Crossposting this one from the Oneshot scenarios thread.
After one year and eleven months, Patriotpunk has a sequel! This one is inspired by comments from AH.com's Skallagrim on the original map. This scenario is fairly dark, but hopefully is interesting. The name refers to this being set after the era of American occupation of Islamic and leftist countries. Of course, the world is by now means peaceful now and seems to have entered into a period of new storms. Credit for the Zapadoslavian flag goes to Pshenkowski on Deviantart. The inset map of the Moon was made by AH.com's Globolco. Please note that this world is not meant to be an ideological wank and hopefully all nations are portrayed fairly and in a bad light.
Here's some music to set the scene:
After one year and eleven months, Patriotpunk has a sequel! This one is inspired by comments from AH.com's Skallagrim on the original map. This scenario is fairly dark, but hopefully is interesting. The name refers to this being set after the era of American occupation of Islamic and leftist countries. Of course, the world is by now means peaceful now and seems to have entered into a period of new storms. Credit for the Zapadoslavian flag goes to Pshenkowski on Deviantart. The inset map of the Moon was made by AH.com's Globolco. Please note that this world is not meant to be an ideological wank and hopefully all nations are portrayed fairly and in a bad light.
Here's some music to set the scene:
- There are many that say the world is coming to an end. This may not literally be true: the Earth is likely to continue spinning and it is unlikely that life will be totally wiped out, but what is indisputable is that the trend towards liberalism and prosperity has been halted. The old liberal order is dead - in its place is a new world order, one in which the strong rule and the weak are used as slaves. This is a world of increasing violence, failing diplomacy, and shorterning life spans, a world in which the proliferation of nuclear weapons is no longer a serious issue as every tinpot dictator from Kinshasa to Khalistan claims to own an atomic bomb or two. Amidst this backdrop, life goes on, but the optimism felt at the beginning of the 21st century, the hope that the future would be better than the present, is all but gone. The question now is if this is a phase or if the world truly has been plunged into a new age of darkness and brutality.
- The large-scale interventionism spearheaded by the United States under the guise of the War on Terror ultimately was unsustainable. Starting around 2025, NATO began pulling back its forces from states deemed less important. Countries like Somalia and Bolivia found themselves going from de facto American corporate colonies to power vacuums nearly overnight. The results of these withdrawals were varied: in some cases, radical Islamic groups came to power, while in other, neighbors invaded (see Somalia). The rise of extremism in these countries got a ball rolling that could not easily be halted. Violence seeped into neighboring regions still under American control, further draining the resources of the occupying powers. American forces in the occupied world were even further stretched at the start of the Civil War in 2029 and, as fighting dragged on, American installations across the globe became increasingly undermanned. By 2040, most of the lands occupied by the US and its allies during the War on Terror had been ceded back to local governments. Despite the best attempts of American administrators, these new regimes were almost all weak and ineffective and easy fodder for radical ideologies, leading to the rise of a new world power, the Caliphate as well as the various states of the Revolutionary Internationale in South America.
- The world is divided into three major blocs in 2052. The Americans are the undisputed leaders of the Atlantic bloc, which is comprised of their allies in North America, Britain, Zapadoslavia, and several other nations around the world. Next, there is the Eurasian bloc which is comprised of two sub-blocs: the European Union and its allies and the Russian sphere. To round out the major powers there is the Caliphate. The Caliphate is the weakest of the major blocs and has the least ability to project its power, yet is a state to contend with. Two minor alliances also exist: the left-wing Revolutionary Internationale, which is most powerful in South America but supports communist rebels across the world and the Ho Chi Minh City Treaty Organization, a moderate anti-Islamist regional alliance devoted to the protection of moderate, liberal capitalism. Tensions run high between these blocs, and though they have not come to blows, they back insurgencies against each other and fight by way of proxy.
- The Caliphate had its origins in Morocco. Shortly after the American invasion deposed the Governor of King Mohammed VI in 2011, a British-educated Doctor of Medicine, Cheikh El Omari, returned from a house call to find his family massacred along with several other households. El Omari swore that he would get revenge against the American Army and Blackwater operatives that were responsible for the killings. Though initially, El Omari's feud was secular, he forged ties with Muslim extremist groups opposed to the American occupation and gradually became a devout Muslim. In 2014, Cheikh El Omari presided over the foundation of a new militant group - the Moroccan Jihadist Organization (Almunazamat Aljihadiat Almaghribia, or AAA) Under his competant and devoted leadership, the Moroccan Organization grew into the Western African Jihadist Organization and then the World Jihadist Organization. Within ten years of its founding, the World Jihadist Organization (Munazamat Jihadiat Alealam, or MJA) had become a force to be reckoned with. It had de facto control over a number of neighborhoods throughout Muslim Africa and its tendrils extended across the entire world, and recruitment was particularly high wherever American soldiers could be found. Ironically, the United States paved the way for the rise of the MJA. While it would likely have been broken by the larger Islamic terrorist groups in more peaceful times, a concentrated attempt at the destruction of Al-Qaeda allowed for the MJA to grow. El Omari built the backbone of his army out of the intelligentsia of the Arab countries, many of them fellow students with El Omari when he studied in London. His already-created contacts with these able planners allowed for the quick creation of a strong network. Disgruntled former soldiers, unemployed, and unmarried men made up the bulk of the MJA, but only under the leadership of European-educated professionals did they truly flourish. Much like the armies of Mohammed's Caliphate, El Omari's Caliphate spread like wildfire. Almost as soon as American troops left a country, its new government would find itself deposed and the Caliphate in power. Of course, there were some in the United States that were invigorated by the establishment of new fundamentalist regimes, so the Caliphate was shrewd enough to avoid antagonizing the West. This did not last forever. When enough land came under its control and it deemed its opponents to weak to destroy it, the Caliphate openly admitted its wish to destroy Western, Christian civilization once and for all.
- In 2052, the Caliphate is a world power. It stretches from India to the Atlantic, with territories elsewhere swearing fealty to the current Caliph, a former Iraqi army colonel by the name of Abd Rabbo Al-Sheikh. The capital of the Caliphate has been moved to Medina, which has been turned into a glorified fortress. Caliph Abd Rabbo holds absolute power within his Empire. A legislature in the form of the Majlis exists, but it has no power other than that of an advisory body. Even if it were to be able to vote, its members are nearly all appointees of the dictatorial provincial governors or religious figures. Ironically, as its rise was driven by social alienation and economic failure during the days of American occupation and immediately afterwards, the Caliphate has experienced a massive wealth gap and economic inequality. While the Caliph and his entourage live in luxurious, air conditioned houses, the average inhabitant of his empire will languish in poverty. Food and water are always scarce, and the Caliphate Directorates of Sawm and Zakāt (the departments that handles all welfare and social projects) is ridden with bureaucratic incompetence and corruption. The Caliphate's most steady stream of income is gained by selling oil covertly or through the black market, but as oil reserves dry up, the Caliphate appears to have little future in that field.
Though it claims to stand for all Muslims worldwide, there are many of the faithful that disagree with this. If ever polled, a sizable percentage of inhabitants of the Caliphate would say they are opposed to the religious extremism of their government, but without freedom of expression, many silently toil for a regime they oppose. Many millions of Christians and Shi'ites live within the Caliphate's borders and though protected in theory as fellow people of the book, they face severe discrimination and violence. Many have fled into exile in countries where they fare better.
Despite its internal troubles, the Caliphate is a significant power and has a large, fanatical standing army, and the ability to fund and supply rebel groups globally with its oil income. The Grand Intifada strained the Caliphate's nuclear stockpile, but with the help of physicists within the empire, it has been replenished as a means of dissuading foreign invasion. As it refuses to recognize the right of any polity that does not swear an oath to the Caliph, the Caliphate's armies are in a near constant state of war on many of its borders, particularly in Africa. There, the internationally recognized boundaries between the Caliphate and other states are meaningless. The fighting there is indescribably brutal and atrocities are commonplace. Any non-combatant with the means to move has fled to less violent territories, but many find themselves trapped behind an opposing army and face a future of rape, torture, and constant savagery. The Caliphate's border with the European Union and it's sphere is much more peaceful. An uneasy truce exists between those states and to stave off a war that would undoubtedly be incredibly costly, the Caliphate largely refrains from doing anything to provoke the Europeans. The Caliphate is not, however, beyond setting off a car bomb or two several miles behind the border on occasion.
- In the aftermath of the American retreat from regions occupied from the War on Terror, the armies of the Caliphate, streaming across Africa and Asia, were the focus of news services the world over. The goings-on in South America received much less press. That is not to say there were no changes: like how American occupation ironically fostered the growth of Islamic extremism in countries it invaded to root out terrorism, socialism came back even stronger in South America. The first of the South American countries to be invaded was Venezuela in 2013, following a failed bombing of the Capitol Building by the Black Riders Liberation Party. The BRLP was alleged by the FBI to have been supplied by the Venezuelan government and after an investigation criticized by the international community for its speed and lack of strong evidence, American forces entered the country. In regions where freedom of thought is still publicly exercised, the truth of the ties between the BRLP and Venezuelan regime is hotly debated. Most believe Venezuelan support was more spiritual than material. Some on the left even allege that the whole incident was engineered by the Colombian regime to force the United States into invasion. Regardless of the true causes of the invasion, the collapse of the Venezuelan regime caused a domino effect throughout South America that plunged the vast majority of the continent into conflict. American control of South America was more indirect than in Muslim states, feeling historic ties with the Latin American ruling classes, puppet governments ruled with the help of the United States military. Military occupation of an entire continent was, of course, unsustainable and eventually the United States was forced to withdraw. Following American withdrawal, left-wing insurgencies spread like wildfire throughout the continent. Though the American-aligned regimes would fight back, their fight was in vain as the much more numerous and overwhelmingly popular insurgents won victory after victory. In the wake of this victory, the streets ran red with blood as the revolutionary governments initiated reigns of terror to cleanse their new countries of capitalists, landowners, and collaborators. Rather than create new regimes in the borders of the states that had existed before the Americans invaded, the boundaries of South America were largely redrawn and new, multinational states came to stretch across the continent. While initially, regional differences and old prejudices affected the workings of the new states, decades of existence have eroded those feelings and allowed these states to function more efficiently.
- In 2025, after winning reelection for a second time in a landslide (that pesky 22nd Amendment had been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court), President Prince introduced legislation abolishing the office of President and replacing it with a Director-General, elected for a 12-year term by the Senate. The first election for Director-General was held in 2026 and unsurprisingly, Erik Prince was elected. Under the Directory, the United States continued along the trajectory started with the 2017 military coup. Free speech was suppressed, while those opposed to the government frequently disappeared into remote prison camps in the West. The Republican Party achieved near-total dominance at all levels of government with the Democratic Party finding itself outlawed through dubiously-constitutional means in many states. The budget of the federal government was increasingly slashed, with first the abolition of the Department of Education, then the Interior, and finally the Federal Reserve. The Department of Defense became a skeleton of its former self, much to the ire of the regular army which was increasingly resentful of the PMC interests that dominated the government. A coup attempt in 2033 by Army Colonel Richard Ojeda failed, leading to the passing of the landmark 2035 Crawford Amendment, in which standing armies were outlawed in favor of the hiring of mercenaries. Attempts by opponents of the government to portray this as a way to enrich the Director-General, who just so happened to also be CEO of Blackwater, the world's largest PMC, largely failed and the populace went along willingly, buying the government argument that the Amendment would cut down on the power of the government. In the run-up to the 2038 election, the name of the Republican Party, the only major party in the United States, was changed to the Eagle Party. Supporters of the change hoped the new name would be free from association with the old Republican Party and that voters would forget it was the GOP that led the 2017 coup. Citing his age, Erik Prince declined to run for a second term as Director-General and ironically, his successor was someone even older- Liz Cheney, daughter of George Bush's martyred Vice President. Cheney only managed to win through fairly blatant bribery in the Senate over favorite George Prescott Bush and the insurgent candidacy of Josh Hawley. The 2050 election was much more tame, with Erik Prince's son Christian being selected over Cheney's daughter Grace Perry.
- Not all Americans supported the Prince regime. In 2029, four years after the abolition of the Presidency, several liberal states declared their independence from the United States. Spearheaded by Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, the Free States of America were declared. Director-General Prince declared war on the new FSA and the Second Civil War began. Early on, the Free Staters fared poorly. They experienced defeat after defeat at the hands of the well-trained US Army. However, by the start of 2031, with aid from Europe, the Free States had reorganized their military into a more effective form and managed to win several crucial victories that year. Following that, the trickle of foreign weapons turned into a constant stream and the Free States picked up momentum. With the arrival of Russo-European forces at the end of 2032, the US began to consider a peace short of total victory. In 2033, a cease fire was agreed to by representatives of both governments. Several months later, the Treaty of Pittsburgh was signed, giving the Free States of America control over much of the territory they had claimed during the war. As a result of poor federal control over the Pacific Territories during the War (San Diego was then the only outlet of the US on the Pacific, and during much of the Second Civil War it was under siege) American Samoa (now the Republic of Samoa), the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam also received independence. Shortly after the end of the war, Alaska came to an agreement with the Dallas Government that would give it independence while in free association with the United States.
- The United States of 2052 is an illiberal, corporate-military dictatorship that retains the aesthetics of a constitutional, republican society. The government acts as if the United States is the same as it was during the good old days of Eisenhower, Reagan, or Bush, yet that is far but true. The Senate has been appointed by state legislatures since the repeal of the 17th Amendment (technically states can elect Senators popularly, but few opt to do that) and those legislatures are often peopled with the aristocracy of that state. Bans on free speech, public gatherings, and private ownership of weaponry are common and put in place by a regime that simultaneously extols the virtues of a free country. The United States retains a vast mercenary army, with most of its money being spent on that. Welfare expenditures are virtually nil: everything is meant to enrich the ruling class. The people of the United States are largely happy with this way of life. Sure, there is famine and the seas are rising, but that's a global phenomenon and the US government can't be behind it. Life may be bad by the standards of the late 20th century, but things are still a whole lot better than it would be for someone living almost anywhere else in the world. Three major factions dominate America: the religious right, neoconservatives, and Mormons. No single faction is strong enough to dominate Congress and in order to govern one must use the significant overlap in belief between all three groups to form a coalition. America has drifted back into isolationism. While it does have a chosen few allies outside of North America and the Caribbean Basin, the United States focuses largely on the affairs of the Atlantic world. Its regional opponents: the Europe, the Free States, and Mexico are more than enough for it to handle. A number of the Caribbean states are nothing but American client states and are governed primarily by American-paid PMCs and liaisons from large companies. The influence of American corporations are much more far-flung than that of the United States itself. American-produced weapons are about as rocks in Africa and bribes are handed off to politicians as far away as South Africa and Australia.
- Ironically, the Free States of America claims to extol the same virtues as the United States. Both proclaim themselves as democratic republics with the cornerstones of the state being life, liberty, and property. This is more true in the Free States, where democracy persists to some degree. Citizens go to the polls and know their ballot will actually count, but nearly every qualified candidate already has the approval of the predominant Free Democratic Party, the European Union, and the corporate elite. People are largely happy, though the threat of another war with the United States weighs heavy on the public psyche. The Free States military is large, but not especially well-trained and there are serious doubts that it would be able to hold off the United States. Internationally, the FSA has remained aligned with the Europeans and Russians who were instrumental in securing its independence. In North America, it has cooperated with the Maritimes, Quebec, and Cascadia. In the early days of the Free States, there were many that hoped the new nation would become the leader of the free world, the leadership of the FSA have contented themselves with being secondary to the Europeans. The Free States has its patriots, but few will declare that their country is number one in the world. Spread across a continent, with a diverse array of peoples and no direct route from east to west, the FSA has its regional tensions. Though California boasts a significant population, the power center of the Free States is located from Boston to Baltimore. Proposals for California, Oregon, and Washington to separate from the Free States are popular, and without the threat of United Statesian invasion (which would undoubtedly be successful if California fought the US alone) an independent west would be likely. The Midwest states are increasingly underpopulated and make up a falling percentage of the FSA's population: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio have few seats in the House of Representatives, leading to derisive calls that the House is nothing more than a tool of the Free States' East Coast Establishment. The situation is reversed in the Senate, where each state has two Senators regardless of its population and where the East Coast is underrepresented.
- Though somewhat unwillingly, Canada joined in the Coalition of the Willing and fought alongside the United States in the War on Terror. Under both Liberal and Conservative governments, Canada turned to authoritarianism and became stauncher in its support of the United States. Though Canada became increasingly undemocratic, it could not keep Quebec in the federation and in 2030, it successfully voted for independence. Coming at the same time as the attempted secession of the Free States of America, the US was unable to prop up a Canada that had seen the Atlantic provinces cut off from the west. The next several years saw what was left of Canada break apart. The Atlantic declared an independence and aligned itself with Europe and the FSA while the conservative plains provinces seceded and became American client states. Quebec too saw a low level civil war as natives in the north attempted to countersecede and Anglophones tried to rejoin Canada. By 2040, all that was left of Canada was Ontario. Alberta and Saskatchewan voted to became constituent parts of the United States several years after the end of the Second Civil War. American influence extends into the far northern Polar Republic and Cree-led Republic of Northern Ungava. The rump Canadian government in Ontario only recently dropped its claims on the rest of what used to be Canada - they too are aligned with the Americans. Cascadia, Quebec, and the Maritimes have joined in with the Russo-European bloc.
