Ripuarian Revolution


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The Ripuarian Revolution (: Révolution Ripuarie; : Ripuarische Opstand) was a conflict that lead to the secession of the tenth province of the Kingdom of Lindenholt (At that time, Ripuaria province) and the establishment of an independent Grand Duchy of Ripuaria. The conflict that started as riots and evolved into a war between the First Republic of Umbrellia and the Kingdom of Lindenholt lasted three years until the signing of the treaty of Janjirie.

The rising trend of nationalism across Vestea in the 18th century made the people of Ripuaria consider themselves as Ripuarian nationalists. The linguistic composition of the province had a majority of Umbèrge and Ripuarian speakers who considered themselves ethnically Ripuarian. Many outspoken Ripuarians regarded the rule of King Maximilian II as despotic. Unrest was high among Ripuarians and unemployment and poverty were prevalent in the province. The Ripuarian upper-class was neglected and often considered as inferior to the Lindians. This tore a social breach in the relationship between Lindians and Ripuarians. The inspiration of the Umber Revolution lead to an accelerated demand for Ripuarian independence from the Kingdom.

Tensions had been on the rise throughout the entirety of Lindenholt, with the source for unrest among ethnic Lindians being the refusal of Maximilian II to sign the Valentine's constitution. The riots that ensued in the capital city of Artwingen spread to Ripuaria in the following weeks, here unrest was mostly caused by the independence movement. On 24 February 1853, riots broke out in Ripuaria City, shops were looted and Lindian policemen were attacked. After the provincial government house was torched by rioters, members of the Ripuarian upper class and several of the Ripuarian provincial government members soon joined the rioters. King Maximilian II ordered the army to suppress the rioters who met the troops with fierce self defense.

Mass desertion of Ripuarians in the Lindian army lead to the formation of the Ripuarian Free Army in the city of Gefell led by former Lindian army commander Lauther van Stokfort-Lautherstein. The Ripuarian National Congress was established by the rebels in the city and began to plead for foreign support for their conflict. On the 28th of February 1853 the National Congress' pleads were met with a positive response from the Umber government and they intervened on the Ripuarian side against the Lindians.

Province of Ripuaria
Considered a part of the Lindian Realm during Lindenholt's separation from the Agrestic Holy Empire, Ripuaria had been a province of Lindenholt from its independence onward. When in the Late 18th-Early 19th century Lindenholt became a kingdom, it retained its Ripuarian territories. The Catholic upper classes, who enjoyed great autonomy under the previous Republic of Lindenholt, now were faced with a unitary state that took efforts to further centralise its administration.

Maximilian I's rule over Lindenholt and Ripuaria was focused on further integrating the Catholic and speaking elements of society through a policy of coexistence. Provided that the has a dominant status within the country, minority groups were allowed to operate under complete freedom. Proposals for a proportional divide between Catholic and Calvinist members of parliament and cabinet ministers were made several times during Maximilian I's rule, however any hope of this happening was crushed after Pope Leo X threatened to excommunicate those that held office in the Lindian government. Maximilian I's heir and later King Maximilian II reversed many of his father's coexistence policies and instead implemented discriminatory policies to further the country's centralisation efforts.

While major differences between Lindenholt and Ripuaria certainly existed, Ripuaria's position within the country was not unique. The provinces of Brusseland and Hoveland, which were majority Catholic, also faced repression under Maximilian II's rule. Lindenholt's Felsinian holdings, while religiously closer to the monarchy, endured similar measures to further incorporate them in to the country. Similarly to how the Umbèrge and Ripuarian speaking Ripuarians were looked own upon the Artwingen government, ethnically Lindian and Calvinist speakers of Low-Englean dialects in the north east of the country experienced an active effort by the government to force the standard Lindian language upon the population.

Free Ripuarian Army
On the 25 February 1853, in the aftermath of the riots in Ripuaria City and the burning of the provincial government, Lauther van Stokfort-Lautherstein, an ethnic Ripuarian, member of the Ripuarian royal family and commander in the Lindian army, was inspired by the events. Commanding over a force of 500 Ripuarian troops, he deserted the Lindian army and established the Free Ripuarian Army with the goal of building a Ripuarian army to fight against the Kingdom of Lindenholt. He gathered political figures from the city and established the Ripuarian National Congress to serve as a temporary civilian government and began a campaign lasting three days until the 28 February 1853 to establish control over the Ripuarian Province. By the end of his campaign to unify the province he managed to gather as much as 3,750 troops to his army. The Ripuarian National Congress agreed on establishing and running a recruitment campaign for the Free Ripuarian Army which by the 17 March 1853 managed to amass an army of around 11,000 Ripuarians.

