History of Tavari-Banian Relations

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The history of Tavari-Banian relations begins in the early 14th century with the unification of Tavaris. At about the same time, the Miku and the Okun agree to form an alliance called Bana. The two very quickly became rivals for economic supremacy in the region as Ni-Rao has begun to decline.

First Tavari-Banian War

In response to threatening actions by Tavari naval vessels to Banian merchant ships moving through the area, Bana launches an effort to take Metrati Anar. Their effort fails, but a Tavari counter-attack on the city of Bana is repelled. The war ends with the status quo ante bellum. The war took place from 1617 to 1618. Total casualties are estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000.

Second War

The Tavari Navy sinks a Banian merchant ship, believing it to be a Banian warship. Naval battles occur for several weeks, but Tavaris eventually agrees to compensate the families of the victims and the war stops. The war took place from May to October of 1624. The official count of total casualties is 1,603.

Third War

A plague breaks out in Bana in 1645. A rumor breaks out that it was brought to the country by Tavari spies, as there had been an outbreak of disease in eastern Tavaris in 1641. Believing the rumors to be true, Bana launches an invasion of King’s Island in 1645. Bana initially seizes the eastern half of the island and holds off three waves of Tavari attempts to reclaim it. However, Banian attacks on East Harbor are rebuffed, and eventually a Tavari naval blockade prevents resupply to the Banians on King’s Island long enough for them to surrender in 1651. Later historical research indicates that the plagues in Bana and Tavaris were the same disease, but allegations of intentional spread by Tavari agents remain unproven. Excluding deaths from the plague in Bana, estimates of total casualties range from 300,000 to 600,000.

Fourth War

In 1668, Tavaris establishes a colony on the Gondwanan mainland, Emerald Coast, in areas that had once been part of Ni-Rao but had since been abandoned. The territory, while on the other side of the mountains, is immediately to the south of Bana (as New Rania had not yet been founded.) Bana sees this as an escalation and launches an attack on the colony in 1670. The Fourth War is fought primarily in the colony. In 1676, Ni-Rao joins the war on the side of the Banians. While Tavari forces fight two fronts, the Banians burn East Harbor to the ground on Avnatra in 1677.

Citing a national emergency, the Queen of Tavaris imposes a “national impressment” in which every able-bodied adult is conscripted into the military. Tavaris largely cedes the southern front to Ni-Rao and focuses primarily on defending Avnatra, and secondarily its largest cities in the colony. Tavaris has an advantage in ship-building capacity and is able to bolster its troops in the colony gradually. It also had a significant edge in weapons manufacturing, whereas Bana had since gone into debt to fund the war.

In 1680, the Banians are expelled from Avnatra. Free to focus on the colony, Tavaris ramps-up troops in the area to push back Ni-Rao. Ni-Rao, technologically outmatched now that they face the full force of Tavaris, immediately agrees to restore the status quo ante bellum. The Tavari begin to attack the Banian-held areas in the Emerald Coast and push them out as well. In 1683, Tavaris launches an assault on the city of Bana. Bana’s defenses fail and, faced with the now-massive Tavari war effort focused entirely on their territory, Bana surrenders and agrees to pay war reparations to Tavaris. Between 1.5 million and 3 million people in total died, making it by far the deadliest standalone conflict between Tavaris and Bana.

Fifth War

In 1711, Bana declares bankruptcy due to Tavari war debt and ceases payment. However, the Tavari economy is also weak, as the bubble made by the massive economic effort for the Fourth War (and its own war debt) had since collapsed. Tavaris begins to seize Banian vessels to use their cargo as payment. This enrages the Banian population. Tensions break out into war in 1712. The war is slow and primarily naval, as both countries struggle to afford the war. Eventually, Tavaris agrees to waive the rest of the war debt in exchange for a one-time Banian payment of 100,000 našdat (approx. 12.1 million SHD today), and the war ends in 1714. The official count of total casualties is 2,414.

