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And so the cradle of civilization becomes the hearth of the revolution. Let us pray that freedom come without too steep a cost.
Also, pamphlets! Love a good pamphlet
Also, pamphlets! Love a good pamphlet
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Oh my. Revolution. Will it end with the head of Niv on a spike? Or merely a new order of things?
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Well, let's hope that a few concessions to the commoners will be enough. We don't want a full "guillotine them all" solution.
Of course, becoming a full republic could aid in expansion...
Of course, becoming a full republic could aid in expansion...
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i could sort of see this coming; it would certainly be interesting if we ended up with an Assyrian napoleon
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Assyrian Revolution? Count me in!
Let's see how the revolutionaries deal with the sectarian differences. Will they take the form of god-fearing peasants trying to restore the "rule of god" in Ninevh or will they be born out of the hate for the restrictions imposed by the Church of the East and the oppression and greed of the nobles and lords?
Let's see how the revolutionaries deal with the sectarian differences. Will they take the form of god-fearing peasants trying to restore the "rule of god" in Ninevh or will they be born out of the hate for the restrictions imposed by the Church of the East and the oppression and greed of the nobles and lords?
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1737-1738 Can You Hear the People Sing?
1737-1738 Can You Hear the People Sing?
Few realised the significance of Niv IV's concessions to the salt rioters in early 1737. The power of the plebeian mob had been introduced a change-making political force in Assyria and had granted centre state to the liberal ideologies of the rising middle classes. Niv had granted the cities around a tenth of the seats within the Majlis, and the freedom to choose how to select their own representatives. Following the traditions that had emerged over the past decade in a number of urban centres that had been granted self-governance after the Lebarian War, several cities chose to select their Majlis representatives through raucous elections rather than appointment. Many of these new representatives were themselves radicals under the influence of the Ishtar Club and other organisations like the Society for the Abolition of Human Bondage, and would soon organise themselves into a single caucus within the Majlis.
The leader of this new Ishtarian caucus within the Majlis was the charismatic representative of Samarra – Lazarus Dunanu. A man of letters and flying rhetoric, the like of which the sleepy Majlis had rarely seen since its re-convention just a few years previously, he put forward four core demands: an entirely elected Majlis, guaranteed liberty of conscious and speech for all, an end to economic and political privileges based on aristocracy and inheritance and, explosively, restrictions on the slave trade and even outright abolition. Through his platform in the capital he possessed an ability to communicate with allies and sympathises across the entire Empire – with the emerging press picking up and disseminating his every word to all the realm's great cities. Importantly, within Nineveh itself his demagogic oratory allowed him to manipulate the mob at will and continue to bind it to Ishtarian ideals.
Events in the Assyrian metropole were being watched closely in the colonies, attracting both disdain and excitement. In Sumatra, the overarching sentiment was the latter. There, memories of the failed Sumatran Revolution of the 1680s had never truly faded, and ambitions for reform, local rule and liberal freedoms were a potent force. In September 1737, liberal creoles inspired by events in Nineveh, stormed the Governors offices and seized power in a coup backed by the local military garrison. There, they established an elected assembly to administer Sumatra and reform the colony, all the while professing their loyalty to the Sar Sarrani and Nineveh. The issue would soon paralyse the imperial administration. Any conflict with Sumatra would cut the crown off from its cold mines and the riches of trade with the Indies upon which its fragile finances depended. Equally, the Ishtarians in the Majlis were staunch supporters of the creoles' exercise of popular sovereignty, forming a pro-Sumatran lobby in the capital. With both political and economic factors holding it back, Niv's regime found itself incapable of responding – neither denouncing Sumatran coup nor accepting its legitimacy.
It was this Sumatran Crisis, and the inability of either the Majlis or Emperor to act decisively to crush the upstarts and restore order in this most vital of colonies that led the traditionalist general Karnu Kapriel to act. In October he send his troops into the capital to arrest Dunanu, quash the radicals, and close the Majlis – restoring the absolutist constitutional order that had preceded the past turbulent decade. This moment would change the course of Assyrian history. While Kapriel's troops successfully stormed the Majlis and detained Dunanu, they were caught off guard by the mobilisation of the urban poor by Ishtarian militants across the capital – with barricades forming to trap the soldiers occupying the Majlis and block any reinforcements from reaching them. The situation worsened when, with the Emperor remaining conspicuously silent and refusing to offer his backing to Kapriel, elements of the conspiracy began to lose confidence – with some parts of Kapriel's putschist officer core defecting to align with the defenders of the Majlis. After a two day siege, fearing for their lives and running low of supplies, the troops occupying the Majlis turned over Dunanu to the mob and withdrew from the Majlis in exchange for safe passage. The coup was collapsing and Kapriel himself was murdered by his own allies, most of whom fled the city.
