First Romano-Columbia War

The First Romano Columbian War was a military conflict involving the Empire of Columbia and an alliance of its neighboring nations, primarily led by the Roman Empire.

Background

Columbia's move to CivRealms

During the Great CivClassics Migration of 2020, Columbia was one of the nations that decided to move to Civrealms. On April 15th, 2020, Columbia officially announced that they had negotiated the transfer of a piece of land from Moloka. Due to Columbia not immediately releasing their claims publicly, there was some confusion regarding the island of Christianada, which had been settled in the period between Columbia getting the land from Moloka and Columbia officially announcing their claims. This was quickly resolved and Columbia officially recognized Christianada's ownership of the island.

Partitioning of ICOR

In the weeks after Columbia's official founding, multiple incidents occured that raised tensions between Columbia and some of its neighbours. The first one major incident was during the partitioning of I.C.O.R., where Shadedoom888, the leader of Columbia, made demands for land, which were criticized by some of the other countries at the conference.

Greater Columbia

Another incident in the pre-war period was when Shadedoom888 posted a map showing his plans for a "Greater Columbia". On the map, Columbia had claimed over the territories of multiple neighboring nations. Shadedoom888 later claimed that this map was posted as a joke, and that he never intended to create Greater Columbia.

Declaration of war and initial fighting

On May 5th, 2020, the Roman Empire, Meridia and Arelat formally declared war against Columbia, citing "[The prevention of] current and future Columbian aggression" as their reason for their pre-emptive invasion. At the very start of the war, Shadedoom888 was pearled in his bunker in Columbia.

On May 7th, NotAnAlt69 (Incentives) and YourAverageClick (ComradeRick) attempted to dig a tunnel from Incentives' bunker at his farm in Moloka into the Roman Fort in the Roman Empire. While digging the tunnel, they were discovered by Tremerus, and Incentives was pearled, while ComradeRick was killed, but not pearled.

International Reactions

The invasion of Columbia was very controversial at its time, with multiple countries and players publicly denouncing the invasion, citing what they believed to be insufficient grounds for an attack. One of the examples cited by the Roman Empire, Meridia and Arelat, when justifying their invasion, was the fact that Columbia had recently bought around 200 stacks of obsidian. This was used to claim that Columbia intended to use this Obsidian, either to make a Vault, or for other military purposes. This claim disputed by MCSPenguin, who made a post where he argued that there were many legitimate uses for 200 stacks of obsidian. It later became a meme among those critical of the Roman invasion to jokingly ask people if they had an "Obby License".

T-Day

On May 10th, Tremerus was pearled while returning from his beet farm. His pearl was moved to Incentives' Vault, which was located on the Wheatistani part of the Eastern Mushroom Island. Later that day, the Roman Empire and Savaguard, along with help from Risunsky and Sons, launched an attack on Incentives' Vault, which was being defended by Columbia along with some volunteer soldiers from a handful of other countries. The attack resulted in a total victory for the attackers, with all pearls being freed, and shortly thereafter, the Treaty of Serenity was signed. The entire battle was filmed and uploaded to youtube by Saren, and can be watched here.