Silesia was a swamp of problems but neither the Aldermani nor Manticore wanted to or was able to commit the resources needed to deal with the whole problem in one pass.
As has already been mentioned here, Manticore wasn't looking to expand into a multi-stellar political state and even if there had been serious interest and pushing for that, the conservatives and anti-imperialists would have stopped it. The Aldermani wanted to grow but at a very measured pace and have a very firm grip on each bit they would take.
In both cases, they were concentrating on not being swallowed by PRH.
The internal political problems in Silesia continued to get worse and along with the existing local governmental partnerships with pirates, the number of systems which were breaking away from Confederacy control (however loose and ineffective it was) was increaseing. That led to people like Warnakie (spelling) setting themselves up as warlords and "revolutionary governments" which were really only pirates or criminal enterprises with not even the fig leaf of an actual revolution against something other than the rule of law rather than cover for a madman to hold tyranical power. Into that mix was thrown PRH commerce raiders and ultimately the attack on Sidemore Station.
Splitting Silesia between The Empire and the now SEM was actually an elegent solution. At least it worked for those two. The Confederacy was useless and even when it tried to stop its own fragmentation it was totally ineffective. All of the other problems- deep corruption, piracy, inter-system warfare amoung the member- paled before the challange of both concentrating on the PRH and stopping the constant bleeding of resources by both the Empire and SEM in trying to keep their own interests safe. Part of those interests were the trading and merchant shipping.
Now, instead of feeding ships- and only ships- into the area and dealing with the piracy while still having to work with the mostly ineffective Confederacy government and a lot of corrupt officials, The Empire and SEM have imposed actual control over the area.
The major difference between what they just did and what had been going on with either PRH or OFS is that with the partition of Silesia, the new governing forces are imposing an actual rule of law which will be evenly enforced not only on each of the systems but across the levels of government and populations. Neither Star Nation wants the anarchy to continue and neither will tolerate the corruption but both will let the local planets and systems maintain a high degree of local control---withing the framework of the legal systems of either the Empire or SEM dependent on who took which system.
What we have seen is the discussion of Adm. Sarnow both cleaning up the pirate activities (both the ships themselves and the people who supported them either as partners or just as fences for stolen goods) and being fierce in taking corrupt politicians and officials out of office. They screw up under the Manticorian laws and they end up on trial for their crimes and OUT OF OFFICE and IN PRISION- under the system of laws. The actual government looks to be moving in the direction of local control with vigilant oversite and enforcement. I suspect the Empire is working with a heavier hand but also being consistent in both enforcement and acting on problems.
With Silesia, the Empire and SEM had a relatively localized area and a fairly clear understanding of what they were dealing with. Even the step of removing the Confed Navy- and all of the "local" navies from the equation went a long way to solving some of the problems. Note that, at least on the Sarnow side, the Confed and other ships were folded into the SEM forces with a quick shaking out process that winnowed out the major criminal problems but left at least funtioning ships that could handle local duties under strong SEM control. Without the Confed Government and with the SEM forces overseeing control though the military and civilian people put in place, those system could begin to function in a much better manner.
Unfortunatly, this isn't going to happen with the SL and the Protectorates. Too many systems, too much corruption, and too many outside problems- the Alignment and its catspaws- to be able to put a net over it.