The “Sunshine Years”

The era between 1877 and 1900 are popularly called the Sunshine Years, which refers to a significant warming of relations between the two countries. While they do not establish embassies (instead exchanging technically lower-ranked “ministers” beginning in 1877) they begin to cooperate. Certain international accords are established, especially in cultural areas, as both countries acknowledge that they descend from the same culture.

In 1900, a nationalist government was elected in Bana as a reaction to the years of improved relations with Tavaris that Banian nationalists had opposed. Bana withdrew its minister from Tavaris in 1900.

The Great War

Tavaris declared neutrality in the Great War when it began in 1904. However, Tavaris had long maintained a closer relationship with the Morst than with Asendavia, as it was easier to trade across water with Morst colony Lunaria than it was across the land border with Asendavian territory Vaklori, which was largely wilderness. In 1908, Morst ships launched an attack on Asendavian ships after circling behind them through Tavari-controlled waters. While Tavaris issued a formal statement of warning to Morstaybishlia regarding the incident, the Asendavians held this as a Tavari renunciation of neutrality and declared war on Tavaris in 1908. This brought Tavaris into the war on the side of Morstopackia.

In contrast to Tavaris, Bana had enjoyed a somewhat warmer relationship with Asendavia. The nationalist government decides to support the Asendavians in the war and join a month later. However, Banian participation in the war was largely limited to bombing campaigns along the east of Tavaris and the seizure of Metrati Anar, with almost no Banian troops serving outside that theater. Bana seized Metrati Anar in 1908 and held it until 1919, nearly two years after the war's end most places in the world. In 1915, Ekvatora declared independence and laid claim to the Northern Four islands of Metrati Anar, joining the war in opposing Tavaris. Bana had no interest in involving itself with the Ekvatoran conflict and withdrew from the Northern Four. The Tavaris-Bana/Ekvatora theater of the war is commonly described as "Metrati War" and sometimes as "the Sixth Tavari-Banian War." Across the entire Metrati War, Tavari casualties were around 15,000 killed and 80,000 wounded; Banian casualties were around 16,000 dead and 82,000 wounded. The war ended with Tavaris losing the Northern Four islands and its political influence over Ekvatora, but with Tavaris defeating Bana and regaining the rest of Metrati Anar.

Banian Civil War

In 1939, a Communist coup overthrows the Nationalist Banian government that, by then, had significantly altered the constitution to entrench their own power. The Banian Civil War breaks out. In 1940, Banian nationalist ships fire at Tavari naval ships and merchant vessels after erroneous reports that the Tavari are planning to support the Communists. Tavari troops seize the ports of Lanu and Bana and enforce a cease-fire in the cities for the duration of the war. However, no Tavari troops are deployed outside the two cities, enforcing them as cease-fire zones. Eventually, in 1954, a cease-fire agreement is signed and the warring sides both agree to form a provisional government that would lead to the modern Federation of Bana in 1963.

Modern Era

From 1941, for the first time, Tavaris and Bana exchange ambassadors and establish embassies. This is the warmest period of relations since the end of the Sunshine Years.

In 1969, there is a diplomatic dispute over Tavari military flights near Banian airspace. Bana would later pass a law forbidding Tavari military and civil aircraft from coming within one-quarter of a nautical mile of the Banian border, to be enforced by military action. Tavaris refuses to comply, saying Bana does not have the authority to police airspace that is international territory. Bana backs down from using military force to police the law, but terminates formal relations in 1970. There is little diplomatic communication between the two countries until 2012, when the countries decide to establish "informal formal" back-channels of communication through the Asilican embassies in each country.

Later in 2020, Bana joins the Alliance of Northwest Gondwana and re-establishes formal relations with Tavaris, partially due to the work of Tavari Prime Minister Šano Šonai Tuvria to reach out and attempt to warm relations. The detente is brief, though, as the announcement of the Tavari nuclear program is largely seemed as having stopped the thaw.