MotF 41: Gold!

My MotF Entry! Explanation here; http://kcammy.deviantart.com/art/BEIPC-Job-Advertisement-Map-244243523

Here is the fixed version!

(I think this falls well within the restrictions, as all the ASB things are a direct property of the resource, which can manipulate gravity. And the description said leeway would be granted for future maps)

Quite a bit of backstory and explanation needed for this one. The map was inspire by the very complex freeware space 4x game Aurora. The sciencey stuff comes from the game's website, whereas some of the actual politics on Earth is inspire by a fan fiction written by one of the game's co-creators.

The resources involved in this rush are called "Trans-Newtonian Elements". These elements have nuclei much more dense then any previously discovered and are found near Earth's core (as well as in stars, gas giants, etc). I've thus mapped them to areas where plates meet, or have a high level of volcanic activity, such as the ring of fire. The elements are so dense that through a previously unknown quirk of physics they behave with increased quantum effects even in normal states and physical interactions. For example, a spaceship equipped with a Trans-Newtonian engine can obtain never before imagined speeds, around 2000 km/s (the acceleration is also taken care of, don't worry) for a fighter sized craft, but the ship will behave as if it were in a fluid, such as being able to bank while maneuvering despite being in a vacuum as well as coming quickly to a full stop (in relation to the sun) when thrust stops being applied.

The first 11 Trans-Newtonian elements are discovered in 2015 and immediately spark a technological revolution the likes of which have not been seen. The discovery revolutionizes space travel. Development starts slow but in 2020 an ESA spacecraft makes a stunning two month round trip to Pluto using a second generation engine, sparking a proper space race. All countries and blocs capable of doing so begin to establish outposts through the solar system.

In 2025 physicists at a major American university make another shocking discovery. Scientists had known since the beginning that Trans-Newtonian minerals were heavily tied in with gravity. However, these new studies predicted that the fabric of the universe was not uniform, and that weakpoints could be accessed and used as "wormholes", a term borrowed from popular fiction, to reach other star systems. High concentrations of Trans-Newtonian minerals in stars served as "anchor points" for the theorized network, and that a a charged ring of Trans-Newtonian material configured properly could allow a ship to "jump" between points in the network, probably on a one to one basis. The team calculated that a system could have up to around 20 such points, though on average the number would be about 4 to 6. A survey ship could travel around the system at a set distance from the Sun and scan for potential wormholes.

In 2028 a joint NASA-ESA mission tested this theory and found it to be true. Further probes founds eight wormholes leading away from humanities home, generally to stars close by, but not always.

Boring science part ends here

Still, while space exploration was at an all time high, the vast majority of Humanity was still more concerned with Earth. Trans-Newtonian science had granted new luxuries to the rich and middle-class of nations possessing the needed technology, but overall the situation had not changed much.

Global politics had switched from playing a game of oil to squabbling over the new resource deposits. While in time extra-terrestrial mining could perhaps meet demand, and all major powers had at least one mining base offworld, it would take decades to reach the needed level of supply. Unfortunately, Earth itself was actually rather resource poor in Trans-Newtonian terms, at least when the planet was divided between five competing factions.

Two factions had a head start in the race. The team that originally discovered Trans-Newtonian physics was a cooperative venture between American and European researchers. The Americans got started on development first, having vast deposits under the Rockies and in Alaska. In time, people would forget the small decline the nation took at the start of the 21st century as the US skyrocketed ahead. Canada was happy to join efforts, and over the course of the next twenty years American corporations laid claim to the rest of the Trans-Newtonian deposits in the Western Hemisphere, sometimes using tactics similar to that of the United Fruit Company of decades past.

The EU did not possess many deposits locally. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately depending on one's viewpoint, the development movement tied itself in heavily with the political parties who sought a united Europe. This did lead to eventual consolidation into the European Federation in 2026, as well as a strong armed foreign policy as leaders tried to bridge the resource gap. Ironically, while not as important as it had been during the oil era, the Middle-East was still a vital region, and the target of many European efforts, along with bits of Africa. In another ironic development, as talks of EU integration drug on, the UK disintegrated, pressured not only from the mainland, but from a growing republican movement.

Russia came a bit late to the party, having many problems inside it's own borders. While definitely on the upswing, Russia has been content to mostly focus within, satisfied with the massive Kamchatka deposits and what it gained from Europe through a series of diplomatic coups. While some still remember fondly the days when Russia was one of only two superpowers, they are also hesitant to enter into the high risk politics that come with such a role, though by no means does Russia abstain from the occasional gambit.

