Transolar Federation
The Transolar Federation was a previous state that ruled humanity during the age of Unity from the signing of the New Solar Charter to the Third Great Human Civil War. The Transolar Federation was responsible for the colonization of most of Civilized Space, through the advent of chartered colonies. However, it also dealt with a far amount of crisis especially towards the end of its existence. Ideological conflict that had been repressed through the the Federation's early life bubbled to the surface in The Despair, culminating in the Third Great Human Civil War, and the replacement of the Federation with the Stellar League which would rule humanity in the last phase of the Age of Unity.
Government
The Transoslar Federation was a Confedral Parliamentary Republic with the chief governing body, its legislature, consisting of two main chambers, the General Assembly, and the Federation Council. The General Assembly was the junior legislative assembly, and consisted of representatives from every member world. The Federation Council was smaller, with a rotating group of members, and a smaller body of select influential member worlds. The General Assembly selected a Chancellor that served as the Chief Executive and was nominally in charge of the various agencies that oversaw daily governance. The Federal Court of Justice served as the supreme judiciary and with a wide remit as an appealate court.Culture
The Transolar Federation encompassed the majority of human civilization during its tenure, and therefore most major human cultures could be encountered within its borders. Though unlike its successor, there were always colonies that fell outside the Federation's jurisdiction, the vast majority of the human population still remained under the banner of the Transolar Federation. The government of the Federation, in an effort to appear different from its predecessor, fully embraced teh diversity of culture within its borders and tolerated, perhaps even encouraged peoples of different worlds to embrace their own unique cultures. Some have argued that this was, in fact, part of the reason for the downfall of the Federation in the first place.
History
The Transolar Federation arose out of the Troubles that had engulfed the United Nations of Earth in the late 26th century. The political unrest of that period, caused by the lack of representation among all of the settled worlds under UNE jurisdiction, triggered numerous costly revolts that eventually broke the will of the UNE to continue fighting. After the twin disasters of the Line World Rebellion and the Terran Civil War, a large group of delegates from across the settled galaxy came together to create a new government, one that would be somewhat more responsive to star systems other than the Sol System, and planets other than Earth. The Transolar Federation, the result of these conferences, was born with the signing of the New Solar Charter in 2570. Adopting more widespread representation for the various smaller colonies throughout the settled galaxy.
In its early years, there were major efforts to improve the conditions of the various human colonies through extensive terraforming and economic development efforts. Though the progress of these projects was slow, thanks to the limited capabilities of terraforming technology and the primitive logistics network of the time, it did eventually pay off, with the full development of the Home Region, and the making of many of the earliest colonies such as Chiron in the Alpha Centauri System, Gaia Cosmia in the Junction System. Many of the further colonies too were more properly developed creating many of the prosperous clusters that would eventually form civilized space. In addition to these development programs, slow, steady colonial expansion also occurred particularly towards the galactic core. The Federation adopted a system of sanctioned charters giving each of their governates charters to colonize certain star clusters, and thus ensuring that every region from Old Earth had the opportunity to build new homes for their people among the stars. Eventually, one of these expeditions would discover the ruins of an ancient civilization, the Pardian Civilization. Though the more lasting impacts of these would not be felt for centuries to come the discovery of other sentients triggered a massive bonanza to explore further.
During the Second Expansion, humanity spread rapidly, looking for further signs that humanity was not alone among the stars, and vast swathes of coreward space were settled as a result. Hundreds of stellar clusters went from being uninhabited, even from being barren rocks in space, to having quickly expanding boomtowns with throngs of prospectors, scientists, and adventurous sorts. Indeed the rapid spread of the Second Expansion outpaced the ability of the Federation to build the required infrastructure, and sanctioned charters to support future expansion, and as a result the development of new colonies became increasingly chaotic. As time went on, and it seemed more and more apparent that the Pardians were gone, and with no further evidence of other sentient life, there was a sociological epidemic of existential dread. The colonization fever eventually gave way to what is colloquially known as The Despair.
In the latter days of the Federation, it faced increasing challenges. Its social structure rocked by the increasingly chaotic nature of its expansion, paired with the growing discontent meant that the Federation struggled to maintain control over its holdings. Efforts were made to improve the territories settled by the Second Expansion, though with increasingly strained resources it proved difficult to follow through on these efforts. As a result, many regional blocs become increasingly frustrated, and increasingly independent from the capital region. In this time, ideological movements long suppressed culturally, rose again to the forefront. In the final century of the Transolar Federation, the government had to struggle with an increasingly fractious galaxy, and failed to do so. With the assassination of Chancellor Nyota Akende, the Federation was plunged into a Third Great Human Civil War, one which ended with its dissolution.
Disbandment
At the end of the Transolar Federation's tenure, wider human society had entered a state of malaise following the Second Expansion and the slow discovery that humanity was alone as a sentient species. This malaise generally contributed to a rise in unrest among the various peoples of the Federation, and in this unrest many new ideological and factional blocs began to form. Though the Federation tried to keep on top of the mounting unrest, it proved increasingly incapable of doing so. The final match was struck with the assassination of Nyota Akende, the Third Great Human Civil War broke out, and the Transolar Federation was dismembered. By the time of the signing of the Treaty of New Sverdlovsk, the Federation had been functionally destroyed, even though an interrim government would take control until the foundation of the Stellar League.
