The United Republic of Mars

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The United Republic of Mars (URM) was a state that existed on Mars and her moons between 2051 and 2101. Officially led by Terran entrepreneur Elon Musk, it has origins in a Martian hyper-nationalist movement, and said movement's rebellion against the United Nations.

The URM, despite its relatively short life, was known for large Astranet social media campaigns using websites such as Reddit and Twitter (the former of who's users crowdsourced a large financial contribution to the Martian Rebellion) to further URM propaganda. The absurdity of this was not lost on citizens of the United Nations, and there were numerous movements first to refuse recognition of the URM, and then to reclaim the red planet.

## History

### Martian Rebellion

The URM's origins lay in the imperfect control exerted by the United Nations over their Martian Colony, and the advancements brought about by Elon Musk to further and improve the lives of Martian colonists. The two, when added together, created a feeling among colonists that they would be better off on their own - on 27 May 2051, these tensions boiled over into the Martian Rebellion. Although the Rebellion was projected to fail, public support of the appointed future president, Musk himself, undermined the UN's efforts to hold the planet, and the Rebellion succeeded when the UN declared ceasefire on 16 June of the same year.

### Post-Rebellion

Musk and his advisors quickly set about drafting a Martian government. Originally called the Martian Congressional Republic, after the fictional Mars government in a recently-ended Terran television program, the United Republic of Mars was set in motion, and the first Congressional meeting was held 1 August, to the delight of Martian citizens.

Overall, the URM faced very few problems, the major being that the second President elected after Musk's death in 2160 was his wife, Claire "Grimes" Boucher. Even this was settled peacefully, and the URM continued to flourish; under Boucher, further colonies were founded on Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, and general expansion took place across the Martian surface.

### Diplomacy with Terra

Under President Boucher, the URM reached out to Terra, attempting to repair relationships and form a cohesive forum of communication between the two planets. The result was the founding of the UNIA, a collective governmental forum of Terra, Mars, and Terra's colonized moon, Luna. Although this was done haphazardly (the UNIA was drafted and then brought into being in less than three months), it proved successful, and diplomacy between the two planets took a turn for the better.

### Fischer Era

In 2070, Boucher lost the deca-yearly Martian General Election to Lena Fischer, making the first President of Mars who wasn't raised primarily on Terra. President Fischer proved eager to work with the UNIA, but only to further her own goals; she wanted Mars' place in the Sol System to be above Terra. Although she would be countered by the Terran and Lunan representatives in UNIA, her legacy marked a period of growing nationalism on Mars.

### End of the Republic

In 1090, Fischer was replaced by Pierre Gaumont, who worked with UNIA in a more cooperative manner. When the Terran world power released information on an alien object orbiting Jupiter, Gaumont was quick to volunteer forces for the expedition to Jupiter's moon Europa to seize control of and study it. The result was the URM participating in the Battle of Europa, and thus the launch of a Technocratic Alliance counter-strike against Mars.

While the Martian Navy was quickly overwhelmed and defeated by superior Alliance firepower and armor, the Martian Army was joined by Terran troops in what would become known as the Contact War, and managed to defeat the alien attackers. However, the political fallout from both the original participation in the Battle of Europa, and the failure to defend Mars without Terran intervention was too much; in 2101, Gaumont was forced to dissolve the Republic, and meetings came underway for a new government.