This is a future history created by the science fiction author Jerry Pournelle. Works have been published by Pournelle and/or collaborators that range from the late 21st to the 31st Century. The CoDominium is an alliance between the United States and a re-established Soviet Union which imposed world peace. An interstellar drive is discovered which allowed colonies to be established by the CoDominium on planets around other stars. The time period of the CoDominium is from about 2010 to its collapse in 2103.
Your mission should you decide to attempt, is to reinvent and the ATL of the Jerry Pournelle franchise, which has humanity proceeding into interstellar space. As such, what are some PODs that could be added into the ATL.
1863: French Foreign Legion defeated by Mexico at Camerone.
1914 to 1918: First World War.
1939 to 1945: Second World War.
1946: First Cold War between the USA and the USSR begins.
1969Apollo XI lands on Earth's moon.
1970-71: Beginnings of detente between the USA and the USSR.
1979: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Beginning of Second Cold War.
1991: Hard-line Communist coup fails. Gorbachev deposed. End of the USSR; Yeltsin leader of the Russian Republic. Many of the "republics" within the USSR declare themselves independent, leading to what the 21st-century USSR will remember as "the Dark 90s".
Mid-1990's: Economic hardship leads to political and military coups in Russia. Rebirth of the USSR (probably including the re-absorption of the break-away republics). Third Cold War begins.
1998: Riot Act passed in the USA: police given broad powers to quell disturbances.
By the year 2000The USA and USSR combine to form the CoDominium. In a series of treaties, the two super-powers create a supra-national entity, known as the "CoDominium" or "CD". The United States and the Soviet Union surrender control of their foreign policy to the CD, while retaining separate control over their domestic affairs. This alliance ends the Third Cold War, and allows the USA and the USSR to jointly dominate Earth, curtailing the power of the "non-aligned nations". The CD enforces a ban on military research and development and curtails the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the globe. Nationalist sentiment in the rest of the world is naturally resentful of the CD, but most countries quickly realize that the superpower alliance is too strong for any serious resistance to be possible.
1996The French Foreign Legion (Légion Étrangère) chooses to join with the CoDominium, forming the nucleus of the new CoDominium Armed Services.
By the year 2000: Other mercenary units, including the Cossack Adventurers and the Cameron Highlanders, are later absorbed into the CD Armed Services.
1998"The Lost and the Founder" (WWCD 1-6 = WWI[2nd] 29-32 = WWD 13-16).
Garner "Bill" Castell founds the Church of New Universal Harmony.
Early 2000s?: A portion of of northern Mexico is annexed to the USA, either by force or by a political deal. This region is admitted to the Union as six states.
2004: Charles Castell, son of Garner "Bill" Castell, is born.
Between 2004 and 2008: Scientists at Caltech develop the Alderson Drive. This interstellar space drive is based on the discovery that instantaneous travel is possible between any two "adjacent" stars, if a ship is located at the correct "Alderson Point". Thus the problem of travel between star systems is reduced to the problem of travel within star systems.
2005Maitreya born in Tibet.
2006: Ban on military research expands to a ban on some quasi-military research.
2008First exploratory ships leave the solar system.
2009: Last Arab-Israeli War. Israel defeats the Greater Syrian Republic. Much of Syria's territory is annexed and becomes "Northern Israel". After this conflict, the CoDominium forbids all national wars. After this, there will be almost a century in which the CD prevents major wars from breaking out on Earth, although local conflicts will occasionally arise.
2010: CoDominium Intelligence Services engage in serious effort to suppress all research into technologies with military applications. "Green" and "Zero-Growth" organizations endorse this ban. Scientific publications are censored, and all scientists must be licensed by the CD (even those not in the USA or the USSR). Within a few decades, most scientific research comes to a halt, and computer databases of scientific information are deliberately corrupted with false data. (Medical research is not restricted, however.)
