Hello! Today we are going to shed some light to the Portuguese colonial war.
In 1951, all Portuguese colonies gained the overseas territories status. They began to be considered as an integral, non-autonomous parts of the country, with ethnic Portuguese as a domineering stratum. As a result, it lead to the growth of unrest among the local population and, eventually, to active insurgency. In the game, the Portuguese colonial war is portrayed as 3 conflicts in 3 regions:
Guinea-Bissau;
Angola;
Mozambique.
You can help local freedom fighters or assist the Portuguese forces, although even if you'll provide the total victory of Portugal, all the colonies will gain independence after the Carnation Revolution (currently you cannot affect the revolution in Portugal, but, as we said earlier, in the future updates a possibility of intervening in coups and revolutions will be added). Note that after the independence of Angola and Mozambique, a new conflicts will emerge there - former allies (MPLA and UNITA/FNLA in Angola, FRETILIN and in Mozambique) will be involved into civil wars.
Our plans for the future are: Adding Cabinda conflict and potential insurgencies in Northern Angola (Bakongo people) and Eastern part of the country (Lunda-Chokwe). Also we are planning to add the possibility to support insurgents of Azores ad Madeira - though short-lived, these movements could lead to an interesting alt-historical outcomes (the Union of Macaronesia formed by independent Azores, Madeira and even the Spanish Canary Islands is one of such possibilities, and transferring under the US protectorate would be another).
Very soon there'll be a release, but there is still much work ahead, so await the next developer diaries where we'll give you more details about our further intentions!
Hello! Today we'll briefly examine three historical conflicts in Indonesia that are represented in our game. Please note that our position is neutral and we don't support any side of any conflict.
1. East Timor conflict
In 1975, Portuguese Timor was about to achieve independence from Portugal, but soon it was invaded by the Indonesian troops, annexed and made an Indonesian province. In 1999, after the decades of unrests and guerilla activities, the independence referendum was held in the troublesome region under the UN supervision. Three years later the independence of the region was proclaimed. You can lead East Timor to the freedom much earlier, or, on the contrary, crush these separatists forever. Distant plans: add a possibility to start a rebellion in West Timor and unite the island, or (on the edge of being dangerously ahistorical, though) support an annexationist movements willing to join Australia.
2. Aceh insurgency
Aceh was a former sultanate in the Western Sumatra. It was a prosperous state before the arrival of the Dutch and British. In 1903, after a long and bloody war, the sultanate was subjugated and integrated in the Netherlands East India, but separatist sentiments among the locals remained strong even when Indonesia became independent. In the game you can either help Acehese rebels to secede or pacify them for the sake of strong, united Indonesia.
3. West Papua conflict
West Papua was previously known as the Netherlands New Guinea - an overseas territory that was split from the Dutch East Indies in 1949 as an attempt to retain some Dutch presence in the region in the sight of loss of Indonesia. However, Indonesia invaded West Papua in 1962 and formally annexed it in 1969. In the game, West Papua starts as the Dutch colony and later flips to the Indonesian control. When this happens, the guerilla conflict begins, and you are free to choose who deserves your help.
That's the current setup of the East Indies. The future updates will bring additional historical content, as there were many other interesting issues in the region, for example, Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, tensions in the North Kalimantan and Malaysian communist insurgency!
Hello! We are starting to publish as series of developer diaries about some relatively not well known historical conflicts and their representation in the game.
Today we'll look at the African Horn, a homeland of the Somali nation. Somalian society is clan-based, and the areal of these clans extends far over the Somalian state borders. Many ethnic Somalis inhabit border regions of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. As as result, historically, since achieving the independence, there always were irredentist calls for the creation of the Greater Somalia. During the Cold War era period, there were two major attempts to unify Somalian lands: insurgency in Kenyan Northern Frontier District of 1963–1967 and Ogaden War of 1977-1978.
Insurgency in Kenya (1963 – 1967), also known under the propaganda name "Shifta War" ("shifta" is Somali word for "bandit"), was an insurgency where the ethnic Somalian rebels tried to break away from Kenya and join Somali Republic. Somalian government didn't support the insurgents directly, as the military capabilities of the young country was still quite insignificant, and there were only about 5000 soldiers in Somalian army. Also, Kenya warned Somalian authorities to avoid any indirect rebel support, threatening with a possibility of a full-scale war.
The counter-insurgency measures performed by the Kenyan government included forcing civilians into "protected villages" (viewed by some as concentration camps) as well as killing a large number of livestock kept by the ethnic Somalis to diminish the economic base of the rebellion. Finally, the violent phase of war ended on October 23, 1967, when Prime Minister of the Somali Republic signed a ceasefire with Kenyan authorities at the Arusha Conference, although occasional skirmishes and minor agitation still occurred during the next decades.
In the game, when the conflict begins, you can support Kenya or Somalia (or both), and if the Somali Republic wins, Northern Frontier District of Kenya gets annexed by the Somali Republic.
Ogaden War (July 1977 – March 1978) was a war between Somalia and Ethiopia, where the Somalian dictator Mohamed Siad Barre declared war on Ethiopia, aiming to annex Somali-inhabited Ogaden region. Barre positioned himself as a pro-Soviet leader and was firmly sure that Moscow wouldn't object (or maybe even would give him full support) if he would start a war with Ethiopia - a country that was definitely pro
-Western until the beginning of 1977. However the Kremlin decided to support Ethiopia instead and even had broken the diplomatic relations with Somalia. It was actually the time when Ethiopian foreign policy started to re-align from the West to the East, so the new leftist regime of Ethiopian military junta was considered a valuable potential ally by the USSR.
It was a paradoxical situation when the Soviet military advisors supported troops that were equipped with the Western weapons, while their enemy used Soviet equipment and manuals. Cuban and South Yemenite expeditionary forces joined the war on the Ethiopian side as well, and the war ended with an utter defeat of Somalia and subsequent overthrow of Siad Barre. As a result, Somalia submerged into the long period of chaos and anarchy.
In the game, when the war starts, you can either help Somalian or Ethiopian governments to conquer or defend Ogaden. Still, as the game ends on 31.12.1989, you won's see the fall of Siad Barre and Somalian breakup if you'll help Ethiopia, although that can be subject to change in the future, if we'll add the 1990s timeline expansion (that is possible, but currently we can't give any solid promises due to very high sensitivity of the modern era conflicts).
What do we plan for Somali next? If you'll manage to create Greater Somalia, the next step will be alternative historical conflicts over Djibouti and Socotra that can occur semi-randomly. Both territories were sporadically claimed by Somalia, but there weren't any armed clashes over them, although stronger, Greater Somalia could feel itself confident enough to continue its further (and historically plausible) expansion.
That's all for today! Stay tuned, as the main subject of the next Dev Diary will be Indonesia!
Find out what it's like to be a arms dealer. Travel back into the 1960s and establish your shady international business right in the midst of the Cold War! It will be available on Steam soon, so don't miss it!