History of the Capellan Confederation

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File:Capellan Confederation Logo New.png

Revised crest of the Capellan Confederation

This article details the history of the Capellan Confederation. For more information, see Capellan Confederation.

Foundation

After the end of the Hegemony-Supremacy War, the Capellan Commonality was formed in 2310 as a loose federation of all the major powers occupying the Capellan Zone. Political participation was open to all citizens of the Zone, not just those of Commonality, who elected a Prime Minister. However, internal corruption and foreign meddling destroyed the peoples' faith in their democratic institutions - fewer than five percent bothered to vote in the 2366 elections - leaving the Commonality weakened and open to invasion. In the midst of a House Davion "peacekeeping" operation, the heads of the major Capellan powers met on St. Andre in July 2367. There, Duke Franco Liao of the Duchy of Liao made a radical proposal: dissolve the Commonality and unify the entire Capellan Zone under a centralized authority strong enough to resist foreign intervention. After much debate, the motion was adopted, and the Capellan Confederation was born. With Franco Liao elected to the Chancellorship, the Confederation successfully beat back the Davion invasion force; in a show of resolve, this included the orbital bombardment of occupied Capella Prime on Capella, the original capital of the Confederation, whose loss is commemorated with the black border on the realm's standard.

Age of War Era

With its borders secured, the Confederation continued to develop and expand under the aegis of the Liao family. However, this brought the realm into conflict with the Free Worlds League over the status of Andurien. The First Andurien War between the two realms touched off the Age of War which would eventually engulf the entire Inner Sphere in seemingly senseless violence. Horrified by the destruction this wrought upon the people, Aleisha Liao aggressively campaigned for and succeeded in the creation of the Ares Conventions, which had the effect of making war less destructive yet more permissive. Appropriately, the Age of War would came to an end when, with the Terran Hegemony acting as broker, Houses Liao and Marik made peace after the Third Andurien War and became original signatory members of the new Star League.

Star League Era

The Capellan Confederation enjoyed great prosperity with the peace brought about by the Star League, but it was not to last. At the outbreak of the Star League Civil War, Chancellor Barbara Liao adopted a position of armed neutrality, allowing neither Aleksandr Kerensky's nor Stefan Amaris' forces to enter Capellan territory. With its resolution and the reconvening of the High Council on Terra, none of the Great Houses could agree on who should assume the position of First Lord. One of the few things they could agree on was to strip General Kerensky of his position as Protector of the Star League, an act Barbara Liao would later come to regret as the worst mistake they made. With the dissolution of the Council, and the self-imposed exile of Kerensky and the Star League Defense Force, the Succession Wars became inevitable.

First and Second Succession Wars

The First Succession War began in December 2786 as Chancellor Barbara Liao and the leaders of the other Great Houses each declared themselves the new First Lord. The Confederation made large gains by occupying worlds of the former Terran Hegemony, most of which fell peacefully, and launching attacks against the Free Worlds League and Federated Suns. While successful initially, the Confederation fell short in its ultimate goal of prying Chesterton out of House Davion's grip, and attempts to cow the Free Worlds League through sheer brutality failed. By 2801, the Confederation had grown to its largest size, yet was militarily exhausted. In a show of peace, Chancellor Ilsa Liao offered to recognize House Davion as First Lord in exchange for Chesterton but was refused. The First Succession War finally came to an end in 2821 with a ceasefire between the Liao and Davion realms.

The start of the Second Succession War in 2828 was inauspicious as Ilsa Liao became the first Chancellor killed in combat, personally commanding the rear-guard after the failed invasion of Orbisonia. Its military still not recovered from the first war, the Capellan Confederation found itself on the defensive for most of the second, losing those worlds it had captured from its neighbors and its own planets. A ceasefire was achieved in 2862 when Dainmar Liao agreed to humiliating concessions to the Federated Suns, but peace only lasted a few more years before the Third Succession War began. Chancellor Otto Liao made a number of reforms, including the infamous Elastic Defense doctrine, which ultimately saved the realm at the expense of its military.

Third and Fourth Succession Wars

Towards the end of the Third Succession War, the Confederation turned towards subterfuge where force no longer worked: Chancellor Maximilian Liao helped to spark Anton's Revolt in the Free Worlds League, and began plotting with Michael Hasek-Davion to achieve the same within the Federated Suns. However, the Fourth Succession War helped cut that conspiracy off at the knees as the Confederation found itself the target of the newly-christened Federated Commonwealth. Although a member of the Concord of Kapteyn, the Confederation found itself essentially alone against the juggernaut of the FedCom alliance. The Capellan Confederation was nearly destroyed in the Fourth Succession War, and what worlds it didn't lose to the FedCom alliance broke away to form their own splinter states, the Tikonov Free Republic and St. Ives Compact.

Clan Invasion and Aftermath

Having suffered a psychotic breakdown, Maximilian was removed from the throne as his daughter Romano Liao became regent and eventually Chancellor of a much-reduced Capellan state. Of a questionable mental state herself, Romano started many bloody purges of the Capellan military and government and decreed several reforms of dubious character. Though severely weakened, the Confederation survived the Andurien Crisis, which helped to improve morale within its military, and it was untouched by the Clan Invasion, giving the realm more time to rebuild itself. After his mother's assassination in 3052, Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao instituted several policy changes meant to help rebuild the Confederation. The Chancellor succeeded in rejuvenating the Confederation's military such that he was confident in launching Operation Guerrero in 3057, which successfully recaptured many worlds lost to the Federated Commonwealth decades earlier. When it came time to deal with the Clan problem once and for all, Sun-Tzu was elected to become the First Lord of the Second Star League, a largely ceremonial position but one which brought further prestige to the state. The Chancellor used these successes to launch his Xin Sheng campaign and the Capellan-St. Ives War, which successfully reincorporated the splinter state back into the Confederation, and found the Trinity Alliance between the Confederation, Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus.