Lessons from History Point to the Future 07/28/3133
INN - Interstellar News Network
TIKOGRAD, TIKONOV—As humanity continues to come to grips with the realities
thrust upon it last August, specifically the loss of the HPG network and the chaos that
ensued, leaders are turning to historical lessons.
More than 50 years ago, the Word of Blake Jihad launched its Jihad against the Inner
Sphere and effected an almost-simultaneous communications blackout. The Inner
Sphere was gripped by chaos unlike anything it had ever experienced. Leaders were
not only cut off from their subordinates but were also themselves embattled, forced to
deal personally with Word of Blake assaults upon themselves and their home worlds.
It wasn’t the military attacks or atomic strikes that were the most crippling. It was
that the Inner Sphere had lost its ability to communicate. Political leaders had no
information to base their decisions upon. Military commanders never had up-to-date
intelligence on enemy movements. Orders could take weeks, or months, to reach the
battlefield. Requests for reinforcements arrived long after additional troops could do
any good. Worst of all, the people could no longer see their leaders’ faces on a weekly
basis, could no longer hear reassuring and comforting words.
In short, people were scared, and those in power were cut off from their superiors—
two facts that directly led to the Word of Blake’s incredible successes early in the
war, the after-effects of which the nations of the Inner Sphere are still contending
with.
Perhaps nowhere was this more evident than in the Free Worlds League. This one-
time industrial powerhouse was in one fell swoop fractured into half a dozen smaller
nations and scores more informal alliances and independent worlds. To be sure, it
wasn’t until the razing of Atreus that the true breakup of the Free Worlds League
happened, but many historians have argued that the breakup was just as inevitable as
the miniature wars that happened in its wake.
None of this information is new. The last stand of the Knights of the Inner Sphere is a
tale told and retold across The Republic (though the most popular version of the story
is mostly a fable, bearing little resemblance to the actual destruction of the Knights).
The Free Worlds League’s long, fractious history is well known and taught in every
secondary school within The Republic—as are the deeds of both individuals known as
Thomas Marik.
But, as historians are beginning to warn, the ultimate fate of the Free Worlds League
may not be so far from that of our own Republic of the Sphere.
Most would say that our nation bears little resemblance to the Free Worlds League,
but that is a misconception: The similarities far outweigh the differences. The
Republic is made up of ten Prefectures, each invested with a great deal of self-
control, with the leaders of each reporting to the Senate and Exarch—an arrangement
not unlike the Parliament and Captain-General arrangement that characterized the Free
Worlds League prior to the Jihad. Further, while in theory The Republic’s citizenry is
a homogeneous amalgam of individuals from all cultures and backgrounds, the fact is
that many cultural groups have tended to conglomerate together in the various
Prefectures. What’s more, over the course of The Republic’s short history, its
citizens have also come to identify more and more with the people of the nations
closest to them, a fact that can clearly be seen within Senate politics.
So what does that mean for us?
Historians are adamant that our fate is absolutely not set in stone and that The
Republic may indeed be strong enough to withstand the pressures of the present
crises. On the other hand, the history of the Free Worlds League may provide us
some hints and clues as to what lies ahead.
Prior to the Jihad, the League’s government was on the verge of chaos. Since his rise
to power, Captain-General Thomas Marik, or at least the man pretending to be
Thomas Marik, had used his contacts both inside and outside of the League to
consolidate his hold over that nation. Prior to his rise to power, the League had been
plagued by centuries of civil war and unrest even while the rest of the nations of the
Inner Sphere were fighting the Succession Wars. The various duchies and other
political divisions within the League had long had a great deal of influence within the
Parliament and the military, enough that they held sway over the Captain-General. If
the leader of one of the League’s duchies didn’t like a Captain-General’s attitude or
the decisions he was making, that leader could simply withhold military and economic
support to the rest of the League, potentially crippling it if that withdrawal of support
came at the wrong time.
As a result, throughout the history of the League, Captains-General would have to
tread a fine line between doing what was best for the entire League and coddling to
one of the regional leaders. Though every one of the Successor States had to deal
with similar situations, nowhere was this more a problem than in the League, a nation
that truly lives up to the term “Balkanized.”
In just the past century or so, the League has lived through three separate civil wars.
In 3014, Anton Marik, brother of Captain-General Janos Marik, with the support of
more than a quarter of the League’s provinces behind him, launched a coup against
his brother. That conflict ended quickly, though, as Anton did not have the support of
the two most powerful provinces, the Duchy of Andurien and the Principality of
Regulus. He also made an enemy of Wolf’s Dragoons, who crushed Anton and his
close circle in a legendary battle that has been made into no fewer than two dozen
holo-vids over the years.