The rapidly growing resistance army built up fortifications and entrenched in cities and towns across the province. A loose organisation structure was built with Lauther leading the army and several junior commanders being promoted to take responsibility over various fronts against the Lindian army. The tactics and organisation used by the army resembled an early form of which included mixing in with local population and efficient utilization of the army's small size as an advantage in choke-points and narrow combat width such as in cities and urban areas.

In terms of equipment, the Free Ripuarian Army had nothing except what was left behind by the Lindian army. Until the Umber army intervened, the Free Ripuarian Army relied on civilian hunting muskets, captured Lindian muskets and guns, and agriculture tool such as pitchforks and scythes.

Lindian response
While the revolt and desertion of troops in Ripuaria caused outrage within the Lindian government, large factions within the !Calvinist elite were rather content with the Catholic province breaking away. They saw it as an opportunity to solidify repressive policies against Catholics nationwide at best and the loss of a rebellious province at the worst. Paradoxically, the Catholics saw the rebellion as a form of treachery that was unsympathetic to the cause of equality between Catholics and Calvinists in Lindenholt, as well as decreasing the influence that the Catholics had on the national government.

Regardless of public opinion, the government deemed the revolt a violation of its sovereignty and ordered local forces to resist against revolutionary elements. These orders were largely ineffective however, as forces within the province deserted en masse. It took until the last days of February for 1 Division under the command of Bernhard van Wagelen-Onderkreugel to reach the borders of Ripuaria. A reconnaissance contingent crossed the border during the early morning of March 1st, initiating the March Offensive.

March Offensive


The March Offensive saw three Lindian divisions come in to action against Ripuarian revolutionary forces. In the early morning of March 1st units from 1 Division crossed the rebellious province's borders. The first elements of resistance took place in the town of Seuren. Armed citizens along with a small number of Ripuarian troops had taken positions in government buildings and farmhouses located outside the town. Van Wagelen-Onderkreugel overestimated the presence of enemy forces at first, opting to surround the town rather than storm it. On the evening of March 2nd however, it became apparent that whatever defence existed would not be able to withstand a Lindian assault. Around noon of the next day the Division reported that the defenders had been dislodged.

From the 3rd of March through the 6th, 3 Division (under command of Prince Charles) and 1 Division fought several skirmishes against ill-equipped revolutionaries, capturing the western and northern roads to Lerwijk but not before both had been sabotaged and obstructed with debris and cut down trees. Despite these delays, 3 Division set up their encampment near Lerwijk in the afternoon of the 6th of March, whereas 1 Division arrived later that evening to the northern outskirts of the city.

It took 2 Division, commanded by Alexander Quentemeijer, until the 5th of March to cross the Ripuarian border in the east, mainly due to logistical delays and the mobilisation of the Ellijn University Students Company. 2 Division's orders were to swiftly lay siege to the city of Ripuaria, the window of opportunity for such an operation had closed by the time that the unit arrived to the front however, as the FRA's strength in the area had significantly increased. In addition to this, the Umber involvement in to the war meant that there was a serious risk of being cut off. Mainly because of this 2 Division was ordered to take up defensive positions after advancing a couple of kilometres in to Ripuaria.

Battle of Grunfeld
The Ripuarian defense to the March Offensive had the Ripuarian 1st, 2nd infantry and hussar brigades supported by the 3rd artillery brigade dig up south of the Hove River in anticipation to the Lindenholt 2nd division. While the 4th brigade entrenched in the city of Lerwijk. While still not at peak mobalisation the three brigades at the Hove had little less than the strength of the Lindenholt 2nd division and aimed at forcing the Lindians to cross the Hove to meet fierce defense.

