Editing Terran Hegemony

{{Update Needed|[[Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2]]}}
{{InfoBoxState
| image = Terran Hegemony.jpg
| Founded = 2 June [[2315]]<ref name="JHSTp147">''Jihad Hot Spots: Terra'', p. 147: "Terran Civil War"</ref>
| Dissolved = [[2767]]
| capital = [[Terra]]
| systems = 95+
| population = 
| currency = 
| language = 
| demonym = 
| Head-of-State = [[Director-General]]
| cintel = 
| army = [[Hegemony Armed Forces]] (HAF)
| navy = 
| mintel = [[Hegemony Central Intelligence Bureau]] (HCIB)<ref name="H:RWp14">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 14: "End of an Age, Dawn of an Empire"</ref>/[[Hegemony Central Intelligence Directorate]] (HCID)<ref name="H:RWp96">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 96: "The Phony War (2575-2577)"</ref>
}}
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 dictatorial and decaying [[Terran Alliance]], the Hegemony quickly rose to dominating positions in the realms of technology, military innovation, and diplomacy, and remained the most influential of all interstellar powers for the rest of its existence. The Hegemony's early expansionist period contributed to the formation of the [[Great Houses]],<ref name=SLSB_1415>''The Star League'', pp. 14–15</ref> its era of ''aggressive diplomacy'' eventually led to the creation of the [[Star League]],<ref name=SLSB_37f>''The Star League'', p. 37</ref> and its destruction in the [[Amaris Civil War]] led to the [[Succession Wars (History)|Succession Wars]].<ref name=SLSB_98f>''The Star League'', p. 98</ref>

==History==
===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 reins of power, but none could solve the Alliance's problems. In meantime, the Alliance Navy became a major power in its own right: the charismatic Admiral [[James McKenna]] turned what was little more than an armored troop transport service into the Inner Sphere's first true interstellar navy. Essentially operating without political oversight, the Alliance Navy was free to construct six [[WarShip]]s (starting with the [[Dreadnought (Individual Dreadnought-class WarShip)|TAS ''Dreadnought'']] in [[2300]]) and twenty support vessels until the Alliance collapsed into civil war in [[2314]].

The political turmoil began in that year when the new People's Liberation Party arose as a player in Alliance politics. 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 upon an alliance with the highest bidder; initially accepting the Expansionists' offer, Zoli reneged on the deal a month later and promised to join forces with the Liberals after the next election. Soon afterwards, on 5 September 2314, his corpse was found in his New Zealand mansion.<ref name=SLSB_1113>''The Star League'', pp. 11–13</ref>

Zoli's death - natural or otherwise - caused the [[Terran Alliance Civil War|budding civil war]] to erupt into a bloody global conflict. On 2 June [[2315]], Fleet Admiral McKenna's WarShips destroyed two small uninhabited 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.<ref name=SLSB_1314>''The Star League'', p. 13</ref>

===Expansion===
Aside from banning political parties, the Terran Hegemony during 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.<ref name=JHST_148>''Jihad Hot Spots: Terra'', p. 148</ref><ref name=SLSB_1415 />

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.<ref name=JHST_148 /> The first campaign of persuasion, launched in 2316 and ending with the capture of Towne in 2317,<ref name="TSLp16">''The Star League'', p. 16: "Terra's Errant Flock"</ref> 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.<ref name="HB:HMp18">''Handbook: House Marik'', p. 18: "Free Worlds League Founding [2271]"</ref><ref name="HB:HKp18">''Handbook: House Kurita'', p. 18: "Draconis Combine Founding [2319]"</ref> 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.<ref name="TSLp16"/>

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 ten days later.<ref name=SLSB_1415 />

===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 17 January [[2340]].<ref name=SLSB_2023>''The Star League'', pp. 20–23</ref>

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 nonmilitary scientific research, nontraditional 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 creating a new nobility system, patterned after medieval English feudalism on 1 January [[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.<ref name=JHST_150>''Jihad Hot Spots: Terra'', p. 150</ref><ref name=SLSB_2023 />

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 Congress after Margaret Cameron threatened to bypass it entirely.<ref name=SLSB_2023 />

Ironically, further advancement in the applied sciences (such as the first primitive [[IndustrialMech|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]].<ref name=SLSB_2023 />

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 Cameron (24th c.)|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 buildup starting in [[2391]], which included the development and construction of the first [[Castle Brian]] military complexes.<ref name=SLSB_25>''The Star League'', p. 25</ref>

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 Castles Brian. 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.<ref name=SLSB_2628>''The Star League'', pp. 26–28</ref>

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 Cameron (26th c.)|Theodore]] and granddaughter [[Elizabeth Cameron|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.<ref name=SLSB_2932>''The Star League'', pp. 29–32</ref>

===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 rein 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.<ref name=EDAoW_15>''Era Digest: Age of War'', p. 15</ref> 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.<ref name=SLSB_3233>''The Star League'', pp. 32–33</ref>

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.<ref name=SLSB_3233 /><ref name=HBHS_23>''Handbook: House Steiner'', p. 23</ref>

After her retirement in [[2542]], her son [[Joseph Cameron|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 20 September 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 Cameron|Ian]] declared himself Director-General on September 28. Taking this as their cue, elements 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.<ref name=SLSB_3435>''The Star League'', pp. 34–35</ref>

Following the politics of his predecessors, Ian Cameron's foreign policy was largely centered on 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 economic and technological payments in return for raw material was not something Ian Cameron was willing to accept.<ref name=SLSB_159>''The Star League'', p. 159</ref> 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.<ref name=SLSB_3435 />

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 9 July [[2571]], with the Director-General as its hereditary [[First Lord]].<ref name=SLSB_3435 />

===Star League===
{{main|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 [[w:Puget Sound|Puget Sound]] west of [[w:Tacoma|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.<ref name=SLSB_4041>''The Star League'', pp. 40–41</ref>

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 economic and technological lead.<ref name=SLSB_160162>''The Star League'', pp. 160–162</ref>

===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 Cameron|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, Amaris 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.<ref name=JFR_151153>''Jihad Hot Spots: Terra'', pp. 151–153</ref>

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|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.<ref name=JFR_151153>''Jihad Hot Spots: Terra'', pp. 151–153</ref>

==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.<ref name=SLSB_1415>''The Star League'', pp. 14–15</ref>

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]].

==Historical: Maps==
<gallery>
File:Terran Hegemony 2319.jpg|Terran Hegemony in 2319
File:Inner-sphere-2570.jpg|Terran Hegemony and the Inner Sphere, 2570
File:Terran Hegemony 2571.jpg|Terran Hegemony in 2571
File:Terran Hegomony 2596.jpg|Terran Hegemony in 2596
File:Terran Hegemony 2764.jpg|Terran Hegemony in 2764
</gallery>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Terran Hegemony alt.JPG|Alternate "distressed" insignia found in ''[[BattleTech: 25 Years of Art & Fiction]]''
</gallery>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
{{div col|colwidth=25em}}
* ''[[Era Digest: Age of War]]''
* ''[[Era Report: 2750]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: SLDF]]''
* ''[[Handbook: House Kurita]]''
* ''[[Handbook: House Marik]]''
* ''[[Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1]]''
* ''[[Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2]]''
* ''[[Historical: Reunification War]]''
* ''[[Jihad Hot Spots: Terra]]''
* ''[[The Star League]]''
{{div col end}}

[[Category:Nation States|Terran Hegemony]]
[[Category:Terran Hegemony Related Categories]]