History of the Taurian Concordat

Revision as of 07:23, 20 July 2017 by Wrangler (talk | contribs) (adding additional info, i guess this file was forgotten. Things did happen during the Succession Wars.)

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Origins

In 2331, Taurian explorers discovered the first of 18 neighboring refugee settlements. For example, the world of Deifenbaker was settled by refugees of the war between the Sarna Supremacy and the Capellan Hegemony. Expecting hostilities from larger Inner Sphere aggressors, Richard Calderon negotiated a new government in the first year of his reign, 2335; Richard became the first Protector of the Realm of the Taurian Concordat - the Concordat military would be centrally governed, but planetary affairs would be completely autonomous. The nascent Concordat consisted of 17 refugee settlements and all 12 colonized Taurian worlds. Only Mandaree declined the invitation to join the Concordat.

Inner Sphere Hostilities

The Taurians began preparations for war when an exploration and survey mission led by Tracy Ashton Pendelton discovered and freed 15,000 slave laborers from the Federated Suns world of Tentativa in 2360. The prisoners had been taken captive during a Federated Suns assault on the Sarna Supremacy world Bell in 2355. Convinced of the barbarism of the Inner Sphere, by 2368, the Taurian Concordat was prepared when it was inadvertently discovered by "Freicorps" retainers of the Tikonov Union noble Lord Tormassov fleeing the Capellan Confederation. Pursuing Capellan forces commanded by Anthony LeBlanc discovered the "Freicorps" in Taurian space, forcing the Tikonov troops to commandeer Taurian vessels and flee - into a Federated Suns flotilla stationed at Sanurcha. Though the Tikonov "Freicorps" were able to escape (and were never heard from again), the Capellan pursuit also encountered the flotilla and was destroyed. The Federated Suns navy began probing its periphery border expecting to find Capellan colonies - and discovered the Concordat. The Taurians were forced to fight off the Davion invasion through 2371, and have since been extremely paranoid of the Federated Suns.

The Concordat maintained a tense state of armed neutrality in the Age of War but, unlike its Inner Sphere counterparts, it also devoted a major portion of its resources toward improving life for its citizens. On occasion, the success of the Taurian way of life benefited the Inner Sphere as well. Economically, the Capellan Confederation, the Federated Suns and the Taurian Concordat all prospered by trading together during the late 25th and early 26th centuries. Jasmine Liao improved the Capellan education system by modeling it on that of the Concord in the 25th century, and the Federated Suns revamped its educational system along Taurian lines in the first decade of the new millennium.

At the birth of the Star League, the Concord posed something of a problem. The Taurians, unlike every other major Periphery realm, boasted a better economy, a superb education system, and finer artistic achievements than some of the Great Houses. Further, the TDF posed an actual threat, being well-equipped, well-trained, and fiercely patriotic. Starting in 2573, the Taurians were forced to fight for more than two decades against Inner Sphere forces under the banner of the Star League. Hostilities began when a Taurian fleet accidentally entered the neutral Malagrotta system. Negotiated in 2511, the Omsol Accord stipulated the titanium rich moon of Fontana was jointly mined by Federated Suns and Taurian mining operations. A Davion armada entered the system in response, destroying two ships and capturing a third. Months later, Caterina Calderon offered an apology, but too late.

Reunification War

Main article: Reunification War

Though the Taurian Concordat fought a long, bitter struggle with the SLDF, the inevitable outcome of the Reunification War left the Concord in ruin. The Taurian Concordat was left with planets either spared war by the surrender of Protector Marantha Calderon in 2596, or were left with ravaged populations, industries and environments by the scorched-earth military campaign of General Amos Forlough. Choice worlds conquered but not destroyed by the SLDF were annexed by the neighboring Federated Suns, leaving the Concordat a specter of its former glory. Even battered into submission, and stripped of most of its territory, the Taurians never renounced their dream of a free and independent state.

Territorial Period

Marantha's distant nephew Henry Calderon became the next Protector of the Realm in 2596, but Marantha Calderon's suicide made his position difficult. Though he did not want the position, Henry realized that without a Protector the Taurian people would face extreme hardship as a Star League Territorial State. Henry cemented his people's love through two actions:

  • Henry negotiated the removal of Star League garrison forces by 2605. Henry argued that the SLDF was required elsewhere, and that the presence of foreign garrisons provoked further panic among the Taurian people.
  • During a heated trade debate in the Star League High Council between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Terran Hegemony, Henry offered the views of the Taurian people. When Henry was reproached for his actions, he replied, "You fought to force my people to be represented here. You will not keep my voice from representing them."