In this moment of chaos, with the capital an armed battleground and no clear source of governing authority anywhere – the Ishtarians did not miss a beat in pressing home their momentum. Despite days under captivity and torture, Dunanu seized his moment in history and directed his allies to push on to consolidate their grip over the capital – occupying key points and seizing weapons abandoned by Kapriel's disintegrating army. He then led two thousand men on a march outside of the city walls to the Imperial Palace, where they presented the Emperor Niv IV with a petition demanded the concession of an elected Majlis. Disorientated by the speed at which events had moved, intimidated by the Ishtarians' show of force and fearful of all manner of threats to his life and position, Niv followed the pattern he had repeated throughout his reign and conceded to every demand.
In a strange atmosphere in which the authority of different institutions were in flux, fierce negotiations ensued between the existing Majlis, the Imperial household and the radicals on the nature and implementation of this promise. The franchise agreed between the parties was somewhat more restrictive than the Ishtarians might have hoped, with barely one in twenty adult men given the right to vote, with the franchise based on a property qualification, possession of recognised aristocratic heritage or a position of a certain rank in the clergy.
The above results are estimates based on records of the candidates taking part in the 1738 elections.
The promised election would take place over December and January, with voting and counting taking several weeks. This election was the first of its kind anywhere in the world on this scale, with around a quarter of a million electors meeting the requirements to be able to cast a ballot. In an era long before the very idea of political parties, elections were largely local affairs and candidates did not necessarily run on defined political programmes or ideologies. However, after the dust settled four loosely defined factions would emerge within the Majlis – the Ishtar Club influenced allies of Dunanu who formed just a sixth of the chamber; a much larger group holding true to traditionally Federalist ideals of parliamentary power and decentralisation; a distinct Muslim block – enjoying a greater share of political power than their co-religionists had ever had in Assyrian history; and finally a sizeable but divided selection of conservative monarchists who opposed the idea of an elected Majlis entirely but were split between Lebarians and supporters of the Amarah-Laboue line.
Among the intriguing innovations in the new Majlis was the very concept of the political right and left. While the Majlis had always historically had factions and groupings, members had tended to group themselves within its chamber by region and historic kingdom and had not say in any discernible pattern. In the new assembly, sharp divides would be drawn with each of the three main factions assembling in clear groupings – Dunanu and his radical allies on the left, his conservative monarchist enemies on the right and the Federalists between them in the centre.
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And so the cradle of civilization becomes the hearth of the revolution. Let us pray that freedom come without too steep a cost.
Also, pamphlets! Love a good pamphlet
A lovely turn of phrase - I should have nabbed myself. And never trust the pamphleteers!
Niv's head has not been threatened just yet, let's see if he can keep it!
We've seen Niv seek to head things off with some concessions. Time will tell if a constitutional monarchy proves to be a happy medium, or if there is a push to go further.
We have had been building towards something for a little while. This train has a while left to ride, let's see where we end up!
The Revolution comes! There are so many different sectors of disatisfaction, tensions and interests that we could be thrown in any numbers of directions during this period. Let us see what awaits!
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Niv’s time is getting to an end. No way is he surviving this. Not at the top in any case.
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Hmmm, niv seems to be handling things better than Louis XVI did- at the very least, the radicals seem far less violent than in the French Revolution. If he's willing to accept sharing his power (a big if) I think he can integrate the monarchy into Assyria's new order quite effectively
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Yeah, Niv is giving up way too much authority here.
I can't wait until the rebels get the idea to spread their revolution.
I can't wait until the rebels get the idea to spread their revolution.
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Dunanu is one of those fascinating historical figures that will be revered, debated and reviled long after his death.
And Assyria is now a monarchy with a semi democratic parliament. I am interested to see how the Emperor's successors deal with this duality of power.
And Assyria is now a monarchy with a semi democratic parliament. I am interested to see how the Emperor's successors deal with this duality of power.
