Rim War


Rim War
Part of Age of War
Start Date 2418
End Date 2422
Planet Rimwards of the Confederation
Result These Pyrrhic "victories" gained Chancellor Baxter the worlds of Zanzibar, Corodiz and Mendham
Factions
Capellan Confederation Taurian Concordat
Commanders and leaders
Chancellor Kurnath Liao;
Chancellor Aleisha Liao;
Chancellor Arden Baxter
Richard Calderon;
Daniel Calderon
Environment
Standard
Conditions
Normal


History[edit]

The Rim War was a border conflict between the Capellan Confederation and the Taurian Concordat fought between 2418 and 2422.[1] The origins of the Rim War lay twenty years earlier, in 2397, when Chancellor Kurnath Liao began attempting to push the Taurian Concordat out of the region Rimwards of the Confederation. The Concordat, under Protectors Richard Calderon and later Daniel Calderon, had established several military outposts/naval bases along their borders with the Inner Sphere to provide advanced warning in case of attack by Inner Sphere nations.[2][3] Kurnath Liao sought those developed sites to grow his nation at the expense of the Concordat. The Capellan Navy began raiding those and other Concordat worlds and continued off-and-on for 20 years, not always surviving contact with the Taurian Navy.[4]

After Arden Baxter succeeded Aleisha Liao, Kurnath's daughter, as Chancellor, he began remodeling the Confederation along the lines of the older Capellan Republic. These republican ideals included reducing the size of the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces, which saw many experienced officers retire; however, whilst reducing the size of the military, Baxter then launched a campaign against the "border pirates" of the Periphery - a recipe for disaster on the part of the overtaxed CCAF. With so many experienced officers gone, the junior officers responsible for the campaign soon demonstrated that they had no idea how to fight such a war, and rapidly began displaying a lack of aptitude for strategy and tactics that was matched only by their savage brutality.[1] The young and ambitious Capellan officers sought to outdo each other in their victories, leading to savage reprisals and wholesale slaughter of civilians when they would not submit to Capellan rule. The Taurians very quickly followed suit, perpetrating even worse cruelties on captured Capellans.[5]

The Taurian Concordat was one of only two significant nations to have refused to sign the Ares Conventions, the other being the United Hindu Collective; while the Collective feared that the Conventions would serve to legitimize warfare as the preferred option for resolving disputes, the Concordat had refused to sign because they distrusted the intentions of the Confederation's rulers.[6] As a consequence, the CCAF felt free to use weapons of mass destruction against the Periphery "barbarians", leading to both sides taking untold numbers of casualties - both military and civilian.[1]

These Pyrrhic "victories" gained Chancellor Baxter the worlds of Zanzibar, Corodiz and Mendham but had cost his nation far more than the Confederation could keep paying.[7][8] By early 2422, Baxter was forced to call a halt to the fighting to save his own political future. By then Amanda Calderon was Protector and with her former Regent Admiral Sigur Fonn she negotiated an end to the war. But Baxter attempted to go further that just peace; he proposed a 'thousand world alliance' of the Confederation and Concordat as well as the smaller interstellar entities between them. Advised by Admiral Fonn, Amanda rejected this blatantly anti-Marik offer, instead choosing a path of neutrality.[9]

Notes[edit]

The Periphery, First Edition and House Liao (The Capellan Confederation) are inconsistent in terms of the date of the Rim War; with the publication of Era Digest: Age of War, the dates were formalized, and it is the dates from the latter publication that are used in this article, in accordance with the policy on precedence of sources.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Era Digest: Age of War, p. 9: "Rim War (2418-2422)"
  2. The Periphery, First Edition, p. 20
  3. House Davion (The Federated Suns), p. 34
  4. House Liao (The Capellan Confederation), p. 32
  5. The Periphery, First Edition, p. 20
  6. Era Digest: Age of War, p. 13: "The Ares Conventions"
  7. House Liao (The Capellan Confederation), p. 33
  8. Field Manual: Periphery, p. 47
  9. The Periphery, First Edition, p. 20

Bibliography[edit]