A Brief World History

1996
Racial supremacists in Malaysia block Australian and New Zealand from membership of APEC, driving both governments
to strengthen ties with the North American bloc. Middle East oil deposits become depleted, forcing oil prices up and renewing
interest in other energy sources. Serbs still in Bosnia and Slovenia claim racial persecution, prompting the Serbian government
to resume military action. Islamic forces in Bosnia threaten to use nuclear weapons against any Serbian insurgency.
1997
Serbia ignores the threats of Bosnian moslems to take the Serbs with us - Serbian troops closing in on Sarajevo are met
with nuclear weapons, and Serbia responds in kind. August 29 - The Great War: a limited exchange of nuclear weapons
devastates much of the CIS, the middle east, Eastern Europe, and the south-western United States. The UNSC assumes
emergency powers, imposing a crisis levy and conscripting peacekeeping troops from member nations, including Japan.
Governor Chris Patten officially hands Hong Kong over to China.
1998
With the middle east oilfields depleted, irradiated and largely useless, the prices of coal and uranium increase. AustralianUS relations are improved as Australia is assured preferential trade.
2000
The EC and private corporations establish the first permanent space platforms. The US expresses concern over arms
control in outer space.
2003
Australia narrowly passes a referendum to become the fifty-third state of the USA, ensuring North American supplies of
coal and uranium.
2004
Boris Yeltsin unsuccessfully tries to put through the UNSC a motion rescinding the emergency powers in place since 1997.
2005
Yeltsin is assassinated in Irkutsk, apparently by Chechyn seperatists. A subsequent investigation by the UN confirms this
popular view. Punitive raids against Chechynya are made by Ethnic Russian militias. Yeltsins successor, Katriana Menscheyev,
promises all assistance to the UNSC in maintaining stability in the region. George Romanov, great grandson of Tsar Nicholas
II, announces his claim to the Russian throne.
2008
Arasaka corporation announces the first ever off-world commercial venture, the mining of mineral reserves on Mars.
2010
Royalists deny Menscheyevs legitimacy, and resultant clashes split Russia into the West Russian Republic , and East
{Imperial} Russia. The UNSC sends peace-keeping troops to the border. NATO simoultaneously recognises both, which pleases
no-one but averts a bloody civil war.
2013
After leaked reports of Mitsusushi corporation losing workers to indigenous life-forms on Pluto, the UN World Environment
Commission seeks a moratorium on off-world mining. Mitsusushi mounts a legal challenge to the WECs off-world jurisdiction.
2014
The UN uses its still-current emergency powers to overturn the world courts decision in favour of Mitsusushi, but UN
investigators find no evidence of an existing ecosystem on Pluto. Strip-mining is allowed to continue.
2015
An open trade agreement sees the MultiCredit {MC} accepted as currency by most major corporations.
2017
Harvard University researchers publish details of the first faster-than-light, or subspace, propulsion system. They apply for
further grants from government and industry to make it safe for living organisms.
2018
Uranium mining corporations pressure the UN to impose levies to subsidise their solar power research and marketing, as
uranium reserves become depleted. They resist the UNs counterpressure to allow tighter UN controls on all aspects of their
operation.
2019
The CIA files on the John F Kennedy assassination are declassified. Attempts to lay charges of conspiracy to assassination
and high treason founder when the West Russian government refuses to allow Pee Wee Hermans extradition.
2020
The term Central World Government is coined by an unknown journalist in reference to the UNSC.
2022
The entire staff of Britains The Sun newspaper are arrested on drug charges, and the paper closed down, the day after
running the headline Off-World Companies Steal UFO Technology.
2023
Certain corporations, notably Arasaka, revolt against UN attempts to impose international company tax. The UNSC
conscripts troops from member nations to enforce the new provisions.
2024
The EC yields to UN hegemony in return for trade protection. Later that year Japan makes a similar deal.
2025
Korean president Kim Jong-Il, the Last Communist, dies aged 83, leaving no successor. Pro-democratic forces take over
with almost no loss of life.
2026
Cyberdyne systems claims to be three years away from the development of a subspace drive suitable for transporting
humans.
2028
Corporations pressure the governments of the pacific bloc not to transfer power to the UN, which counters with increased
trade pressure. Most NATO nations have already signed over much of their authority.
2029
Cyberdyne shares plummet after the promised subspace drive fails to eventuate. Cyberdyne executives blame industrial
espionage, as multiple other agencies announce their discovery of such a drive.
2031
Key executives of Arasaka and other major corporations are assassinated within the space of a few months. World stock
exchanges descend into chaos as corporations lose control and accuse each other.
2036
The worlds governments and major corporations sign a set of treaties, known collectively as the Brinkman Concessions,
which secure the UNs role as a central world government. The emergency powers in place since 1997 are now part of the UN
constitution, along with taxation and off-world legislative powers.

2040
Claims that corporations have been covering up encounters with alien races are hotly denied by all corporations with offworld interests.
2043
After decades of exile, the Dalai Llama returns to Tibet.
2047
The present day.