League of Eight Cities
League of Eight Cities Yàn Yèin Kũ | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901–1934 | |||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Lĩgi | ||||||||
| Official languages | Celestial Kwang | ||||||||
| Government | Federal parliamentary republic | ||||||||
• 1901-1919 | Ro Ser | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1901 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1934 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The League of Eight Cities, abbreviated as L8C or LEC, was a short-lived Qonklese political entity active during the Qonklese Warlord Era. Rising out of the chaos of the late 19th century, the entity positioned themselves as a coalition of coastal Qonklese cities that economically challenged the military might of the various warlord factions. Its unique geopolitical position allowed it to flourish as a hub for international trade entering Qonklaks in the early 20th century, and had various treaties and agreements signed with most warlord factions.
The aftermath of the Holy Reunification by the Qonklese Empire during the 1920s meant that the L8C had lost its previous guarantees to exist, as the warlord factions that had backed them had capitulated to the Empire. Despite the signing of the Treaty of Deboun of 1928 which guaranteed the preservation of the political status quo of the L8C, Qonklaks launched a full-scale invasion into League-controlled territories in May 1934, effectively ending its three-decade grip on coastal trade. The L8C officially capitulated on September 23, 1934.
Politics
The L8C's constitutionalized freedoms allowed various ideologies to interact and clash with each other in its controlled territories. As an economic hub, the tight grip the oligarchs had in day-to-day life in the L8C were perceived to be less than ideal for many disillusioned workers who first migrated to the L8C for better opportunities, providing the perfect environment for the rise of Qonklese cenonism. On April 18, 1911, the Cenonist Party of Qonklaks (CPQ), the precursor organization to the Ngonku 88th Division and the Golden Kwang, was founded in Deboun.
The rising levels of organization of the left threatened the positions of the oligarchs. The Aiqan Imperial Detective Agency was mobilized around late May of 1924 to infiltrate these organizations, specifically the CPQ, and attempt to sabotage their activities. This continued until April 24, 1928 when, along with the League Security Force, Aiqan officers carried out Operation Flyswatter, which saw 57 leftist leaders arrested.
When the Qonklese Empire was founded in 1928, the L8C rightly determined their reunification efforts to be a threat to its existence. To combat this, the United Front for Liberty was founded, which acted as a big-tent superparty for all the different political organizations active within League territory, united by their desire to resist imperial expansion.