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{{Nouvelle Alexandrie Article}}
{{Nouvelle Alexandrie Article}}{{current event}}
{{Infobox military conflict
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict    = Operation Salt Meridian
|conflict    = Operation Salt Meridian
|partof      = the [[Phinbellan Withdrawal]]
|partof      = the [[Phinbellan Withdrawal]]
|image      = [[File:IslesofCaputiaNEW1758NAX.png|300px]]
|image      =  
|caption    = The [[Isles of Caputia]] and the southern shore of the [[Caputian Narrows]] after the operation
|caption    = The [[Isles of Caputia]] and its vacated southern territories
|date        = 10.IX.{{AN|1758}} to 3.XV.{{AN|1758}}
|date        = 10.IX.{{AN|1758}} to present
|place      = [[Caputian Narrows]], [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]], Kernsopol Island, and [[Sagiri]], western [[Keltia]]
|place      = Southern [[Isles of Caputia]]: [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]], the island of [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]], and [[Sagiri]], western [[Keltia]]
|territory  = {{unbulleted list|Occupation of the vacated territories of [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]], [[Koitchhi State]], and [[Sagiri]]|Incorporation of the occupied lands into the [[Isles of Caputia|Region of the Isles of Caputia]]|[[Liancourt Rocks]] retained by [[Phinbella]] as an enclave}}
|status      = Ongoing
|result      = New Alexandrian occupation completed without armed opposition
* Sovereignty established over approximately 500,000 remaining residents
* [[Caputian Census of 1758]] conducted
* [[Liancourt Convention, 1758]] concluded with [[Phinbella]]
* Lands integrated by the [[Southern Caputian Territorial Integration Act, 1758]]
|status      =
|combatants_header =
|combatants_header =
|combatant1  = {{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie}}
|combatant1  = {{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie}}
Line 19: Line 13:
|commander1  = {{unbulleted list|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Sinchi Roca II]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Fred Strong]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} Vice Admiral [[Peter Brenneis]]}}
|commander1  = {{unbulleted list|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Sinchi Roca II]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Fred Strong]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} Vice Admiral [[Peter Brenneis]]}}
|commander2  =
|commander2  =
|units1      = {{unbulleted list|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Caputian Squadron]], [[Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Keltian Fleet]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Colonial Marine Command|Isles of Caputia Marine Infantry Brigade]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Marine Corps|Keltian Expeditionary Force]] (one brigade)|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#211th Army (Lyrica / Outremer)|VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Border Guard|Federal Border Guard]] and [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Coast Guard|Coast Guard]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Military Emergencies Unit|Military Emergencies Unit]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Caputian Legion]] (four battalions)|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Caputian Development and Stabilization Units]]}}
|units1      = {{unbulleted list|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Caputian Squadron]], [[Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Keltian Fleet]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Colonial Marine Command|Isles of Caputia Marine Infantry Brigade]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Marine Corps|Keltian Expeditionary Force]] (one brigade)|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#211th Army (Lyrica / Outremer)|VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Border Guard|Federal Border Guard]] and [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Coast Guard|Coast Guard]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Military Emergencies Unit|Military Emergencies Unit]]|{{team flag|Nouvelle Alexandrie|flag}} [[Caputian Development and Stabilization Units]]}}
|units2      =
|units2      =
|strength1  = {{unbulleted list|~27,000 personnel|fewer than 6,000 combat troops|4 engineer regiments|1 naval squadron}}
|strength1  = {{unbulleted list|~27,000 personnel|fewer than 6,000 combat troops|4 engineer regiments|1 naval squadron}}
|strength2  = ''None''
|strength2  = ''None''
|casualties1 = {{unbulleted list|6 killed, all non-hostile|31 injured}}
|casualties1 = {{unbulleted list|4 killed, all non-hostile}}
|casualties2 = ''None''
|casualties2 = ''None''
|notes      =
|notes      =
|campaignbox =
|campaignbox =
}}
}}
'''Operation Salt Meridian''' was a military operation conducted by the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie]] from 10.IX.{{AN|1758}} to 3.XV.{{AN|1758}} to occupy and administer the northwestern territories of [[Phinbella]] and the [[Forajasaki|Forajasakian]] state of [[Sagiri]] following their abandonment by the [[Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations]]. The Federal Forces' review of the operation called it the largest territorial acquisition by [[Nouvelle Alexandrie]] since [[Operation Northern Vanguard]] in {{AN|1745}}.<ref name="review" />
'''Operation Salt Meridian''' is a military operation of the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie]], begun on 10.IX.{{AN|1758}}, to occupy and administer the southern part of the [[Isles of Caputia]] abandoned by [[Phinbella]], the [[Territory of Soccsksargen]] and the island of [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]], together with the neighboring [[Forajasaki|Forajasakian]] state of [[Sagiri]], following the withdrawal of the [[Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations]]. The operation is under way. The Federal Forces moved into the vacated territories from 10.IX.{{AN|1758}} and reached [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]] on 12.IX.{{AN|1758}}, meeting no armed opposition.


The operation followed the [[Phinbellan Withdrawal]], the systematic evacuation by which the [[Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations]] removed its administration, its currency, its public records, and approximately 85 percent of the resident population from the [[Territory of Soccsksargen]], [[Koitchhi State]], and [[Sagiri]] over the course of {{AN|1758}}. New Alexandrian planners put the pre-withdrawal population of the three territories at roughly 3,100,000, a figure drawn from Phinbellan regional returns rather than from the individual territorial censuses, which do not reconcile with them. Some 500,000 people remained when New Alexandrian forces came ashore. [[Phinbella]] retained the city of [[Liancourt Rocks]], which its federal government administered directly and which had been carved out of Soccsksargen itself. It remained as an enclave within the ceded lands.
The operation follows the [[Phinbellan Withdrawal]], the evacuation by which the [[Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations]] is removing its administration, its currency, its public records, and the greater part of the resident population from the [[Territory of Soccsksargen]], [[Koitchhi State]], and [[Sagiri]]. New Alexandrian planners put the pre-withdrawal population of the three territories at roughly 3,100,000, a figure drawn from Phinbellan regional returns rather than from the individual territorial censuses, which do not reconcile with them. [[Phinbella]] retains the city of [[Liancourt Rocks]], which its federal government administers directly and which Phinbellan records trace to territory once part of Soccsksargen, leaving it an enclave within the ceded lands.


Command was exercised by Vice Admiral [[Peter Brenneis]] of the [[Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Keltian Fleet]], a grandson of [[Matthias Brenneis, 1st Baron of Salzstein|Matthias Brenneis]], who had directed the registry of the [[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Caputian Resettlement Authority]] seventy-two years earlier. The government of [[President of the Government of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Premier]] [[José Manuel Montero]] presented the operation to the [[Cortes Federales]] as a second [[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Captive Sea Expansion]], continuing the work by which the [[Isles of Caputia]] had been resettled after the [[White Plague]]. Fewer than 6,000 of the 27,000 personnel committed were combat troops. Four engineer regiments deployed, and the operation's principal instrument was the [[Caputian Census of 1758]].
Command is exercised by Vice Admiral [[Peter Brenneis]] of the [[Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Keltian Fleet]], a grandson of [[Matthias Brenneis, 1st Baron of Salzstein|Matthias Brenneis]], who directed the registry of the [[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Caputian Resettlement Authority]] seventy-two years earlier. The government of [[President of the Government of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Premier]] [[José Manuel Montero]] has presented the operation to the [[Cortes Federales]] as a second [[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Captive Sea Expansion]], continuing the work by which the [[Isles of Caputia]] were resettled after the [[White Plague]]. Fewer than 6,000 of the 27,000 personnel committed are combat troops, and four engineer regiments have been assigned.
 
