Phoenixia: Difference between revisions

On June 16, 1944 in Cartegine there were various protests in the automobile and textile factories, the largest demonstrations during the Unionist dictatorship, against the high cost of living. The cause of the success of the strikes was also thanks to the Cartaginese edition of the national newspaper which had resumed its clandestine publication thanks to Gaetano Valerio in a farmhouse in Swingle. This also contributed to the spread of the strike in the Meerle area after it spread to Cartegine thanks to a wide spread of clandestine leaflets. The initial causes of the demonstration were for the scarcity of foodstuffs and for denouncing the too high prices, in fact since 1939 the cost of living had doubled due to inflation caused by the massive issue of money.

The protest was the beginning of the Cartegine Revolution or Phoenixian Civil War which will see opposing pro-unionists and partisans.

The strikes soon lost almost any link with the original cause and became a more general anti-government demonstration. When anti-government protesters demonstrated in Cartegine in June 1940, Leone Ausilio perceived the demonstrations as a political threat and on June 17 ordered military forces to open fire, killing and injuring women, children and the elderly. The revelation of Ausilio's responsibility resulted in a massive spread of riots and civil unrest across the country, reaching the capital Phoxia.

On the morning of June 20, the news arrived of the suspicious death of Rover Relver, Chief of the Defense Staff, later confirmed as suicide (he tried to incapacitate himself with a shoulder wound but a bullet severed an artery), the news is it was given by an anonymous informant (his identity was never discovered) from the secret services to the press who immediately published it. Believing that Relver had been murdered, the ordinary soldiers went to the side of the revolution almost en masse. The disillusioned commanders viewed Ausilio as a lost cause and made no effort to keep their men loyal to the government.

Ausilio made a desperate attempt to address the crowd gathered in front of the government building, but people in the square began throwing stones and other bullets at him, forcing him to take refuge in the building along with his family and a circle of loyalists. Then Ausilio and his wife Marta along with the circle of close associates fled the capital by helicopter, but were soon captured by the military

After being tried and convicted of high treason, torture and economic sabotage, they were immediately shot on June 23. As soon as Tomaseo learned of the clashes between the police and the posters, he organized the escape with the royal family to an unknown location.

After the war, an institutional referendum was called in which women also took part for the first time. A new constitution was adopted, the government abolished the monarchy and the right of primogeniture establishing a federal democratic republic. The king was replaced by a president elected for a seven-year term. The last king was deposed and exiled to a remote area of the country.