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Mother Leasath shall be given over to foreign oppressors no longer! We, the Nationalists, her true sons and daughters, rise up, in our might, for her glorious defence!
—Part of a speech by Supreme General Navarro, leader of the Nationalists
The Leasath Civil War (Also known as the Nationalist Rebellion, the Leasath War of Independence, the official name for the war in Diego Navarro's Leasath, and subsequent nationalist governments; as well as by the rarer name of Great Nationalist Uprising) was a highly destructive civil war fought between the Unionists, who remained loyal to the government of the Democratic Republic of Leasath and the Union of Earth States, and the anti-Union, pro-Independence Nationalists, who desired to overthrow the pro-Union government of Leasath, replace it with a Nationalist government and withdraw Leasath from the Union. The Unionists were led by Head of State Miguel Terrajo, Leasath's leader since 27 BBY, the Unionists believed that they were fighting to preserve unity, peace and liberty, as well as the Union.
We, the Nationalists of Leasath, will win liberty for Leasath! Sadly, our kin are blinded by their belief that our status as a member state of the Union is a good thing, they cannot see that our great nation is ignored and abused by the oppression of the Union! We must take up arms against them, for the good of our home! The free people of Leasath have made our voice heard! We will not give up our national sovereignty and our freedom without a fight! Let us fight for independence! Let the Leasath War of Independence begin!
—Supreme General Diego Navarro, commander of the Nationalists, in a speech to his supporters
The Nationalists were led by Supreme General Diego Navarro, formerly the commander-in-chief of the Leasath Army, who believed that they were fighting against an oppressive Union and the treacherous government of Head of State Terrajo, who was selling out Leasath to the Union, the Nationalists believed independence from the Union to be the best thing for Leasath, so Leasath could take back her national sovereignty and independence, which the Nationalists believed had been given away by successive governments ever since Leasath had joined the Union in 70 BBY.
The direct path to the war could be traced to the Great March of Alendal in 26 BBY, the Leasath Nationalist Party (LNP) organised a march through Alendal, Leasath's capital, in protest of the Union and the tenure of Miguel Terrajo, hundreds from all over Leasath took part in the march. Concerned with the rise of Nationalism, Terrajo ordered the Leasath Army, then still commanded by Supreme General Diego Navarro, to put down the march, Diego Navarro, however, was a member of the LNP, and sympathetic to the marchers, so he refused Terrajo's order.
Due to a lack of Army support Terrajo turned to the Leasath National Police (LNPol), the LNPol had far less qualms about following Terrajo's orders, the LNPol attempted to break up the march, beating a number of the marchers in the process. Due to the LNPol's actions Navarro's position went from keeping the army out of the affair to actively supporting the marchers, in the first instance of rebellion within the Army Navarro ordered the army forces within Alendal to protect the marchers from the LNPol. As a result Diego Navarro was hailed as a hero of free speech and citizens' rights.
Terrajo was angered by the rebellious Army countermanding his orders, however he was unable to punish Navarro or any other Army personnel, because they were heroes in the eyes of people.
The war began with the Leasath Coup d'Etat in 23 BBY, in which Navarro made his first attempt to overthrow the government, the coup failed when the government forces were able to quickly mount a counter-operation against the Coup forces, driving the Coup forces to the south from Alendal, to the Nationalist strongholds of the Danern and Gaspar Islands.
As a result of the failed coup the forces still loyal to Terrajo's government and the forces who had decided their loyalties lay with Navarro geared up for war, quite a significant amount of the Leasath Army supported Navarro, who was their commander-in-chief, Navarro's Nationalist faction also received significant amounts of ships and planes from defecting Leasath Air Force and Leasath Navy personnel, which greatly helped the Nationalists wage war against the government forces and the government's Unionist volunteers.
These forces were organised into the Leasath Nationalist Army, the Leasath Nationalist Air Force and the Leasath Nationalist Navy, these three organisations were dissolved upon the Nationalist victory, when Navarro had them reintegrated with the main branches of the Leasath armed forces, the banners used by these short-lived military units were retired from service as the official banners of these organisations when they merged with the rest of the Leasath forces and used the latters' banners, the banners of the nationalist military forces continued to be flown as patriotic flags, however.
Richard Williams had the Union Army deployed to Leasath to combat the Nationalists, without consent of the Senate, much to the Senate's annoyance and accusations of warmongering, these accusations came from the Western States Confederation, a Conservative bloc founded from the Traditionalist Faction, a faction of the Union Senate which largely opposed the decisions of President Richard Williams' government, in particular.
As a result of the deployment of the Union Army Navarro and the Western States Confederation colluded to create a volunteer army, the "Volunteer Army for the Liberation of Leasath" (VALL), the purpose of this army was to assist the Nationalists, the Western States Confederation also deployed its First Fleet to assist the Nationalist Navy in defeating the Unionist naval forces.
After the Nationalists won the war in late 22 BBY, with great help from the Gandr, the prototype of the Gandr-class Aerial Cruiser, which entered production shortly after the outbreak of the war, President Williams announced that the Western States Confederation was a "hostile power", and that the senators of the Western States Confederation were to be expelled from the Union Senate as a result of their "traitorous actions" against the Unionist forces in the "Leasath Incident".
As a result of the expulsion Jane Zarkan of the Zarkan Kingdom conspires with her fellow excluded senators to secede from the Union, and the Zarkan Kingdom on the first day of 21 BBY, due to a history of acts of the Union opposed by the Zarkanian people the vast majority were overjoyed at the secession, within 3 days of the start of the next year 10 nations in all had seceded.
Their economy's in a shambles and their towns are rubble, is there any wonder they'd attack us for our wealth?
—An Aurelian pilot during the Leasath-Aurelia War
Aurelia, Leasath's neighbouring nation on the other side of the Aurelian Sea, initially provided humanitarian aid to Leasath, but was forced to cut the aid by order of Richard Williams, though Aurelia grudgingly stopped their aid, and made a point to accuse Richard Willams of purposefully helping a humanitarian crisis, the people of Leasath viewed the stopping of aid to be a betrayal by Aurelia, anger began to grow.
When Aurelia assisted the Union forces in invading Leasath, beginning the Leasath-Aurelia War, the anger of the people of Leasath over Aurelia's perceived betrayal boiled over into open calls for a large-scale invasion of Aurelia, this plan was successful, and Aurelia was defeated, Diego Navarro made a decision not to simply occupy Aurelia, but to allow them to keep home rule, he had respect for the Aurelians, and thus decided to give them equality in a bi-national empire, one which covered a significant portion of the Aerlandian Sea, the Empire of Leasath-Aurelia.
Thanks to the resumption of aid Leasath was able to rebuild and the homeless crisis came to an end, due to the restoration of Leasath's glory Navarro and his new empire were supported by the vast majority of Leasathians, a majority of Aurelians also came to respect Navarro and supported the empire, they were won over by Navarro's respect towards them and his usage of their foreign aid to actually rebuild his nation and rehouse his people, rather than just squandering the aid on himself, as was often seen.
The Aurelian Resistance accuses us of stealing Aurelian wealth, that is not true, we're simply being donated humanitarian aid by the Aurelian Senate, just as they did before Richard Williams forced them to stop the aid due to his temper tantrum against us, and using it to rebuild our nation, we're only taking 0.5% of Aurelia's GDP per year, that is very little. They also accuse us of "oppressing" Aurelia, that is also false, Aurelia is just as equal in this empire as we are, I created this bi-national empire for a reason, because I view Aurelia with respect, and view Aurelians as equals, let us march onwards together!
—Diego Navarro refuting claims by the Aurelian Resistance