MotF 94: This is Planet Earth

Unified Earth Front

It's an idea I had back around the turn of the century. Unfortunately, I never committed any of it to paper and it's been lost. What I do remember, I'll relay.



The Unification movement had its origins in the 1960s when the Super Powers fought a series of proxy wars. Instead of being chess pieces to the United States or Soviet Union, nations in a non-alignment movement pledged to aid each other in a series of political, economic and military alliances. By the 1970s, the Unified Earth Front had a strong presence in India, Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mexico and even Australia. In that same decade these nations signed treaties with each other and other nations promising aid overt and covert. The UEF was most active in Angola during its civil war.

In the following decade, the UEF grow in strength in Egypt and Jordan due to a resurging Pan-Arab movement. Volunteers from Ethiopia and Kenya moved into Somalia to prop up a pro-UEF government. In the 1990s, inspired by the European Community’s closer bonding, the UEF began to consider its own into greater union. In 1997, the Unified Earth Front gained enough influence in various parliaments and congresses to establish a supranational union. On June 21, 1997, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Brazil, Angola, South Africa, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea signed the Unified Earth Charter.

The Charter bound the nations together in an economic, military and political union similar to the European Union. The primary requirement for any member state is that they have a representative government. This is such a vague requirement than constitutional monarchies like Jordan and one-party states like Cuba could join. Another requirement made membership in Unified Earth take priority above all other international agreements, including membership in the United Nations.

The governing body, the Earth Senate met in New Delhi, the acting capital of Unified Earth. UEF’s headquarters remained in Geneva, with the hope that one day it would be Earth’s capital. By 2018, few European states have joined the Unified Earth and the extensive infrastructure in New Delhi rendered the city a permanent capital. Member states remain largely independent in terms of internal affairs. As long as the Charter is not violated, members are free to run themselves as they see fit.

In the twenty years since its establishment, Unified Earth has established a common market, common financial system and a common currency, the Earth Credit. The name was chosen due to much of the economic activity being done electronically. A common military, called the Earth Defense Force and is supplemented by the national armies of its members

Not all of the states that have joined Unified Earth joined peacefully. Though most entered through national referendum, carefully supervised by the UEF, a few were brought in via coups. Pakistan in 1999, a united Korea in 2002, the Republic of Arabia in 2003, Sudan in 2008 and the UEF and Unified Earth currently are involved in aiding the pro-UEF factions in a Venezuelan civil war. In all except the first case, the UEF had humanitarian issues as a justification for taking the actions the weakening UN would not.

I decided to put flesh in the vague idea I had around a flag some time ago.

1989 truly seemed like the end of History, or at least, the beginning of a radically new world. A world were the Eastern Bloc, apartheid South Africa and the People's Republic of China were no more. By 1993, every single Communist regime on earth had fallen, and the World Wide Web anticipated a new stage on Human development.

The atmosphere was one of never seen optimism, but the United states faced a new dilemma: a soon to become multipolar world where competing powers were not divided by ideological lines anymore. Soon, the Clinton administration outlined a plan of action for the future: delegating threats to global equilibrium (insurgent groups, rogue states) to increasingly cooperating powers with well definite fields of action, led in practice by an Atlantic front of nations and bound by a global market. Between other major changes, Russia never descended to authoritarianism, and Pakistan fell from grace in favor of India.

It seemed to work. In 1995, a covert operations international group, the Global Actions of Deterrence, Intel and Undercover Strike, was created as a literal World Police in the shadows. European integration was pushed forward respect to OTL (full confederation was completed in 2022), and talks of an Atlantic Union appeared much earlier, being a reality by 2018. By the mid 2020's when the emerging powers and their supranational organizations had fully consolidated, the next logical step was made: a political organism of economic and military convergence between all of them. In 2030, the Treaty of Porto Alegre gave birth to the biggest supranational union to that day, and the seed of the World Government to come.

Due to its evident New Order nature, its invasive surveillance systems (actually, not unlike OTL ones) and its deal of the non-integrated world as a sandbox game, with dozens of ongoing conflicts bleeding what the insiders despectively call the Off-World, Altermundialism is a much bigger deal and a much more definite body of doctrine. So are conspiracy theories, in spite of the "conspiracy" being publicly proclaimed loud and clear since the Cold War ended: some of them are slowly becoming religious cults.