33 years into his reign, Henry decided that he wanted an unambiguous and legitimate succession. A vote was held, each citizen of the Concord being given a single vote. The Taurian people overwhelmingly endorsed Henry to choose his own successor. Henry chose his four-year old niece Consuelo, and her uncle, Carlos Calderon, as "Protector, to the Protector". Consuelo would assume full Protectorship in 2650, at which time Carlos became her representative to the Star League High Council, the only member that did not rule a realm. Consuelo was a great stateswoman. After the death of Carlos, Consuelo represented herself on the High Council, and in 2667 became the first Periphery sovereign to preside over the Star League High Council during a First Lord's absence.

Through the Territorial Period, the Concord was able to maintain its identity through two ways. During the beginning of Henry Calderon's reign, Taurian nationalism was under fire. Taurian nationalism was initially maintained through the reemergence of wandering Taurian troubadours. Though outlaws, troubadours would travel from world to world, invading (disinterested) local authorities, and singing ballads about Taurian history. Even after Henry's reign, Star League propaganda throughout the Periphery tended to encourage loyalty among Periphery denizens not to one's nation, but to the Star League itself. The second factor in maintaining Taurian national identity was the educational reforms of Reginald Calderon in his Education Reform Act of 2678. The Act helped in two ways:

  • The educational system within the Concord has maintained the highest literacy rates in the Human Sphere since Reginald Calderon.
  • Star League sponsored education through the Periphery, though ubiquitous, really was an instrument of indoctrination.

As a result of increasingly harsh rule under the Star League, tensions with the Star League began to grow increasingly strained. After the death of Simon Cameron, the situation escalated. With the ascension of Richard Cameron in 2762, Territorial States (indeed all States within the Human Sphere) were unilaterally subjected to steep tax hikes. Suspecting another invasion was imminent, Protector Nicoletta Calderon diverted her economy to arms production. In the midst of a Sphere-wide arms build-up, the New Vandenburg Crisis began in early 2765. Protector Nicoletta Calderon gave 18 Taurian worlds her blessing to secede from the Star League. Because the Taurian Concordat at least nominally remained a "loyal" Territorial State, the Star League Defence Force, dispatched by First Lord Richard, could not simply invade. The standoff drew Aleksandr Kerensky's attention, and required the redeployment of enough troops that, in December, the Rim Worlds Republic garrisoned the entire Terran Hegemony, and Stefan Amaris assassinated the First Lord.

Main article: Amaris Civil War

In the wake of the Amaris Civil War, Nicoletta left perhaps her most important legacy, when during the final session of the Star League High Council, she proposed the formation of ComStar under the leadership of Jerome Blake. Her reasoning was sound - without a neutral, central body to maintain communication and technology, it was debatable if Humanity would ever re-achieve the pinnacle from which it was in clear decline. The communications, so crucial for diplomacy and central government, remained free, despite the horrors of the Succession Wars yet to come.

With the fall of the League and the beginning of the Succession Wars, the Taurians became free of interference from the House Lords of the Inner Sphere, and their independence has grown stronger.

Periphery Politics

In the last two centuries, the Taurians have not participated in the Succession Wars. However, immunity from the Succession Wars has not resulted to peace and unlimited expansion.

The Taurians began a conflict with the Magistracy of Canopus, a land-grab to oust the Canopians from jointly colonized Capellan March settlements. Semyon Calderon began the operation to annex Rockwellawan and Detroit, in order to bolster the Concord in the event of another Inner Sphere invasion. The invasion was terribly unsuccessful, leading the Magistracy to counter-invade Portan[1] (probably a misspelling of Portland) and Spencer. Also horribly executed, both invasion forces were severely bloodied and forced to return home.

As a result, the Taurians have faced raids (and have conducted raids) on their Anti-Spinward border (with the Magistracy of Canopus) and their Spinward border (pirates). Therefore, the Concord has been obliged to maintain a large and efficient military. This, combined with the Concord's forced dependence on the Star League, and the economic backlash of the Reunification War, has stalled Taurian expansion efforts. The Taurian Concordat has required two centuries of relative peace to recover to the point of renewed expansion, a point of development they had reached centuries earlier.