Demography and Population
The Transolar Federation was the most populous state of its day, with the overwhelming majority of the total human population living under its banner. At its peak, the Federation likely had a population in the hundreds of billions, though exact numbers are virtually impossible to obtain. The bulk of the population lived on Earth, or in the Home Region, though the Federation's had dispersed more than the previous government. In terms of ethnic breakup, the Transolar Federation encompassed the vast majority of ethnicities and human subspecies. The Federation tended to become more diverse as time went on as humanity spread out, and the policy of the state was indeed celebrating diversity.
Territories
The Transolar Federation was one of the largest polities ever to exist in human history, superceded only by its successor. At its territorial peak, it encompassed an astrographic area of roughly 3,751 cubic parsecs of space spaced out over an area of roughly 58 Sectors of space. However, due to the territorial policy of the Federation, its territories weren't contiguous, instead of claiming entire areas of space, the Transolar Federation only claimed star systems that had been inhabited by people. As a result, all of those parsecs contained inhabited star systems. The Federation therefore could count tens of thosuands of planets, and billions of smaller astronomic objects in their territories.
Military
The Transolar Federation have a very complex system of defense. Though it maintained a token Federal military, the majority of its forces came from the various system defense forces, which could be commandeered into the Federal military as required for campaign. Though there were some limited standards of training and equipment, in practice, the various system defense forces varied enormously in quality. On more prosperous or militaristic worlds there were capable, largely professional militaries with advanced equipment, but other worlds could barely assemble a militia with improvised weaponry. This was particularly problematic in the frontier where rebel groups and pirates could prove better equipped than the militaries that opposed them.
Technological Level
The Transolar Federation was widely considered the first truly interstellar civilization. At the beginning, the Federation had seen the very earliest prototype gravitics, and slow proliferation of fusion reactors in daily use. The discovery of Pardian ruins in the middle of the Federation's rule caused something of a technological boom. Though it would take several centuries for all of the technologies discovered to entier common use, this shift saw the birth of the Jumpgate network the dramatic improvement of jump drive technology, and the maturation of gravitics. It was also during this time that the field of Psionics had its birth. Though the malaise of the late Federation period would slow down technical progress, the Federation had nonetheless seen dramatic changes in a comparatively short period of time.
Religion
The Transolar Federation was well known for the great diversity of religious thought that existed within its borders. A fully secular nation, the matter of religion was largely left to the province of individuals, and to a lesser extent, more local governments. Though no official religious festivals were celebrated, many were provided unofficial support. The largest religions of the era were Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, though hundreds of smaller religions were also practiced. Towards the end of the Transolar Federation's tenure, even more religions existed, though the Federation began to change its secularist policy as a number of doomsday cults also arose at the time.
Laws
The Transolar Federation was dominated by a relatively moderate government that sought to maintain a "well reasoned" position. There were some restrictions on civil liberties and market activity, and more restrictive arms controls than existed within its predecessor. It maintained a Social Market economic system with the legal basis of the Federation being to efficiently manage the human economy. It tried to maintain this even during the slow decline of the Despair, and eventual ending civil war, though its systems effectively collapsed towards the end of the conflict.
Agriculture & Industry
The Transolar Federation had a relatively high degree of economic stratification in spite of its efforts to equalize the economy in comparison to its predecessor. The older colonies, and Earth itself possessed highly developed economies, and the periphery provided the raw materials to feed the industries of the core, and the closer periphery. Though the highly developed logistical chains that would predominate latter galactic eeconomics had not yet been developed, there was nonetheless an effective triangular trade between the consumer core worlds, the industrial middle worlds, and the exctrative outer worlds. After the discovery of Pardian ruins however, there was something of a gold rush, which altered the economic astrogpraphy of the Federation as many new colonies became wealthy, and especially highly educated.
Education
The Transolar Federation maintained a fairly extensive public education system, up to the very best of its abilities when confronted with the realities of interstellar communications and travel. Students were provided with an education from four to eighteen years of age in thee basic fundamentals of mathematics, the sciences, information technology, and at least two languages. Most education was provided digitally, especially on the frontier, though schools did exist. Towards the end of the Transolar Federation's existence, this system began to break down as the government faced increasing pressures requiring the redirection of resources away from maintaing its education system.
Infrastructure
The Transolar Federation did not have many of the key aspects of interstellar infrastructure that became a hallmark of civilization at its birth. The Jumpgate technology had not yet been developed, and many starports were only in their infancy. It was during Federation rule in fact that these key pieces of infrastructure were first constructed. First, under an early initiative by the Federation a vast number of advanced starports were constructed usually to ensure that at least one type A starport could be found within each cluster of worlds. Secondly, after the discovery of the Jumpgate, and the proliferation of the design, the network underwent the earliest phases of its construction. The finer details of local civic infrastructure have largely been lost however.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Reforged, Reunited
2570 - 3354
Type
Geopolitical, Republic
Alternative Names
Transolar Union, Solar Federation
Successor Organization
Government System
Democracy, Parliamentary
Power Structure
Confederation
Economic System
Market economy
Currency
The Solar Credit
Legislative Body
The General Assembly and Federal Council
Judicial Body
The Federal Court of Justice
Executive Body
The Chancellor of the Federation
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