Disputed Territories
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The Disputed Territories was a region of historically Capellan worlds that existed as an interstellar "no man's land" between October 3057 and the mid-3060s before it was reincorporated into the Capellan Confederation.
Overview[edit]
Conquered by the Federated Suns during the Fourth Succession War, the worlds of this region became part of the nascent Federated Commonwealth's Sarna March. After being ruled for a single generation by House Steiner-Davion, the Sarna March effectively ceased to exist following the Liao-Marik Offensive of 3057 which ended FedCom control over the entire province. The worlds closest to the Capellan Confederation and along the Free Worlds League border were retaken outright by the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces, while the region of space stretching rimward from Terra rejected any outside authority at all and became a strife-torn region known as the Chaos March.[1]
Between these two areas were the Disputed Territories. Comprised mostly of independent worlds as well as two small proto-states - the Styk Commonality and the reborn Sarna Supremacy - this region was less independent-minded than the Chaos March and generally favorable to Capellan reclamation efforts. While the Confederation was unable to officially reclaim these worlds due to its overstretched military, it was able to prevent the Federated Commonwealth from reasserting control as well by supporting pro-Capellan movements and irregulars.[1] [2]
The chief exception to this pro-Capellan sentiment was the Sarna Supremacy. Sitting directly between the Confederation and the rest of the Disputed Territories, this three-world state was self-sufficient enough to resist overt Capellan pressure and risked derailing Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao's efforts to reclaim the region. The capture of Kaifeng, the Supremacy's chief food source, by Warrior House Hiritsu in 3058 enabled the Confederation to slowly starve the remaining two Supremacy worlds into submission, officially reabsorbing them in 3066.[3]
In 3058 Sun-Tzu Liao's alliance with the Magistracy of Canopus and his election as First Lord of the Second Star League gave him the means to claim the Disputed Territories once and for all. In his capacity as First Lord, Chancellor Liao was able to deploy Canopian troops or his own as peacekeepers to contested worlds to end their strife. These Star League-mandated peacekeepers would then be replaced with Capellan units; together with economic and indigenous political pressure, planets targeted in this fashion officially rejoined the Confederation. Sarna and Styk were both reclaimed in this fashion, along with several other disputed worlds, all of which were incorporated into the newly formed Liao Commonality.[4]
The end of his term as First Lord in 3061 and the Capellan-St. Ives War temporarily halted Sun-Tzu's efforts to recover the Disputed Territories, but the successful reabsorption of the St. Ives Compact enabled the Confederation to resume the campaign in 3064. Trinity Alliance units from all three member states used a mixture of subterfuge, diplomacy, economic persuasion, and military might to expand the Liao Commonality's borders. By the end of 3067 the last of the disputed worlds had been returned to the Capellan Confederation.[5] [6]