2010Discovery of inhabitable planets outside the solar system. The first "Grand Survey" turns up a number of pleasant planets. (The planet later known as "Sparta" is discovered by the CDESS Lewis and Clark in 2010.) Beginnings of commercial exploitation. Some not-so-inhabitable planets are seeded with terraforming packages.
2014/15: John Rogers Grant, Sr., born. (His brother, Martin Grant, may be older or younger.)
2016: During the Second National Geographic Survey of extra-solar planets, Boyd Upchurch discovers the planet that will subsequently be settled and named "Churchill".
2015 or 2020: First interstellar colonies are founded.
2020: The CoDominium Space Navy and Marines – the "Fleet" – is created. It absorbs the original CD Armed Services.
2020: The "Great Exodus" begins. Many interstellar colonies are founded. All are to some degree under the CD's authority. Many are specifically American or Soviet colonies, including Tabletop and Stalin. Some of the most pleasant colonies are sponsored by Earth nations: Meiji (Japan), Xanadu and High Cathay (China), Churchill (Britain), Friedland (West Germany), Dayan (Israel), and Levant (unspecified Arab nations). A significant number of American colonies are founded by religious separatists, ethnic separatists, pioneers, or Greens. In addition, large corporations sponsor mining colonies on unpleasant mineral-rich planets.
Around the year 2020: Reunification of Christianity by Pope John XXVI. (Some churches do not participate in this reunion, including some traditionalist Catholics from Spain who emigrate to Santiago on Thurstone, and some Presbyterians who settle on Covenant.)
2020/21: The U.S. Government begins gathering the jobless in the inner cities and relocating them to "Welfare Islands": government-funded neighborhoods which keep them far from the "law-abiding taxpayers". These people are given the prestigious title of "Citizen", and granted the right to live on Welfare indefinitely. They may leave and acquire "taxpayer" status by work and education, or they may volunteer to settle on other planets, but most simply remain in the Welfare Islands.
Early 2020sThurstone: The continent of Santiago is settled by the Third Thurstone Expedition. The settlers are malcontents from Spain, led by Carlists loyal to King Carlos XII, and Catholic traditionalists who reject the reunified Church of Pope John XXVI. Earlier settlements on this planet (including New Aberdeen) have already occupied the best land, so Santiago is established in a less desirable location.
Your mission should you decide to attempt, is to reinvent and the ATL of the Jerry Pournelle franchise, which has humanity proceeding into interstellar space. As such, what are some PODs that could be added into the ATL.
1863: French Foreign Legion defeated by Mexico at Camerone.
1914 to 1918: First World War.
1939 to 1945: Second World War.
1946: First Cold War between the USA and the USSR begins.
1969Apollo XI lands on Earth's moon.
1970-71: Beginnings of detente between the USA and the USSR.
1979: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Beginning of Second Cold War.
1991: Hard-line Communist coup fails. Gorbachev deposed. End of the USSR; Yeltsin leader of the Russian Republic. Many of the "republics" within the USSR declare themselves independent, leading to what the 21st-century USSR will remember as "the Dark 90s".
Mid-1990's: Economic hardship leads to political and military coups in Russia. Rebirth of the USSR (probably including the re-absorption of the break-away republics). Third Cold War begins.
1998: Riot Act passed in the USA: police given broad powers to quell disturbances.
By the year 2000The USA and USSR combine to form the CoDominium. In a series of treaties, the two super-powers create a supra-national entity, known as the "CoDominium" or "CD". The United States and the Soviet Union surrender control of their foreign policy to the CD, while retaining separate control over their domestic affairs. This alliance ends the Third Cold War, and allows the USA and the USSR to jointly dominate Earth, curtailing the power of the "non-aligned nations". The CD enforces a ban on military research and development and curtails the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the globe. Nationalist sentiment in the rest of the world is naturally resentful of the CD, but most countries quickly realize that the superpower alliance is too strong for any serious resistance to be possible.
1996The French Foreign Legion (Légion Étrangère) chooses to join with the CoDominium, forming the nucleus of the new CoDominium Armed Services.
