Bagelonian Question
"Goomy, it was a bad idea to try and break an agreement with Bagel WHILE YOU'RE ON VACATION." - Vetous
The Bagelonian Question was a diplomatic dispute between the states of Bagelonia and Goomlandia between 05/15/19 to 06/25/2019, when it was concluded by the full extent of the Bagelonian claims being annexed from Goomlandia during the Sylvian Occupation of Goomlandia.
Background
The dispute began toward the tail end of what Western historians have termed the Goomlandian Decline, a period of time during which Goomlandia slid from being the most influential group within arguably the most powerful state on the map at this time, Goomnest, to becoming nearly its original size over the course of several civil disputes and secession movements by Goomnest's constituent states including ToeGANG and Voidnest. As Goomlandia had at this point returned to being its own independent, rather small state, Bagelonia decided to use the opportunity to claim Goomlandian territory adjacent to it, despite their alliance with Goomlandia at the time. This alliance was broken almost immediately afterwards as Goomlandia recognized the claims as an act of aggression from Bagelonia.
Bagelonia's narrative revolved around the claim that it had a right to territorial claims to the northeast and southeast of Bagelonia. Specifically, the Jaune Peninsula was claimed to be Bagelonian due to a claimed lack of full information to Bagelonia's leader 06Smg05 when agreeing to the treaty that officially ceded it to Goomlandia. The southeastern Wolf Woods were expanded into by Goomnest without what 06Smg05 claimed was proper enough information or communication to Bagelonia to ensure that the acquisition was acceptable, and that Bagelonia would have stopped it had they been properly informed. However, all of these claims were completely fabricated; six months after the conclusion of the Bagelonian Questions, 06Smg05 revealed that he had been informed about the Goomlandian borders and was acting "to see if [he] could get away with it".
To Goomlandia's end, they rejected both of these claims, citing the long-standing holding of the Mesa Peninsula by Goomlandia, the presence of Goomlandian construction such as forts on the peninsula, and the inhabitation of the peninsula by the (admittedly semi-inactive) awesome_ketchup as reasons to consider it irrefutably Goomlandian territory, and said that attempts were made to announce the Wolf Woods claim during the Goomnest era which Bagelonia did not respond to, indicating the Bagelonian claim was more opportunism in the wake of the loss of Goomlandian power than legitimate historical wrongs being made right.
Rise of Tensions
The situation reached a boiling point as Goomyman77, leader of Goomlandia, claimed to have planned but never before realized a town called Chêne in the bottom of Wolf Woods, releasing his plans and previous logs of them being discussed, and began plans to relocate the newly joined Goomlandian member Brokate to reside in the disputed territory. In addition to the town, Goomlandia pointed to the small network of roads it had already built through Jaune and the northern part of the Wolf Woods as evidence for them having developed the area.
This drew the ire of most of the international community due to these developments only taking place post-dispute. ToeGANG, notoriously apolitical, even condemned Goomlandia's actions by dissolving their alliance. Sylvia pledged their martial support to Bagelonia should conflict erupt, and began an disinformation campaign to highlight the lack of development within the Wolf Woods-- contradicting Goomlandia's claims of extensive efforts toward development of the area having been made-- and creating a plausible historical basis for the claims out of out-of-context ancient maps and screenshots. An example of the efforts of this campaign's results is shown to the upper right. However, the campaign was a large success that drew international support away from Goomlandia and towards Bagelonia.
Lucavarian Compromise
As tensions continued to rise, especially when Goomy began to actually construct the town he had planned (which he named Chêne) in an attempt to strengthen Goomlandian claims to the now-disputed region, Lucavario (a citizen of Montrose and of the Sylvian Union) brought the belligerent parties together to attempt to work out a compromise and avoid war. After much deliberation, a delicate deal was struck between the two states on 6/15/19. This deal was unpopular with much of the rest of the Sylvian Union who saw it as too intricate to be lasting, and wanted Goomlandia to have unconditionally ceded the land. The displeasure with the deal boiled over in the Peeling and Pooling, in which several Sylvian, Bagelonian, and Toe Gang individuals who were still upset with the Goomlandians descended upon the state in secret and burned several buildings, looted Goomtown, peeled every log in the city, scattered derogatory signs throughout the country, and converted many Goomlandian buildings and valleys into "pools" by filling them with water and diorite. One such pool still exists today, in the northwestern part of Goomtown by the Voidnestian border. The complicit states at first denied responsibility in this attack despite three hours of video footage by Goomyman77 showing them doing it, but the next day Sylvia admitted its responsibility (though maintaining that several individuals, namely ClapYoThighs and FlyingGMM, were not involved despite all video evidence to the contrary) and offered repair materials (which were never sent).
Sylvian Occupation of Goomlandia
Unfortunately, about a month after the Lucavarian Compromise was set into motion, on 06/23/2019, Goomyman77 announced he was breaking the agreement and annexing the DMZ... on the Discord, while on vacation, with no way to actually enforce the action in-game and no politically militant players active enough to enforce the claims on his behalf.
In response, the Bagelonian bloc decided that all bets were off in regard to reaching diplomatic solutions to the Bagelonian question, as the Goomlandians would not adhere to the agreements that they had signed. As such, Bagelonia returned to its original position of demanding full annexation of both the Jaune Peninsula and the Wolf Woods.
Sylvian Marshal FlyingGMM concocted a bloodless assault strategy to force the immediate release of the disputed lands to Bagelonia: due to a massive claim deficit, Sylvian Armed Forces as well as combined forces of the rest of the Bagelonian bloc would move into Goomlandia, claiming key targets which were crucial to Goomlandian wealth, including the Goomlandian armory and Goomyman77's house/office, which was temporarily renovated as FlyingGMM's office as Governor of Occupied Goomlandia. The Goomlandian citizens who were online put up no resistance to the Sylvians' arrival upon Goomyman77's orders not to engage with them. Following the securing of the key targets, an ultimatum was delivered to Goomyman77 demanding the immediate ceding of all disputed lands to Bagelonia and revocation of the Goomlandian claims to those lands (see: Bagelonian Ultimatum). Goomyman77 originally resisted the ultimatum, but members of Goomlandia who did not seek war seceded from Goomlandia in the meantime to pressure Goomy to accept, including dennypower (who formed VOC in Bageltown), and Grooge64 who decried Goomy's actions as "not epic". Finally, under maximum nonviolent pressure from the rest of the world, Goomyman77 capitulated and accepted the ultimatum. No Goomlandians were killed by Bagelonian Bloc forces during the occupation. The end of the Bagelonian Questions caused the final stage of the Goomsplosion, creating the new states of VOC and Richard, as well as shrinking Goomlandia to a tiny state composed of only modern-day Goomtown.
