As a "side-ish" note one of the reasons I've not done a TL of my own yet, (there's that word again
) is the amount of research and extrapolation that's needed to get plausible results. Another is I dislike working in a 'vacuum' and having said that I'm rather flaky enough collaboration with me is.. difficult for people. Having to work within the 'constraints' of an established background is of course even more of a pain but fascinating as well. Which is why this is all so much fun, right?
Crimson Skies if very much history and setting I enjoy, and hate, and love, and loath, and.. well you probably get the picture
Oddly enough the longer I toy with the setting the more slipshod and random the 'background' obviously becomes, (go figure it was pretty much literally done 'after-hours' by people who were primarily interested in the 'setting' not the actual 'background' or game mechanics) yet at the same time also obviously fascinating and intriguing and offering so much potential. Unlike so many 'broken-US' settings the world of CS in general is a much more 'benign' place with the conflicts between the various remnants being very much in the background for obvious and logical reasons. Yet for that to happen it requires that the rest of the world either ignores the broken-US or in general has 'other' issues to occupy itself with while still maintaining a trade and diplomatic relation with the various nations.
And then there are the questions that, (obviously) never got answered or often even asked because, (again) it was a 'game' project done on the side.
Take Columbia for example. (
http://firedrake.org/roger/csarchive/universe/states/columbia.htm)
Columbia is arguably the ex-US Capital and 'most' of the more 'Patriotic' East Coast areas but it has also become a 'neutral' center for World as well as ex-US nations. The League of Nations has it's seat there and it's neutrality makes it a global City enjoying equal parts diplomacy and espionage. But keep in mind it also has several institutions that with the break up of the Old US now have moved from a 'national' to 'international' stage with all that implies toward their expansion and influence. The Smithsonian Institution went through some rough times initially but support for its mission and purpose would come from around the 'nation' and globe to preserve and eventually expand its faculties and activities. Combining Columbia's charge of 'neutrality' and its own original charge "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge," applied to research and the preservation and dissemination of knowledge would soon see it attracting scientists, researchers of all stripes. Both to contribute and to learn. Further South the Langley Aeronautical Research Institute, formed during the turmoil leading up to the US entry into the Great War to help American Aviation stay abreast of advances and research in Aviation, had been since its inception at the forefront of Aviation research and the new situation of the US and the world required that effort even more. Today it would be a gathering place for world wide aeronautical research and development as well as sorting and processing establishment ensuring that knowledge is disseminated in the manner of its charge to "supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution" available from and to all in need. The then 'national' now International Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and the associated world renown Academies Press ensure the gathering, processing, and publication of knowledge in all areas of science, engineering and medicine as well as administering the various educational and research campus' scattered around Columbia and the knowledge and teachings they generate. In recent decades international concerns for the environment, the oceans and space have manifested in the creation of subsidiary Academies and Institutes dedicated to those subjects as well.
In many, if not most, ways the history of the United States prior to its demise and its subsequent history being on display and as an example of the danger of 'hyper-partisanship' and focus on "differences" rather than "similarity" has effected today's world vastly more than Columbia being the 'simple' Capital of the old United States would have ever done. Though the League of Nations was initially, (and somewhat unrealistically and ideally), dedicated to the general prevention of conflict, history has shown that large scale general conflict such as seen in the Great War and the subsequent World War, (which sprang from its original unresolved issues), comes about when nations fail or refuse to understand or communicate with each other. Part of that process it is now seen can and often will be 'conflict' on a smaller more confined scale where as part of the process nations will come to feel each other out in order to judge and understand both intent and commitment to an issue. The old United States fought its devastating "Civil War" over an old issues that its founders were well aware of but refused to deal with and those issues were significantly "important" both tear the nation apart and set brother against brother in bloody conflict. Four years and thousands of lives later the "issues" fundamentally still remained despite the utter defeat and destruction of one side in the conflict.
