In the waning years of the twenty-first century, the first permanent non-research Martian colony was established: the fittingly-named Terra Nova. While the agricultural settlement – stable, but not wholly self-sufficient – was a grand feat of engineering in its own right, the societal effects were by far larger in scope. Proving beyond refute that the establishment of civilian colonies on another planet was not just possible but feasible, Terra Nova ushered in a new era of Manifest Destiny as mankind took the first unsteady steps away from its ancestral home. In this dawn of a new era, industrial titans as well made their moves to enshrine their destinies among the stars: AEGIS, Osprey Modular Hardware, and SpaceTek Dynamics carried this torch.
As with many of the great scientific leaps in history, this new interplanetary era forced societies to confront questions long put off. It was becoming rapidly apparent that the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 could not stand as the sole legal framework in a true spacefaring era, and action would be necessary to prevent war on Earth from sparking once again.
If the Outer Space Treaty (which established the cosmos as a political neutral ground since even before man set foot on the Moon) were to be upheld, no colonists on the red planet would be permitted to claim ownership of their own land.
To avert potential crises that could arise from private infrastructure built on public ground, world powers convened at the turn of the century to create TOLLUM: the Treaty Organization for the Legislation and Land Use of Mars.
As a politically independent international agency, the primary role of TOLLUM would be to issue and track land use permits for purchase by individuals, countries, and corporations to claim legal ownership of land on Mars.
The treaty also contracted the construction of interplanetary transportation infrastructure, as well as the establishment of a not-for-profit administrator to manage operations and expectations of neutral conduct.