Japan and its allies are in an interesting spot. In the period right before and right after the discovery of Trans-Newtonian elements there was a decreased interest in the land of the rising sun. While by no means were they "abandoned", their economy simply wasn't "the next big thing" many had predicted back in the late 20th century. This, coupled with increased tensions with China lead to increased foreign policy initiatives by the Japanese government, and even the amending of article 9 of their constitution. It was shortly thereafter that the discovery was made of the massive Trans-Newtonian deposits under the home islands were made, reinvigorating the Japanese economy and reigniting past predictions of Japanese economic dominance.

Soon thereafter, another such deposit was found under Luzon, propelling the Philippines into the ranks of the Asian tigers. China, which had no deposits of it's own, began eyeing its neighbors for chances to join the Trans-Newtonian race. The further increase in tension lead to the formation of the Asian Democratic League, sometimes referred to as the "Asian Defense League" unofficially, between Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and, by secret agreement, Taiwan.

China got by, but barely, by investing in the East Africa Federation when deposits were discovered there. The effort had been a noble one at African union, but had gotten rather lackluster support from the international community up until China jumped at the chance. While corrupt, the EAF is comparable to Taiwan or South Korean right after becoming true democracies in terms of economics, and having slightly comparable political situations. A similar situation is occurring in Papua New Guinea, while China has a favored trading deal with New Zealand.

The only remaining source of Trans-Newtonian minerals, aside from a few small mines in the depths of Ethiopia that aren't very lucrative, are two large areas ripe for development in Indonesia. While always troubled, the situation has grown worse in recent years as the government increasingly takes desperate measures to "fight off foreign influence".

While most of this is just outright paranoia, the leadership's fears are no totally unfounded. China does indeed have designs on the country's resources. On November 6th, 2033 they sink one of their own freighters coming back from New Zealand in a covert operation and blame it on Indonesia. Two days later they use it as an excuse to invade and seize the Trans-Newtonian deposits. The situations spirals out of control, and eventually their is a nuclear exchange between China and the ADL, who secretly developed the weapons despite extreme reluctance to do so by the Japanese. Over the next few months there are a series of nuclear wars as the situation spirals out of control and more and more countries get drawn in, causing massive damage to the ecosystem. What could have been the start of a new era in space ends as the start of a new dark era.

The year is 1912. The Tunguska Event of 1908 not only flattens trees in Siberia; the air-bursting meteor showers the whole region with a strange alien mineral, named Tunguskium by scientists. It is discovered that Tunguskium is an incredibly potent energy source, as it burns like coal but apparently contains much more energy. Russia, already fragile from the revolution of 1905, falls prey to the "resource curse" as foreign mining companies and various interests within Russia scramble to gain mining rights around the impact zone. The closer one gets to ground zero, the more Tunguskium is found, and since its origin is meteoric, it's not buried very deep. Panning the rivers and shallow strip mines are the preferred methods for harvesting it.

The Russian Empire dissolved into three factions. The Tsarists (green) lead the rump Muscovite Empire. The Workers' Front (red), consisting of various anarchist, communist, and socialist groups, controls a few territories including a Siberian one rich in Tunguskium. The White Front (blue) is a coalition of democrats, industrialists, and pro-European factions. Finally, foreign companies (gold) carved out mining concessions, often with adventurers and mercenary armies, during the chaos of the Russian collapse. The Americans and British operate East India Co. style mining monopolies, while the Germans got only a small chunk around Murmansk, which they use mostly to run a profitable line of icebreaker steamships which transport Tunguskium back to Europe. The area around ground zero itself is under the joint control of the major European powers, plus America, Japan, and Muscovy, under the Treaty of London (1910) which ended the Siberian War.

Points of interest on the map:

1. Protectorate of the Caucasus
2. Azerbaijan (Ottoman ally)
3. International Mining Zone

So, this is my first entry into the MotF . I also decided to depict a scramble for meteor with new materials, but I decided on perhaps the worst place in the world it could impact .

This is designed as a section of a political history course. The text I originally included in the image but I cut it out. Here goes, with the map to follow:

UofNW: Political History Year 2
Topic 2 Unit 1
The Wonsan Incident

In August 2017 the United Nations Institute for the Investigation of Cosmic and Solar Anomalies (UNIICSA - pronounced you-nee-saa) detected a previously unknown meteoroid, approximately 95 tonnes, heading for Earth. The object was given the designation 2017 KD₂ (often colloquially shortened to Kadi in the press) and was tracked entering the atmosphere above the Yellow Sea just off the Korean coast. The object shed several fragments before finally impacting several kilometres outside the North Korean city of Wonsan.