Fewer than 20 years later, the people of the Free Worlds League were again thrust
into the midst of a civil war. Instead of two brothers fighting for dominance,
however, this time it was triggered by the secession of the Duchy of Andurien
following the conclusion of the Fourth Succession War. This war raged on for a full
decade, involving both the Capellan Confederation and the Magistracy of Canopus,
and, ultimately, there was a grab for power from within the Marik family – one that
would haunt the Inner Sphere decades later.
The Free Worlds League did somehow manage to maintain cohesion in the following
years, but only at the cost of a great deal of freedoms. The man known as Thomas
Marik tightened the reigns over the member-states of the Free Worlds League,
creating a tighter, more united nation—at least to observers on the outside. Of course,
internally, tensions slowly began to boil. Many of the nation’s leaders feared they
would suffer the same fate as the Anduriens, who were returned to the fold, so to
speak, but continued to quietly oppose their Captain-General in their own ways.
The Clan invasion of 3050 temporarily derailed matters, and actually turned the tables
a bit, as the Captain-General was able to consolidate his hold over the League even
more in the face of the Clan threat. He later gained quite a bit of popularity by leading
an assault into the Federated Commonwealth to regain worlds lost during the Fourth
Succession War.
But all was not well within the League, and the Word of Blake Jihad triggered a
reaction that ultimately left the Free Worlds League in tatters. The last things that the
people of the League found out before the Word of Blake disabled the HPG network
was that an imposter had been serving as their leader and that Atreus had been razed.
Suddenly, decades—indeed centuries—of pent-up frustration with the Marik family
was released. The worlds of the Free Worlds League found themselves confronted
with enemies both known and unknown, and were forced to deal with those enemies
on their own. Already independent-minded, the majority of the League provinces
simply took their own destinies completely into their own hands. Some, like the
Principality of Regulus and the Duchy of Andurien, were quite capable of taking care
of themselves. Many others were not, however, and as the Jihad waged on, most of
the League’s member-states and worlds forged political, military, and trade alliances
with each other, continuing the relationships they had forged throughout the League
years.
Not all of the worlds and tiny provinces, however, survived this era intact. The “big
boys” often played political hardball with their neighbors, absorbing those they could
into their own folds. The Duchy of Oriente, for example, absorbed both the Duchy of
Orloff and The Protectorate, leading the way for the Marik Commonwealth and
Principality of Regulus to do the same, taking over those worlds they could and
forcing closer political and economic bonds where they couldn’t, and always on
terms favorable to them.
By the time the centralized governments of the other Successor States could take
control of their own nations again, the era of strong Captains-General had passed. In
fact, were it not for the Capellan Confederation, the Marik family might not have even
returned to any amount of power within the new League. As it was, the leaders of the
League’s new political divisions allowed a Marik to resume the posting of Captain-
General only as a concession to the fact that they needed someone who could
coordinate the defense against the Capellan Confederation’s border incursions.
Of course, the leaders of the League’s provinces did not truly realize the need for this
until Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao’s troops had taken a number of worlds from both the
Duchies of Andurien and Oriente and were successfully beating the surviving
militaries of both. By that time it was too late to undo the damage that the Capellans
had done, but it wasn’t too late to strike back.
And so this latest incarnation of the Free Worlds League struck back with a
vengeance, beginning a long series of border wars between the two nations that
continues even today, if rumors filtering out of both the Confederation and the League
can be believed. And even if those two nations are not gripped by war right now, both
have struck at each other more than a dozen times since the end of the Jihad,
sometimes simply for the sake of striking out, and others to take possession of whole
worlds. Always these tiny wars ended on their own, never involving more than a few
systems at a time, yet the two nations have yet to put aside their differences.
Perhaps the greatest victim of the post-Jihad era, however, was the office of the
Captain-General. Once the most powerful individual within the Free Worlds League,
commanding the armies of that great nation with a single word, today the Captain-
General has been all but stripped of power. Indeed, three individuals now hold office
as co–Captains-General, doing little more than coordinating mutual defense maneuvers
and stepping in to arbitrate disputes between League members. Of course, those facts
have done little to advance the status of the Captains-General in the eyes of other
Inner Sphere leaders.
And that is the fate that some say will befall The Republic of the Sphere. Already it is
clear that regional powers are rising up within the ten Prefectures, and we know
firsthand that there are those looking to conquer some of our worlds. We can be sure
that the nations surrounding The Republic are looking to take advantage of the
confusion that has overtaken the entire Inner Sphere.
Perhaps the fate of the Free Worlds League will become ours, perhaps not. There are
many similarities between The Republic and the League, but there are many more
differences. Devlin Stone founded this nation on the basis of peace, and though he is
no longer with us, his powerful legacy continues even today. A great man once said
that “information is ammunition”; perhaps the knowledge of the past is enough
ammunition to fight off even the inevitable.