Ignatius Calderon also had to deal with the ultimate Taurian civic dilemma, the balance between a centralized government guaranteeing freedoms, and anarchy. During the "Constitutional Crisis" of the 2850s, crime, corruption, anarchy and other civic problems began to intensify. The situation became almost untenable, as Loyal Oppositionists rallied to suspend civil liberties while militant libertarians protested (violently), and targeted public Oppositionist figureheads. The situation became a vicious cycle as public opinion swayed toward the Oppositionist camp. Ignatius settled the debate in 2860, when he pledged to increase funding to enhance civil protection to the fullest extent allowed by Taurian law without suspending any liberties. Ignatius fulfilled his pledge, which pacified the libertarians, drained the Loyal Oppositionist's support, and improved Taurian quality of life.

The Pleiades Campaign

In the April of 3066 two DropShips of the Fighting Urukhai arrived over Taurus. Because they were Overlords of a Davion employed mercenary unit, had reached the capital of the Concordat without a guide leading them through the Hyades, and were approaching fast from a Pirate Jump Point the TDF destroyed both ships without asking questions.

The Urukhai claimed that the mercenaries just wanted to bargain for a contract and in August DeMaestri's Sluggers the second regiment of the Urukhai assaulted Taurus out of revenge. They caused great damage on the capital and its defending units before being destroyed completely by the combined Taurian Guards.

Protector Grover Shraplen saw this incident as a Davion attack to weaken the Concordat's defenses and ordered more units to the Federated Suns' border. Shraplen's rule was not very stable but because the only alternative was young Erik Martens-Calderon his opponents, in particular Marshal Baron Cham Kithrong, could not muster enough popular support to unseat him. So Kithrong and his followers declared the independence of the Calderon Protectorate and Shraplen was not able to convince the military to attack the rebels for most Taurians sympathized with Kithrong's intentions and wanted no outright civil war.

So Shraplen refocused his attention on the Davionists again. In the January of 3067 he ordered preemptive strikes into the Federated Suns' territory that initially made remarkable progress and exploited the weakness of the Suns in the wake of the FedCom Civil War by conquering the worlds of Hyalite, Lothair, Midale, Brockway and Lindsay until March. The successes of the campaign and the proximity to their ancient homeworlds led the Pleiades Hussars and the Pleiades Lancers to proceed without orders into the Pleiades Cluster. In the meantime Duke George Hasek II could assemble a mercenary force large enough to take on the invaders. The counter assault hit the Taurian Force hard and by March the Federated Suns had retaken every world except the Cluster worlds. The Pleiades Hussars' passionate defense of their former homeworlds increased the popular support for the campaign and for Shraplen himself. He planned now to occupy the Cluster until the Fourth Whitting Conference in November where he wanted to point out the legitimate claim of the Taurian Concordat to the worlds lost to the SLDF during the Reunification War and to regain them on the formal way. Although his plans were thwarted by the disbanding of the Star League, the chaos of the following Jihad gained the Concordat the control over the Pleiades and of a few other worlds.

The Jihad

In 3068 the Taurian Concordat had initiated combat actions against the breakaway Calderon Protectorate and the 3rd Taurian Lancers had been tasked with the conquest of the Protectorate world of Marknick. The mercenary Black Angus Boys had been contracted to support the offensive operations against the Protectorate, but refused to defend the 3rd Lancers' landing zone when the Lancers found themselves the target of a counterattack by the 1st Taurian Pride. The Black Angus Boys' refusal to support the Lancers effectively ended the entire campaign against the Protectorate.[2]

In March 3069 the AFFS forces in the Capellan March had spent more than a year fighting as a part of Duke George Hasek's Operation SOVEREIGN JUSTICE, an offensive against the Capellan Confederation. The CCAF counter-offensive, Operation THUNDERSTRIKE, forced Hasek to recall his forces from Capellan space to reinforce Capellan March worlds as the CCAF struck against numerous worlds in quick secession; as the AFFS troops withdrew, the Concordat used the opportunity to send reinforcements into the Pleiades Cluster between the 21st and 28th of March.[3]

On the 1st of May 3074 Protector Shraplen was killed in an asteroid strike that destroyed the capital city Samantha on Taurus. Evidence discovered in the asteroid field and on the remains of the asteroids on Taurus implicated the Federated Suns, a conclusion that House Davion denied vehemently.[4][5] The Concordat responded by relocating its Rimward forces to the Federated Suns border - forces which included a newly unveiled Quixote-class WarShip, the TCS Vendetta.[4][6]