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With Niv the Weak at the throne, the Assyrian monarchy's days seem numbered.
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It seems almost inevitable that Niv will end up either a figurehead or without a head. We'll see if things go as expected...
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1738-1740 Dreams of Freedom
The great victors of the 1738 elections were not neither the Ishtarian radicals nor monarchists conservatives but the moderates adherents of the old religion – Federalism. The Assyrian Federalist tradition was rich, varied and deeply rooted in all parts of the Empire – in particular its north and west. It had its origins dating back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when its core institutions and tenets came together under the Armenian dynasty and during and after the Marian Revolution with the establishment of religious toleration, autonomous territorial governance, royal election and above all the Majlis. Although its form that had exerted political influence between 1732 and 1737 had been aristocratic, elitist and grasping, its basic ideals had a far broader and more varied reach.
The modest performance of radical candidates had dampened the enthusiasm of the Ishtarian cause. Although a more coherent block within the new Majlis that either the centre or right under the strong leadership of Lazarus Dunanu, the left lacked the numbers of either. However, the liberals would use their numbers skilfully. The Federalist block was large and diverse, ranging from those that idealised the aristocratic crowned republic of the Federal Kingdom to more forward looking constitutional monarchists. One of the most influential voices on the reformist wing of the centre was the Lebanese Marionite Michel Nader, a native of the Federalist heartland in Syria and, as a member of a smaller Christian denomination, an acceptable compromise among many different elements of the movement. In the weeks after the election, while the new Majlis attempted to define itself, Dunanu and Nader would agree a pact in which in return to joining together in a reform agenda, the former would vigorously support the latter's claim to leadership in the chamber. This weight aided Nader in exerting his dominance across the wider Federalist faction and shutting out the Conservative Monarchists from influence, effectively giving him clear majority control over the Majlis.
It was with this power that Nader pushed for Niv IV to granted him unprecedented influence as his Vizier. This title had existed in Assyria for centuries for the most important members of the sovereign’s administration. Yet, now it would be used to denote a head of government or sorts whose political power was derived not from the Emperor but from his ability to command the will of the nation as expressed through the Majlis. Further to this, the Emperor consented to providing Nader the authority to propose a further revision of the structure of Assyrian governance, with the creation of a binding written legal basis – a constitution.
The promised adoption of a written constitution was a revolutionary idea without precedent. Even during the era of the Federal Kingdom, the separation of powers among different institutions was based predominantly on precedent and sentiment rather than an agreed set of constitutional bounds. The new document would be a product of compromise between Ishtarians and Federalists, with Monarchist Conservatives shut out from the process and the Emperor's views for relegated to a footnote. The process attracted a flood of philosophers and theorists to Nineveh through 1738, with idealistic and experimental ideas of how an Enlightened Assyrian Empire might function driving the intelligentsia to delirious excitement.
The 1738 constitution that was agreed did not reach the those ambitions, but nonetheless radically transformed the Empire. At its heart, it established Assyria as a constitutional monarchy, with the sovereign’s political role significantly diminished. Niv IV, who came to the throne as one of the most singularly powerful individuals on earth, would now be little more than a figurehead. Instead, the Majlis would return to an even more important position than its sixteenth century high tide, with ultimate legislative and executive authority being derived from its members.
The Majlis itself was to be divided into two chambers. An upper chamber, designed to satisfy more traditionalist Federalists, based on the the Majlis's pre-1737 composition of nobles and high ranking Christian clergy that would have the power to revise and block proposals of an entirely elected lower chamber. The franchise for the lower chamber would be broadened yet further with an extended property qualification taking in around one in ten adult males. The constitution also reiterated and restored traditional Assyrian guarantees of freedom of sect and religion alongside new rights including freedom from censorship and equal treatment before the law, removing some legal privileges of the nobility. Meanwhile, the authority of the regional assemblies across both the historic Kingdoms and traditionally non-self governing provinces of the Empire – Arabia and Oman – were to be enshrined in the constitution. The document would be proudly enacted into law by the Vizier, with the Emperor by his side in the summer of 1738.
