History of Kalgachia/The 150s
The 150s in Kalgachia saw the first emergence of a coherent foreign policy, compelled by the immense War of Lost Brothers which involved every active power in Micras to varying degrees. Whilst Kalgachia officially declared neutrality, the sympathies of its emergent social establishment were heavily informed by a perception of past Shirerithian aggression against Minarboria and fell broadly in favour of the USSO, setting Kalgachia immediately at odds with Shireroth as the principal power of the opposing SANE alliance. To avert an imminent war (which, unbeknown to the Kalgachi, was in the advanced stages of Shirerithian planning) a team of emissaries was sent to Shirekeep to negotiate the Slavegate Treaty of Peace and Civility, a document which would subsequently be tested to its limits by both sides but ultimately maintained a fragile peace until the conclusion of the global war. The document's emphasis on direct military liaison for purposes of operational deconfliction would, in the decades ahead, provide an unwitting communicative backup during public diplomatic breakdowns as well as a direct line of negotiation with Shireroth's military-industrial 'deep state', this back channel arguably doing more to establish a post-Minarborian consensus for the Benacian continent than all other Sxiro-Kalgachi diplomacy combined.
The decade's end saw the maturation of the first citizens born within the Kalgachi state, scions of an emergent pedagogical complex who would be lauded in the national media as manifestations of a bright and verdant future. Around this time, the financial liquidity and trade stimulation arising from the minting of Kalgachia's own gold-backed currency triggered a slight but steady rise in the national living standard, slowly overcoming the precarious privation of the previous decade.
War Abroad and Peace at Home (157 AL)
Abroad, the War of Lost Brothers had crept from its regional beginnings in easten Apollonia and escalated to involve most of Micras' great powers, eventually re-igniting the Sxiro-Jingdaoese Confrontation to an unprecedentedly bloody level. For Kalgachia this presented the difficulty of cultivating the interests of Jingdao, whose role in a multipolar Benacia it wished to cultivate, while avoiding the wrath of Shireroth which until the reversals of Operation Bait Harvest had been engaged in an unapologetic crusade for dominion of the entire continent. In 157 AL, to prevent any overtures to Jingdao being misinterpreted as an act of war against Shireroth, the Kalgachi Directorate of the Tumultuous Wastes negotiated with Shireroth the Slavegate Treaty of Peace and Civility, whose provisions enabled a tacit understanding whereby Kalgachi assistance to the Jingdaoese would be limited to humanitarian aid and economic co-operation in return for the territorial integrity of Kalgachia remaining unmolested by Shireroth. Ironically, rather than being regarded as a tight-fisted coward and a continental traitor by Jingdao and Shireroth respectively, Kalgachia was instead called upon by both warring empires as a useful intermediary, being one of the few nations on Micras whose non-alignment with established power blocs gave it cordial relations with both at the same time.
The Gold Standard (157 AL)
In 157 the Kalgachi economy enjoyed the benefits of a rationalisation in the gold mining sector, providing a ready supply of reliable standardised currency to purchase imports from abroad. This stockpiling of bullion, and the Kalgarrand into which it was minted, was profuse at first - but in the interests of maintaining a stable exchange rate the Reserve Bank of Kalgachia, a subsidiary of the Directorate of Labour and Economic Planning, would reduce gold production after 160 AL toward the minimum level required to maintain existing stockpiles and service foreign debt.
The Ascent of the Urchagintsy (158 AL)
Beginning around 158 AL, the first generation of young adults too young to remember the pre-Kalgachi era reached the age of majority. Compared to their ancestors, this generation - dubbed the Urchagintsy due to their initiation in the state-sponsored Urchagin youth camps - showed a greater readiness to engage in inter-ethnic relationships and marriages, with some already being of mixed heritage themselves. To the quiet concern of the Nezeni who had been Kalgachia's most socially venerated race since the late Minarborian era, this new generation of truly native Kalgachi began to fill the lower echelons of church and state, bringing with them many subtle changes of custom and doctrine which began to dilute the social and political influence of their their ex-Minarborian immigrant elders and finalise the emergence of Kalgachia from the leafy shade of its Minarborian predecessor, allowing it to stand as a self-respecting nation in its own right with its own history and its own priorities.