By the 6 March, The Free Ripuarian Army lead by Lauther van Stokfort-Lautherstein, arrived in its full strength at the small town of Grunfeld west of the Hove River which had supplied the brigades with food and tools. Until 8 March, the Ripuarians had built 3 lines of fortifications and entrenchments across the hove, in Ripuaria City and in Grunfeld. The expectations of the Lindians was to meet Umber reinforcements arriving from south but these armies never had arrived. The Lindian command, after the success of the 1st and 3rd divisions in the west, assumed the Ripuarians were too ill-equipped and untrained to fight a conventional army. The Lindians had not even known that the Ripuarians even had artillery in their army. The Lindian goal was to take up defensive positions before the Umber army arrives.

On the early morning of 8 March, Alexander Quentemeijer of the 2nd Division began the assault north of Ripuaria City through the Hove river. Lindian artillery torn up the town of Grunfeld. Very quickly the Ripuarian army took positions up the river on the 1st entrenchment line and the 3rd artillery brigade began to fire from Grunfeld. After fours hours of fighting in harsh conditions the Lindian army finally managed to breech the river's entrenchments and push the Ripuarians to their second line of defense in the town of Grunfeld. At this point the battle became bloody for the Lindians as they couldn't retreat safely without taking out the Ripuarian 3rd artillery brigade. What continued was a morally devastated Lindian division rushing to the artillery positions in a bloody struggle. By dusk the Ripuarian artillery had retreated from the town but the infantry brigades continued fighting from the townhouses. The 2nd division of Lindenholt was forced to retreat and take up defensive position on the Hove river.

The fighting within the town of Grunfeld saw the first usage of the unconventional tactics by the Ripuarian Free Army which had made the battle extremely intense. The Lindians were forced to fight door-to-door battles for survival as attacks from the rooftops and windows took them by surprise. Any Lindian out in the streets and out of cover was quickly found by the Ripuarians and shot. Cavalry saw little use in the battle despite being present in both armies. The only documented uses of cavalry were in the initial crossing of the Hove and the retreat of the Ripuarian artillery.

Siege of Lerwijk
On the 6 March the 1st and 3rd divisions of Lindenholt besieged the city of Lerwijk and cut road and rail access. A city that only 6 days prior officially joined the revolution and was occupied by rebels. The Free Ripuarian Army had few soldiers in the city, mainly the 4th Brigade Freiheit lead by Brigadier Abel Schulz which consisted of irregular infantry and poorly equipped soldiers. The city wasn't ready for a siege and food supplies were low already from the start. Brigadier Abel Douay had calculated that the city had enough food for at most a single month.

The city at the time had fewer than 100 artillery guns. Not enough to sustain a good defense against the Lindians. Abel Schulz knew that surrender was inevitable and had to come up with a plan that will enable him to retreat the most amount of force out of the city before it falls. Schulz decided to force the siege to last as long as he possibly could to slow the Lindian offensive, rationing food to the civilian population and using concentrated firepower from the 100 guns he had to maximize damage to the Lindians. His soldiers at the brigade took up defenses against many Lindian raids.

On the 30 March, rations and food supplies ran out and the city was forced to feed on horse meat for six more days until 5 April when the city formally surrendered to the Lindians. When the gates opened for the Lindian soldiers they were baffled to find not one functioning artillery gun or rifle in the city. Two weeks prior to the surrender, Abel Schulz began smuggling his soldiers out of the city on the cover of night, moving them eastwards. On the 1 April he hid the final caches of weapons and destroyed the last artillery gun he had in the city and the rest of the soldiers that he did not manage to smuggle were hidden between the civilian population mostly as factory workers.

Abel Schulz himself stayed in the city even after surrender, hiding as a worker at a factory.

Umber intervention
The First Republic of Umbrellia formerly allied itself with the Ripuarian breakaway state as early as 16 days after riots initially swept across Ripuaria. With intense negotiations leading up to the 10th of March, Director François Sagât agreed to assist the Ripuarian National Congress' independence efforts. Umber efforts to prop up the Ripuarian cause included liberal shipments of muskets and funding for weapon assembly factories along the Ripuarian-Umber border. Eventually, through the construction of planned defensive outposts inside Ripuaria, Umbrellia began entrenching for future ground assaults from Lindian forces.

Umbrellia's entrance into the Ripuarian Revolution culminated in numerous battles across the Lindian-Umber border for the remaining conflict.