While the philosophers in Nineveh pondered constitutional change, an array of earthier angers and frustrations still seethed across the land. While Dunanu tried to rein in the mob by channelling the Ishtarian movement towards political reforms, populist demands for fixed prices, tax reductions and even reform of land ownership could not be entirely forgotten. Indeed, many on the most radical wing of the movement were growing increasingly interested in these egalitarian questions. Most intriguing were a group around the representative for Damascus, Ephrem Karim. Southern Syria had emerged as a hotbed for the most radical elements of the Ishtarian movement, with the traditional egalitarianism of Messallianism aiding a development of a close affinity between Damascus and revolution. Notably, the system of landownership in the region was quite distinctive, with both the Messallians and the neighbouring Druze possessing an unusually even distribution of wealth – the smallholding peasant predominating over the large noble estate and slavery, as it was in most of Syria, Assyria-Superior and Armenia, a very minor force. Karim and his allies believed that the rest of Assyria should mirror his homeland more closely and go yet further, calling for a dramatic redistribution of land, confiscatory levels of taxation of the aristocracy, the abolition of slavery and the elimination of all noble privileges. Despite the achievements in establishing constitutional rule in Assyria, the Ishtarian movement was continuing to radicalise with each step forward in success, and its ideas were percolating far beyond the salons of the great cities to common folk and the countryside.
In line with the new constitution, new elections were held in late 1739 on the newly expanded franchise. With hundreds of thousands of voters, it was a challenging undertaking for the the Imperial state and was naturally filled with discrepancies and delays. Yet, with much larger sections of the middling classes given the right to participate, just under half a million electors produced a far more left leaning chamber with the Ishtarian block doubling its numbers, mostly at the expense of moderate candidates. Despite seeing his allies take control of more than two thirds of the Majlis and the increasing confidence of Assyrian liberals, Dunanu looked to maintain his alliance with the centre – refusing to challenge Nader's seniority as Vizier despite the urgings of the like Karim, but pushing for even greater reforms of the Assyrian state.
The onward march of Assyrian liberty was fuelling hopes of immediate and dramatic change among radicals throughout the Empire. Most significantly, Abolitionists had begun a wave of heavy agitation among the slave plantations of Babylonia and the sought to build further pressure behind their cause. Rising expectations among the slaves themselves – large numbers of whom had been drawn to abolitionist Sassinitism in the preceding decades – of their impending freedom contributed to the outbreak of a major slave revolt at the turn of the New Year. On dozens of plantations across the province, Black slaves turned on their masters and killed every Arab and Assyrian they could find. The military would put down the unrest over a period of several months, inflicting tortuously cruel justice on the Blacks as they were returned to their chains.
The violence in the south caused serious ructions in Nineveh, with the radical wing of the Ishtarians demanding an end to slavery once and for all and even a pardon for the participants in the rebellion. Dunanu was forced to put the issue to a vote in the Majlis, where it was soundly defeated as the largest part of the Federalist Block and even some Ishtarians refused to support it. Nonetheless, the right of the chamber was enraged that the issue had even been allowed to be voted upon, claiming that Majlis had no authority to upend the natural social order.
The slave issue represented the sharp edge of an emerging conservative rage at the direction of Assyria over the past decade. The Empire had appeared to turn its back on God, on tradition and on aristocracy in favour of an alien radical agenda. Despite representing a large portion of Assyrian society, Conservatives had been wholly excluded from power and shunned. Worse, the Ishtarians were emerging as a clear material threat to the existing social order in several parts of the Empire. Opposition was at its strongest in the major slave holding provinces of Babylonia, Arabia and Oman, as well as Philistia – where a very centralised system of landownership dominated by an ethnically distinct Latin nobility held sway.
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How far we have come - from a ragtag ethno-religious minority ruled Medieval statelet fighting for survival to constitutional government. Let us see where we go from here!
Niv has threats around many corners. If he is willing to accept the demotion to constitutional monarch, then he may well find a niche with the new proto-democratic order. But this order is threatened by an angry conservative opposition - that could potentially restore his power or look to replace him should they prefer the Lebarian claimant, while there remains unquenched radicalism on the left. A tightrope!
Niv has given up his power without a great deal of struggle to date, and we have averted the worst of revolutionary violence - in large part due to that lack of resistance, but also because of the willingness of the Ishtarian leaders to cooperate with the Federalist moderates. There remain many delicate aspects to all this, we shall have to see if everything can be held together.
As for the spreading of the revolution - there is no way these ideas will remain contained to the Assyrian Empire alone. That could be an inspiration to some and fear for others ...
