League of Ruling Companies

The League of Ruling Companies, or just the League, is a corporate entity that possess the military and political power of a sovereign nation. It controls the vast majority of Europe, and the League capital Grand Exchange is located in former Switzerland. The League is home to more that 519.6 million citizens, and encompasses 4,208,845 square kilometres of land, both of which are considered "company property". It is directed by CEO Richard Murdock, son of Horatio Murdock, the man who envisioned and founded the League.

The league was established near the end of World War II in 1949 as the Corporate Alliance by a group of wealthy families and businessmen seeking to exploit the power vacuum in Europe. The Corporate Alliance managed to carve out a place for itself in the region during the National Dismantlement War, and was later renamed the League of Ruling Companies in 1956, afterwhich it was followed by the Pax Economica. Generally staying out of world politics and international disputes, the League does occassionally step into conflict to protect or increase their assets, be it political favors or minerial-rich land.

Since the end of the Cold War, and the rise of numerous superpowers, the League has pushed ahead to strengthen its position in world affairs, doing so by dominating entire fields of industries. This has been done through such League member companies as Global Armaments, Aspina, Technocrat, and Algebra, all of whom are economic juggernauts. To maintain their hold in numerous countries, dozens of subsidaries are created to further increase the League's economic grip overseas. This tactic has grown to make the League the largest international and multi-national conglomerate in the world.

Formation
Following shortly after the Second World War, the economic state of Europe was terrible. Some of the most powerful nations in the world were left bankrupt, and many could not repay their creditors. This led to the idea to develop the Marshall Plan to counter th threat of Communism. However, several powerful corporations sought to fill this void in Europe before the United States or the Soviet Union got too deeply involved in post-war Europe. The Interior Union, a coglomerate of small European companies sought to dabble in the world of politics and expand their influence in their homelands by controlling the affairs that would aid them in expanding their growth. However, they couldn't do this alone. Thus, the union reached out to several other companies seeking to stake their claim in renewed territory and fill the gaps left behind by the old order of merchants and companies destroyed in the war.

They reached out to Arisawa Heavy Industries, which feared for intergrity are the Allies and the new Japanese government sought to cannibalize it to rebuild the nation. Arisawa jumped at the chance to rebuild itself in Europe where the commerical opprotunities were plentiful, and sold all of its property in Japan and moved to Europe. Global Armaments in the United States was a small company just making its mark in the usniess world, and seeking to expand elsewhere, and was informed by a company manager visiting relatives in France of the planned organization. GA was able to secure a place in the planned company alliance, and informed an ally of theirs, Algerbra, about the group. These three companies, along with Interior Union, formed the Corporate Alliance in 1946, and began negotiations with the Allies.

The Allies were at first skeptical of the Alliance's request to takeover the rebuilding effort in Europe, but saw a good way of getting out of spending their own money to rebuild nations. With their agreement secured, the alliance began building private armies to handle security, and based itself out of Strasbourg, where it begin working. The Alliance bought up ruined mining facilities, bombed farmland, and smoking bridges, and established itself as the largest job-provider in Europe as it oversaw the rebuilding of the continent. As its power grew, it began to enforce laws favorable to its members, and sought to establish a permanent presence in Europe rather than the temporary one agreed upon with the Allies. This led to a series of scandals and issues for the Alliance in the earlier 1950s, and later a full-blown war.

National Dismantlement War
Main article: National Dismantlement War

As the power of the Alliance grew, the national governments in Europe began to fear that the organizayion would not hand over power when the rebuilding was complete, and opted to handle the issue before it was too late. The European governments began making steps to nationalize Alliance assets, and tried to disband portions of the huge private armies of the Alliance members. This lead to an incident between Arisawa and Italy, where the Italian authorities accused the company of exploiting children to run one its many workshops in southern Italy. While Arisawa denied the claims, evidence was discovered of their lies in 1952, and gave the government the perfect reason to shut Arisawa down. Using the pretense to strike at the other corporations, many of the other European governments moved to close down the Alliance and arrest its power once and for all.

Feeling the noose tightening around them, the members of the Alliance agreed that it was time to establish themselves as the sole givers and takers of power in the region, and declared war on the European nations. Lacking the capital of the corporations, or the manpower of their private armies, the European governmens struggled to fight off the superior forces of the Alliance. The United States refused to involve itself in the conflict, as it had close ties with Global Armaments, and the company was making too many contributions to the rehabilitaton of the U.S. economy, meaning a war against it (and thereby the Alliance itself), would be highly unpopular with the people. The Soviets were too busy rebuilding their own war-torn nation to care about the European crisis, leaving the continent alone.

Within the space of four years, the European governments had been dismantled by the Alliance, and all government property incorporated into the Alliance's other assets, making it both the largest job-provider in the world, as well as the largest land owner too. National governments were banned, and all inhabitants permanent workers of the Alliance's member companies. Attempts to flee Europe were barred, were all corporate security forces ordered to shoot "company traitors" on sight at the first sign of attempted flight. Having just fought the most destructive war in human history, the National Dismantlement War was seen as being too unpopular and too costly for the rest of the world to send troops back to Europe to fight. Also, the U.S. and Soviet governments saw the Alliance as the perfect buffer state shoul another war happen between the two. On September 23, 1956, the Corporate Alliance rebranded itself the League of Ruling Companies, with the CEO of the Interior Union as the elected head of the League.

Pax Economica
Following the aftermath of the war, the continent saw the beginning of was called the "Pax Economica", or the "economic peace". The League experienced exponitional growth in the following decades, and saw the development of new laws that gave the members of the League unrestrained power over their regions. The era as described by one League historian as a period of complete totalitarian rule by the four ruling companies, where the companies took over a majority of Europe's resources (food, water, materials) and used it to force the population to for them. This was barely tolerated by the major world powers, but it was agreed upon that so long as the League maintained stablity in Europe, no action would be taken. This aided the League to survive as long as it did as no attempt to crush them was made.

By the time of the 21st century, the League was too powerful for any one nation to fight. Throughout the 1960s up to the 1990s the League tightened its grip on Europe, expanding its control over education, transportation, and even cultural development. However, the League could not maintain a grip on Scandinavia and the Low Countries, and already held enough control over Switzerland that it was abe to annex it in 1972, and move its capital there. The League kept itself out of international politics, engaging in diplomacy with other nations only when absolutely vital to its plans. Aside from that, all efforts were focused on developing the League's lands for the future, and establishing an economic presense in other countries.