The History of Known Space, to 2221

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Presented here is my version of the future history of humanity, from the near-present to the year 2221 A.D. The events I have imagined here are largely what I see as being somewhere between possible and inevitable, and in no case are they necessarily desirable either by me or by anyone else. This is all idle speculation, and if you disagree with me, good! That is to say, no insult is intended or should be inferred from any of what I have written.

2000's

• Huge earthquake (8.6 on the richter scale) hits Tokyo, but the city is well prepared and damage is minimal
• Basque resistance heats up, especially after Spain gains the presidency of the EU
• Kurdistan is carved out of Iraq with US guidance; Kurdistan immediately begins trying to liberate Kurds in Turkey
• Peace is finally reached in Northern Ireland, which becomes a sovereign state under the agreement signed
• Missions to Mars reveal no existence of Martian life and fail to capture the public imagination

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2010's

• Quebec secedes from Canada; the maritimes become the Eastern Canadian Republic
• Italy dissolves; Ten independent states are formed and begin skirmishing over territory; Slovenia takes Trieste; Internal pressure on NATO builds ( historical map is available)
• After Labor wins a decisive victory, Israeli-Palestinian peace is finally reached; Palestine has near complete sovereignty within its borders
• Generals of North Korea stage a coup, ousting Kim Jong-il (2011); they try various scapegoats (Kim's killer is never officially found) and set about discussing reunification with the South
• Jiang Zemin loses power and is placed under house arrest, under which he dies in 2022; Yang Zhonghan eventually gains power and begins the Revitalization Campaign (aimed at gradually introducing democratic reforms)
• Several armed conflicts occur in the South China Sea; China and a joint Philippine/Taiwanese force come close to war (2012); Finally, in the Bangkok Accord (2013), a precise scheme of division is laid out in which China, Malaysia and the Philippines gain the top hand; The division of international waters is protested in the UN but China vetoes a censure measure, and no country is willing to risk angering China (then engaged in its own internal struggles, and with unclear military control) with anything more than symbolic protests
• The International Space Station is finished, well behind schedule and over budget (2011)
• Microsoft is dissolved in a US court decision
• Poland moves into Belorussia, on the basis of historical claims and to put down a strong, militia style anti Polish Belorussian government; Poland is successful until Ukraine moves into Belorussia to "protect" it; Poland withdraws; eastern Belorussia becomes a Ukrainian protectorate (2014)
• The "Big One" hits southern California (2016), causing huge losses of life and property (11,000 dead, $517.4 billion damage); Large parts of the state (including all of LA) remain under martial law for three years; Drastic federal spending cuts are required to pay for rebuilding, ending many programs (including the "Social Security Bailout Act" of 2011, but not including very many military programs) and sending the world into recession (2018-21)
• The last publicly funded SETI program (at Cambridge) ceases due to lack of funds; Private programs continue
• India institutes a very strict two-child-per-family population control program

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2020's

• Taiwan and China agree to unify within 50 years; The first narrow-franchise multiparty elections are held in China (2023); Chinese Democratic Party wins provincial posts in Guangdong and Sichuan, as well as many other areas
• Nigerian civil war (2021-25); Biafra successfully secedes
• Humanity's first lunar base is established by the European Space Agency, with extensive corporate backing; The base is given the rather boring name of Luna One (2020)
• Social Security in the US goes bankrupt; Massive rioting follows; St. Louis is nearly destroyed in the so-called "Long Week" (2022); Racial violence spreads nationwide; "Wheelchair Rebellion" occurs when the AARP calls its members to the Mall in Washington, D.C.; 500,000 show up and the protests briefly turn violent; Vid audiences are horrified to see police beating elderly people on the steps of the Capitol
• Korea is reunified and quickly becomes occupied with rebuilding and absorbing the North; Korea begins a space program (based in part on Kim Jong-il's ballistic missile program) to focus and restore common national pride
• Huge British-French-German dispute over tariffs and Euro policy causes the collapse of NATO and nearly dissolves the EU; French and German armed forces briefly stare at each across their common border for three tense weeks (2028)
• Julia Karlan and Antony DaRosa invent a method to modify the spins of subatomic particles; In combination with the recent discovery of momons, near-relativistic (though not yet FTL, nor efficient) travel becomes a real possibility
• Japanese diet votes to annul the constitutional ban on a standing army; SDF is sent to the Kurils; Russia quickly cedes the islands to Japan (2028)
• Brazil quits Mercosur under internal nationalist pressure (2029); Mercosur gradually falls apart following this
• Somalian clans agree to a proportional representation system, and peace, albeit shaky, is finally brought to the Horn of Africa
• EU, Japan, South Africa, Indonesia, Brazil and most other large nations introduce population control laws, in most cases limiting families to two children; The US stubbornly refuses to do so in spite of mounting evidence of a coming population crash
• The previously-breakneck pace of computer technology development slows greatly as designers come up against the molecular barrier; Originally-optimistic forecasts calling for full artificial intelligence before 2040 are revised to 2100 or even later; Computers produced in the 2020's do not become fully obsolete for decades; Many computer companies fail

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2030's

• Border skirmishes between Brazil and Argentina are followed by full war (2031-34); Brazil gains no Argentinean ground, but Uruguay becomes a Brazilian protectorate
• Indonesia invades Malaysia, with Singapore remaining neutral; ASEAN dissolves (2039); war continues
• Japanese scientists develop the so-called "White Bacteria" to combat the greenhouse effect; WB is released in spite of widespread environmental protests against it (2034)
• The former Italian states' borders are frozen in the Vatican Accords (2030)
• Egyptian and Libyan tensions flare into war (2032-34); Egypt finally takes control of Libya and northern Sudan (which had been home to many Libyan guerilla bases) from the hands of Qaddafi's successor (his son)
• The Aryan American Party (AAP) makes strong showings in the US during the 2032 and 2036 elections
• Southern and northern California agree to greater equality in the Sacramento Contract
• A Basque group uses a nuclear bomb on Madrid, killing 12,400; This is the first offensive use of nuclear weapons since W.W.II; Spain thereupon crushes the Basque movement fiercely; Deaths, cancers and other aftereffects of the blast continue until the present day
• Poland moves into Lithuania following a long period of anti-Polish nationalist fervor in Lithuania; Germany and Ukraine subsequently invade Poland when it refuses to withdraw its troops (2035); German and Ukrainian forces bisect Poland, meeting at Lodz (2037); Poland sues for peace; Lithuania becomes a Ukrainian colony and both Ukraine and Germany retain large land gains
• The term "Modified English" is coined by Philippine writer Alexandra Feliciano to refer to the common world tongue
• The UN grants sovereignty to Northern Cyprus
• The Scottish parliament votes to secede from the UK, which hesitantly allows the move, but retains the name United Kingdom (referring only to England and Wales)
• Various countries repeal their monopoly laws to encourage their own international competitiveness; The first country to do so is the US
• Japan, the Philippines and several US mining concerns argue and then skirmish over their competing claims to several plots of prime ocean-bottom land in the Pacific (2034-37); A Japanese-Philippine alliance eventually forces the US groups out; The world's first true corporate state, the Pacific Mining Union (PMU) is formed as a puppet of the Japanese and Philippine backers
• Vietnam holds democratic, multiparty elections; The National Democratic Party wins (2031) and soon moves into Laos to "liberate" it from its corrupt dictatorship; Laos becomes and Vietnamese protectorate and is eventually absorbed
• The Albanian government collapses (2032); Greek forces "strategically occupy" Albania to stop guerilla fighting and ethnic cleansing of Hellenic Albanians; A provisional (and strongly pro-Greek) government is set up in Albania
• The AIDS vaccine is finalized and becomes widely used in developed countries

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2040's

• Many corporations begin "moving up" into space; Several nations follow suit, but with much less enthusiasm; By the end of the 2040's, approximately 1000 people live permanently off-Earth, mostly scientists and engineers
• Indian civil war (2043-48) and balkanization; Over 1.7 million people are killed in the fighting; Nine states result: Kashmir, Pradesh, Bengal, Assam, Kalinga, Dravidia, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat (for map, click here); Myanmar takes the Andaman islands (2047)
• A Vietnamese-Philippine coalition imposes peace on the Malaysian battlefield, ending the Indo-Malaysian war (2042)
• Baluchi resistance heats back up; Iran moves forces into the region and begins attacking Baluchi bases in Pakistan; Pakistan moves in to protect its territory, causing full-scale war (2047)
• AAP wins gubernatorial elections in the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas (2040; Green party also wins elections in two states (Michigan and Connecticut) but the AAP victories grab the spotlight; Various horrible laws are enacted in the AAP states (racial tagging, forced abortions, labor camps for the homeless, etc.)
• Korea establishes humanity's first Martian base (2045), soon followed by France, Germany, Japan and others
• The first crewed mission to the asteroids in sent by a French-corporate team (2044); Returns with promising results
• In order to prevent a north-south split, the new Zealand parliament sets up a large free-trade zone on South Island, the SIFTZ (2049)
• Xingu Fever kills 150,000 in South America (2046-49)
• Riots occur worldwide as AIDS continues to spread despite the availability of the vaccine, and because of its still-high price
• After a huge dispute with Spain and Portugal, the UK becomes the supreme power in the northern Atlantic, specifically in sea-floor mining (2049); Britain turns more and more to the sea for its sustenance
• Fusion reactors are marketed commercially; Many small nations go into debt to purchase them
• Pope Julius V declares homosexuality and the marriage of priests not to be sins (2041); the Catholic church splits into True Orthodox and Catholic sects, among others; Many catholics become protestants
• Katanga secedes from the Democratic Republic of Congo with extensive South African assistance (2043); Katanga quickly shows itself determined not to be dominated by South Africa, though
• Under a Communist government, France abuses the Euro to the point of censure by the EU Bank and President (who happens to be German); France withdraws from the EU (2041), followed by most other EU nations (who are eager to avoid a German-controlled Union), save Greece, Poland and Belgium; The EU gradually crumbles; In the wake of this, the Walloon-Flemish conflict heats up in Belgium; The ESA is privatized and soon parceled up and purchased by various European, American, Korean and Japanese corporations; Luna One becomes a Korean possession (2044), and the name is simply changed to a Korean translation of the original
• Albania is formally integrated into Greece (2045)

