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Before 1924, the archipelago of Altagal had been ruled by the Empire of Brenas for a millennium. Brenas was primarily a spanish-speaking nation and as such, the Imperial administration sought to assimilate these territories into the Empire. This was initially met with violence and armed resistance, led by the native population of Indigenous Altagalians and the Celts. They kept resisting relentlessly for centuries, forming organized communes to combat Brenan influence. The Brenans managed to settle the central section of the Main Island without many issues, but they were faced with fierce opposition pretty much elsewhere.

By 1889, the Brenan Empire had begun to decline and a Regenerationist movement arose within the Empire. They didn't agree on many issues but they were all united in a common goal: the resurgence of Brenas as a force to be reckoned with. And General Juan Gómez, who was the highest authority within the Protectorate of Altagal, decided to launch a swift military campaign against the independent Celtic and Indigenous communes that had sprung up in the departments of Ydel, Caria, Linaj and Remolia. The Emperor of Brenas was highly suspicious of Gómez but his royal cabinet persuaded him to sign the order, which formally announced a state of martial law in the aforementioned departments. The operation was absolutely brutal, villages were burned and crops were destroyed across the entire region. Eventually, the Emperor dismissed General Gómez as the head of the Protectorate in 1901 but he refused to back down, which led to the Invasion of Altagal a year later and the dissolution of the Protectorate of Altagal.

The local population initially welcomed the Brenan Army in its special military operation against General Gómez's forces, which were forced to flee into the departments of Delan Ambriano. In 1895, the Free Communes even agreed to be integrated into the Empire if they were allowed to keep the majority of the land they held before Gómez's operation and a degree of autonomy, to which the Emperor of Brenas, Iñaki II, gladly accepted. But over the years, the Empire's forces were also engaged in violent repression against the local population. Eventually, they even began angering the bulk of Altagal's population: Brenan descendants. It also didn't help that due to the archipelago being far away from the Brenan mainland, the Empire had issues regulating the entry of goods into the area, leading to foreign products and ideas being smuggled into the islands. Three groups began forming in this period, all of which advocated for independence and the severing of ties with the Royal Crown of Brenas. However, they all varied drastically in how to achieve that and what shape an independent Altagalian state should take, those groups were:

• People's Liberation Army: The PLA was a socialist paramilitary organisation operating in clandestinity. Its main objective after achieving independence was establishing a worker's republic in Altagal. It was founded in 1895 and its main base of support came from Hispanic workers and intellectuals, which were primarily concentrated in large, urban centres.

  

• Altagalian Republican Underground Movement: The ARUM was the biggest underground resistance movement in Altagal during this time. Their focus was on establishing a republican and liberal state. It was founded in 1897 by a group of small businessmen, farmers, intellectuals and workers who met secretly inside a warehouse in Newport. The ARUM enjoyed a broad degree of support from both the countryside and the more urban areas of the archipelago and that positioned them quite well for when the power vacuum was created when the Brenans were forced out by the alliance of the three underground movements.

  

• The 1902 Committee: The 1902 Committee, which was also referred to as "The Nationals", was an organisation led by the Duke of Ajax, Duke Manuel. He immigrated with his family at the beginning of the 1890s. He once was at the top of the Brenan political system, but he decided to leave to enjoy the beauty of Altagal. But that wasn't his real plan. In reality, he was funding political rivals in the mainland to orchestrate a coup to create as much chaos as possible, which in turn, would enable him to become the King of Altagal. He often portrayed himself as a down-to-earth person, a humble fellow, which made him popular in the Altagalian countryside.

  
  

By the year 1899, Juan Gómez's forces had been forced into the mountains of the departments of Delan Ambriano and subsequently destroyed by the forces of the Autonomous Communes and the Imperial Armed Forces of Brenas. For the next two decades, the Empire would carry out military operations targeting dissenting groups within the Province of Altagal, to combat the recent escalation of violence targeted at Brenan law enforcement and military outposts. This would ensure the Empire's relative stability for the time being. That is, until 1922.

But for the time being, Altagal would remain under the banner of the Brenan Empire. After the Western Expedition and the return of Imperial Forces, a new Governor for the region was installed. The first of which, was Governor Aburto, under his rule, the economy began to boom and poverty rates fell steadly, however he was forced to resign after ordering the assasination of a group of political dissidents in 1904. The next Governor Gorroño gained a reputation for being corrupt and mismanaging the impoverished economy of Altagal. This only fueled separatist sentiments and anti-Brenan underground resistance.

In 1922, the incumbent Emperor of Brenas, Emperor Iñaki III, died. This created a massive outburst of public discontent and protests, as now there were two factions inside Brenas, each one defending different candidates' ascension to the Royal Throne. This soon devolved into a civil war, in which the supporters of the absolutist Iñaki III battled against the reformist Mariano I. In Altagal, major population centres in the region of Sayr and Ambriano rose in favour of Mariano against Iñaki III, who had illegally proclaimed himself Emperor. In response, Mariano proclaimed the dissolution of the Empire of Brenas and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Brenas, thus endorsing the revolution that was seeking to place him on the throne.

