Third Anglo-Virginian War

Third Anglo-Virginian War
Date 18 April 1874- 11 February 1875 Location Salvatia Result British Victory
Belligerents
Republic of Virginia	United Kingdom
	New England
	Canada

The Third Anglo-Virginian War (1874-1875) was a conflict between the Republic of Virginia and the United Kingdom and its allies over the ownership of Salvatia in West Africa. Salvatia was colonized by Black Virginians who followed Zoekerism. The war ended in British victory and Salvatia would become part of the British Empire. The fallout from the war would result in the Economic Collapse in Virginia and the end of the Second Republic of Virginia.

Background

Virginia became an independent nation following the Second Anglo-Virginian War (1852-1854) against the United Kingdom. Relations between the two countries had been strained since despite healthy trade. Virginia was left with a large free black population along with a minor Dutch speaking population. Race relations were tense and the spread of Zoerkerism did not help. Zoerkerism is a religion that mixes Protestantism and various traditional West African religious beliefs. Their beliefs center around a supreme creator, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as the pursuit for truth, freedom, and homeland. Zoerkerism was meet with hostility by black and white Virginia, but continued to develop. By the late 1860s, Zoerkerist made up the majority of Black Virginians and Prime Minister Richard Churchill expanded religious freedoms to the group in political alliance with Piet de Kotter, the self exiled Zoerkerist spiritual leader in 1867. In exchange, his congregation would continue their support Churchill's party, the Rationalists, in elections.

Churchill had other plans as well. He wanted to expand Virginian influence abroad and supported the Zoerkerist pursuit of a new homeland. So long as Virginia had some control over it. Between the British colonies of Gambia and Sierra Leone, Salvatia was founded in 1868 by 400 Black Virginians led by 'Red' Benjamin Walker. Walker was a close associate of de Kotter with strict orders to convert the natives and if failing to force them off their land. Many scholars doubt Walker's claims as de Kotter showed himself to be openminded while Protector of South Tussenland. Either way, Walker followed those orders. As the natives were primarily Sunni Muslims, with a small Catholic minority, they did not accept the Zoerkerist conversion efforts. Both sides would soon respond in violence and were evenly matched. However, anther wave of colonists would arrive a long with soldiers led by Colonel Anthony Clarke.

Clarke did not support Zoerkerism nor wished to help Black Virginians for their sack. He did however invest heavily into the Virginian African Company (VAC) and needed Salvatia to turn a profit. He began a brutal campaign down the coast throughout 1868 to pacify native resistance in the region. He was successful for the most part, but Clarke would bedridden by a fever and die on 12 January 1869. The town of Clarke would be named in his honor.

BY 1874, there were nearly 50,000 colonist in Salvatia and dozens of minor settlements across the coast. Though the only major ones were Clarke, Grandchurch and Port Victoria. Clarke was the military stronghold of the colony. The colony's arsenal and command center was in the town. General Matthew Washington, who had resigned from Parliament and accepted a commission following Clarke's death, set up his residency there. Grandchurch was the first place the Zoerkerist colonists arrived and they treated it as a holy city. They made pilgrimages to it and traveled to it for special holidays. Port Victoria was the largest port in the colony.