///From the author: much as with earlier posts about Mars, Titan, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa, this post will detail the core history and background of the Confederation of the Main Belt. While Mars is the ICA's main military and industrial base, the Confederation is its major merchant power. Administered from Nereida on Ceres, the CMB oversees a massive shipping and transport fleet that keeps Solar Space fed, watered, and stocked with goods in a trade network that makes its overseers obscenely wealthy. This is their story...
The Confederation of the Main Belt
First reached by humans: July 1972 (uncrewed); September 2047 (crewed)
2389 Population: approximately 2.18 billion
Capital: de facto is Nereida, Republic of Ceres (population: 1.7 million)
Affiliation: Interplanetary Cooperative Administration (ICA)
Current government:
Established: 23 September 2197
Current constitution adopted: 4 October 2257
Government details: constitutional federation; seat of government - the Central Palace, Nereida; primary government authority - the Belter's Parliament; Prime Minister - Augustus Delmont (since 2382)
Primary industries: shipping (Ceres and its cohorts are the mercantile superpower of the solar system, with Ceres itself often referred to as the gateway to deep space)
Gross Domestic Product: approximately $95.7 trillion
Average GDP per capita: approximately $43.9 thousand
More to come, when it's ready...