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2050's

• Space station Enterprise is constructed to serve as a corporate habitat/headquarters for several groups; The Council of Sovereign Nations is created to govern the station; The CSN charter includes a statement about "full reproductive freedom for all citizens," promising unlimited births for productive personnel; Several nations protest but are unable to extend their authority to the CSN's high home ground
• Colonies are established throughout the solar system by Korea, Germany, Japan, France, Ukraine, China and others; All space-going nations begin developing space navies; Interplanetary safety is barely enforced through extensive international agreements and space-going nations' navies serving as UN Peacekeepers when necessary; By the end of the decade, more than 10,000 people live permanently off-Earth
• The crew of the UN patrol ship Venizia mutinies in Lunar orbit, becoming the first band of interplanetary pirates (2050); The ship takes a small L5 agro station as its HQ, but only holds out for three weeks before a UN Peacekeeper force storms the station
• Baluchistan declares itself to be independent with Pakistani backing, but war continues
• The US supreme court strikes down the Texas Criminal Control Act of 2055, which, among other things, outlaws 'mixed marriages'; Texas' governor declares the state's secession from the USA, nationalizes the Texas National Guard and all US federal troops in the state and gets the other AAP governors to join him; The Second American Civil War begins (2057); The AAP states adopt the name Aryan American States
• South American rainforest natives in Brazil and Venezuela begin guerilla warfare against the two nations, citing economic and political injustices; The Native Tribes Coalition is formed (2059)
• PMU productivity goes down almost 30% over five years (2051-56); Japanese and Philippine troops in the PMU are reduced to a bare minimum (i.e., police) level; The PMU asserts its independence from Japan and the Philippines (2058) and sets up secondary headquarters on the Enterprise, becoming the first sovereign nation to do so
• Germany uses nanotech to construct a tunnel to Sweden; Though completed ahead of schedule (2051), the project is still a failure due to simple lack of appeal and competition from hover and zepp transport
• The entire world goes off beef for several years when the Anti-Meat Alliance (AMA) releases a tailored virus which is highly communicable and, while being non-fatal to cattle, is 99% fatal in humans; Hundreds of thousands of cattle are subsequently slaughtered

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2060's

• The CSN is reformed into the League of Sovereign Nations (LSN) in 2060; Charter includes provisions for mutual defense and rejection of the UN; Signatories include Boeing, General Motors, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, the PMU, Procter and Gamble, Siemens and Sumitomo; Chair Yoshiko Tezuka makes her famous speech about the stupidity of warring over "a handful of dirt and a flag"; Myanmar, Turkey, Bulgaria, Tunisia and Equador quit the UN and join the LSN (2062-69); The LSN is criticized for accepting only human rights abusers into its camp, and also for practicing money diplomacy, but rapid improvement in the new LSN members' quality of life silences the critics; Many smaller corps join the LSN
• A series of nanoviruses (nanotech which destroy other nanotech) is released somewhere in Germany by a disgruntled ex-designer of the German-Swedish Tunnel; Although not the first, they are the most dangerous ones yet devised; Medical nanotech-use plummets when nanomeds start malfunctioning due to nanovirus infection; Many people subsequently attempt to create nanovirus-proof nanotech, but none ever really succeed and nanotech use dwindles
• Taiwan pulls out of the Mainland-Taiwan unification agreement, but the agreement is revivified when the projected date of final unification is pushed back by 50 years
• Holographic projection in real-time is perfected
• The Indian states plunge back into war (2064-68), with little land changing hands; The main change is that Sri Lanka forms a union with Dravidia, and does so peacefully save for a separatist terrorist campaign; A two-year Indian truce is signed in Johannesburg; The truce lasts, largely due to exhaustion on all sides
• The AAS move to take Virginia, Washington DC, Arizona and New Mexico, then succeed in doing so (2063); USA retakes Washington DC, but an AAS nuclear strike launched from a former US base in Oklahoma destroys the city; The Capitol of the USA is moved to Boston; The USA briefly considers a retaliatory nuclear strike, but foreign pressure and aid stop this
• Genesis Corporation is formed (2062)
• Iran pulls out of Baluchistan and recognizes its independence
• The Catholic Church is reunited after the death of Julius V; John XXV is anointed Supreme Pontiff; The Church slowly undoes Julius' reforms and regains lost membership, but never again returns to its former status
• Belgium peacefully dissolves into Flanders and Wallonia; Flanders initiates unification with the Netherlands
• The Lapp nationalist movement grows in Sweden, Norway and (to a lesser extent) Finland

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2070's

• The KD drive surpasses the light-speed barrier, allowing interstellar travel, though not economically yet (2072); LSN nations, which are the first to have the FTL technology, begin interstellar exploration (uncrewed at first) and begin extensive exploitation of the Solar System; Barnard's Star is found to have a marginally-inhabitable planet with extensive resources (Nova Siberia); Interest in SETI briefly resparks but then fizzles no ET's are found by probes, nor evidence of ET life of any kind; Barnard's Star is colonized; LSN naming procedures are established and less-attractive planets around Centauri, Escalante (Lalande 21185) and Wolf (Wolf 359) are explored, though not yet colonized; More than 250,000 people live permanently off-Earth by the end of the decade, and more than 1000 live in extrasolar settlements
• Archer Daniel Midlands, Citibank, Daiwa, Ethiopia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Phillips, Sony, Tasmania and Time-Warner join the LSN; The LSN begins an ad campaign depicting "the competition" (the UN) as weak and indecisive, with the tag line, "LSN - We get things done."
• New Zealand South Island Party (NZSIP) forces a vote on South Island secession in the New Zealand parliament, amidst cries that the SIFTZ is a failure; Secession vote fails
• The AAS takes SoCal (2071) then moves to take NoCal; Battle of Springfield (Missouri, in 2073) stops further AAS encroachment; Fresno is destroyed by AAS nukes; The US then destroys Austin, TX in retaliation; The Los Angeles Massacre occurs when the AAS rounds up 60,000 "militant rioters and looters" (notably almost all dark-skinned) and kills them; The USA requests help from the international community; Canada, Germany, France, Quebec, Japan, Korea and South Africa all respond with military and financial aid; The Sabre of Allah (the 231st Special Forces, an all-Moslem and mostly African-American guerilla warfare unit) is founded in the USA to fight within the AAS; The Sabre's members are trained in Capoeira and other skills, and remain a popular subject for media in the USA and AAS alike up to the present (although media depictions of the group vary widely, of course)
• Kazakhstan begins unifying the Central Asian nations by force (2070)
• Maharashtra absorbs Goa by force (2073); Bengal conquers Pradesh (2072) and then Kalinga (2076) and begins calling itself "India"; Pakistan takes Kashmir almost peacefully, as Bengal is too busy to
• Venezuela makes peace with the NTC and begins large infrastructure improvements in the NTC's Venezuelan homelands
• Georgia unites the Caucasus with the help of a Sumitomo army, but Armenian resistance proves too strong and Armenia frees itself (2075-6)

