Terran Hegemony

The Terran Hegemony was an interstellar state located at the center of the Inner Sphere. Established after a military coup led by James McKenna overthrew the vestiges of the Terran Alliance, the Hegemony quickly rose to dominating positions in the realms of technology, military innovations, and diplomacy: its early expansionist period prompted the formation of the Great Houses, its era of aggressive diplomacy eventually led to the creation of the Star League , and its destruction in the Amaris Civil War led to the Succession Wars.

Terran Alliance Civil War
In the decades following the Demarcation Declaration the Terran Alliance slowly descended into chaos. The two main political parties, the Expansionists and the Liberals, quickly followed one another at the reigns of power, but none could solve the Alliance's problems. In meantime, the Alliance Navy took on a life on its own: the charismatic Admiral James McKenna began construction of a real black water navy out of what was little more than an armored troop transport service. Essentially operating without political oversight, the Alliance Navy was free to construct six warships (starting with the TAS Dreadnought in 2300) and twenty support vessels until the civil war began in 2314. The political turmoil began to escalate that year, when the newly emergent People's Liberation Party began its rise. Both Expansionists and Liberals were quick to offer the PLP's leader, Grant Zoli, concessions for an alliance. Zoli, who had formed the PLP as a money-making scheme, decided for an alliance with the highest bidder: initially accepting the Expansionists' offer, Zoli decided after a month and promised to join forces with the Liberals after the next election. Soon afterwards, on September 5, 2314, his corpse was found in his New Zealand mansion.

The latent civil war escalated into a bloody global conflict. On June 2, 2315 Fleet Admiral McKenna's warships destroyed two small Islands (Strand Rock, near Scotland and an unnamed one near Australia) in a show of strength and demanded the founding of a new government and the formation of a new state to replace the Alliance and restore Terra's rule over the Human Sphere. While an overwhelming majority of the Alliance Global Militia flocked to his banner and support among the populace soared, the leadership of the opposing parties refused to surrender. The civil war was ended by bloody orbital bombardments and a global manhunt conducted by McKenna's Colonial Marines. While the surviving leaders of the Expansionists and Liberals were turned over to local authorities and sentenced to long prison sentences or executed, McKenna ushered the Hegemony Charter, officially ending the Terran Alliance.

Expansion
Aside from banning political parties, the Terran Hegemony in its first years was in many ways a continuation of the Terran Alliance: the offices of the national leaders were left alone, and a new democratically elected Terran Congress led by a President was established (mirrored by similar Planetary Congresses on the other Hegemony worlds). At the head of this new state McKenna placed a dictatorial Director-General (elected for life) and a High Council made up of nine Planetary Governors (elected for eighteen years with no term limit and serving on the High Council at the discretion of the Director-General). The bureaucracy was decentralized and moved from Terra to Luna.

After being elected as the first Director-General of the Terran Hegemony and reasserting a measure of control over the Sol system, McKenna began the first of his "campaigns of persuasion" in 2316. Using its naval supremacy, the Hegemony began a series of planetary invasions with the goal of reasserting Terran control over all of the Human Sphere. First focusing on the systems which had been part of the Alliance until its collapse then (in a second "campaign of persuasion") on other planets, by the 2320s the Terran Hegemony had established control over more than forty formerly independent worlds. The first campaign of persuasion, launched in 2316 and ending with the capture of Towne in 2317, saw McKenna's forces expand the Hegemony's sphere of influence to incorporate the Denebola, Devil's Rock, Dyev, Epsilon Indi, Errai, Helen, Imbros III, Ingress, Ko, Lipton, Lyons, Northwind, Oliver, Pollux, Quentin, Saffel, Sheratan, Towne, Zavijava and Zosma systems, although the newly-formed Draconis Combine established control over systems that included Altair and Dieron, close to Terra, by 2319. The next offensive, launched in 2320, saw the Hegemony seize the worlds of Capolla and Terra Firma, and by the time the campaign had ended, the Hegemony had managed to capture Nanking, a world almost sixty light-years from Terra.

Around the 2330s the military campaigns ran into insurmountable technological and diplomatic trouble. The lack of a fighter craft that was both adequate in space and in atmosphere together with general problems of overstretch were the preeminent problems the military faced, while the formation of the first interstellar states (like the Marik Commonwealth, the Federation of Skye, the Crucis Pact, the Ozawa Mercantile Association, or the Capellan Republic) signaled the arrival of foes who could equal - if not overwhelm - the Terran war machine. McKenna's reply was an attempt at diplomatically keeping the interstellar states at bay, and switching both internal and external propaganda from Terran supremacy and leadership to Terran compassion, knowledge and the common root of all mankind. A third "campaign of persuasion", intended to overwhelm still independent planets within reach, came to a halt when Konrad McKenna, James' son, in an act of overconfidence bungled the invasion of Galatea and ran headlong into an ambush over Syrma. When he attempted to lay the blame, ordered and prosecuted a court-martial on Vice-Admiral Harris Cather, the commander of the first invasion wave, he was forced from his post by his irate father. Faced with overwhelming criticism after the disastrous defeats, James McKenna resigned from the post of Director-General and died of cancer within a ten-day.

