This is an old revision of the document!
Timeline 2010 - 2050: The timeline focuses mainly on geopolitics now and will be expanded to other topics later on.
•2010: World Population reaches 7 Billion.
Newromantic Art Movement, religious influenced fantasy paintings and installations of monumental size. Untouched nature is another important theme here.
Armenia lets the EU station Troops within it`s borders and breaks it`s alliance with russia. Georgia goes a similar way. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are now independent nations under (and dependent on) russian guide.
Chinas international search for allies to break US Encirclement and get a better grip on ressources is widely successful in eastern africa and southeast asia.
Laos allies with the US.
2011: The East African Federation (EAF) is founded.
2012: Croatia joins the European Union and the newly founded Republic of Kosovo applies for Membership.
Chads goverment is overthrown by rebels assisted from Sudan and is defeated by a joint - intervention by EU and US-Troops. Not long after Sudan allies with China and allows it to station troops in it`s territory.
Iran demonstrates its nuclear arsenal in public.
Olympics in London.
2013: Peru turns into a socialist country closely allied with Venezuela.
The expansion of the Panama canal is completed.
Television and phone-networks are now an integral part of the internet.
2014: Venezuela starts to change its oil export away from the US and more towards china and the South-American market.
Syria gets the nuclear bomb from Iran. During the renewed talks for a new Non-Proliferation Treaty the world gets on the brink of a all-out nuclear war in the middle east as USA and Israel threaten Syria and Iran with a first strike.
2015: Turkey emerges from a short civil war and a military coup under islamic rule. It breaks with the EU in favor of central asian and arabic relations. Voices to leave the NATO too get louder.
Touareg rebellions in Algeria, Niger and Mali are defeated with help by EU troops. This is the biggest deployment of combat drones in history until now.
The traffic on the major highways of USA, Germany and Switzerland is now monitored by flying surveillance drones.
2016: China stations peace troops in Somalia to fight the Islamic Guerillas together with the US and Ethipia. Guerilla warfare continues. Somaliland declares independence with Chinese and Ethipian assistance. The US now controls Puntland which is also heading to independence. UN and EAF troops in the rest of somalia. US troops are stationed in Eritrea.
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
2017: Turkey demonstrates nuclear arms and leaves the NATO in a rush of nationalistic pride. Iran, Syria and Turkey form a three-powers alliance ( I still need a good name for this thing). Lebanon and Palestine get Observer Status. In fear of the worst middle eastern war ever the west goes for negotations and Embargoes. They begin to arm the kurdish resistance.
Hybrid electric vehicle are now a common sight throughout the western countries.
2018: Ethnic uprisings in several party of Myanmar are defeated but the movements continue. China tries to negotiate.
A global summit on climate change and the coming scarcity of energy supplies is held at Dubai for a week. Sveral longtime plans are made. They include the increasing use of nuclear power plants worldwide and a giant project to put up solar plants in earths orbit.
The Fusion Energy - test project ITER takes up work and must be taken down for maintenance immediately after the first operation.
With the rise of wireless network hubs the Internet now reaches even to the last corners of the earth. Half of the worlds population uses the net by now. 2019: Macedonia joins the European Union.
The Global Information Grid of the US army is online and working. Similar projects are on their way in other countries and a global arms race for Combat Viruses begins.
The military use of mercenaries becomes increasingly common throughout the various conflicts of the world. Either specialists or employed ethnic minorities promies their own states fight for nearly every great power.
Several chinese cities are completely monitored by surveillance cameras.
2020: The worlds population reaches 7.9 billion. One Billion of these suffers from malnutrition and famine, mainly Africans and Indians. The UK defeats a socialist coup on Jamaica and take the country back under european dominion
Olympics in Warsaw.
Brutal-Art movement, Installations and Performances that hurt people in public.
Angolan-Congolese war or third Congo war ends in favour of Angola and its allies, the Eastern African Federation. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is now landlocked because Angola took Cabinda and neighbouring regions and loses its east to rebel forces who found the Katanga Republic. Burundi annexes South-Kivu and Rwanda north Kivu.
The USA, Israel and the EU create a working missile defense system for their whole territory. One year later Russia, China and Japan have similar Systems working. The threat of nuclear destruction by intercontinental missiles seems banned for a while.
The growth of the Indian economy begins to slow due to several crises, social unrest and problems with water and energy infrastructure.
NASA begins to train astronauts for a second moon mission.
