Nanking Collective

Nanking Collective
Relatively little is known of the Nanking Collective. What is known is that the Collective formed at some point after the Demarcation Declaration, which saw the Terran Alliance withdraw from all worlds more than a single jump from Terra in the 2240s, and was the product of a process of balkanization that rippled throughout the Inner Sphere as newly-independent colonies banded together.

The period between 2242 and 2265 were a period of intense internal turmoil for the Collective, with no less than 27 separate governments being put in office within the 23 year period; the turbulent nature of the times was highlighted by the way none of these administrations managed a term in office of more than 19 months during these two decades.

The Nanking Collective was ultimately abandoned as it proved inviable as a nation, and was replaced with a new state called the Chisholm Protectorate.

Chisholm Protectorate
The Chisholm Protectorate incorporated not only those worlds that had been members of the Nanking Collective but also a number of new worlds, and was presumably named after a new capital world - the world of Chisholm, known in more modern times as Elgin.

The Chisholm Protectorate survived longer than the ill-fated Nanking Collective, lasting into the early part of the 24th Century. However, the Protectorate seems to have succumbed ultimately to invasions from other realms. With the rise of the Terran Hegemony from the ashes of the Terran Alliance under a new leader, Director-General James McKenna, the Protectorate would soon find itself being invaded. McKenna's first "Campaign of Persuasion" saw him annex a number of independent former Alliance worlds through military force, and McKenna's second campaign would bring the newly created Hegemony Armed Forces directly against the Protectorate. The campaign began in 2320 with the invasion of Terra Firma and Capolla, and by the end of the campaign in 2335 had conquered Nanking, which represented the furthest world from Terra to have been annexed up until that point.

Although the Hegemony had occupied most, if not all, of the Protectorate by the end of McKenna's campaign, the Tikonov Grand Union went to war with the Hegemony between 2336 and 2338 over the Protectorate, a war which would see the Hegemony prove the ultimate victor. However, by 2366 at least one of the Protectorate worlds would be independent of Terra gain - Nanking.

When the Capellan Confederation was founded in early 2367, it drew together a host of independent worlds as well as a number of nation states into a new realm. Those member states included the Tikonov Grand Union, which at this point considered the Protectorate to be a part of the Grand Union, although as a part of the political maneuvering required to create the Confederation, Franco Liao reinstated the Protectorate in name as the Chisholm Commonality, independent of the nearby Tikonov Commonality. However, the Chisholm Commonality soon vanished even in name, reabsorbed into the Tikonov Commonality and replaced as a member by the Chesterton Commonality.