During the middle of the twenty-first century the CoDominium began withdrawing from astropolitical affairs. Many of Earth’s interstellar colonies saw this as an opportunity to fill the ensuing vacuum. The colonies’ resulting actions were a natural outgrowth of their cultural imperatives and interstellar trade. As interstellar trade increased trading partners became embedded in economic spheres of influence. As on Earth, economic spheres of influence created the impetus for military buildups (see the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere of the Twentieth Century).
These spheres began forming around a number of inhabited systems, but the CoDominium considered Danube, Sauron, Friedland, Meiji, Levant, Stalin and Xanadu as the most dangerous powers to arise. Several formed secret alliances with each other. However, the CoDominium did not go gently into the night. While it accepted the creation of planetary forces (including mercenary organizations) the CoDominium responded with force to naval buildups that could threaten Earth (see the Danube campaign of 2071). History now shows almost everyone was looking in the wrong place for the next turn of the wheel.
–From Utopia to Imperium: A History of Sparta from Alexander I to the Accession of Lysander,
by Caldwell C. Whitlock, Ph.D.
(Sparta University Press, 2120)