At the end of May 3074 the Taurian Concordat launched a second invasion of the Federated Suns; by the end of June, the first wave had captured the worlds of Brockway, Bromhead, Hyalite, Lothair and Midale. During the capture of three of these worlds - Brockway, Bromhead and Midale - the Taurian invasions were supported with nuclear weapons, destroying various AFFS pickets; as a result, by the end of June more than ten million Federated Suns civilians and military personnel had been killed.[4][6]

During July 3074 the Taurian Concordat second wave of the invasion created another pincer directed towards the Pleiades Cluster, capturing the worlds of Carmichael, Diefenbaker, Lindsay, Lothair and Warren.[4][6] A third wave of attacks launched in January and February 3075 captured the worlds of Horsham, Mendham and Robsart, but the Taurian forces sent to capture Brusett were shattered by the defending Hansen's Roughriders, and the Federated Suns launched a counter-offensive in February using a mix of AFFS troops, militia forces and mercenaries. The Federated Suns troops quickly recaptured Hyalite and turned the battle for Warren into a stalemate, although the attack on Lothair was successfully repelled.[6][7] Despite the Federated Suns counterattack, the Concordat seized Wrentham in April, capitalizing on the damage inflicted by the Word of Blake raid on the world in February.[6][8]

The Word of Blake's 22nd Militia struck at the Capellan March world of Brusett on the 30th of May 3075. The Federated Suns responded by mustering and deploying a small flotilla of ships including the WarShip FCS Kathil to the system to stave off an anticipated attack by the Concordat; Taurian forces arrived in the Brusett system in late June, and on the 30th of June the TCS Vendetta and the FCS Kathil battled over Brusett. The TCS Vendetta was forced to retreat, but the FCS Kathil was lost in the battle, and several major cities on the planet suffered horrendous collateral damage due to the nuclear weapons both sides used in orbit and within the planetary atmosphere.[9][10]

A part of the Federated Suns counter-offensive against the Concordat involved using Hansen's Roughriders to strike at worlds within the Taurian Concordat. The Roughriders used a mix of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons captured on Hyalite to attack Amber Grove on the 15th of April 3075, destroying the local militia, the spaceport and the central military headquarters before spending several weeks destroying any target of significant military or industrial value on the planet. The Roughriders then subverted the mercenary unit on Perdition, Longwood's Bluecoats, before striking at the world in late July, destroying the Perdition factory complexes. The Roughriders attacked Grossbach in early September,[10] and then Sterope on the 21st of November. In contrast to earlier attacks, the attack on Sterope was the first where the Roughriders didn't raze the local factory complexes, although they did plunder the Sterope Defense Industries plant before leaving. In turn, a Taurian raid in February 3076 inflicted critical damage on the Jalastar Aerospace BattleMech plant on Panpour.[11][12]

The Roughriders returned to Federated Suns space after the Sterope raid, landing on Warren on the 5th of April 3076 to resupply.[12][13] The Taurians pursued the Roughriders, with a task force led by the TCS Vendetta arriving in the Warren system on the 13th of June; the Roughriders retreated to Keuterville, but their retreat didn't stop the Vendetta from bombarding the planetary capital and spaceports on Warren. The Taurians then bombarded Keuterville on the 7th of July, with the Roughriders retreating again, this time to Firgrove. In the Firgrove system a Federated Suns task force led by the Fox-class New Syrtis managed to intercept the Vendetta before the planet could be attacked, forcing the Taurian vessel to retreat. On the 30th of June Baron Cham Kithrong of the Calderon Protectorate recalled all of those Protectorate troops which had been deployed into the Concordat to assist the population after the asteroid strike on Taurus and the Federated Suns counter-offensive; Kithrong cited "moral conflicts" as the reason for the recall.[14][15]

Having been forced to retreat from Firgrove, the Vendetta returned to the Brusett system in mid-September 3076. The Vendetta and her task force put Brusett under siege, but the siege would only last until the 2nd of October; the arrival of the FSS New Syrtis and resulting naval battle saw the Federated Suns WarShip suffering crippling damage, but not before enough critical damage was inflicted on the Vendetta by the New Syrtis and her escorts to force the Vendetta to retreat. Despite the naval siege of Brusett being broken, a Taurian task force raided New Syrtis on the 12th of October 3076; using a combination of bombing runs, random orbital bombardment and nuclear strikes the task force not only crippled the New Syrtis Shipyards facilities but also to inflict devastating damage on large swathes of the equatorial regions of the world.[14][15]

