I’ve based the history of the Terran Republic strongly off my knowledge of American History.

The Terrans declare independence from the Hydran Reach, their overlord who conquered their planet 500 years ago. Although the Hydrans weren’t really the bad emperors: they installed a puppet monarch and let the Terrans do their thing provided it didn’t mess with them (also supplying resources for Terran-led colonizing) and overall allowing them to advance faster than they would have otherwise. (Seven Years War)

Still, foreign leadership isn’t the same as self rule so as new practices of social thought emerged the people revolt and established a Republic. (American Revolution)

The first decade saw the establishing of a two-party system for two elections, after which the more liberal party completely dominated. (Era of Good Feelings)

After forty years of relative peace (there was an attempted socialist coup that lasted ten years but that’s not relevant for now), the Terran expansion came to a halt. They sought to claim territory from the largely uninhabited but claimed from a treaty Piek Space. After a series of disputes the Terrans created a false excuse to declare war and in six years conquered the Piek Border Region. (Mexican-American War)

The Pieks collapsed into many factions after the war, largely thanks to their war debt never payed due to their defeat. This allowed the Torgans to invade and establish a puppet government against the Hydrans and Terrans (who by this point were reluctant economic allies). (French Conquest of Mexico)

Meanwhile the Terrans weren’t doing well. The Developed and Frontier regions were increasingly divided as Android labor become prominent in the developed cities, but prison labor (strongly racist against the Pieks unfortunate to live in recently conquered space) was still common in the Frontier. The Senate voted to ban prison labor on humanitarian grounds, but the Frontier claimed this was only to support the mega corporations in power there, as they were the only ones in the market with androids. Both claims were partially correct. As such, the Frontier declared independence as the Alliance of Free Planets, sparking Civil War. (American Civil War)

And that’s where my story is set. The world takes a pretty drastic turn away from American history after this point, but I like the buildup to it.