The initial scientific reaction was muted, despite its size 2017 KD₂ would never be examined due to it falling under the jurisdiction of the secretive North Korean government, who refused to hand over any samples. Fortunately for the scientists however, one large 6 tonne fragment fell onto Ganghwa Island, which was within South Korea. This was reclaimed, ignoring weak diplomatic protests from the North, by the South Korean military and put under guard in Seoul. Samples were taken and examined by universities and technical firms in Seoul.

At the same time the North Korean government reluctantly revealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency that the impact had cracked open a secret nuclear facility located north of Wonsan. The United Nations was forced to declare a roughly 300 km² exclusion zone around the landing site, as shown in Map 1, as well as being assigned three of North Korea's airports (in an attempt to keep them away from military airfields). The exclusion zone was arguably made bigger than required at the requests of Western powers and South Korea who aimed to use it a propaganda centre.

All this changed in October when the scientists examining the Ganghwa Island fragment published their results. Their findings shook the world: the materials within the meteoroid were found to be a 99.7% perfect room-temperature superconductor, the holy grail of materials science.

Unfortunately once the announcement was made that the fragments of 2017 KD₂ were of immense value, North Korea closed its borders and forced the evacuation of UN staff. The North Korean leader leader, Kim Jong-un, announced that North Korea was willing to sell half of the main 48 tonne remnant to the highest bidder, whilst keeping hold of the other fragments and the remaining 24 tonnes for its own use.

These actions provoked outrage around the world, leading to the suspension of North Korea from the United Nations. Technically North Korea had every right to do what they wanted to with material that landed in their territory under the UNIICSA treaty, however the Western Powers made it clear that they would use force if necessary to claim the material for "the good of humanity". As such an international taskforce was created (Codenamed Operation Liberator by the United States, the UK and Commonwealth contingent worked under Operation MAGENTA), formed of (in order of size) American, South Korean, European (French, German, Polish and others) and Commonwealth (British, Canadian, Australian and others) groupings.

Both Russia and China blocked formal UN intervention in the security council (with Brazil and South Africa abstaining), but both began readying task forces for themselves, to intervene in their own national interest. In the winter of 2017 the "Scramble for Kadi” (as it has since been titled) began.

The Northern Korean People's Army offered little resistance crossing into North Korea, the vast majority had been withdrawn to protect the major fragments of the meteoroid. The three main armies, the People's Liberation Army taskforce, the Russian Union Army taskforce and the Allied taskforce all advanced into the centre of North Korea, shown in Map 2. Paratroopers rained down onto the main impact site (designated KD-A) and the four major fragments (KD-1 through 4), whilst the three navies landed men on the coast.

It was at the now infamous site designated KD-3, in the North Hwanghae province, that by chance both Chinese and American special forces independently chose to infiltrate on the same night. The Chinese knew the second column of the PLA force was only days away, whilst the Americans knew they had little backup as the Allied armies were concentrated on KD-4 to the south. What happened at KD-3 is still a closely guarded secret, suggesting both sides were at fault, but whatever happened eventually lead to the outbreak of the largest war the world had ever seen.

See Also:
Unit 1 Appendix 1: Sources and reading list
Unit 1 Appendix 2: Images and Maps

Next Unit: Unit 2: The Sino-American Conflict

Another quick one. Tried a period feel, like something you would see in an old history textbook.

"The event that perhaps more than any other shaped the 19th century history of the young Kingdom of Canada, and certainly was the formative event of the Canadian West, was the Columbia Treaty of 1846. The country, only formed from British territories in the northeastern corner of the North American continent in 1838, achieved a highly favourable settlement of the border with the United States west of the continental divide, gaining all of Columbia."

"However, the US had also just annexed the Mexican regions of the Californias, Chihuahua, Coahuila, New Leon, New Mexico, Sonora, and Tamaulipas after their war over the Texas dispute. This resulted in a political firestorm, as Mexico prohibited slavery and the residents of the Rio Grande states were adamant it would stay that way, fearing Anglo-American slave power dominance as happened in Texas. President Calhoun, to counteract the possibility of them joining the Union as free states, secretly sold the northwestern part of the Mexican cession to Canada."

"This secret back-room deal would inadvertently alter the course of the two nations; Little more than a year after the treaty, word reached the small port town of San Francisco that gold had been found in the interior. By the spring of the next year, Lord John Russell, the British Prime Minister had addressed the House of Commons on the discovery of massive gold deposits in Canadian territory. The greatest gold rush in human history had begun."

"The rush had a dramatic impact, almost overnight turning the Pacific coast of Canada from one of the most remote parts of the Americas into a booming center of mining and forestry. Hundreds of thousands streamed in from all corners of the globe, but most notably from Britain, her Asian colonies, China, Germany, and the United States. By the Golden Jubilee of the Canadian confederation, only Montreal and Toronto were bigger cities than San Francisco."