A while ago I did a map involving the Song Dynasty industrializing and allying with the steppe tribes to conquer Eurasia. Political control was divided between the Emperor in Kaifeng and the four Khagans, who were effectively independent. In the original map, the Empire was on the brink of collapse due to the Imperial government attempting to exert real control over the Khagans.

In this version, the Imperial government successfully brought the Empire under its control, but only with the assistance of the Western Khagan in Cairo. The Western Khaganate was allowed official autonomy, and helped shape the new empire to its advantage. The Khagan ensured that most of the local rulers would not be Imperial appointees, and became the patron of many of these local Lords. Now, a Cairo-based merchant company has discovered the New World.

In the future, India, Catholic Europe, and the American colonies will join the Western Khaganate in wanting independence, and a federal structure will be established based mostly on religious affiliation, a feature deriving from Cairo's use of pan-Islamic sentiment to extend its influence. The world-state will be fully established and stable by 1750.

The religion map only shows the official religions, by the way. There are still a lot of Orthodox Christians and Muslims in the Northern Khaganate from the time when they were tolerated, but the current Khagan is trying to suppress them.

Reality-Fitted Reboot of United Earth from Star Trek

Has there been a World War III? No. Has FTL been put into successful practice? Oh yes, the maiden voyage was done by Hamid As-Sistani from Basra in Iraq on April 18, 2077. First sentient alien races were encountered by 2083.

What happened before the application of faster-than-light travel?

• Korea united in 2038 after Kim Jong-Un successfully turned North Korea into a market economy with Chinese help on steroids, only to see that better fed people wouldn't put up with oppression and did a Kimchi revolution in 2034.
• The PR China turned into a democration federation after first free elections in 2041. However, Taiwan only joined in 2128 to have a share in United Earth.
• The EU found its final extent in 2047 with the admission of Armenia. They succesfully contained Russia, but were let to keep Crimea.
• Climate change prompted India to integrate Bangladesh into its union by 2061. Nepal and Bhutan followed suit until 2066.
• South America struggled several times to put EU-style cooperation into practice, but failed every time.

After the advent of faster-than-light travel:

• The EU underwent complete federation until 2107.
• Various island states in the Pacific federated by 2114.
• ECOWAS structures get extended into Central Africa and federated in 2118 as the UNAQOC, the UNion d'AfriQue de l'Ouest et Centrale.
• The East Afican Union which until then only consisted of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda expands to its current extent until 2110 and likewise federates in 2124.
• Both African unions yet dispute about how to divide Congo-Kinshasa into their respective unions.
• Central America and the Carribean federate in 2127 in order to have a share in future United Earth.
• South America finally gets its act together and already federated in 2115, but some countries yet stay outside.

Green color denotes countries and territories that didn't partake in the inauguration of United Earth, but they would subsequently have joined until 2151 when Australia joined last.

(NB: Greenland is supposed to be in green color, but not shown here due to the basemap lacking a united Greenland.
And Alaska is of course supposed to have stayed American. I tried to avoid ambiguities, but failed on the fly.)

*WARNING: WALL OF TEXT*

This one's going to be a two-parter, done in the esteemed Munroist "wall-off-text-then-map" style. It's a map of the Earth in a sci-fi setting I've been working on off and on since January. The most concise description I can think of is "the bastard biopunk lovechild of Altered Carbon and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but with more political axe-grinding." At some point I may post a sample in the Writer's Forum.

But I digress. Time for the description! (*WARNING: WALL OF TEXT INBOUND*)

The year is 2123 CE, and the world has definitely seen better days. While the human species has colonized the stars, the world has been consolidating planetside. While still technically made up of independent states, most of the globe is consolidated under the rule of United Humankind, a powerful international organization which has served as a successor to the United Nations since 2079. Unlike the UN, however, UH has teeth, and isn't afraid to bare them to maintain hegemony. If you don't believe me, just ask the people of Montana (if you can find any who survived the orbital bombardments, of course. The 2097-2104 Flyover Rising was not a pleasant affair.)

