Hanseatic Ascendant
Political Union Grows Exponentially

MAY 11, 2002 - A bottle of wine was broken against the steel frame on the 156th floor of the new Hanseatic Tower this morning to commemorate the building's opening. Not only will occupants have a spectacular view of the southwest from Westminster, Jared; but the Tower will also be the official parliament of the Hanseatic League (SPQH). Although there was confusion over where the SPQH political capital was located, there is now no doubt in anyone's mind that it has found its home in Westminster.

The unveiling of the Hanseatic Tower is the latest signal that the SPQH is a union on the rise. Even though a recent creation, the League has catapulted to being third in military size and in total population. Jared (SPQH) is the League's financial and economic hub, while Denisia comprises its intellectual and military core. Novara makes up the rest of the SPQH. Forged in January, the SPQH is a political, economic, and military entity composed of progressive Middle Powers.

Within its short history, the SPQH has made waves on the international stage. Orignally its founding objective was to counteract a perceived tyranny of the Great Powers against the Middle and Emerging Powers of the Mapp. However, as days passed the SPQH became increasingly opposed to the GX in particular. Many in Jared, Denisia, and Novara believe that the GX stole Buenos Altos away from the League in the confusing and prolonged War of 2K2. Essentially, troops from Gorditas, a member of the GX, and Jared faced off against each other in an exercise of brinkmanship. After international opinion swung against the SPQH, Jared withdrew its troops and recognized the GX's legal right to Buenos Altos.

GX-SPQH relations further deteriorated when the GX managed to impose a comprehensive economic embargo on the SPQH through an impressive series of international diplomatic events surrounding the SPQJ invasion of Buenos Altos. In the Congress of Jabourgh, Congressional delegates imposed an economic embargo on Jared. However, there was a tie as to whether or not to embargo Denisia and Novara. In accordance with the Congressional Parliament constitution, the issues went for a decisive vote in the GX-dominated Great Powers Forum. As a result, the entire SPQH was effectively embargoed.

Many in Jared lashed out against the system of international diplomacy that resulted in the SPQH embargo. Eventually the anger and criticism manifested itself into the first comprehensive attempt at Congressional Parliament reform. After extensive discussion with Congressional officials, the Jared Bill, also known as Congressional Motion No. 1 was released to the public for debate in all Congressional member-states.

The greatest animosity between the GX and the SPQH is between Gorditas and Jared, although Jared-Lindsholm relations are extremely strained as well. Denisia-Marcusburg relations are also far from perfect as the latter cancelled a treaty of friendship with the former in protest over the SPQH's illegal invasion of Buenos Altos. Relations between Siggary and the Jared are icy as well after disparaging remarks about the former were made in an SPQJ press release.

However, the terms of the original Jared Bill have led many to believe that the SPQH is actively wooing Rattanjeetland and East El-Hussaq to join the League. Both the Ethnarch and President El Cid II have expressed no interest in the SPQH, although Rattanjeetland endorses the clauses of the Jared Bill that favour it.

Interestingly, the SPQH has also made an enemy of Miketon by constructing the Hanseatic Tower. For half a year the MCP Tower was the tallest building on the Mapp, and the pride and joy of that nation. Although the CEO's government quietly voiced concerns over the eclipsing of the MCP Tower, Jared pressed on with construction of a new pride and joy. Marcusburg joins Miketon in its disapproval of the Hanseatic Tower, as it threatens Marcusburg's status as 'skyscraper capital of the Mapp'.

Despite the SPQH's sometimes abrupt style of diplomacy, it has won reluctant admiration from some nations on the Mapp, as their envy and jealousy of the power and wealth of the GX causes them to quietly applaud the League's attempt to oppose, and ultimately destroy, the alliance between Gorditas, Lindsholm, and Marcusburg that is the GX - and perhaps even the member-states of the trilateral alliance themselves.