User:Kyeugh/sandbox/Three Principal Colonies

The Three Principal Colonies in Yeongju, or simply the Three Principal Colonies, were a large jointly-governed group of Jeongmian colonies on the Mulberry coast of Yeongju. The three colonies were roughly divided north-to-south along existing ethnic divisions into the Iyoka Colony, the Michasimogi Colony, and the Yahuimilco Colony, corresponding to modern-day Iyoka, Bulbancha, and Yahuimilco respectively.

Though each of the three colonies was governed independently, enjoyed varying levels of autonomy, and possessed distinct relationships with the imperial government in Jeongmi, the legal and mercantile systems that governed the colonies were nonetheless highly similar, and imperial decrees were jointly imposed on the colonies with increasing frequency. The local populations of the colonies were exploited and sometimes enslaved in order to extract natural resources for use by the Jeongmian motherland.

The Principal Colonies were especially hard-hit by the Great Eulhae War, and the geographic area they encompassed served as a major theater of the war. Populations from all three colonies were heavily levied against the Hachuabshi forces that invaded the area in order to block Jeongmian access to it. During this time, the population of the colonies was intensely brutalized and subject to numerous war crimes by Hachuabshi and Jeongmian forces alike. The number of casualties emains disputed but may number as high as 20 million, including an estimated 12 million civilian deaths.

Theferocity of the Great War, as well as the devastation that persisted in the years following its conclusion, resulted in the formation of multiple regional independence movements within the colonies, ranging in sentiment fro mnationalist to pan-Yeongjuan to communist. Though not formally affiliated, these movements reinforced one another and formed a revolutionary fervor in the colonies. The Yahuimilco Colony's independence faction, led by the communist revolutionary Axmotli, was the first to declare independence from Jeongmi; the remaining colonies followed suit within the same year, and the East Yeongju Revolutionary War was wage dwith Namju assistance until Yeongjuan victory was proclaimed with the Sinsa Treaty in 1948. Though brief attempts were made at a pan-Yeongjuan government in the years that followed, the colonies were ultimately succeeded by a disparate collection of states.