Eduran Revolution

The Eduran Revolution was a period of radical change, civil strife, war, political instability, and upheaval that occurred primarily in Edury, as well as elsewhere in central East Alutra. The causes, events, and effects, are still debated to this day. Some consider the revolution to be the culmination of the Alutran Enlightenment, a period of intellectual development that focused on individual rights, the nature of the state, the responsibilities and nature of leaders, and morality. By and large, the revolutionaries were opposed to the older of monarchical government which derived its legitimacy from divine intervention or religious justification. While the motivations and ideologies of both sides are wide and varied, the revolutionaries generally believed that the state received its legitimacy from the consent of those who they governed. The official position of the state before the revolution was that the government received its charter as a commission of the gods, in order to preserve the balance of life within their borders. Many members of government did express the view that the state didn't have an actual charter from the gods of Stroomism, but that instead, the nobility and state were the best abled to preserve that balance for the good of all people in the state.

Following the Last War, the forwielders of Edury began to amass power. The aftermath of that conflict cemented the dorwielder as a lifetime executive office, with considerable power. Forwielder Hubert I Humber is generally seen as the last medieval forwielder, and also as the first modern one. He jockeyed for power within the Senate, ensuring his faction in the body would stand by him with whatever decisions he made, through giving out expensive bribes, key appointments, and threats of violence. He was also the first forwielder to send legislation, voted upon by the Senate, to the fledgling Assembly of the Estates, a group of the various different legal classes (nobility, commoner, guildsman, and peasant)

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Background and Long Term Causes
Stuff about the growing power of the Forwielder, etc etc

Immediate Causes
By 1725, Bernich II Linbold assumed the Forwielder's throne. His father, Hisbert III Linbold, had been the previous Forwielder, and had raised his house to be the most powerful noble family in the realm. Bernich's accession to the throne was contentious, for while a son succeeding his father to the highest title in the land was not unprecedented, the Linbold family were the most successful in all of Edury's history, in terms of laying the groundwork for them to turn the elective monarchy into a hereditary one. Hisbert had been able to use the work of previous Forwielders in order to strengthen the power of the executive, and followed Herbert Humber's model in packing the Senate with supporters by using promises, appointments, bribes, and threats to ensure that whatever initiatives he took had legislative support.

Hisbert's near unilateral power passed down to Bernich, and the initiatives the father took put the son in a precarious position. Hisbert used his wide ranging authority to pursue colonial adventures, wars against Ecoralia and other powers, vanity projects, and other expensive ventures. When Bernich took power, the state was in significant debt. In order to alleviate some of this, Bernich cut back on spending. In one way, he gave the Eduran Expeditionary Company more independence, lifting some of the power over them that his father had put them under. The arrangement with Salia meant that the Company extracted significant wealth, and after eliminating some expenses, this would actually go into the coffers of the state rather than simply flowing back out. Certain vanity projects were cancelled, such as the executive palace of Fondale Highhall being built on the outskirts of Eduvesting.

These cuts did aleviate some of the most immediate expenses felt by the state, but the debt that was owed was still astronomical. Furthermore, Bernich was unwilling to cease certain other policies enacted by his father, namely the buildup of the army, and the persecution of conflict against Ecoralia, Gladomyr, and other Alutran powers. Bernich would therefor have several tax measures passed through the Senate, raising the tax burden on the rising mercantile class of Edury, as well as putting new taxes on the peasantry and several guilds of craftsmen. The nobility were notably not affected by these new levies.

At the same time that this was going on, the Alutran Enlightenment was taking root in Edury. Ideas from Watan and other nations had diffused to Edury, humanist philosophies and ideas concerning the nature of the state being the most popular and inflammatory. Officially, the reason that the Forwielder and the nobility had to justify their power was that the two gods of Stroomism appointed the aristocracy as the guardians of society, in order to promote balance- although few actually publicly subscribed to this belief.

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Revolution begins
By 1799, Marwhite Linbold

Conduct of the revolution
--Daar forms an army, Assembly institutes conscription

-Daar is defeated relatively quickly, he and his supporters are executed

-Instrument of the Executive is signed and becomes the basis for the new Eduran constitution

-Napolioni starts to rise; a brilliant military mind, but just an OK political one

-Lord Magistrate is founded and elected along with new government; power is still equally split between the petit merchants, craftsmen, and peasantry/commoners

-Foreign intervention begins

Foreign intervention
--Ecoralia is probably biggest foreign intervention

-Napolioni gets elected as Lord-Magistrate, leads the army

-These wars maybe extend beyond 1806??

-Foreign intervention is defeated, but no Eduran empire in East Altrua

-Napolioni is made irrelevant when he tries to abolish the Daar while on campaign; the new opposition sees the staying power the Daar and the Senate have, and so seize their moment to stop Napolioni. He is eventually electorally defeated, and retires, where he dies with no political influence.