Concord of Kapteyn

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Signed on October 13, 3022, the Concord of Kapteyn (also occasionally called the Treaty of Kapteyn or the Kapteyn Accords) was a three-sided agreement between Houses Kurita, Marik and Liao that called for an end to hostilities and mutual support in training and intelligence. It was meant to counterbalance the formation of the powerful Federated Commonwealth alliance by Houses Steiner and Davion.

Background

While the Third Succession War was slowly coming to an end, not because of any peace agreements but rather because total exhaustion had reduced the fighting to objective raids and small border skirmishes, Katrina Steiner issued a call for peace to the other great Houses. Only Hanse Davion replied, and even went so far as to suggest an alliance between Steiner's Lyran Commonwealth and his Federated Suns that would be cemented by his marriage to Katrina's daughter Melissa Steiner. The talks were moderated by ComStar messengers and the historic document was signed on Hilton Head Island, Terra, (the seat of ComStar's First Circuit) in 3022.

Information about this upcoming alliance reached the other Houses (unbeknownst to all involved, ComStar leaked the information on purpose). Like ComStar had hoped, this promted the others into action. Through their ISF director Subhash Indrahar the Draconis Combine arranged a meeting between Coordinator Takashi Kurita, Captain-General Janos Marik of the Free Worlds League and Chancellor Maximilian Liao of the Capellan Confederation for a week in September 3022 at the Terran Alps retreat of Elmau. Marik initially refused to even consider to ally the Free Worlds League with House Liao's Capellan Confederation, who had incited the devastating Marik Civil War in 3014, but Kurita prevailed and convinced them that a united Federated Commonwealth posed a danger that would destroy the others if they did not unite.

The treaty was finally signed on 13 October 3022 at "Kapteyn" (at Elmau according to later sources, indicating that Kapteyn might in fact be a place at Elmau).

Purpose and effects

The mistrust between the unruly Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation continued to linger, and if the Concord of Kapteyn was ever thought to be a military alliance then it was a failure in that respect. It did, however, pacify the Marik/Liao border to some degree and freed up forces to be stationed along the Steiner and Davion borders, respectively, which in turn tied up enemy forces there and thus took pressure off House Kurita. It was Kurita who stood to gain most from the Concord, as his realm lay between the Steiner and Davion realms like a wedge and feared a unified enemy on two thirds of its borders. As such, the Draconis Combine was the obvious first target of the Steiner-Davion alliance.

However, in the Fourth Succession War that the united Federated Commonwealth launched six years later, the main thrust was actually against the Capellan Confederation. Weakened from within by a high-ranking double agent it was utterly devastated and overrun, losing around half of its star systems and left in shambles after the war. The Free Worlds League saw least of the fighting and essentially only intensified their border wars on the Steiner front, while the Draconis Combine had been lured into ineffective assaults against Wolf's Dragoons on their Davion border that effectively neutralized the Combine as a threat while they struggled to repel the invading forces that swept in on their Steiner border. (House Kurita later managed to nullify their own losses, and the Steiner gains, through clever political maneuvering that created the Free Rasalhague Republic.)

The modest benefits that the Concord of Kapteyn brought include a relatively low-level technology exchange program, and trade agreements for components and BattleMechs.

What is known is that the Free Worlds League purchased BattleMechs from the Draconis Combine, including Marauders and Dragons, and in turn produced and sold the HER-4K Hermes II to the Combine. The League also serviced Combine BattleMechs, most notably refitting the Orion of Theodore Kurita. The Combine also received sensitive information about the Federated Suns from the League. Further, the Draconis Combine and the Capellan Confederation began a technology exchange program to remedy the similar design faults on their disk-winged AeroSpace Fighter designs, the Sholagar and the Thrush respectively, but it did not stop the Sholagar from being phased out.

Finally, a limited trade was established between the League and the Confederation. The former provided sophisticated targeting systems and other electronics, alloys and light Galleon tanks to the latter and received much needed PPCs as well as laser pistols, hovercraft and other items in turn.

The Concord of Kapteyn never technically expired, nor was it ever formally canceled by the signatory parties. While it may simply have been overtaken and left outdated by the series of massive changes that the political landscape underwent after the Fourth Succession War, there have been later attempts to rekindle the Concord. It is notable, however, that by the Clan Invasion, the Free Worlds League seemed no more likely to support the Combine against the Clans than it was its traditional enemy, the Federated Commonwealth.

Notes

• This cooperation agreement was already mentioned (although not in name) in the core rule book of the first BattleTech boardgame, as is the fledgling Davion/Steiner alliance.
• The name of the document remains somewhat of a mystery, its origin lost to antiquity. Although Kapteyn apparently denotes the place where it was signed, it ultimately remains unknown where exactly Kapteyn is and Elmau is also explicitly named as the place where the Concord was signed. No connection could be established to a world of the same name in Capellan space.
• When asked, BT author and line developer Herbert A. Beas II confirmed that
  • the meaning of the name is lost to antiquity;
  • the correct spelling is "Concord of Kapteyn", and not Kapetyn as it is often misspelled.