Pareto Associations

The Pareto Associations were six different leagues of lords and polities 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. 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 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. Scholars have noted that the Urcean prohibition is likely a significant acknoledgement of the symbolic power and legacy of the Pareto Associations to contemporary Levantines.