Háatlag War

The Háatlag War was a separatist insurgency fought between the Empire of Tosānchi and the armed rebel group named the Háatlag Freedom Army.

=Background=

Since Tosānchi's conquest of the Kingdom of Háatlag in 1401, the Háatlag people had lived under Imperial rule. Viewed as "barbarians" by the Japonic nation that ruled them, the Háatlag were oppressed by the central Tankyo government.

The Imperial government tried to colonize the region. Indeed, the current Tokei Prefecture owes a part of its southern lands to this event, as do the few Tosānchi-majority communities in western Háatlag. However, this was mostly unsuccessful, as, despite being under Imperial rule, the Háatlag natives resisted far too fiercely for the court to implement its assimilation programme. Tosānchi settlements were constantly attacked, so much so that most Tosānchinese refused to migrate there due to the violence. As a result, few non-Háatlag people migrated to the territory.

These state-sponsored efforts were suspended in the late 19th century, as Tosānchi opted to assimilate the Háatlag people themselves through the new education system. The Háatlag language was banned in schools. Tosānchinese was imposed as the new language of business, higher education, culture and administration. Due to these aggressive imperial policies, the Háatlag language was sygmatized. The native tounge was for the poor and the uneducated, and the educated and cultured spoke Tosānchinese.

A few Háatlag adopted the Tosānchinese way of life, mostly out of a desire to advance in society. These Háatlag were not oppressed. Rather, they were the "civilized model" that the Imperial government wished to implement across the whole of the Háatlag territories, and were treated better than others. Most Háatlag retained their culture and were discriminated for it, as the Tosānchinese and their assimilated Háatlag peers rose to the top as per design.

This discrimination on their own land, as well as the spread of nationalism in that era, caused numerous protests and small revolts, all of whom were crushed. Even as Tosānchi liberalized, Háatlag lagged behind. In order to legalize the status quo and due to the instability in the region, Háatlag was declared a military territory, and only those who knew "fluent" Tosānchinese were permitted to vote. Thus, Háatlag was run by the army in the 20th century, who often stifled basic freedoms. Censorship was rampant and any opposition from the natives was seen as "treason against the crown" and thus was dealt accordingly.

In the 1950s, the nationalist Háatlag intellectuals and the dissatisfied public organized more rebellions and protests. This culminated in 1964, when the Háatlag War itself broke out.

=Beginning=

This revolt was organized by intellectuals, who planned a coordinated uprising on March the 18th, 1964 in the east of the territory. At first it seemed like any other small rebellion. On its first day, it even appeared crushed when the Tosānchinese Army battled the insurgents in the towns they had seized. However, an upset occurred. Some rebel towns held against the might of the Imperial forces. Bolstered by this surprise, more Háatlag towns surrounding them spontaneously joined the rebels, as mobs seized local administrative buildings.

When word reached the capital, the government was alarmed. The Parliament of Tosānchi approved an increase of troop numbers in the region. The military quickly crushed the rebels conventionally in most towns within three months, with only a few rebel settlements remaining. The rebellion again seemed defeated.

The region was placed under martial law, with any pretense of civil governance evaporating. Háatlag was closed off to the wider world as a military crackdown unsupervised by the civil government took place. Declassified documents have revealed that the civil government gave an informal blanque cheque to the military in order to crush discontent in the region, and their lack of supervision over the crackdown could enable the politicians to feign ignorance of any war crimes. This suppression backfired, as fed-up locals encouraged by agitators from the defeated remnants of the uprising stormed local military offices hastily set up by the army. There, they looted the military for weapons and killed some soldiers.

The remnants of the first uprising re-organized and re-started the rebellion, mostly by reorienting their fight towards guerrilla and terrorist attacks against the military and the Tosānchinese authorities, as well as killing Tosanchiphile and collaborationist Háatlag people.