The occupied lands were incorporated into the [[Isles of Caputia|Region of the Isles of Caputia]] by the [[Southern Caputian Territorial Integration Act, 1758]], which received royal assent on 4.XIV.{{AN|1758}} and commenced on 1.I.{{AN|1759}}. Relations with the retained enclave of [[Liancourt Rocks]] were settled by the [[Liancourt Convention, 1758]]. [[Phinbella]] retained a city on the New Alexandrian coast substantially larger than the population [[Nouvelle Alexandrie]] acquired around it. The [[Cortes Federales]] and the Federal Forces' own reviewers have both concentrated on the settlement program the operation authorized.


== Background ==
== Background ==
 
The lands the operation is to occupy have never been New Alexandrian. They form the southern part of the [[Isles of Caputia]] held by [[Phinbella]], together with the island of [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]] and the neighboring [[Forajasaki|Forajasakian]] state of [[Sagiri]]. They became available through a decision taken in [[Negara Awan]] in {{AN|1758}}.
The lands occupied in Operation Salt Meridian had never been New Alexandrian. They formed the northwestern periphery of [[Phinbella]] and the northern edge of [[Forajasaki]], and faced the [[Isles of Caputia]] across roughly forty kilometers of open water. They became available through a decision taken in [[Negara Awan]] in {{AN|1758}}.


=== The Captive Sea and the Isles of Caputia ===
=== The Captive Sea and the Isles of Caputia ===
 
{{Main|Isles of Caputia|Caputia}}
The [[Isles of Caputia]] lie in the [[Captive Sea]], between mainland western [[Keltia]] and the [[Skerry Isles]], and are among the oldest consistently settled regions of the eastern hemisphere. In {{AN|1686}} the [[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Caputian Resettlement Authority]] was chartered to execute the Captive Sea Expansion and resettle the Caputian diaspora dispersed by the [[White Plague]]. The archipelago entered New Alexandrian sovereignty the following year as a Region of the [[Alduria-Wechua|Federation of Alduria and the Wechua Nation]]. Between {{AN|1686}} and {{AN|1698}} the Authority processed approximately 180,000 people through its registry.<ref name="cra">[[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Caputian Resettlement Authority]], final registry return, {{AN|1698}}.</ref>
The [[Isles of Caputia]] lie in the [[Captive Sea]], between mainland western [[Keltia]] and the [[Skerry Isles]], and are among the oldest consistently settled regions of the eastern hemisphere. In {{AN|1686}} the [[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Caputian Resettlement Authority]] was chartered to execute the Captive Sea Expansion and resettle the Caputian diaspora dispersed by the [[White Plague]]. The archipelago entered New Alexandrian sovereignty the following year as a Region of the [[Alduria-Wechua|Federation of Alduria and the Wechua Nation]]. Between {{AN|1686}} and {{AN|1698}} the Authority processed approximately 180,000 people through its registry.<ref name="cra">[[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Caputian Resettlement Authority]], final registry return, {{AN|1698}}.</ref>


South of the archipelago, across the water later named the [[Caputian Narrows]], lay the northwestern seaboard of [[Phinbella]]. The two shores had traded and intermarried for generations. Services from the Phinbellan public broadcaster [[FPPO Radio 4]] reached townships in the southwest of the Isles, and the Phinbellan territories of [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]] and [[Koitchhi State]], together with the neighboring Forajasakian state of [[Sagiri]], formed the southern rim of a single maritime economy. The water itself carried no name on New Alexandrian charts before {{AN|1758}}.
The southern part of the archipelago, the [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Territory of Soccsksargen]] and the island of [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]], lay under [[Phinbella]], and the neighboring state of [[Sagiri]] under [[Forajasaki]]. The New Alexandrian and Phinbellan parts of the Isles had traded and intermarried for generations, and services from the Phinbellan public broadcaster [[FPPO Radio 4]] reached townships in the New Alexandrian south.


=== The Phinbellan Withdrawal ===
=== The Phinbellan Withdrawal ===
The Federation and [[Phinbella]] have already had one migration crisis in common. Phinbella left the [[Order of the Holy Lakes]] in {{AN|1757}} and rolled back its legal protections for sexual minorities in the weeks that followed. Arrivals in [[Nouvelle Alexandrie]] rose, and on 13.IV.{{AN|1757}} Secretary of State [[Jean-Michel Durand]], whose department administers the program, announced a widening of the [[Rainbow Haven Visa Program]] to receive them.


The Federation and [[Phinbella]] had already had one migration crisis in common. Phinbella left the [[Order of the Holy Lakes]] in {{AN|1757}} and rolled back its legal protections for sexual minorities in the weeks that followed. Arrivals in [[Nouvelle Alexandrie]] rose, and on 13.IV.{{AN|1757}} Secretary of State [[Jean-Michel Durand]], whose department administers the program, announced a widening of the [[Rainbow Haven Visa Program]] to receive them. Twenty months later the withdrawal placed a further half a million Phinbellan subjects under New Alexandrian administration.
The [[Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations]] declared itself independent and sovereign in {{AN|1757}}. Within a year the Confederation concluded that it could not sustain administration of its northwestern periphery, and in {{AN|1758}} announced the reduction of [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]] and [[Koitchhi State]] and the relinquishment by [[Forajasaki]] of its constituent state of [[Sagiri]].


The [[Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations]] declared itself independent and sovereign in {{AN|1757}}. Within a year the Confederation concluded that it could not sustain administration of its northwestern periphery, and in {{AN|1758}} announced the reduction of [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]] and [[Koitchhi State]] and the relinquishment by [[Forajasaki]] of its constituent state of [[Sagiri]].
The withdrawal follows the seam of Phinbellan constitutional law. Soccsksargen and Koitchhi are territories of the federated states, holding their authority under the [[Constitution of Phinbella|federal constitution]]; [[Liancourt Rocks]] is a directly administered city, a creature of the [[Parliament of Phinbella]] rather than of the federated states. Surrendering the federated-state territories requires an amendment to the Phinbellan constitution, while the directly administered city could have been released by a simple act of Parliament. It has been kept.


The withdrawal followed the seam of Phinbellan constitutional law. Soccsksargen and Koitchhi were territories of the federated states, holding their authority under the [[Constitution of Phinbella|federal constitution]]; [[Liancourt Rocks]] was a directly administered city, a creature of the [[Parliament of Phinbella]] rather than of the federated states. Surrendering the federated-state territories required an amendment to the Phinbellan constitution, while the directly administered city could have been released by a simple act of Parliament. It was kept.
The Confederation is stripping the ceded lands rather than handing over their administration. Land registries, cadastral surveys, court archives, civil registers, and tax rolls are being removed or destroyed. The Phinbellan florin, the [[Hurmu crown]], and the Forajasakian ringgit in [[Sagiri]] are being withdrawn from circulation, and bank reserves shipped north. Governor [[Nur Zaki Dermavan]] has left [[Pondok Chabai]] with his secretariat, and with him the magistrates, constables, customs officers, harbormasters, and district clerks of the ceded lands. Port cranes, generators, ambulances, rolling stock, radio transmitters, and hospital equipment have been lifted and carried away.


