"Is it possible that we could see and end to armed conflicts by 2050? I certainly think so."
-UN Secretary General Constantine Van Fontenburg of South Africa, in remarks made to the Associated Press, September 4, 2038.
2030-2039
The 2030s would later be viewed as time period of healing and consolidation. In the Aftermath of the Chinese War, the dream of beating swords into plowshares became more and more pronounced.
From 2030 to 2035, the IRL was extended from New Dehli to Beijing, and from Beijing to Pyongyang and Soeul. From Beijing through to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpor, and Singapore.
By 2031, the world economy began to recover from the twin shocks of the Chinese War and the Cascadia Earthquake.
In 2031, the Federation of Democratic Nations went through its last major round of expansion. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgestan, the Maldives, and the new Republic of Xianjing became members of the FDN.
As the K-1 Formula was applied to the deserts of the FDN, the waves of immigration from India and southeast Asia continued unabated. As a result, South Africa and Israel's already substantial Indian, Malay, and Indonesian minorities became more and more pronounced. However, it was nothing that the "African melting pots couldn't handle."
In Asia, Zhang Enlai's dream of new Pan-Asian/Pacific Union began to get off the ground with the signing of a massive free trade agreement between India, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, and Japan. In 2033, the Hong Kong Accords established a timetable for establishment of the APTO (Asian-Pacific Treaty Organization). The new APTO was headquartered in Singapore, solidifying that nation's status as an International Hub. Malaysia, Bangladesh, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and East Timor would join soon afterwards. APTO was the new 800-lb gorilla in the room, as it's prospective unified economy had the possibility to bury every other power bloc in the world, even the NAFTA and FDN zones.
The new Federal Republic of China began to confront decades of Communist neglect. Rural poverty and extreme industrial pollution remained the biggest issues.
The Barakan Parliament voted in 2034 to accept over 500,000 Chinese refugees. Many of the refugees were settled in the vast agricultural colonies in Baraka, the Union of Arabia, and Iran, joining the decendents of the waves of southeast Asian and Indian immigrants, who had formed many new cities and towns in thier own right; the biggest being New Hyderbad, Arabia, Port Ghandi, Oman, and New Jakarta, Iran.
2035 was dominated by the the International Mission to Mars. Astronauts from Europe, America, Brazil, the FDN, Australia, Japan, India, and China planted the flag of the UN on the surface of the Red Planet. "Yet another stop on humanity's march to the stars," said Israeli astronaut Joseph MacGregor bin-Hayem. More remembered is the sardonic reply from West Africa's Orin Sebastian Moreye: "Joe, stop copying my speeches."
July 2035 saw the completion of US-Japanese Bering Streight Bridge. The International Railroad Line soon dusted off the plans to extend the IRL across the bridge to Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, and looping all the way back through Brasillia and Reclife through Caracas all the way to the US East Coast to Quebec City, Toronto, and then back to the Bering Streight Bridge. It was estimated that it would take another seven or so years to complete the newest addition to the line.
On November 5, 2035, the citizens of Taiwan narrowly voted in favor of reunifying with the Mainland. With the end of Communism, there was little hurdle to left to reintegrating.
In 2037, the United States formally set the border with the State of Japan at the Kamchatka Peninsula. The territories of Beringia and Yakutia soon entered the Union as the 52nd and 53rd states, respectivally.
That same year saw yet another major disaster strike the United States. The great Los Angeles quake, an 8.0 monstrocity, killed over 1,000 people and devastated whole portions of the metropolis. However, the extensive quake-proofing measures installed in the 2020s after the Cascadia Earthquake saved many lives and prevented even worse devastation. Once again, donations from the FDN allowed for the a quick reconstruction.
A UN survey conducted in 2039 found a total population of some 71 million Jews, 85% of which lived in the State of Israel. The remainder were scattered in South Africa, the United States, West Africa (where the Tasiru Sect had cought on strong), and Australia. However, many Orthodox Jews publically disputed those figures, claiming that the Tasiru Sect wasn't even part of the Jewish religion (if taken away by itself, the Tasiru Sect numbered some 14 million, mostly centered in Israel, the Congo, South Africa, and West Africa).
By the time of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War II and the beginnings of Hitler's Halocaust, it seemed that the world would finally put its differences behind it for a new tommorow........
To be continued..........
......only more Africanized than that. All and all, I'd imagine a very pleasent sort of song to listen to.