Altagal initially supported Mariano, until a third faction arose in the conflict, the People's Republic of Brenas, led by a coalition of republican, progressive and communist forces. After these recent developments, many in the Province of Altagal decided to jump ship. There now was a three-way civil war going on in the Province. In this environment, the Autonomous Communes declared independence from Brenas in 1924, reestablishing the Free Communes. But the Free Communes realised something: if they wanted to remain independent after the Brenan Civil War ended, they'd have to gather the necessary strength to stand up to the forces that both Mariano or Iñaki would muster to reclaim the Empire's old holdings. So, representatives from each of the communes member cities and representatives from the ARUM and the PLA decided to meet in Belford (Linaj) to declare the Independence of Altagal and the proclamation of the Altagalian United Front, over the course of three years, the communists would take over the United Front entirely. In response, the 1902 committee decided to rally the Catholic Church, the farmers and the conservatives to their side and they decided to proclaim the Kingdom of Altagal in the city of Corgo (Delan).

Not long after, the two rival governments of Altagal began fighting each other, along with the other three factions of the Brenan civil war. The war became a gruelling one, but for a time, it seemed like the Kingdom of Altagal was gaining the upper hand in the conflict. By 1926, the last Brenan forces had left the country and the Kingdom's forces now fully controlled Ambriano and South Island as well as most of Sayr. Duke Manuel then ordered an assault on the United Front's western positions in the province border between Sayr, Linaj and Remolia, which would be accompanied by an uprising in the zone. The plan succeded, but the Duke had diverted resources from its eastern flanks, allowing the Front to launch a counteroffensive towards the Southern Straits. For the next year, fighting would take place along these lines, until Marshall Lara entered the scene.

Marshall Lara had previously served in the Imperial Armed Forces of Brenas and had experienced major battles during the Western Expedition. Now, it was his turn to make history. He gathered the support of generals on both sides of the war and swayed them to his side. He launched his plans into action in 1928, the tables had turned completely. Public opinion was now on the Marshall's side and the United Front's and the Kingdom's were numbered. One by one, cities and villages across the country fell to his forces. In 1930, the last forces of the United Front would surrender and in 1931, Duke Manuel would flee into exile and his forces would surrender in the same mountains they once rose in. The National Rvolution was complete and the war was over at last, but the damage would not fully be repaired for generations.

The civil war had terrible consequences for the entire country. Inflation was rampant, 88% of the population lived under the poverty line, there were deep economic and social inequalities and the country was now the poorest in the world, only a miracle could get the country out of the hellhole it found itself in. Marshall Lara began working inmediatly on a new democratic constitution, but in the meantime, he formed a cabinet formed by expert policy makers and former ARUM members. The cabinet launched a massive campagain of public works between Altagal's most productive cities to propell economic growth and generous contracts were offerred in order to decrease unemployment and increase average salaries. This worked, and by 1933, three years after Marshall Lara won the Civil War the economy had fully recovered. And by 1932, a new constitution had been drafted. So Marshall Lara decided to step down from the Provisional Government in order to run in the 1933 Presidential Elections. He faced notable opposition from both left-wing and right-wing candidates but in the end, he managed to remain President, without the need of a Second Round of voting amongst the two most prominent candidates.

After the 1933 Presidential and Legislative Elections, Lara's control over the nation was solidified and swift changes were implamented to amend the situation. The list includes: an income tax around 10-35% was implamented, which many people simply refused to pay and most of the time the authorities would simply turn a blind eye because it was in the best of their interests; the government invested into the western provinces in order to take their economies out of the depression, and while that did succeed, those provinces were still underdeveloped in a lot of ways and much more work would have to be done in order to fix that; the Fair Trade and Competition Regulatory Board was also established, with the aim of regulating the economy to stomp out monopolies to also impose tariffs on exports in order to increase state revenue and oversight over the economy; rent controls were put in place, which tanked the supply of housing and caused prices to stagnante; the Army was purged and eliminated of all opposition to the Lara Administration and Healthcare and Education were nationalized. All of this changes were part of Lara's Grand "New Society".

Lara is a man who painted himself as a liberal but in reality, his policies were more leaning towards nationalism and corporativism. That wasn't only limited to him, but to the entire Reform Party and the Liberal Party. The last one was a smaller party which entered the Administration because Lara had fallen short of a Parliamentary Majority and represented those who were initially part of the Reform Party but preferred the Liberal Party because it was more moderate in advocating for essentially the same social and economic policies. Speaking of which, under the First Lara Government, the media began being used as nothing but a tool to gain political leverage over their political opponents. This would have allowed for a very profitable scenario for President Lara if it hadn't been for one whistleblower who decided to leak the scandal through multiple independent media outlets and eventually, even the ones Lara belived to be loyal to him and only him turned against him. This had costed him his parliamentary majority in the 1937 Legislative Election and almost the presidency in the 1937 Presidential Election but he was spared from that fate due to the fact that the left-wing candidate for the presidency, Antonio Pérez, was disqualified and decided to then endorse Lara after being bribed to do so. This enabled Lara to win the second round of voting with a comfortable margin and so, the Second Lara Government began.