- Out of the ashes of the crime-riddled United Mexican States came the Popular Republic of Mexico. Starting with the quasi-leftist National Renaissance Party (PNR) a movement at once conservative and reactionary in its approach on the Drug War yet also left-wing in its opposition to the free market it viewed as impoverishing Mexico evolved. By the 2030s, it had grown into a national power and was strong enough to depose the government in Mexico City. Mass executions of corrupt officials and drug lords were carried out, and in the Years of Blood (2036-2042), nearly 150,000 were killed. The United States decried the revolutionaries as "Neo-Bolshevist" but was too exhausted to take any action on a large scale. Yet Mexico did not come out of the Drug War fully intact. Even before the PNR took power, the United States had vast influence in a number of northern states and had more power there than Mexico City did. Rather than submit to the new regime in the south, these quasi-independent nations simply submitted to the United States and were quickly given statehood. The PNR government was outraged but realized the population was strongly pro-American and war to reconquer those states would be futile, so they have remained part of the United States. Mexico in 2052 is not by any means prosperous, but a citizen will go through life with a fairly accountable government and fair shake at life in a society that is just. The country remains strongly conservative and nationalistic, while Christianity is a central tenet of the country. Government propaganda prepares Mexicans for a day when punishment will be served to the United States and all the lost provinces in the north will be restored to the green, white, and red banner. Given Mexico's devout Christianity, it is somewhat surprising that the Popular Republic is a part of the Revolutionary Internationale. This is an alliance of convenience only and the Mexicans hope to one day rid themselves of their surprisingly atheistic and degenerate allies to the South. Of course, this can only come after the United States has been totally dismantled and ended as a threat to Latin America.
- The nucleus of what came to be the Bolivarian Peoples Confederation (Bolivaria or the BPC/CPB for short) were the survivors of the Venezuelan leftist regime and the anti-capitalist, anti-American opposition in Colombia. Under the banner of Bolivarianism, the opposition grew and gathered its strength, largely keeping a low profile, but occasionally bombing American military bases and murdering soldiers. Though the core of these groups were led by supporters of the regime of Hugo Chavez, many nationalists flocked to its ranks as it became the premier opposition to the United States. The Republic of Venezuela's death warrant was signed the day America decided to withdraw its forces. Only hours after the final American troops left, La Casona was stormed by armed Bolivarists and President Ibáñez was dragged to Plaza Bolívar, where he was executed at the foot of a statue of Simón Bolívar. Newly-declared Generalissimo of the BPC Yul Jabour Tannous gained the support of the Venezuelan people through the implementation of a universal basic income and a crash development program, following which the military defected en masse to the Bolivarians. Tannous led his armies in an offensive into Colombia, which had been weakened by decades of occupation in Venezuela and Peru. There, Bolivarian fighters rose up and aided the advance of the former Venezuelan military. As they approached Bogotá, the Colombian army threw down its arms, laying the groundwork for the recreation of Gran Colombia. The BPC currently is one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Internationale. Though not the wealthiest of nations, a crash program to strengthen the country's industry succeeded beyond the wildest expectations of the political class. In particular, the Bolivarian armaments industry is booming, and Bolivarian-produced guns can be found in the hands of leftist militants the world over. Much of Bolivaria's economy is supplied with rubber, diamonds, wood, and precious metals from the Internationale-controlled People's Mandate for the Amazon. Unfortunately, the workers paradise has been tarred by corruption and constant planning for war with the Americans, that has led to a large portion of Bolivaria's industrial output simply never reaching the hands of the Bolivarian people.
- The belief in indiginismo, a focus on the native American roots of Latin America, often came hand in hand with Socialism of the 21st century, both of which swept South America in the years of the 3rd millennium. Indigenismo took Bolivia by storm, and Evo Morales, the son of subsistence farmers, came to power promising to destroy the last vestiges of colonialism and reject neoliberalism. These ideals put Morales at odds with the United States and its allies, and few were surprised when, shortly after the Invasion of Colombia, American troops launched a surprise attack on Bolivia. The Morales regime, they alleged, had engaged in a massive campaign to distribute cocaine in the United States in violation of international treaties. Morales was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay as a new, criollo-led government was established in La Paz as the Republic of Bolivia. In a pattern that was repeated elsewhere, the cachet of indiginismo was raised immeasurably in Bolivia, but also neighboring states like Peru and Paraguay by the presence of armed, hostile American troops patrolling the streets of Bolivia. A resistance movement, the South American Peoples Congress (CPS) grew, integrating the old Bolivian Movement for Socialism, the remnants of the Peruvian Shining Path, and innumerable other regional groups into a transnational network committed to the establishment of an anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and (to varying degrees) anti-capitalist state in the Andes. Though they would clash with groups like the Bolivarians in Venezuela over philosophy, for once, the left proved surprisingly unified and coordinated their efforts towards bleeding the Americans dry in a bid to force them out of South America. After twenty years of guerrilla warfare and terrorism, this effort finally succeeded. The Peruvian and Bolivian governments were overthrown after short civil wars. For several years, indiginismo governments ruled both Peru and Bolivia as separate states, but following the 2041 elections, pro-unification parties voted to realize the dream of a single, indigenous state and declared the Socialist Federation of the Andes (SFA). The Federation's borders were redrawn, initially in hopes of giving a province to each major ethnic group, a plan that proved nearly impossible and was later scrapped in favor of what the Legislature simply described as "rational boundaries" In its early years, the Federation engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide. Whites and Asians (the lucky ones, at least) were expelled from the country with little more than the clothes on their backs. The unlucky ones were brutally murdered or interned as enemies of the people. Attempts to wipe out the Spanish language proved infeasible, and the language is reluctantly kept on, though the learning of indigenous languages and customs, as well as the adoption of their dress, is strongly encouraged and taught in many schools. In foreign policy, the Andes has moderated: while it once supported terroristic insurgents across the globe, it has become less violent and forsworn support for groups that kill civilians. Of course, the SFA remains a proud member of the Revolutionary Internationale and yearns for the day when the United States will topple under the pressure of the workers paradises of the world.
-Argentina under Máximo Kirchner was invaded in 2017 by the United States after the fall of Venezuela, Peru, and Bolivia, making it the last major Latin American state to be toppled during the War on Terror. While the rooting out of left-wing terrorism was the stated goal of the US, it had come under pressure from Chile, which had the less noble goals of eliminating Argentine power and gaining access to its resources, in mind. The Argentinian military put up quite a fight. The first American thrust at Buenos Aires was actually held back by the army and gendarmes, allowing President Kirchner to flee inland to Córdoba. Ultimately, the combined forces of the United States, Chile, and numerous smaller allies was too much to handle and the Argentinians surrendered. President Kirchner recieved good treatment, and was cleared of charges of terrorism and crimes against humanity, and died a peaceful death in a Belgrano apartment. Unlike in Gran Colombia and the Andes, no single ideology came to dominate the opposition during the period of foreign occupation. While it was true that the right broadly aligned with the occupiers, Kirchnerists, Peronists, communists, and indiginists feuded for control. Consequently, the departure of American troops was not an immediate death blow for the Argentine Republic they had created. Only after several years of civil war did a leftist, anti-American United Front emerge and defeat the collaborator government. The Platinean Confederation was born and quickly aligned itself with the Revolutionary Internationale. It declared war on Chile and sent its forces across the Southern Andes, where their thrust was sufficient to break the stalemate further north where an Andean offensive had become bogged down. Chile surrendered quickly to the more moderate Platineans, partly out of hopes that their considerable white population would be treated better by them than the Andeans. Much of Chile was annexed to Platinea, while the north was given to the Andeans. Platinea has, like many of the South American states, moderated. In 2052, though it is by no means rich, it is not a terrible place to live. Poverty has been kept to a minimum through generous welfare programs and government policies of public works that have mobilized nearly all the population into employment. Platinea does, however, have bad relations with the United Kingdom and frequently threatens to invade the Falklands. A missile or two is frequently exchanged between these two powers, though no official state of war exists.
- Brazil erupted into chaos roughly at the same time as the creation of Bolivaria and the Andes. The European-aligned Federative Republic of Brazil had long been in political turmoil, with mounting tensions between the pro-European leftist parties, and pro-American right. Support for the Federative Republic was highest in the north and northeast regions, while the stronghold of the right was the overwhelmingly white south. Several contentious elections for the Presidency polarized the country and the issue of whether to recognize the Bolivarists and new regimes in Bolivia and Peru escalated into a violent crisis. Then-President Rocha, a member of the Democratic Labour Party, was set to sign legislation recognizing the indiginist regime in Bolivia. The conservative military took matters into its own hands and stormed Brasilia, establishing a military junta in the place of the democratic government. Protests were dispersed by the National Public Security Police (NPSC), despite the opposition of state governors. After protestors in Salvador were gunned down by the NPSC, leftist leaders armed themselves for war. The ensuing conflict lasted four years. In 2040, the Peace of Alberton was signed in a Johannesburg suburb, establishing two rival states, the pro-American Democratic Republic of Brazil (RDB) and pro-European Union Federal Republic of Brazil (RFB). In addition, portions of the northern and western frontiers were handed to the Andeans, Bolivarians, and Argentinians, territory out of which the BPC would later establish the People's Mandate of the Amazon. Brasilia fell into the territory of the RDB and was named its de jure capital (though most governance was and is conducted from the more secure city of São Paulo) Both states have further aligned themselves with the United States and the European Union, respectively. Their militaries are growing larger, while social programs are neglected, leading to massive inequality and extreme poverty.
- America's Latin American cobelligerents in the War on Terror fared worse than the United States in the end. Their limited resources bled them dry as Colombia occupied Venezuela, Ecuador occupied Peru, and Chilean troops were stationed in Argentina. As their budgets were drained by neverending occupation, these states became increasingly reliant on the United States, something that only hastened their collapse when American support was withdrawn. Many in both states were well aware of the possibility of their collapse and preemptively fled the country while many were hopeful and stayed. In the end, the pessimists turned out to be right. The United States accepted a number of immigrants, primarily the rich ones that had been involved in the administration of these countries under American rule. Many of the poor, former military men switched their allegiance, but a great number of them signed on to PMCs as mercenaries, something that has contributed to the continued survival of the PMCs. America still has some allies south of the Rio Grande (a term that is still used, even if it was rendered inaccurate by the acquisition of the northern Mexican states) Though most of their territory was overrun by the Bolivarians and Andeans, rump Ecuadorian and Colombian governments exist, governed from Qutio and Cali, respectively. While recognized as states by the United States and its allies, they resemble armies with nations more than any traditional definition of a state. Their existence is wholly subsidized by the United States and the corporations within it that hope these thorns in the side of the Revolutionary Internationale will prevent it from focusing on expansion northwards into Central America. Panama has remained occupied by the United States for decades, largely out of fear that an independent government there would quickly fall to radical leftism and jeopardize control of the Panama Canal. Control of Panama is hotly contested, with both the Americans and Revolutionary Internationale pouring money and men into the country in hopes of keeping or conquering it. Some within the Internationale's command hierarchy have suggested capturing the canal is impossible, and the best option for the RI is to make it impassable for the Americans, whether through the mass blowing of locks or even nuclear weapons. While this is a minority view within the Revolutionary Internationale, its appeal is growing as the number of American-paid mercenaries seems to grow every day.
- Guyana under American occupation was dominated by the Indo-Guyanese. The already pronounced racial divide was further heightened by American racism in favor of the lighter-skinned Indo-Guyanese. Only with American support, their regime was kept alive and ruling over a territory where nearly 60% of the population was indigenous or of African descent. Unsurprisingly, when the United States withdrew, open civil war broke out. Rebel forces aligned with the Bolivarists almost immediately expelled the newly-formed Guyanese National Army from the majority of the country, leaving the government in control of only a small strip along the coast roughly east of the Essequibo River. This territory, only about 100 miles at its widest, is governed as the pro-American Republic of Guyana. The Indo-Guyanese rule with an iron fist and actively suppress other ethnic groups. Fortunately, African and indigenous minority provinces have been carved out of parts of what was Guyana and integrated into Bolivaria. Ethnic cleansing is frequent on both sides of the borders and entire villages are frequently evicted at gunpoint.
- Britain's 21st century has been rough. The United Kingdom largely assumed the role of the United States' younger, impressionable brother. When the US went around kicking in the door in any country with a Muslim or left-wing head of state, the UK was always right behind and ready to back America up. The governing Labour Party, which had shifted to the center at the end of the 20th century, experienced several splinter groups, the most notable being the New Party led by former leadership hopeful Tony Benn. The 2010s were tumultuous, with several minority governments, Labour-Tory coalitions and a surging New Party. This all came to a head with a race war kicked off by British Muslims angry with the government's policy on toppling Islamic states and their being under near-constant surveillance. The so-called British Years of Lead saw the government attempt to keep order as Muslims and the far-left skirmished openly against far-right paramilitaries. When the smoke cleared, the New Party had effectively collapsed, and whatever candidates it ran were discredited with ties to Islamic militias. The Labour and Conservative parties merged into the United Britain Party. Flash forward to 2052. Britain is clearly a police state. Many forms of speech remain illegal, and the surveillance systems across the country mean that at any moment the government can listen in on any telephone call, public conversation, and, rumor has it, any house. Democracy remains in a truncated form. The UBP holds 525 of the House of Commons' 650 seats, while the token opposition, the Liberal Democrats, have several dozen. UBP-aligned independents and minor parties, standing under the All for Britain alliance title hold the rest of the seats. The fairness of these elections are widely disputed and it is generally agreed that the government stuffs ballot boxes to ensure the Liberal Democrats never hold enough seats to become anything more than an inconvenience to the UBP in the Commons. Northern Ireland has devolved into a warzone. For the past nearly 40 years, a three-sided conflict between state security forces, nationalists, and loyalists has wracked the province. Fighting has never escalated to the level of open warfare, but bombings, shootings, and vandalism are commonplace. With energy shortages and internal strife, Britain has largely retreated into a shell and has avoided outside affairs. It remains allied and friendly with the United States but avoids overseas entanglements.
- The European Union as an international organization established in 1992 was only the first step on the road to the integration of the entire continent into a single state. Though aligned with the United States during the Cold War era, a resurgent France and Germany opposed to the United States' policies during the War on Terror guided Europe away from the US. France and Germany became increasingly dominant in the EU after the exit of Britain in 2014. Though a federation, smaller, less prosperous countries were forced to go along with the continent's major powers. The European Union expanded immensely in the early 21st century, with a number of Central European, Baltic, and Balkan states joining the organization. A loose agreement, the Compact of Rome, was signed between the European Union and an ascendant Russia in 2016. The Compact was intended to serve as a deterrent to future American-led interventionism worldwide and proved effective in the 2020s in verbally combating the United States on the world stage. By 2030, the European Union had taken the first steps towards federalization. Europe as united by the Treaty of Nijmegen would retain much of the old EU's form of government, with two Councils and a Parliament. The Parliament, however, evolved to take primacy over both councils after unification. Constituent states of the federation would retain considerable ability to determine their own form of government with several states retaining their monarchies. Not every member state decided to join the federation, however. Notably, the Baltic Republics, Bulgaria, and Turkey declined to join, citing the distance between them and the federal capital of Brussels. These countries have since been granted the status of Associate State of the European Union, granting them trade and travel agreements and military alliances. A number of other states later became Associates of the European Union and between those states and the EU-proper, Europe is a powerful bloc.
The European Union largely remains a democracy though different constituent states of the Union have varying governance. France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Nordic states are robust democracies where voters have real choice (even if those choices are for the center, center-right, and far-right) A number of the peripheral constituent states of the European Union have less democratic governments that are known continent-wide to be flawed. The political parties of Europe remain much the same as they were in the pre-federalization days. The federal level parties are composed of many different affiliates within the constituent states of Europe. The unique consensus system has remained on the federal level, and the Parliament is governed with the consent of both the (de jure) center-right and center-left. Though these parties clash during elections, they are largely similar in their support for Fortress Europa and differ only on economic issues that are typically shoved under the rug in favor of maintaining the status quo.
Though once hailed as a bastion of multicultural liberal democracy, Europe has swung far to the right in recent decades. Pressured by an immigrant crisis from wartorn Arab states, the growing threat of homegrown terrorism, and economic crises, both pre- and post-federation Europe increasingly rejected refugees from Muslim countries. The several-decade long crisis came to a head during the rise of the Caliphate in the second half of the 2030s. The "Fortress Europa" scheme was the brainchild of then-Parliament President Steeve Briois. Entrance into Europe would be prohibited for all "persons of suspicion", which included nearly every person of Middle Eastern and Arab descent. Within Europe, numerous Muslims were arrested and interned under suspicion of being sleeper agents while the European Navy was tasked with turning refugee rafts around by any means necessary. The Fortress Europa plan has continued to the present. Though criticized by liberals, human rights activists, and Muslims internationally, most Europeans report feeling safer, even if the occasional boat full of refugees is shot up European sailors or an innocent family is placed in an internment camp for associating with the wrong cleric. Ironically, Europe’s hostility to Islam has not gone unnoticed in the Caliphate and plans to liberate the faithful in Europe have proceeded at a faster pace than if Europe had steered a more accepting course.
- The inclusion of Bosnia in the institutionally anti-Muslim European Union has posed some issues. Though it became increasingly irreligious in the early 21st century, many Bosnians were appalled by the European Union's treatment of Muslims abroad, though as a majority within their own state, domestic terrorism was less common there than in other parts of Europe. In 2052, the vast majority of Bosnians are unconcerned with the concept of Fortress Europa and view it as a something that is not a religious problem. Nevertheless, there is a significant minority in Bosnia that is anti-European and feels itself aligned with the Caliphate. A spat of terrorist attacks by ethnic Bosniaks led to the creation of a taskforce of the European intelligence service to root out Bosnian Islamic extremism. The pro-European government has welcomed this and has offered the cooperation of its police force. Unfortunately, many in positions of power associate any concern for the wider Muslim world with terrorism and even peaceful anti-Fortress Europa demonstrations have been broken apart with extreme violence by Bosnian police.
- Poland experienced a boom after the end of communist rule in 1989. It had an anti-European streak and attempted to become a regional power through the creation of the Visegrad Group in 1991. Unlike other European states, Poland backed the United States throughout the War on Terror and was involved in the occupation of numerous Middle Eastern states. Pressure to abandon America for decades. Poland and the increasingly Polish-dominated Slovakia both rejected offers to join the European Union several times. In 2038, Poland annexed Slovakia and hastily renamed itself the Federative Republic of Zapadoslavia. Despite this, the state is known as Poland colloquially owing to near-total domination of the country from Warsaw. Poland is increasingly isolated in Europe, and has aligned itself with the United Kingdom. While Poland cannot accurately be called fascist, the ruling Zapadoslavian Conservative Party (which grew out of Poland's Law and Justice Party) is strongly national conservative and under the rule of party founder Lech Kaczyński's granddaughter Ewę Kaczyńska.