As the end of 3076 approached and the Taurian forces on Brusett were faced with imminent defeat, they resorted to using scorched earth tactics to destroy as many of the Federated Suns ground forces on the planet as possible. These scorched earth tactics often involved the use of nuclear devices, causing carnage; this damage was exacerbated by the Federated Suns Pocket WarShips which shelled the Taurian positions repeatedly.[15][16]

Post-Jihad Era

Emissaries from the Calderon Protectorate arrived on both Taurus and New Avalon on the 15th of March 3080, appealing to both states for an end to the conflict between the Concordat and the Suns. The Protectorate successfully brokered a treaty between the two states on the 2nd of July, a week after Baron Cham Kithrong stepped down as Regent-Protector so that Erik Martens-Calderon could assume the Protectorship. The treaty called for the Federated Suns to cede the Pleiades worlds to the Concordat, while the Concordat effectively surrendered the TCS Vendetta to the Calderon Protectorate, where it would be crewed by a crew of personnel from all three realms. While the treaty ended the war, the Vendetta wouldn't be formally ceded to the Protectorate until the 19th of April 3081.[17]

Between the arrival of the envoys from the Calderon Protectorate and the formal declaration of a peace treaty, the Federated Suns launched Operation MATADOR, a military campaign to recapture the planets the Taurians had conquered since their initial invasion. Commanded by Field Marshal Nathaniel Hasek, MATADOR began on the 5th of May, but Field Marshal Hasek would be killed in an ambush on the world of Ridgebrook on the 14th of June.[17]

The cost of the war to both the Federated Suns and the Taurian Concordat was extremely high. By mid-3080 the Taurian GDP was down 30% on where it had been 20 years before, a result of the combination of pirate activity, Blakist subversion and production capacity lost as a consequence of the worlds and industry lost during the war. The brutal nature of the war had inflicted damage on the worlds directly involved in the combat was bordering on levels unseen since the Second Succession War. Despite Operation MATADOR and the limited combat operations conducted in 3080, both nations were rapidly approaching the point where the war would become unsustainable for either; the Federated Suns was close to exhausting its ability to conduct combat operations and logistics operations simultaneously while also protecting its own supply lines, whereas the ravaged Taurian industrial base and the plunging economy placed the Taurian Defense Force in similar straits.[18]

The Taurian industrial base was devastated by the Roughriders, and the Concordat lost yet more industrial production when the Federated Suns conquered a number of Taurian worlds. While the Concordat gained control over the worlds of the Pleiades cluster, the military industry on Perdition and Taurus was effectively destroyed, while production facilities on Sterope, MacLeod's Land and Celano would take years to recover. The Concordat also lost worlds such as Perdition and Organo to the Federated Suns, losing more industry - and in the case of Organo, the Organo Flight Academy. The Concordat was forced to increase the production of RetroTech equipment in an era when the Inner Sphere nations were shutting down their own RetroTech production lines; the Taurian Defense Force had been so badly damaged that it was predicted that the enlarged production of RetroTech equipment would continue until at least 3086 as a part of the rebuilding effort.[19]

Dark Age

A map of the Inner Sphere of 3130 indicates that while the Concordat still exists, most of its worlds have become independent. It is much smaller and consists only of the worlds around the Pleiades Cluster and Hyades Cluster. As of yet, it is unknown how this came about.[20]

References

  1. ↑ The Periphery (sourcebook), pg. 62
  2. ↑ Mercenaries Supplemental Update, p. 31, "Black Angus Boys"
  3. ↑ Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 46, "The Jihad In Review"
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Jihad Hot Spots: 3076, p. 52, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  5. ↑ Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 52, "The Jihad In Review"
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 53, "The Jihad In Review"
  7. ↑ Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 14, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  8. ↑ Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 15, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  9. ↑ Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 16, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 54, "The Jihad In Review"
  11. ↑ Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 20, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 55, "The Jihad In Review"
  13. ↑ Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 21, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 22, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 56, "The Jihad In Review"
  16. ↑ Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 23, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 61, "The Jihad In Review"
  18. ↑ Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 28, "Piracy, Economics Complicate FedSuns-Taurus War"
  19. ↑ Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 117, "Taurian Concordat"
  20. ↑ BattleTech: 25 Years of Art & Fiction, p. 239

Bibliography

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