OVERVIEWThe Calptionion-Michiganian war was a large, regional conflict between the Republic of Calption and The New Michiganian State. The conflict was mostly over the disputed territory of the Limitrophelands, which was an industrialized region centered around the river Sein, in which lived large amounts of both Calptionions and Michiganians. Fighting took place all across the region, with bombing campaigns and naval bombardments stretching its influence to across both nations. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it claimed the lives of over 4.6 million people, with many more wounded, and tens of millions displaced. The war is also infamous for it's gridlock, the heavily urbanized region combined with it's hilly terrain made taking territory without large losses effectively impossible. Both sides also committed various atrocities during the war, such as the massacre of ethnic minorities and the deployment of chemical weapons.
PreludeWith the previous democratic government of Michigan being overthrown by Pershing Smith a high ranking military general in 1973, an authoritarian dictatorship was instated in its place. In order to distract the populace and maintain control, now Glorious President Pershing Smith decided to oppress the Calptionion minority, hopping to both create a Calptionion insurgency and antagonize the Calptionion Government so he could rally the populace around a common enemy. In response to several massacres, along with other policies designed to repress the Calptionion people, the Calptionion Liberation Army, or CLA was formed to secede the Michiganian Limitrophelands from The New Michiganain State, and to join Calption. They started to fight back against the Michiganian army, and also began a series of bus bombings and terrorist attacks all across the nation. The Glorious President and his government would use these terrorist attacks in various forms of propaganda to justify what they were doing in the region, and continue building up a sense of Michiganian Nationalism.
Meanwhile in Calption, the overthrow of the once democratic and friendly Michiganian government, along with the oppression of their fellow kin resulted in an extreme radicalization of the Calptionion voter base. This resulted in an explosion in popularity of the once politically isolated Greater Calptionion Party led by Philip Poincare, which was a hyper-nationalist party who wanted to take complete control over the Limitrophelands, along with advocating for the "Calptionization" of all minorities. They ended up winning the election of 1976 in a landslide vote, and quickly put their policies to work. Philip Poincare would enact the "Calptionion Defense Act" in the same year, mandating that all Calptionions who reach 18 years of age would be conscripted in the military, and forced to serve for one year. The next year, the "Calptionion Unity Act" was passed, which banned the use of all non-Calptionion languages in schools, and also restricted where non-Calptionions could live, buy, and go to. With this, along with agitation and funding from Pershing Smith's nationalist government, the Michiganian Liberation Front was formed to secede the Calptionion Limitrophelands from Calption and join The New Michiganian State.
There would also be many border skirmishes between Calptionion Michiganian forces before the war, mostly to prevent shipments of supplies to the insurgent group that the other side supported, but also due to both sides hating each other due to rampant nationalism and jingoism on both sides. A massive military buildup had occurred on the shared border, and both sides and banned shipments of goods from one side to the other. Large fortification systems were erected, as both sides knew that a war between the two powers was inevitable, and this made potential offensive incursions into enemy territory even more difficult than it already was. Both the CTA and MLF would construct large tunnel systems to store supplies and to hide against Michiganian and Claptionion security forces respectively, and the intensity and severity of terrorist attacks by both groups would increase from 1980-1985. In late July of 1985, a small group of 50 Calptionion soldiers were sent into Michiganian territory to aid the CTA in blowing up an apartment which was suspected to be the residency of several leaders of the MLF. While they were successful, they ended up being caught in the act. This resulted in a tense month of negotiations, as both sides knew that a war between both of them would be absolutely devastating. Unfortunately, cooler heads did not prevail, and finally, after years of military buildup and tension, Calption and the New Michiganian State declared war on each other, marking the start of the brutal conflict.