Editing Ares Convention (section)

== History ==
In the 24th century, the powers that would become the Successor States gradually emerged, expanding themselves across the Inner Sphere, claiming colonies along the way. Unfortunately, it was not always a peaceful process as either desired planets were already colonized and did not want to be under another person's banner. As a result, before the eve of the Star League, most of the Inner Sphere was consumed in the '''Age of War''' after Terra's Demarcation Declaration two centuries earlier had left colonies to fend for themselves.

In 2412 the [[Free Worlds League]] invaded the [[Capellan Confederation]] world of Tintavel, and found resistance to be stiffer than normal. Soon enough, things spiraled into an atomic free-for-all and in the end the planet [[Exterminatus|was decimated by sustained nuclear bombardment]]. Both sides eventually withdrew in horror and as word spread, people were worried about the prospect of nuclear annihilation.

As such, the leaders of the major nations gathered together and decided to hammer out some rules for war specifically to prevent things like Tintavel from becoming the norm. Limits were put on the use of weapons of mass destruction, orbital bombardment of civilian targets, biological weapons and set rules for surrender. It took a while but eventually all but the [[Taurian Concordat]] (who were unhappy with the Capellans already using nuclear weapons against them due to their status as "Periphery barbarians" who didn't sign the accord) and the United Hindu Collective (which recognized that the conventions would make war regular and sanitized. Though once they joined the Federated Suns, their objections became moot).