Archive:Temedzene question

The Temedzene question (Old Tizocin: ø̄ğegjō Tēmeženos) is the issue in Tisnoijan politics, prior to, during and after the Federal Republic's mandate over the land, of the existence of Temedzen as an independent state or subnational entity. First raised in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, it became a question forefront in the minds of non-Tispodan politicians, especially as the continued stability of the Federal Republic of Tisnoij was brought into question. Numerous historians note the primacy of the Temedzene question when discussing the history of Temedzen, both as a non-independent and an independent entity.

History

Early History

The Temedzene question came to the fore with the lessening of Kovat influence in the Tisnoij region. A truly dire worry for many of the surrounding states was how a fairly large, ethnically unified state would be kept at bay should there come to be war in the region. Completely apart from the fact that much of Temedzene political discourse dealt with a unified purely Tispodan state, it was known that the numerous countries around Temedzen all possessed significant minority groups which constituted part of the Temedzene identity. As such, it was believed that international relations around any possible conflict with Temedzen should involve a unified effort by other Tisnoijan states to block Temedzene expansion. These fears, however, never materialised.

During the latter portions and aftermath of the Great Ekuosian War, elements within all of the Tisnoijan states saw significant reason to unite, in order to form a unified bloc against outside aggression. While the Temedzene question had somewhat slid to the back of people's minds after years of peace in Tisnoij, with talks of unification, the question had to yet again be raised. The Tisnoijan Commission for the Federal Partitioning of Constituent Lands and Territories, the primary group which determined in what capacity the states of the Federal Republic of Tisnoij would operate, and along what borders they would exist, came back to the Tisnoijan question numerous times in their proposals for partition. In 1949, the Commission came forward with the following statement as to the nature of larger states within the future Federal Republic;

Whereas the inherent nature of such states as Aifugon is obvious - while large, it contains a multiplicity of ethnicities, and thus forms the perfect example of what a large subnational division within our Federal Republic should comprise - the question remains as to what should be done with other larger states which do not foster such cosmopolitanism within their borders. Smaller states such as those found centralised on the central rivers may indeed foster such internal unity, as their power as a bloc within the wider Federal Republic is not a question. But what does remain is our conviction that this Federal Republic should not contain any states within it that threaten the unity of the federal whole, and as such propose either that the internal subdivisions within the current Temedzene centrality are modified to create a large, cosmopolitan entity, or are further subdivided to ensure that no single bloc of power may be maintained, and that Temedzen continues as a regional marker within our Tisnoijan whole.

Temedzen were not without a voice within the Commission, however, and while no specific nationalist presence within the Commission in any direction ever made its way into any commission proposals, most of the Temedzene political scientists within the commission proposed instead that all of the Tisnoijan states should be divided further, creating a patchwork of republics that would be centralised around a single ethnicity or geographic region. However, due to the majority-Aifugonian membership of the Commission, this proposal was rejected. In protest, the Temedzene political scientists withdrew from the Commission, and the government of Temedzen stated that should the Commission's proposals not adequately account for Temedzen's own interests, then Temedzen would withdraw from the Commission. Soon after the missive was sent, it became clear that the Commission's intents to bring Temedzen apart only threatened the Federal project, and so the Commission was dissolved. On the 27th April 1952, four Republics were admitted to the Federal Republic of Tisnoij, with the borders identical to the pre-Federal international borders of Tisnoij.

Internal Federal Policy

Throughout the seminal years of the Federal Republic's existence, it became obvious that continued pursuance of an answer to the Temedzene question would only lead to internal disunity. As the country was currently within the Tisnoijan postwar miracle, efforts to bring about large-scale political change were generally dropped unless they were seen to bring any noted benefit to the Federal Republic as a whole. Temedzen within the Federal Republic saw a marked increase in industrial capacity along its southern border regions, but also remained a large agricultural centre within the Federal Republic. As the capital of the Federal Republic lay nominally within Temedzene borders, much of Temedzene political influence and effort during these years was spent on advocating for further industrialisation, especially of the still somewhat traditionalistic agricultural sector. Many of these requests were accepted, perhaps thanks in part to the capital's presence in the nominal territory of Temedzen. There was also a question of quotas, which may have influenced both the Temedzene requests for industrialisation and the Federal Republic's easy acceptance of them. The Federal Republic operated a system of quotas to monetary investment between the federal government and the republics. Republics that were not carrying their weight in productivity would see less investment. Throughout the period just before the postwar miracle, Temedzen had been falling a small way behind the other states in terms of productivity per capita, and they wanted to ensure their continued receiving of investment. In the gradual process of industrialisation, Temedzen began to see the full benefit of the postwar miracle for themselves.

However, this was offset by the later Tisnoijan economic crisis, beginning in 1982. The economic crisis, caused in no small part by unreasonable rates of expanding industrialisation, hit Temedzen incredibly hard even comparatively to the other republics. This in turn caused resentment between various people groups within Tisnoij, and a breakup of relations between them. Temedzen made great use of the proportional representation afforded to them, being one of the largest states within Tisnoij by population. During this time, they also tended to create an even larger power bloc alongside Tsuinnia, and gradually used their combined influence to scrape away at influence from Aifugon's substantial power network. Temedzene politicians and much of the populace deemed the economic crisis to have been caused by the quota system, and thus blamed Aifugonian politicians for their rash action, while Aifugonian politicians blamed Temedzene requests for industrialisation and their own unreasonable expansion of industry. It soon became clear that Aifugon and Temedzen became two large power bases within Tisnoij that disagreed on fundamental aspects of the Federal Republic's operation. Most Temedzene politicians began to believe that they would better operate Tisnoij than the Aifugonians. As such, many Aifugonian politicians began to work on enacting a constitutional amendment that would divide Temedzen as it had been proposed before.

This line of reasoning culminated in the 1991 Abortive War, where a Temedzene group naming themselves the Second Orange Brigade attempted to overthrow the central government of the Federal Republic and bring Temedzene control to Tisnoijan politics. The Abortive War failed, but to Aifugonian elements within the Republic of Tisnoij, this signalled that the Temedzene question was absolutely correct, and that a large, unified state within the Federal Republic was a destabilising influence. In later 1991, the capital was moved away from Uğēnama and to the town of Esfason, Aifugon. This largely ended the Temedzene grasping for power within the Federal Republic, but did not end the continued antipathy of Aifugonians towards Temedzenes within federal politics. Most Aifugonians considered the Federal project to be nearing an early close.

In 1995, the 7th September Purge took place, which saw majority-Aifugonian elements within the Federal Republic's government expelling the Temedzene elements. Almost immediately, the expelled Temedzene politicians set up a rival government in Uğēnama, meaning that the country was, de facto, split in two. In this hotbed of unmoderated debate, Temedzenes felt that they were given the opportunity to prove that they would have been able to run Tisnoij better under their leadership than the Aifugonian elements they blamed for the economic crisis, whereas from 1995 to 1997, the Esfason-based government was largely concerned with ensuring a clean breakup rather than leading to war. In 1997, at three distinct points, the three other republics of Tisnoij, those being Aifugon, Tsuinnia and Ekvibron, declared their independence.

During the Tisnoijan Wars

Main article: Tisnoijan Wars