A global pseudo-federalism is slowly being hashed out, chiefly through trial-by-error. UH styles itself as progressive humanitarian aid group first and foremost: member states are all signatories of the UH charter, known as the Declaration of Standards, which mandates that said states maintain certain "cultural and political standards required of responsible governance". Cutting through the fog of political-speak, what that means is that if a member state deviates in any way from the UH-accepted guidelines for social democracy receives an immediate "regime guidance intervention" courtesy of the Peacekeeping Force's orbital barracks. The Declaration of Standards mandates all states institute a progressive income tax set no lower than 40%, a full civilian weapons ban, a welfare state that makes early 21st-century Sweden look like Galt's Gulch, enact "anti-fascism" (read: anti-free speech)laws, cut their military spending by 75%, and join the Global Monetary Union (the UH Credit is the only legal tender recognized in UH territory, although the space colonies are sometimes given special exemptions from this rule). Member protectorates are also "strongly encouraged" to nationalize major industries and ensure government control over the commanding heights of the economy. All citizens of the protectorates are also automatically citizens of UH, which has negotiated open border and visa agreements with most of its members, although member states do have some say in border matters. Of course with UH citizenship comes additional UH taxes, which are paid to the United Humankind Revenue Service headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina (While the UH capitol is in Cádiz, Spain, it was seen as prudent to spread the crucial institutions out somewhat). Each member state (including those in space) elects one representative to the Interplanetary Assembly for a period of six years. In most countries, these assemblypeople have more influence than the actual heads of state, and are therefore the elections people pay the most attention to. Almost all representatives are members of their nation's Progressive Party, and have been for decades. This, of course is evidence of a "Mandate of the People" and the "Onward March of Social Justice", and has nothing whatsoever to do with the unfortunate accidents that tend to befall opposition candidates. Funny how journalists reporting such incidents never seem to receive any airtime, isn't it? Perhaps they should've re-read the UH resolutions banning "fringe, false, abusive, or offensive speech"...

Without a doubt, the most powerful player in UH is the European Union. It was able to weather the environmental crises of the late 21st century very well, in comparison to the US, which dissolved into bickering paralysis between left and right, and China, which absolutely imploded in 2026 and is only barely reunified now. Rich, safe, and obnoxiously self-righteous, Europe is once again the colossus astride the world. Federalism has been good for the EU, as it's allowed them to consolidate their resources and project power both globally and interplanetarily. It receives immigrants from all over the world, has the most highly-regarded universities, and has a population of almost a billion. It's also a world leader in UH social and cultural policy, which is best described as "uber-Tumblr feminism". Gun and blade control is approaching airtight (ignore those scandalous rumors of a "black market", Honored Citizen), the minimum wage is buttressed by an income cap, and it's considered the height of rudeness not to ask for someone's preferred pronouns when you first meet them. It also has the highest suicide rate in the world. Offworlders like to snark that Europe's slowly boring itself to death. Also part of the EU's alliance structure is the European Expanded Partnership, a larger alliance of UH states wedded to the EU at the hip even if some (*cough-the UK-cough*) would deny it. Some, like the Bosnian Confederation, are slated for eventual EU membership. Others, like the inordinately creepy Norwegians, are...not.

(Norway deserves its own mini-explanation-- it suffered a coup in the 2090s by totalitarian gender nihilists who are remaking it in their own image. Norway today is a grey-skied wonderland of eerily androgynous women. It's not a fun place to be male--your fate is either to be aborted at six months and harvested for genes or be castrated and walk the streets in a burka-like contraption to avoid oppressing women with the "patriarchal hegemony" in your gaze. Sweden is flooded with Norwegian refugees.)

The second-tier powers after the EU within the UH system are the permanent members of the UH Council for Justice and Security, the UH analogue to the UN Security Council. The whole Council has 13 members, 8 of which (9 counting the EU) are permanent. Decision-making is streamlined by a plurality rather than an individual veto, and each of the permanent members (Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, East Africa, Thailand, Japan, United States of Luna, Commonwealth of Mangala) is expected to supply troops and materiel for the Peacekeeping force in addition to their own armed forces. The primary strategy of UH is the decapitation strike: land as close to the target as quick as you can (preferably from orbit) and strike with overwhelming force. Then, send in occupation troops for regime-building. Most of the current fighting is taking place either in the Central African Reconstruction Zone (climate change is a real bear if you're poor and African), occupied Flyover (now being resettled with "more socially aware and responsible" Mongolians and Tunisians), or on Mangala (formerly Mars; more on that later).

