Confederation of Lourenne



The Revolution of Lourenne is often jokingly referred to as 'the Full Revolution', a pun pointing to the fact that it ended with very little structural change. After years of warfare, the merchant class and its trading companies were still the dominant political force, though now, indigenous Lourennians had risen to the prime positions of power. Thomas Cheval, the architect of this compromise resolution, was a figure of rare genius. Burdened with the task of transforming Lourenne into a sovereign state, he was keenly aware that his first task had to be the distribution of the appearance of responsibility. Thus, he divided executive power among three consuls, one to be held by each of the three major ethnic groups. The consulate would rule by majority vote to ensure that the Zapotec and the Mixtec would be able to keep the Orinco consul in check. Originally, Cheval had envisioned there being four consuls, the final being selected from among the Rildanorian population, but the Orinco militias threatened to break their truce if a Rildanorian were to serve as head of state, even if only as one of four. To ensure stability and continuity, Cheval and his Zapotec counterpart, Ahmok Laskine, drafted a constitution that kept power firmly in the hands of the consuls. The consuls selected government officials, as well as their successors, and popular representation was limited to elected advisors.

Lourenne's Declaration of Sovereignty, formally announced in 1875, initially drew threats of retaliation from Rildanor, but Cheval's diplomatic prowess helped prevent a full-scale war. Rildanor was given 'privileged trader status', a move that infuriated many in Lourenne (and would continue to until the fall of the Consulate), but one that decisively ensured the nation's independence. After decades of rebellion and economic deterioration, the seventy years that followed the Consulate's creation were a time of gradual reconstruction and social change. Despite the oligarchic government, the citizens of Lourenne were slowly given civil rights that they had never before possessed, and as the old trade companies fractured in the absence of the Rildanorian merchant families, newly emerging industries brought an era of shared economic prosperity to the people. Still, neither Cheval nor his successors could solve all the problems of the old system. Corrupt nepotists consolidated power, the ethnic division of the Consulate fueled ancient tensions, new generations rediscovered their grandparents' radicalism in the face of a rigid class system, and with the arrival of inevitable recessions, discontent spread to nearly every facet of society.

In the summer of 1909, a crippling economic depression produced a sudden and chaotic civil war, as Orinco radicals took to the streets of the eastern cities demanding proportional representation for their people. The Consulate, in a panic, deployed the military to violently suppress the protesters, a move that only enraged a widely unhappy population. In reaction, Orinco militias, supported by several mutinied companies of Lourenne's army, flooded into Haboves, and in a grim reflection of the ancient Godless War, the rebels publicly executed the Zapotec and Mixtec consuls. The government collapsed almost instantly, and many of Lourenne's wealthier citizens fled the country. The economy went from bad to worse as crime and famine became regular aspects of everyday life. Loosely organized and ideologically diverse, the rebels could offer only one solution: elections.