Peaceful unification of Korea with Chinas Help after the death of Kim Jon Il. The new Republic Korea is dependent on Chinas, Japans and USAs investment to compensate the drawbacks of reunification. The united Korean government declares absolute neutrality. Korea disarms its nuclear arsenal in favor of massive Japanese financial aid. After the union a new form of corporation emerges, the so called Neo-Chaebols.
2021: USA, Israel and the EU forces strike at the Three Powers Alliance before they can be taken under the russian missile defense screen. They dismantle the nuclear capabilities of all three countries and occupy them at a high price of lives. The war is ended with a nuclear strike by a US submarine on Homs (center of Syrian resistance) leading to absolute capitulation of Syria which answers another strike by Syrian artillery at Haifa. For a short period the combined troops of the pact had pushed deep into Israel and Palestine and occupied it for a half month after being driven out after the end of the war. Their war crimes in both regions resemble a pogrom. Turkey had capitulated earlier and the Iranian regime was brought down by a coup of internal insurgents in the army. Lebanon and Palestine had left the pact with the beginning of the war. The guerilla war is several times harsher than in Iraq confronting the Allied forces with human waves of suicide bombers. Also, several nuclear bombs are reported missing. Pakistan, Jordan, Oman and Afghanistan, in fear of becoming targets of nuclear terrorism, end their alliance with the USA.
2022: China-supported liberal post-maoists take over the government in Nepal. There is a reappearance of Indian sponsored royalism.
Libya returns to a more-or-less stable socialist - democracy after Gaddaffis death leaves power in the hand of the General People's Congress. It opens itself fully to Europe after a short period of troubles and becomes one of it`s allies.
In the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl the ITER Project in southern france explodes leaving a quarantined, radioactive contaminated area around Cadarache. Leukemia rates in the whole area grow rapidly in the next decades and the shining alternative of Fusion Power looses its halo. DEMO is first cancelled, but then taken up again at slow pace. Also, there is a new anti-nuclear movement in central europe and with it rapid a rise of the radical left and green movements. (going to take that out of the TL, how else to cut fusion power down?)
Moores Law? Computer speed? 2023: The continued energy crisis and a growing financial crisis of the world market plunge the world into food shortage. Food riots occur everywhere in the “third world” and the social systems of the “first” begin to disappear fast. Central Africa, Russia and Southeast Asia suffer extreme famine. Other markets suffer as well, the asian growth of the last to decades comes to a halt for the time to be.
China invades and annexes Taiwan. The US, occupied elsewhere, does nothing. Taiwan is accepted in the name of world peace.
The first fully operatable cybernetic prosthetics using artificial muscles are handed out to veterans of the 2021 middle eastern war. They get increasingly common and can be easily modified to grant more-than-human strength and agility.
2024: The regime of Myanmar ends it`s alliance with China banning it access to the indian ocean over an official diplmat attacked by human rights demonstrators in the Hongkong area. Political advisors call this self chosen isolation of the country madness.
Olympics in Los Angeles.
Worldwide defenders of Data privacy ring alarm bells. Surveillance, Data mining and Internet censorship have become extremely common. In some Countries of the EU, Canada and the USA personalised advertising is forbidden.
A neonaxalite rebellion breaks out across india, joined by a newly arisen strong Tamil independence movement and insurgency in Assam.
Every product which is imported or produces in the EU must contain a little RFID-chip now which saves the products history of transport and storage.
2025: The US green party merges with the democrats, a trend that is observed in other countries too.
Myanmar and Sri Lanka ally with India in the attempt to form a bloc opposed to chinese influence in the region.
Bioplastics are on the rise.
2026: A new Palestinian civil war occurs. The gaza strip is once again occupied by Israel for a short time to defeat Hamas forces. This time, though, this step is supported by the majority of the population. The near east-conflict seems to come aproximately to an end as the relations of Israel and Palestine normalise after the 2021 war.
A corean team clones the first human.
European corporations begin to invest in regenerative energy like upwind plants in the maghreb.
2027: Russia is shaken by clashes with a new Paneurasian Nationalist movement combining neofascist and socialist elements. Severe discrimination and killings of several hundred immigrants occur. The regime pacifies the Nationalists with amnesties and several privileges for their leaders leading to protest notes from across the world.
The UN security council is structured anew. Seats go to USA, EU, China, Russia, Brazil and India. The might of the chamber is decreased in favor of UN democratization. The budget of the UN is also decreased by sveral contributing states as an answer to this policy leading to protest by General secretary Mohammad Bashir.
