Please excuse me for the delay, communication with censors took some time. There are the transcripts that were allowed to be published.
First speaker - Ms. Miran Tereven.
Good day, friends and fellow citizens. I have been asked to hold a brief lecture on the history of our people between our first contact with the Gallente and the end of the Gallente-Caldari war. I am honoured to have been chosen for such, and will do my best to address this timeframe as quickly and concisely as possible. I ask that questions be held until I conclude this summary.
This story began when Vivien Tolouti, a scientist from the Republic of Lyace, first observed our civilization by telescope in the 906th year of the Gallentean calendar. At the time the Gallente were in what they have dubbed their “information age”, which was marked by new technology making instant communication possible on their world, which resulted in the people from the Garoun continent exporting their democratic and libertarian values across their world, by means of words and the occasional guided missile.
Discovering that our people inhabited the same solar system incentivized the Gallente to cease their internecine warfare and dispatch probes to Caldari Prime to establish contact. The first manned mission from Gallentia to Caldari Prime took place in the 971st year of their calendar, when the ISCSS Venture landed in the territory of the New Oryioni Collective, located on the Tikioni continent. The ensuing conversation saw the coining of both the noun “Gallente” and the noun “Caldari”, as both sides simply used a term derived from what they called their home worlds. Our people began an effort to catch up in terms of technology, in which they were assisted by the International Space Cooperative, which we joined. Due to the unfortunate issues inherent in Gallentean culture, the ISC was run by means of absolute majority voting. As they outnumbered us by a significant margin, this meant that our people’s interests were relegated to an afterthought, thus causing the first relevant friction in the relationship.
This pattern continued as colonization efforts outside of the solar system ensued, and was soon joined by other issues, such as Gallentean interference in wars between polities on our homeworld, and their inability to respect our ways. One such incident occurred when a diplomat named Sebastienne Po-Lana was executed for entering a Raata shrine without removing her footwear, which convinced them that our culture was too violent to remain unchanged.
This resulted in the formation of the Cultural Deliverance Society in the 1109th year of their calendar, which was intended to bring stability to Caldari Prime by importing Gallentean culture. It became clear that the Gallente were beginning to sink their hooks in, as several polities saw Gallente-supplied uprisings that had their governments replaced with democratic ones.
One of the concepts they attempted to force through was capitalism, in the hopes that an economy would develop that was not beholden to the leadership of the polities of our home world. Instead, we applied our own cultural values to this concept, resulting in the formation of Isuuaya, the first Caldari megacorporation, in the 1173rd Gallentean calendar year. It became obvious that these megacorporations were able to act with more freedom than the Caldari governments the Gallenteans were attempting to suppress, and so the young megas began to sink their own hooks into the puppet governments with the support of the local elites. Thus the Gallentean commitment to a free market economy was revealed to be a loophole through which our people could get their way, as these proto-megas were not bound to the restrictions of the ISC. Consequently, our megacorporations began to colonize worlds for our people whilst the Gallenteans were preoccupied with their attempts to similarly entrap the Intaki and the Mannar.
This period saw the formation of the GalCom peacekeeping force used by the Gallenteans to interfere in the civil wars of the Mannar, which was made possible by the invention of the Warp Drive in a joint effort of Caldari and Gallente scientists funded by the Isuuaya corporation. It’s subsequent distribution to the Intaki and Mannar caused an increase in colonization efforts, notably in Placid and Verge.
The Gallenteans observed the growing influence of the Intaki and Mannar colonies, some of which were independent of the ISC with concern. This led to the Multi-World Agreement on Trade, which was supposed to benefit free trade by standardizing and regulating commerce. Just as before, the Gallenteans exploited this by having the biggest say in legislation, resulting in them reaping the economic benefits.
As expansion continued, bureaucratic conflicts between the ISC, MWAT and GalCom became so irritating to the Gallenteans, Intaki and Mannar that the notion of a Federated Union was proposed. Whilst this promised to remedy the chaos created by the notions of democracy and libertarianism which the Gallente had introduced to the Intaki and Mannar, the foundation of the Federation in the 1702nd year of the Gallentean calendar proved to be yet another gilded cage like the ISC and MWAT before it. The illegitimate democratic governments on Caldari Prime had no choice but to participate in this doomed venture, or risk being politically and economically isolated. This year saw the introduction of a new Federal calendar, with AR-1702 being rebranded into FC-1.
The Federation and it’s newly-founded senate proved to be thoroughly infused with Gallentean ideology, with membership requirements explicitly requiring governments to be democratic and institute universal suffrage. This forced the remaining legitimate Caldari governments which had not been overthrown by sponsored coups to adopt both of these concepts in order to not be left behind.
Conflicts over colonization rights resulted in a push for faster-than-light communication projects, with Li Azbel filing a successful patent in FC-25. As had occurred on the Gallente and Mannar homeworlds, the introduction of a functional communication network resulted in Gallentean values of democracy and libertarianism being disseminated even more aggressively, but since our people were still using megacorporations as a loophole to avoid Gallentean interference, we were shielded from the most adverse effects.
Nevertheless, Kaalakiota CEO Matias Sobaseki deemed it necessary to voice his concerns that our culture was being eroded. This led the Gallenteans to describe him as a seditionist, and the discovery of megacorporate colonies in the same year caused tensions to erupt further. Whilst independent colonization was legal under charter law, the Gallentean senators protested the fact that our colonies were operated by megacorporations rather than democratic governments.
The Caldari senators refused to agree despite the pressure placed upon them, and informed the Federal Senate that the corporations were a more legitimate representative of the will of the Caldari people than any democratic puppet state.
The Intaki attempted to deconflict the situation by arguing that the megacorporate colonies were not Federal territory and thus not beholden to Federal laws or demands.