Cameron Neo-Feudalism
After McKenna's death, the political landscape began to tip back into chaos. The main source of conflict was his successor: although his son Konrad was ruled out by the High Council, his Nephew Michael Cameron, a passionate researcher and modern Renaissance Man, was chosen as a candidate. The other chosen candidate the Council settled on was Graham Nellas, a conservative politician and former HAF Marine Officer with a distinguished career. As no agreement within the High Council could be reached, the matter was settled in a general election. During the tightly controlled campaign Cameron and Nellas frequently held debates, in which Nellas came across as a self-assured but smug career politician while Michael Cameron's quiet competence won him voters. In the end, Michael Cameron won the election and was sworn in as Director-General on January 17, 2340.

Once elected, Michael Cameron showed a scientific affinity comparable to the late Terran Alliance: he created the Hegemony Research Alliance Department to centralize and coordinate non-military scientific research, non-traditional economic systems were encouraged on selected worlds, the Hegemony civil service was reinvented following the latest theories of management, and advancement within the bureaucracy was dependent on merit-based tests. Unfortunately, he also showed a streak of the Cameron romanticism his descendants would often display by formally creating a new nobility system, patterned after medieval English feudalism on January 1, 2351. The initial List of Peers, the beginning of Neo-Feudalism, included 31 men and women who Cameron thought deserving of worthy of titles and land grants. Later that year, he laid the path for the Cameron dynasty with the Cameron Edict of 2351, which allowed his daughters to retain the Cameron name through marriage.

When Michael Cameron retired in 2367 his daughter Margaret, married to a wealthy industrialist and a retired Navy officer, was swiftly elected and sworn in as Director-General after a short campaign without an opposing candidate. Margaret Cameron refocused the Terran Hegemony on military matters by introducing new draft legislation which would demand every citizen of age to serve in their homeworld militia and serve one month per year in military maneuvers until their 55th birthday. The contested Military Recruitment and Preparedness Bill was finally approved by the Terran Parliament after Margaret Cameron threatened to bypass it entirely.

Ironically, further advancement in the applied sciences (such as the first primitive WorkMechs) ended James McKenna's vision of Terra as the bonfire of human knowledge. Faced with increasing diplomatic tension, Margaret Cameron issued the Mother Doctrine in 2380, which was in practice a blacklist of technology which was not to be exported outside of the Hegemony. This policy would officially remain in place until the destruction of the Terran Hegemony in the First Succession War.

Suffering from cancer, Margaret Cameron retired in 2382 and was succeeded by her son Raymond Cameron. Heavy-handed protectionist and militarist policies (such as a 2385 crisis on Bryant over the HAF draft, which Raymond solved by threatening military action) turned the Hegemony citizenry against the Director-General. When his wife, Skye native Katherine McQuinston became pregnant, Raymond (who had been sterile since suffering from a jet fighter accident at age 24) flew into a rage, arrested and accused his brother Brian, the likely culprit, of high treason. Two days before the trial was set to begin, Raymond died from a heart attack, leaving the High Council to pick up the pieces his unpopular reign had left behind.

With no other Cameron capable of leading the Terran Hegemony, the High Council decided to press ahead the trial against Brian Cameron, who was found innocent of all save infidelity. In September 2388, Brian Cameron was confirmed as new Director-General. His lasting legacy would be the Succession Bill of 2392, which made it nearly impossible for a non-Cameron to become Director General, and a massive military build up starting in 2391, which included the development and construction of the first Castle Brian military complexes.

After Brian's death in a freak accident involving a raging bull on Elba in 2403, his younger sister Judith Cameron promptly decided to nominate herself for the position of Director-General and was confirmed (despite misgivings of the High Council) for the position within two months. By and large, she continued her brother's politics and further reinforced Hegemony planets with Castle Brians. During her reign, the Age of War began to heat up and several military confrontations with the Capellan Confederation and Draconis Combine between 2407 and 2409 tested the resolve and capabilities of the HAF.