2028: Mariela Castro, head of Cuba since 2018, reforms the government to, what she calls, “Communism of the future”. Cuba is now a basis democratic, council communism state. The US, Venezuela and Brazil accuse Castro that her anarchist tendenices will weaken the whole region. Indeed, like minded movements have grown in all of the americas.
Egyptian police takes down a islamist cell in Cairo and conficates a armed nuclear bomb. The worlds worst fears seem to be coming true. Egypt insisting on keeping hte wepaon leads to another diplomatic crisis.
Textile displays become common. Still the readability is not as good as with paper, but there are already newspaper feeds to wireless connected screen foils and laptops that can be put in a trousers pocket.
Olympics in Dodoma, Tanzania.
2029: US forces occupy Nicaragua after it attempted to follow the Cuban way and install a new government almost peacefully, using information-warfare, non-lethal weapons like microwave emitters and hundreds of drones. This war is called the “Sci Fi”-war later on and marks an attempt of the US government to show it has military capacity even while it occupies half of the middle east to compnesate for the loss of Taiwan. Also, talks about an independent Kurdistan are coming to an end. The US army also fields the first in-field test team of assault exoskeletons in this war. They cause a great media response but are not produced yet due to needing to much maintenance.
T-Shirts spotting moviecips get common but are forbidden in some places due to the riks of causing epileptical attacks.
India accuses China of funding the Assam rebels and dealing them neurotechnology. The rebel groups favored weapons are stray dogs put under neurosurgery to control by remote and then loaded with explosives as animal suicide bombers.
Translation of written text in all common languages can be nearly flawlessly managed by specialized software now.
2030: The worlds population reaches 8.3 billion.
Kurdistan is created from parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria to reward the Kurdish alliance with the west for 30 years. As long term consequence of this Iraqs relations to the US cool down. Syria is still under occupation while Turkey is left alone after the US have returned stability with help of rather secular nationalistic movements like the Grey Wolves. Iran had gotten rid of the islamist history quite soon and is now a mutual ally of the US. They view the loss of kurdish territory as necessary evil.
NASA and ESA start there second moon mission delayed because of the middle eastern war. The mission is a success and awakens a new desire to conquer the stars worldwide.
2031: Cuba has got fame as the biggest illegal data hub of the world and a centre of industry espionage. Due to it`s absence of copyright laws nearly every kind of information is legal there. The US starts an iniative to cut Cuba off from the Internet but fails because of Cuban satellite connections. US strategists worry increasingly as Cuba begins to train several african countries in infowar-tactics.
2032: Second Sino-Indian war. China invades India after clashes between Indian and Chinese troops on the borders. Together with Pakistanis the Chinese rush into Kashmir, breaks though the barrier and one of the hardest battles in history occurs. afterwars all of Ladakh is a nuclear waste and nearly one million man are dead. Other fronts work out better for the Chinese. Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu fall to the Chinese fleet with the help of the seperatist movement. Many South Indian cities are bombarded. Also the invasion of Assam and Myanmar goes well for similar reasons. Several new states are created in this region and Myanmar is reduced to it`s heartland. The new countries are: Assam, Nagaland, Tamilakam, Tenasserim-Union, Kachin and Shan. The ethnic minority of the Chin, also active in the war on Chinas side, is pacified with a vital part in the administration of Chinas new southern territory. These war was the most intensive modern use of the old colonial tactic of employing ethnic minorities and seperatists as mercenaries.
In a global ciris conference on the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation the great powers come to a second ban on the tactic use of nukes. Until now nuclear weapons have been used on sites in Japan, Pakistan, India, China, Myanmar, Israel and Syria in a war. Egypt announces possession of the knowledge and capacity to build nuclear weapons but also states it will not use it until a certain state of crisis is reached.
Olympics in Tokyo are cancelled as a sign of protest against the Chinese, Pakistani and Indian nuclear war and moved to Moscow in the last minute.
2033: South american solidarity pact between Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago and Peru is founded. Cuba wants to join but is excluded on a Venezuelan Veto.
2034: Chinas assistance for seperatism backfires as new Uigur and Tibetan resistance movements and terrorist cells spread throughout the country.
Cuba is invaded by the US successfully but the army pays with a 3 days long global shutdown of the Global Information Grid due to the free release of illegal combat viruses and suffers heavily. The invasion force pulls out for 4 days and starts talks armistice and convinces Cuba to stop the attack. The Grid is restarted while the US forces attack even during the talks and conquer the Island, having given their own infowar squads enough time to see through the Cuban tactics. The occupation stays difficult as Cubans employ a new sort of guerilla warfare based on hacking and public press leading to a harsh censorship and media control in the warzone.