- Though the Rome Compact began as a purely as a military alliance intended to provide a counterweight to the United States, a friendship grew between the European Union and Russian bloc that acquired economic components later on. In 2052, the Rome Compact (or Eurasian Bloc) is a comprehensive organization that regulates trade, provides a funnel for Asian oil into Europe, and, most importantly, serves as a military alliance. The Compact engages in numerous battles for influence and prestige with the United States, its chief rival. As of 2052, the chief areas of such conflict are in North America, where Russian-backed insurgents fight the government of the Republic of Nunavut and American-aligned Anglo-Quebecois fight to leave the French-dominated government of Quebec. Though opposed, the American and Eurasian blocs have been known to put aside their differences to take steps against the Caliphate. While they may disagree, there is room in, say, a Russian-dominated world for a small Christian America, while there is no such niche in a world where the Caliphate has its way.
- The Russia of 2052 is officially the Union State of Russia and Belarus, but to anyone not naive enough to believe VGTRK broadcasts, it is Russia as the Belarusians have been so sidelined as to have almost no influence in the workings of their state. Though rich in oil and in possession of a large nuclear arsenal, Russia would be nothing without Europe. Russia has an aging population, severe corruption, and greedy neighbors on its frontiers that oil wealth and a disciplined army alone could not up. In addition, many of the ethnic minorities in the Caucasus and far East are opposed to the domination of the Orthodox Christian Russians, and given their higher birth rates, there is concern that Russians will one day be outnumbered. In short, Russia needs Europe and Europe needs Russia and because neither has the resources to occupy the other, they have allied themselves in the Rome Compact. While Russia is not a dictatorship, it has been under the leadership of the United Russia Party since the start of the 21st century. Far-right parties, including the ironically neo-monarchist Liberal Democratic Party and Eurasia Party provide an opposition of sorts. The center and left have been sidelined and in recent elections, numerous communist and liberal candidates have been murdered. The goal of expanding the borders of the country to those of the old Russian Empire has seen mixed results. Much of Central Asia, Manchuria, and a large swath of Inner Mongolia are client states, while the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2028 ended with the direct annexation of the east of that country and the puppetization of the west. The Baltic states have held out and aligned themselves with Europe, which keeps them well protected in the event relations with Russia ever deteriorate into war. Though Moscow is as opulent as ever, a shrinking economy and dwindling oil reserves have put quite a scare into the leadership of the country, and the constant threat of invasion by the Caliphate as well as Islamic and far-left terrorism weighs heavy on the mind of the Russian people.
- All that remains of Yugoslavia are the old republics of Serbia and Montenegro. With support from the Russians, what became known as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro actually managed to rebound in the early 21st century. Its economy recovered from the Yugoslav Wars, but the Russians found the Milutinović regime useful and consequently. Despite widespread allegations of the President's engaging in war crimes in the previous decade, international attention was too focused on the War on Terror and Milutinović ruled Serbia until his death in 2026. As a result of the large scale failure of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to prosecute the criminals of the Yugoslav Wars, there is still bad blood between the Croatians and Bosniaks on one hand and the Serbs on the other. The alliance between the European Union and Russia has made this position awkward, though that does not stop the occasional act of nationalistic violence. There are some academics that believe the Russo-European alliance will one day be broken by an incident in the Balkans.
- The destruction of Israel has many names: the Sixth Intifada, Grand Intifada, the Second Exodus, the Final War, the Years of Fire and a hundred more. Israel's end came in the Christian year 2039 when the rising Caliphate finally set its sights on taking Jerusalem and wiping the Zionist state off the map. Israel's large manpower pool (Prime Minister Paretz expanded conscription to four years in 2021) was exhausted by years of occupation in Jordan, Lebanon, as well as parts of Saudi Arabia and Syria and the constant attacks by insurgents after their withdrawal and rise of hostile regimes in those states. The Caliphate invasion in March 2039 was overwhelming, and despite the best efforts of the better-trained and better-equipped IDF, Civil Guard, and numerous paramilitaries, Caliphate forces used human-wave tactics that were ultimately successful. Nearly three million Jews, roughly a third of Israel's total population were massacred by the invading armies. The survivors of the bloody captures of Jerusalem and Haifa fled to Tel Aviv, where Israel would make its last stand. Despite overwhelming odds, the Israelis held out for several weeks, allowing nearly one million Jews, Christians, Circassians, and Druze to escape with the help of ships from dozens of nations. Ultimately, when the Muslim armies could not break through, firebrand junior officers procured several atomic bombs and snuck them into Tel Aviv, where they were set off. What followed was a devastating nuclear exchange. The Israeli government ordered the use of every atomic in its arsenal in response and what was left of the Air Corps sallied forth to strike deep within the Caliphate. Mecca, Baghdad, Cairo, the Aswan Dam, Tripoli, and much of occupied Israel were all turned to glass before the poorly-organized Caliphate Air Wing could respond. But when they responded, it was with immense fury. Most of the Levant was made entirely unusable, while Tel Aviv itself was hit with several dozen bombs in the confusion that reigned within the Caliphate command hierarchy. When the dust settled, the damage was extensive. All of what was once Israel would be unfit for human habitation for decades. Jerusalem too was destroyed, and, with neither faction claiming responsibility, its annihilation would be extensively used for propaganda purposes around the world. The aftermath was a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions. Millions of Israelis and inhabitants of neighboring regions were displaced. Cyprus had turned into a single, massive refugee camp following the flight from Tel Aviv. Worldwide, the effects of the use of over one hundred nuclear bombs caused spikes in cancer in areas downwind of striken cities and though full-on nuclear winter was averted, famine was felt worldwide throughout the next decade as crops failed to grow. In some senses, however, the use of nuclear weapons in Israel was a blessing in disguise. Much of the Caliphate's army was vaporized when the nukes fell, and their ability to launch further offensives was eliminated. Caliphate plans to invade Turkey, Russia, or Ethiopia after Israel fell were put on the backburner as so many crack units had been totally wiped out. Some have referred to the time of the Invasion of Israel as the high tide of the Caliphate. While outlying regions may have sworn fealty to the Caliph, its military is nowhere near as powerful it was during the early months of 2039 and without significant training, it appears unlikely to ever be so again.
- Scholars have described the scattering of Israeli's after the Caliphate's conquest as the Second Diaspora or Second Exile. No openly-practicing Jews remain in the former State of Israel, as most of the survivors of the Final War were viciously murdered by Caliphate forces eager to avenge their vaporized comrades. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have emigrated to Europe, the Free States, and South Africa. Particularly in Europe, they face anti-semitism and discrimination by Christians that unfairly associate them to the nuclear destruction of Jerusalem. Even Jews that never left their home countries for Israel face discrimination and anti-semitism is on the rise worldwide. Cyprus, home to a large proportion of Jewish refugees evacuated during the Caliphate invasion has had a very bad few decades. Though many Jews were able to resettle elsewhere, nearly 1.5 million remained in Cyprus. Though outnumbering native Cypriots, the Jews have been unable to receive citizenship. Terrorist attacks and riots by rightfully angry Israeli refugees (many of them born in Cyprus) are common. European Union military forces are necessary to keep the country from breaking into yet another civil war. Though many believed the annihilation of Israel would discredit Zionism once and for all, numerous organizations committed to the reestablishment of a Jewish state have sprung up worldwide. But where? The thawing north, the simmering Republic of Cyprus with its large disenfranchised Jewish population, the near-stateless anarchy of Africa, and even the Moon have been suggested as candidates for colonization. One thing's for certain though: wherever they go, this time the Jews will be armed.
- South Africa has had a very good century. It overcame the social and economic disaster that was apartheid just a decade before the start of the third millennium, and by 2050 had transformed itself into a relatively prosperous multiracial democracy. South Africa aligned itself with the United States during the War on Terror, but never actually joined the Coalition of the Willing and instead opted to remain a cobelligerant because of its similar goals. As a result of only engaging in popular wars, South Africa was able to avoid the descent into absolutism experienced throughout the Coalition and was able to transform itself into the Federation of Southern Africa (commonly called South Africa, however) by uniting democratically with Lesotho, Namibia, and Botswana. The South African sphere of influence in 2052 is large. Zimbabwe and Swaziland are virtually governed as provinces of the Federation while Zambia, Tanzania, Katanga, and Kenya all are significantly influenced by South Africa. South Africa has largely been free of the corporate and military influences that have seeped into much of the rest of the world. Sure, there is a little corruption, but unfortunately that is just how the modern world works. South Africans are willing to accept the occasional bribe taken by a regional official if it means they can avoid weekly suicide bombings and constant oppression. Climate change is something of a concern: Cape Town, the Federation's second largest city, has experienced water shortages most years in the past several decades while farmers frequently are unable to grow crops. South Africans have taken these troubles in stride and there is a feeling that the country is still on the rise and their brand of democracy will one day dominate all Africa.
- In the stretch between the cold, calculating Caliphate and surprisingly liberal South Africa, much of the continent is just a mess. The withdrawal of American support from many unstable nations and an influx of Caliphate support for insurgent groups created a terrible situation in the 2030s that plunged much of Africa into war, something that few states have recovered from. Among the notable players in Africa there are:
* Holy Empire of Liberia. Sometime during the Fourth Liberian Civil War (2035-2037) a regular army colonel by the name of Marcus Collins cane under the delusion that he was the son of Jesus and therefore rightful ruler of the entire Earth. Calling himself Jesus Jr., Collins declared himself President and became yet another side in an already incredibly confusing war. Collins’ Holy Army of Jesus in Africa performed surprisingly well and because of his charisma, defeated troops flocked to his banner (some would argue that the threat of torture was a better, and more potent, inducement) In 2037, Collins found himself as President and, two years later, declared himself Emperor. Though his personal guess, the Blood Apostles, are well-armed and loyal to the core, much of the country has gone along with the Empire scheme simply because it seems a better alternative than another civil war. But, for a supposedly Christian nation, Liberia seems to practice a lot of cannibalism and other odd rituals would make American Christian's stomach's churn (it actually does-the ritual killing and consumption of a Texas couple has caused the State Department to issue severe travel advisories for US citizens. This has not halted the flow of American weapons into the country and as of 2052, the Liberian Army is as well-armed as ever before)
* Like their inspiration, the House of Bonaparte, the House of Bokassa was kicked from the throne but made a return several decades later. The newest iteration of the Central African Empire has proved much more resilient and has withstood two wars of succession and has been able to expand into nearby provinces. The Empire has attempted to showcase the humanitarianism of the House of Bokassa by propping up a rump Republic of Sudan in formerly Sudanese territory that the Caliphate was unable to conquer. If the international community even bothered to look, they would find a distant cousin of Bokassa IV as Foreign Minister of Sudan and much of its military totally integrated with that of the Central African Imperial Guard. In 2041, the megalomaniacal Bokassa III renamed the old capital of Bangui as Bokassaville and bulldozed over in a bid to totally rebuild it as a modern city. Funding never materialized and the town is simply a pile of rubble in 2052, with much of the formerly urban population reduced to subsistence farming in the surrounding countryside.
* Gabon seems to be one to be one of the few spots of sanity left in an increasingly insane world. Under a democratic government, Gabon has taken measures to create a more satisfied populace in hopes that a happy people will not turn to or a radical Islam or revolt. This policy works fairly well, but even despite fairly substantial military service and a vast reserve force, Gabon would never be able to stand if invaded by any serious power.
* The old Democratic Republic of the Congo is gone, finally broken apart during a civil war that started conventionally but ended with the use of nuclear weapons in the 2020s. Investigations have shown the atomics used in the Congo were sold to the rebel groups there by Egyptian weapons traffickers who received the weapons from Russian dissidents, but in a world where a reborn Caliphate has fought a nuclear war with Israel, the atrocities in the Congo are largely unnoticed by the outside world. Among the states that occupy the former DRC are the following.
The Free City of Kinshasa has too many people and too few resources to be prosperous. It manages to survive because it inherited much of the old Congolese air force and hires out its crack air squadrons to neighboring states in exchange for coal and food to keep the urban sprawl running.
The Federal Republic of Zaire is the largest successor to the DRC. Only its large size and strong military serves to distinguish it from any one of the other poor warlord states that pepper Africa.
The Islamic Republic of the Congo was carved by Congolese Muslims out of the old provinces of Kivu and Maniema. Gold, copper, coltan, and tin are extracted at gunpoint by vast hordes that bear more resemblance to gangs than armies. The ruling class of the Republic has grown incredibly rich off these resources and though they pay lip service to the El Omari Caliphate, their primarily allegiance is to the money that fillers their Swiss Bank Accounts.
Inspired by the memory of Moise Tshombe in the First Congo War, the province of Katanga again attempted to leave the country of which it was apart. This time they were more successful, and managed to set up a democratic government. Stability lasted only several years before corrupt regional officials tried to siphon off money of their own, and when they were caught, began to fight back. Muslim militants from the Islamic Republic of the Congo infiltrated the mines of the north and encouraged revolt as a first step towards Muslim conquest of all Katanga. A steadily weakening Katangan government was forced into the South African bloc. The South Africans do a fairly good job of keeping what territory Katanga has stable, but as it is already overextended makes little attempt to restore order to areas held by insurgent forces. Katanga is rich in copper and has the ability to become prosperous if given a chance, but nearly-constant warfare and meddling by mineral-hungry neighbors makes this unlikely.
* Throughout its civil war, Angola remained fairly capitalistic despite rule by a party calling itself communist. It suckered up to the United States an its allies enough to avoid invasion during the War on Terror. Around 2030, a new communist party came to power in Angola. The new Angola was radically anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. Chief among its enemies were the United States and South Africa. Co-headed by Angola, the Revolutionary Internationale came into being during the tumultuous 2030s. Its stated goals were the creation of an international system of popularly-governed, left-wing states. Though once the center of power for the Revolutionary Internationale, the once subservient states of the Western Hemisphere have begun to exercise significant power and defy the wishes of the Peoples Governing Council in Luanda. Angola itself is fairly powerful and managed to expand northwards during the collapse of the DRC. Angolan oil is vital to the survival of fellow left-wing states while food and metals from the Americas keep the Angolan warmachine going.
* Ethiopia is a state under siege. A staunch ally of the Americans after the 2015 elections brought the liberal United Ethiopian Democratic Forces to power, Ethiopia underwent a Christian revival. The government's prestige was enhanced by the 2027 annexation of Somalia with American approval, and the same in Eritrea several years. Ethiopia appeared to be on the rise until the Caliphate came into existence and halted plans for an East African Union led from Addis Ababa. Under a more authoritarian descendant of the UEDF, Ethiopia faces attack from the Caliphate in the west and nationalist rebels in the east. Ethiopia's significant Muslim population largely supports the government against the Caliphate.
- China has entered an age that historians have hastily named as the "Three Capitals Period". The combination of a fundamentally unfair economic structure and a destructive natal policy created a bubble of discontent in the Peoples Republic of China that ultimately exploded in 2044. A massive population of dispossessed and angry young men broke into open revolt in the summer of 2044, when Beijing ruled that the wages of enlisted men in the PLA would remain stagnant for the fourth consecutive year. Angry at their low pay, and frustration with the lack of women in China, the military mutinied in Shanghai. An attempt to send in the Nanking garrison to put down the insurrection backfired when these men joined the mutineers. Revolt spread like wildfire through the Chinese Armed Forces. Open civil war broke out in September when the demands of the mutineers were laughed out of the National People's Congress and loyalist forces were sent to break the mutiny. The civilian population became involved and China broke apart completely as regime loyalists fought the forces of the newly-declared Chinese National Republic (CNR). Regional governors in the South and West declared independent states of their own, and formed cliques reminiscent of those that dominated China nearly one-hundred years before. Further complicating things, the Republic of China in Taiwan was unable to come to an agreement with the CNR and launched its own invasion of the mainland with a surprisingly large and well-trained army. War raged until 2048, when all sides found themselves exhausted and unable to continue to fight. The Second Chinese Civil War proved to be a humanitarian disaster as millions were displaced in the course of the fighting. Surprisingly, the war remained largely conventional, with nuclear weapons only used in an attack on Beijing that is predicted to leave the city uninhabitable for centuries.
* What remains of the old Peoples Republic is ruled from New Beijing, a planned city that more resembles a military base just miles from the Beijing Radiation Exclusion Zone. With much of the old government incinerated in the nuclear destruction of the capital in late 2047, the current government is comprised of a mix of generals and bureaucrats united in their hate of the rebels that have weakened China. The PRC of 2052 can be most accurately described as an army with a state. Aligned with the New Beijing government is the Army of Chinese Wusizang, a force comprised of those ethnic Han occupation forces that remained in Tibet during the civil war. Refusing repatriation to the PRC, these soldiers have vowed to reconquer Tibet or fight to the death. They nominally swear allegiance to the New Beijing government but function as an independent organization. As a result of inheriting much of the advanced weaponry of the PLA's Chengdu and Lanzhou regions, the Army of Chinese Wusizang is often more technically advanced than their Tibetan opponents and can only be defeated through Tibetan human wave tactics.
* The Chinese National Republic manages to hang on despite a lack of any significant number of foreign backers. Its capital is the relatively small city of Xuzhou, which served as a major headquarters during the civil war. The CNR's ideology is a hodge-podge of traditionalist authoritarianism with a strong nationalistic streak. It detests both the Republic of China and the Peoples Republic to the north, though the period of the PRC is viewed as a total mistake, and in hopes of avoiding such a time again, policies including mandatory childbirth and government intervention have been implemented by the semi-democratic Council of Ministers. Like the PRC, the National Republic never demobilized in the aftermath of the Second Civil War and the military often dictates policy to the legislature.
