History of Rheinland

The history of Rheinland begins with the arrival of it's sleeper ship in Sirius in 2 A.S. Landing in the southern fringes of the sector, nearby the resource rich Walker Nebula, Rheinland was assured an abundancy in natural resources unlike any other house, although still devoid of fuel gases. It's imperial government attempted to secure gas fields in the nearby Crow Nebula by declaring war on the Gas Miners Guild in 589 A.S. Rheinland's push was unsuccessful however, and ended in the country descending into chaos at the dawn of 672 A.S., the date of the Popular Revolution.

The Federal Republic would be formally recognised in 673 A.S., and would slowly descend back into military dictatorship over the following years, until the Nomad War of 800 A.S. After the destruction of the infested Rheinland fleet that attacked Kusari, the house would finally begin rebuilding slowly, until being falling under the control of Chancellor Reinhardt in 813 A.S. only to be established under his boot as a fascist dictatorship.

Early history

Escape from Sol

Snapshot of Alliance sleeper ships taking off from the surface of Titan.

The period of the century before 0 A.S. (2100-2200 A.D.) was dominated by the war between the Alliance, composed out of western nations of the earth, and the Coalition, created by the east. After a century of brutal warfare, the conflict eventually tipped in favour of the Coalition, when their forces successfully conquered the planet Mars. As a last ditch effort, the Alliance had activated eight sleeper ships constructed for escape purposes in the event of a Coalition victory, each of the ships being christened after it's patron nation. The German ship was christened as the Rheinland.

In 0 A.S. (2200 A.D.) the Coalition push reached Jupiter, and the Alliance sleeper ships were launched from the surface of Titan, straight into a full blown Coalition blockade. During the breakthrough, three of the ships (French, Italian and Australian) were destroyed. Five managed to escape: the Kusari, the Bretonia, the Hispania, the Liberty and the Rheinland. Their course was set towards the distant Sirius sector, a long way away from their conflict in the Solar System.

Arrival in Sirius

The Rheinland sleeper ship arrived in Sirius in 2 A.S., a year after the Liberty. The ships' captain and small crew, woken up from statis by the navigational computer after reaching their destination, quickly assessed that the American sleeper ship had landed somewhere in the middle of the sector. Thus they have spent a few months scouring the outer reaches of the sector, until finally deciding to land in a resource rich system close to the Walker Nebula. The Rheinland descended on an icy planet (quickly christened as New Berlin) in 3 A.S. The German military, still formally in control of the ship, establishes a war-time government to ensure that the process of colonisation goes smoothly and without problems.

New horizons

New Berlin itself was a cold and unforgiving world, devoid of life, and with a very slow rotation rate. With the day and night each lasting for little more than a standard year, the planet's night side was plunged into a frigid winter, while it's day territories enjoyed temperatures hovering slightly above the freezing point. Due to Berlin's inability to spawn crops, the Rheinland population was driven almost to famine, being sustained entirely by the hydroponic farms onboard the sleeper ship itself, until the first crops were grown in specially designed mineral nutrient greenhouses.

The New Berlin system itself was ripe with mineral resources, and heavily surrounded by metal rich asteroid fields. Rheinland colonists, knowing they would need to find a "green" world in order to expand their population, quickly took to the stars in a search for new planets. As such, a company would be founded to begin the ascent into the skies for house Rheinland: Daumann Heavy Construction. It would officially begin operations in 34 A.S. By the next year funding and resources would be secured, and Daumann would start sending crews into New Berlin orbit to begin constructing a shipyard facility. It would take five years to complete the base, and it would be officially christened in the fall of 40 A.S. as Oder Shipyard. The plan published by Daumann was to begin assembly of exploration ships immediately, in order to complete it's first vessel in 41 A.S. Seven explorer ships in total were built to survey neighbouring systems for habitable worlds and new resources. During this first phase of production, Rheinland engineers would find a way to construct stronger hulls made out of very specific metals bonded together in alloys. This would help Rheinland ships overcome the barrier of extra-solar radiation when travelling between systems.

These new exploration ships would embark immediately after their assembly, and begin charting the areas around the New Berlin system. One of the explorers sent would be Lorenz Von Rohe, who's expedition - first sent in 69 A.S. - would survey the Dresden system in 82 A.S. and mark it for it's incredible wealth in both metals and carbons, and especially diamonds.

One of the survey expeditions stumbled upon the Stuttgart system on the very edge of the Walker Nebula in approx. 85 A.S. The expedition identified two habitable planets orbiting a young sun. Knowing this is exactly the thing they were looking for, they immediately sent the data back to New Berlin. As soon as that data arrived, Rheinland immediately began construction of a different type of ship - a colony ship. This ship, carrying about five thousand colonists, would embark in 87 A.S. and reach planet Stuttgart two years later. Upon reaching Stuttgart, the colonists would quickly note the environment, rich in oxygen and carbon dioxide, as extremely favourable to both Earth and Sirius crops. The planet would be quickly developed into a granary for all of Rheinland, generating demand for transport vessels at Oder. The first ships suited for food transport would deliver the first load in the fall of 91 A.S.

Five years later a Liberty exploration ship - the LCC Einstein - arrives in Rheinland, enabling real time communication by a series of FTL (faster than light) buoys it has set up during it's flight to New Berlin. First business between Liberty and Rheinland is conducted: the swap of Rheinland advances in ship construction for a ground-breaking Liberty engine design; allowing even faster travel than Rheinland engines allowed thus far.