There are middle-ranking powers as well, generally subordinate to the EU and the UHCJS. The astute reader of the early 21st century may be surprised to see many unexpected names on this list. "The USA, China, India, Russia? But they're the up-and-coming powers of our time!" you cry out. Well, just because they're not on the Council doesn't mean they have no clout within the system. India, for example, is the world's #2 economy and has an enormously successful Mars colonization program going. It's going so well, in fact, that Mars is almost 80% ethnically Indian. They even got UH to officially rename the Red Planet by its Sanskrit name Mangala. Yes, even without a say in security affairs, India's still got power. The same, however, cannot be said about the other three. China, as was already touched upon, imploded in 2026 when their economic bubble burst. First a cabal of high-ranking civil servants took over and implemented democratic reforms. Then the military launched a counter-coup and imposed martial law, then the civil servants joined with student protesters and launched a counter-counter-coup, then a rogue Chinese sub nuked Beijing, and before you know it everyone's fighting. By the time the (radioactive) dust had settled in 2051, almost 200 million people were dead and the nation's infrastructure was destroyed. The situation's improving, but slowly. China was a mess of competing states until 2118, when they re-unified under an extremely decentralized framework. The EU (and by extention UH) is watching the situation earnestly. A unified China could be just the sort of competition they don't want, especially the way Chinese geneticists have been going around with decidedly un-progressive ideas about the genetic superiority of the Han People...

Russia and the US, once bitter enemies, have now bonded over their mutual bitterness at their lost stature on the international stage. Russia had been doing fine up through the 2050s as well, until it bit off more than it could chew and went to war with the EU and Japan in 2061 over mineral rights in Siberia. The so-called Siberia War was an unmitigated disaster for Russia, ending with a kinetic rod strike on a hardened Russian command bunker deep in the Urals. Russia was pointedly humiliated in the resulting peace treaty, having to give up its hard-earned gains in eastern Ukraine and (even more galling) cede Sakhalin back to the Japanese. Now Russia's sunk back into alcoholism and corruption. By contrast, the US was doing fine for most of the century. Puerto Rico received statehood, and they accepted an offer of annexation by Haiti. Life was pretty good. It wasn't a superpower, but it was still up there. But then in 2097 a controversial president from the internationalist Responsibility Party made it his first act in office to sign onto the Declaration of Standards. The libertarian-leaning states of Montana, Idaho, The Dakotas, and Wyoming seceded from the Union to form the Free Republic of Flyover. They revoked the Declaration and closed their borders to any and all UH citizens.

Needless to say, this would not be tolerated. After an initial landing by Peacekeeper forces was foiled, the orbital bombardment of Boise, Billings, Bismark, and Helena began. After that, the Peacekeepers came back in for a grueling guerrilla campaign in the countryside, which only ended in 2104. Since then, UH has placed sanctions on America, which will only be lifted when they "have achieved certain hallmarks of social privilege awareness and a desire on the part of its government to address its irresponsible governance". This put wind in the sails of the growing Social Justice Movement (again, think Tumblr feminists with political power), and forcing the government to take steps to curb "reactionary and counter-progressive elements in American society". This re-structuring, dubbed the "Gold Scare" by offworld pundits, led to the chief opposition Conservative Party purged for "inciting treason" and reduced to a toothless regional party in the Midwest. You'd think things would have calmed down now, but instead the SJM seems to be turning on itself, calling out its own members for "patriarchal oppression" and "creeping cishet hegemony" left and right. Instead of initiating a second Era of Good Feelings, America's cannibalizing itself while economic sanctions reduce the flow of imports. And all the while car bombs are still going off in Flyover.

