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Земля (Политическая)
Из Галактопедии, Свободной Энциклопедии Млечного Пути
Земля [ИК:1742660] — дома Людей. This page covers the current era (as of 2160CE) political situation on Earth and its interstellar Human colonies. For information about Earth's physical characteristics, Human anatomy, lack of Curation, economics, or advanced electronics and fold technology, see the linked articles.
Unlike most Curated worlds Earth does not have a unified planetary government. Earth's governance and its history is quite complex, having coalesced from a chaotic legacy of conflict and shifting alliance. At the time Humans achieved space travel via massively complex and dangerous chemical rockets around 1950CE, there were nearly two hundred independent governing bodies called "countries" asserting control over various geographical areas of the Earth. Today there are four governing bodies which together assert control over nearly the entire planetary land mass.
The Four Modern Powers
Основная статья
The four governing bodies of Earth today are:
The Russo-American Concordance controls the former country of Russia and its satellites and the continents of Europe and North and South America.
China controls roughly the southeastern quarter of the Asian continent. Its coastline runs continuously from north of the Korean peninsula to areas of the former country of Bangladesh. Modern China includes the repatriated rogue state of Taiwan, the Korean peninsula, and all of the other formerly separate countries of mainland southeast Asia. Inland its territory ranges west to the Himalayas and north to the Russian border. The Chinese protectorate also includes Madagascar and much of southern Africa through "administrative councils" which are actually arms of the Chinese government.
The Indo-Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere controls the former country of India, the entire Middle East, northern Africa, and through what began as a strategic alliance the Pacific island territories of Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and most of the scattered Pacific islands of Polynesia which are still above sea level.
The continent of Australia remains an independent geopolitical entity with its own government. Modern Australia also governs the island subcontinents of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
Russo-American Concordance
Основная статья
The countries of Russia (heading the "Soviet Union") and America (the "United States of America," or USA) were two of Earth's great superpowers and bitter enemies throughout the mid twentieth century. Around 1990CE the Russian government collapsed, and after a brief dalliance with democracy Russia was effectively taken over by representatives of organized crime, which had become the most powerful players in the chaotic post-collapse economic environment.
After 1990CE relations between Russia and America warmed as powerful business interests began to merge. Around 2020CE the Russian government began to openly subvert the democratic processes of states it was interested in controlling, including America, by the use of online propaganda, orchestrated blackmail of key politicians, and "hacking" of the primitive electoral processes in use then. By 2050CE Russia had effectively but at that point clandestinely assumed control of the governments of at least twenty other countries by these methods.
By 2070CE the growing Concordance had a stranglehold on commerce in much of the northern hemisphere and the Americas which it used ruthlessly to expand its influence and consolidate its control. Although it was not officially a single entity at this point the member countries were bound by various treaties and agreements which assured that they would usually act in concert. The true ruling government consisted of Russian oligarchs and organized crime family figureheads who moved their base of operations from Moscow to Atlanta as climate change made the weather more unpredictable in Europe and Asia.
It was the Russo-American Concordance, through its vassal member the United States of America, which launched the Hermes, the interplanetary fold drive test mission which attracted the Sevillians to make First Contact and introduced Humans to the Curated galactic community.
By 2090CE the Concordance had effective control over all of its modern extent. Amid the chaos of rising sea levels, shifting climatic regions, and population displacements including the interstellar diaspora to the human colonies, the Concordance abruptly dropped the fiction that it was an alliance of nominally independent nations. Overnight it erased all previously existing political boundaries within its domain and replaced them with a simplified map of administrative districts mostly bounded by lines of latitude and longitude, and made roughly equal in scope according to a formula based on population, economic production, and land area. Reference to the previous national identities or boundaries in print, broadcast, or online was prohibited by law and by 2120CE nearly all mention of the various countries that had coalesced to form the Concordance had been eliminated from popular media.
China
Основная статья
China is by most assessments the oldest political entity on Earth, tracing its origin to the legendary Xia dynasty of roughly 2000BCE. In that time it has not been a single entity, having repeatedly fractured and re-unified, but it has retained a recognizable and continuous geopolitical identity for at least 4,000 Earth years. While this may seem like a short time in galactic terms, it is an extremely long run for a Human institution.
As Russia subverted the governments of the future Concordance in the mid 21st century, China recognized an opportunity to consolidate its own sphere of influence and began by assimilating the rogue state of Taiwan. It followed by using subversion techniques to assimilate the Korean peninsula and over time the other separate mainland nations of southeast Asia.
