Maasai
From IBWiki
| Conventional short name: | |
| Local: | Olosho |
| English: | Maasai |
| Languages: | |
| Official: | Maa |
| Others: | Lithuanian (African Lithuanian), Belarussian |
| Capital: | Osiligi |
| Independence: | from Lithuania |
| Declared: | 1940 (as Pakštuva, which became Maasai several years later) |
| Recognized: | 1951 (as Maasai) |
Maasai is a state in Africa. See Lithuanian colonies for more information on its history. See Padraic's Ill Bethisad Map Page and scroll down to see where it is on map.
History
Originally the region, referred to as Maasai by the Europeans, was much larger than it is now. It reached the coast of Indian Ocean and had more lands to the south and the north. The exact northern and southern boundaries of this area were not delimited until 1934 however.
Maasai had been called in various ways throughout history: "The borderland" by Ethiopians, as it marked the southern border of their advances and "The fierce land" by the Chinese who operated colony of the Chinese East Africa in the south. The name Maasai, however, became predominant in Europe, due to the Maasai people living there, who were the most noticeable and most fierce, although they formed only about a quarter of area's population.
The Maasai land up to the 20th century was never conquered by enemies, except for its coastline, which once was ruled by Caliphate of Somalia. The Caliphate of Somalia brought Islam to Maasais; while people on the coastline of Indian Ocean (Swahilis, Mijikendas) mostly became devout muslims, in the deeper parts of country Islam blended with the animist believes of local people (Maasais, Luos and others).
In general, tribalism was dominant in Maasai; however the tribes, despite of frequently fighting each other, used to unite against foreign enemies who were seen as infidels. They were known for their fanatism at running into enemies even when enemy's weaponry is clearly superior. Therefore all attempts by Chinese and Ethiopians to capture this land were crushed. With time however some tribes of the area paid tributes to either Somalia, Ethiopia or China without direct rule on them.
The situation changed when the 20th century came and major inventions in warfare such as airships, tanks and machine-guns made local traditional weapons completely inferior. But despite of that the status quo continued for until 20s. There were no known resources that would make the land valuable and other countries were happy with the status quo where both Ethiopians and Chinese would get tributes from certain tribes; besides, attempts to seize whole land by one of the powers would probably have made the other power to intervene.
In the late 20s however in one of tribes of Maasais a new charismatic leader INSERT NAME came, who was a good military leader as well. He overtook territories of several other tribes in what was known as the Maasai wars. Ethiopians, weakened by First Great War, and the Chinese, preoccupied with wars in Asia, did not pay much attention to it and expected the intertribal warfare to end as it always used to. Lithuania, a state without colonies in Europe, which became independent after First Great War, however, was planning to start the colonial program (see Colonies of Lithuania) and Maasai had the only yet uncolonised coastline in Africa. Aitvaras Geležinkelietis, a Lithuanian student and expert of Africa, became an advisor of the father of Lithuanian colonial program Kazys Pakštas on this matter; A. Geležinkelietis spent many years in Africa and learned various languages, including Maa and Somali languages. He knew the political realities of the place well enough as well. When Pakštas decided upon colonising Maasai, A. Geležinkelietis was sent there as a diplomat to meet INSERT NAME. Lithuanians offered him assistance with modern weaponry; a treaty of alliance was signed as A. Geležinkelietis, knowing the local culture well, was able to convince INSERT NAME quickly (in exchange Lithuanians demanded relatively little - for example, a permission to build and use port in the Maasai land later and such).
This was a wise move for Lithuania, as they knew that Chinese probably would not have tolerated outright colonisation. Therefore, the whole area was at first conquered by INSERT NAME; it wasn't that hard with the usage of Lithuanian-supplied modern weaponry. To save himself from the Chinese, INSERT NAME at first signed an agreement under which he was meant to pay tribute to China. This left only the Ethiopians in bad position, as they have lost the tribes who used to pay tribute to them, but Ethiopia at the time was weak. The Lithuanian port city was estabilished in Maasai on the coast of Indian ocean, to appease INSERT NAME it was named after him. Only some Lithuanians moved in at first, while the most of population moved there were Maasais who took the oppurtunity to have a relatively well paid job (on their standarts) at servicing ships. The major point for the estabilishment of city was, however, as the later events shown, not servicing ships, of which there weren't many as most European powers had their own ports on the Somali coast, but rather a preparation for taking up control of the land.
