United Empire of Sol and Proxima

The United Empire of Sol and Proxima was founded by Helen I of Mars in GY 1. The Empire was born of the alliance between the Kingdom of Sol and the Proxima Sovereignty, which had been established thirty-four years previously to end the centuries-old animosity between the two powers and to counter their declining influence in the galaxy. Since that time, the Empire has become a major player on the galactic stage and there are very few parts of the civilized galaxy where the name of the Empire does not command at least some modicum of respect.

Along with the Travellers, the Empire is one of the main sponsors of the GalWik project.

Before the Empire
The Empire is the result of the unification of the Kingdom of Sol and the Proxima Sovereignty. The two kingdoms had existed independently for several hundred years prior to the creation of the Empire. The Sovereignty was established when Proxima rebelled against Sol in 772 BGC, and initially the relationship between the two nations was extremely hostile. Tensions cooled over time, however, mostly as a result of the decreasing influence the two states had over human affairs. The limits of FTL technology meant that as humanity spread out further and further, the power and prestige of Sol and Proxima steadily decreased. By 34 BGC, the two nations were regarded almost as backwater systems of trivial importance by the rest of the galaxy.

Several treaties and pacts had been signed throughout the centuries that brought the two nations closer and closer together, but all had stopped just short of outright unification. This changed in 34 BGC with the invention of vastly improved jump coils that cut interstellar travel time in half. Suddenly, rather than taking two and a half weeks to travel between the two systems, the journey could be made in a little less than eight and a half days. Viable interstellar civilization had suddenly gone from fairy tale to reality.

The Centaurus Accords, signed in 34 BGC, came closer to uniting the two powers than any previous treaty had. In addition to more tightly integrating their military and civilian infrastructures and operations, each nation now had a permanent (albeit non-voting) delegation in the other nation's legislative body. They were given seats on all important committees, permitted to speak on the floor about how certain measures would affect the relationship between the two nations, and even attend Cabinet meetings.

True unification did not come until 1 GY, when General Helen Blankford, Duchess of Mars inherited the throne of the Kingdom of Sol from her sister, Queen Melanie IV. At the same time, the Proxima Sovereignty was in the midst of a constitutional crisis caused by the abdication of the Sovereign following a corruption scandal that threatened to topple the entire government. Helen, a longtime proponent of full unification, personally went before the Proxima Council to propose unification with the Kingdom. Faced with increasing unrest and dissatisfaction with the current regime, the Council agreed, with a few stipulations: Helen whole-heartedly supported the terms of unification, but convincing the Solar Parliament took quite a bit of work. In the end, the concession that won the support of Parliament and allowed unification to proceed was that, while the capital of the government be on Proxima, the military headquarters be located on Earth, and half of all military research and construction be done at Mars.
 * That the new government be an equal partnership between Proxima and Sol
 * That the new government permit the existing constitutional monarchies of Proxima and Sol to continue to operate almost as they had before
 * That the capital of the new government be located on Proxima, to blunt any accusations that Sol was conquering Proxima

The Proxima Council agreed, and so on April 17th, 1 GY, the Treaty of Ceres was signed and the United Empire of Sol and Proxima was created.

Membership
By tradition, full membership in the Empire is granted to whole systems, not individual planets, colonies, or space stations. There have not been any cases that have presented a serious challenge to this tradition in the six centuries since the founding of the Empire and legal scholars are divided about what would happen if such a case ever occurred. Some believe that there would be no problem with admitting a single world, while others argue that it would precipitate a minor constitutional crisis.

The two founding members of the Empire are Sol and Proxima.

All members of the Empire are required to have some form of representative government.