And we haven't yet gotten to the end of his story. He has transformed somewhat from the more radical figure in the room, to the dam holding back a growing Ishtarian Liberal movement from more revolutionary demands. Can he keep riding that dragon to continue the constutionalist journey, or will the radicals overcome him?
Incredible for one who held such power up to the end of the 1720s, and had such personal ambition to wield it to reshape his Empire - remember his efforts at Enlightened Absolutism during that period - has surrender everything without so much as a puff of gunpowder. He has lacked the personal will for the fight. Whether this is craven weakness that will lead him to be the end of his line, or canny adaptability that could save it remains a question to be answered.
Well he's established himself as little more than the former for now. Let us pray for his sake he doesn't end up the latter!
Niv has threats around many corners. If he is willing to accept the demotion to constitutional monarch, then he may well find a niche with the new proto-democratic order. But this order is threatened by an angry conservative opposition - that could potentially restore his power or look to replace him should they prefer the Lebarian claimant, while there remains unquenched radicalism on the left. A tightrope!
Niv has given up his power without a great deal of struggle to date, and we have averted the worst of revolutionary violence - in large part due to that lack of resistance, but also because of the willingness of the Ishtarian leaders to cooperate with the Federalist moderates. There remain many delicate aspects to all this, we shall have to see if everything can be held together.
As for the spreading of the revolution - there is no way these ideas will remain contained to the Assyrian Empire alone. That could be an inspiration to some and fear for others ...
And we haven't yet gotten to the end of his story. He has transformed somewhat from the more radical figure in the room, to the dam holding back a growing Ishtarian Liberal movement from more revolutionary demands. Can he keep riding that dragon to continue the constutionalist journey, or will the radicals overcome him?
Incredible for one who held such power up to the end of the 1720s, and had such personal ambition to wield it to reshape his Empire - remember his efforts at Enlightened Absolutism during that period - has surrender everything without so much as a puff of gunpowder. He has lacked the personal will for the fight. Whether this is craven weakness that will lead him to be the end of his line, or canny adaptability that could save it remains a question to be answered.
Well he's established himself as little more than the former for now. Let us pray for his sake he doesn't end up the latter!
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A big catching up to do, and you have been very busy. With such an interesting and revolutionary tale, it’s no surprise you want to get it out there!
And it was the last part of that sentence that highlighted that seeds had been sown that would shake Assyria to its foundation. Would it be weeds or flowers that would bloom? Probably depends on perspective! But the garden will be overgrown.
But each time there is less and less available to pay the cost of victory.
The experiment was tried - at the time, was that your preferred model for the way ahead?
And this would be a classic one of the period - chaotic, home grown, ever-radicalising.
A momentous exercise - though one with a still very restricted electorate and not one prone to allowing radicals free reign.
By this stage, is Niv conceding because he cannot do otherwise without a bloodbath he fears he will lose? Or because he (ie you) think this is the way to go, the Tiger needs to be ridden rather than grasped by the tail?
Now comes the phase where radical agitation against mere reforming liberalism and constitutional monarchism becomes the struggle: will a critical mass be reached and widespread communal violence spread, under the threat of (or caused by) a conservative counter-revolution and civil war? Can the external alliances hold up, might the Romans or Timurids intervene and will the main empire and/or it’s external colonies all fly apart from centrifugal forces?
A divisive and peace-shattering pretext if ever there was one.
This goes to my question above and you may not be willing to answer fully for reasons of narrative suspense and immersion, but one has to wonder that with the failure of the enlightened absolutism experiment, our guiding hand has now pushed things deliberately to the left, to see what happens.
Aha, we come to the crux of it. I suspect you’d rather leave the question of motivation open, unless youre just role playing Niv as a kind of slightly more competent Louis XVI. Will it be Citizen Niv next?
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This center-left coalition is really rather promising, and I'm rooting for them. Unfortunately, unless they can deal with the economic worries of the common folk and the issue of slavery (a tremendous victory for this point in history if they could), they'll have to deal with challenges from both right and left, neither of which may be inclined to respect this novel constitutional order. A challenge from the right could be especially concerning, with a potential alt-Carlist plot in the offing. It's unclear how loyal the royal army will be to the Majilis and its figurehead king, should worst come to worst. A potential asset to the ruling bloc would be a reconciliation with the Sumatrans in particular of the periphery, but we'll have to see how they play their cards
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The Ishtarian left advances! But slowly. Maybe a nobility counter-revolution is what we need to push the Ishtarians to get rid of slavery and noble privileges once and for all.