INSERT NAME did not actually wanted to live his life paying the tribute to Chinese, and thus attacked Chinese East Africa probably under advise of A. Geležinkelietis. At first his army taken a considerable chunk of land as Chinese, considering the Maasais ro be uncivilised barbarians, were not prepared for such attack. However eventually tables started to turn. People of Maasai (allegedly with the support of Lithuanian colonists) organised a revolt which deposed the government of INSERT NAME, who was in Chinese East Africa. INSERT NAME was defeated and arrested, but Chinese had to recognise Maasai, ruled by new leaders (who were still ethnic Maasais but much less ambitious than previous leadership) as a completely independent state without the requirement to pay tribute. Lithuanians asserted even more control over the area, "Treaty of Friendship" was signed with the new leaders (actually, it was signed previously, when these leaders needed support in the revolution), which actually gave much powers to the "leader of local Lithuanians" as well; under that treaty, Lithuania also promised to defend Maasai in case of war. In exchange, Lithuanian people were allowed to settle in Maasai and state of Lithuania had a right to buy certain ammounts of land every year for a fixed price (the exact wording of treaty however is conroversial, as versions written in Maasai languages and Lithuanian had some differences).
Lithuania used to buy the land according to the quotas, it was then distributed among certain people of Lithuania who wanted to settle there, it was given out for fee. The majority of colonists of this area known in Lithuanian as Masaja were Slavs but there were Lithuanians as well. In general it became so that Lithuanians became the most powerful class in the area, Slavs were in the middle and locals usually used to become badly paid workers in Slavic or Lithuanian owned farms or in the cities. Many of Maasais remained nomadic as well and this was encouraged. A new capital was estabilished in other side of the area, on the large lake for which the name of Lake Smetona was given, it was named Naujasis Vilnius (New Vilnius), and the port city was renamed Naujasis Kaunas.
The share of Lithuanians and Slavs was increasing, and their control became more and more serious, eventually leaving the leaders of Maasais only a limited role in ruling the country. In 1934, the area was formally integrated into Lithuania as Naujojo Vilniaus apskritis. This was approved by "Congress of Maasai" (estabilished after Treaty of Friendship), in which officially Maasais and Lithuanians had equal power, but some Maasais were allegedly bribed to vote the way Lithuanians wanted or the decition was rigged. However in practice the area remained a sui generis with Maasais still having certain (mostly formal) powers. The term Naujojo Vilniaus apskritis was primarilly used in European Lithuania to encourage colonists to move to the area.
Revolt attempts of local blacks were crushed by better armed Lithuanians. The aid from Ethiopia did not come during the most serious attempt to depose Lithuanians (year 1934) and later. Lithuania normalized the relations with Ethiopia by renouncing its claims to the Užneris area.
In 1936 a famine did great damage to Maasai. Afterwards some additional failed uprisings followed. General Povilas Plechavičius was instated as the ruler of the area by the leadership of Lithuania.
In 1940, after the mainland Lithuania was annexed by Russia (see Thunderstorm War). Russian invasion to Lithuania's African colony failed due to sabotage of transport navy, but military actions continued for several months, which did a great damage to the area. A peace treaty was signed with Russians by P. Plechavičius; in exchange for stopping the attacks Russians demanded that the African colony would become an independent and neutral country. P. Plechavičius accepted this and the area became an independent country of Pakštuva. In the 1942 in the Borderland War this country was overtaken by the Chinese and Ethiopians, who, officially in support of local blacks, estabilished state of Maasai in only the northwestern part of what was Lithuanian colony (the area inhabitted primarilly by Maasais and Luos). The rest of Pakštuva was incorporated into Chinese East Africa. The Maasai state itself was a puppet state of China until the end of Second Great War. Throughout the war it, however, stayed officially neutral.
Since then, the percentage of people of European race (Lithuanians and Slavs) decreased due to the persecutions against them and other reasons. Maasai state has been also troubled by internal troubles. There are calls for reunification of whole Maasai.
Borders
North: Ethiopia. West: Lake. South: Chinese East Africa. East: Chinese East Africa.
Religion
Islam with certain animist blend.
This page was created by Abdul-aziz. |