Rather than expand toward India, Russia, or Japan, where the Chinese knew they would meet formidable resistance, China consolidated its hold on the now deforested island of Madagascar and used it as a beachhead into southern Africa. The government of the country of South Africa was making a bid of its own to be a regional power in the 2060's, but China was able to overrun them with military and political resources for which the Africans had no answer. China did not adopt its new holdings in Africa into its official national territory as the other superpowers would do with all of their conquests, but its control over those territories is undisputed and China relies heavily on the natural resources of its African colony districts.
Indo-Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere
Основная статья
As of 2010CE the country of India was widely lauded as being the Earth's largest democratic government. Viewing the Russo-American expansion and consolidation and the new Chinese aggression with alarm in the 2050's the Indian government reached out to Japan to create an alliance.
Japan was one of the most technically competent countries on Earth at the time but very poor in natural resources. At first the alliance was friendly and widely considered to be mutually beneficial. But the Japanese government was being subverted by the Yakuza organized crime clans much as Russia's had been by its organized crime gangs in the early 21st century, and eventually the crime family rulers of Japan used the same tools the Russians had used to subvert and control India's democratic government. Throughout the second half of the 21st century the alliance expanded aggressively across the Middle East and into northern Africa, taking advantage of the chaos caused by climate change. It also assimilated most of what remained of Polynesia with little resistance. Eight years after the Russo-American Concordance erased all the old national boundaries within its domain, at the opening of the 22nd century the Indo-Japanese alliance followed suit.
Australia
Основная статья
Australia is the only geopolitical entity of the modern era which is largely unchanged from its extent and polity of the 19th century. Being a self-contained geographically isolated large island nation Australia had nowhere to easily expand to, and no reason to fracture. Its remoteness and relative lack of natural resources made it an unattractive target for conquest by the larger superpowers. While the other powers had to aggressively reduce their populations via the fold diaspora, Australia was actually able to increase its population in the 22nd century because new weather patterns made some formerly desert areas of the continent arable. The formerly separate island nations of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand joined Australia voluntarily rather than be assimilated by Indo-Japan.
Seeing what happened in India and America, the Australians introduced measures to "inoculate" their electoral processes from foreign tampering. As of 2160CE they are the only large political entity on Earth to still practice democracy in a meaningful form.
International Relations
The Russo-American Concordance, China, and Indo-Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere all maintain their own independent and self-sufficient semiconductor manufacturing lines, from the harvest of natural raw materials to the final production of products such as fold and supergravity drives. The Australians manufacture parts and provide services for the other producers, but do not produce final products of their own for the galactic market.
Although they are nominally independent the three powers which provide advanced Earth products cooperate as to pricing and delivery, often shipping product for one another. Although humans are famously warlike there has not been an actual war between major powers on Earth since 2048CE, making the modern reign of the four powers one of the most peaceful eras in modern Human history. The extents of the four powers have been stable and mostly uncontested since 2130CE.
The Human Fold Diaspora
Основная статья
The Earth's climate has warmed dramatically in the last three centuries due to atmospheric pollution from Humans' early industrial efforts. By the late 21st century this had caused the planet's ice caps to collapse, raising the sea level by over ten meters and dramatically altering historic patterns of storm formation and precipitation. The rising sea has inundated much of the formerly arable land and many low-lying population centers, and changes in weather patterns have disrupted the productivity of other previously arable lands. By 2080CE famine, storm casualties, and epidemics were causing the total Human population to decrease for the first time in recorded history.
Having invented fold ships which could land on an unimproved planet without ground support, Humans began scouting for suitable Curated but unindexed colony worlds in the 2060's. After the hybrid Hyacinth-Human giant landing fold ship Laputa began flying the Humans began an aggressive campaign of emigration and colonial development. The Laputa was so successful the Humans almost immediately began contracting with other races to build more Laputa class ships, and throughout the next thirty years acquired roughly one per year. The reduction of Earth's population from its height of 15 billion to the 2150CE level of 800 million was partly accomplished by the emigration of roughly seven billion to the colonies.
Human Colonial Governance
Основная статья
The four powers of Earth mutually agreed that attempting to maintain an interstellar imperial presence would be a foolish and impractical waste of resources. All of the human colonies have their own local global governments on a more typical galactic model, with democratically elected representative councils. Also unlike Earth, where the technology is banned, the colonies make use of Curator derived nanite tech, which makes possible a post-scarcity economy in which no individual has to find a source of monetary income in order to survive.
Some effort was made in founding the colonies to make sure none of them would be dominated by any single popular Human culture, so all of the colonies feature a mix of racial, religious, and political heritage similar to that which remains on Earth.
См. также
Экономика Земли
Коалиция Гияцинта
Торговля с Людьми: История за авторством Короля Гияцинта Генри
Список Людских Миров-Колоний
Технология Свёртки Не-Кураторского Происхождения
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