1991: Foreign and Domestic Developments
1991
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Fùzhì the first successfully cloned animal
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Fùzhì the first successfully cloned animal
The 1991 World’s Fair was held in the Chinese capital of Peking. In a powerful blend of the ancient with the modern, the Chinese Technate staged an impressive spectacle. Visitors could tour the ancient Forbidden City then stroll to Heng Jiang Plaza, formally known as Tiananmen Square, to see the latest technology. Easily the biggest attraction at the fair was Fùzhì a chow chow and the first successfully cloned animal.
In the British dominion of the Federated States of West Africa, the African Nationalist Party gained control of the Federal government in the January general election. Over the course of the next ten months the Nationalists leader Isatou Camara, a veteran of the Asia-Pacific War turned lawyer and politician, pushed through a referendum for full independence. West Africa’s abrupt departure from the British Commonwealth was a slap in the face to British Prime Minister Ned Fraiser who had campaigned on keeping the Commonwealth together.
After months of negotiation, the Nuclear Arms Limitation Treaty (NALT) was signed in Geneva by representatives of the United States, China, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Persia, and the IEF. The treaty limited the number of nuclear warheads to no more than 500 with a combined yield of no more than 75,000 kilotons. While the treaty was signed by individual nations, one of its unique features is that the signatories acted as “trusted guardians” for their various alliances. That is to say that they alone would be allowed to operate nuclear weapons in their various alliance systems. Therefore France and Italy which had developed nuclear weapons under a joint program and were both members of the Turin Pact were only entitled to a combined total of 500 warheads. Likewise, Russia was in theory prevented from helping one of its allies, say Romania, from developing its own nuclear weapons. Reaction to the treaty varied. While most Americans supported the treaty, foreign policy hawks resented having to give up over a third of their nuclear arsenal. Anti-nuclear groups like the Better World Society thought the treaty didn’t go far enough and wanted the total abolition of nuclear weapons.
In July, the IEF announced the deployment of 80,000 additional troops to squash the growing bands of technocratic and nationalist insurgents plaguing Manchuria. With neighboring China providing sanctuary and support, IEF security forces had a very difficult time securing the area. The Manchurian Crisis, as the conflict was often known, proved deeply unpopular in the non-ethnic Russian parts of the IEF especially in Central Asia. Bronislav Mihaylov, now serving in his ninth year as Prime Minister, hoped to win the conflict before the IEF destabilized further.
In November, the movie Void Quest by American director J.S. Mathieson broke all preexisting records to become the biggest box office bomb to date losing an estimated $98,000,000. An extravagant in not somewhat bewildering space opera, Void Quest became a synonym for cinema debacle. The flop bankrupted the studio West Coast Entertainment and ruined Mathieson who would eventually immigrate to Tibet to live out his life as a Buddhist monk. Curiously, over the years Void Quest would develop a cult following with regular midnight screenings for its devoted fans.
Having failed to gain statehood during the chancellorship of Herman Lasker, the German colony of Cameroon saw a series of protests and demonstrations by various groups upset with the status quo. Some organizations such as the Deutsch-Kamerun Partnerschaft (DKP) wished for complete integration while other like the Kameruner Volks Dämmerung (KVD) wanted full domestic autonomy if not outright independence. In Berlin, the new conservative government of Ernst Osterloh largely ignored the situation but did send a commission under Stanislaw von Hassel to “formulate possible future options.”
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