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2080's

• Several small skirmishes occur between the LSN nations over the colonization of space, but the losers do not join the UN (as they are corporations and would be be unable to do so in the first place); Colonization in general continues to grow and accelerate
• Under pressure from colonization efforts, a joint Japanese-Korean-corporate team completes the first orbital cable at Pontiniak, Indonesia (2086); The cable, officially called the Skyline, boosts the local economy hugely; The local area is officially governed by a Korean-Japanese-Malaysian council, but is effectively independent; The Skyline zone is soon competing fiercely with Singapore for trade
• The War of Italian Reunification begins when Padania occupies San Marino (2084); Abruzzi, Tuscany and Venizia seize the excuse to invade Padania, then pull in all the Italian states, save Sicily (which remains independent) and Piedmont (which is annexed by France in 2085); The War is complete in 2086
• After Brazil massacres a village of 2600 native people, the NTC asks for Venezuelan and Colombian assistance; The Rainforest War (aka the Amazonas War) ensues (2081-94); Peru takes a chunk of Brazilian territory, as does Argentina; Argentina returns Uruguay to independence, though only as a satellite state; Venezuela takes Suriname and the Guianas; The LSN remains neutral, the UN remains petrified
• Australia joins the LSN (2085) soon after establishing the Northern Homeland, a semi-independent aboriginal protectorate in the northeast, occupying most of the former Queensland and some of the Northern Territory; Australia is considered by many to be the first real nation-state to join the LSN; Australia begins its own interstellar colonization effort
• Decades of mutual espionage between Hyundai and General Motors results in the Corp War (2087-89); Several orbital habitats are destroyed, though the groundside conflict remains just short of outright war; The war ends with a stalemate; The UN's orbital command takes little notice of the war, much to the consternation of the people of Earth
• Kazakhstan largely succeeds in unifying central Asia, with only Tajikstan remaining independent (2085)
• The NZSIP again forces a vote on South Island secession but fails (2087)
• The Iranian government falls in an 11-day revolution, led by the leader of the Persian Women's Party; A democratic government is set up by a mixed military-democratic coalition and the country's name officially reverts to Persia (2082); The ex-Iranian government-in-exile flees to Georgia; Persia's government soon begins exporting revolution to Iraq, which is still under a military dictatorship
• A brief attempt by Maharashtra to take Gujarat is stopped by Bengali ("Indian") and Dravidian forces' counter-invasion of Maharashtra (2083); Gujarat is awarded with a small portion of Maharashtran territory as compensation; Again the UN is powerless to change the outcome
• Myanmar invades northern Thailand (2081); Mitsubishi troops win the war for Myanmar, although the entry of Hyundai troops on the side of Thailand brings the war to a halt (2083); The UN passes various resolutions but is basically ineffective in changing the conflict one way or another
• CitiBank (including Chase) and Daiwa Bank merge to form Alphabank (2084), at the time the largest corp in human space
• The increasing reliance of humanity upon a breakneck pace of technological progress is criticized, but little in the way of alternatives seem available
• Lebanon and Syria unite as the Druze Republic after several years of debates and negotiations (2087)

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2090's

• The Tibetan independence movement turns violent after the 16th Dalai Lama calls for military action against the PRC government ("inverting the occupation" are his actual words); Chongqing is struck by a conventional bomb, killing 422 (2090); Many other guerilla attacks occur, though none cause as much loss of life or media furor
• Taiwan repudiates the Mainland unification agreement and declares its independence from China (2090); Taiwan joins the LSN; An LSN commsat is destroyed a PRC-crewed weapons platform, citing a "dangerously collision-prone orbit," and disrupting communications between Taiwan and the Philippines for about 100 hours; The Straits War follows (2091-93); Taiwan is largely crippled by conventional strikes, but China's victory is pyrrhic at best as it is soon forced to accept the independence of both Taiwan and Tibet when LSN forces intervene (2093); The LSN forces the PRC to withdraw from both Taiwan and Tibet; PRC colonies on Mars and in Saturn orbit declare their independence as well, and are recognized as such by China, then join the LSN; This is considered by many to be the first LSN-UN war, and is also notably the first conflict in which full exoskeletal armor is standard equipment for front-line troops; The image of LSN troops in exoskeletal armor planting the Tibetan flag atop the Potala Palace is impressed upon the common memory
• The US moves to take SoCal and Memphis (2094) with the war cry "Never forget LA!"; A Mexican diversion attack on Texas allows US victory, though it also results in anti-US feelings among the Mexican populace, who feel that the US never fully acknowledges Mexico's contribution to California's liberation, nor to Mexico's loss of 45,000 lives in the effort
• After Venezuela and Colombia reach victory over Brazil in the Amazonas War (2094), the so-called "South American Cold War" sets in between Venezuela and Colombia
• Korea and Japan quit the UN and join the LSN; Many smaller corporations, nations and stations follow
• Barnard's, Centauri, Escalante and Wolf continue to be settled; The focus of interstellar colonization moves towards Sirius, Luyten (UV Ceti), Fuxing (Ross 248) and Jayapura (Ross 154); As interstellar colonization becomes a matter of national pride as well as a population pressure 'release valve', Bengal ("India"), South Africa, Egypt and several other quickly-growing countries begin their own drives; Bengal fortifies Nicobar as its main spaceport; Several economics pundits suggest that interplanetary trade will pay for itself within 10 years; Several nations begin intensive homesteading campaigns, both to spread their influence and to reduce population pressures; "Extraterran relocation" becomes a common practice, and is increasingly seen as being a humane alternative to allowing the poor to die through starvation; Many corporations gain vast numbers of employees as they do "contract resettlement," accepting poorer nations' citizens as their colonists; The UN, largely unable to maintain its interplanetary and interstellar policing activities, cedes control of Earth Orbital Command to the LSN; The K-D "speed limit" passes 0.01 light-years per day
• A second orbital cable is built at Libreville, Gabon; plans are made for more on Earth, as well as at Nova Siberia, Mars and several other places
• Large labor protests occur in several African nations when off-Earth gem-grade diamonds flood the market and drive prices down
• Italy retakes Milan, driving French forces to the Ticina river before stopping (2090); France stoically accepts the loss
• Katanga takes the northeast panhandle of the DRC
• Hokkaido briefly secedes from Japan (2091-93) but is lured back with promises of investment; Japanese colonies in the outer solar system demand similar treatment but are basically brushed off
• Iraq goes to war with Persia over Persian terrorist bases located within Iraq; Persia, with French and Indonesian help, soon wins the war and sets up a provisional government in Baghdad (2098); Elections are scheduled for 2100
• Indonesia assists a resurgent Muslim revolution in Mindanao; The Philippines soon requests assistance from its primary allies, Japan and Taiwan, resulting in the Mindanao War (2097-2103)
• Many of the huge corporations (including General Motors, Hyundai and Danone, among others) fail, due to a strange combination of overextension, overspecialization and general loss of momentum; The Crash of '95 (2095), when five major corps implode in a single month, causes a brief global recession (2095-96), as well as causing corps systemwide and beyond to reconsider their basic strategies; Singapore, which has tied itself quite closely to several of the collapsed corps, goes bankrupt and 'merges' with the Skyline government (2097), holding semi-independent status; Several stations in the asteroid belt and Jovian orbit take the opportunity to buy their freedom and declare their sovereignty
• Sweden grants independence to Lappland (official name: Sapmi)
• Many pundits report that, while birth rates are declining worldwide, they are not declining fast enough; At some point in the 2090's, the population of Earth passes 10 billion; Excessive reliance on monogenetic crops and ever-more-strained agriculture is widely criticized, but little is done to stop the problem

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2100's

• China attempts to take control of Mongolia, first politically (by aiding pro-China parties) and then militarily; Mongolia's application to the LSN is accepted, and LSN troops quickly rebuff the first Chinese assault; A large part of Inner Mongolia is ceded to Mongolia, and Yunnan is granted independence as the Dali Republic, which naturally joins the LSN (2101)
• 'Leadership Lag' is experienced more and more by extrasolar colonies, in spite of ever-increasing communications speeds (K-D drives are able to exceed 0.02 LYD before the decade is out); Corruption in local leadership is also widely noted, crowding increases while colonization efforts continue apace, and popular unrest grows; LSN command is either unaware, unresponsive or unable to do anything, though
• Discovery of a Terran/garden-type world at Epsilon Eridani results in an intense rush for colonization there; The system is dubbed Petit-Sol, and the planet (actually a moon) is dubbed Petit-Terre; Many nations institute tax-exemptions and other incentives for homesteaders; Salvador (Ross 128), Francisco (Procyon), Auxerre Nouveau (61 Cygni) and Malacca (Epsilon Indi) are also explored and colonized
• The PRC and USA force the dissolution of the UN (2103); The USA joins LSN, while China forms the Asian Council, but only Georgia and Afghanistan join it; Various other small coalitions form, but most ex-UN nations join the LSN (2103-06); Several marginally-stable countries are notably required to undergo extensive evaluation periods before being allowed entrance to the LSN
• Skirmishes continue between the USA and AAS; Large parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas become wastelands; AAS pushes into southern Utah; Following respectful but resolute requests by a coalition of Native Americans to the government of the USA, the near-sovereign Native American Republic is carved out of parts of Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota and Minnesota (2107); The NAR joins the LSN; A plebiscite in Utah shows (false) public support for the AAS government; The USA withdraws from Antarctica, resulting in diplomatic squabbles among the contenders but no outright warfare
• Ukraine (new to the LSN) takes Romania and Moldova, citing various ridiculous reasons (racial similarity and economic co-prosperity being the main ones); Slovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia form the Central European Strategic Alliance (CESA) as a united front against Ukrainian aggression; Russia protests the Ukrainian action to the LSN, but neither Russia nor the LSN as a whole take any real action
• The Genesis corporation takes over the administration and government of Mali in a popular election
• Following huge riots in Xinjiang against the PRC government, Kazakhstan invades western China, stopping just short of Gansu and Qinghai; The Eastern Turkestan Republic (AKA the Uighur Republic) is established as a Kazakhstani puppet/satellite (2109)
• Eastern Siberia attempts to secede from Russia, but Russian troops enforce its unity (2108); Separatists soon find aid from Korea, China and Japan
• Elections in Iraq give victory to pro-reform parties (2100); Peaceful relations between Iraq and Persia grow
• Japanese colonies around Saturn rebel, establishing the Saturnian Democratic Republic (SDR) in 2106; Japanese forces fight briefly to rein them in but meet with defeat when several pirate groups join the fray on the SDR's side; Rumors arise that the SDR is really just a front for criminal organizations, especially the Yakuza
• Following advances in exoskeletal armor, several countries adopt biotipped slugthrower (BTST) weapons, soon dubbed "batshit" by US troops; Main users of BTST include China and Georgia; LSN member nations agree to forbid such weapons themselves, and grant themselves the right and responsibility to intervene against and depose any government, LSN or otherwise, which uses BTST weapons ("Anyone so psychotic as to use BTST weapons on this earth belongs not in office but in protective custody," remarks the chair of the LSN BTST policy committee)
• Mindanao War ends with Mindanao an independent state, but also a satellite of Indonesia (2104), after the Philippines is convinced by Japan to let the island go
• Following decades of low-scale guerilla warfare, the government of Madagascar votes to divide into the independent states of Hova (north) and Merina (south)
• Druze Republic divides into Syria (north), Badiyat (south) and Lebanon (west)
• Geologists estimate that Earth's total remaining reserves of petroleum and natural gas will last only about 25 years at most

