Century of Revolutions

The Century of Revolutions is a period from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries, in which a number of significant revolutionary movements occurred in most of Merkopa and Contana. The period is noted for the change from absolutist monarchies to representative governments with a written constitution, and the creation of nation states as well as socialist states. Influenced by the new ideas of the 19th century, the Arcasian Revolution in the year 1823 is usually considered the starting point of the Century of Revolutions, when King Jonathan XII of the Kingdom of Arcas was overthrown by the Arcasian people, establishing the world’s first modern democratic republic. During the Century of Revolutions, the ideals of democracy, communism and nationalism spread to almost all corners of the world from Merkopa to Contana. In some places it toppled brutal monarchies, in others it brought down enlightened meritocracies. The last remaining empires splintered into smaller nation states. One of the fundamental shifts occurred in the splintered continent of Contana, which suffered from dozens of regional wars before it transformed into an expansive collection of united socialist states. The revolutionary transformation was led by Leon Malenyev, whose political ideology influenced the whole world under the name of Malenyevism. His ideology created a continent-spanning socialist state which became known as United Contana, a superpower like the world has never seen. The Malenyevist revolution in United Contana reached far beyond the sea, when the revolutionary efforts backed by Malenyev caused one of the most powerful and global colonial empires, Valgos, to fall, It had transformed the country into a major socialist power, called the Democratic Republic of Valgsland. The ripple effect from the fall of Valgos, resulted in the massive decolonisation of continents of Xina and Rika, and the rise of socialist ideas in what was known to be the third world. Threatened by the rise of socialist ideas, the first democracy of the world, Arcasia, supported democratic revolutions all around the world and heavily promoted capitalism in the continent of Merkopa. This led to the transformations of nations like Wehlen, Lespia and Agnolia from monarchies into democratic republics through peaceful and violent revolutions. The Arcasians quickly rose to prominence as a world financial centre, military power and cultural influencer. They took advantage of their safe geographic location in Western Merkopa, as well as the instability in the rest of the world by making investments in other countries. The network of military and trade alliances they built up during the century resulted in Arcasia to be considered a superpower. The democratic revolution in Sordland in 1923 is generally considered to be the end of the Century of Revolutions. In the aftermath of the century, a near bi-polar world had emerged with United Contana and Arcasia rising as the superpowers with two different ideologies. Despite the expectations of a global conventional conflict, such a world war never occurred, but the anxiety caused many smaller proxy wars around the world.