The Confederation stripped the ceded lands rather than handing over their administration. Land registries, cadastral surveys, court archives, civil registers, and tax rolls were removed or destroyed. The Phinbellan florin, the [[Hurmu crown]], and the Forajasakian ringgit in [[Sagiri]] were withdrawn from circulation, and bank reserves were shipped north. Governor [[Nur Zaki Dermavan]] left [[Pondok Chabai]] with his entire secretariat, and with him went the magistrates, constables, customs officers, harbormasters, and district clerks of the ceded lands. Port cranes, generators, ambulances, rolling stock, radio transmitters, hospital equipment, navigation buoys, and lighthouse optics were lifted and carried away. The armories of the Territorial Reserve Force were recovered by the [[Hurmu Fyrð]].
The armories of the Territorial Reserve Force, left in an uncertain condition following the end of association between Phinbella and [[Hurmu]], were expected to have been recovered by the [[Hurmu Fyrð]]. The [[Order of the Holy Lakes]] had not been privy, however, to the planned withdrawal. As such, the nearest garrison of the Near Eastern Command, the 202nd Regiment of Peacekeepers in cantonments at Liancourt Rocks, could neither present an inventory of arms formerly held in the evacuated territories, nor affirm that they had been recovered by native forces.


The population went with them. Between the announcement and the New Alexandrian landing, roughly 2,600,000 people crossed into [[Liancourt Rocks]] and the Phinbellan homeland. Liancourt Rocks, a city of 1,000,054 at the last Phinbellan census, absorbed the greater part of them.<ref name="phincensus">Federal census of [[Phinbella]], returns for the directly administered cities.</ref>
The population is going with them. Liancourt Rocks, a city of 1,000,054 at the last Phinbellan census, is absorbing the greater part of the departure.<ref name="phincensus">Federal census of [[Phinbella]], returns for the directly administered cities.</ref>


== Prelude ==
== Prelude ==
Preparation ran from VII.{{AN|1758}} to the move under three heads: reconnaissance of the withdrawal, the diplomatic notifications, and the authorization.


Preparation ran from VII.{{AN|1758}} to the landing under three heads: the survey of the strait, the diplomatic notifications, and the appropriation. The Federation committed no force until the [[Cortes Federales]] had funded one.
=== Reconnaissance ===
 
Planning began in VII.{{AN|1758}}, while the withdrawal was still under way. New Alexandrian consular officers in [[Pondok Chabai]] and the island councils of [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]] reported on the departure itself, counting convoys, hulls, and passengers. Their returns established the figure on which the operation was scaled, and set New Alexandrian planning to a problem of settlement rather than one of stabilization.
=== Sounding ===


Planning began under the designation Sounding in VII.{{AN|1758}}, while the withdrawal was still under way. The [[Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Keltian Fleet]] conducted a hydrographic survey of the strait and published it as a fisheries and navigation-safety survey. With the buoys lifted and the lighthouse optics removed, the passage had become unlit and uncharted. The survey produced the first New Alexandrian charts of the water and the name that entered use with them, the [[Caputian Narrows]].
The Federation notified [[Phinbella]] bilaterally on the question of the enclave, [[Hurmu]], whose [[Hurmu Fyrð|Fyrð]] absorbed the Confederation's forces as its Territorial Reserve Force in {{AN|1727}}, on the disposal of the armories, [[Forajasaki]] on [[Sagiri]], and [[Trans-Euran Command]] of the [[Raspur Pact]], which holds Pact responsibility for operations in the [[Captive Sea]], for theater deconfliction. [[Keltia Command]], which holds VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps under Banner Group Skerries, released the formation to national command for the duration.
 
New Alexandrian consular officers in [[Pondok Chabai]] and the island councils of [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]] reported on the departure itself, counting convoys, hulls, and passengers. Their returns established the figure on which the operation was scaled, and set New Alexandrian planning to a problem of settlement rather than one of stabilization.
 
The Federation notified [[Phinbella]] bilaterally on the question of the enclave, [[Hurmu]], whose [[Hurmu Fyrð|Fyrð]] had absorbed the Confederation's forces as its Territorial Reserve Force in {{AN|1727}}, on the disposal of the armories, [[Forajasaki]] on [[Sagiri]], and [[Trans-Euran Command]] of the [[Raspur Pact]], which holds Pact responsibility for operations in the [[Captive Sea]], for theater deconfliction. [[Keltia Command]], which holds VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps under Banner Group Skerries, released the formation to national command for the duration. Each notification was framed as a courtesy, and each was acknowledged.


=== Authorization ===
=== Authorization ===
 
The operation was ordered by [[Sinchi Roca II|King Sinchi Roca II]] on the advice of the Government. A supplementary appropriation of NAX€5.8 billion and a settlement authorization of NAX€2.4 billion over four years were laid before the [[Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Assembly]] by Premier [[José Manuel Montero]] on 2.VIII.{{AN|1758}}, in the second year of the [[Recession of 1757]] and against a revised budget that had already drawn on the [[Counter-Cyclical Stabilization Mechanism]]; Secretary of Treasury [[Warren Ferdinand]] told the Budget and Finances Committee that the shortfall was structural. The [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Forces]] moved into the territories on 10.IX.{{AN|1758}} with the motion still before the Assembly, which carried it on 9.X.{{AN|1758}}, after the move had proved bloodless, on the votes of the [[Federal Humanist Party]] and the [[Aldurian Independent Coalition]] with a number of crossbench independents and over the opposition of the [[Alliance for a Just Nouvelle Alexandrie]]. The settlement authorization was made conditional on a census preceding any grant of land.
Premier [[José Manuel Montero]] laid the operation before the [[Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Assembly]] on 2.VIII.{{AN|1758}} and sought a supplementary appropriation of NAX€21.4 billion together with a settlement authorization of NAX€8 billion over four years. The request came in the second year of the [[Recession of 1757]], against a revised budget that had already drawn on the [[Counter-Cyclical Stabilization Mechanism]], and Secretary of Treasury [[Warren Ferdinand]] had told the Budget and Finances Committee that the shortfall was structural. Deputies of the [[Alliance for a Just Nouvelle Alexandrie]] pressed the Government on the cost of administering a territory whose population had left, and on whether land grants to incoming settlers could be reconciled with the property rights of those who had gone. Montero, himself a former officer of the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Forces]], answered that the Federation could not leave an unlit and ungoverned coast forty kilometers from a New Alexandrian Region. The Federation had one closer precedent, and the Government was pressed on why it was not following it. After [[Operation Purple Splendor]] opened on 11.VI.{{AN|1717}}, the [[New Caputia Provisional Authority]] had been constituted under the [[Humanitarian Assistance and Protection Act of 1717]] and Letters Patent issued soon afterward, vesting a single Administrator with executive, legislative and judicial authority until the territory should be admitted as a Region. It governed for five years and was dissolved only by the [[New Caputia Admission Act, 1719]] on royal assent in {{AN|1722}}. Opposition deputies recalled its record: internments of accused Bassarids pending inquiry, children under seven declared wards of the state, and the [[Pallisican Migration]] of {{AN|1718}} to {{AN|1720}}, in which roughly four fifths of the ships attempting the crossing were lost and human rights advocates accused a Federal Humanist government of directing the Federal Forces to bring down refugee flights. Secretary [[Fred Strong]] answered that Salt Meridian would be a five-month military government handing to an existing Region, with no provisional authority constituted at all.
 