* Of all the ethnically Chinese states, the Republic of China is probably the most liberal and free. The Kuomintang has held the Presidency and Premiership for a vast majority of the 102 years since the flight of the RoC to Taiwan, but opposition parties control considerable percentages of the Legislative Yuan and occasionally make it into power. Though not initially welcomed as the liberators they hoped to be recognized as, the forces of the Republic of China have gradually been accepted as the legitimate rulers throughout the parts of Southern China under their control. Many of the large, coastal cities have bought into the Taipei Government's lines on free markets leading to prosperity, but further inland opposition can be found in the form of communists and National Republic-sympathizers. The Republic of China has aligned itself internationally with several other states under the Ho Chi Minh City Treaty Organization. The city of Hong Kong refused to join the RoC and was given independence as a free city. It maintains significant influence from the RoC and is perhaps more prosperous with this illusion of total independence than it would be under direct governance from Taiwan.
* The two cliques that survived the civil war: Qinghai and Yunnan are really glorified crime families with more resemblance to gangs than organized states. Nevertheless, they hold significant power in areas of China with considerable populations. Both find themselves vaguely aligned with Russia (both as means of Russian destabilization of China and because Russia is the best ally against the Caliphate), but both remain internationally unrecognized. The "courts" of both groups, in Xining and Qujing, respectively are mixes of feudal entourages and mafia councils. Court intrigue centers around attempts by advisors aligned with various outside forces to curry favor with the heads of the clique. Yunnan currently faces a spirited Islamic insurgency, but owing to a vastly overwhelming infidel population, faces only sporadic terrorist actions.
* The Indo-Pakistani War of 2010 was quite disruptive to the Tibetan Government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CRA) which was based in the Northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The CRA moved its base of operations to Australia, but became increasingly ineffective at such a distance from the Himalayas. The CRA limped on for decades and when revolt broke out in China, it was ill-prepared to take action and the new government there was led by Tibetan opponents of the communist regime that had remained in China. The Republic of Tibet as established in early 2045 was constituted as a de jure absolute monarchy under the Dalai Lama, but functioned as a democracy. Despite the best wishes and earnest actions taken by a genuinely pro-democracy ruling class, the combination of PRC loyalists, Muslim insurgents, and the threat of invasion by Qinghai or Yunnan has forced the government to spend most of its income on combating these threats. Overlooked is the standard of living, which has gradually fallen for years, and the mass famines that are increasingly common.
- Korea: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Ok, not really - the government of the Roh Dynasty is nowhere near democratic, but it is nowhere near as autocratic as the DPRK regime under the Kims. Pacification of North Korea was a long, arduous process made more difficult by the martyring of the Mount Paektu Bloodline with their trial and execution in Seoul, but it was officially declared over in 2043 and the border between the two Koreas was dissolved as the peninsula became a single unitary state. Neo-Juche violence has remained an issue, and there is an entire bureau of the National Intelligence Service devoted to rooting out supporters of the Kims, but the fact that one can travel throughout North Korea without being assaulted by a Jucheist shows the progress made there. Korea is on the rise internationally, it appears. They backed the CNR in the Chinese Civil War and came out with a condominium in Southern Manchuria. Additionally, Korea has begun to influence Japan as the former state experiences population decline and becomes reliant on Korean manufacturing. Korean guest workers in Japan have become increasingly common and there is a school of thought that claims these immigrants are attempts by Seoul to infiltrate Japanese society as the first step in a coming invasion.
- Japan has once again fallen into a state of decline. A period of economic ascendency in the late 20th century that many foreigners feared would lead to a time of Japanese political domination ultimately failed to come to fruition as low population growth and the popping of an economic bubble led to a time referred to as the 'Lost Decade'. The hope of change in the first decade of the 21st century proved to be an illusion and following roughly 2010, Japan fell into a near-constant state of worsening markets and shrinking populations. The once-all powerful Liberal Democratic Party's stranglehold on Japanese politics has been broken and the country's elections are chaotic, many-party affairs that as often as not lead to hung Parliaments. Amidst the backdrop of a broken country in terminal decline, Japan has remilitarized under a succession of hypernationalist governments of varying stripes. Partly as a means to distract the public from their internal woes, Japanese Prime Ministers engage in saber-rattling against the Koreans, Russians, and Chinese states. This has only served to antagonize those countries and infuriate the growing radical factions within Japan that are ideologically aligned with those states.
- In 2010, a border clash between India and Pakistan spiraled into a nuclear war. Both India and Pakistan lost the war in the sense that as they ceased to exist as large, coherent entities. In their wake were left two dozen smaller, less stable states. Some of these were occupied during the United States in the War on Terror, while others (especially those in the former Northeast India) were largely overlooked by the international community because of their small size. The most powerful of the post Indo-Pakistani War states was the democratic successor to the Indian government in Chennai. For nearly two decades, this regime contended for the title of Republic of India with a military junta in Jodhpur, but the collapse of that so-called state in 2032 led to international recognition of the Chennai government as the legitimate heir to the Indian regime that had existed before the nuclear destruction of New Delhi. The Chennai government expanded northwards from its center in South India through both diplomatic and military means. The India of 2052 has not reached the glory it had before the missiles flew, but is much larger and more prosperous than it was thirty years before. The Tiraṅgā flies on the Vindhya Range and lower Ganges, though Indian influence extends still further into the hills of Assam and the plains of Gujarat where local governments have been driven into the arms of the Republic of India to provide an alliance against the dreaded Caliphate. India's standard of living is fairly high, especially in the South. Literacy is at an all-time high and an efficient government has begun cleaning up areas of intense radiation dating from the War with Pakistan.
The Republic of the Punjab has been on the rise since its foundation after the end of the Indo-Pakistani War. Initially an ethnically Sikh state, the Punjab's gradual expansion was massively hastened after the fall of the Jodhpur junta government: following that state's collapse, many turned to the Punjab, which had proven it had a strong military able to hold off the Caliphate. The Punjab experienced something of an identity crisis after that massive expansion in 2032. The state had expanded from a small, ethnically homogeneous one to a large, diverse one. Slowly, fears of Hindu takeover were allayed as the Sikhs remained dominant within the Punjab. Sikhism itself has received numerous converts in recent decades less as a result of proselytization and more because it is the religion of the powerful within the Punjab and because the Sikh armies represent holding back the tide of the Caliphate. Not everyone is happy with the power of the Sikhs, and in particular there are many Hindu nationalists that dream the power they had under the old Republic of India will come again, but in general, the Punjab is a stable, if not rich, place.
- In an amusing twist, Bangladesh is once again a discontiguous province of a much larger state to the east. Bangladesh managed to avoid involvement in the Indo-Pakistani War, but but experienced a flow of radioactive debris and corpses from the Upper Ganges. The impacts of this on the already weak Bangladeshi economy contributed to a rise in Islamic extremism that culminated in an American invasion in the 2010s. Like in so many other countries, American occupation only strengthened the Islamists they had hoped to root out and after American withdrawl, Caliphate-aligned fighters raised the Black Standard and declared Bengal as a part of Cheikh El Omari's Islamic empire. The Bengali provinces of the Caliphate have faced pressure from the Indians, rising sea levels, and famine, but have remained loyal. Despite this, there are many that feel these stresses will one day cause a collapse of Caliphate Bengal.
- The American withdrawal from the occupied states of Myanmar and Bangladesh left a massive power vacuum around the Bay of Bengal. Into that gap both the Islamists and communists surged in. The post-occupation Myanmar collapsed within months of the Americans leaving as communists stormed Rangoon - there were many that hoped the communists would moderate once in office, and their insurrection was supported by many anti-communists as well. However, the newly declared Burmese Peoples Republic turned out to be authoritarian and after only several weeks of peace, Kachin nationalists and Islamists picked up their guns and the civil war began anew. The war quickly bogged down, as neither side had sufficient resources to actually overcome their opponents. Into this chaos came Thailand. Thailand had backed the United States during the War on Terror and, with dreams of imperial glory, intervened in the war in a bid to annex many border regions. The Tanintharyi region was easily conquered, but fighting proved heavier and more difficult in Burma proper where the communist central government, rebel groups, and local militias alike all opposed Thai interventionism. After years of fighting, Burma was divided between three major factions: the ethnically Bamar communists in the south, multiethnic communists of Meeteileipak in the west, and the Kachins in the northeast. The Thai held the southern Tanintharyi salient and chewed off much of Shan State while the Rohingya minority was able to carve out an independent (later Caliphate-aligned) sultanate along the former border with Bangladesh. Thailand itself is a minor power in 2052. It devoted considerable time and energy to digesting the territories annexed from Burma, but that proved a good investment. The former Tanintharyi Region is very loyal and its tin, tungsten, rubber, and pearl industries have enriched the government in Bangkok. The annexed northern territories are less stable and currently is in the midst of a medium-level insurgency by ethnically Shan rebels. Thailand has aligned itself with Vietnam and Malaysia in recent years and is part of the anti-communist and anti-Islamist Ho Chi Minh City Treaty Organization.
- The already fractious Northeast India completely collapsed after contact was lost with New Delhi in the of the Indo-Pakistani nuclear war. Half a dozen independent statelets existed for several decades but slowly coalesced. In the south, led by the Peoples Republic of Manipur, a communist insurgency grew and turned into the Democratic Federation of Meeteileipak (named for an ancient kingdom as a compromise) In the north, the Republic of Assam came into existence and, in 2052 is nothing more than an Indian satellite state in a bid by Chennai to avoid hostility in an area where there is still deep distrust for the idea of being ruled from the subcontinent. Meeteileipak is a member of the Revolutionary Internationale but despite ideological ties, frequently clashes with the Burmese communists to their south.
- The Philippines has reverted into a bog-standard dictatorship. Facing rising sea levels, a spirited Islamic insurgency among the Southern Moro peoples, and the threat of invasion from the antagonistic Caliphate in the East Indies and even the Japanese, the current government under the aging child actor Christopher de Vencia rules with an iron fist in Mega Manila. Outside, corruption and management by regional governors (who are, as a rule, corrupt and self-interested) is at an all-time high and the President can only get by with their support. What is left of the Philippine military guards Manila against insurrection or is deployed to Mindanao where they are steadily being bled dry by the Caliphate-aligned insurgents of the Muhammed Mama Movement.
- Indonesia was always difficult for the Coalition of the Willing to occupy. Regions far-flung from the administrative center of Jakarta were in a constant state of revolt, and the public of the West powers slowly lost their stomach for that never-ending gruel and the occupation forces totally withdrew by 2036. In their wake they left the inept Federal Republic of Indonesia, a state ruled by a clique of idealistic professors, inept bureaucrats, and corrupt politicians. The Federal Republic lasted two years before Jakarta was overrun by Caliphate-aligned forces. The so-called Rape of Jakarta was a bloody affair - estimates of the total casualties in the sack of the city run from 500,000 to just over 1,000,000. In the aftermath, elements of the Indonesian military attempted to hold off the Jihadists, but it was clear that the Caliphate had won. A considerable proportion of Indonesia's nearly 40 million Christians and Hindus as well as untold numbers of pro-government Muslims fled the country in a massive wave of ramshackle boats. Thousands died in the Timor and Arafura Seas, while those that survived were put into refugee camps that Australia could hardly maintain. Indonesia under the Caliphate has been poorly administered and much of the archipelago has devolved into semi-independent principalities. A constant stream of weaponry from the Middle East and oil and rubber in return makes this a profitable region for the Caliphate to expend its resources on. The Indonesian provinces are currently in the process of invading and digesting Malaysia. Most of East Malaysia is occupied, with only a coastal strip in the hands of the Malaysian Army. Though Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, calls for jihad have found little support there and only a small insurgency exists in the uplands of Terengganu.
- Australia has not had a good 21st century. It faces massive desertification in the interior, a refugee crisis of massive proportions, and an Islamic insurgency in the north. Australia aligned itself with the United States during the War on Terror, and suffered some of the lowest rates of casualties in the Coalition of the Willing. That was until Indonesia was invaded. Australian troops made up much of the occupation forces there and experienced casualties much higher than they had in any other conflict. Public opinion turned against the war, and Australia withdrew from Indonesia without realizing that such a sudden move would precipitate an Islamist takeover and then a refugee crisis. While the idealistic Australian government of the time attempted to take care of the refugees, the sheer number overwhelmed Australia's already taxed resources. Peaceful refugees turned to violence, becoming roving gangs in the Australian north. Incursions on speedboats from Indonesia turned into full-blown invasion, and many of these gangs swore allegiance to the Caliphate. What remains of the Australian Defence Force has managed to hold the Caliphate's military from making any headway into Australia, but the issue of Caliphate-aligned irregular fighters appears to be a perennial one as their numbers are too vast to make any significant headway against. As a result of depending on the ADF for the very survival of the Australian state, the government has become something of a puppet of the military and is classified as a managed democracy. The Coalition has a stranglehold on Australian politics, while a surprisingly conservative Labor Party and several minor, niche, hobbyist parties are their only significant opposition. In addition to this, the worldwide trend of desertification has hit the Australian interior hardest. The Outback is growing yearly, and winds bring dust all the way to New Zealand. Between the pressures of the Caliphate and the desert, Australia feels like a nation at siege. While the population fights for survival, there is a widespread unspoken belief that the country will collapse at some point in the near future.
- Both religiousity and social conservatism are on the uptick worldwide. Though there are certain areas where the 20th century trend towards atheism and irreligiousness has continued, vast areas across the globe of different religions have reported increased church attendance while the number of people that would answer that they are "very religious" have increased dramatically. In many areas, the traditional religion of the region has come back in force: in Western Europe, Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism have exploded back onto the scene, but other areas have seen major changes. Britain, inspired by constant American broadcasts of televangelists, has turned towards Evangelical Christianity. While the Church of England is growing strong, it has adopted some of the traditions of American Christianity including the prosperity gospel, much to the ire of the "old guard" within the church. Evangelical Protestantism is on the march elsewhere too. It has conquered many Latin American states with the support of the American military and is growing in Africa and Australia. Mormonism too is growing, especially in the United States. In East Asia, Taoism, Buddhism, and Shinto are growing while even among opponents of the Caliphate, it is undeniable that the Muslim world has become more devout. A number of new religions have seen an uptick in support. Among the largest are Raëlianism, which has caught on in the former Canadian states, Discordianism, Falun Gong, and Transcendental Meditation. Various forms of paganism have also seen growth in Europe ironically at a time when Christianity is growing elsewhere.
- An increasing proportion of the world's population now lives in refugee camps or as guests in another country. Recent estimates by independent organizations say that the global refugee population has reached nearly 750 million - a number that is unlikely to decrease and is projected to increase in the near future. The global population is increasing steadily. Early 21st century projections that the birth rate in Africa would decline have largely been proved wrong as much of the continent remains underdeveloped. In Europe and the developed world, increasingly social conservatism has brought with it a growing birth rate. Coupled with the depleting of the Earth's resources, there are many that the growing human population could lead to a serious crisis that could end with mass death.
- The world is not in a good place. Resources are draining worldwide. Oil reserves have begun to run dry, while changing weather patterns have led to many failed harvests. Most states are at their wits ends: traditional means of sustaining economies are failing, and new, revolutionary methods must be devised to keep the human race going. It is undeniable that climate change is occurring. Global temperatures have risen by nearly 5 degrees Celsius while the sea level has risen nearly 50 centimeters. What were once extreme weather events and crop failures have become commonplace: food shortages are taken as just a part of life in places like the United States and Britain where they were unthinkable at the start of the century. The world is, however, divided in opinion on what the causes of this climate change are and what, if any, steps should be taken to combat it. While most states subscribe to the theory of anthropogenic climate change, several, countries, led by the United States and Democratic Republic of Brazil contest that claim and argue that climate change is a natural process or a European plot. Exactly how these two things can be simultaneously true is unclear, but that doesn't prevent those claims from being spewed out by American propaganda outlets. Led by Europe, many of its allies across the world (and notably, South African) have signed onto the Berlin Protocol, a treaty aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Interestingly, the Caliphate maintains that climate change is indeed manmade and divine punishment against the West for despoiling the oil wealth of the lands of the faithful. These claims do not stop the Caliphate from exporting oil. The hypocrisy of the Caliphate is typical of behavior throughout the world: stopping climate change is simply not profitable.
- Man returned to the Moon in 2026, when the European Space Agency's (ESA) Máni VI rocket touched down on the Oceanus Procellarum. This touched off something of a space craze, and the United States quickly resuscitated its aging space program. The Second Civil War put things on hold in the United States, giving the Europeans a chance to establish several bases on the Moon before the United States was even able to land there. European bases were soon joined by Japanese, Chinese, and Russian facilities. Nearly 25,000 humans live on the Moon in 2052. Many of these are scientists devoted to studying the Moon or taking advantage of telescopes on the far side. A great deal of the population, however, is comprised of soldiers and engineers looking to get a leg up on their country's enemies. Men have been on Mars too, though no permanent bases have been established there. The first Martian missions were run by the Europeans, though Americans have also set foot on the Red Planet. The Earth's orbit is littered with hundreds of manned satellites and millions of tons of space debris. Among the manned satellites are numerous missile defense platforms, research stations, and maintenance bays. Europe has begun research on solar arrays that are intended to replace fossil fuels by beaming power in tight bursts down to Earth. While research is promising, it will likely be years before these arrays become fully functional and powerful enough to make any noticeable changes on Earth. While space is under contest, not every major Earth alliance is represented in the void. The Caliphate and Revolutionary Internationale have very minor presences and are at a significant disadvantage, having entered the game so late. The European Space Agency is currently the largest space-focused organization. While it is owned and run by the European Union, associate members and states in cooperation include the Free States, Cascadia, and Turkey. Along with the TSA and a number of other agencies, NASA was privatized, being turned into North American Spacing and Aeronautic (also called NASA) in 2037. The Prince family owns considerable stock in the company and NASA has recently diversified and begun advertising services for mercenaries on the Moon. While NASA is not the only private company to enter space at the behest of the American government (Virgin Galactic, Dole, Boeing, and SpaceX to name a few), it has an edge up on its competitors. The Outer Space Treaty is still in effect, but is widely disregarded by every power, except when they need to point fingers at other states. Space in 2052 is the realm of the soldier, not the scientist.