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2110's

• First discovery of extraterrestrial sapients, with contact of a Qiqiu scout ship near Mendoza (Wolf 424) in 2112; Bungled contact brings armed conflict; Local ships are quickly defeated by the Qiqiu forces; An LSN fleet turns the tide and peace is finally restored (2113), followed by hesitantly positive human-Qiqiu relations
• The LSN shifts to the method of colonial rule to the "governor-fleet" system, wherein a colonial governor, sometimes appointed by Earth, sometimes elected locally, is backed up by a powerful naval fleet and ground force in each system; Individual nations begin to lose power over their colonies, unless they can afford their own fleets, which few can; The new system is seen as a stop-gap measure to prevent colonial fractionalization, but no future alternative is mentioned; 'Colonial nationalism', also known as 'systemism', grows as the first generation of humans who've never been within a light-year of Earth grow up; Occasional attempts by 'systemist' rebels are quashed by LSN command and its governors; One of the first widely-known attempts at rebellion occurs when Pandora's Box, a 'rec station' (providing a number of services, but mostly sexual ones) at Petit-Sol refuses to accept LSN governance and declares itself independent; The brief Prostitutes' War (also disparagingly called the "Whores' War") ends with a bloody massacre of the station's inhabitants by LSN computroops
• A final push by the USA retakes Virginia; The AAS sues for peace (2116); A huge flood of refugees pours into the USA; A "permanent ceasefire" is signed, but soon, the entire USA/AAS border (basically the 37° parallel, save for Utah and California) becomes a vast fortified demilitarized strip, and guerilla warfare continues on both sides; The Idaho Patriotic Militia takes credit for releasing a potent bioweapon on Cleveland and killing 109,000; The AAS claims no knowledge (2119); The USA begins a space program, based in SoCal, Hawaii and Puerto Rico (which was never taken by the AAS, although attempts were made)
• Following a Colombian junta, Venezuela moves into Colombia to "restore democracy and stability to the region"; Colombia predictably becomes a Venezuelan protectorate (2113)
• The NZSIP calls for another secession vote after a huge sheep epidemic is mishandled; Some say the epidemic was caused by radical South Island separatists; The secessionists carry the vote, with 67% voting for secession (2116); The government of New Zealand declares the vote unconstitutional and sends in troops to prevent the secession, resulting in civil war
• Sony, Time-Warner and AT&T merge to become PanMedia (2115)
• The first full-body transplant is performed in Germany (2119); The patient lives two years before succumbing to massive nervous system disintegration and failure; Later transplants gradually improve on this record
• The first fully-intelligent AI systems are created, but later all are abandoned due to fundamental flaws, often leading to severe psychoses on the part of the AI's
• Syrian special forces use BTST weapons in an espionage operation against Israel; Once Israel proves the presence and Syrian origin of the weapons, the LSN promptly invades Syria and deposes the government, ignoring protests from Syria and its allies
• Despite extensive engineering, heavy rains 2112-17 cause the Yellow River to spill over its banks, making millions homeless; The Yellow River changes course, flowing south of the Shandong Peninsula; The Chinese effort to settle off-earth colonies grows even more intense
• Interstellar colonization efforts continue, now aimed at Mendoza, Nuevo Colombia (DM+50° 1725), Pandora (Ross 878) and Penglai (Kruger 60)
• The Czech Republic and Bulgaria join the CESA
• In Japan, Nakajima Hoen invents information sorting ("Inforate"), allowing information to be traded directly and quantifiably as a commodity
• The Natural Conservation Corporation claims large sections of the Atlantic and Pacific ocean floors and manages to get its claims accepted by the LSN, although pirates from various nations continue to plague the area for decades; Two nations are established, Atlantica (in the Atlantic, naturally enough) and Pacifica (in the Pacific, obviously), both under NCC leadership and with LSN membership

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2120's

• Several years of independence movements are staunchly opposed by the governor of the Jayapura system; Colonies in the system stage general strikes and then revolt; The First Colony War begins when the LSN governor's forces try to crush the revolt (2121); The colonies at Malacca soon follow Jayapura's lead; After the majority of the LSN fleet at Jayapura falls into local control, the governor of Jayapura surrenders and Jayapuran forces try to throw the remaining LSN forces back to Barnard's; Malacca is quickly claimed by Jayapura, and LSN forces admit defeat (2124)
• Ramakrishna Ganesh Chandragupta, admiral of the LSN's 5th fleet (stationed at Nuevo Colombia), deposes the colonial governor and establishes the Mahabharati Empire (2128); Colonial leaders briefly resist, but the colonial ground forces all side with Chandragupta and the colonial leaders (as well as holdout LSN forces) soon succumb; A brief attempt at popular resistance fails when Chandragupta makes it clear that his battle is with the LSN, not with local sovereignty, and he in fact grants local colonies much more sovereignty than they had had under the LSN; The Mahabharati Empire begins colonizing Gandhi (AD Leonis) and Indra (WX Ursae Majoris), as well as sending probes to various other systems; The discovery of a garden planet at Rama (BD+50° 1725) is kept a highly-classified secret as long as possible, effectively until large-scale colonization efforts begin in the 2130's
• Alaska requests independence from the USA, which grants it; Alaska joins the LSN (2128)
• The LSN Science Association (the umbrella group for joint LSN scientific efforts) begins the Dark Matter Tracking Program (DMTP), aimed at mapping all the "dark matter" (grey dwarfs, cold gas, etc.) in then-Known Space
• Cosa Rica forms the Association of Central American Nations (ACAN); El Salvador and Nicaragua are forced to join with the so-called War of Central American Unification (2127-32), involving several large naval actions and three different Cosa Ricans assaults on the Panama Canal and Panama (the first two are stopped by US intervention, but following a Costa Rican back-room deal to keep shipping in the Canal flowing freely, the US becomes neutral and the final Costa Rican assault succeeds)
• Mali, under the Genesis Corporation, incorporates Mauritania (2124) and war begins in Western Sahara when Malian agression provokes Guinea, Senegal and Morocco to form the West African Coalition in resistance (2125); Mali carves Berbera out of southern Algeria as a satellite/buffer state
• The USA begins its first colonization drive, aimed at Fuxing and Auxerre Nouveau; US colonists soon outnumber the original majority-French colonists at Auxerre Nouveau, which soon becomes better known as New Sacramento
• The New Zealand civil war ends with an agreement to give South Island voters various economic and political perks, including disproportionately-large representation in government (2122); Critics decry the reunification as doomed to fail and vastly unfair
• The CESA nations eradicate all trade barriers between them (2126); Under the leadership of Hrothgar Jemnis, the CESA grows to become a very powerful and prosperous alliance
• The Document of War system is formally enacted in the LSN, replacing the previous war-by-consensus system (in which any LSN nation could war against any other if 75% of LSN members voted to allow it)
• The Second Colony War begins when Petit-Sol revolts (2128); The Interstellar Commerce Alliance (ICA) is established there with great amounts of (mainly local) corporate support; LSN forces briefly offer resistance but then withdraw when insufficient resolution to support the war is forthcoming from the LSN command; The ICA initially takes a staunchly anti-LSN stance; The former LSN governor of Petit-Sol, Jean-Paul Feroux, is captured while fleeing and is sentenced to death for "human rights infractions," and sentenced to death on the same date that the inhabitants of the Pandora's Box were killed; Human Rights Day is established as an ICA holiday on the date of Feroux's death; The ICA gains control of LSN naval forces in Petit-Sol, with which they overwhelm LSN forces at Luyten (2128-29); However, following this, the LSN treats the ICA as an equal and takes a very meek stance; Relations between the ICA and LSN begin to warm, though slowly
• The admiral of the LSN fleet at Sirius, Bartholomew Harris, rebels, seizes control of both Sirius and Pandora, declares the Sirian Autonomous Republic (SAR) and blocks all colony-ships from Earth, all within the short period of three months (2124); The SAR's tightly efficient forces soon take Procyon from the disillusioned, dispirited and beleaguered LSN defenders there
• Black, Inc., the legitimate arm of the Black Association (a very large criminal syndicate) claims a strip of the ocean floor as its territory and begins mining it, but the LSN rejects the claim and finally removes Black only by force (2127)
• Syria, having thrown off LSN direct control (due to its earlier use of BTST's), soon begins fighting with Badiyat again