It was at this stage that the Gallentean economic elite, seeing their dominance threatened by the Caldari megacorporations for the first time, threw their support behind the Guardians of Gallentia, commonly referred to as the U-Nats. Suddenly, and of course, without any bribery taking place, a majority of the senate voted in favour of classifying megacorporate colonies as Federal territory, and demands to cede control to democratically elected governments intensified.
This was the last straw for our people. Our senators walked out of the senate in protest, and the Chief Executive Panel issued the Proclamation of Secession and the foundation of the Caldari State in November of FC-33, with the few remaining Gallentean puppet governments being subdued by force of arms that same year. The U-Nat dominated senate pressured the Federal president into declaring this an act of rebellion and establishing a blockade of Caldari Prime, despite protests from Intaki delegates. The expectation was that the blockade would cause our people to bend to Federal demands. Instead, it caused resolve to harden and tensions to rise, resulting in sectarian violence between our people and Gallenteans living on Caldari Prime.
The building tension finally reached a breaking point when the Templis Dragonaurs detonated explosives within Nouvelle Rouvenor, causing the deaths of all inhabitants of the underwater city. In response, President Villers resigned, resulting in U-Nat chairman Luc Duvailer becoming the next Federal president. Martial law was declared, protestors were imprisoned or shot without trial and entire planets were blockaded. Once dissent within the Federation had been violently crushed, Duvailer set into motion the systematic orbital bombardment and subsequent invasion of our home world, titled Operation Heaven’s Justice.
The illegitimacy and cruelty of this operation, in combination with the indiscriminate bombardment of Gallente Army personnel by the Federal Navy, reduced the morale of all military branches of the Federation by such a degree that the Caldari Army was able to hold the line. In the face of such barbarism, the only correct action was to protect our people. Consequently any defeatist CEOs who disagreed with this notion found themselves forced into the Tea Maker Ceremony during the Morning of Reasoning. After that, plans to evacuate our population from Caldari Prime were set into motion.
The U-Nats, understanding that the economies of the Luminaire system were interdependent, opposed this, as the depopulation of Caldari Prime would jeopardize Gallentean interests. Thus the Federal Navy was used to prevent the evacuation effort. This reshuffling of forces meant ceasing the blockades that forced the other Federal member worlds into compliance, resulting in anti-war protests erupting throughout the Federation. Soon enough, the political purges and moral resignations of Federal Navy officers handicapped it’s combat performance sufficiently for the Caldari Navy to achieve orbital control of Caldari Prime. Instead of lashing out against the invaders, we used this window to evacuate our people, further reducing support for the war within the Federation. Consequentially, the U-Nats began pooling together navy and army forces for one final push on Caldari Prime in order to trap our people.
It was in this moment that Admiral Yakiya Tovil-Toba initiated Operation Last Wind, to disrupt the enemy’s military concentration by means of precise strikes in the orbital zones of Gallente Prime. He lured the Federal Navy towards him by striking at stations and moons, causing them to withdraw their assets from Caldari Prime to counter him. As the evacuation of our home world proceeded unhindered, Tovil-Toba’s forces were slowly whittled away. In a last ditch effort to distract the Federal military, he crashed his carrier into Gallente Prime’s atmosphere, destroying the city of Hueromont in the process. The Federal population rightfully blamed the U-Nats for the city’s destruction. The Federal Navy did not interfere with the evacuation of Caldari Prime further, which was completed in FC-35.
President Duvailer, realizing that he had failed his people, retracted martial law in an attempt to appease the senate. Instead, a vote of no confidence was passed, and he was forced to step down by a near-unanimous vote.
A new government was formed under President Yiona in FC-34. In the meantime, the ire of the Federal population shifted from the U-Nats to our people. Similarly, we were unwilling to forgive what the Gallenteans had done between first contact and that moment. Thus the war continued, with Federal opinion shifting towards bringing us back into the Federation, peacefully or violently, so as to prevent the Intaki and Mannar from contemplating independence declarations of their own. Whilst the Federation was technically superior in terms of population and economy, their disorganized nature and volunteer-only service branch meant that they were never able to leverage these advantages, as they lacked the mindset of our people.
Several books could be written about what happened during the subsequent war, which lasted nearly a century. For the sake of those assembled, I will attempt to describe it as concisely as I can. Initial Federal offensives into the Caldari State were repulsed by virtue of our fighter craft, with the balance shifting in our favour. Fortunes were reversed when the Gallente introduced the drone. The balance once again shifted in our favour when the first Caldari frigates crewed by only a single Capsuleer entered the fray. By virtue of their determination and skill, the Federation was pushed back to it’s own borders once more. The largest battle of the war, and the second-largest battle in the history of the cluster, took place in the system of Iyen-Oursta. This engagement left both sides so depleted that peace was signed. All our territorial claims with the exception of Caldari Prime were ratified, CONCORD was formed, and the Caldari State was acknowledged as a legitimate entity.
Questions:
Lunarisse Aspenstar:
Do they still execute people for wearing footwear when entering shrines? I'd like to make sure I don't accidently cause offense to my husband or the State.
Miran Tereven:
Let us simply say that sometimes it is fortunate that Capsuleers fall under CONCORD legislation rather than being subject to local law enforcement. That said I do recommend asking about local customs prior to entering any holy sites, irrespective of one's location.
Chiyoki Xih Zhaikawi:
Ms. Tereven, Ma’am, In your view of the events of the war that ensued, Which event, not including the absolutely heroic and amazing actions of the heroic Yakiya Tovil-Toba and the honoured crew of the Kairiola, do you find had the single most greatest impact on the fortunes of our war?
Miran Tereven:
Excellent question. I would attribute the greatest impact to capsuleer-controlled frigates, which came to be shortly after the introduction of the drone.