The Broken World of 2020

Unified Europa

In the chaotic world of the 2020s, Unified Europe rep- resented the best option for the new century. Although some nations of the Euro-bloc (Greece, parts of Central Europe, and Britain) lagged behind the most success- ful nations (Germany, France, Italy, the Scandinavian countries), the nations of the Continent were uniformly stable, relatively prosperous, and Corporate-run. Some inequity was present, but in the day-to-day, unlike their American counterparts, a European citizen could depend on regular meals, clean air and water, and a regular (if not boring) job to go to. There was a roof overhead and crime was kept to a minimum. In some ways, Unified Europe was like a Corporate Beaverville; safe, controlled by the Corps, and a little boring until you got to where the rich and powerful dwelt.

Russian Revanchment

Russian politics of the early 2000s was dominated by the Novosovetskaya partiya (or New-Soviet Party (NSP) after the 1999 general election over- threw the incompetent Russian Federation estab- lished under Gorborev. The NSP has been the only ruling party to control the government since then. Sovietized economic and social reforms dominated the majority of the population, under the directives of the Tsentral'nyy Organ (Central Authority), a rotating council of kleptocrats who controlled the major "state" industries. The Media Lyle Thompson once described the NSP as a "capitalist-crony kleptocracy with the nice shiny democratic cover removed."

Asia Ascendant

While the rest of the world struggled through the ravages of the late 20th century, the nations of Asia were well-prepared for the vicissitudes of climate change and environmental degradation. China, Japan, and Korea rapidly concluded that coal burning and oil were too costly to continue basing their expansion on, and instead shifted to creat- ing vast fields of oceanic algae that were easily converted to the CHOOH² processes of the United States. This quantum shift also provided more food for the Asian nations' dense populations, although strong (some say draconian) birth control programs in some nations also helped reduce excess pop- ulations. Crowded and teeming with people, the cities of Japan, China, Korea, and the Philippines still managed to sustain high levels of food security, safety, and comfort even if many lack personal free- doms common in other nations.

Mideast Meltdown

The Meltdown of the '90s left vast areas of Iran, Libya, Iraq, Chad, and the Arab Emirates as radioactive fields of glass. Only Egypt, Syria, and Israel survived intact. During the 2020s, only scavengers and the desperate entered the hot zones to hunt for hardware and valuables among the glowing ruins.

Afrofuturism and the High Frontier

Once a fractured continent of feuding countries under a bewildering array of dictators, democracies and socialist states, the new and united Africa was re-born as the many nations of Central Africa banded together to negotiate with the Euronations who sought to build the Kilimanjaro mass driver. As the prominence of the Central African states grew other nations across the continent joined this Pan-African Alliance.

The Pan-African Alliance established the strongest of all the footholds in space—nearly one-third of all space construction workers were African, and the majority of spaceport facilities and construction areas were built on African soil. The resulting population evolved into a "national" group called the Highriders; a space-based, high-tech society, linked by Pan- African roots and a determination never to be victims of colonial oppression again.

Central and South America

After several lengthy wars with the United States, Central America emerged as a strong union of independent states, working under a pact of mutual cooperation. The U.S. was expelled from all but the Panama Canal Zone (which it still holds by sheer military force against ongoing guerrilla aggression).

In South America, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil rose to become the defacto leaders of the Organization of American States, having thrown the U.S. out after their actions in the SouthAm Wars. The OAS, maintained its place as a major world power, on the level European Union.