2nd Confederacy

The United States began this period of difficulty as a first world super power. Once the inevitability of exodus from earth became clear it started a secret selection program for colonists, whilst deploying its technological efforts toward building ships to carry them. The general populace was pacified, but essentially kept in the dark.

Whilst most of the ships were built in Florida, Texas and Arizona, it became apparent to southern Senators and Congressmen that the Administration was being northern-centric in the selection of colonists. Protest in private soon became open unrest, and secession followed, with the southern states forming a 2nd Confederacy and seizing the ships in their territory together with the federal arsenals in their territory.

The cold war which followed became a moot point when the Confederacy launched its ships and left the solar system. Those who had been left behind continued to maintain their territory, but eventually rejoined a New Union with the remaining northern populace once their few ships had also launched.

In the new system the Confederacy continued to follow a semi-autonomous member state footing, to which the few ships from Massachusetts, New York and Illinois also tentatively joined for mutual protection and commonality of many views.

The Confederacy's capital is on New Virginia, with the seat of the President in New Richmond. The core worlds of the Confederacy maintain a standing central high tech army, navy and marine corps, with each member state also maintaining standing armies and militia which vary according to local tradition and need. On the fringes and colony worlds many local militias together with small state troop garrisons provide the only military force.