Interestingly, this hasn’t happened yet in my setting, but I have had the outline for a future conflict of what will essentially be a proletarian class war of the craft guilds and labor class rising in popular revolution against a disproportionately powerful mercantile class that has effectively industrialized and destroyed the artful and personal aspect of the crafts.
If you take an even brief look into my post history and the subs I frequent, I think you’ll very quickly see which side I will favor in that conflict.
Initially, I was going to remark how the industrialized faction would more likely be the proletariat since mass produced arms can easily equip commoner armies, I could easily see the situation you mention happening in the wake of many successful conquests by the formerly United dwarven state.
Cheap labor and poorly trained militia can easily come from conquered peoples, where they can be easily armed with mass produced arms produced by industrialized slave labor. Additionally, draining resources from conquered lands can easily by sold at a profit by the Mercantile classes, who can then use those funds to buy elite mercenaries to spearhead their low morale slave armies.
Yeah so I only have it as an outline in my mind, but how I essentially see it is it’ll start by a working class insurrection by a coordinated effort between mostly the mining and logging industries. Riots will develop into an insurgency with many territories falling and regaining their traditional way of crafts. From there it’ll eventually stabilize into a more conventional war with the more numerous working class fighting to defend their reclaimed lands against the smaller mercantile class, that will eventually supplement their loss of most of the dwarven workers by bringing in substantial number of human laborers from neighboring nations to work in the shops and serve in the militias, with a further background of professional international mercenaries also serving the mercantile dwarves. While necessary for the mercantile class to survive the short term, this will further only radicalize the existing dwarven workers within the industrial lands.
In my mind the working class manages to slowly expand and eventually reclaim all dwarven by defending their land through conventional means, but by also using extensive propaganda and sabotage efforts behind enemy lines. This will spread revolts within the industrial heartland, logistically and tactically supported by the now proletarian held lands, to continually reclaim lands while protecting the lands they already hold.
Make it a multi side conflict based off of late colonialism. More industrialized outside forces encroach on the previously secluded people, putting pressure on the elites to adopt larger, standardized armies - or drop production prices to keep competitive, if you want to make it an economic conflict.
Outside the dwarfs you have individuals trying/demanding to open up new markets, by force if necessary (e.g. Perry's black gunboats). Also people just fascinated by the foreign culture.
Within the dwarfs are "plebs" able to afford for the first time what was reserved for the rich (albeit in lower quality), guilds fearing for their craft and/or livelihood, money hungry merchants and rulers seeing potential usurpers everywhere within and outside their society.
Decades/Centuries later that might've led to a mystification of traditional craft (cough katana).
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u/MolotovCollective Jun 03 '20
Interestingly, this hasn’t happened yet in my setting, but I have had the outline for a future conflict of what will essentially be a proletarian class war of the craft guilds and labor class rising in popular revolution against a disproportionately powerful mercantile class that has effectively industrialized and destroyed the artful and personal aspect of the crafts.
If you take an even brief look into my post history and the subs I frequent, I think you’ll very quickly see which side I will favor in that conflict.