Background
Since 1825, Umbrellia's form of government, after suffering devastating revolutionary victories brought by the Umber Revolution, changed from a federated monarchy to a parliamentary democracy: the First Republic. A brutal 5-year revolutionary war, followed by 11 failed coup d'états orchestrated by the exiled royal families. Re-centralization efforts thereafter remained difficult as government officials were constantly battling loyalist efforts to re-establish the United Kingdoms with help from foreign powers. This lack of authority left a power vacuum in Umbrellia's Southern and Central provinces, filled by reactionary militias responsible for continued civil discontent. The First Republic faced uncertainty beginning in 1862 with a successful coup executed by the House of Côgnosènteur and House of Barlïet. This was followed by a rocky two-year transition back to the United Kingdoms of Umbrellia under a constitutional monarchy.

Umber Consulate Incident
Arguably one of the deciding factors leading to an Umber intervention was the Umber Consulate Incident in Ripuaria City. During the initial period of intense civil unrest in Ripuaria, the Umber government set up a temporary consulate in Ripuaria City. The consulate was intended to give fleeing Umber nationals as well as endangered Catholics a formal pathway to Umber residency through the capital. There was sufficient evidence to claim Catholic persecution persisted in other provinces of Lindenholt such as Brusseland and Hoveland; therefore, the consulate's erection was pivotal to wider Catholic safety. The consulate was further used to consul and supply Ripuarian insurgents in their newfound conflict with Lindenholt. It is estimated that 30% of muskets were smuggled through the consulate. In addition to supplies, the consulate was used as an information hub for Ripuarian and Umber forces to exchange strategic information sensitive to Lindian offensive efforts. As such, Umbrellia sent diplomats and intelligence officials to the consulate regularly.

On March 2nd, Diplomat Artémis Gaulle arrived in Ripuaria City and stayed for two days at the consulate's upper residences. In the last 14 hours before his expected departure, he disappeared from his 3rd-story bedroom. It was revealed later that Lindian personnel abducted him during a fire scare beside the consulate, drawing everyone out. In that time, he was stowed on a carriage disguised as a Ripuarian combat supplies vehicle and was sent to nearby Dornwade where he was promptly questioned and disassembled.

News of his disappearance immediately alerted Umber authorities of a possible assassination attempt due to his involvement in covert information and supplies sharing with Ripuarian forces. By March 9th, there was sufficient evidence to claim Lindian authorities were responsible for his disappearance, to which Umbrellia increased support for the Ripuarian cause dramatically.

Battle of Lerwijk
On the 10 March, Umbrellia officially declared intervention in the war and mobilized its armies in support of the Ripuarians. At that time the battle of Grunfeld has just been won but the siege of Lerwijk was still ongoing. The initial Umber plan was to relieve Lerwijk and let the Free Ripuarian Army hold the Lindian army against the eastern front. On the 15 of March, the Umber army arrived at Lerwijk in attempt to relieve the siege. The Umber believed the Lindian forces would be weakened by the siege's length and decided to not launch an offensive but to hold small skirmishes to tire the Lindians out. Unexpectedly, the city surrender after only a little more than two weeks. The Umber army decided to attack and attempt to push the Lindians out before they could entrench in the city. The eventually battle of Lerwijk would result in heavy Umber causalities and swift defense in the city. On the 6 April, the Umber army retreated from Lerwijk.

Southern Advance
After the failures of the siege and battle of Lerwijk, the Umber army mobilized across the Lindian border to launch a wide advance. The superior Umber manpower would overrun the thinly spread Lindian army which focused its forces on Ripuaria. General Supreme Alger Toulou coordinated the largest invasion against a foreign country since 1814, with upwards of 45,000 Umber infantry forming a frontline along the Umber-Lindian border. This frontline stretched from Chettés to Fronçenac and included notable additions to Ripuarian insurgent forces. On March 18, Umber forces launched an offensive on the city of Kolshoven and began the siege of Molenberg that lasted 5 months

Battle of Kolshoven
On 18 March, in coordination with the relief of Lerwijk the Umber armies attempted to flank the western front of the city by capturing Kolshoven and entrapping the besieging Lindian armies.

Siege of Molenberg
After the start of the Southern advance, another target for the Umber armies was the city of Molenberg. On the 23 March, the Umber armies arrived at the city and begun a siege that would last 5 months. The siege was part of a bigger strategy to attack the Lindian division east of the Hove river and ensure the safety of Ripuaria City.