When Judith Cameron retired in 2419, the son of Brian Cameron and Katherine McQuinston was confirmed as Director-General. Notable for the seizure Kentares from the Federated Suns in 2431 and a change to the Hegemony nomination laws in 2432, which allowed a Director-General to choose their own successor, Richard Cameron soon died due a heart attack. His son, Jacob Cameron proved to be such an unpopular and unreasonable ruler that he was nearly assassinated in 2448. More capable as a warrior than a politician or a diplomat, he undertook campaigns against the Capellan Confederation and the Federated Suns. It was under his watch that the Hegemony developed the BattleMech in 2439, a research avenue which not only affected other military programs, but the buildup of a whole new arm of the HAF left the Hegemony lacking from basic goods. Following Jacob were his son Theodore and granddaughter Elizabeth, both incapable rulers remembered for little but their indulgent lifestyles and the successes the HAF enjoyed against the encroaching Great Houses. When Elizabeth died of New Earth Pox in 2501, the Hegemony public was openly discussing dissolving the government. Political parties had risen up on many planets, often riding on waves on particularism and secessionist agitation, while diplomatic relations with the neighboring realms had soured.

Aggressive Diplomacy
Deborah Cameron assumed the position of Director-General in a Hegemony deep in crisis. Deflating much of the protests by allowing the anti-Cameron agitation to run its course while taking measures to reign in the rampant spending, after a few years the political situation in the Hegemony had stabilized again. Her foreign policy was similarly remarkable. The Ares Conventions stipulated the creation of boards of inquiry and investigative commissions for Conventions violations and mediation, a role which the Terran Hegemony was uniquely suited for. Starting in 2502, she outlined her Strategy of Aggressive Peacemaking, which would codify and reinforce the Hegemony's position as mediator with the help of superior intelligence and diplomatic corps, and began offering mediation services in return for money and transit costs. Similarly, the cooperation with the other states on the jointly owned planets, which were terraformed with Hegemony technology and jointly held, increased drastically. Originally, such joint ownerships were only offered of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth. Eventually they would be offered to all other Great Houses.

Her major overhaul and expansion of the Hegemony Central Intelligence Department and Department of Foreign Relations sidelined the military, however, and some military cabals began to form to counteract the feared marginalization and withering of the HAF. Notable successes, such as the end to the Second Andurien War, the Commonwealth-Combine Ceasefire on Arakis, the Commonwealth-League Megrez Treaty, and the Phact Peace, proved her strategy right.

After her retirement in 2542, her son Joseph not only continued her policies but also openly favored diplomacy over warfare. Enraged by this, former Marine Captain Henry Green, member of a HAF warrior cabal, shot Joseph Cameron in front of the Director-General's palace on September 20, 2549. When Joseph died six days later, the Hegemony descended into chaos. While the HCID opened a manhunt against disloyal military personnel, Joseph's brother Ian declared himself Director-General on September 28. Taking this as their cue, elemets of the Fifty-First Dragoon Regiment executed a coup attempt and took control of the Hegemony capital Geneva. Ian Cameron reacted by cutting the city off from electricity and water, and ordering his Household Guard to take the city back. After ten days Geneva had been won back, and after another month, the last bastion of the soldier cabals surrendered. After a quiet purge of the HAF, a very visible increase of their budget, and the establishment of the Department of Military Investigations, Ian Cameron considered the supremacy of politics over the military reestablished and the coup attempt was over. Following the politics of his predecessors, Ian Cameron's foreign policy was largely centered around keeping the Inner Sphere peaceful. However, the Hegemony was facing a silent crisis: the easily mined natural resources of its planets would soon be depleted. Being dependent on imports from the surrounding - and potentially hostile - states which could demand horrid economical and technological payments in return for raw material was not something Ian Cameron was willing to accept. Coupled with a messianic desire to see Terra return to its position as the ruling center of humanity, Ian Cameron drew up a 50 year plan to create a new interstellar alliance, the Star League.

During the negotiations to end the Third Andurien War, he found an ally in Captain-General Albert Marik. Beginning with the 2556 treaty of Geneva between the League, Confederation, and Hegemony, the ultimate success of Terran diplomacy began to take shape. Similar treaties were signed following the next decade and a half, until the Star League was officially proclaimed on July 9, 2571, with the Director-General as its hereditary First Lord.

Star League
The Star League was in many ways the Hegemony writ large and in turn subsumed it, with Terra again taking the central role it last enjoyed as capital of the Terran Alliance during the First Exodus. A new capital, the Court of the Star League (nicknamed Unity City) was created in Puget Sound west of Tacoma to house the High Council of the Star League and its various departments. The High Council of the Terran Hegemony was renamed into the First Lord's Advisors and relegated to heading various Hegemony governments in Geneva, ruling the Hegemony together with the First Lord's chosen heir.

