World History

[initiates]

Please note that this page is still under construction! We haven't quite gotten to fleshing out the reign of the UE yet, but that will eventually be up. Huge thanks to noelleno for this!

Contemporary history as we know it applies to everything previous to the first entry here, and all of this information can be found in various texts in Exsilium's library, or in digital form in the Initiative's accessible database. (Note: it's paraphrased and summarized here, but actual IC records will be in much greater detail.)

~2015 AD: The melting northern seas expose oil deposits: Nations flock to be the first to lay claim. The oil-independent nations scoot into this, too, for a chance at profits. Posturing starts, then the fighting. Scandinavian countries start fighting for boundary rights and are soon absorbed by the UK. China chews up chunks of Russia (old wounds never heal). US and Canada bulk up mutual defenses and bully a longer boundary for themselves (masquerading it as a support for Canada’s indigenous peoples, who are all but extinct even in the less-brutal territories). ~2050 AD: The posturing continues, even though major fighting subsides. Capitalism in the Middle East is flourishing in some places, fervently denied in others. The poverty lines are plainly drawn. More tension. There’s a distinct boundary being formed by many Western European countries to keep the Middle Eastern influence out, while others are still trying to court the oil they need. Troubles in Africa reach a max boiling point around 2054, and demonstrations at the latest Summer Olympics puts an end to the international event  altogether. ~2090 AD: The rising global economy’s roller coaster road ride has frayed a lot of nerves and caused a lot of fight and fright, reaching frenzied states. Countries like Japan, China, Germany,  and the US have cut off ties with their oil exporters, having finally secured a higher market for alternative energies than oil-dependent transportation, leaving friends and neighbors to try and bargain with the hotheaded dictators and shadow presidents of the oil nations. Those not quite up to speed but want to be (India, UK, Spain, etc.) are desperately trying to stay afloat while accusing the others of abandoning them in their times of strife. It’s causing a lot of conflict in new ways. ~2180-2200 AD: That militarized Australia falls in here; it’s part of a reformed UK known as the New United Kingdom. The EU has all but utterly dissolved in favor of these throwbacks to ancient times: There is a Turkish Republic (taking up much of Eastern Europe along Russia and Germany’s borders, and much of North Africa), the United States has expanded to Mexico + Guatemala and is partnered with Canada for their own North American Union to counter the empires across the sea. China has shrunk, India has expanded, having annexed Mongolia, Laos, Nepal, and Cambodia. These were not friendly mergers. The lands around Korea are fairly abandoned; North Korea is a crater. It’s all-out war, and new deadly technologies are in play. Argentina and Chile are soon razed, with the water levels rising more and more. Micronesian islands are soon underwater. Gulf states in the US shrink as the water rises. Mountain ranges are blasted and the dirt is hauled out to the coasts to add more real estate for the populations of more developed countries (Japan in particular). ~2230 AD: The madness seems to stop for a change. Everyone chills the heck out, trying to address the environmental changes. Efforts are put into promoting the bettering of environments to keep producing food/water for people. Advanced terraforming technologies emerge, turning once-wasted land into places of plenty. Africa is lauded as a cradle of civilization once more, ushering in a kind of golden age for the often-abused continent and many of its nations. Many join under a single flag, creating the People’s Africa, which consists of much of mid- to southern Africa. Where the North (still w/Turkey) still reaps the dwindling oil profits, PA exports food and cultivates its environment for tourism to a degree well beyond anything we know today. ~2260 AD: So then the Turkish Republic tries nosing in and taking PA territory. GUESS WHAT MORE FIGHTING. The New United Kingdom decides to shimmy in with Turkey, and the NAU bustles in on PA’s behalf. Old wounds reopened, ridiculous weapons and casualties, etc. China, Japan, India quietly waffling on their loyalties until threatened to actually act...so then China and India start fighting each other THAT HELPS!! India blasts a chunk of China’s coast into the sea. Everyone holds the hell up and scrambles to not get their asses blown up by India and wonder how the hell it got so damn powerful. India strokes its collective mustache or someth. ~2280 AD: Half of India’s been absorbed by the TR, while Eastern Europe’s been snatched away from it and is now part of Russia. The other half of India is no longer stroking its collective mustache, and China is kind of going HEH SO HOW’S THAT FEEL? NAU and Brazil are making stinkeye faces at each other. NUK is trying to make extra nice with the PA, while the PA is feeling extra sympathetic to the northern half of its continent and trying to woo it into the alliance with promises of keeping their own flags n shit. ~2330: Biological warfare. Millions of people are killed when someone from somewhere (the accusations fly left and right) unleashes an uber-plague. South America, Mexico, Australia, and portions of Africa suffer the worst. Everyone else follows Madagascar’s lead and CLOSES ALL BORDERS. It is a time of seclusion physically, whereas digital networking is champ. It’s kind of like everyone staying in their own rooms, eating their own food, watching their own shows, sometimes IMing each other to say hey. This goes on for a long-ass time. (Note: this is when this mission took place, and due to Transport efforts, there will be a recent notation that Australia began to remobilize ahead of schedule, in the 2480s.) ~2500: Like a LONG, long-ass time. Until tectonic shifting causes hideous earthquakes and kind of demands everyone getting along to help each other. The remaining population of South America is rescued by neighbors and altruistic countries across the ocean. China and India make up so they can rebuild the things lost. Everyone is all buddy-buddy with a side of HEY REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE AN ASSHOLE TO ME? because familiarity breeds contempt. But talks are in the works for a ~single country of man~... ~2700: The official birth of the UE. More details and specifics to come, but this is when its reign began!

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