2035: Jamaica gains independence again.
Chad joins the west african defense pact again.
China ist he new international centre of trade with illegal drugs, data and humans neighbouring the golden sickle and the golden triangle at once. Central asian countries close their borders for a short time to stop Chinese heroin smugglers from entering and there are several waves of repression during which moren than thousand dealers get rounded up and punished with death. There is also an increasing level of designer drugs, biochemical engineered substances and illegal organs. Shanghai is called “the capital of crime” now as several syndicates battle in it`s vast, sprawling slums.
2036: Kosovo joins the European Union.
Japanes Scientists present the first optical camouflage device. Several armies already plan to equip their special forces with this technology.
Olympics in Dubai.
India accepts European (mostly british) bases to break Chinese encirclement. The neonaxalite movement gains pace again, calling this step a fallback into colonisation.
Turkey negotiates to be let under the Russian missile defense shield and is accepted.
2037: The Eastern African Federation accepts reformed Somalia.
The Museum of Information Technology opens its gates in San Francisco spotting the greatest archive of out-of-date software, other types of Free- or Abandonware. It hosts the greatest public information archive worldwide, including the whole Wikimedia Foundation.
Chinese Occupation Forces leave central Sri Lanka again but stay in the Tamil regions.
2038: South Ossetia joins Russia.
The US army build up the first exoskeleton assault division of the world.
“Imaginist” art movement starts. World building in digital surroundings. There are no galleries but “portals” (computerscreens) in galleries that lead into Internet Museums.
Australia builds 8 new refugee camps under military administration on its coastline that are compared to concentration camps and human trafficking ressources by Refugee activists. Similar camps already exist in the Maghreb since a Decade.
2039: The Chinese unveil a planned Mars mission kept secret until short before the start. The mission is a catastrophic failure as it is hit on half way by a unknown small cosmic object and totally destroyed. China stoically begins to build up the second mission.
Linguists report the development of a new global dialects in major urban centers containing words from English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Arabic or other main languages, dubbing it Cityspeak.
2040: The worlds population reaches 8.5 billion.
The Central African Defense Pact invades Nigeria and occupies the eastern coast and the Niger Delta region to assist its rebels. The Western African Defense Pact Disbands after being unable or unwilling to bring about a response attack. The region is named “Niger Delta Defense Zone” at first. Negotiations for a own state for several minorities are brought on their way but reach no conclusion.
The City of Basra, Iraq, experienced extreme booming growth during the last two decades as it becomes the hub of a emerging middle eastern youth culture, sea trade and industry. There has also been a massive emigration during the war. Arabs, Iraqis, Iranians, Indians, Pakistani, Turkish, Syrians, Israelis, Palestinians and Kurds now live there side by side. It also becomes a political hotspot as it de facto sprawls out across the borders of Iran and Kuwait, containing more than 10 Million inhabitants.
Olympics in Rome.
Satellite connected expert systems can now take over your car for you as autopilot for short distances.
2041: Islamist fundamentalism seems to decline due to leading Movements civilizing, decreasing to unimportant sects or becoming corrupted by organized crime and fragmenting into cartels. Also the middle eastern world seems to be tired of religious zeal and war. A secular movement is rising but still rather unsuccessful.
Indonesia defeats several little uprisings on Sumatra. Several communities there gain semi-autonomy status.
The introduction of little supercavitation fighter submarines changes marine warfare forever.
2042: The Sea levels habe risen about 1m now since 2010, endangering the Persian Gulf region, the Netherlands, South Vietnam, Bangladesh, the Nile Delta, several Pacific Islands and other regions. Most of the time there are damming projects but some areas, mainly the Bangladeshi coast, sink under the waves.
The Central European states initiate the next step in the development of the European Union and form a combined state out of the Benelux states, Germany, France and Spain: “Inner Europa”. The Basque Country and Bretagne are not included but join the EU as autonomous regions.
Iran, Iraq and Kuwait declare the Special Economic Zone of greater Basra. Basra has now a similar status as Hongkong had in the last century for parts of it being “leased” by the two other countries.
Cameroon annexes the “Niger Delta Defense Zone” after a faked vote.
2043: Katanga is admitted into the Eastern African Federation.
The Eastern African Federation votes to become a single State with the same name after the example of the inner EU.