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2130's

• Jayapura and Malacca set up a mutual-defense agreement, the Jayapura-Malacca Defense Coalition (2132), then make a grab for Barnard's but are roundly defeated by a concerted LSN effort to defend Barnard's
• The ICA begins a colonization drive aimed at Kapteyn's (Kapteyn's Star) and Freehaven (Tau Ceti)
• The first signs of the Wall are noticed; The rate of scientific progress seems slowed throughout Known Space; Agriculture, long-since dependent almost entirely upon technology to keep up with population expansion, begins to fail and starvation spreads; Many corporations (particularly research-oriented ones) also fail
• After two years of secret communiques, Fuxing and New Sacramento's governors rebel against the LSN; The LSN, now rather tired of fighting, allows the systems' independence (2133); The admiral of the Fuxing naval fleet, Ding Huilong, rebels himself against Fuxing's governor and starts the Fuxing War (2134); Fuxing and New Sacramento establish the Independent Systems' Confederation (ISC), and also legalize privateering (the equipping of private space vessels with military weapons) to fight Ding's fleet; The Fuxing War continues; ISC privateers make a side-grab for Penglai, without official ISC permission (but with tacit permission, many claim); The LSN decides to give military assistance to Ding, giving him renewed legitimacy and power, but it is too little, too late, and the now well-established ISC takes Penglai as reparations for Ding's 'war crimes' (2137); Through it all, New Ohio (V1581 Cygni) is colonized by the ISC; The Fuxing War continues, even though Ding's LSN support is soon severed
• Several of Earth's corporations (many of whom gave assistance to the ICA) begin moving back into the ICA, first with trade and then slowly with contract resettlement; Nationstates of the LSN slowly follow suit, and ICA-LSN relations begin to normalize
• 80% of ex-UN members are now LSN members
• ACAN takes Panama, then applies for LSN entry and is accepted "in spite of past crimes" (2130)
• Venezuela joins the LSN (2135); Brazil protests but is powerless to prevent the event, as it is not an LSN member itself yet
• The Mahabharati Empire swings the focus of its colonization efforts towards the so-called "Back Route" between Nuevo Colombia and Procyon, settling Deva (LTT12353), Rama and Yan (L387-102), but especially focused on Rama and its pristine garden world, now dubbed Eden
• When the SAR tries to disrupt trade in Kapteyn's, the ICA makes an armed response, quickly escalating into open war (2135); ICA and Mahabharati representatives at Earth meet and agree to a joint attack on SAR forces, but the actual resulting Mahabharati effort is lackluster at best; Nonetheless, the SAR collapses into internal conflict under consistent ICA pressure (2139), resulting in a brief power vacuum in the Sirius, Francisco and Pandora systems; A joint LSN-ICA force, the two spheres first cooperative effort, takes over the government of the former SAR, but due to ICA-LSN hesitance (to overextend themselves) and reluctance (to work with each other), law and order are minimal; Many regional warlords, small republics and outright anarchic settlements soon emerge in the former SAR systems
• Triads gain access to DMTP files and choose a fairly well-endowed grey dwarf as their site for a huge inter-system base; The grey dwarf, nicknamed Hidden Ember, is located about half-way between the LSN, ICA and Mahabharati spheres; The main station at Hidden Ember, Chang'an, is completed in 2139 under extremely tight security and secrecy
• With Earth's reserves of fossil fuels largely dried up, the OPEC nations meet to decide on a course of action; Venezuela and other non-Arabian countries choose to leave the near-useless organization and go their own ways; Saudi Arabia proposes a free-trade zone and the remaining OPEC nations agree to the idea; An agreement is made to create the Arab Free Trade Union (AFTU), with no internal trade restrictions (and few external ones), within 25 years
• The war in Western Sahara ends (2130); Mali (under the Genesis Corporation) gains only the southern part of Western Sahara; The southern part of the former Mauritania becomes a WAC protectorate; The WAC forms a free-trade zone, also including Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast (2130); By the end of the decade, MAli and the WAC nations are again trading peacefully
• Bertrand Delacroix, the 17th richest person alive, repudiates his Quebec citizenship and attempts to gain status as a sovereign one-person nation in the LSN, but fails after lengthy LSN debate (2138); Delacroix instead accepts citizenship with several of the corporations in which he owns stock
• The Tsong Kha Pa, carrying approximately 600 esoteric Buddhists, disappears en route to Groombridge 34; The Tsong Kha Pa's disappearance is, to date, one of the biggest mysteries in Known Space; many stories arise about a "Shangri-La in space"

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2140's

• The Wall starts to peak; Billions die due to unsustainable growth and general starvation; A "back to basics" movement spreads throughout Known Space, emphasizing simple sustainable agriculture as its guiding principle; "Port riots" occur at many spaceports, especially at orbital cable installations, as starving mobs gather to demand food from off-Earth; Spaceports become more and more fortified; Lawlessness spreads far and wide when farmers are displaced from their lands, and migrant laborers find sources of work drying up; The LSN concurrently increases power centralization at the expense of member nations; Madras Regional Port is briefly taken over by criminals and becomes, for a short time, the world's dominant smuggling center; Occurring during the monsoon of 2147, the euphemism "Madras rainy season" enters the popular vocabulary, meaning criminal or illicit activities; Riots in Vladivostok are pacified by a joint Korean-Chinese-Japanese force (2148), and Russia is forced to accept the joint force's continued occupation of the port; The population of Earth itself reaches its highest level to date sometime in 2148, with around 13 billion people
• 80% of colonists in off-Earth LSN colonies gain independence through rebellion, protest or petition; Most remain within the LSN, gaining their own seats in government
• Hrothgar Jemnis is assassinated (2141), but his killer is never identified
• As population pressures and hunger increase, many systems begin trying to shift their populations to unsettled regions, often across sphere borders; The LSN reaches agreements with the ICA and JMDC specifying maximum emigration from Earth (2145), but the quotas are rarely obeyed, and a booming grey market springs up in resettlement; The JMDC grows increasingly incensed, and finally begins patrolling the JMDC-LSN trade routes and firing upon colonist-carrying ships which do not turn back; When the JMDC presses the patrols to the Oort cloud of Barnard's, the JMDC and LSN go to war with each other (2148); No agreements are reached initially, but both sides eventually tire of the conflict and agree to new quotas, this time slightly more favorable to the JMDC; The population balances of many spheres change greatly; By the end of the decade, more than a billion people live off-Earth
• Mali, as ever under Genesis corporate administration, peacefully incorporates Niger, whose population openly votes to do so; Mali petitions for LSN membership, and is successful in spite of Nigerian protests (2147); The Genesis corporation moves people off-Earth at a huge and growing rate
• Mozambique assumes control over southern Tanzania (south of the Ruaha) after rioting and refugees spill over into Mozambique
• As part of the AFTU effort, Saudi Arabia and Jordan broker peace between Badiyat and Syria
• The ISC, vicotrious over Admiral Ding, colonizes Spectre (Groombridge 34) and briefly attempts to take Barnard's from the LSN but is thoroughly repulsed (2146); The LSN, going on the offensive (and growing desperate for colonization space), begins attacking New Sacramento; Peace is finally reached in the New Durban Accords, signed at Luyten (2149)
• Faced with a growing domestic population and ever-increasing numbers of refugees from Earth, the Mahabharati leadership decides to invade Qiqiu space; A huge Mahabharati fleet briefly tries to conquer Qiqiu space but is soon defeated; Freed from Mahabharati domination, socialist forces at Rama and Deva revolt (2148); Rama and Deva are renamed Egality and Liberty (respectively), and declare themselves to be the Sapient People's Republic (SPR); The Mahabharati fleet is sent to quell the SPR uprising, but due to over-reliance on space-based forces and Qiqiu aid to the SPR, the Mahabharati Empire is forced to acknowledge SPR independence; However, as part of the independence agreement, the SPR continues to allow large numbers of immigrants to Egality and its garden world, Eden; During the SPR's war of independence, the Egality Fusiliers become famous as guerilla fighters; The SPR begins colonization of Haagen (L674-15); Mahabharati forces subsequently withdraw from Yan as well, leaving various small powers in their wake (2148)
• Riots in the South African protectorates of Zambia and Zimbabwe result in an attempt at "pacification" by a joint Congolese/Katangan force; South African forces oppose the Congolese and Katangan soldiers, and war ensues; All three powers (South Africa, Katanga and Congo) sign a Document of War (2143); South Africa is victorious and subsequently enjoys almost unchallenged dominance over southern Africa for several decades
• The JMDC discovers the Babylon (Delta Pavonis) system's large, humid garden planet, Ur; Primitive sapient quadropeds, dubbed the Shojin, are discovered but not contacted; A strict non-contact, non-interference policy is established, but as the Shojin are restricted to two of Ur's six continents, settlement begins apace elsewhere
• A brief resurgence in fighting between the USA and AAS is stopped by the LSN because neither party had signed a Document of War
• After the majority of LSN troops are removed from Sirius (largely to guard against further port riots), ICA forces assume control of the system with a minimum of bloodshed; An LSN-ICA agreement guarantees continued resettlement to Sirius from Earth in exchange for LSN recognition of ICA sovereignty over Sirius
• Bengal ("India") and an Assam-Dravidian alliance skirmish then go into full battle, sparking the Indus War (2144); All sides concerned sign Documents of War and begin fighting through Bangladesh, which is powerless to resist (due to its not being an LSN member); Assamese troops advance to the lower Jamuna; Bengali forces advance to the lower Ganges; The Battle of Dacca, a long, drawn-out Bengali bombardment of Assamese forces stationed in the city followed by two months of intense street-fighting, kills over 300,000 (2147), the deadliest battle to date in human history; Dravidia takes a large part of Orissa; The Bangladeshi government flees to exile in Thailand; The upper triangle of Bangladesh is declared a "free demilitarized zone"
• Germany, under a Nationalist government, briefly withdraws from the LSN in order to retake Alsace-Lorraine, but LSN troops stop the action and Germany withdraws, cowed; Several out-system German colonies rebel and are granted independence by the LSN; The Nationalists soon lose power
• The WAC countries agree to unify as a single state by 2175; Sierra Leone votes to join the state as well (2142)