The appropriation carried, and the settlement authorization was made conditional on a census preceding any grant of land, a condition later written into statute.


=== Forces ===
=== Forces ===
Operational command runs from [[Sinchi Roca II|King Sinchi Roca II]] as Commander-in-Chief through Secretary of Defense [[Fred Strong]] to the Joint Commander, Vice Admiral [[Peter Brenneis]]. The [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Joint Chiefs of Staff Council|Joint Chiefs of Staff Council]] exercises no operational command.


Operational command ran from [[Sinchi Roca II|King Sinchi Roca II]] as Commander-in-Chief through Secretary of Defense [[Fred Strong]] to the Joint Commander, Vice Admiral [[Peter Brenneis]]. The [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Joint Chiefs of Staff Council|Joint Chiefs of Staff Council]] exercised no operational command.
The naval component is the [[Caputian Squadron]], constituted for the operation from [[Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Keltian Fleet]] units and given responsibility for the coastal waters of the southern Isles and the island of [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]]. The Keltian Fleet's standing area of responsibility had not previously extended to the [[Isles of Caputia]], which no New Alexandrian fleet listed among its stations.
 
The naval component was the [[Caputian Squadron]], constituted for the operation from [[Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Keltian Fleet]] units and given responsibility for the [[Caputian Narrows]]. The Keltian Fleet's standing area of responsibility had not previously extended to the [[Isles of Caputia]], which no New Alexandrian fleet listed among its stations.


Ashore, the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Colonial Marine Command|Isles of Caputia Marine Infantry Brigade]] of the Colonial Marine Command provided the landing force, supported by one Marine Commando Brigade of the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Marine Corps|Keltian Expeditionary Force]] with its ''Régiment de Parachutistes d'Infanterie de Marine''. [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#211th Army (Lyrica / Outremer)|VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps]], whose charter covers overseas deployment and the organization of local levies, assumed ground command on completion of the landing.
Ashore, the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Colonial Marine Command|Isles of Caputia Marine Infantry Brigade]] of the Colonial Marine Command is to provide the landing force, supported by one Marine Commando Brigade of the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Marine Corps|Keltian Expeditionary Force]] with its ''Régiment de Parachutistes d'Infanterie de Marine''. [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#211th Army (Lyrica / Outremer)|VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps]], whose charter covers overseas deployment and the organization of local levies, is to assume ground command on completion of the landing.


Four battalions of the [[Caputian Legion]], raised from diaspora families and detached from the 302nd Combined-Arms Army after the Legion's transfer to [[New Caputia]] earlier in {{AN|1758}}, were attached for the settlement phase. The Legion serves under the Federation rather than under the [[Royal Caputian Government in Exile]], a distinction that mattered once the Company began refusing the exile government's register. The Federal Forces committed roughly 27,000 personnel, of whom fewer than 6,000 were combat troops. The largest component was engineering. Four regiments of the Corps of Engineers, reinforced by the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Military Emergencies Unit|Military Emergencies Unit]] and the Federal Support Corps, deployed to restore ports, power, water, roads, and coastal lighting across a territory left with no working public utilities and no port machinery. Civil administration was carried by the [[Caputian Development and Stabilization Units]], modeled on the [[Oportian Development and Stabilization Units]] and reporting to the [[Regional Governor of the Isles of Caputia|Regional Governor]] rather than to the Corps.
The largest component is engineering. Four regiments of the Corps of Engineers, reinforced by the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Military Emergencies Unit|Military Emergencies Unit]] and the Federal Support Corps, are assigned to restore ports, power, water, roads, and coastal lighting across a territory left with no working public utilities and no port machinery. Civil administration is to be carried by the [[Caputian Development and Stabilization Units]], modeled on the [[Oportian Development and Stabilization Units]] and reporting to the [[Regional Governor of the Isles of Caputia|Regional Governor]] rather than to the Corps.


== Course of the operation ==
== Course of the operation ==
=== The move in ===
The Caputian Squadron moved into the coastal waters of the southern Isles on 10.IX.{{AN|1758}}. The date fell inside Cowtide (IX), and the Matriarch's household read the New Alexandrian arrival in the island's waters as a form of the blessing of the waters, the rite in which a steward marks the faithful with water from the font.


The operation ran in three phases over five months, from the entry of the Caputian Squadron into the [[Caputian Narrows]] on 10.IX.{{AN|1758}} to the transfer of civil authority on 3.XV.{{AN|1758}}. Every phase was completed on or ahead of its planned date, and the Federal Forces recorded no engagement of any kind.
=== Landfall ===
 
The [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Colonial Marine Command|Isles of Caputia Marine Infantry Brigade]] came ashore at four harbors of [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]] on 12.IX.{{AN|1758}}. The quays and warehouses stood undamaged, but the cranes had been lifted away with the rest of the port machinery, and no harbormaster remained at any of the four. The brigade met no opposition, and no shot was fired.
=== Phase I: Landfall ===
 
The Caputian Squadron entered the [[Caputian Narrows]] on 10.IX.{{AN|1758}} and spent two days re-laying navigation aids before the first transport crossed. The re-lighting of the [[Kernsopol light]] on the night of 11.IX.{{AN|1758}} was the first New Alexandrian act in the new territory. The date fell inside Cowtide (IX), and the Matriarch's household afterward read the relighting of a dark coast as a form of the blessing of the waters, the rite in which a steward marks the faithful with water from the font.
 
The [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Colonial Marine Command|Isles of Caputia Marine Infantry Brigade]] came ashore at four harbors on the north coast of [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]] on 12.IX.{{AN|1758}}. Quays and warehouses stood undamaged, the cranes had been removed, and no harbormaster remained at any of the four. Each landing party was led by a Caputian Development and Stabilization Unit carrying a proclamation printed in Malay, [[Alexandrian language|Alexandrian]], and [[Martino language|Martino]], a consignment of coin, and rations. A [[Tide Ambassador]] of the [[Melusinian Faith]] accompanied each of the four, sent by the [[Matriarch of New Zalae]] and not by the Government, a distinction the faith insisted upon at the time and has maintained since. Food distribution points and water purification plants opened at all four harbors on the first day, and census tables on the second. The [[Society of the Harmonious Current]], the Melusinian lay order charged with the care of the poor, the sick, and the newcomer, assumed the running of the distribution points from the engineers in X.{{AN|1758}} and held them through the following year.
 
=== Phase II: Reach ===
 
The ''Régiment de Parachutistes d'Infanterie de Marine'' conducted an air assault on [[Pondok Chabai]], the administrative center of Soccsksargen, on 19.IX.{{AN|1758}}, under [[Escorted Vertical Envelopment]], the Federal Forces' doctrine for air assault behind a standing escort screen. Its objectives were the territorial registry, the treasury, and the courthouse. All three stood empty, and fewer than four hundred people remained in the town around them. The Federal Forces' review of the operation records the seizure as complete within forty minutes and unopposed.
 
New Alexandrian forces entered [[Kuala Sagiri]] on 26.IX.{{AN|1758}}. Sultan [[Hussamuddin Yaacub Shah]], Crown Prince [[Abu Ahmad bin Hussamuddin Yaacub Shah]], and the court had withdrawn with [[Forajasaki]], taking the treasury and the regalia. The palace was found open and the state archives gone. Of a population recorded at 2,001,329 in the last Forajasakian count,<ref>Territorial census of [[Forajasaki]], returns for the state of [[Sagiri]].</ref> approximately 240,000 people remained, distributed across the countryside with no government of any kind.
 