INN - Interstellar News Network
TIKOGRAD, TIKONOV—As humanity continues to come to grips with the realities
thrust upon it last August, specifically the loss of the HPG network and the chaos that
ensued, leaders are turning to historical lessons.
More than 50 years ago, the Word of Blake Jihad launched its Jihad against the Inner
Sphere and effected an almost-simultaneous communications blackout. The Inner
Sphere was gripped by chaos unlike anything it had ever experienced. Leaders were
not only cut off from their subordinates but were also themselves embattled, forced to
deal personally with Word of Blake assaults upon themselves and their home worlds.
It wasn’t the military attacks or atomic strikes that were the most crippling. It was
that the Inner Sphere had lost its ability to communicate. Political leaders had no
information to base their decisions upon. Military commanders never had up-to-date
intelligence on enemy movements. Orders could take weeks, or months, to reach the
battlefield. Requests for reinforcements arrived long after additional troops could do
any good. Worst of all, the people could no longer see their leaders’ faces on a weekly
basis, could no longer hear reassuring and comforting words.
In short, people were scared, and those in power were cut off from their superiors—
two facts that directly led to the Word of Blake’s incredible successes early in the
war, the after-effects of which the nations of the Inner Sphere are still contending
with.
Perhaps nowhere was this more evident than in the Free Worlds League. This one-
time industrial powerhouse was in one fell swoop fractured into half a dozen smaller
nations and scores more informal alliances and independent worlds. To be sure, it
wasn’t until the razing of Atreus that the true breakup of the Free Worlds League
happened, but many historians have argued that the breakup was just as inevitable as
the miniature wars that happened in its wake.
None of this information is new. The last stand of the Knights of the Inner Sphere is a
tale told and retold across The Republic (though the most popular version of the story
is mostly a fable, bearing little resemblance to the actual destruction of the Knights).
The Free Worlds League’s long, fractious history is well known and taught in every
secondary school within The Republic—as are the deeds of both individuals known as
Thomas Marik.
But, as historians are beginning to warn, the ultimate fate of the Free Worlds League
may not be so far from that of our own Republic of the Sphere.
Most would say that our nation bears little resemblance to the Free Worlds League,
but that is a misconception: The similarities far outweigh the differences. The
Republic is made up of ten Prefectures, each invested with a great deal of self-
control, with the leaders of each reporting to the Senate and Exarch—an arrangement
not unlike the Parliament and Captain-General arrangement that characterized the Free
Worlds League prior to the Jihad. Further, while in theory The Republic’s citizenry is
a homogeneous amalgam of individuals from all cultures and backgrounds, the fact is
that many cultural groups have tended to conglomerate together in the various
Prefectures. What’s more, over the course of The Republic’s short history, its
citizens have also come to identify more and more with the people of the nations
closest to them, a fact that can clearly be seen within Senate politics.
So what does that mean for us?
Historians are adamant that our fate is absolutely not set in stone and that The
Republic may indeed be strong enough to withstand the pressures of the present
crises. On the other hand, the history of the Free Worlds League may provide us
some hints and clues as to what lies ahead.
Prior to the Jihad, the League’s government was on the verge of chaos. Since his rise
to power, Captain-General Thomas Marik, or at least the man pretending to be
Thomas Marik, had used his contacts both inside and outside of the League to
consolidate his hold over that nation. Prior to his rise to power, the League had been
plagued by centuries of civil war and unrest even while the rest of the nations of the
Inner Sphere were fighting the Succession Wars. The various duchies and other
political divisions within the League had long had a great deal of influence within the
Parliament and the military, enough that they held sway over the Captain-General. If
the leader of one of the League’s duchies didn’t like a Captain-General’s attitude or
the decisions he was making, that leader could simply withhold military and economic
support to the rest of the League, potentially crippling it if that withdrawal of support
came at the wrong time.
As a result, throughout the history of the League, Captains-General would have to
tread a fine line between doing what was best for the entire League and coddling to
one of the regional leaders. Though every one of the Successor States had to deal
with similar situations, nowhere was this more a problem than in the League, a nation
that truly lives up to the term “Balkanized.”
In just the past century or so, the League has lived through three separate civil wars.
In 3014, Anton Marik, brother of Captain-General Janos Marik, with the support of
more than a quarter of the League’s provinces behind him, launched a coup against
his brother. That conflict ended quickly, though, as Anton did not have the support of
the two most powerful provinces, the Duchy of Andurien and the Principality of
Regulus. He also made an enemy of Wolf’s Dragoons, who crushed Anton and his
close circle in a legendary battle that has been made into no fewer than two dozen
holo-vids over the years.