- The Moon Bases themselves are primarily sub-surface complexes. The initial bases, typically built of prefab modules above the surface, were deemed too susceptible to asteroids and enemy attack, leading to the building of future bases in sublunar caves. The bases are primarily powered with small nuclear reactors, though many do have solar arrays that are useful during the two-week long day period, but due to the long lunar night are insufficient. The purposes of these bases are varied, with some devoted merely to research, though governments are much more eager to place military bases there, as well as profitable factories that are able to send materials to build satellites around the Earth with minimal energy. The Moon's food supply is a mixture of imports and subsurface agriculture. An unexpectedly tricky issue has been the naming of European Lunar settlements. Initial plans to name them after historic figures from European history were turned into nationalistic disputes. Finally, it was decided that rather than figures with ties to one constituent European state, the names of figures important to the history of European integration would be chosen instead. If those names proved contentious, Esperanto terms or various gods would be used. This proposal was broadly acceptable and though raucous debates on naming still wrack the Parliament and public discourse, European bases have names. Several men have died on the Moon in accidents and through disease, but so far, no man has ever been killed through violence on the Moon. Though many of the Moon's scientific inhabitants hope to keep that true, speaking of humankind as a family, political and military leadership cade in all nations on Earth expects the first space war to be fought in the next few decades.
- The large-scale interventionism spearheaded by the United States under the guise of the War on Terror ultimately was unsustainable. Starting around 2025, NATO began pulling back its forces from states deemed less important. Countries like Somalia and Bolivia found themselves going from de facto American corporate colonies to power vacuums nearly overnight. The results of these withdrawals were varied: in some cases, radical Islamic groups came to power, while in other, neighbors invaded (see Somalia). The rise of extremism in these countries got a ball rolling that could not easily be halted. Violence seeped into neighboring regions still under American control, further draining the resources of the occupying powers. American forces in the occupied world were even further stretched at the start of the Civil War in 2029 and, as fighting dragged on, American installations across the globe became increasingly undermanned. By 2040, most of the lands occupied by the US and its allies during the War on Terror had been ceded back to local governments. Despite the best attempts of American administrators, these new regimes were almost all weak and ineffective and easy fodder for radical ideologies, leading to the rise of a new world power, the Caliphate as well as the various states of the Revolutionary Internationale in South America.
- The world is divided into three major blocs in 2052. The Americans are the undisputed leaders of the Atlantic bloc, which is comprised of their allies in North America, Britain, Zapadoslavia, and several other nations around the world. Next, there is the Eurasian bloc which is comprised of two sub-blocs: the European Union and its allies and the Russian sphere. To round out the major powers there is the Caliphate. The Caliphate is the weakest of the major blocs and has the least ability to project its power, yet is a state to contend with. Two minor alliances also exist: the left-wing Revolutionary Internationale, which is most powerful in South America but supports communist rebels across the world and the Ho Chi Minh City Treaty Organization, a moderate anti-Islamist regional alliance devoted to the protection of moderate, liberal capitalism. Tensions run high between these blocs, and though they have not come to blows, they back insurgencies against each other and fight by way of proxy.
- The Caliphate had its origins in Morocco. Shortly after the American invasion deposed the Governor of King Mohammed VI in 2011, a British-educated Doctor of Medicine, Cheikh El Omari, returned from a house call to find his family massacred along with several other households. El Omari swore that he would get revenge against the American Army and Blackwater operatives that were responsible for the killings. Though initially, El Omari's feud was secular, he forged ties with Muslim extremist groups opposed to the American occupation and gradually became a devout Muslim. In 2014, Cheikh El Omari presided over the foundation of a new militant group - the Moroccan Jihadist Organization (Almunazamat Aljihadiat Almaghribia, or AAA) Under his competant and devoted leadership, the Moroccan Organization grew into the Western African Jihadist Organization and then the World Jihadist Organization. Within ten years of its founding, the World Jihadist Organization (Munazamat Jihadiat Alealam, or MJA) had become a force to be reckoned with. It had de facto control over a number of neighborhoods throughout Muslim Africa and its tendrils extended across the entire world, and recruitment was particularly high wherever American soldiers could be found. Ironically, the United States paved the way for the rise of the MJA. While it would likely have been broken by the larger Islamic terrorist groups in more peaceful times, a concentrated attempt at the destruction of Al-Qaeda allowed for the MJA to grow. El Omari built the backbone of his army out of the intelligentsia of the Arab countries, many of them fellow students with El Omari when he studied in London. His already-created contacts with these able planners allowed for the quick creation of a strong network. Disgruntled former soldiers, unemployed, and unmarried men made up the bulk of the MJA, but only under the leadership of European-educated professionals did they truly flourish. Much like the armies of Mohammed's Caliphate, El Omari's Caliphate spread like wildfire. Almost as soon as American troops left a country, its new government would find itself deposed and the Caliphate in power. Of course, there were some in the United States that were invigorated by the establishment of new fundamentalist regimes, so the Caliphate was shrewd enough to avoid antagonizing the West. This did not last forever. When enough land came under its control and it deemed its opponents to weak to destroy it, the Caliphate openly admitted its wish to destroy Western, Christian civilization once and for all.
- In 2052, the Caliphate is a world power. It stretches from India to the Atlantic, with territories elsewhere swearing fealty to the current Caliph, a former Iraqi army colonel by the name of Abd Rabbo Al-Sheikh. The capital of the Caliphate has been moved to Medina, which has been turned into a glorified fortress. Caliph Abd Rabbo holds absolute power within his Empire. A legislature in the form of the Majlis exists, but it has no power other than that of an advisory body. Even if it were to be able to vote, its members are nearly all appointees of the dictatorial provincial governors or religious figures. Ironically, as its rise was driven by social alienation and economic failure during the days of American occupation and immediately afterwards, the Caliphate has experienced a massive wealth gap and economic inequality. While the Caliph and his entourage live in luxurious, air conditioned houses, the average inhabitant of his empire will languish in poverty. Food and water are always scarce, and the Caliphate Directorates of Sawm and Zakāt (the departments that handles all welfare and social projects) is ridden with bureaucratic incompetence and corruption. The Caliphate's most steady stream of income is gained by selling oil covertly or through the black market, but as oil reserves dry up, the Caliphate appears to have little future in that field.
Though it claims to stand for all Muslims worldwide, there are many of the faithful that disagree with this. If ever polled, a sizable percentage of inhabitants of the Caliphate would say they are opposed to the religious extremism of their government, but without freedom of expression, many silently toil for a regime they oppose. Many millions of Christians and Shi'ites live within the Caliphate's borders and though protected in theory as fellow people of the book, they face severe discrimination and violence. Many have fled into exile in countries where they fare better.
Despite its internal troubles, the Caliphate is a significant power and has a large, fanatical standing army, and the ability to fund and supply rebel groups globally with its oil income. The Grand Intifada strained the Caliphate's nuclear stockpile, but with the help of physicists within the empire, it has been replenished as a means of dissuading foreign invasion. As it refuses to recognize the right of any polity that does not swear an oath to the Caliph, the Caliphate's armies are in a near constant state of war on many of its borders, particularly in Africa. There, the internationally recognized boundaries between the Caliphate and other states are meaningless. The fighting there is indescribably brutal and atrocities are commonplace. Any non-combatant with the means to move has fled to less violent territories, but many find themselves trapped behind an opposing army and face a future of rape, torture, and constant savagery. The Caliphate's border with the European Union and it's sphere is much more peaceful. An uneasy truce exists between those states and to stave off a war that would undoubtedly be incredibly costly, the Caliphate largely refrains from doing anything to provoke the Europeans. The Caliphate is not, however, beyond setting off a car bomb or two several miles behind the border on occasion.
- In the aftermath of the American retreat from regions occupied from the War on Terror, the armies of the Caliphate, streaming across Africa and Asia, were the focus of news services the world over. The goings-on in South America received much less press. That is not to say there were no changes: like how American occupation ironically fostered the growth of Islamic extremism in countries it invaded to root out terrorism, socialism came back even stronger in South America. The first of the South American countries to be invaded was Venezuela in 2013, following a failed bombing of the Capitol Building by the Black Riders Liberation Party. The BRLP was alleged by the FBI to have been supplied by the Venezuelan government and after an investigation criticized by the international community for its speed and lack of strong evidence, American forces entered the country. In regions where freedom of thought is still publicly exercised, the truth of the ties between the BRLP and Venezuelan regime is hotly debated. Most believe Venezuelan support was more spiritual than material. Some on the left even allege that the whole incident was engineered by the Colombian regime to force the United States into invasion. Regardless of the true causes of the invasion, the collapse of the Venezuelan regime caused a domino effect throughout South America that plunged the vast majority of the continent into conflict. American control of South America was more indirect than in Muslim states, feeling historic ties with the Latin American ruling classes, puppet governments ruled with the help of the United States military. Military occupation of an entire continent was, of course, unsustainable and eventually the United States was forced to withdraw. Following American withdrawal, left-wing insurgencies spread like wildfire throughout the continent. Though the American-aligned regimes would fight back, their fight was in vain as the much more numerous and overwhelmingly popular insurgents won victory after victory. In the wake of this victory, the streets ran red with blood as the revolutionary governments initiated reigns of terror to cleanse their new countries of capitalists, landowners, and collaborators. Rather than create new regimes in the borders of the states that had existed before the Americans invaded, the boundaries of South America were largely redrawn and new, multinational states came to stretch across the continent. While initially, regional differences and old prejudices affected the workings of the new states, decades of existence have eroded those feelings and allowed these states to function more efficiently.
- In 2025, after winning reelection for a second time in a landslide (that pesky 22nd Amendment had been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court), President Prince introduced legislation abolishing the office of President and replacing it with a Director-General, elected for a 12-year term by the Senate. The first election for Director-General was held in 2026 and unsurprisingly, Erik Prince was elected. Under the Directory, the United States continued along the trajectory started with the 2017 military coup. Free speech was suppressed, while those opposed to the government frequently disappeared into remote prison camps in the West. The Republican Party achieved near-total dominance at all levels of government with the Democratic Party finding itself outlawed through dubiously-constitutional means in many states. The budget of the federal government was increasingly slashed, with first the abolition of the Department of Education, then the Interior, and finally the Federal Reserve. The Department of Defense became a skeleton of its former self, much to the ire of the regular army which was increasingly resentful of the PMC interests that dominated the government. A coup attempt in 2033 by Army Colonel Richard Ojeda failed, leading to the passing of the landmark 2035 Crawford Amendment, in which standing armies were outlawed in favor of the hiring of mercenaries. Attempts by opponents of the government to portray this as a way to enrich the Director-General, who just so happened to also be CEO of Blackwater, the world's largest PMC, largely failed and the populace went along willingly, buying the government argument that the Amendment would cut down on the power of the government. In the run-up to the 2038 election, the name of the Republican Party, the only major party in the United States, was changed to the Eagle Party. Supporters of the change hoped the new name would be free from association with the old Republican Party and that voters would forget it was the GOP that led the 2017 coup. Citing his age, Erik Prince declined to run for a second term as Director-General and ironically, his successor was someone even older- Liz Cheney, daughter of George Bush's martyred Vice President. Cheney only managed to win through fairly blatant bribery in the Senate over favorite George Prescott Bush and the insurgent candidacy of Josh Hawley. The 2050 election was much more tame, with Erik Prince's son Christian being selected over Cheney's daughter Grace Perry.
- Not all Americans supported the Prince regime. In 2029, four years after the abolition of the Presidency, several liberal states declared their independence from the United States. Spearheaded by Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, the Free States of America were declared. Director-General Prince declared war on the new FSA and the Second Civil War began. Early on, the Free Staters fared poorly. They experienced defeat after defeat at the hands of the well-trained US Army. However, by the start of 2031, with aid from Europe, the Free States had reorganized their military into a more effective form and managed to win several crucial victories that year. Following that, the trickle of foreign weapons turned into a constant stream and the Free States picked up momentum. With the arrival of Russo-European forces at the end of 2032, the US began to consider a peace short of total victory. In 2033, a cease fire was agreed to by representatives of both governments. Several months later, the Treaty of Pittsburgh was signed, giving the Free States of America control over much of the territory they had claimed during the war. As a result of poor federal control over the Pacific Territories during the War (San Diego was then the only outlet of the US on the Pacific, and during much of the Second Civil War it was under siege) American Samoa (now the Republic of Samoa), the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam also received independence. Shortly after the end of the war, Alaska came to an agreement with the Dallas Government that would give it independence while in free association with the United States.
- The United States of 2052 is an illiberal, corporate-military dictatorship that retains the aesthetics of a constitutional, republican society. The government acts as if the United States is the same as it was during the good old days of Eisenhower, Reagan, or Bush, yet that is far but true. The Senate has been appointed by state legislatures since the repeal of the 17th Amendment (technically states can elect Senators popularly, but few opt to do that) and those legislatures are often peopled with the aristocracy of that state. Bans on free speech, public gatherings, and private ownership of weaponry are common and put in place by a regime that simultaneously extols the virtues of a free country. The United States retains a vast mercenary army, with most of its money being spent on that. Welfare expenditures are virtually nil: everything is meant to enrich the ruling class. The people of the United States are largely happy with this way of life. Sure, there is famine and the seas are rising, but that's a global phenomenon and the US government can't be behind it. Life may be bad by the standards of the late 20th century, but things are still a whole lot better than it would be for someone living almost anywhere else in the world. Three major factions dominate America: the religious right, neoconservatives, and Mormons. No single faction is strong enough to dominate Congress and in order to govern one must use the significant overlap in belief between all three groups to form a coalition. America has drifted back into isolationism. While it does have a chosen few allies outside of North America and the Caribbean Basin, the United States focuses largely on the affairs of the Atlantic world. Its regional opponents: the Europe, the Free States, and Mexico are more than enough for it to handle. A number of the Caribbean states are nothing but American client states and are governed primarily by American-paid PMCs and liaisons from large companies. The influence of American corporations are much more far-flung than that of the United States itself. American-produced weapons are about as rocks in Africa and bribes are handed off to politicians as far away as South Africa and Australia.
- Ironically, the Free States of America claims to extol the same virtues as the United States. Both proclaim themselves as democratic republics with the cornerstones of the state being life, liberty, and property. This is more true in the Free States, where democracy persists to some degree. Citizens go to the polls and know their ballot will actually count, but nearly every qualified candidate already has the approval of the predominant Free Democratic Party, the European Union, and the corporate elite. People are largely happy, though the threat of another war with the United States weighs heavy on the public psyche. The Free States military is large, but not especially well-trained and there are serious doubts that it would be able to hold off the United States. Internationally, the FSA has remained aligned with the Europeans and Russians who were instrumental in securing its independence. In North America, it has cooperated with the Maritimes, Quebec, and Cascadia. In the early days of the Free States, there were many that hoped the new nation would become the leader of the free world, the leadership of the FSA have contented themselves with being secondary to the Europeans. The Free States has its patriots, but few will declare that their country is number one in the world. Spread across a continent, with a diverse array of peoples and no direct route from east to west, the FSA has its regional tensions. Though California boasts a significant population, the power center of the Free States is located from Boston to Baltimore. Proposals for California, Oregon, and Washington to separate from the Free States are popular, and without the threat of United Statesian invasion (which would undoubtedly be successful if California fought the US alone) an independent west would be likely. The Midwest states are increasingly underpopulated and make up a falling percentage of the FSA's population: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio have few seats in the House of Representatives, leading to derisive calls that the House is nothing more than a tool of the Free States' East Coast Establishment. The situation is reversed in the Senate, where each state has two Senators regardless of its population and where the East Coast is underrepresented.
- Though somewhat unwillingly, Canada joined in the Coalition of the Willing and fought alongside the United States in the War on Terror. Under both Liberal and Conservative governments, Canada turned to authoritarianism and became stauncher in its support of the United States. Though Canada became increasingly undemocratic, it could not keep Quebec in the federation and in 2030, it successfully voted for independence. Coming at the same time as the attempted secession of the Free States of America, the US was unable to prop up a Canada that had seen the Atlantic provinces cut off from the west. The next several years saw what was left of Canada break apart. The Atlantic declared an independence and aligned itself with Europe and the FSA while the conservative plains provinces seceded and became American client states. Quebec too saw a low level civil war as natives in the north attempted to countersecede and Anglophones tried to rejoin Canada. By 2040, all that was left of Canada was Ontario. Alberta and Saskatchewan voted to became constituent parts of the United States several years after the end of the Second Civil War. American influence extends into the far northern Polar Republic and Cree-led Republic of Northern Ungava. The rump Canadian government in Ontario only recently dropped its claims on the rest of what used to be Canada - they too are aligned with the Americans. Cascadia, Quebec, and the Maritimes have joined in with the Russo-European bloc.
- Out of the ashes of the crime-riddled United Mexican States came the Popular Republic of Mexico. Starting with the quasi-leftist National Renaissance Party (PNR) a movement at once conservative and reactionary in its approach on the Drug War yet also left-wing in its opposition to the free market it viewed as impoverishing Mexico evolved. By the 2030s, it had grown into a national power and was strong enough to depose the government in Mexico City. Mass executions of corrupt officials and drug lords were carried out, and in the Years of Blood (2036-2042), nearly 150,000 were killed. The United States decried the revolutionaries as "Neo-Bolshevist" but was too exhausted to take any action on a large scale. Yet Mexico did not come out of the Drug War fully intact. Even before the PNR took power, the United States had vast influence in a number of northern states and had more power there than Mexico City did. Rather than submit to the new regime in the south, these quasi-independent nations simply submitted to the United States and were quickly given statehood. The PNR government was outraged but realized the population was strongly pro-American and war to reconquer those states would be futile, so they have remained part of the United States. Mexico in 2052 is not by any means prosperous, but a citizen will go through life with a fairly accountable government and fair shake at life in a society that is just. The country remains strongly conservative and nationalistic, while Christianity is a central tenet of the country. Government propaganda prepares Mexicans for a day when punishment will be served to the United States and all the lost provinces in the north will be restored to the green, white, and red banner. Given Mexico's devout Christianity, it is somewhat surprising that the Popular Republic is a part of the Revolutionary Internationale. This is an alliance of convenience only and the Mexicans hope to one day rid themselves of their surprisingly atheistic and degenerate allies to the South. Of course, this can only come after the United States has been totally dismantled and ended as a threat to Latin America.