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2150's

• The Wall continues, although deaths begin to decrease in number; Many believe that Earth has reached a sustainable population, around 10.5 billion; Neo-Luddite movements spread far and wide; Many settlements enact anti-technology laws (limiting either technological research or reliance)
• JMDC elections give a landslide victory to the Islamic Socialist Party (2152); The JMDC's institutions are gradually changed to a somewhat more Islamic model and finally the name JMDC is officially changed to the simply descriptive Islamic Sphere (2155); The Islamic Sphere colonizes Ibrahim (Lacaille 9352)
• A Slovenian military coup threatens Austria's massive investment there, prompting Austrian forces to annex Slovenia; Traditionalist and nationalist Austrian groups are quite pleased and call for a return to the Austrian Empire; A distant relative of the Hapsburgs founds the Austrian Empire Party
• Following the SPR debacle, Ramakrishna Ganesh Chandragutpa's son, Asoka Kalidasa Chandragupta, is killed by an assassin, reportedly hired by several of the Mahabharati fleet's admirals (2150); Gandhi and Siva refuse to acknowledge Asoka's successor, Sivaratnam Chandragupta (a distant cousin favorable to the fleet admirals), while declaring themselves independent under their own royal head; The Mahabharati Empire falls into civil war; The main Mahabharati fleet, under Sivaratnam, goes to war against Siva and Gandhi, both of which grow to depend on the SPR and Qiqiu for support; Finally, the LSN enters the war against Sivaratnam in exchange for trading rights and guaranteed immigration quotas from Gandhi and Siva, as well as military bases with extraterritoriality; The LSN forces tip the balance, and Sivaratnam's forces lose the war (2155); The Gandhi-Siva forces establish a much more liberal regime, but still a dynastic one
• The SPR colonizes Progress (YZ Canis Major) and Victory (Ross 619)
• Chen Yongxing, a warlord in charge of a major trading empire and fleet at Yan, unites the Yan system under his control, declaring the Yan Empire (2151); Chen sets about conquering Francisco (2154) then Pandora (2159), both of which fall with little local resistance; Francisco is renamed Fuyuan and Pandora is renamed Zhongwu; Chen simultaneously encourages pirate activity to disrupt trade throughout the "Back Route"; In response, the ICA begins selling "boomer rights" (licenses to carry ship-to-ship class weapons on semi-private vessels, thus effectively creating privateers), basically aimed at defeating Yan forces; Pirate activity increases throughout Known Space, especially in the Back Route
• Peru moves to take northern Bolivia and Chile, and is successful (2155)
• Raiding and banditry in Somalia result in the complete collapse of the government (the official LSN representatives flee to Egypt, and the country becomes effectively an anarchy); After raiding spreads into Ethiopia and Kenya (particularly the latter, which has weathered the Wall much better than its neighbors), the two nations gain approval with 75% of the LSN Parliament to invade Somalia, thereby dispensing with the need of signing a Document of War with a non-existent government; Somalia is quickly divided up between Ethiopia and Kenya (2152)
• Following huge protests on the north island, New Zealand again splits, but peacefully this time (2153)
• Eastern Siberia erupts into war when Russian forces attempt to cut Vladivostok and its occupying Korean-Chinese-Japanese force from landline resources (water, fiberop, etc.); The Chinese and Korean forces fight back, pushing towards Yakutsk in order to secure a "defensive perimeter" around Vladivostol; Japanese forces soon follow (after extensive debate in the Diet); All sides concerned sign a Document of War and the LSN therefore remains neutral; Russian forces are soon pounded into submission and sue for peace; The Amur and Sichote Republic is established with Vladivostok as its capital (2158); The ASR is soon granted LSN membership, although Russia refuses to acknowledge the ASR's status, and indeed never does; A military coup soon follows in Russia, leading to several years of martial law and many attempts at sovereignty by local governments
• Just barely meeting the 25-year deadline, the AFTU is finalized; Several free trade ports are set up, including Kuwait City, Abu Dhabi and Aden at first; The ports are soon flourishing as centers of (among other things) infopro
• France invades the Channel Islands in order to protect the now majority-French population from disproportionate taxation under Britain; Britain is nearly ready to concede defeat when Germany offers military assistance to the British; Britain agrees and the British-German force routs the French (2150); All sides concerned sign a Document of War, so LSN forces never intervene; The Channel Island Resistance Front begins a terrorist insurgency against the occupying British and German forces
• The CESA nations agree to liberate portions of Poland controlled by Germany, avoiding any reference to Ukraine-occupied Poland; Germany and the CESA members sign a Document of War (2155); Prague is destroyed, and the German forces fight hard, but the CESA eventually succeeds in liberating the portion of POland south of the Warta (2159); The liberated area, called simply Poland, is established with its capital at Wroclaw, and POland joins the CESA and (later) the LSN; German forces briefly use BTST weapons but the CESA is unable to prove it; The Austrian Empire Party, playing on anti-CESA sentiment, rockets to power; The Wurtemberg-Bavaria Independence Army (WBIA) emerages, reportedly under CESA or Austrian tutelage
• The DMTP is taken over by the LSN's Exploration Service
• The ICA, in spite of the Wall, colonizes the Tetsuyama (Omicron Eridani) system
• Following the increased success of the WAC countries, the Francophone African League (LFA), composed of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo and the DRC, votes to become a free-trade/mutual defense alliance

