Part II
The first first emigration wave from Earth which began in the 2070’s crested about 2125. It had abated for the most part by 2150. 1276 planets had been at least partially colonized from Earth and a large number of secondary colony worlds from wealthy colonies such as Goldilocks, Rest Easy and Cossack were thriving. Because of higher density of desirable planets and resources in the direction of the galactic core, most growth focused inward.
Colonization from Earth after 2150 continued at a much slower pace because of the distance to new planets, decreasing number of those desiring to emigrate from Earth or even numbers as population fell on the home planet. As a result, many colony ships were converted to bulk carriers servicing the needs of the out planets or building daughter colonies from the original colony worlds.
Little in the way of space military existed up to this point. The colonies were considered too poor to be worth attacking and Earth had numerous patrol craft involved in customs work surrounding it. That changed on August 2, 2157. Three freighters landed at Three Bears, capital of Goldilocks, and stole tens of millions of sols worth of archeon communications equipment from Libra Labs. Although the theft did not have a noticeable effect on the worth of Libra Labs or any other companies in charted space, the mere threat of piracy and hijackings became apparent. All the major worlds immediately armed small craft. One light year, the distance of the Oort Cloud from Sol in the Terra System, became the accepted limit of territorial space, but generally one light month was all these small craft could effectively cover and police at best. Pirates began setting up in the outer reaches of the less developed systems raiding in-bound commerce. Some even were bold enough to try the older worlds.
Military grew on a system-by-system basis. It was not until the Great Raid on Earth in May of 2312 that the League seriously began working towards a unified fleet presence.
Initially, those remaining behind on Earth were mostly associated with government, finance, education or groups dedicated to preservation of local life styles. Most colony elites still felt bound to Earth, purchasing or maintaining property on the Home World or at least having their children educated there. Over the time, this turned into an ossified structure limiting any type of change on Earth. Especially among the historically insular communities which had rejected emigration in order to live as their ancestors had done, this outside pressure on those not part of the academic, art, finance or retro communities to also remain static became intolerable which started the second great out migration in 2250. Thousands of ships carried groups of all sizes to star systems now in the core and beyond.
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