Small detachments of marines and naval infantry worked the [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]] island chain, island by island, through IX and X.{{AN|1758}}. Their work was surveying, registering the remaining islanders, and restoring radio links. [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#211th Army (Lyrica / Outremer)|VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps]] assumed ground command on 1.X.{{AN|1758}} and began garrisoning every district seat in the occupied lands, including those with no remaining inhabitants. It raised a Soccsksargen constabulary and a Koitchhi maritime auxiliary from the remaining population, the territory having no other police.
 
Garrison duty across the occupied lands was mostly not military. Of the thirty-one district seats the Corps occupied, nineteen had no remaining inhabitants at all, and their garrisons spent the five months securing empty public buildings against weather and salvage, restarting water and power where the plant survived, and maintaining the roads between them. In the twelve inhabited seats, detachments reopened schools without teachers as distribution points, carried mail, and ran the only motor transport in their districts. The Corps recorded no arrest for an offense against Federal Forces personnel during the operation, and its heaviest sustained commitment was the repair of the coastal road east of [[Pondok Chabai]], washed out in XI.{{AN|1758}} and reopened in I.{{AN|1759}}.<ref name="review" />
 
=== Phase III: Lines and the census ===
 
The [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Border Guard|Federal Border Guard]] established the land frontier with [[Phinbella]] and the boundary of the [[Liancourt Rocks]] enclave during X and XI.{{AN|1758}}, and the [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#Coast Guard|Coast Guard]] assumed the maritime customs line. Unattended machinery across the empty territory drew salvage parties from ports around the [[Captive Sea]], and patrols against them continued into XII.{{AN|1758}}. [[ESB Reclamation Services (Keltia)]], whose parent [[ESB Group (Keltia)|Keltian Directorate]] is resident at Seydlitz in the [[Isles of Caputia]], applied in XI.{{AN|1758}} for commercial salvage rights over the stripped plant. Vice Admiral [[Peter Brenneis]] refused the application pending completion of the census, on the ground that no property in the territory could be disposed of before its ownership had been established.
 
The [[Caputian Census of 1758]] ran from 1.XI.{{AN|1758}} to 20.XII.{{AN|1758}}. Its opening date was the Day of Melusine, the principal feast of the [[Melusinian Faith]]. The [[Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Assembly]] was later told the date had been set by the enumerators' readiness and not by the calendar. It counted 498,206 residents: 201,884 in [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]], 57,910 in [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]], and 238,412 in [[Sagiri]].<ref name="census">[[Caputian Census of 1758]], final return, 20.XII.{{AN|1758}}.</ref> Its second instrument was a survey of abandoned property, recording which settlements stood empty, which holdings were unworked, and which titles had no surviving claimant. With no cadastral record remaining, a provisional land registry was assembled from declaration and the testimony of neighbors, and contested holdings were referred to a [[Southern Caputian Property Restoration Tribunal|Property Restoration Tribunal]] sitting at [[Pondok Chabai]] and [[Kuala Sagiri]]. The Tribunal was constituted separately from the [[Caputian Narrows Company]], on the precedent of the [[Keltian Frontier Development Corporation]] and the tribunal raised alongside it after [[Operation Northern Vanguard]], so that the adjudication of title stood clear of any commercial interest in redevelopment. The [[Brenneis Foundation]] at [[Brenneishof]] in [[Salzstein]], whose archive holds over 340,000 files on the Caputian displacement,<ref>[[Brenneis Foundation]], catalog of collections.</ref> seconded fourteen archivists to the registry. The secondment was signed by [[Lorenz Brenneis, 3rd Baron of Salzstein]], the Joint Commander's cousin and the head of the house that Matthias Brenneis had founded on the same work.
 
The Tribunal opened at [[Pondok Chabai]] on 4.XII.{{AN|1758}} and at [[Kuala Sagiri]] eleven days later. It received 11,402 claims in its first year, of which it confirmed 7,318, rejected 341, and adjourned the remainder pending the Phinbellan registers promised under the [[Liancourt Convention, 1758]]. The adjourned files, roughly a third of the caseload, were concentrated in the districts nearest [[Liancourt Rocks]], where the departing population had been densest. The Tribunal sat continuously through {{AN|1759}}, and its president told the [[Congress of the Isles]] that the adjourned files would take a decade to clear.<ref>[[Southern Caputian Property Restoration Tribunal]], first annual return, {{AN|1759}}.</ref>
 
The ceded districts left the [[Hurmu Customs Area]] on the same date. The [[Hurmu Fyrð]] confirmed in XI.{{AN|1758}} that it held no installation within them, the sovereign properties of the [[Order of the Holy Lakes]] in the Confederation lying elsewhere, and relinquished its treaty right of access to their harbors. The census also produced the occupation's first account of who had stayed. Enumerators recorded a population weighted toward the old, the landholding, and the rural: the districts around [[Pondok Chabai]] had lost most of their salaried and professional households to the evacuation, while inland farming collectivities in [[Sagiri]] were substantially intact. Village headmen and mosque committees in Sagiri, and the island councils of [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]], were in most districts the only surviving authority, and [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#211th Army (Lyrica / Outremer)|VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps]] recognized them as interim local government rather than replacing them. Fourteen villages in eastern Sagiri refused enumeration, and the Corps left them to a second approach in {{AN|1759}}.
 
Substitution of the [[New Alexandrian écu]] for the withdrawn Phinbellan florin, [[Hurmu crown]], and Forajasakian ringgit was completed on 28.XII.{{AN|1758}}.
 
=== Casualties ===
 
Six members of the Federal Forces died during the operation, none of them by hostile action. A naval helicopter crew of four was lost in weather over the [[Caputian Narrows]] on 22.IX.{{AN|1758}}; an engineer of the 4th Engineer Regiment drowned in the harbor at [[Pondok Chabai]] on 8.X.{{AN|1758}}; and a sapper was killed clearing a stripped generating station outside [[Kuala Sagiri]] on 19.XI.{{AN|1758}}. Thirty-one personnel were injured.<ref name="review">[[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie]], ''Review of Operation Salt Meridian'', {{AN|1759}}.</ref> No civilian death was attributed to Federal Forces action, and no shot was fired during the operation.
 
== Aftermath ==
 
Three instruments closed the operation: the [[Liancourt Convention, 1758]] with [[Phinbella]], the [[Southern Caputian Territorial Integration Act, 1758]] in the [[Cortes Federales]], and the charter of the [[Caputian Narrows Company]]. All three were concluded within six months of the landing.
 
=== Liancourt Convention ===
 
Negotiations with [[Phinbella]] opened at [[Gotfriedplatz]] in X.{{AN|1758}} and concluded in the [[Liancourt Convention, 1758]], signed on 11.XIII.{{AN|1758}}. The Convention guaranteed a marked land corridor and an unrestricted sea lane to [[Liancourt Rocks]], free of transit duty and under New Alexandrian customs supervision. [[Nouvelle Alexandrie]] undertook to maintain water, power, and telecommunications to Liancourt Rocks across ground that had become New Alexandrian, in exchange for overflight and cable landing rights. The corridor was placed under joint patrol, with no New Alexandrian arms permitted inside the enclave and no Phinbellan arms outside it. Any former resident of the ceded districts was granted the right to return, be counted, and claim title. The Convention is subject to review at five-year intervals.<ref>[[Liancourt Convention, 1758]], articles 2 to 9.</ref>
 
The article longest under negotiation, and the last agreed, was the restitution of records. [[Phinbella]] undertook to supply certified copies of the civil and land registers of the ceded districts. Delivery was still incomplete as of {{AN|1759}}.
 