Few areas of the globe exist outside of UH control, and even then only precariously. The most powerful "rival" to UH is the United Emirates, an Indonesian-dominated union of mostly Islamic states (plus Australia) dedicated to halting further UH expansion in southeast Asia. Unlike the social-democracy-with-small-scale-capitalism-grudgingly-tolerated model of UH, the UE is unabashedly capitalistic and freewheeling, with an emphasis on genetic engineering. Taxes are low, business is good, and governments generally leave you alone. However, they are as a rule inordinately paranoid about UH encroachment on their borders, especially in the Arabian Peninsula and in the Burmese Union (In 2048 India and Indonesia agreed to split Burma up into largely-independent provinces administered by publicly-traded corporations operating out of Singapore). They have a solid space program and control of three space elevators, which have enabled them to establish a presence on Mangala alongside UH. However, the proxy conflict on the Red Planet between UE- and UH-funded mercenary groups may threaten to bring the two blocs into a costly conflict that the UE know they can't win. They're currently trying to find a way to extricate themselves without endangering either their sovereignty or their colonists. So far it doesn't look good.

And then there are some states that aren't part of any group, of which the only really interesting one is our old pal, North Korea. Yes, these crazy bastards are still going strong. It was iffy for a while after China's implosion, but an influx of ex-Chinese technical advisers and advancements in vertical farming have enabled them to become an almost completely self-sufficient prison state. They're still ruled by the Kim family, too, only over the last century veneration of the Dear Leader has combined with local Buddhism to form a creepy-ass cult where "the Kim" is seen as a bodhisattva who continually dies and is reborn ("There is no son; there is no daughter; there is only the Kim and his avatars", as the chant goes.) Scarily enough, they have a space station in Earth's L5 Lagrangian point and periodically send suicide bombers into South Korea. Nobody's really sure what to do about them, but nobody wants to provoke them.

Technology in 2123 has a heady biopunk flavor to it. Genetic engineering is commonplace, albeit heavily restricted, in UH territory, while regulations are lax and body modification correspondingly weird in the UE and offworld. Biotechnology has also led to some truly amazing advances in an extraordinary technology: Neuron Plus. With a small nodule of Neuron Plus, called a cortical polyp, inserted at the base of a person’s skull, their consciousness can now be stored and easily inserted into a new body, making death a minor inconvenience for those who can afford a new body (why yes, I do like Altered Carbon! However did you guess? ). Most developed nations on Earth have a universal re-embodiment program, while the colonies have much stranger and varied policies on it. Power is mostly provided by fusion and solar power, with some recent experiments near Jupiter involving antimatter show some promise.

Limited extrasolar colonization has even begun, although not in a manner one would expect. In 2082, a probe passing Jupiter noticed an anomaly in high-radiation plasma torus which was later found to be a microscopic wormhole. An international scientific effort to study the wormhole, dubbed Charybdis, was eventually able to widen it enough to send a smaller probe through the other end, which opened up into the Mizar-Alcor sextuple-star system, some 83 light-years away (remember, it's sci-fi! ). Almost as soon as the discovery was announced, governments and NGOs began drawing up plans to colonize the new frontier. As of 2123, Mizar-Alcor contains a little under 3 million people on various planetary bodies and scientific stations. However, a full accounting of that political situation would be an utter mess, and at any rate is beyond the scope of this map.

However, crunch time for UH is approaching. While a most people either don't want to leave Earth or just can't, long-view thinkers within the UH establishment are worried by the "brain drain" as smart and productive people pack up and head offworld, where they can escape UH's cloying, ever-expanding grip. This is creating a severe budget problem as people with money leave and start businesses out in the Main Belt, Jupiter, or Mizar-Alcor. While UH propaganda has been able to play this off as just "decadent capitalists eager to shirk paying their fair share", that won't pay the bills. The outer settlements are far enough away that they can afford to just ignore UH's demands on them, which they specifically left Earth to escape. They won't fall in line willingly, and soon the crisis will come to a head.

With pro-freedom unrest increasing offworld and Earth's economy teetering on the brink, a drastic decision has been made. The United Humankind Revenue Service has dispatched a team to go to Archipelago, a station at the Mizar-Alcor L5 and the unofficial leader of the rebellious outposts, to go and bring them back in line "by any means necessary to avoid all-out war"...

...and here's the map!

So this is somewhat inspired by my ongoing research for Imperium Resurgam, but going in a different direction.

