Frieden

The Frieden movement was an influential human political movement in the early- to mid-22nd century, characterized most notably by their opposition to both the United Nations and the Koslovics. Though the Frieden proclaimed their ideology as something entirely novel, many historians and contemporaries have drawn many similarities between the movement and historical fascism, both in terms of the ideology itself and the circumstances of their rise to power. At their most prominent on the Jovian Moons, where they also founded the short-lived polity known as the Jovian Autarky, the Frieden clashed with various Earth nations as well as the UN for the control of numerous colonies and outposts across the Sol system throughout the mid-22nd century. The movement's effective defeat came at the close of the Interplanetary War in 2170, which also saw the Frieden ideology banned in all its forms by the nascent United Earth Government, though it survived in a fringe capacity up until the 23rd century.

Overview
The Frieden were a militaristic, authoritarian and corporatist movement which campaigned for self-rule and self-sufficiency for the Jovian colonies and later other outposts on their own terms. They were heavily founded on expansionism within and eventually without the Jovian colonies, and their base ideology contained the tenet of a Jovian unification. The Frieden were always seen as extremists, but managed to present themselves as a more tolerable alternative to the Koslovics in the eyes of Earth corporations, and even the (largely EU-based) national governments that sponsored colonies on the Galilean moons and the entire Jovian system. It was only after they rose to preeminence that they openly severed ties with Earth and called for an end to UN power; unofficially, even then, they retained sympathizers on Earth among those who opposed both the Koslovics and the UN's United Earth project.

The Frieden movement arose from emerging Jovian nationalism, which elevated the colonies' tough and regimented way of life into the centerpiece of the movement's cultural narrative. Friedenist society was characterized by ever-present militarism and was heavily regimented amongst a rigid division of roles, and promoted idolization of the state over the individual. Labor unions were folded into the government bureaucracy under a select few institutions which functioned almost like a caste system; these institutions were in truth highly government- (and thereby corporate) controlled. Several major companies were government-linked, though the Jovian economy never fully transitioned to a state-controlled one -- which also ensured the companies could back off and eventually sounded the death knell of the movement. Despite their comparatively small numbers, the Frieden's powerful backers and the mobilization of disproportionately large elements of society to fuel their expansionist ambitions made them a major threat to the Earth nations.

While Ganymede and Europa were their hotspots and main power base, the Frieden movement spawned numerous independent cells across the Solar system, which largely operated in a similar fashion as their Jovian counterparts but never became as prominent or well-organized; in addition, some of these independent cells were undermined by infighting and power struggles. For example, the Frieden cell on Luna was fairly prominent until their fall to an internal dispute between hardliner and reformist factions in 2164. It were such disputes that also led to the movement's eventual demise.

History
Major factors that are often regarded as having led to the rise of the Frieden movement:
 * The decline (and in many places death) of nation-states and the breakdown of national identity, combined the rootlessness of many colonial populations. Colonial youth longed for an imagined past home, wanting desperately to identify with something. It was a paradox, beginning with idealized Earth roots, then turned into a patricidal rage against the decadent and culturally dead Earth.
 * The ZGene crisis and the economic downturn it caused is what elevated them into popularity; the UN's response was seen as insufficient, even dismissive of the colonists' plight.
 * Koslovic (and misc. insurgent) violence, Earth nations' off-world proxy wars, economic downturn and rampant crime; the Frieden presented an alternative in the form of rigid societal regimentation and the organization of paramilitary death squads to combat the Koslovics or suspected sympathizers

The Frieden in their most noted form arose from paramilitary groups which rose to oppose the Koslovics and various criminal elements in the tumultuous aftermath of the ZGene crisis. These cadres drew from a local tradition of civic home defense guards which dated back to the early days of the colonies around Jupiter and were embraced by the Frieden movement as one of their main instruments and fixtures of their martial culture; eventually, even those civic guards which had been unaligned with the Frieden were forcibly folded into the movement.

The Frieden's opposition of the Koslovics gained them the favor of not only large segments of the Jovian population, but also various Earth corporations who saw their interests as being threatened by the "Koslovic menace". The limited response by the UN and the colonies' parent nations to the Koslovic threat saw the corporations turning to other allies for protection - not only PMCs, but the Frieden's increasingly organized and well-motivated paramilitary forces, which, under the leadership of Europan native Nadja Mielke promised to restore order across the Jovian system. While the Frieden's grand ambitions and anti-Earth tendencies were always known, the Frieden were regarded as the lesser of two evils due to their seeming willingness to cooperate. In exchange, the corporations both backed the Frieden both financially and armed them with state-of-the-art equipment over the course of several years.

From there, the situation escalated more rapidly than Earth could respond, particularly with the communication and travel delays to Jupiter. A military coup instated by Mielke saw the Frieden effectively in control of the colony on Europa, from where it expanded its influence across the Jovian system militarily, politically and economically throughout the late 2150s. The various Jovian colonies not aligned with the Frieden were ill-equipped to handle the movement's spread, which soon also took other forms outside Jupiter in the younger colonies around Saturn and across the Asteroid Belt, Luna, and even Earth itself through terrorism, political subversion, information warfare, and paramilitary action. The colonies' Earther parent states were too weak to resist, or they too benefited from the Frieden indirectly; some of the corporations operating near Jupiter had considerable influence in the highest levels of the EU, which may have partly explained the mellow response to the Frieden's rise to power.

After the tide of the Interplanetary War turned in the nascent UNSC's favor, most of the corporations and governments who once backed the Frieden were quick to withdraw their support for the movement in order to preserve their own status, which led to its eventual splintering and demise soon after, leaving only the most hardline ideologues to fight until the end in a final stand around Saturn. Reformist elements within the Jovian Autarky ended up signing the Callisto Treaty with the nascent UEG, and by then the roughest edges of the Frieden ideology had been all but eradicated. Still, vestiges of the movement lingered on for the better part of a century.