=== Territorial integration ===
 
The [[Southern Caputian Territorial Integration Act, 1758]] passed the [[Cortes Federales]] and received royal assent on 4.XIV.{{AN|1758}}, commencing on 1.I.{{AN|1759}}. The Act constituted [[Territory of Soccsksargen|Soccsksargen]], [[Koitchhi State|Koitchhi]], and [[Sagiri]] as States within the [[Isles of Caputia|Region of the Isles of Caputia]], raising the Region from four States to seven and adding 498,206 people to a population of roughly sixteen million, confirmed the [[Caputian Census of 1758]] and the provisional land registry, and guaranteed confirmed title and full New Alexandrian citizenship to every resident recorded in the census. It further enacted the [[Sagiri Religious and Customary Guarantees]], protecting the religious institutions and customary law of [[Sagiri]] by statute in the absence of any treaty. Melusinian deputies were among the Guarantees' strongest supporters, invoking the Melusianization, the period of compelled conversion that the faith records as a wound on its own history and answers with the principle that belief cannot be compelled. The same Act chartered the [[Caputian Narrows Company]] to conduct settlement.<ref>[[Southern Caputian Territorial Integration Act, 1758]], sections 3, 7, and 11.</ref>
 
Vice Admiral [[Peter Brenneis]] transferred civil authority to Regional Governor [[Heinrich von Staufen]] and the [[Congress of the Isles]] on 3.XV.{{AN|1758}}. The handover fell in the days of the Feast of the Returning Tide, the Melusinian night vigil kept by the water for the dead, and the six names of the operation were read by a burial society of the [[Society of the Harmonious Current]] at the Brenneis Memorial Gardens in [[Gotfriedplatz]]. Federal Forces drew down to a permanent garrison and an expanded Colonial Marine establishment.
 
=== Settlement ===
 
The Caputian Narrows Company was chartered under the Act as the successor to the [[Chartered settlement companies (Nouvelle Alexandrie)|Caputian Resettlement Authority]] of {{AN|1686}}, with authority to issue land grants drawn from the abandoned-property survey and to transport settlers from the [[Isles of Caputia]] and the wider [[Caputian diaspora]]. Settlers entered under the graces of the [[Proclamation of Punta Santiago]], which entitles any person able to prove Wechua, Alexandrian or Caputian descent to New Alexandrian citizenship. The Company drew its rolls from the New Alexandrian census of {{AN|1718}}, which recorded 63,849,610 Caputians resident in the Federation,<ref name="fedcensus">New Alexandrian federal census, {{AN|1718}}.</ref> and declined to treat the claimant register maintained at [[Nivardom]] by the [[Royal Caputian Government in Exile]] as conclusive proof for a grant, on the ground that a foreign register could not settle a New Alexandrian title. The exile register recorded 89,533,376 claimants against the Federation's own count of 63,849,610. The two rest on different bases and cannot be reconciled: the exile census records a documented inheritance, counting descendants born long after the kingdom fell, while the New Alexandrian figure is a classification of residents made by the receiving state. The exile government had issued its instrument of recognition of the [[Rothborne Settlement of the Caputian and Hamland Crowns, 1758|Rothborne Settlement]] three months before the landing, and made no claim on the territory. The [[Caputian Development Consortium]] took a reserved minority holding of 35 percent, the arrangement it held in the [[Keltian Frontier Development Corporation]], tying the Company's returns to the settlement of returning Caputian populations. The holding carried board representation proportionate to the stake and a consultative role in resettlement policy.<ref>[[Keltian Frontier Development Corporation]], charter of {{AN|1745}}.</ref> No grant could be issued to an incomer until the census-recorded titles were confirmed. The first settler cohorts sailed from [[Port Karsten]] and [[Gotfriedplatz]] in II.{{AN|1759}}. They were not religiously uniform. The diaspora had carried out of the fallen kingdom the composition recorded in its census of {{AN|1664}}, roughly seventy-three parts Melusinian to fifteen Bovinist, six of the [[Autocephalous Nazarene Church of Alexandria|Church of Alexandria]] and four of the [[Faith of Inti]], with the small remainder distributed among other bodies including the [[Reformed Catologian Church]], and the Company's manifests reproduced it in outline.<ref>Census of the Kingdom of Caputia, {{AN|1664}}.</ref>
 
== Assessment ==
 
Because Federal Forces met no armed opposition, assessment of Operation Salt Meridian has concentrated on its administration rather than its conduct. The Federal Forces' own review, published in {{AN|1759}}, identified the re-lighting of the coast and the pre-positioning of coin and rations before the landing as the decisions that determined the operation's course, and judged the ratio of engineers and administrators to combat troops, close to four to one, appropriate to the task.<ref name="review" />
 
Deputies of the [[Alliance for a Just Nouvelle Alexandrie]] argued through {{AN|1759}} that a land registry assembled from declaration and neighbor testimony could not reliably distinguish abandoned holdings from those whose owners intended to return under the [[Liancourt Convention, 1758]], and that every grant issued before the Phinbellan registers arrived risked dispossessing an absent claimant. The Government replied that the statutory priority of census-recorded residents met the objection and that delay would leave the territory empty.


A second line of criticism concerned apportionment. Deputies of the [[Alliance for a Just Nouvelle Alexandrie]] cited [[New Caputia]], which the [[Federal Humanist Party]] had carried by three tenths of a point at its first vote in {{AN|1723}} and lost outright to the [[Federal Consensus Party of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Consensus Party]] in {{AN|1734}}, and which after a generation of diaspora settlement returned 70.87 percent for the Federal Humanists in {{AN|1749}}.<ref>[[New Alexandrian general election, 1749]], regional returns for [[New Caputia]].</ref> Seats in the [[Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Assembly]] are apportioned to Regions by population, and the deputies argued that settling a diaspora population into the [[Isles of Caputia]] before the general election due in {{AN|1759}} would add Federal Humanist weight to the Region's delegation whatever the merits of the program. Secretary of Treasury [[Warren Ferdinand]] replied that the next apportionment would follow the federal census and not the Company's manifests.
Each landing party was led by a [[Caputian Development and Stabilization Units|Caputian Development and Stabilization Unit]] carrying a proclamation printed in Malay, [[Alexandrian language|Alexandrian]], and [[Martino language|Martino]], a consignment of coin to stand in for the withdrawn currency, and rations. A [[Tide Ambassador]] of the [[Melusinian Faith]] accompanied each of the four, sent by the [[Matriarch of New Zalae]] and not by the Government, a distinction the faith has insisted upon. Food distribution points and water purification plants opened at all four harbors on the first day, and the enumerators set up their census tables on the second.


