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The Directivist Revolution was an waged in Cervera between the Congressionalist government of the Cerveran Third Republic and Directivists and their allies united in the Popular Liberation Front of Cervera. Born out of the instability of the Third Republic following the end of SiWallqanqa occupation in 1925, the revolution began following the suspension of elections and declaration of emergency powers by incumbent Cerveran president Federico Chavez Bustamante in 1928, reneging on a prior agreement with Directivist leadership to conduct open and fair elections as scheduled. Subsequent fighting, which assumed both a and  format, claimed approximately 80,000 lives on both sides, with the majority of the dead being from disease. Heavy fighting also resulted in the death or displacement of approximately 100,000 civilians, decimating the predominantly agrarian economy. Directivist forces declared victory in 1931 with the fall of Matanzas, though pockets of Congressionalist control remained throughout the southern highlands and Macaré River basin until 1934.

Background
From its independence in 1818, Cervera was plagued by financial insolvency, corruption, and political instability; its fragile First Republic collapsed in 1848 after a conservative plot to install an Agranian royal as monarch succeeded. The Kingdom of Cervera which followed was able to balance finances and secure recognition from much of the Artemian World but lacked legitimacy among the masses, being perceived as little more than a recolonization; its king Carlos II was deposed and executed in 1869, ushering in a Second Republic which, though ostensibly more liberal, came to be dominated by caudillismo and patronage politics, while running a heavy national debt.

By 1915, mounting debt to SiWallqanqa and reduced tax income from a land reform brought things to a breaking point. In October of that year, President Rogelio Batista announced a moratorium on debt repayments for the 1916 fiscal year among other austerity measures, citing the need to balance the budget; this announcement was followed by riots throughout the country during which several SiWallqanqa nationals were killed. The resultant diplomatic incident, coupled with conservative movements against the Batista government fueled by resentment of land democratization, led to a coup in August of that year in which a junta under Colonel Xavier Rios was installed with SiWallqanqa backing.

The Rios government, heavily dependent upon SiWallqanqa support, would endure until 1925 when SiWallqanqa forces withdrew from the country. This withdrawal left a power vacuum which Republicans, Directivists, anarchists and other political movements sought to fill.

Interim Government (1925-28)
In March 1925, with Rios deposed and in exile, an interim government under the provisions of the 1869 Constitution was declared with jurist Federico Bustamante Chavez as interim President. Bustamante, though politically conservative, was viewed as primarily loyal to the constitution and thus acceptable to the major political classes as a placeholder for planned elections the following year. Economic instability and political violence caused several delays to this timeline, weakening Bustamante's already tenuous position. By 1927, the National Directivist Party had emerged as the clear front-runner of the populist movements and was considered likely to win a plurality of seats in the National Assembly and perhaps even the Presidency if permitted to run. Alarmed at this possibility, leadership of the historically dominant Traditionalist and Liberal parties pressured Bustamante to take action against the Directivists; instead, he chose to meet with Directivist leader Raul Garcia and negotiate a series of promises from the Directivists, namely that they would respect the results of the election and, if in the majority, would uphold the liberal democratic nature of the government. Garcia acceded to these conditions but set forth his own condition, that peace on the part of the Directivists would be contingent upon free access to the ballot. Privately, Bustamante hoped that by bringing Garcia into the democratic fold, he would be sufficiently discredited among his followers to reduce his party's returns at the polls. His backers, however, did not share this optimism, and pressured Bustamante into outlawing the National Directivist Party, which he did in October 1927 with less than a year until the scheduled elections.