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1740-1742 Revolution and Reaction
1740-1742 Revolution and Reaction
Assyrian decentralisation allowed for the emergence of important differences between the Empire's different regions. Among the most pronounced of these was the capture of Armenia's regional assembly by radical Ishtarians. There they acted as outriders was the wider liberal movement. They adopted a mass franchise for their assembly, opening to all literate adult men without debts; banned slavery within Armenia – something of a symbolic gesture, with the area having an almost non-existent slave population by the eighteenth century; altered the symbols of the state – adopting the first ever tricolour flag to replace more traditional heraldry; and pursued an outspokenly secular agenda. For several centuries the Armenian nation had been divided by religion between a historically dominant Oriental Orthodox community in the east, with the Old Orthodox communities in the west being more marginalised and a Nestorian minority scattered throughout the region being closer to Nineveh that local elites. The Armenian Ishtarians hoped to overcome these divisions by turning away from the traditionally tight relationship between local institutions and the Oriental Orthodox Apostolic Armenian Church, pursuing a separation between Church and government.
In the more southerly and conservative provinces of the Empire, the direction of travel was very different with frustration and violence building towards open revolt. Philistia was a particularly strong centre of angst. Supplied by arms smuggled into the country by agents of Catholic France, the Latin landed elite, despising the liberal revolution ongoing in Nineveh, had begun to organise through the still existent but now largely ceremonial Crusader Orders. By 1400, Knights of the Holy Orders, for centuries little more than prestigious relics of a bygone age, were beginning to take to the countryside as guerilla leaders against the Imperial authorities. By 1741 both their confidence and numbers were growing rapidly and in April that year they launched a daring expeditions – pursuing the main Imperial garrison in the south west to the Red Sea port of Aqabah and utterly destroying it in one of the gravest Assyrian military disasters for generations. All of Philistia and much of western Arabia lay virtually undefended.
Despite the descent into violent in Philistia, politics in the Imperial heartland were growing more radical. Indeed, the Knights' Revolt had heightened anti-conservative sentiment in the cities and the liberal mob increasingly harassed and attacked right wing representatives who dared show their faces in Nineveh – leading many to abscond from the Majlis entirely. Under pressure from the radicals among the Ishtarians within the Majlis, Dunanu had pushed his Federalist allies to adopt further reforms – ending all remaining Church exemptions from taxation, establishing a system of poor relief designed to ease urban poverty and calm the cities and creating new, more localised, elected assemblies at the level of small towns. Through this period, the still young Assyrian Constitution visibly buckled under the strains of the continued impetus towards reform, with the aristocratic upper house's attempts to obstruction and block new legislation being met with mob intimidation, and fury on the parliamentary floor. It was this question of the division of power that ended the fruitful alliance between the Federalist Vizier Nader and his Ishtarian keeper Dunanu. When the noble chamber blocked attempts to further loosen restrictions on the franchise, Nader stood firm against demands that he ignore its objections and proceed heedlessly ahead. The result would be a new set of elections in 1741.
The 1741 election, held in testing circumstances given the situation in Philistia, saw the crushing of the political centre at the expense of the extremes. As the old Federalist block in the Majlis, once so powerful, was reduced to a mere rump, Dunanu saw his allies soar to a clear majority in their own right for the first time. In reality, a portion of the Ishtarian majority in 1741 consisted of former Federalists who had drifted closer to Dunanu's leadership, but it was also true that many new and more left wing representatives were elected as well. Meanwhile, anti-parliamentary Conservatives also experienced a surge – sweeping the southern provinces and making gains in the more rural and religious parts of Assyria-Superior. Despite the misgivings of the Emperor, Lazarus Dunanu – the doyen of Assyrian radicalism for a decade – was made Vizier. Dunanu was under heavy pressure on his left flank to wield this new power to transform Assyrian society, emulating the Armenian example and even surpassing it by taking on the bulwarks of reaction – slave power, the residual authority of the aristocracy and even the Church of the East itself.