The first indications of the emerging economic order came with the free trade links between the EU, Caribbean and Canada which, with the addition of the US in 2031,
saw the creation of the North Atlantic Economic Area. As existing trade agreements were expanded upon, agreements with South Africa, India, the EAF and the Pacific Islands Forum
soon blossomed to a unified economic community, with Brazil, Korea and Japan joining separately from any one community, ASEAN and ECOWAS being recognised as
associates due to the existing links with community members.

TL-440 This is Planet Earth by Zauberfloete​

Throwing my hat into the ring of MotF. Don't expect to win, my maps ain't pretty or clever.

Mumby said:

In this world, things got nasty in Japan in WW2, necessitating an invasion that brought Japan low and secured it for Democracy. But it came at the cost of thousands of American lives. There was no appetite for a Marshall Plan or lengthy occupations in Europe after the war, and America turned back into isolation, concentrating on cultivating democracy in the Americas, clashing with the Communists only when it directly threatened American interests, as in the Korean War.

The Soviets realised they wouldn't have any competition and absorbed the Eastern European Peoples Republics. The Anglo-French Union was resurrected from the paperwork and the Soviets were stopped from invading West Germany. The Anglo-French began rapidly decolonising, delegating responsibilities to Dominions carved out of their colonies. When responsible government was granted to West Germany and Austria, they joined the Anglo-French Union, now reorganised as the European Union. Most of Europe joined up out of fear of the Soviets with the exception of Spain and Portugal which was having no truck with the Communists or the pinko Europeans.

Fast forwards to the 1990s. The USSR has recently opened up. It underwent a transition in the 1990s as Russians lost their majority, and democracy has spread. Talk of a limited association with the world-spanning United Commonwealth has been mooted, though the prospect of theoretically of placing themselves under the theoretical rule of Queen Elizabeth has made some members of the Politburo throw up a little. The United States similarly is considering links with the UC. The Indian economy is booming and the Indian Ocean is becoming a new centre of power in the UC, and the Americans want a slice of that pie but the Commonwealth Market requires a level of association they balk at. Africa is a growing powerhouse, a steaming juggernaut of industry which has drawn condemnation from environmental activists.

Only now, looking at the breadth of their domain do the legislators in Paris realise the full possibilities of the European Union and the United Commonwealth. If a Federal arrangement could be reached with the Dominions and the Associated States, then the United Commonwealth could be truly united, and if the remaining countries of the world associated themselves, then maybe the House of Windsor could be suzerain of all the world...

Click to expand...

(I hope I'm not too late)

The formation of the United Earth was accelerated during the battles against the Optimates of Colonel Green (seen here in dark red), the forces of Li Kwan (PRC pink) and the Greater Khanate (dark brown).

Their defeat helped to pave the way for the creation of a world united against tyrany, and in hope for the future.

BTW, this was a map (2086) I made for my TL "To Boldly Go".

While Chinese influence throughout the world increasing, many believed that it was only a matter of time before the new superpower engaged in a Cold War with the existing one. However, the economies of both America and China were too closely integrated for the two to truly be at odds with each other where it counted, and the Sino-American Partnership would dominate the world, especially after China liberalized, ending with its reformation into the Federal Republic of China. Chinese and American investments helped a lot in the development of Africa, especially Nigeria and Liberia, which incorporated Sierra Leone. America went through a second phase of Manifest Destiny, especially in its backyard, where Sino-American assistance helped bring the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America up to first world standards of living. However, things were not so peaceful in Europe. With the legacy of the Eurocrisis still looming over the Europeans, the EU ended up splitting in two after the UK left, between the Polish-dominated rump EU and the increasingly socialist German-dominated European Republic(ESR). Russia once again was split between the West(Europe) and the East(America and China), and ultimately joined the two superpowers, wanting a say in this new world order. To possibly have counterweights against both America and China, the ESR formed the Brussels Pact with fellow anti-Globalist nations Brazil and India, and oppose the increasingly federalist turn the Sino-American dominated UN was taking. The ESR, Brazil, India, East Africa and their allies withdrew from the UN, and at the dawn of a new century, the world is now divided into a new Cold War, between the Globalist UN and the Socialist Brussels Pact.

Most of this maps and explanation deserve being repaste in the Future Map Thread thread to not get lost in the ocean of old and anternate history, there will be apreciated.
But I let that only the autor move there or here his own creations.