Border conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupts but comes to a standstill soon as Europe and Russia negotiate an armistice.
2044: Papuan Civil War. Western Papua gains independence with the help of possibly US assisted mercenary forces but the oil wells remain in the hand of the Indnoesian army. The Islands of Ceram and Ambon fall into the hands of strong paramilitary forces armed with state-of-the-art technology consisting mainly of Maori Veterans. Instead of playing on south moluccan nationalist feelings though, they declare the Seram Free state which increasingly gets renown as a modern pirate republic. UN forces are deployed in Papua and Seram.
Olympics in Cape Town.
2045: Deserted Indonesian forces and Papuan rebel groups found Kamaina Republic and ask the UN to station peacekeepers there, which it does.
Ukraine severs its ties with Russia in favor of a membership trial with the European Union.
Digital money (credit cards, chips, credsticks) has excelled cash in the developed countries.
The Riad Street Festival marks the continuing rise of the arabic counter culture when youth from the whole middle east dance together to secular rock songs and radical-feminist electronic music. The festival is stopped by the authorities after three days, hundreds of teenagers are arrested. Riots break out across Saudi Arabia in response.
2046: The upcoming, widely successful Turanist Movement calls for a Union of turkish Central Asian States and founds several popular political parties in them.
Italys referendum to join “Inner Europa” fails.
2047: The rest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is shaken by civil war, food riots and famine and threatens to destabilize the whole central african region.
The Central African Defense Pact occupies Congo but moves out again after heavy guerilla fighting.
Simultaneous translators for spoken language are becoming common as do other wearable computing systems.
2048: Chile joins the South American Solidarity Pact.
Iraqi civil war breaks out as fundamentalist mullahs agitate the rural population against the “decadence of the south” and Sunnite and Shiite tensions flare up again.
The East African Federation develops an own missile defense screen.
Belorussia follows the ukrainian example, applies fo EU membership and slips into civil war.
Panama joins the South American Solidarity Pact to the outrage of the US government. It is now called American Solidarity Pact.
Iran occupies southern Iraq and the Iraqi part of the Basra Economic Zone to combat anarchist terrorists groups acting across the Iranian borders from there and later annexes it. A new Persian Gulf war starts. This war becomes a similar staging point for the arabian and middle eastern left youth as the Vietnam war was for the US one but even years before it, the social movements are virulent throughout the Muslim countries.
Olympics in Madrid. A Catalan seperatist terror group bombs the European Administration during the Olympics. There are several other terror warnings but no further attacks happen and the Olympics are continued by shedule.
OPEC announces that the last oil reserves will have run out in 2060.
2049: Jordanian radical anarchists and workers unions take over the capital of Amman for several days and take the royal family hostage until the insurgency is defeated and military forces Egyptian Special Forces liberate the King.
Mongolia becomes a nearly income tax free country, luring Tax-Refugees and other investment.
Greece leftwing government gives up full membership of the European Union accusing it of “destroying civil freedoms in favor of corporate aristocracy” but remains in the trading zone. Bulgaria and Cyprus act similar.
Saudi Arabia becomes a constitutional monarchy after a political crisis to prevent anarchist insurgency.
The Touareg State is created peacefully out of Algeria, Niger and Mali territory but remains heavily dependent on this states.
Neonaxalites topple the Indian government and take control with Chaos following in their wake. While the civil war goes on, the government moves to Mumbai as new Capital but it has already downgraded from a democratic elected parliament to a militaristic hindunational junta.
The first automated malls with wireless payment are opening in developed countries. Many of these malls are only managed by a few people who control a pool of sorting and transport drones.
2050: The worlds population reaches 8,9 billion.
The final end of social inequality of women in Saudi Arabia comes with the decision on the Gender Equality Act.
The Belarus- Civil War ends which leads to a split in the country. The eastern part falls to russia.
Most stationed US troops leave Syria.
With the Balkan Iniative Serbia, Bosnia, Albania and Montenegro join the EU trading zone as a well for low paid work force.
Indonesia calls the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army to help to combat the “pirate problem”.
The fourth Persian Gulf war ends with a victorious Iran and a again seriously instabile Iraq with stationed UN peacekeeping forces that fractures before the end of the year into a liberal south and a religious orthodox north as well as a demilitarized Zone in joint control of Kurdistan and Iran which borders on the Tigris river. Bagdad is divided into three parts.
Balochistan rebels begin to stir in Pakistan and Iran each side making the other responsible.