By the year 2000: Other mercenary units, including the Cossack Adventurers and the Cameron Highlanders, are later absorbed into the CD Armed Services.
1998"The Lost and the Founder" (WWCD 1-6 = WWI[2nd] 29-32 = WWD 13-16).
Garner "Bill" Castell founds the Church of New Universal Harmony.
Early 2000s?: A portion of of northern Mexico is annexed to the USA, either by force or by a political deal. This region is admitted to the Union as six states.
2004: Charles Castell, son of Garner "Bill" Castell, is born.
Between 2004 and 2008: Scientists at Caltech develop the Alderson Drive. This interstellar space drive is based on the discovery that instantaneous travel is possible between any two "adjacent" stars, if a ship is located at the correct "Alderson Point". Thus the problem of travel between star systems is reduced to the problem of travel within star systems.
2005Maitreya born in Tibet.
2006: Ban on military research expands to a ban on some quasi-military research.
2008First exploratory ships leave the solar system.
2009: Last Arab-Israeli War. Israel defeats the Greater Syrian Republic. Much of Syria's territory is annexed and becomes "Northern Israel". After this conflict, the CoDominium forbids all national wars. After this, there will be almost a century in which the CD prevents major wars from breaking out on Earth, although local conflicts will occasionally arise.
2010: CoDominium Intelligence Services engage in serious effort to suppress all research into technologies with military applications. "Green" and "Zero-Growth" organizations endorse this ban. Scientific publications are censored, and all scientists must be licensed by the CD (even those not in the USA or the USSR). Within a few decades, most scientific research comes to a halt, and computer databases of scientific information are deliberately corrupted with false data. (Medical research is not restricted, however.)
2010Discovery of inhabitable planets outside the solar system. The first "Grand Survey" turns up a number of pleasant planets. (The planet later known as "Sparta" is discovered by the CDESS Lewis and Clark in 2010.) Beginnings of commercial exploitation. Some not-so-inhabitable planets are seeded with terraforming packages.
2014/15: John Rogers Grant, Sr., born. (His brother, Martin Grant, may be older or younger.)
2016: During the Second National Geographic Survey of extra-solar planets, Boyd Upchurch discovers the planet that will subsequently be settled and named "Churchill".
2015 or 2020: First interstellar colonies are founded.
2020: The CoDominium Space Navy and Marines – the "Fleet" – is created. It absorbs the original CD Armed Services.
2020: The "Great Exodus" begins. Many interstellar colonies are founded. All are to some degree under the CD's authority. Many are specifically American or Soviet colonies, including Tabletop and Stalin. Some of the most pleasant colonies are sponsored by Earth nations: Meiji (Japan), Xanadu and High Cathay (China), Churchill (Britain), Friedland (West Germany), Dayan (Israel), and Levant (unspecified Arab nations). A significant number of American colonies are founded by religious separatists, ethnic separatists, pioneers, or Greens. In addition, large corporations sponsor mining colonies on unpleasant mineral-rich planets.
Around the year 2020: Reunification of Christianity by Pope John XXVI. (Some churches do not participate in this reunion, including some traditionalist Catholics from Spain who emigrate to Santiago on Thurstone, and some Presbyterians who settle on Covenant.)
2020/21: The U.S. Government begins gathering the jobless in the inner cities and relocating them to "Welfare Islands": government-funded neighborhoods which keep them far from the "law-abiding taxpayers". These people are given the prestigious title of "Citizen", and granted the right to live on Welfare indefinitely. They may leave and acquire "taxpayer" status by work and education, or they may volunteer to settle on other planets, but most simply remain in the Welfare Islands.
Early 2020sThurstone: The continent of Santiago is settled by the Third Thurstone Expedition. The settlers are malcontents from Spain, led by Carlists loyal to King Carlos XII, and Catholic traditionalists who reject the reunified Church of Pope John XXVI. Earlier settlements on this planet (including New Aberdeen) have already occupied the best land, so Santiago is established in a less desirable location.