The disturbing results of the 1741 election proved the final straw for Conservative conspirators who been contemplating their next steps for some time. As Dunanu and the Ishtarians assembled their new government in the capital, the Imperial army on the eastern frontier with Persia rose the flag of revolt under the command of the arch-reactionary Yohannan Satenik, the Malik of Amida. Finding unsurprisingly strong support in Babylonia, Satenik moved to occupy Basra unopposed before marching northwards towards the capital. The first major obstacle he faced was Baghdad – second only to Nineveh itself as a beating heart of Ishtarian radicalism. Despite the efforts of a hastily formed city militia, Baghdad fell after three weeks fighting to the superior arms of the rebellion. After this victory, Satenik conducted a symbolic public purge of the radicals. Trying hundred of those involved in radical politics in the city in martial courts and subjecting them to public executions. This terror had a clear air of the pogrom, with Baghdad being the greatest centre of Judaism in the world, Jews making up around a tenth of its population and supporting the Ishtarian cause in large numbers. Satenik deliberately targeted the city's sprawling Jewish Quarter for reprisals and arrests, and stoked ethnic tensions as he depicted the liberals as an alliance of heretics, heathens and Jews. By early 1742, this white army was on the move again, with the 50,000 rebels surrounding Nineveh. The fate of the revolution hung in the balance.
The months following the 1741 election saw the Assyrian Empire fragment into a series of warring factions. It was during this period that the Philistian revolt escalated from insurgency to take control of the province, firing barely a shot as garrisons in Jerusalem, Jaffa and many other cities surrendered in despair. In the east, Satenik's rebels stretched out their arms to attract the support of the Christian tribes of the Gulf penetrate deep into Arabia.
The vultures of Assyria's powerful neighbours were finally preparing to take advantage of the Empire's troubles – with the Greeks probing on the western frontier, and the Timurids taking advantage of the chaotic situation in the south eastern portion of the Empire to occupy Oman, and sponsor the establishment of a friendly Omani Emirate. The Ishtarian government controlling the Majlis could only claim real authority in Armenia, Syria and parts of Assyria-Superior.
Across the Sinai, the Assyrian vassal of Damietta had chafed for several years in the face of the radical changes taking place across the border – with its Latin ruling elite mirroring their Philistian cousins in their conservatism and fear of having changes imposed upon them. As Nineveh's authority began to wilt, the French took their chance to push the Damiettans into open revolt – landing an army of mercenaries in Alexandria to join the service of the Duke as he chased Assyrian forces from his lands and invaded Upper Egypt. By the end of the year, the Damiettan Duke had won over the loyalty of the Philistian rebels and claimed the Crusader title King of Egypt and Jerusalem.
In the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad to Satenik's white army, the rebels had received an invaluable boost to their prestige as the Nestorian Patriarch had fled Nineveh in his carriage and come to Baghdad where he offered his open endorsement to the rebellion's aim to restore Christian rule. The Church of the East had thrown in its lot with reaction.
Events in the Middle East were deeply traumatic in Assyria's colonial societies on either end of the Indian Ocean. Sumatra had emerged as a beacon of liberalism over the past several decades, responsible for an escalation of Assyria's own political development after a creole uprising unilaterally established its own autonomous governing structures during the 1738 Sumatran Crisis. Since then, its administration had been a staunch ally of the Nineveh governments of Michel Nader and Lazarus Dunanu, and it remained firmly opposed to the Conservative revolt engulfing so much of the motherland.
On the other end of the Ocean, Alopheeria, the South African Cape, was a very different place. Here, in a society defined by the rugged individualism of the Middle Eastern creole settlers and farmers; their domination and enslavement of the native Blacks and suspicion of metropolitan ideas and interference; liberalism was chronically weak. While Alopheeria had been granted its own elected assembly in 1739 by the reformers in Nineveh, granting it equal status with Sumatra, this chamber was dominated by staunch Conservatives who were aghast at the discussions of Abolitionism in Assyria. In contrast to their cousins across the Sea, the Alopheerians would throw their lot in with Satenik's revolt following the fall of Baghdad, with the local Imperial garrison backing the colonial assembly in rebellion. This would pave the way for a division of the Assyrian colonial Empire between east and west, with the slave-holding islands of the western Indian Ocean supporting the rebellion, while the Indies held loyal to the Majlis, turning the Ocean itself into a battleground between the competing factions.
The Siege of Nineveh was a period of incredibly tense political drama. Immediately before the siege, Sar Sarrani Niv IV had sent emissaries to the south to the white army to feel out the willingness of the rebels to back his restoration to true political power. Finding a cold reception among a rebel command that had obvious sympathies for the more traditionalist Lebarian claimant, Niv would withdraw from their negotiations – yet disastrously his communications were uncovered. This forced the Emperor to flee Nineveh for the west, just as the white army approached the city.