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2160's

• The Wall largely subsides
• Discovery of the Thomas-Ng-Duc object (aka the Artifact) near the Babylon system, by DMTP scouts; "High Islam" and "optical Islam" soon follow, and the TND object becomes the object of a new Hajj; DMTP scientists estimate that TND-type objects may make up a large part of the "missing mass" of the universe
• Brazil joins the LSN (2162), one of the last superpowers to do so
• The Hamburg Flu kills 1.2 million in the Baltic states, particularly Denmark; Ukraine institutes very rough inspection measures for those traveling from Western Europe
• Nigeria attempts to grab the Gold Coast countries by force; The WAC, in its first major military test, routs Nigeria (2166-69), though admittedly with a large reliance on Philips security forces
• The legislature of Utah votes to leave the AAS and rejoin the USA, but the state's governor vetoes the resolution; At the peak of a legislative/gubernatorial showdown, the governor orders the arrest of seventeen members of Utah legislature on treason charges; Fourteen of them flee to Colorado, but twelve are caught en route and summarily executed, sparking a renewal of USA-AAS hostilities (2167)
• Greece briefly attempts to invade Macedonia (in the former Yugoslavia), but is turned back by LSN forces because Macedonia has not signed a Document of War; The LSN imposes a provisional government on Greece (2161)
• Following rioting throughout eastern Russia and a second military coup, Ukraine moves to take the Volga-Caspia corridor to secure its Crimean possessions, and Russian coup forces resist; Both sides sign a Document of War, igniting the Second Crimean War (2162); Georgia pushes to the Kyma to "protect" its borders; The war continues until Finland intervenes against Russia, pressing its ancient claim to the lands around Lake Ladoga (2165); Russia is forced to accept the losses; The coup fails; When Russian colonists in Ukrainian-run outsystem colonies revolt, they are violently suppressed, nearly (but not quite) leading to a recurrence of hositilities on Earth
• Dravidia and Bengal (which still has not officially forsaken the name "India") join the LSN (in 2160 and 2164, respectively); No other south Asian states are eligible for membership at this time due to economic imbalance
• Jordan and Saudi Arabia and reunited peacefully into Arabia, followed by Yemen (2161); Late in the decade, Qatar and the United Arab Emierates follow suit (2168-69); The newly potent Arabia is careful not to monopolize power in the AFTU, though; Israel requests AFTU membership and is warmly accepted
• The ISC colonizes the Novy Kiev (Altair) system, although the actual colonization effort has almost no government backing
• Supported by British and Thorn-EMI forces, Provence rebels against France; A short, un-Documented conflict ensues, but France soon gives up (2161) and Provence joins the LSN; Britain funds a separatist movement in Brittany
• Three relatively small small corps in the ICA independently colonize the Chihai (LTT1702) system; Mutual conflicts over borders and jurisdiction nearly result in war, until the three sides agree to accept ICA arbitration; None of the corps is willing to accept direct ICA rule (which would mean a loss of control over their investments in the system), so a trilateral ruling corp, the Chihai Trilateral, is set up

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2170's

• The Starwhales announce themselves to the Islamic Sphere with a message beamed to Ur in perfect Arabic (2178); Peaceful relations are established and trade grows quickly; The Starwhales introduce a variety of biotech to humanity
• Colonists from the Islamic Sphere independently explore and settle the Tashkent (70 Ophiuchi) system, eventually setting up a loose confederation with the powers-that-be of the Novy Kiev system; More and more people begin calling the two systems the "Back Stretch"
• Following the enactment of an Islamic Sphere-wide law requiring all citizens to own a copy of the Koran, huge protests spread throughout the Islamic Sphere and beyond; Especially large riots on Ur turn violent and are suppressed with military force; Rioting spreads and force follows in its wake; An estimated 117,000 are killed (2171); The "Koran law" is withdrawn, and a long-debated law guaranteeing religious freedom is enacted; Many religious leaders, especially non-Islamic ones, preach defiance of the new law, which is seen as a "sham" and "insufficient reconciliation" for the killing; Several Christian groups begin terrorist action; One such group successfully detonates a 100 GT nuclear device near the TND Object, destroying several stations including a large mosque and killing 23,900; The Object itself is completely unscratched
• The DMTP ends, considered a moderate success; No other TND-type objects are discovered, dwarf stars are far less numerous than expected and no cosmic strings are ever detected; Most importantly, the overall mass of the universe remains a mystery; However, vast amounts of stellar and interstellar data are collected, and interstellar trade in general is noted to have increased approximately twofold during the DMTP
• Eight major pirate groups and the major Triad and Yakuza groups meet at Chang'an, resulting in the founding of the Universal Syndicate, the most powerful criminal organization to date in Known Space
• Three of the SPR's seven fleet admirals rebel and claim sovereignty over the systems in which they are stationed (Haagen, Bayeux and Victory); The admirals proclaim their systems to be the High Kingdom (2171), and fighting immediately begins with the SPR
• The Utah War ends with the AAS is complete control of the state (2174)
• Iraq, with the lowest GDP of any AFTU nation and complainign of exploitation by its fellow AFTU-members, quits the Union and erects fierce trade barriers against AFTU member states; Reports spread of actual infotage by Iraq against the AFTU
• Syria, Badiyat and Lebanon reunite to form Sharqiah
• The LFA members, enjoying a high degree of success in their trade grouping, agree to unite as a single state by 2225 (2173)
• The state of West Africa is formed on schedule; A president is peacefully and democratically elected, and West Africa joins the LSN (2175); The Genesis corporation's CEO, disgusted at the West African developments, briefly tries to cease involvement in Mali but poular support convinces the Board to fire the CEO and stay in Mali
• The Austrian Empire Party is elected to power and declares openly its intention to retake former Hapsburg lands; Under the excuse of humanitarian aid following a moderate earthquake and blight, Austria invades Croatia (2172) and absorbs it; Croatian elections show support, and the LSN is unable to intervene in spite of worldwide condemnation; The CESA nations take strong notice and enact trade sanctions against Austria, but the AEP stands firm; The AEP steps up efforts to incite anti-CESA activity in Hungary and Yugoslavia, as well as increasing aid to the WBIA, although Dalmatian separatists (aided by CESA operatives) soon begin creating trouble at home for Austria
• The Japanese begin reclaiming a large part of the Inland Sea (from Matsuyama in the west to Awaji in the east), thereby both 'eliminating' pollution and greatly increasing arable land available; The plan continues despite environmentalists' protests; The reclamation continues to the present but is not yet complete
• Scientists at Ibrahim use an anti-matter charge to destroy a comet on a collision course with a major station (2178); This is the first major use of anti-matter weapons

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2180's

• The first ISC resurvey of BD +59° 1915in five years discovers a newly-established alien colony; Contact is made with the Hammerheads (2183), and the ISC soon begins trading with them
• The Chihai Trilateral falls apart, igniting war (2185); The ICA officially maintains neutrality, although ICA privateers fight on all sides
• Bengal and Gujarat ally to take Kashmir from Pakistan, signing a Document of War given them by Pakistan; Bengal and Gujarat are successful (2184), though their alliance soon falls apart and Pakistan begins to retake Kashmir, inch by inch
• Espionage and price warring between PanMedia and Alpha Bank escalate to outright war (2186-88); In the ICA, PanMedia and AlphaBank privateers endanger trade routes and bring overall inter-system trde down by 13%; The Alpha Dollar loses value greatly throughout Known Space, causing several system-wide depressions; The L4 War occurs when PanMedia and AlphaBank habitats in Earth orbit begin attacking each other (largely with infotage, but also with missiles, etc.); The war ends with ICA arbitration, not (as many critics note) LSN help
• Following the bombing of the Trans-Siberian bullet line, Russia invades the ASR, receiving German and South African help to do so; The ASR loses a great deal of land, but the intervention of Japanese troops on the ASR side brings the fighting to a standstill (2184)
• The president of Iraq picks a fight over the long-disputed "Neutral zone" between Iraq and Arabia, igniting war between the AFTU nations and Iraq (2186); Documents of War are signed by all sides concerned
• A small war emerges between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda; Uganda's government reports that the DRC has no Document of War to justify its actions, and the LSn intervenes, crushing the DRC forces (2180); The war ends, and Uganda emerges quite well-off; Later investigation proves that both sides had in fact signed Documents, but Ugandan infotage operatives had destroyed all Document records on both sides when the war appeared to be going badly; Uganda's government is in turn deposed by LSN troops (2182) and the LSN begins filing all Documents of War centrally
• With support from South Africa, Philips and Germany, Nigeria gets enough votes in the LSN Parliament to allow another attempt at taking the Gold Coast countries by force; Nigeria conquers a swath from Biafra to just short of Monrovia (2182)
• Burkina Faso, once a Nigerian satellite, allies itself with Mali under the explicit intention to join Mali within a few years (2189); Nigeria goes to war to prevent such a loss of face, not to mention assets in Burkina Faso; Both sides sign Documents of War; Genesis pulls out all the stops and, although Nigeria receives aid from South Africa as well as Philips, an orbital bombardment of Maiduguri followed by the occupation of Lagos by orbital shock troops convinces Nigeria to accept the loss of Burkina Faso (2190); Genesis, in firm control of Burkina Faso, annuls Mali as a state and announces the foundation of the Songhay Republic in its place
• The CESA nearly collapses when Yugoslavian jingoists take power there and threaten to invade Hungary; The jingoists publish all CESA military codes publicly, causing a massive crisis in the CESA armies, as well as resulting in the disappearance of many military weapons, including several nuclear ones; The Austrian Empire (as it is now called) takes the opportunity to annex Bosnia-Hercegovina, again citing humanitarian reasons, then manages at the last moment to gain enough LSN support to avoid punitive action by the LSN itself; Yugoslavia and Hungary finally agree to a CESA-brokered peace, and the CESA finally settles down
• The ACAN begins skirmishing with Mexico over possession of the Yucatan and environs (2187); No Documents of War are signed, but neither side is unwilling to fight, so the LSN has no reason to intervene