Less than 70 years later those unresolved issues would again cause the Nation of the United States of America to tear itself apart. But unlike previously the importance of the various 'issues' was not such that the leaders or populations of the new American Nations felt the need to spend huge amounts of treasure and blood to enforce. Instead they engaged in limited conflict and resolved most disputes through arbitration or negotiations. issues were solved on a smaller, more local and controlled level allowing better compromise and longer term satisfaction with the outcome. Instead of throwing their new nations economies and societies into chaos by going to war over matters between these new nations the leaders and populations instead moved to embrace their similarities and offer up their differences in support of rather than conflict with each other. The People's Collective's farmers still needed markets for their crops and the Industrial States of America needed markets for their products and they both needed Appalachian coal and iron so despite having differences over everything from drinking Alcohol to forms of government and the application of Law and Order derived thereof these new nations decided to focus on the things they did agree on instead of what divided them initially and they came to Columbia to make those agreements. And Columbia invited the League of Nations into its newly empty public buildings to help foster this kind of collaboration on a world wide scale. In some cases this worked as shown by the example of the reconciliation of the Empire of Nippon and the Greater Chinese Union. Sadly there remained vast issues left over from as far back as the 17th century that were too vast and unresolved to fade quietly away and the League's (and Columbia's) greatest failure came when the great Empires of Europe, French and British, fell to global war in the mid-1940s. This conflict would eventually pull in most of the major remaining European and Asian powers such as the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union, Kingdom of Greece, Anatolian league into direct conflict with most other nation-states eventually participating in at least a supporting role if not a direct combatant at some level. Only the nations of North America along with some Caribbean, Pacific and South American remaining strictly neutral in the conflict. It was this strict neutrality, (often militarily enforced by various and coalitions of nations) and the neutral sanctuary of Columbia that was eventually instrumental in bringing the exhausted and devastated combatants to the negotiating table eight years and millions of lives later. Even still with 'peace' declared the slow and inevitable disintegration of the various "empires" would last another two decades and millions of more lives in the process.
Scholars today argue, that the process of accretion that built up the 'empires' and 'nations' of the 17th through early 20th century were as inevitable as their decline as 'nations' sought 'safety' by being larger and more powerful than any supposed enemy. But that 'safety' and the false feeling of security it engendered came at the price of suppression of vastly different cultures and populations with the built in delays in communications and decision making caused actual resolution or even identification of problems and conflicts to be so broadly and usually incorrectly understood that resolution was impossible and only 'simple' and generic solutions could be applied lest further problems/conflicts be caused among segments of the 'nations' population. Nations the size of the old United States politically and socially had to reduce complex issues and conflicts to 'simple' generally false and jingoistic statements using keywords and concepts aimed at evoking certain responses from general groups of people. More often than not what was presented to one 'group' differed in both intent and content from another in order to achieve a 'consensus' that the political or private power brokers wished to achieve and then 'solutions' based on that 'consensus' would be installed allowing those in power to claim a 'solution' had been found when in fact the original problem was only hidden. "Power Blocks" or "Parties" were arranged around these 'data-sets' and 'simple' solution and played of against each other to give the impression that national populations could 'choose' solutions based on these parties while in reality actual decisions and policy was made regardless of the peoples will.
In the end it was one of the 'youngest' nations of the 20th Century that saw through this ancient and static system and chose to embrace a different path of smaller and more flexible 'nations' capable of being both independent and interdependent on which our current world is based. "Parties" still exist and arguably, like conflict itself, will continue to exist as long as humans are human enough to find it more comfortable to 'group' with those of similar opinion and outlook but in today's world where places like Columbia exist where discussion and conflicts of words can take the place of war and destruction and where people can freely express and exchange knowledge then we can truly look forward to the 21 Century and beyond with hope and optimism.
-Excerpt from a presentation by visiting Academician Sir Eric Idle at the Smithsonian Institution, Columbia North America during the League of Nations Millennial Celebration, August 2000CE