- The nucleus of what came to be the Bolivarian Peoples Confederation (Bolivaria or the BPC/CPB for short) were the survivors of the Venezuelan leftist regime and the anti-capitalist, anti-American opposition in Colombia. Under the banner of Bolivarianism, the opposition grew and gathered its strength, largely keeping a low profile, but occasionally bombing American military bases and murdering soldiers. Though the core of these groups were led by supporters of the regime of Hugo Chavez, many nationalists flocked to its ranks as it became the premier opposition to the United States. The Republic of Venezuela's death warrant was signed the day America decided to withdraw its forces. Only hours after the final American troops left, La Casona was stormed by armed Bolivarists and President Ibáñez was dragged to Plaza Bolívar, where he was executed at the foot of a statue of Simón Bolívar. Newly-declared Generalissimo of the BPC Yul Jabour Tannous gained the support of the Venezuelan people through the implementation of a universal basic income and a crash development program, following which the military defected en masse to the Bolivarians. Tannous led his armies in an offensive into Colombia, which had been weakened by decades of occupation in Venezuela and Peru. There, Bolivarian fighters rose up and aided the advance of the former Venezuelan military. As they approached Bogotá, the Colombian army threw down its arms, laying the groundwork for the recreation of Gran Colombia. The BPC currently is one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Internationale. Though not the wealthiest of nations, a crash program to strengthen the country's industry succeeded beyond the wildest expectations of the political class. In particular, the Bolivarian armaments industry is booming, and Bolivarian-produced guns can be found in the hands of leftist militants the world over. Much of Bolivaria's economy is supplied with rubber, diamonds, wood, and precious metals from the Internationale-controlled People's Mandate for the Amazon. Unfortunately, the workers paradise has been tarred by corruption and constant planning for war with the Americans, that has led to a large portion of Bolivaria's industrial output simply never reaching the hands of the Bolivarian people.
- The belief in indiginismo, a focus on the native American roots of Latin America, often came hand in hand with Socialism of the 21st century, both of which swept South America in the years of the 3rd millennium. Indigenismo took Bolivia by storm, and Evo Morales, the son of subsistence farmers, came to power promising to destroy the last vestiges of colonialism and reject neoliberalism. These ideals put Morales at odds with the United States and its allies, and few were surprised when, shortly after the Invasion of Colombia, American troops launched a surprise attack on Bolivia. The Morales regime, they alleged, had engaged in a massive campaign to distribute cocaine in the United States in violation of international treaties. Morales was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay as a new, criollo-led government was established in La Paz as the Republic of Bolivia. In a pattern that was repeated elsewhere, the cachet of indiginismo was raised immeasurably in Bolivia, but also neighboring states like Peru and Paraguay by the presence of armed, hostile American troops patrolling the streets of Bolivia. A resistance movement, the South American Peoples Congress (CPS) grew, integrating the old Bolivian Movement for Socialism, the remnants of the Peruvian Shining Path, and innumerable other regional groups into a transnational network committed to the establishment of an anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and (to varying degrees) anti-capitalist state in the Andes. Though they would clash with groups like the Bolivarians in Venezuela over philosophy, for once, the left proved surprisingly unified and coordinated their efforts towards bleeding the Americans dry in a bid to force them out of South America. After twenty years of guerrilla warfare and terrorism, this effort finally succeeded. The Peruvian and Bolivian governments were overthrown after short civil wars. For several years, indiginismo governments ruled both Peru and Bolivia as separate states, but following the 2041 elections, pro-unification parties voted to realize the dream of a single, indigenous state and declared the Socialist Federation of the Andes (SFA). The Federation's borders were redrawn, initially in hopes of giving a province to each major ethnic group, a plan that proved nearly impossible and was later scrapped in favor of what the Legislature simply described as "rational boundaries" In its early years, the Federation engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide. Whites and Asians (the lucky ones, at least) were expelled from the country with little more than the clothes on their backs. The unlucky ones were brutally murdered or interned as enemies of the people. Attempts to wipe out the Spanish language proved infeasible, and the language is reluctantly kept on, though the learning of indigenous languages and customs, as well as the adoption of their dress, is strongly encouraged and taught in many schools. In foreign policy, the Andes has moderated: while it once supported terroristic insurgents across the globe, it has become less violent and forsworn support for groups that kill civilians. Of course, the SFA remains a proud member of the Revolutionary Internationale and yearns for the day when the United States will topple under the pressure of the workers paradises of the world.
-Argentina under Máximo Kirchner was invaded in 2017 by the United States after the fall of Venezuela, Peru, and Bolivia, making it the last major Latin American state to be toppled during the War on Terror. While the rooting out of left-wing terrorism was the stated goal of the US, it had come under pressure from Chile, which had the less noble goals of eliminating Argentine power and gaining access to its resources, in mind. The Argentinian military put up quite a fight. The first American thrust at Buenos Aires was actually held back by the army and gendarmes, allowing President Kirchner to flee inland to Córdoba. Ultimately, the combined forces of the United States, Chile, and numerous smaller allies was too much to handle and the Argentinians surrendered. President Kirchner recieved good treatment, and was cleared of charges of terrorism and crimes against humanity, and died a peaceful death in a Belgrano apartment. Unlike in Gran Colombia and the Andes, no single ideology came to dominate the opposition during the period of foreign occupation. While it was true that the right broadly aligned with the occupiers, Kirchnerists, Peronists, communists, and indiginists feuded for control. Consequently, the departure of American troops was not an immediate death blow for the Argentine Republic they had created. Only after several years of civil war did a leftist, anti-American United Front emerge and defeat the collaborator government. The Platinean Confederation was born and quickly aligned itself with the Revolutionary Internationale. It declared war on Chile and sent its forces across the Southern Andes, where their thrust was sufficient to break the stalemate further north where an Andean offensive had become bogged down. Chile surrendered quickly to the more moderate Platineans, partly out of hopes that their considerable white population would be treated better by them than the Andeans. Much of Chile was annexed to Platinea, while the north was given to the Andeans. Platinea has, like many of the South American states, moderated. In 2052, though it is by no means rich, it is not a terrible place to live. Poverty has been kept to a minimum through generous welfare programs and government policies of public works that have mobilized nearly all the population into employment. Platinea does, however, have bad relations with the United Kingdom and frequently threatens to invade the Falklands. A missile or two is frequently exchanged between these two powers, though no official state of war exists.
- Brazil erupted into chaos roughly at the same time as the creation of Bolivaria and the Andes. The European-aligned Federative Republic of Brazil had long been in political turmoil, with mounting tensions between the pro-European leftist parties, and pro-American right. Support for the Federative Republic was highest in the north and northeast regions, while the stronghold of the right was the overwhelmingly white south. Several contentious elections for the Presidency polarized the country and the issue of whether to recognize the Bolivarists and new regimes in Bolivia and Peru escalated into a violent crisis. Then-President Rocha, a member of the Democratic Labour Party, was set to sign legislation recognizing the indiginist regime in Bolivia. The conservative military took matters into its own hands and stormed Brasilia, establishing a military junta in the place of the democratic government. Protests were dispersed by the National Public Security Police (NPSC), despite the opposition of state governors. After protestors in Salvador were gunned down by the NPSC, leftist leaders armed themselves for war. The ensuing conflict lasted four years. In 2040, the Peace of Alberton was signed in a Johannesburg suburb, establishing two rival states, the pro-American Democratic Republic of Brazil (RDB) and pro-European Union Federal Republic of Brazil (RFB). In addition, portions of the northern and western frontiers were handed to the Andeans, Bolivarians, and Argentinians, territory out of which the BPC would later establish the People's Mandate of the Amazon. Brasilia fell into the territory of the RDB and was named its de jure capital (though most governance was and is conducted from the more secure city of São Paulo) Both states have further aligned themselves with the United States and the European Union, respectively. Their militaries are growing larger, while social programs are neglected, leading to massive inequality and extreme poverty.
- America's Latin American cobelligerents in the War on Terror fared worse than the United States in the end. Their limited resources bled them dry as Colombia occupied Venezuela, Ecuador occupied Peru, and Chilean troops were stationed in Argentina. As their budgets were drained by neverending occupation, these states became increasingly reliant on the United States, something that only hastened their collapse when American support was withdrawn. Many in both states were well aware of the possibility of their collapse and preemptively fled the country while many were hopeful and stayed. In the end, the pessimists turned out to be right. The United States accepted a number of immigrants, primarily the rich ones that had been involved in the administration of these countries under American rule. Many of the poor, former military men switched their allegiance, but a great number of them signed on to PMCs as mercenaries, something that has contributed to the continued survival of the PMCs. America still has some allies south of the Rio Grande (a term that is still used, even if it was rendered inaccurate by the acquisition of the northern Mexican states) Though most of their territory was overrun by the Bolivarians and Andeans, rump Ecuadorian and Colombian governments exist, governed from Qutio and Cali, respectively. While recognized as states by the United States and its allies, they resemble armies with nations more than any traditional definition of a state. Their existence is wholly subsidized by the United States and the corporations within it that hope these thorns in the side of the Revolutionary Internationale will prevent it from focusing on expansion northwards into Central America. Panama has remained occupied by the United States for decades, largely out of fear that an independent government there would quickly fall to radical leftism and jeopardize control of the Panama Canal. Control of Panama is hotly contested, with both the Americans and Revolutionary Internationale pouring money and men into the country in hopes of keeping or conquering it. Some within the Internationale's command hierarchy have suggested capturing the canal is impossible, and the best option for the RI is to make it impassable for the Americans, whether through the mass blowing of locks or even nuclear weapons. While this is a minority view within the Revolutionary Internationale, its appeal is growing as the number of American-paid mercenaries seems to grow every day.
- Guyana under American occupation was dominated by the Indo-Guyanese. The already pronounced racial divide was further heightened by American racism in favor of the lighter-skinned Indo-Guyanese. Only with American support, their regime was kept alive and ruling over a territory where nearly 60% of the population was indigenous or of African descent. Unsurprisingly, when the United States withdrew, open civil war broke out. Rebel forces aligned with the Bolivarists almost immediately expelled the newly-formed Guyanese National Army from the majority of the country, leaving the government in control of only a small strip along the coast roughly east of the Essequibo River. This territory, only about 100 miles at its widest, is governed as the pro-American Republic of Guyana. The Indo-Guyanese rule with an iron fist and actively suppress other ethnic groups. Fortunately, African and indigenous minority provinces have been carved out of parts of what was Guyana and integrated into Bolivaria. Ethnic cleansing is frequent on both sides of the borders and entire villages are frequently evicted at gunpoint.
- Britain's 21st century has been rough. The United Kingdom largely assumed the role of the United States' younger, impressionable brother. When the US went around kicking in the door in any country with a Muslim or left-wing head of state, the UK was always right behind and ready to back America up. The governing Labour Party, which had shifted to the center at the end of the 20th century, experienced several splinter groups, the most notable being the New Party led by former leadership hopeful Tony Benn. The 2010s were tumultuous, with several minority governments, Labour-Tory coalitions and a surging New Party. This all came to a head with a race war kicked off by British Muslims angry with the government's policy on toppling Islamic states and their being under near-constant surveillance. The so-called British Years of Lead saw the government attempt to keep order as Muslims and the far-left skirmished openly against far-right paramilitaries. When the smoke cleared, the New Party had effectively collapsed, and whatever candidates it ran were discredited with ties to Islamic militias. The Labour and Conservative parties merged into the United Britain Party. Flash forward to 2052. Britain is clearly a police state. Many forms of speech remain illegal, and the surveillance systems across the country mean that at any moment the government can listen in on any telephone call, public conversation, and, rumor has it, any house. Democracy remains in a truncated form. The UBP holds 525 of the House of Commons' 650 seats, while the token opposition, the Liberal Democrats, have several dozen. UBP-aligned independents and minor parties, standing under the All for Britain alliance title hold the rest of the seats. The fairness of these elections are widely disputed and it is generally agreed that the government stuffs ballot boxes to ensure the Liberal Democrats never hold enough seats to become anything more than an inconvenience to the UBP in the Commons. Northern Ireland has devolved into a warzone. For the past nearly 40 years, a three-sided conflict between state security forces, nationalists, and loyalists has wracked the province. Fighting has never escalated to the level of open warfare, but bombings, shootings, and vandalism are commonplace. With energy shortages and internal strife, Britain has largely retreated into a shell and has avoided outside affairs. It remains allied and friendly with the United States but avoids overseas entanglements.
- The European Union as an international organization established in 1992 was only the first step on the road to the integration of the entire continent into a single state. Though aligned with the United States during the Cold War era, a resurgent France and Germany opposed to the United States' policies during the War on Terror guided Europe away from the US. France and Germany became increasingly dominant in the EU after the exit of Britain in 2014. Though a federation, smaller, less prosperous countries were forced to go along with the continent's major powers. The European Union expanded immensely in the early 21st century, with a number of Central European, Baltic, and Balkan states joining the organization. A loose agreement, the Compact of Rome, was signed between the European Union and an ascendant Russia in 2016. The Compact was intended to serve as a deterrent to future American-led interventionism worldwide and proved effective in the 2020s in verbally combating the United States on the world stage. By 2030, the European Union had taken the first steps towards federalization. Europe as united by the Treaty of Nijmegen would retain much of the old EU's form of government, with two Councils and a Parliament. The Parliament, however, evolved to take primacy over both councils after unification. Constituent states of the federation would retain considerable ability to determine their own form of government with several states retaining their monarchies. Not every member state decided to join the federation, however. Notably, the Baltic Republics, Bulgaria, and Turkey declined to join, citing the distance between them and the federal capital of Brussels. These countries have since been granted the status of Associate State of the European Union, granting them trade and travel agreements and military alliances. A number of other states later became Associates of the European Union and between those states and the EU-proper, Europe is a powerful bloc.
The European Union largely remains a democracy though different constituent states of the Union have varying governance. France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Nordic states are robust democracies where voters have real choice (even if those choices are for the center, center-right, and far-right) A number of the peripheral constituent states of the European Union have less democratic governments that are known continent-wide to be flawed. The political parties of Europe remain much the same as they were in the pre-federalization days. The federal level parties are composed of many different affiliates within the constituent states of Europe. The unique consensus system has remained on the federal level, and the Parliament is governed with the consent of both the (de jure) center-right and center-left. Though these parties clash during elections, they are largely similar in their support for Fortress Europa and differ only on economic issues that are typically shoved under the rug in favor of maintaining the status quo.
Though once hailed as a bastion of multicultural liberal democracy, Europe has swung far to the right in recent decades. Pressured by an immigrant crisis from wartorn Arab states, the growing threat of homegrown terrorism, and economic crises, both pre- and post-federation Europe increasingly rejected refugees from Muslim countries. The several-decade long crisis came to a head during the rise of the Caliphate in the second half of the 2030s. The "Fortress Europa" scheme was the brainchild of then-Parliament President Steeve Briois. Entrance into Europe would be prohibited for all "persons of suspicion", which included nearly every person of Middle Eastern and Arab descent. Within Europe, numerous Muslims were arrested and interned under suspicion of being sleeper agents while the European Navy was tasked with turning refugee rafts around by any means necessary. The Fortress Europa plan has continued to the present. Though criticized by liberals, human rights activists, and Muslims internationally, most Europeans report feeling safer, even if the occasional boat full of refugees is shot up European sailors or an innocent family is placed in an internment camp for associating with the wrong cleric. Ironically, Europe’s hostility to Islam has not gone unnoticed in the Caliphate and plans to liberate the faithful in Europe have proceeded at a faster pace than if Europe had steered a more accepting course.
- The inclusion of Bosnia in the institutionally anti-Muslim European Union has posed some issues. Though it became increasingly irreligious in the early 21st century, many Bosnians were appalled by the European Union's treatment of Muslims abroad, though as a majority within their own state, domestic terrorism was less common there than in other parts of Europe. In 2052, the vast majority of Bosnians are unconcerned with the concept of Fortress Europa and view it as a something that is not a religious problem. Nevertheless, there is a significant minority in Bosnia that is anti-European and feels itself aligned with the Caliphate. A spat of terrorist attacks by ethnic Bosniaks led to the creation of a taskforce of the European intelligence service to root out Bosnian Islamic extremism. The pro-European government has welcomed this and has offered the cooperation of its police force. Unfortunately, many in positions of power associate any concern for the wider Muslim world with terrorism and even peaceful anti-Fortress Europa demonstrations have been broken apart with extreme violence by Bosnian police.
- Poland experienced a boom after the end of communist rule in 1989. It had an anti-European streak and attempted to become a regional power through the creation of the Visegrad Group in 1991. Unlike other European states, Poland backed the United States throughout the War on Terror and was involved in the occupation of numerous Middle Eastern states. Pressure to abandon America for decades. Poland and the increasingly Polish-dominated Slovakia both rejected offers to join the European Union several times. In 2038, Poland annexed Slovakia and hastily renamed itself the Federative Republic of Zapadoslavia. Despite this, the state is known as Poland colloquially owing to near-total domination of the country from Warsaw. Poland is increasingly isolated in Europe, and has aligned itself with the United Kingdom. While Poland cannot accurately be called fascist, the ruling Zapadoslavian Conservative Party (which grew out of Poland's Law and Justice Party) is strongly national conservative and under the rule of party founder Lech Kaczyński's granddaughter Ewę Kaczyńska.
- Though the Rome Compact began as a purely as a military alliance intended to provide a counterweight to the United States, a friendship grew between the European Union and Russian bloc that acquired economic components later on. In 2052, the Rome Compact (or Eurasian Bloc) is a comprehensive organization that regulates trade, provides a funnel for Asian oil into Europe, and, most importantly, serves as a military alliance. The Compact engages in numerous battles for influence and prestige with the United States, its chief rival. As of 2052, the chief areas of such conflict are in North America, where Russian-backed insurgents fight the government of the Republic of Nunavut and American-aligned Anglo-Quebecois fight to leave the French-dominated government of Quebec. Though opposed, the American and Eurasian blocs have been known to put aside their differences to take steps against the Caliphate. While they may disagree, there is room in, say, a Russian-dominated world for a small Christian America, while there is no such niche in a world where the Caliphate has its way.
