Pareto Associations

The Pareto Associations were six different leagues of states within the Kingdom of Dericania formed in the 17th through 19th centuries. The associations took the form of six year compacts signed in the Prince-Bishopric of Pareto (in modern Rhotia) which gave the alliances their name. These alliances were generally established for the purpose of containing the growing power of Urcea by means of deterence and preventing Urcea from expanding into Dericania. Urcea's centralization and reforms, as well as its territorial gains, made it one of the preeminent powers in the Holy Levantine Empire after the Great Confessional War with few peer powers. The first Association was established in 1611 and the final one established in the leadup to the Third Caroline War, after which time they were prohibited by treaty. Perhaps the most well known of the Associations was the Second Pareto Association, which included the nascent Duchy of Verecundia, Faramount, Orclenia, Hollona and Diorisia, and a number of smaller entities such as Pareto. It defeated Urcea in the Pareto War in the 1630s, discouraging Urcea from pursuing eastward expansion for a century. The Second Association was an early example of unified Deric power and was looked on in the late 19th and early 20th century by Derian nationalists as a foundational moment in the path to the establishment of a Derian nation. The fourth Pareto Association was formed in the leadup to the War of the Caroline Succession and was defeated. The fifth Pareto Association was formed during the Second Caroline War as the nominal ties binding together the anti-Urcean allies together, and it successfully ended Urcean hegemony over the Holy Levantine Empire. The final Pareto Association was decisively defeated in the Third Caroline War. A portion of its members were annexed to Urcea directly, becoming the modern province of Eastvale, and the remaining members (including all future Bishops of Pareto) were prohibited from establishing leagues. Despite this prohibition, the sixth Association continued to function de facto as the organized opposition to Burgundie in the first phase of the First Fratricide. Scholars have noted that the Urcean prohibition is likely a significant acknowledgement of the symbolic power and legacy of the Pareto Associations to contemporary Levantines.