The second century

The famous Rheinland shipyards - The Ring

In the fall of 94 A.S. the first asteroid mining vessel would leave the Oder Shipyard, and proceed to the Harzfeld to begin it's mining operation. This would later be recognised as the very beginning of the rapid industrial expansion that Rheinland would enjoy for the next three centuries. The loose collection of mining, smelting and manufacturing facilities locked in the LaGrange point between planet New Berlin and it's moon Potsdam was mostly owned or in the process of being absorbed by Daumann. These facilities would slowly be linked together to form a large, interconnected construct to ultimately speed up the functions of all the stations. The work would be completed in 101 A.S. and the resulting base would be christened simply as The Ring.

The second century also brought forward more discoveries, as the Von Rohe expedition stumbled upon the Omega-15 system in 104 A.S., noting it for it's numerous gravitational anomalies. Anomalies of similar radiation frequency were noted in Dresden, leading Von Rohe to an assumption that these manifestations were some sort of jump holes connecting these systems to each other. Six years later, in 110 A.S., his expedition would reach the Omega-11 system, where it would spend the next six months studying it's phenomenons. Omega-11's dying sun was surrounded by two thick rings of asteroids and planetary debris, which Von Rohe theorised was a remnant of two planets after the sun expanded into a red giant. The system would be marked by Rheinland specifically for it's vast diamond deposits, but also noted as unreachable for the time being.

In 120 A.S. a Liberty company invented a lightweight polymer, that could be used for the construction of a space elevator to completely negate the costs of boosting spacefaring vessels from planetside into space and back. This invention revolutionised trade, and the company immediately licensed it to the other houses (including Rheinland) reaping massive profits in return. This new docking ring would boost the Rheinland economy threefold, finally allowing for direct material transport without utilising costly shuttles.

The industrial boom itself would start just four years later, in 124 A.S. when a new generation of mining ships would replace the old, less efficient ones, and new Daumann vessels would begin major operations in the Aachenfeld and Saarfeld. The Harzfeld was estimated to be completely depleted of usable minerals by 200 A.S.

By 170 A.S. the economy was in full bloom, as the first warship prototypes left the Oder shipyards to patrol and secure the New Berlin system. The wartime military government of Rheinland was by now deeply rooted, and unwilling to give up control to the civilians. Major military figures would be regarded with deep reverence by the rest of the force. Careful with preserving centralised governmental control, yet giving away freedoms to companies that Rheinland depended on, this situation would be the basis upon which the Rheinland Empire would be formed.

Rheinland Empire

Semi-constitutional monarchy

In 181 A.S. the first move to a real government was made. The military command building on New Berlin was renovated, and re-established as the Rheinland Reichstag in a move to liberalise the government. The Reichstag was to function as a parliament and administrative office, allowing the representatives from both Stuttgart and New Berlin to converge and discuss internal affairs. The leading figure of the wartime government however remained in his administrative position, declaring himself as the Kaiser of the Empire. The government constitution defined Rheinland as a constitutional monarchy, with the Kaiser remaining as head of state, and the Reichstag becoming the head of government. It still allowed the Kaiser to put pressure on the Reichstag to pass reforms and decrees however, thus giving him a measure of government control.

Rapid expansion

With it's economy in full motion, Rheinland was slowly reaching it's limit. Large transport convoys moved vast quantities of food from Stuttgart, delivering it only once every 6 months due to the travel distance, while the present rate of mineral mining and usage would deplete the entire New Berlin system in the space of less than two hundred years. Dresden system suddenly became the centre of attention due to it's relatively close proximity to New Berlin, as well as a newly discovered system similar to New Berlin itself in terms of resources.

Popular Revolution (672 A.S.)

As was predicted, the war with the GMG left Rheinland with nothing. The fleet was destroyed, and the years of war-time economy and cutting costs have left the mining industry on the verge of complete bankruptcy. Dissent was forming in the larger cities of Planet New Berlin and Nuremberg. The standing heads of state quickly realised the implications the war has left on the economy, and began desperately searching for help. In 672 A.S. Liberty agrees to bail Rheinland out by providing a long term, low interest loan. This same year the market in Rheinland crashes completely as it's currency suffers catastrophic devaluation. With smaller companies and corporations alike declaring bankruptcy almost over night, and the mining industry attempting to survive by choking it's workers out of their money, the long coming revolution finally came.

On Von Rohe's Day, 672 A.S., Daumann mining stations in Dresden were seized and locked down by miners in a widespread general strike. The miners claimed that the imperial government had failed, and demanded it stand down and make way for a new people's state. Supplied by Bundschuh revolutionaries, the miners managed to hold out on the station for five weeks before word about the revolt was finally spread to the planet populations. Two months after the start of the uprising, workers sympathetic to the miners' cause lock down Daumann facilities on Planet New Berlin. A few days later the first riots take place on Hamburg and Stuttgart. With the industrial heart of the economy grinding to a halt, the government is finally forced to give in. The Bundschuh movement is publically recognised, and it's representatives are invited to meet with the imperialists. A period of tense negotiations follows, as the roots of a new, coalition government are formed.

See also

• Federal Republic of Rheinland
• Timeline of Rheinland history