Once the siege was joined, the city found itself only lightly defended – with its formal garrison hopelessly outnumbered by the 50,000 professional soldiers enveloping it. In response, the radicals in the city organised the mob into citizens' militias numbering in the many thousands. Filled with fear of the sort of slaughter meted out in Baghdad, these ragtag revolutionary bands proved surprisingly effective – holding back the probing assaults of Satenik's army for several months. Within the city itself, politics did not cease. Instead, the most radical elements of the Ishtarian movement came to the fore – making ever more elaborate promises to the revolutionary mob in order to energise them towards victory. In early 1742, less than a year after his crowning achievement of bringing his liberal faction to a Majlis majority, Lazarus Dunanu was forced from power by Ephrem Karim – the new Vizier notably taking the title by the majority support of the Majlis alone with the Emperor absent. Karim promised equality, unrestricted democracy and a genuine overturning of the social order. In the immediate, he launched attacks on the Nestorian Churches of the capital – seizing their wealth to support the treasury and casting out their priests as spies and traitors. Absentee aristocrats, many of whom had fled the capital in the preceding months, saw their riches and properties similarly seized and numerous bold proclamations for the future were made.
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A big catching up to do, and you have been very busy. With such an interesting and revolutionary tale, it’s no surprise you want to get it out there!
And it was the last part of that sentence that highlighted that seeds had been sown that would shake Assyria to its foundation. Would it be weeds or flowers that would bloom? Probably depends on perspective! But the garden will be overgrown.
But each time there is less and less available to pay the cost of victory.
The experiment was tried - at the time, was that your preferred model for the way ahead?
And this would be a classic one of the period - chaotic, home grown, ever-radicalising.
A momentous exercise - though one with a still very restricted electorate and not one prone to allowing radicals free reign.
By this stage, is Niv conceding because he cannot do otherwise without a bloodbath he fears he will lose? Or because he (ie you) think this is the way to go, the Tiger needs to be ridden rather than grasped by the tail?
Now comes the phase where radical agitation against mere reforming liberalism and constitutional monarchism becomes the struggle: will a critical mass be reached and widespread communal violence spread, under the threat of (or caused by) a conservative counter-revolution and civil war? Can the external alliances hold up, might the Romans or Timurids intervene and will the main empire and/or it’s external colonies all fly apart from centrifugal forces?
A divisive and peace-shattering pretext if ever there was one.
This goes to my question above and you may not be willing to answer fully for reasons of narrative suspense and immersion, but one has to wonder that with the failure of the enlightened absolutism experiment, our guiding hand has now pushed things deliberately to the left, to see what happens.
Aha, we come to the crux of it. I suspect you’d rather leave the question of motivation open, unless youre just role playing Niv as a kind of slightly more competent Louis XVI. Will it be Citizen Niv next?
In terms of in game, I'd never actually had the Revolution fire in my country so made sure to get the Centre for Revolution to fire within my land manually just to see what would happen - so the guiding hand perhaps let everything go on fire deliberately here!
You do get a number of options to shape how things go - so there is still much up to be decided and I won't spoil how the Revolutionary story line goes from here, as we have a lot of twists and turns left to cover. And we will have to wait and see what becomes of poor Niv!
We are now indeed seeing serious violence spread across the realm. The Catholic south-west is up in separatist conservative revolt, the Nestorian south-east in reactionary revolution. The Timurids and French are taking their chances to interfere with varying levels of directness and Byzantines lining themselves up for their next steps. The colonies meanwhile, are split down the middle between supporting Nineveh or Basra. This could go any which way at this point.
That alliance between the centre and left really achieved a great deal with the advent of constitutionalism and reform, but were ripped apart by the forces of revolution and reaction. Now we shall see extremes meet. In the colonies, we have seen a real east/west division with the Sumatrans flying the flag for liberalism and the Alopheerians of South Africa staunchly conservative - Malabar stuck in the middle between the two.
The most radical elements of the Ishtarian movement - favouring Abolitionism, democracy and egalitarianism - now have the reigns of power in the national government. But they are literally under siege by reaction - the fate of Assyria and world hangs in the balance of a single battle!
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