The [[Sagiri]] guarantees have attracted separate scrutiny. Because the Sultanate departed rather than negotiated, the religious and customary protections rest on New Alexandrian statute alone, with no counterparty entitled to enforce them. The House of Hussamuddin, in exile in [[Forajasaki]], maintained its claim as of {{AN|1759}} and describes the settlement as a deposition; New Alexandrian official histories record it as an abandonment.
The landing was not without loss. A naval helicopter carrying a crew of four went down in heavy weather on the night of 12.IX.{{AN|1758}}, while ferrying between the squadron and the shore. All four aboard were killed, the first deaths of the operation, none of them by hostile action. Behind the marines the engineers came ashore to harbors stripped of power, lighting, and cargo plant, and began the work of restoring them.


== Legacy ==
== Administration ==
The territories are to be admitted as part of the [[Isles of Caputia|Region of the Isles of Caputia]], the New Alexandrian region of which they form the southern part, rather than constituted as a separate region. The government has cited the [[Western Valencia Admission Act, 1726]], by which the former Lostisland was admitted as part of the [[Valencia|Region of Valencia]] and the [[Proclamation of Punta Santiago]] extended to it, as the precedent for the course it intends to follow.


Operation Salt Meridian gave the [[Isles of Caputia]] a mainland frontier for the first time since the Region's admission to the Federation in {{AN|1687}}, and gave the [[Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Navy]] a standing squadron in a sea where it had previously held none. The [[Caputian Narrows]] entered New Alexandrian charts under that name, while Phinbellan usage kept its own.
Pending admission the vacated territories are under military administration. Ground command passes on completion of the landing to [[Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie#211th Army (Lyrica / Outremer)|VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps]], and the civil functions of government are carried by the [[Caputian Development and Stabilization Units]], which report to the [[Regional Governor of the Isles of Caputia|Regional Governor]], [[Heinrich von Staufen]], rather than to the military command. As under the Western Valencia precedent, the structure of the civil government is to be provided by the region once the Federal Forces have prepared the population for it.


[[Liancourt Rocks]], enlarged by the withdrawal, holds a population several times that of the New Alexandrian territory surrounding it, and retains the archives of lands it no longer governs. It is reachable only across New Alexandrian ground and water. The relationship established by the [[Liancourt Convention, 1758]] has governed the southern frontier of the Federation since, and stood unamended as of {{AN|1759}}. Montero's government had adopted the phrase second Captive Sea Expansion before the landing, and the [[Caputian Narrows Company]] carried it into its charter.
The permanent organization of the territories, and their representation in the [[Cortes Federales]], are left to follow the census. The settlement authorization the [[Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie|Federal Assembly]] carried on 9.X.{{AN|1758}} was made conditional on a census preceding any grant of land, and the [[Isles of Caputia]] remain organized into their four states in the meanwhile. Under the [[Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699]] the [[Congress of the Isles]], the regional legislature, holds the power to create municipalities and other localities within the region, to be exercised over the southern districts once the ground has been surveyed and the population counted.


== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[Isles of Caputia (Southern Territories) Admission Act, 1758]]
* [[NBC Newsfeed/1758]]
* [[NBC Newsfeed/1758]]
* [[Administrative divisions of Nouvelle Alexandrie]]
* [[Administrative divisions of Nouvelle Alexandrie]]
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[[Category:History of Nouvelle Alexandrie]]
[[Category:History of Nouvelle Alexandrie]]
[[Category:Phinbella]]
[[Category:Phinbella]]
[[Category:Military operations]]

Latest revision as of 01:41, 2 August 2026

This article relates to a current event.
Information may quickly become out of date as the event progresses.


Operation Salt Meridian
Part of the Phinbellan Withdrawal
Date 10.IX.1758 AN to present
Location Southern Isles of Caputia: Soccsksargen, the island of Koitchhi, and Sagiri, western Keltia
Status Ongoing
Belligerents
Nouvelle Alexandrie Nouvelle Alexandrie None
Commanders and leaders
Units involved
Strength
  • ~27,000 personnel
  • fewer than 6,000 combat troops
  • 4 engineer regiments
  • 1 naval squadron
None
Casualties and losses
  • 4 killed, all non-hostile
None

Operation Salt Meridian is a military operation of the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie, begun on 10.IX.1758 AN, to occupy and administer the southern part of the Isles of Caputia abandoned by Phinbella, the Territory of Soccsksargen and the island of Koitchhi, together with the neighboring Forajasakian state of Sagiri, following the withdrawal of the Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations. The operation is under way. The Federal Forces moved into the vacated territories from 10.IX.1758 AN and reached Soccsksargen on 12.IX.1758 AN, meeting no armed opposition.

The operation follows the Phinbellan Withdrawal, the evacuation by which the Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations is removing its administration, its currency, its public records, and the greater part of the resident population from the Territory of Soccsksargen, Koitchhi State, and Sagiri. New Alexandrian planners put the pre-withdrawal population of the three territories at roughly 3,100,000, a figure drawn from Phinbellan regional returns rather than from the individual territorial censuses, which do not reconcile with them. Phinbella retains the city of Liancourt Rocks, which its federal government administers directly and which Phinbellan records trace to territory once part of Soccsksargen, leaving it an enclave within the ceded lands.

Command is exercised by Vice Admiral Peter Brenneis of the Keltian Fleet, a grandson of Matthias Brenneis, who directed the registry of the Caputian Resettlement Authority seventy-two years earlier. The government of Premier José Manuel Montero has presented the operation to the Cortes Federales as a second Captive Sea Expansion, continuing the work by which the Isles of Caputia were resettled after the White Plague. Fewer than 6,000 of the 27,000 personnel committed are combat troops, and four engineer regiments have been assigned.

Background

The lands the operation is to occupy have never been New Alexandrian. They form the southern part of the Isles of Caputia held by Phinbella, together with the island of Koitchhi and the neighboring Forajasakian state of Sagiri. They became available through a decision taken in Negara Awan in 1758 AN.

The Captive Sea and the Isles of Caputia

Main articles: Isles of Caputia and Caputia

The Isles of Caputia lie in the Captive Sea, between mainland western Keltia and the Skerry Isles, and are among the oldest consistently settled regions of the eastern hemisphere. In 1686 AN the Caputian Resettlement Authority was chartered to execute the Captive Sea Expansion and resettle the Caputian diaspora dispersed by the White Plague. The archipelago entered New Alexandrian sovereignty the following year as a Region of the Federation of Alduria and the Wechua Nation. Between 1686 AN and 1698 AN the Authority processed approximately 180,000 people through its registry.[1]

The southern part of the archipelago, the Territory of Soccsksargen and the island of Koitchhi, lay under Phinbella, and the neighboring state of Sagiri under Forajasaki. The New Alexandrian and Phinbellan parts of the Isles had traded and intermarried for generations, and services from the Phinbellan public broadcaster FPPO Radio 4 reached townships in the New Alexandrian south.

The Phinbellan Withdrawal

The Federation and Phinbella have already had one migration crisis in common. Phinbella left the Order of the Holy Lakes in 1757 AN and rolled back its legal protections for sexual minorities in the weeks that followed. Arrivals in Nouvelle Alexandrie rose, and on 13.IV.1757 AN Secretary of State Jean-Michel Durand, whose department administers the program, announced a widening of the Rainbow Haven Visa Program to receive them.

The Confederation of the Phineonesian Nations declared itself independent and sovereign in 1757 AN. Within a year the Confederation concluded that it could not sustain administration of its northwestern periphery, and in 1758 AN announced the reduction of Soccsksargen and Koitchhi State and the relinquishment by Forajasaki of its constituent state of Sagiri.