The HAF was fully subsumed into the SLDF by forming the core of the new armies in the form of royal divisions (other member states subsumed only one fourth of their standing armies into the new force), while the interstellar stock exchange in London took a center stage in the new economic union (based on the Star League Dollar, colloquially called the "Cameron Bill"). Hegemony companies began flooding the member states with technological marvels in return for the raw materials the Hegemony desperately needed, although in accordance with the Mother Doctrine not with those declared off-limits. Where possible (such as in the heavily taxed periphery) Terran firms even went so far as to strip-mine whatever they could, cementing their economical and technological lead.

Amaris Empire and Destruction
This political lull continued until the disastrous regency and reign of Richard Cameron. Coming to power after the death of his father Simon in 2750, Richard fell under the influence of the First Consul of the Rim Worlds Republic, Stefan Amaris while the nominal regent Aleksandr Kerensky was occupied with Star League politics, keeping the SLDF in shape, or busy fighting uprisings in the Periphery. A masterful politician, he managed to play the country buffoon to enamor himself with Richard Cameron, and the long-suffering politician who had to play the role of court jester to influence a foolish leader to enamor himself with the Hegemony bureaucracy.

Finding allies in the First Lord's Advisers, Planetary Congresses and moderately popular with the Hegemony public, Amaris orchestrated a concerted uprising in the Periphery to lure the SLDF away from the Hegemony territory and leave his Rim World troops (which had been allowed garrison duties) with local superiority. Finally, in December 2766 he personally killed Richard Cameron and ordered every other Cameron assassinated. With the tacit approval of the Hegemony voters, Stefan Amaris was elected by a slim majority as Emperor of the Amaris Empire (as, due to various Hegemony edicts, as a non-Cameron he could not become Director-General). While the SLDF forces resisted, the public saw Amaris' assumption of power as just as legitimate as James McKenna's violent overthrow of the Terran Alliance had been.

Undaunted, the SLDF under Aleksandr Kerensky waged war against the Amaris Empire. Amaris himself, his sanity crumbling, began ordering worse and worse atrocities against dissenters, protesters, and real and imagined traitors. Among others, his destruction of the O'Neill station, a marvel of engineering, the collapse of the Venus sun shade, nuclear salting of the worlds his troops had to evacuate and his "reeducation camps" turned the people of the Hegemony against him. While stiff resistance rose up against him during his last years, zealous prosecution of anyone even remotely cooperating with his regime left the post-civil war Hegemony crippled up to the point that its civil government essentially ceased to exist.

While individual planets were recovering (despite the best efforts of the Great Houses, who waged an intelligence war to destabilize the Hegemony worlds and prevent a strengthening), the Operation EXODUS of the SLDF and the subsequent invasion by the Great Houses during the First Succession War ended all attempts at recovery. Finally, during Operation SILVER SHIELD the last vestiges of the Terran Hegemony fell and ComStar's control of Terra began.

Manufacturing Centers
A list of some Hegemony major manufacturing companies.

Heavy Aerospace Industries

 * Krester's Ship Construction
 * Di Tron Heavy Industries
 * Titan Yards

Major Defense Industries

 * Ceres Metals
 * Krupp Armament Works
 * New Earth Trading Company
 * Nirasaki Computers Collective
 * Ulsop Robotics

Politics
The Hegemony government was pyramid shaped. The undisputed ruler was the Director-General, at whose side stood the High Council, made up of the nine most trusted Planetary Governors. Immediately below those were the President of the Hegemony Congress and the Hegemony Congress, made up of representatives of Hegemony Planetary Congresses. This was replicated in miniature on all Hegemony planets, as the Planetary Governors (appointed by the Director-General) led their own Planetary Congresses, whose election was subject to local laws and regulations.

While the Hegemony administration was centralized on Luna during the early Hegemony, eventually it would be divided into five administrative provinces. These provinces were:


 * The Alliance Core: Administered directly from Terra, this province encompassed all of the worlds that had remained members of the Terran Alliance after the Demarcation Declaration of 2240.
 * The Lone Star Province: Bordering both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine, this province was administered from the world of Lone Star.
 * The Lockdale Province: The only province to border three states (the Draconis Combine, Federated Suns and Capellan Confederation), the Lockdale Province was administered from the world of Lockdale.
 * The Terra Firma Province: Administered from the world of Terra Firma, this province bordered the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League.
 * The Tyrfing Province: Bordering the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth, the Tyrfing Province was administered from the world of Tyrfing.