Euran War
Euran War | |||||||||
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Jingdaoese Fleet in the Sandy River Estuary, Southern Eura |
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Jingdaoese Empire | Free Associative Kingdom of Constancia | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
The Kattei Emperor Joseph Myksos | Basileusa Cleo | ||||||||
Units involved | |||||||||
Imperial Navy Batavian Royal Navy | Constancian Army |
The Euran War, begun in May 2016, saw the small Kingdom of Constancia plunged into war against the far larger and militarily aggressive Jingdaoese Empire. It was a David and Goliath struggle from the outset.
Background
A Faux-Pas Unprecedented in Modern Diplomacy
The conflict derived from the sudden deterioration in relations between the two states in early May 2016, particularly after the passage of the International Recognition Act by the Synklētos, the legislature of Constancia, which charged the Borders Control Agency to compile a list of recognised states based on three identified criteria, these being:
a) Constitutional Government;
b) The holding of a recognised territorial claim on the map of Micras;
c) Reciprocal recognition of the Kingdom and the ruling Basileus.
The manner in which this information was collated was deemed by some foreign governments to be somewhat insensitive, and queries were raised in Natopia and Craitland about the implicit unilateral alteration of the previously established diplomatic relations between their respective countries and Constancia. The Grand Chamberlain of the Court of the Calm Waters, the Natopian Foreign Minister, went so far as to hint at the potential for the repudiation of their recently signed 'Pact of Perpetual Friendship' after being insulted with the receipt of a box tick form to complete. However the most extreme reaction occurred in Jingdao, where the Emperor immediately responded to being labelled a fascist by conferring 'Hun' status on the entire Kingdom of Constancia1. This was rather more serious than it sounds as under Jingdaoese law and custom the hun are impure and may be killed or even consumed with impunity. Following this, the Kattei Emperor, Heinrich Rasmus, commanded his nobles in the Imperial Assembly to debate ways to "bring down Constancia"2. After more outlandish proposals to use atomic weapons to irradiate the land and render it uninhabitable were discounted, debate turned to the prospect of occupying and colonising the small inland Kingdom on the Continent of Eura.
Jingdaoese Preparations
Constancian Preparations
With the assistance of foreign advisers, the Constancian Army began preparing so-called 'infernal machines', improvised explosive devices in waterproofed containers and attached to a buoyancy device, typically a barrel, disguised as drifting weed clumps or debris. The improvised naval mines were fitted with proximity fuses and or remote control detonators and were floated out onto the Sandy River to help impede Jingdaoese access to the inland sea known as Lake Erik.