- The Russia of 2052 is officially the Union State of Russia and Belarus, but to anyone not naive enough to believe VGTRK broadcasts, it is Russia as the Belarusians have been so sidelined as to have almost no influence in the workings of their state. Though rich in oil and in possession of a large nuclear arsenal, Russia would be nothing without Europe. Russia has an aging population, severe corruption, and greedy neighbors on its frontiers that oil wealth and a disciplined army alone could not up. In addition, many of the ethnic minorities in the Caucasus and far East are opposed to the domination of the Orthodox Christian Russians, and given their higher birth rates, there is concern that Russians will one day be outnumbered. In short, Russia needs Europe and Europe needs Russia and because neither has the resources to occupy the other, they have allied themselves in the Rome Compact. While Russia is not a dictatorship, it has been under the leadership of the United Russia Party since the start of the 21st century. Far-right parties, including the ironically neo-monarchist Liberal Democratic Party and Eurasia Party provide an opposition of sorts. The center and left have been sidelined and in recent elections, numerous communist and liberal candidates have been murdered. The goal of expanding the borders of the country to those of the old Russian Empire has seen mixed results. Much of Central Asia, Manchuria, and a large swath of Inner Mongolia are client states, while the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2028 ended with the direct annexation of the east of that country and the puppetization of the west. The Baltic states have held out and aligned themselves with Europe, which keeps them well protected in the event relations with Russia ever deteriorate into war. Though Moscow is as opulent as ever, a shrinking economy and dwindling oil reserves have put quite a scare into the leadership of the country, and the constant threat of invasion by the Caliphate as well as Islamic and far-left terrorism weighs heavy on the mind of the Russian people.
- All that remains of Yugoslavia are the old republics of Serbia and Montenegro. With support from the Russians, what became known as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro actually managed to rebound in the early 21st century. Its economy recovered from the Yugoslav Wars, but the Russians found the Milutinović regime useful and consequently. Despite widespread allegations of the President's engaging in war crimes in the previous decade, international attention was too focused on the War on Terror and Milutinović ruled Serbia until his death in 2026. As a result of the large scale failure of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to prosecute the criminals of the Yugoslav Wars, there is still bad blood between the Croatians and Bosniaks on one hand and the Serbs on the other. The alliance between the European Union and Russia has made this position awkward, though that does not stop the occasional act of nationalistic violence. There are some academics that believe the Russo-European alliance will one day be broken by an incident in the Balkans.
- The destruction of Israel has many names: the Sixth Intifada, Grand Intifada, the Second Exodus, the Final War, the Years of Fire and a hundred more. Israel's end came in the Christian year 2039 when the rising Caliphate finally set its sights on taking Jerusalem and wiping the Zionist state off the map. Israel's large manpower pool (Prime Minister Paretz expanded conscription to four years in 2021) was exhausted by years of occupation in Jordan, Lebanon, as well as parts of Saudi Arabia and Syria and the constant attacks by insurgents after their withdrawal and rise of hostile regimes in those states. The Caliphate invasion in March 2039 was overwhelming, and despite the best efforts of the better-trained and better-equipped IDF, Civil Guard, and numerous paramilitaries, Caliphate forces used human-wave tactics that were ultimately successful. Nearly three million Jews, roughly a third of Israel's total population were massacred by the invading armies. The survivors of the bloody captures of Jerusalem and Haifa fled to Tel Aviv, where Israel would make its last stand. Despite overwhelming odds, the Israelis held out for several weeks, allowing nearly one million Jews, Christians, Circassians, and Druze to escape with the help of ships from dozens of nations. Ultimately, when the Muslim armies could not break through, firebrand junior officers procured several atomic bombs and snuck them into Tel Aviv, where they were set off. What followed was a devastating nuclear exchange. The Israeli government ordered the use of every atomic in its arsenal in response and what was left of the Air Corps sallied forth to strike deep within the Caliphate. Mecca, Baghdad, Cairo, the Aswan Dam, Tripoli, and much of occupied Israel were all turned to glass before the poorly-organized Caliphate Air Wing could respond. But when they responded, it was with immense fury. Most of the Levant was made entirely unusable, while Tel Aviv itself was hit with several dozen bombs in the confusion that reigned within the Caliphate command hierarchy. When the dust settled, the damage was extensive. All of what was once Israel would be unfit for human habitation for decades. Jerusalem too was destroyed, and, with neither faction claiming responsibility, its annihilation would be extensively used for propaganda purposes around the world. The aftermath was a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions. Millions of Israelis and inhabitants of neighboring regions were displaced. Cyprus had turned into a single, massive refugee camp following the flight from Tel Aviv. Worldwide, the effects of the use of over one hundred nuclear bombs caused spikes in cancer in areas downwind of striken cities and though full-on nuclear winter was averted, famine was felt worldwide throughout the next decade as crops failed to grow. In some senses, however, the use of nuclear weapons in Israel was a blessing in disguise. Much of the Caliphate's army was vaporized when the nukes fell, and their ability to launch further offensives was eliminated. Caliphate plans to invade Turkey, Russia, or Ethiopia after Israel fell were put on the backburner as so many crack units had been totally wiped out. Some have referred to the time of the Invasion of Israel as the high tide of the Caliphate. While outlying regions may have sworn fealty to the Caliph, its military is nowhere near as powerful it was during the early months of 2039 and without significant training, it appears unlikely to ever be so again.
- Scholars have described the scattering of Israeli's after the Caliphate's conquest as the Second Diaspora or Second Exile. No openly-practicing Jews remain in the former State of Israel, as most of the survivors of the Final War were viciously murdered by Caliphate forces eager to avenge their vaporized comrades. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have emigrated to Europe, the Free States, and South Africa. Particularly in Europe, they face anti-semitism and discrimination by Christians that unfairly associate them to the nuclear destruction of Jerusalem. Even Jews that never left their home countries for Israel face discrimination and anti-semitism is on the rise worldwide. Cyprus, home to a large proportion of Jewish refugees evacuated during the Caliphate invasion has had a very bad few decades. Though many Jews were able to resettle elsewhere, nearly 1.5 million remained in Cyprus. Though outnumbering native Cypriots, the Jews have been unable to receive citizenship. Terrorist attacks and riots by rightfully angry Israeli refugees (many of them born in Cyprus) are common. European Union military forces are necessary to keep the country from breaking into yet another civil war. Though many believed the annihilation of Israel would discredit Zionism once and for all, numerous organizations committed to the reestablishment of a Jewish state have sprung up worldwide. But where? The thawing north, the simmering Republic of Cyprus with its large disenfranchised Jewish population, the near-stateless anarchy of Africa, and even the Moon have been suggested as candidates for colonization. One thing's for certain though: wherever they go, this time the Jews will be armed.
- South Africa has had a very good century. It overcame the social and economic disaster that was apartheid just a decade before the start of the third millennium, and by 2050 had transformed itself into a relatively prosperous multiracial democracy. South Africa aligned itself with the United States during the War on Terror, but never actually joined the Coalition of the Willing and instead opted to remain a cobelligerant because of its similar goals. As a result of only engaging in popular wars, South Africa was able to avoid the descent into absolutism experienced throughout the Coalition and was able to transform itself into the Federation of Southern Africa (commonly called South Africa, however) by uniting democratically with Lesotho, Namibia, and Botswana. The South African sphere of influence in 2052 is large. Zimbabwe and Swaziland are virtually governed as provinces of the Federation while Zambia, Tanzania, Katanga, and Kenya all are significantly influenced by South Africa. South Africa has largely been free of the corporate and military influences that have seeped into much of the rest of the world. Sure, there is a little corruption, but unfortunately that is just how the modern world works. South Africans are willing to accept the occasional bribe taken by a regional official if it means they can avoid weekly suicide bombings and constant oppression. Climate change is something of a concern: Cape Town, the Federation's second largest city, has experienced water shortages most years in the past several decades while farmers frequently are unable to grow crops. South Africans have taken these troubles in stride and there is a feeling that the country is still on the rise and their brand of democracy will one day dominate all Africa.
- In the stretch between the cold, calculating Caliphate and surprisingly liberal South Africa, much of the continent is just a mess. The withdrawal of American support from many unstable nations and an influx of Caliphate support for insurgent groups created a terrible situation in the 2030s that plunged much of Africa into war, something that few states have recovered from. Among the notable players in Africa there are:
* Holy Empire of Liberia. Sometime during the Fourth Liberian Civil War (2035-2037) a regular army colonel by the name of Marcus Collins cane under the delusion that he was the son of Jesus and therefore rightful ruler of the entire Earth. Calling himself Jesus Jr., Collins declared himself President and became yet another side in an already incredibly confusing war. Collins’ Holy Army of Jesus in Africa performed surprisingly well and because of his charisma, defeated troops flocked to his banner (some would argue that the threat of torture was a better, and more potent, inducement) In 2037, Collins found himself as President and, two years later, declared himself Emperor. Though his personal guess, the Blood Apostles, are well-armed and loyal to the core, much of the country has gone along with the Empire scheme simply because it seems a better alternative than another civil war. But, for a supposedly Christian nation, Liberia seems to practice a lot of cannibalism and other odd rituals would make American Christian's stomach's churn (it actually does-the ritual killing and consumption of a Texas couple has caused the State Department to issue severe travel advisories for US citizens. This has not halted the flow of American weapons into the country and as of 2052, the Liberian Army is as well-armed as ever before)
* Like their inspiration, the House of Bonaparte, the House of Bokassa was kicked from the throne but made a return several decades later. The newest iteration of the Central African Empire has proved much more resilient and has withstood two wars of succession and has been able to expand into nearby provinces. The Empire has attempted to showcase the humanitarianism of the House of Bokassa by propping up a rump Republic of Sudan in formerly Sudanese territory that the Caliphate was unable to conquer. If the international community even bothered to look, they would find a distant cousin of Bokassa IV as Foreign Minister of Sudan and much of its military totally integrated with that of the Central African Imperial Guard. In 2041, the megalomaniacal Bokassa III renamed the old capital of Bangui as Bokassaville and bulldozed over in a bid to totally rebuild it as a modern city. Funding never materialized and the town is simply a pile of rubble in 2052, with much of the formerly urban population reduced to subsistence farming in the surrounding countryside.
* Gabon seems to be one to be one of the few spots of sanity left in an increasingly insane world. Under a democratic government, Gabon has taken measures to create a more satisfied populace in hopes that a happy people will not turn to or a radical Islam or revolt. This policy works fairly well, but even despite fairly substantial military service and a vast reserve force, Gabon would never be able to stand if invaded by any serious power.
* The old Democratic Republic of the Congo is gone, finally broken apart during a civil war that started conventionally but ended with the use of nuclear weapons in the 2020s. Investigations have shown the atomics used in the Congo were sold to the rebel groups there by Egyptian weapons traffickers who received the weapons from Russian dissidents, but in a world where a reborn Caliphate has fought a nuclear war with Israel, the atrocities in the Congo are largely unnoticed by the outside world. Among the states that occupy the former DRC are the following.
The Free City of Kinshasa has too many people and too few resources to be prosperous. It manages to survive because it inherited much of the old Congolese air force and hires out its crack air squadrons to neighboring states in exchange for coal and food to keep the urban sprawl running.
The Federal Republic of Zaire is the largest successor to the DRC. Only its large size and strong military serves to distinguish it from any one of the other poor warlord states that pepper Africa.
The Islamic Republic of the Congo was carved by Congolese Muslims out of the old provinces of Kivu and Maniema. Gold, copper, coltan, and tin are extracted at gunpoint by vast hordes that bear more resemblance to gangs than armies. The ruling class of the Republic has grown incredibly rich off these resources and though they pay lip service to the El Omari Caliphate, their primarily allegiance is to the money that fillers their Swiss Bank Accounts.
Inspired by the memory of Moise Tshombe in the First Congo War, the province of Katanga again attempted to leave the country of which it was apart. This time they were more successful, and managed to set up a democratic government. Stability lasted only several years before corrupt regional officials tried to siphon off money of their own, and when they were caught, began to fight back. Muslim militants from the Islamic Republic of the Congo infiltrated the mines of the north and encouraged revolt as a first step towards Muslim conquest of all Katanga. A steadily weakening Katangan government was forced into the South African bloc. The South Africans do a fairly good job of keeping what territory Katanga has stable, but as it is already overextended makes little attempt to restore order to areas held by insurgent forces. Katanga is rich in copper and has the ability to become prosperous if given a chance, but nearly-constant warfare and meddling by mineral-hungry neighbors makes this unlikely.
* Throughout its civil war, Angola remained fairly capitalistic despite rule by a party calling itself communist. It suckered up to the United States an its allies enough to avoid invasion during the War on Terror. Around 2030, a new communist party came to power in Angola. The new Angola was radically anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. Chief among its enemies were the United States and South Africa. Co-headed by Angola, the Revolutionary Internationale came into being during the tumultuous 2030s. Its stated goals were the creation of an international system of popularly-governed, left-wing states. Though once the center of power for the Revolutionary Internationale, the once subservient states of the Western Hemisphere have begun to exercise significant power and defy the wishes of the Peoples Governing Council in Luanda. Angola itself is fairly powerful and managed to expand northwards during the collapse of the DRC. Angolan oil is vital to the survival of fellow left-wing states while food and metals from the Americas keep the Angolan warmachine going.
* Ethiopia is a state under siege. A staunch ally of the Americans after the 2015 elections brought the liberal United Ethiopian Democratic Forces to power, Ethiopia underwent a Christian revival. The government's prestige was enhanced by the 2027 annexation of Somalia with American approval, and the same in Eritrea several years. Ethiopia appeared to be on the rise until the Caliphate came into existence and halted plans for an East African Union led from Addis Ababa. Under a more authoritarian descendant of the UEDF, Ethiopia faces attack from the Caliphate in the west and nationalist rebels in the east. Ethiopia's significant Muslim population largely supports the government against the Caliphate.
- China has entered an age that historians have hastily named as the "Three Capitals Period". The combination of a fundamentally unfair economic structure and a destructive natal policy created a bubble of discontent in the Peoples Republic of China that ultimately exploded in 2044. A massive population of dispossessed and angry young men broke into open revolt in the summer of 2044, when Beijing ruled that the wages of enlisted men in the PLA would remain stagnant for the fourth consecutive year. Angry at their low pay, and frustration with the lack of women in China, the military mutinied in Shanghai. An attempt to send in the Nanking garrison to put down the insurrection backfired when these men joined the mutineers. Revolt spread like wildfire through the Chinese Armed Forces. Open civil war broke out in September when the demands of the mutineers were laughed out of the National People's Congress and loyalist forces were sent to break the mutiny. The civilian population became involved and China broke apart completely as regime loyalists fought the forces of the newly-declared Chinese National Republic (CNR). Regional governors in the South and West declared independent states of their own, and formed cliques reminiscent of those that dominated China nearly one-hundred years before. Further complicating things, the Republic of China in Taiwan was unable to come to an agreement with the CNR and launched its own invasion of the mainland with a surprisingly large and well-trained army. War raged until 2048, when all sides found themselves exhausted and unable to continue to fight. The Second Chinese Civil War proved to be a humanitarian disaster as millions were displaced in the course of the fighting. Surprisingly, the war remained largely conventional, with nuclear weapons only used in an attack on Beijing that is predicted to leave the city uninhabitable for centuries.
* What remains of the old Peoples Republic is ruled from New Beijing, a planned city that more resembles a military base just miles from the Beijing Radiation Exclusion Zone. With much of the old government incinerated in the nuclear destruction of the capital in late 2047, the current government is comprised of a mix of generals and bureaucrats united in their hate of the rebels that have weakened China. The PRC of 2052 can be most accurately described as an army with a state. Aligned with the New Beijing government is the Army of Chinese Wusizang, a force comprised of those ethnic Han occupation forces that remained in Tibet during the civil war. Refusing repatriation to the PRC, these soldiers have vowed to reconquer Tibet or fight to the death. They nominally swear allegiance to the New Beijing government but function as an independent organization. As a result of inheriting much of the advanced weaponry of the PLA's Chengdu and Lanzhou regions, the Army of Chinese Wusizang is often more technically advanced than their Tibetan opponents and can only be defeated through Tibetan human wave tactics.
* The Chinese National Republic manages to hang on despite a lack of any significant number of foreign backers. Its capital is the relatively small city of Xuzhou, which served as a major headquarters during the civil war. The CNR's ideology is a hodge-podge of traditionalist authoritarianism with a strong nationalistic streak. It detests both the Republic of China and the Peoples Republic to the north, though the period of the PRC is viewed as a total mistake, and in hopes of avoiding such a time again, policies including mandatory childbirth and government intervention have been implemented by the semi-democratic Council of Ministers. Like the PRC, the National Republic never demobilized in the aftermath of the Second Civil War and the military often dictates policy to the legislature.
* Of all the ethnically Chinese states, the Republic of China is probably the most liberal and free. The Kuomintang has held the Presidency and Premiership for a vast majority of the 102 years since the flight of the RoC to Taiwan, but opposition parties control considerable percentages of the Legislative Yuan and occasionally make it into power. Though not initially welcomed as the liberators they hoped to be recognized as, the forces of the Republic of China have gradually been accepted as the legitimate rulers throughout the parts of Southern China under their control. Many of the large, coastal cities have bought into the Taipei Government's lines on free markets leading to prosperity, but further inland opposition can be found in the form of communists and National Republic-sympathizers. The Republic of China has aligned itself internationally with several other states under the Ho Chi Minh City Treaty Organization. The city of Hong Kong refused to join the RoC and was given independence as a free city. It maintains significant influence from the RoC and is perhaps more prosperous with this illusion of total independence than it would be under direct governance from Taiwan.
* The two cliques that survived the civil war: Qinghai and Yunnan are really glorified crime families with more resemblance to gangs than organized states. Nevertheless, they hold significant power in areas of China with considerable populations. Both find themselves vaguely aligned with Russia (both as means of Russian destabilization of China and because Russia is the best ally against the Caliphate), but both remain internationally unrecognized. The "courts" of both groups, in Xining and Qujing, respectively are mixes of feudal entourages and mafia councils. Court intrigue centers around attempts by advisors aligned with various outside forces to curry favor with the heads of the clique. Yunnan currently faces a spirited Islamic insurgency, but owing to a vastly overwhelming infidel population, faces only sporadic terrorist actions.
