Interstellar Wars

The Interstellar Wars were a series of wars fought between the Terrans and the First Imperium.

• These wars finally ended with the collapse of the Vilani Imperium AKA Ziru Sirka and the rise of the Second Imperium and the Solomani.

Description

The Interstellar Wars were a series of conflicts between the Vilani Ziru Sirka and various Terran governments (initially various Terran nations, then the United Nations, United Worlds, and Terran Confederation governments) between -2408 and -2219. Over two centuries, Terran social and technological dynamism led to conquest of Vilani territory and the eventual collapse of central authority in the Ziru Sirka, to be replaced by the Rule of Man (which would itself last only a few centuries before the Long Night).

History

Fortunately for the existence of Terra as an independent world, Vilani expansion to rimward stopped several parsecs from Terra before the Vilani era of cultural stagnation began. Terrans discovered a Vilani outpost at Barnard in -2422 as part of their first interstellar voyage using the jump drive. The discovery of a huge interstellar state ruled by humans not from Earth caused panic and indignation among the people and nations of Terra.

The First Interstellar War began when a Vilani merchant convoy ignored Terran traffic control signals from the Terran base in the Barnard system; the Terrans believed an attack was imminent and destroyed some of the convoy's ships. It and the early subsequent wars tended to be limited affairs in which a few systems changed hands. Since the area near Terra was a remote province of the Ziru Sirka, the governors there generally had limited resources with which to prosecute actions against the Terrans, although occasionally reinforcements would be granted and gains would be made at the Terrans' expense (including an occasion when a Vilani fleet reached the Sol system and bombarded Terran cities from orbit with fusion bombs). Vilani governors were quite willing to "buy off" the Terrans by granting them control over a few Imperial systems in exchange for a brief peace. (Judged in terms of territorial gains, all of the Interstellar Wars were Terran victories except for the Fourth, where the Ziru Sirka recaptured Nusku (world).)

During this period, the Terrans not only formed a unified world government and colonized systems in directions away from the Ziru Sirka, but also advanced their technological level, first by reverse-engineering Vilani devices, then conducting original research (which was anathema in the stagnant Vilani social system). Eventually this led, between the Eighth and Ninth Interstellar Wars, to the development of jump-3 and the meson gun. Jump-3 allowed the Terrans to outmaneuver the Vilani on the strategic level, as the latter were still using jump-2; meson guns allowed them to outgun the Vilani on the tactical level, as the Vilani had no defenses (meson screens) against them. In addition, penetration of the outer regions of the Ziru Sirka by Terran merchants selling innovative products disrupted the Vilani social order there, lowering their willingness to resist the Terrans. As a result of these developments, the Terrans destroyed major Vilani fleets and captured large areas of territory.

The Ninth Interstellar War was a decisive victory for the Confederation, which remained on the offensive for the remainder of the conflict. In the final years of the wars, truces would be declared but then end before news of them could reach the central governments of the combatants, and precise numbering of the wars became impossible; this era (-2235 to -2219) is known as the "Nth Interstellar War".

The wars ended in -2219 with a collapse of the Vilani central authority, to be replaced by the Rule of Man in -2204.

Timeline

The destruction of many records by the combatants makes it near impossible to construct an accurate timeline of the events that occurred. Readers are warned that many primary sources have conflicting dates, times, and sometimes even events.

Interstellar Wars
TI Start	TI End	CE Start	CE End	War	Remarks
-2404	-2396	2114 CE	2122 CE	First Interstellar War	Barnard to TC
-2396	-2393	2122 CE	2125 CE	Pause and regroup
-2393	-2384	2125 CE	2134 CE	Second Interstellar War	Agidda to TC, Procyon/Sirius border formalized
-2384	-2373	2134 CE	2145 CE	Preparations
-2373	-2370	2145 CE	2148 CE	Third Interstellar War: Siege of Terra	Terra attacked
-2370	-2362	2148 CE	2156 CE	Third Interstellar War: Terran Offensive	Nusku to TC
-2362	-2357	2156 CE	2161 CE	Terran Colonial Expansion
-2357	-2348	2161 CE	2170 CE	Challenges to Imperial Rule
-2348	-2345	2170 CE	2173 CE	Imperial Response
-2343	-2339	2173 CE	2176 CE	Fourth Interstellar War	Nusku to ZS
-2342	-2332	2176 CE	2186 CE	Fifth Interstellar War	Nusku, Markhashi to TC
-2332	-2323	2186 CE	2195 CE	Initiative shifts
-2323	-2317	2195 CE	2201 CE	Sixth Interstellar War	Shuruppak, Shulimik, Iilike to TC
-2317	-2304	2201 CE	2214 CE	Seventh Interstellar War	Meshan, Karkhar, Shulgiili, Enki Kalamma to TC; unrestricted TC commerce in ZS
-2304	-2290	2214 CE	2228 CE	Preparing for the Endgame
-2290	-2280	2228 CE	2238 CE	Eighth Interstellar War	Albadawi's campaign Space rimward of Vega to TC Vegan Polity independent, allies with TC
-2280	-2273	2238 CE	2245 CE	Final Gambits
-2273	-2262	2245 CE	2256 CE	Ninth Interstellar War	Remainder of Kushuggi (Solomani Rim) to TC
-2262	-2238	2256 CE	2280 CE	Wars on the Frontier
-2238	-2228	2280 CE	2290 CE	Great Schism
-2230	-2220	2288 CE	2298 CE	Last Offensive	Darmine, Geonee, Suerrat revolt and ally with TC
-2220	-2215	2298 CE	2303 CE	Imperial Surrender	ZS surrenders and central authority collapses
-2215	-	2303 CE	-	Challenge of Victory

• Note: The dates of the various wars vary depending on the source.

Astrography

The battles and greater conflict mostly took place in the Solomani Rim Sector (at the time called Kushuggi Sector by the Vilani), expanding into Diaspora Sector (Vilani Nakulakak) in the later wars.

Sources

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This article has two or more sources with conflicting information. Because the conflict has not been resolved, all sources are linked to this article.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller. Imperium (Game Designers Workshop, 1977), All.
• John Harshman, Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman. Library Data (A-M) (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), .
• John Harshman, Marc Miller. Solomani (Game Designers Workshop, 1986), 5.
• Jon F. Zeigler. Rim of Fire (Steve Jackson Games, 2000), 40.
• Paul Drye, Loren Wiseman, Jon F. Zeigler. Interstellar Wars (Steve Jackson Games, 2006), .
• David L. Pulver. Solomani (Mongoose Publishing, 2012), .
• Martin Dougherty. Solomani Front (Mongoose Publishing, 2021), 109.
• Christopher Griffen. The Third Imperium (Mongoose Publishing, 2021), 59.