Political and Economic Situation at the Dawn of Space Piracy, 2077-2080
The defeat of President Burton by President Lee in the aeronaval Battle of Easter Island in the summer of 2077 was the last great clash of surface navies on Earth for over a hundred years. Burton's death decisively ended the Third American Civil War (2076-77), leaving George Custis Lee the President of the United States of America -- legal master of North America, the Carribean, China and Japan; and by far the dominant Power on Earth.
Beyond Earth, however, matters were different. While the American bases in orbit around Venus and on the surfaces of Mercury, Amor and Aten acknowledged Lee as their President, neither the US Deep Space Fleet nor the bases on Luna, Mars, or in the Asteroid Belt and Jovian System were willing to submit to Lee's power. They regarded Lee as a mere usurper, and held out for a restoration of what they termed the Constitutional American System.
Neither Lee nor the former Burtonists could afford to compromise. While Lee did offer a general amnesty, which found many takers in 2077-80, Lee could not recognize the legitimacy of the nascent Outie states without calling into question his own. Indeed, at this stage the former Burtonists did not regard what they were doing as founding new states: they were instead fighting in the hopes that Lee would fall, just as Anthony Powers had after his dictatorship of 2040-45.
Luna was capable of manufacturing its own energy, air, water, food and basic structures and machinery from local resources. But at this early stage, the Lunarians still had to import high-tech goods. Particularly, both the Lunar fortifications left behind from Presidents O'Hare and Burton's military buildups, and the ships of the Deep Space Fleet, required high-tech control elements for their sensors, stealth, beam and missile systems, without which they would be helpless against a better-supplied foe. These wore out over time, and Earth was as of yet the only source of such materiel.
Lee might have been able to totally-embargo trade with Luna, and hence eventually force the Constitutionalists to surrender, had it not been for the inconvenient reality that not all the Lunar bases were operated by American Constitutionalists. Other Earthly Powers, particualarly Europe, Russia, India and Australia, also owned Lunar facilities, and Lee was not about to start a world war against his own allies just to put down some recalcitrants a quarter-million miles from Earth.
Lee had to satisfy himself with forbidding the export of sensitive military equipment to Luna, a measure with which the American allies had to at least formally agree. In fact there was a significant amount of smuggling to the Lunar rebels, which the Allied Powers overtly condemned and which they covertly tolerated, as a way of providing a check on an American might which was already great enough to conquer the whole Earth, had Lee a mind to embark on such a policy.
This let the Constitutionalists maintain most of their military fuctions. However, Lee could and did carefully monitor the movement of the most sensitive supplies, and ensure that it didnot reach the Constitutionalists. He correctly calculated that, in a matter of a few years, when his new spaceships could be commissioned, his force would have sufficiently waxed and that of the Constitutionalists sufficiently waned to render the reconquest of Luna, and indeed of all the prewar American possessions, a foregone conclusion.
However, Lee did not want to lose the extraterrestrial bases he still held during this necessary period of preparation. To keep them, he needed to ship them supplies, including precisely the sort of sensitive military supplies which he needed to keep out of the hands of the Constitutionalists.
This offered the Constitutionalists an opportunity to foil Lee's strategic embargo. Because they needed to be able to trade with the non-American Lunar possessions to survive, and because if they waged open war against Lee's forces the Powers owning those possessions would have cut off such trade, they could not afford to wage this war overtly. Instead, the warships of the Deep Space Fleet were refitted as commerce raiders, officially under the control of no State, but in fact (at first) under the control of the Constitutionalist American government-in-exile.
This was the birth of the space pirates.
Beyond Earth, however, matters were different. While the American bases in orbit around Venus and on the surfaces of Mercury, Amor and Aten acknowledged Lee as their President, neither the US Deep Space Fleet nor the bases on Luna, Mars, or in the Asteroid Belt and Jovian System were willing to submit to Lee's power. They regarded Lee as a mere usurper, and held out for a restoration of what they termed the Constitutional American System.
Neither Lee nor the former Burtonists could afford to compromise. While Lee did offer a general amnesty, which found many takers in 2077-80, Lee could not recognize the legitimacy of the nascent Outie states without calling into question his own. Indeed, at this stage the former Burtonists did not regard what they were doing as founding new states: they were instead fighting in the hopes that Lee would fall, just as Anthony Powers had after his dictatorship of 2040-45.
Luna was capable of manufacturing its own energy, air, water, food and basic structures and machinery from local resources. But at this early stage, the Lunarians still had to import high-tech goods. Particularly, both the Lunar fortifications left behind from Presidents O'Hare and Burton's military buildups, and the ships of the Deep Space Fleet, required high-tech control elements for their sensors, stealth, beam and missile systems, without which they would be helpless against a better-supplied foe. These wore out over time, and Earth was as of yet the only source of such materiel.
Lee might have been able to totally-embargo trade with Luna, and hence eventually force the Constitutionalists to surrender, had it not been for the inconvenient reality that not all the Lunar bases were operated by American Constitutionalists. Other Earthly Powers, particualarly Europe, Russia, India and Australia, also owned Lunar facilities, and Lee was not about to start a world war against his own allies just to put down some recalcitrants a quarter-million miles from Earth.
Lee had to satisfy himself with forbidding the export of sensitive military equipment to Luna, a measure with which the American allies had to at least formally agree. In fact there was a significant amount of smuggling to the Lunar rebels, which the Allied Powers overtly condemned and which they covertly tolerated, as a way of providing a check on an American might which was already great enough to conquer the whole Earth, had Lee a mind to embark on such a policy.
This let the Constitutionalists maintain most of their military fuctions. However, Lee could and did carefully monitor the movement of the most sensitive supplies, and ensure that it didnot reach the Constitutionalists. He correctly calculated that, in a matter of a few years, when his new spaceships could be commissioned, his force would have sufficiently waxed and that of the Constitutionalists sufficiently waned to render the reconquest of Luna, and indeed of all the prewar American possessions, a foregone conclusion.
However, Lee did not want to lose the extraterrestrial bases he still held during this necessary period of preparation. To keep them, he needed to ship them supplies, including precisely the sort of sensitive military supplies which he needed to keep out of the hands of the Constitutionalists.
This offered the Constitutionalists an opportunity to foil Lee's strategic embargo. Because they needed to be able to trade with the non-American Lunar possessions to survive, and because if they waged open war against Lee's forces the Powers owning those possessions would have cut off such trade, they could not afford to wage this war overtly. Instead, the warships of the Deep Space Fleet were refitted as commerce raiders, officially under the control of no State, but in fact (at first) under the control of the Constitutionalist American government-in-exile.
This was the birth of the space pirates.