6000 Loyalist civillians killed
2500 planters, slave owners and government officials executed.
30 plantations burned
Serious damage done to millitary
3 billion soverigns worth of damage to government property.

Objectives

Overthrow the Cartwright dynasty,
Liberate the Bacara islands,
Declare independence as a republic.

Put down the uprising,
Keep the Cartwright dynasty in power
capture or execute its leaders,
recover as many weapons as possible