The withdrawal follows the seam of Phinbellan constitutional law. Soccsksargen and Koitchhi are territories of the federated states, holding their authority under the federal constitution; Liancourt Rocks is a directly administered city, a creature of the Parliament of Phinbella rather than of the federated states. Surrendering the federated-state territories requires an amendment to the Phinbellan constitution, while the directly administered city could have been released by a simple act of Parliament. It has been kept.

The Confederation is stripping the ceded lands rather than handing over their administration. Land registries, cadastral surveys, court archives, civil registers, and tax rolls are being removed or destroyed. The Phinbellan florin, the Hurmu crown, and the Forajasakian ringgit in Sagiri are being withdrawn from circulation, and bank reserves shipped north. Governor Nur Zaki Dermavan has left Pondok Chabai with his secretariat, and with him the magistrates, constables, customs officers, harbormasters, and district clerks of the ceded lands. Port cranes, generators, ambulances, rolling stock, radio transmitters, and hospital equipment have been lifted and carried away.

The armories of the Territorial Reserve Force, left in an uncertain condition following the end of association between Phinbella and Hurmu, were expected to have been recovered by the Hurmu Fyrð. The Order of the Holy Lakes had not been privy, however, to the planned withdrawal. As such, the nearest garrison of the Near Eastern Command, the 202nd Regiment of Peacekeepers in cantonments at Liancourt Rocks, could neither present an inventory of arms formerly held in the evacuated territories, nor affirm that they had been recovered by native forces.

The population is going with them. Liancourt Rocks, a city of 1,000,054 at the last Phinbellan census, is absorbing the greater part of the departure.[2]

Prelude

Preparation ran from VII.1758 AN to the move under three heads: reconnaissance of the withdrawal, the diplomatic notifications, and the authorization.

Reconnaissance

Planning began in VII.1758 AN, while the withdrawal was still under way. New Alexandrian consular officers in Pondok Chabai and the island councils of Koitchhi reported on the departure itself, counting convoys, hulls, and passengers. Their returns established the figure on which the operation was scaled, and set New Alexandrian planning to a problem of settlement rather than one of stabilization.

The Federation notified Phinbella bilaterally on the question of the enclave, Hurmu, whose Fyrð absorbed the Confederation's forces as its Territorial Reserve Force in 1727 AN, on the disposal of the armories, Forajasaki on Sagiri, and Trans-Euran Command of the Raspur Pact, which holds Pact responsibility for operations in the Captive Sea, for theater deconfliction. Keltia Command, which holds VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps under Banner Group Skerries, released the formation to national command for the duration.

Authorization

The operation was ordered by King Sinchi Roca II on the advice of the Government. A supplementary appropriation of NAX€5.8 billion and a settlement authorization of NAX€2.4 billion over four years were laid before the Federal Assembly by Premier José Manuel Montero on 2.VIII.1758 AN, in the second year of the Recession of 1757 and against a revised budget that had already drawn on the Counter-Cyclical Stabilization Mechanism; Secretary of Treasury Warren Ferdinand told the Budget and Finances Committee that the shortfall was structural. The Federal Forces moved into the territories on 10.IX.1758 AN with the motion still before the Assembly, which carried it on 9.X.1758 AN, after the move had proved bloodless, on the votes of the Federal Humanist Party and the Aldurian Independent Coalition with a number of crossbench independents and over the opposition of the Alliance for a Just Nouvelle Alexandrie. The settlement authorization was made conditional on a census preceding any grant of land.

Forces

Operational command runs from King Sinchi Roca II as Commander-in-Chief through Secretary of Defense Fred Strong to the Joint Commander, Vice Admiral Peter Brenneis. The Joint Chiefs of Staff Council exercises no operational command.

The naval component is the Caputian Squadron, constituted for the operation from Keltian Fleet units and given responsibility for the coastal waters of the southern Isles and the island of Koitchhi. The Keltian Fleet's standing area of responsibility had not previously extended to the Isles of Caputia, which no New Alexandrian fleet listed among its stations.

Ashore, the Isles of Caputia Marine Infantry Brigade of the Colonial Marine Command is to provide the landing force, supported by one Marine Commando Brigade of the Keltian Expeditionary Force with its Régiment de Parachutistes d'Infanterie de Marine. VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps, whose charter covers overseas deployment and the organization of local levies, is to assume ground command on completion of the landing.

The largest component is engineering. Four regiments of the Corps of Engineers, reinforced by the Military Emergencies Unit and the Federal Support Corps, are assigned to restore ports, power, water, roads, and coastal lighting across a territory left with no working public utilities and no port machinery. Civil administration is to be carried by the Caputian Development and Stabilization Units, modeled on the Oportian Development and Stabilization Units and reporting to the Regional Governor rather than to the Corps.

Course of the operation

The move in

The Caputian Squadron moved into the coastal waters of the southern Isles on 10.IX.1758 AN. The date fell inside Cowtide (IX), and the Matriarch's household read the New Alexandrian arrival in the island's waters as a form of the blessing of the waters, the rite in which a steward marks the faithful with water from the font.

Landfall

The Isles of Caputia Marine Infantry Brigade came ashore at four harbors of Soccsksargen on 12.IX.1758 AN. The quays and warehouses stood undamaged, but the cranes had been lifted away with the rest of the port machinery, and no harbormaster remained at any of the four. The brigade met no opposition, and no shot was fired.

Each landing party was led by a Caputian Development and Stabilization Unit carrying a proclamation printed in Malay, Alexandrian, and Martino, a consignment of coin to stand in for the withdrawn currency, and rations. A Tide Ambassador of the Melusinian Faith accompanied each of the four, sent by the Matriarch of New Zalae and not by the Government, a distinction the faith has insisted upon. Food distribution points and water purification plants opened at all four harbors on the first day, and the enumerators set up their census tables on the second.

The landing was not without loss. A naval helicopter carrying a crew of four went down in heavy weather on the night of 12.IX.1758 AN, while ferrying between the squadron and the shore. All four aboard were killed, the first deaths of the operation, none of them by hostile action. Behind the marines the engineers came ashore to harbors stripped of power, lighting, and cargo plant, and began the work of restoring them.

Administration

The territories are to be admitted as part of the Region of the Isles of Caputia, the New Alexandrian region of which they form the southern part, rather than constituted as a separate region. The government has cited the Western Valencia Admission Act, 1726, by which the former Lostisland was admitted as part of the Region of Valencia and the Proclamation of Punta Santiago extended to it, as the precedent for the course it intends to follow.

Pending admission the vacated territories are under military administration. Ground command passes on completion of the landing to VI (Outremer) Combined Arms Corps, and the civil functions of government are carried by the Caputian Development and Stabilization Units, which report to the Regional Governor, Heinrich von Staufen, rather than to the military command. As under the Western Valencia precedent, the structure of the civil government is to be provided by the region once the Federal Forces have prepared the population for it.

The permanent organization of the territories, and their representation in the Cortes Federales, are left to follow the census. The settlement authorization the Federal Assembly carried on 9.X.1758 AN was made conditional on a census preceding any grant of land, and the Isles of Caputia remain organized into their four states in the meanwhile. Under the Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699 the Congress of the Isles, the regional legislature, holds the power to create municipalities and other localities within the region, to be exercised over the southern districts once the ground has been surveyed and the population counted.

See also

References

  1. ^ Caputian Resettlement Authority, final registry return, 1698 AN.
  2. ^ Federal census of Phinbella, returns for the directly administered cities.
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