Council of Merchants
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Council of Merchants | |
|---|---|
| Organization Profile | |
| Type | Legislative body |
| Dissolved | 3140 |
| Parent Organization | Hanseatic League |
| Headquarters | Bremen IV |
The Council of Merchants was the ruling body of the Hanseatic League.
Contents
History[edit]
The ruling body of the League was a council of merchants. They operated from the League's capital of Freie Hansestead on Bremen IV.
When Braunschweig joined the Hanseatic League in the late twenty-ninth century, they were given seven seats in the Council.[1]
For decades, the Council meddled in affairs of the Umayyad Caliphate and Castilian Principalities, making them fight each other in the hopes of one day conquering their worlds after they had weakened themselves. Their conquest by Clan Goliath Scorpion in 3080 put an end to those plans.[2]
Escorpión Imperio Neighbors[edit]
After 3088, when the Home Clans and nearby Escorpión Imperio became serious threats, the Council decided to focus their economy on national defense. Some merchants rebelled against the reduction of their benefits but the League's armed forces crushed them. The Council also allowed greater autonomy to their military leaders, and even gave them a voting voice into their Council in the form of the Captain -Marshal, though reluctantly.[3]
At the turn of the thirty-second century,[4] the need to protect themselves against the Escorpión Imperio on the nation's doorstep became more urgent, and the Council of Merchants authorized the construction of the Lüneburg Vehicle Corporation on Braunschweig III to produce BattleMechs and combat vehicles. Its success led to the establishment of HDF Manufacturing on Falsterbo and the expansion of the Bordello Military Goods, Inc. factory on Antwerp.[4][5] The importance of the Lüneburg factory also led to the permanent posting of the Regional Defense Force Six along with an aerospace force expanded to a full wing.[6]
Hanseatic Crusade[edit]
When the conflict between the Hansa and Scorpions began, the Council's forces were unable to stop the Clanners and the invaders eventually reached Bremen. The battle slowly turned against the Hansa and on 12 October 3140, a day which later became known as "Red Saturday," a team of Scorpions Elementals penetrated into the capital and captured the Council. But its members, refusing to surrender, instead activated a failsafe which detonated hidden explosives, destroying the capital and much of the city—also inflicting massive losses on Tau Galaxy and Regional Defense Force Three. Unaware of the explosion being the work of the Council, Captain-Marshal Rudolf Schmidt, the last remaining member of the Council and sole surviving Hansa authority, ordered his forces to stand down in order to prevent more bloodshed in the now-assured conquest. Ironically, the Council of Merchants' goal of seeing the League, Nueva Castile, and Umayyad Caliphate all under the same banner had now been realized with the formation of the Scorpion Empire.[7]
References[edit]
- ↑ Touring the Stars: Braunschweig, p. 4
- ↑ Operational Turning Points: Hanseatic Crusade, p. 8: "The Escorpión Imperio"
- ↑ Operational Turning Points: Hanseatic Crusade, pp. 9–10: "Hanseatic League, 3080–3140"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Operational Turning Points: Hanseatic Crusade, p. 3: "Braunschweig" planet profile
- ↑ Touring the Stars: Braunschweig, p. 5
- ↑ Touring the Stars: Braunschweig, p. 6
- ↑ Operational Turning Points: Hanseatic Crusade, p. 13: "Wave 5"