* The Indo-Pakistani War of 2010 was quite disruptive to the Tibetan Government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CRA) which was based in the Northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The CRA moved its base of operations to Australia, but became increasingly ineffective at such a distance from the Himalayas. The CRA limped on for decades and when revolt broke out in China, it was ill-prepared to take action and the new government there was led by Tibetan opponents of the communist regime that had remained in China. The Republic of Tibet as established in early 2045 was constituted as a de jure absolute monarchy under the Dalai Lama, but functioned as a democracy. Despite the best wishes and earnest actions taken by a genuinely pro-democracy ruling class, the combination of PRC loyalists, Muslim insurgents, and the threat of invasion by Qinghai or Yunnan has forced the government to spend most of its income on combating these threats. Overlooked is the standard of living, which has gradually fallen for years, and the mass famines that are increasingly common.
- Korea: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Ok, not really - the government of the Roh Dynasty is nowhere near democratic, but it is nowhere near as autocratic as the DPRK regime under the Kims. Pacification of North Korea was a long, arduous process made more difficult by the martyring of the Mount Paektu Bloodline with their trial and execution in Seoul, but it was officially declared over in 2043 and the border between the two Koreas was dissolved as the peninsula became a single unitary state. Neo-Juche violence has remained an issue, and there is an entire bureau of the National Intelligence Service devoted to rooting out supporters of the Kims, but the fact that one can travel throughout North Korea without being assaulted by a Jucheist shows the progress made there. Korea is on the rise internationally, it appears. They backed the CNR in the Chinese Civil War and came out with a condominium in Southern Manchuria. Additionally, Korea has begun to influence Japan as the former state experiences population decline and becomes reliant on Korean manufacturing. Korean guest workers in Japan have become increasingly common and there is a school of thought that claims these immigrants are attempts by Seoul to infiltrate Japanese society as the first step in a coming invasion.
- Japan has once again fallen into a state of decline. A period of economic ascendency in the late 20th century that many foreigners feared would lead to a time of Japanese political domination ultimately failed to come to fruition as low population growth and the popping of an economic bubble led to a time referred to as the 'Lost Decade'. The hope of change in the first decade of the 21st century proved to be an illusion and following roughly 2010, Japan fell into a near-constant state of worsening markets and shrinking populations. The once-all powerful Liberal Democratic Party's stranglehold on Japanese politics has been broken and the country's elections are chaotic, many-party affairs that as often as not lead to hung Parliaments. Amidst the backdrop of a broken country in terminal decline, Japan has remilitarized under a succession of hypernationalist governments of varying stripes. Partly as a means to distract the public from their internal woes, Japanese Prime Ministers engage in saber-rattling against the Koreans, Russians, and Chinese states. This has only served to antagonize those countries and infuriate the growing radical factions within Japan that are ideologically aligned with those states.
- In 2010, a border clash between India and Pakistan spiraled into a nuclear war. Both India and Pakistan lost the war in the sense that as they ceased to exist as large, coherent entities. In their wake were left two dozen smaller, less stable states. Some of these were occupied during the United States in the War on Terror, while others (especially those in the former Northeast India) were largely overlooked by the international community because of their small size. The most powerful of the post Indo-Pakistani War states was the democratic successor to the Indian government in Chennai. For nearly two decades, this regime contended for the title of Republic of India with a military junta in Jodhpur, but the collapse of that so-called state in 2032 led to international recognition of the Chennai government as the legitimate heir to the Indian regime that had existed before the nuclear destruction of New Delhi. The Chennai government expanded northwards from its center in South India through both diplomatic and military means. The India of 2052 has not reached the glory it had before the missiles flew, but is much larger and more prosperous than it was thirty years before. The Tiraṅgā flies on the Vindhya Range and lower Ganges, though Indian influence extends still further into the hills of Assam and the plains of Gujarat where local governments have been driven into the arms of the Republic of India to provide an alliance against the dreaded Caliphate. India's standard of living is fairly high, especially in the South. Literacy is at an all-time high and an efficient government has begun cleaning up areas of intense radiation dating from the War with Pakistan.
The Republic of the Punjab has been on the rise since its foundation after the end of the Indo-Pakistani War. Initially an ethnically Sikh state, the Punjab's gradual expansion was massively hastened after the fall of the Jodhpur junta government: following that state's collapse, many turned to the Punjab, which had proven it had a strong military able to hold off the Caliphate. The Punjab experienced something of an identity crisis after that massive expansion in 2032. The state had expanded from a small, ethnically homogeneous one to a large, diverse one. Slowly, fears of Hindu takeover were allayed as the Sikhs remained dominant within the Punjab. Sikhism itself has received numerous converts in recent decades less as a result of proselytization and more because it is the religion of the powerful within the Punjab and because the Sikh armies represent holding back the tide of the Caliphate. Not everyone is happy with the power of the Sikhs, and in particular there are many Hindu nationalists that dream the power they had under the old Republic of India will come again, but in general, the Punjab is a stable, if not rich, place.
- In an amusing twist, Bangladesh is once again a discontiguous province of a much larger state to the east. Bangladesh managed to avoid involvement in the Indo-Pakistani War, but but experienced a flow of radioactive debris and corpses from the Upper Ganges. The impacts of this on the already weak Bangladeshi economy contributed to a rise in Islamic extremism that culminated in an American invasion in the 2010s. Like in so many other countries, American occupation only strengthened the Islamists they had hoped to root out and after American withdrawl, Caliphate-aligned fighters raised the Black Standard and declared Bengal as a part of Cheikh El Omari's Islamic empire. The Bengali provinces of the Caliphate have faced pressure from the Indians, rising sea levels, and famine, but have remained loyal. Despite this, there are many that feel these stresses will one day cause a collapse of Caliphate Bengal.
- The American withdrawal from the occupied states of Myanmar and Bangladesh left a massive power vacuum around the Bay of Bengal. Into that gap both the Islamists and communists surged in. The post-occupation Myanmar collapsed within months of the Americans leaving as communists stormed Rangoon - there were many that hoped the communists would moderate once in office, and their insurrection was supported by many anti-communists as well. However, the newly declared Burmese Peoples Republic turned out to be authoritarian and after only several weeks of peace, Kachin nationalists and Islamists picked up their guns and the civil war began anew. The war quickly bogged down, as neither side had sufficient resources to actually overcome their opponents. Into this chaos came Thailand. Thailand had backed the United States during the War on Terror and, with dreams of imperial glory, intervened in the war in a bid to annex many border regions. The Tanintharyi region was easily conquered, but fighting proved heavier and more difficult in Burma proper where the communist central government, rebel groups, and local militias alike all opposed Thai interventionism. After years of fighting, Burma was divided between three major factions: the ethnically Bamar communists in the south, multiethnic communists of Meeteileipak in the west, and the Kachins in the northeast. The Thai held the southern Tanintharyi salient and chewed off much of Shan State while the Rohingya minority was able to carve out an independent (later Caliphate-aligned) sultanate along the former border with Bangladesh. Thailand itself is a minor power in 2052. It devoted considerable time and energy to digesting the territories annexed from Burma, but that proved a good investment. The former Tanintharyi Region is very loyal and its tin, tungsten, rubber, and pearl industries have enriched the government in Bangkok. The annexed northern territories are less stable and currently is in the midst of a medium-level insurgency by ethnically Shan rebels. Thailand has aligned itself with Vietnam and Malaysia in recent years and is part of the anti-communist and anti-Islamist Ho Chi Minh City Treaty Organization.
- The already fractious Northeast India completely collapsed after contact was lost with New Delhi in the of the Indo-Pakistani nuclear war. Half a dozen independent statelets existed for several decades but slowly coalesced. In the south, led by the Peoples Republic of Manipur, a communist insurgency grew and turned into the Democratic Federation of Meeteileipak (named for an ancient kingdom as a compromise) In the north, the Republic of Assam came into existence and, in 2052 is nothing more than an Indian satellite state in a bid by Chennai to avoid hostility in an area where there is still deep distrust for the idea of being ruled from the subcontinent. Meeteileipak is a member of the Revolutionary Internationale but despite ideological ties, frequently clashes with the Burmese communists to their south.
- The Philippines has reverted into a bog-standard dictatorship. Facing rising sea levels, a spirited Islamic insurgency among the Southern Moro peoples, and the threat of invasion from the antagonistic Caliphate in the East Indies and even the Japanese, the current government under the aging child actor Christopher de Vencia rules with an iron fist in Mega Manila. Outside, corruption and management by regional governors (who are, as a rule, corrupt and self-interested) is at an all-time high and the President can only get by with their support. What is left of the Philippine military guards Manila against insurrection or is deployed to Mindanao where they are steadily being bled dry by the Caliphate-aligned insurgents of the Muhammed Mama Movement.
- Indonesia was always difficult for the Coalition of the Willing to occupy. Regions far-flung from the administrative center of Jakarta were in a constant state of revolt, and the public of the West powers slowly lost their stomach for that never-ending gruel and the occupation forces totally withdrew by 2036. In their wake they left the inept Federal Republic of Indonesia, a state ruled by a clique of idealistic professors, inept bureaucrats, and corrupt politicians. The Federal Republic lasted two years before Jakarta was overrun by Caliphate-aligned forces. The so-called Rape of Jakarta was a bloody affair - estimates of the total casualties in the sack of the city run from 500,000 to just over 1,000,000. In the aftermath, elements of the Indonesian military attempted to hold off the Jihadists, but it was clear that the Caliphate had won. A considerable proportion of Indonesia's nearly 40 million Christians and Hindus as well as untold numbers of pro-government Muslims fled the country in a massive wave of ramshackle boats. Thousands died in the Timor and Arafura Seas, while those that survived were put into refugee camps that Australia could hardly maintain. Indonesia under the Caliphate has been poorly administered and much of the archipelago has devolved into semi-independent principalities. A constant stream of weaponry from the Middle East and oil and rubber in return makes this a profitable region for the Caliphate to expend its resources on. The Indonesian provinces are currently in the process of invading and digesting Malaysia. Most of East Malaysia is occupied, with only a coastal strip in the hands of the Malaysian Army. Though Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, calls for jihad have found little support there and only a small insurgency exists in the uplands of Terengganu.
- Australia has not had a good 21st century. It faces massive desertification in the interior, a refugee crisis of massive proportions, and an Islamic insurgency in the north. Australia aligned itself with the United States during the War on Terror, and suffered some of the lowest rates of casualties in the Coalition of the Willing. That was until Indonesia was invaded. Australian troops made up much of the occupation forces there and experienced casualties much higher than they had in any other conflict. Public opinion turned against the war, and Australia withdrew from Indonesia without realizing that such a sudden move would precipitate an Islamist takeover and then a refugee crisis. While the idealistic Australian government of the time attempted to take care of the refugees, the sheer number overwhelmed Australia's already taxed resources. Peaceful refugees turned to violence, becoming roving gangs in the Australian north. Incursions on speedboats from Indonesia turned into full-blown invasion, and many of these gangs swore allegiance to the Caliphate. What remains of the Australian Defence Force has managed to hold the Caliphate's military from making any headway into Australia, but the issue of Caliphate-aligned irregular fighters appears to be a perennial one as their numbers are too vast to make any significant headway against. As a result of depending on the ADF for the very survival of the Australian state, the government has become something of a puppet of the military and is classified as a managed democracy. The Coalition has a stranglehold on Australian politics, while a surprisingly conservative Labor Party and several minor, niche, hobbyist parties are their only significant opposition. In addition to this, the worldwide trend of desertification has hit the Australian interior hardest. The Outback is growing yearly, and winds bring dust all the way to New Zealand. Between the pressures of the Caliphate and the desert, Australia feels like a nation at siege. While the population fights for survival, there is a widespread unspoken belief that the country will collapse at some point in the near future.
- Both religiousity and social conservatism are on the uptick worldwide. Though there are certain areas where the 20th century trend towards atheism and irreligiousness has continued, vast areas across the globe of different religions have reported increased church attendance while the number of people that would answer that they are "very religious" have increased dramatically. In many areas, the traditional religion of the region has come back in force: in Western Europe, Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism have exploded back onto the scene, but other areas have seen major changes. Britain, inspired by constant American broadcasts of televangelists, has turned towards Evangelical Christianity. While the Church of England is growing strong, it has adopted some of the traditions of American Christianity including the prosperity gospel, much to the ire of the "old guard" within the church. Evangelical Protestantism is on the march elsewhere too. It has conquered many Latin American states with the support of the American military and is growing in Africa and Australia. Mormonism too is growing, especially in the United States. In East Asia, Taoism, Buddhism, and Shinto are growing while even among opponents of the Caliphate, it is undeniable that the Muslim world has become more devout. A number of new religions have seen an uptick in support. Among the largest are Raëlianism, which has caught on in the former Canadian states, Discordianism, Falun Gong, and Transcendental Meditation. Various forms of paganism have also seen growth in Europe ironically at a time when Christianity is growing elsewhere.
- An increasing proportion of the world's population now lives in refugee camps or as guests in another country. Recent estimates by independent organizations say that the global refugee population has reached nearly 750 million - a number that is unlikely to decrease and is projected to increase in the near future. The global population is increasing steadily. Early 21st century projections that the birth rate in Africa would decline have largely been proved wrong as much of the continent remains underdeveloped. In Europe and the developed world, increasingly social conservatism has brought with it a growing birth rate. Coupled with the depleting of the Earth's resources, there are many that the growing human population could lead to a serious crisis that could end with mass death.
- The world is not in a good place. Resources are draining worldwide. Oil reserves have begun to run dry, while changing weather patterns have led to many failed harvests. Most states are at their wits ends: traditional means of sustaining economies are failing, and new, revolutionary methods must be devised to keep the human race going. It is undeniable that climate change is occurring. Global temperatures have risen by nearly 5 degrees Celsius while the sea level has risen nearly 50 centimeters. What were once extreme weather events and crop failures have become commonplace: food shortages are taken as just a part of life in places like the United States and Britain where they were unthinkable at the start of the century. The world is, however, divided in opinion on what the causes of this climate change are and what, if any, steps should be taken to combat it. While most states subscribe to the theory of anthropogenic climate change, several, countries, led by the United States and Democratic Republic of Brazil contest that claim and argue that climate change is a natural process or a European plot. Exactly how these two things can be simultaneously true is unclear, but that doesn't prevent those claims from being spewed out by American propaganda outlets. Led by Europe, many of its allies across the world (and notably, South African) have signed onto the Berlin Protocol, a treaty aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Interestingly, the Caliphate maintains that climate change is indeed manmade and divine punishment against the West for despoiling the oil wealth of the lands of the faithful. These claims do not stop the Caliphate from exporting oil. The hypocrisy of the Caliphate is typical of behavior throughout the world: stopping climate change is simply not profitable.
- Man returned to the Moon in 2026, when the European Space Agency's (ESA) Máni VI rocket touched down on the Oceanus Procellarum. This touched off something of a space craze, and the United States quickly resuscitated its aging space program. The Second Civil War put things on hold in the United States, giving the Europeans a chance to establish several bases on the Moon before the United States was even able to land there. European bases were soon joined by Japanese, Chinese, and Russian facilities. Nearly 25,000 humans live on the Moon in 2052. Many of these are scientists devoted to studying the Moon or taking advantage of telescopes on the far side. A great deal of the population, however, is comprised of soldiers and engineers looking to get a leg up on their country's enemies. Men have been on Mars too, though no permanent bases have been established there. The first Martian missions were run by the Europeans, though Americans have also set foot on the Red Planet. The Earth's orbit is littered with hundreds of manned satellites and millions of tons of space debris. Among the manned satellites are numerous missile defense platforms, research stations, and maintenance bays. Europe has begun research on solar arrays that are intended to replace fossil fuels by beaming power in tight bursts down to Earth. While research is promising, it will likely be years before these arrays become fully functional and powerful enough to make any noticeable changes on Earth. While space is under contest, not every major Earth alliance is represented in the void. The Caliphate and Revolutionary Internationale have very minor presences and are at a significant disadvantage, having entered the game so late. The European Space Agency is currently the largest space-focused organization. While it is owned and run by the European Union, associate members and states in cooperation include the Free States, Cascadia, and Turkey. Along with the TSA and a number of other agencies, NASA was privatized, being turned into North American Spacing and Aeronautic (also called NASA) in 2037. The Prince family owns considerable stock in the company and NASA has recently diversified and begun advertising services for mercenaries on the Moon. While NASA is not the only private company to enter space at the behest of the American government (Virgin Galactic, Dole, Boeing, and SpaceX to name a few), it has an edge up on its competitors. The Outer Space Treaty is still in effect, but is widely disregarded by every power, except when they need to point fingers at other states. Space in 2052 is the realm of the soldier, not the scientist.
- The Moon Bases themselves are primarily sub-surface complexes. The initial bases, typically built of prefab modules above the surface, were deemed too susceptible to asteroids and enemy attack, leading to the building of future bases in sublunar caves. The bases are primarily powered with small nuclear reactors, though many do have solar arrays that are useful during the two-week long day period, but due to the long lunar night are insufficient. The purposes of these bases are varied, with some devoted merely to research, though governments are much more eager to place military bases there, as well as profitable factories that are able to send materials to build satellites around the Earth with minimal energy. The Moon's food supply is a mixture of imports and subsurface agriculture. An unexpectedly tricky issue has been the naming of European Lunar settlements. Initial plans to name them after historic figures from European history were turned into nationalistic disputes. Finally, it was decided that rather than figures with ties to one constituent European state, the names of figures important to the history of European integration would be chosen instead. If those names proved contentious, Esperanto terms or various gods would be used. This proposal was broadly acceptable and though raucous debates on naming still wrack the Parliament and public discourse, European bases have names. Several men have died on the Moon in accidents and through disease, but so far, no man has ever been killed through violence on the Moon. Though many of the Moon's scientific inhabitants hope to keep that true, speaking of humankind as a family, political and military leadership cade in all nations on Earth expects the first space war to be fought in the next few decades.
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