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2190's

• The SPR and High Kingdom sign a ceasefire (2191), but the peace breaks down (2193)
• The Chihai war stops with a clear state of affairs (2194); Chihai eventually begins rebuilding and eventually sends colonists to Dardanelles (82 Eridani), discovering the large garden planet there (Constantinople)
• Independent colonists from Tashkent and Novy Kiev settle Caspia (DM+04° 4048)
• A coalition of Christian and Muslim leaders in the Islamic Sphere call for a holy war against the Starwhales; No national governments take the call seriously, but several boomers and other privateers take part in the so-called "High Crusade"; A joint Islamic Sphere-Starwhale navy defeats the 'crusade' soundly (2194-95); A peace-minded coalition in the Islamic Sphere's senate proposes a constitutional clause explicitly stating that humans are not the only creatures in the universe possessed of souls, but the measure is ominously defeated by a wide margin
• A series of plebiscites in Bavaria (2190, 2192 and 2194) finally results in a vote for independence; The Austrian Empire demands voiceferously that Germany grant Bavaria immediate independence; Germany schedules a binding public vote for 2199; The vote is against independence, but Austria and the WBIA declare the vote rigged; The WBIA declares itself the official government of Bavaria, then "invites" Austrian forces to help itself into power; Austrian forces invade Germany, German forces counter them, and the LSN intervenes because no Dcuments of War have been signed, even though Austria maintains that it is not officially at war; Both Austrian and German forces are soon pushed out of Austria by LSN forces (2199); The LSN itself then enforces Bavaria's neutrality and schedules a full, final vote on independence for 2205
• France tries to retake Provence but is again rebuffed (2194); Provence begins assisting the Breton independence movement
• Greece becomes embroiled in a civil war when a coalition of generals attempts to stage a coup over the 30-year-old LSN-imposed "provisional" government; Bulgaria invades to support the junta, signing a Document of War (2198) Turkey signs a Document then takes most of the Aegean
• Nekya, with considerable investments in southern Sudan but no interest in the country's impoverished north, begins assisting the south's independence movement (which has been active for at least two centuries); Ethiopia soon joins Kenya in supporting the South in order to lessen Sudanese power
• Kashmir is retaken by Pakistan (with strong backing from a mixed group of corporate allies); A formal proposal in the LSN Parliament that the Indian states peacefully reunite is widely laughed at, then nearly forgotten
• The Iraq-AFTU war ends with a stalemate (2192), but only because the AFTU never really makes a concerted effort to cripple Iraq's warmaking potential; Iraq agrees to drop its anti-AFTU tariffs, and the AFTU agrees to invest heavily in Iraq's infrastructure, though the idea of Iraq rejoining the AFTU is considered only a dim and distant possibility
• Following another attempt by Russia to retake the Amur and Sichote Republic (2193), rebuffed by LSN troops, Russia makes a proposal to dissolve the LSN; Russia cites as its main complaint the LSN's excessive interference in nations' internal affairsl Most other countries dismiss Russia's proposal as self-serving, but the banner of LSN dissolution is taken up by Nigeria and Brazil, who propose the idea persistently over the next decade; Anti-LSN activity gains exposure
• New Zealand voters agree by a 60 to 40% margin to reunify (2198); Many terrorist organizations form in the reunited island state
• The ACAN and Mexico sign a peace treaty, giving the eastern Yucatan to the ACAN (2195)

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2200's

• Several private organizations scout the space to the negative Z of Dardanelles, discovering and contacting the Tripods; The Tripods immediately begin warring against humanity (2205); The ICA begins selling boomer rights again, and privateers swarm around and across the ICA's -Z border; The Tripods release the Chlorophage and other BCW agents onto Constantinople (2206), devastating the planet's biosphere, the take the entire Dardanelles system by storm; The Tripods also easily defeat a massed privateer defense of Chihai (2207); Three of the ICA's six main fleets are sent to Tetsuyama to defeat it when listening posts detect unknown signals outside the Tetsuyama Oort; The Tripods invade Tetsuyama, and although the ICA fleets are victorious, it is pyrrhic as the Tripods are able to regroup and flee, leaving the ICA fleets at approximately 15% of full strength; The ICA finally and hesitantly agrees to allow LSN and Islamic Sphere military vessels into ICA space in order to defend Tetsuyama, Kapteyn's, Freehaven and most of all Petit-Sol; All the while, no Tripod vessels are detected anywhere near the Babylon system, even though it is quite close to the Tripods' sphere; The Tripods invade Tetsuyama again, taking it (2208), but in a series of battles near Tetsuyama, Kapteyn's and Freehaven, the combined human fleets defeat the Tripods soundly; The combined human fleets then move to retake Tetsuyama and are successful (2209); The Tripods cease advancing, and inter-sphere squabbling prevents the human forces from counter-attacking; A stalemate sets in (2209-10)
• Arguments about dissolving the LSN fizzle when LSN fleets make an excellent showing against the Tripods
• The LSN begins the DMTP II; Although briefly interrupted at the beginning of the Tripod War, DMTP II soon begins mapping and exploring new areas of space; Exploration occurs only in several rather narrow corridors, though, due to other nations' discomfort with having LSN scouts (often military-grade vessels with extensive intelligence-gathering capabilities) in their own Spheres; DMTP II continues to the present
• The south of Sudan is recognized by the LSN as an independent nation, El Sudd; Sudan resigns from the LSN in protest
• Following attempts by Korean agents to foment Manchurian unrest, China pulls out of the ASR (2202) and comes close to signing a Document of War against Korea, but finally stands down
• Bengal invades the Free Demilitarized Zone in northern Bangladesh (2206); Assam, still not an LSN member, is helpless to resist; Bengal turns a blind eye to illicit activities in the Zone, and in fact begins taxing them in some areas
• The Greek civil war ends (2203) with a new democratic system being instituted; Bulgarian receives many concessions in trade, etc., as well as part of the north Aegean coast, up to the Strimon river; Several parts o Greece are also made into free trade zones; Turkey invades northern Cyprus and defeats the local (Greek) government, then gives power over to northern Cyprus (2204); Greece is unwilling to sign a Document of War to help the Greek Cypriot government, and the Greek Cypriots have nearly no other allies; The CESA stays firmly neutral throughout the whole Greek conflict, but maintains a fairly congratulatory attitude towards Bulgaria, long since a member of the CESA
• The Bavarian plebiscite is held two years late (22050, resulting in victory for the pro-Austrian parties, and Austrian annexation of Bavaria; Germany accepts the loss, though the German premier vows to "right these wrongs" at some point in the future, "allowing the German people to stand tall and proud again"; Austria, on the other hand, is pressured by its own foreign allies to grant independence to Dalmatia, which immediately joins the CESA (2208)
• A popular election in Bretagne gives victory to a separatist coalition; Brittany declares itself a sovereign state, and France grants Brittany independence after months of debate (2206)
• Several religious groups projecting a civilization-wide collapse to happen in 2200 are disappointed; Some consider the Tripod war to be the cataclysm, but many believe that Armageddon will occur in 2222 instead

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2210's

• The Corridor War, also known as the Tripod War, flares up again with a renewed Tripod offensive; The -Z ICA worlds are traded back and forth betweent he Tripods and the human alliance nearly a dozen times (2210); At one point, the Tripods even take Kapteyn's, though they still mysteriously keep their distance from Babylon and Petit-Sol; General intersphere human cooperation increases greatly; However, the Mahabharati Empire takes advantage of the LSN's reduced defenses to attack and capture the Wolf system (2212); LSN reserve forces and ICA privateers retake the system for the LSN by 2214, though; In 2215, a lull sets in as a huge Tripod advances to Dardanelles then simply sits for several months, with no explanation for their inaction and minimal skirmishing; The exact reason for their passivity remains a mystery, but the rebuilding of the systems unlucky enough to be the theater of war commences; The first non-corporate intersphere organization, the Human Space Defense Alliance (HSDA) is established with the LSN, Islamic Sphere, ISC and ICA as charter members; Captured Tripod missiles introduce humanity to K-D field harmonics and several other technologies
• The High Kingdom briefly takes Liberty's outer settlements but is routed (2218); The High Kingdom-SPR war continues nonetheless
• Assam finally gains LSN membership, foreshadowing possible peace on the indian subcontinent
• Bulgaria invades European Turkey with the excuse that Turkey is blocking shipping in the Aegean, and to the Greek free ports (which it is); Bulgaria and Turkey sign Documents of War (2217), then CESA forces join the fight on the Bulgarian side, and Ankara soon falls (2219); The capital of Turkey is moved to Adana; Kurdistan signs on with the CESA forces, invading the eastern part of Turkey, then Georgia does the same; Greece invades to the south of the CESA forces, basically cooperating with them against Turkey; Grim jokes about "carving up Turkey" spread throughout the English-speaking world
• DMTP II is quietly moved into the control of the LSN Exploration Service, which is under the LSN's Ministry of Communication, though with extensive Defense Ministry consultation

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2220's -- The Situation at Present

• Japanese Inland Sea reclamation continues apace, despite protests; Experts estimate the project will be complete by 2228; Reclaimed land is increasingly called New Sea Land, or Shin Umiji; Most of the Shin Umiji is now populated
• DMTP II continues apace, though being limited in scope; LSN representatives continue trying to gain access to other Spheres, partially through Human Space Defense Alliance channels

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This page (http://www.jiawen.net/ history.html) designed and ©2000-2004 by Rachel Kronick. All rights reserved. Last updated May 9, 2004.