Fewer than 20 years later, the people of the Free Worlds League were again thrust
into the midst of a civil war. Instead of two brothers fighting for dominance,
however, this time it was triggered by the secession of the Duchy of Andurien
following the conclusion of the Fourth Succession War. This war raged on for a full
decade, involving both the Capellan Confederation and the Magistracy of Canopus,
and, ultimately, there was a grab for power from within the Marik family – one that
would haunt the Inner Sphere decades later.
The Free Worlds League did somehow manage to maintain cohesion in the following
years, but only at the cost of a great deal of freedoms. The man known as Thomas
Marik tightened the reigns over the member-states of the Free Worlds League,
creating a tighter, more united nation—at least to observers on the outside. Of course,
internally, tensions slowly began to boil. Many of the nation’s leaders feared they
would suffer the same fate as the Anduriens, who were returned to the fold, so to
speak, but continued to quietly oppose their Captain-General in their own ways.
The Clan invasion of 3050 temporarily derailed matters, and actually turned the tables
a bit, as the Captain-General was able to consolidate his hold over the League even
more in the face of the Clan threat. He later gained quite a bit of popularity by leading
an assault into the Federated Commonwealth to regain worlds lost during the Fourth
Succession War.
But all was not well within the League, and the Word of Blake Jihad triggered a
reaction that ultimately left the Free Worlds League in tatters. The last things that the
people of the League found out before the Word of Blake disabled the HPG network
was that an imposter had been serving as their leader and that Atreus had been razed.
Suddenly, decades—indeed centuries—of pent-up frustration with the Marik family
was released. The worlds of the Free Worlds League found themselves confronted
with enemies both known and unknown, and were forced to deal with those enemies
on their own. Already independent-minded, the majority of the League provinces
simply took their own destinies completely into their own hands. Some, like the
Principality of Regulus and the Duchy of Andurien, were quite capable of taking care
of themselves. Many others were not, however, and as the Jihad waged on, most of
the League’s member-states and worlds forged political, military, and trade alliances
with each other, continuing the relationships they had forged throughout the League
years.
Not all of the worlds and tiny provinces, however, survived this era intact. The “big
boys” often played political hardball with their neighbors, absorbing those they could
into their own folds. The Duchy of Oriente, for example, absorbed both the Duchy of
Orloff and The Protectorate, leading the way for the Marik Commonwealth and
Principality of Regulus to do the same, taking over those worlds they could and
forcing closer political and economic bonds where they couldn’t, and always on
terms favorable to them.
By the time the centralized governments of the other Successor States could take
control of their own nations again, the era of strong Captains-General had passed. In
fact, were it not for the Capellan Confederation, the Marik family might not have even
returned to any amount of power within the new League. As it was, the leaders of the
League’s new political divisions allowed a Marik to resume the posting of Captain-
General only as a concession to the fact that they needed someone who could
coordinate the defense against the Capellan Confederation’s border incursions.
Of course, the leaders of the League’s provinces did not truly realize the need for this
until Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao’s troops had taken a number of worlds from both the
Duchies of Andurien and Oriente and were successfully beating the surviving
militaries of both. By that time it was too late to undo the damage that the Capellans
had done, but it wasn’t too late to strike back.
And so this latest incarnation of the Free Worlds League struck back with a
vengeance, beginning a long series of border wars between the two nations that
continues even today, if rumors filtering out of both the Confederation and the League
can be believed. And even if those two nations are not gripped by war right now, both
have struck at each other more than a dozen times since the end of the Jihad,
sometimes simply for the sake of striking out, and others to take possession of whole
worlds. Always these tiny wars ended on their own, never involving more than a few
systems at a time, yet the two nations have yet to put aside their differences.
Perhaps the greatest victim of the post-Jihad era, however, was the office of the
Captain-General. Once the most powerful individual within the Free Worlds League,
commanding the armies of that great nation with a single word, today the Captain-
General has been all but stripped of power. Indeed, three individuals now hold office
as co–Captains-General, doing little more than coordinating mutual defense maneuvers
and stepping in to arbitrate disputes between League members. Of course, those facts
have done little to advance the status of the Captains-General in the eyes of other
Inner Sphere leaders.
And that is the fate that some say will befall The Republic of the Sphere. Already it is
clear that regional powers are rising up within the ten Prefectures, and we know
firsthand that there are those looking to conquer some of our worlds. We can be sure
that the nations surrounding The Republic are looking to take advantage of the
confusion that has overtaken the entire Inner Sphere.
Perhaps the fate of the Free Worlds League will become ours, perhaps not. There are
many similarities between The Republic and the League, but there are many more
differences. Devlin Stone founded this nation on the basis of peace, and though he is
no longer with us, his powerful legacy continues even today. A great man once said
that “information is ammunition”; perhaps the knowledge of the past is enough
ammunition to fight off even the inevitable.
| July 28, 3133 |