As the San Santiago Sector grew more wealthy, an independence movement grew with it. Young men and women wanting to build a new life out on the fringes of civilization soon found that civilization followed them with rules and regulations that made no sense out there. That shouldn’t even exist according to the Union Charter, but Central Council colonial officials imposed them and Central Council judges approved them. The colonial populations became more restive as the century came to a close. And the more restive they got, the more colonial officials pressed back with more onerous restrictions and punishments. The San Santiago Sector was rich with both resources and resentment as the new century dawned, and that was not good for anybody.
The San Santiago Sector became prosperous and heavily populated as the decades went by. One colony after another petitioned for and gained a seat on the Union Council, until they had a clear majority on the Council. But the Central Council vetoed far too many of their initiatives, promoting Homeworlds projects over distant Colonial projects. The colonies did not appreciate that dynamic, and after much protest the Central Council invited some of the most populous colonies into the Central Council. A few. Not enough to lose Homeworlds control of the Central Council. They claimed they were following simple population guidelines, but the outer colonies did not miss the trick. They knew it was meant to keep them in their place, and they did not appreciate that.
The San Santiago Sector promised to bring untold riches to the South American Union. It also promised a political upheaval that the Union Council would not abide. Cheaper and faster transports and colony ships sent hundreds of thousands of souls a year to the interstellar colonies, and colonies began requesting official seats on the Union Council. The richest members of the Union saw their control of the Council waning. So seating the interstellar colonies, they formed a new Central Council made up of only the founding nations and the richest colonies of our Solar System that could annul any action of the larger Union Council on a majority vote. Assured of their control of Union politics, they soon welcomed their new and growing colonies into the Union Council.
The South American Union colonized most of the star systems around San Santiago and San Andres, but they optioned out certain systems to others. They needed money to fund their own great expansion after all. Probably the largest of the options they sold was the system that became Felicity. It orbited a star too strong for Union hyperdrives to reach. Even the Western Alliance couldn’t map the hyperspace run from Alpha Centauri, but they had been researching ways to localize those rapids from closer stars like San Santiago or San Andres. A proposal for Alliance and Union cooperation to map and colonize the system soon appeared, and Felicity became the next core Alliance World colonization effort. All nations welcome. Especially their friends from Union space.
The South American Union’s colonization of San Santiago, and their discovery of the hyperspace run connecting it directly to Alpha Centauri, changed that sector of space forever. It had taken their colony ship nearly three years to make the trip to San Andres via Altair. Seven years later, that same hyperdrive traveled from San Santiago to Alpha Centauri in under two years to find the Peloran had made Contact while they were out on the edges of civilization. And the improved hyperdrives they were helping Earth build would soon be able to make that trip in under a year. The Union Council held a golden goose in their hands, and they strangled that goose for all it was worth. They had a century of sunk losses to recover.