Been working on a History of Earth between 2020-2150 since May in hopes it would be included in The Enterprise Sourcebook that didn't happen, but I did finish it, so I want some of it to get out before I move on to other projects in force and before it is removed from my harddrive on to disk. As you well all tell there is alot from lug, a little FASA, and even B5!
Unity At Last
2100 - 2150
As Earth became more and more stabilized the governments of Earth turned there attention back to matters of international relations and now intergalactic ones as well. By 2090 what had been several very loose trade and defense associations among many nations had grown into several effective central government's which were recognized by the new United Nations, which itself had reorganized to take in the new reality of affairs, in 2082. While most of these new "super" regional governments sought cooperation, some of the old passions and mistrust lingered on.
It was in some ways inevitable as the super states of Earth recovered from the devastation of the 21st century they would returned to their old ways. Even though cooperation in such things as Project Renewal was commonplace they found other areas to create tensions with, such as intergalactic trade and colonization. In some ways the dawn of the 22nd century seemed to promise as much conflict as the dawn of the 17th century had as the various powers sought to gain new colonies and exploit new areas of raw materials. The New United Nations had attempted to prevent this when in 2085 it declared that all future Earth colonies would be considered UN mandates and not property of any one state and subject to some UN supervision in their creation, founding and running. This arrangement worked for just about under 20 years as each national state seemed to compete in a friendly race to organize, build and run as many new settlements as possible. This was until the race for Mars began in 2102.
Mars had not, as of yet, been touched by human exploration, even though a semi-permanent observation laboratory had been placed into Martian orbit by the UN in 2087. The Russia Federation, the North American Compact, and the European Hegemony were the three main contenders for setting up the first Martian colony and each made several efforts to do so before the UN Security Council and the newly established UN Intergalactic Colonial office. Each quickly become "feed up" with the long process to get going and they all decided relatively at the same time to ignore the UN, and soon after all three had made separate landings on Mars in 2103. Within five years all three landing sites had grown into moderately successful settlement's beneath habitable "bio-domes" engaged in extensive underground mining, tunneling and moderate agricultural development.
However, Russian mining consortiums were very jealous of the more successful mining operations of the North American Compact's large settlement. Soon the Compact's miners were finding efforts to sabotage their equipment and agents attempting to stir up worker discontent. In 2105 the North American Compact officially went to the UN to protest the Russian mining companies moves which it said were being sanctioned by the Russian government to gain all of the Martian colony. The UN turned a deaf ear to the complaints since they had been left out of the colonies founding in the first place, declaring it an illegal settlement and out its jurisdiction. As events began to escalate with riots, strikes and the eventual deployment of Compact ground troops to Mars in 2107 the Martian colonist themselves began to feel like pawns in somebody else’s game and what some later termed a Martian national conscience was born.
Meanwhile Earth starship construction had resulted in several embryonic merchant fleets being created by each of the new super states. These fleets kept trade contacts with the new colonies flowing as raw materials where sent to Earth to fuel its rebirth and new manufactured goods were sent to the new colonies to meet their needs. This marked a change in the basic relationship between Earth and her colonies. In addition trade with Vulcan, Alpha Centauri, Kaferians and others opened new trade routes for the exchange of both manufactured and luxury goods. However each nation jostled with the other for better deals with the various intergalactic governments, eventually agreements which overlapped in various rights and duties emerged and created tensions between the nations.
The Vulcans and the Centuari slowly grew weary of dealing with the various competing Earth governments and became concerned as the Earth merchant captains grew more and more hostile towards each other and arrogant to and demanding of port officials when arriving. But they did little before 2107 save for continuing to push for some form of a United Earth government to make dealing with them a little easier. The situation came to a head in the spring of 2107 when a South American merchantmen making for a Centuari port was fired upon by a European Hegemony merchantmen so that it could be the first to reach the same port and have first bids on the goods to be transported. This was enough for the Vulcans and Centauri, they were not about to be dragged into Earths internal affairs over a trade dispute and by the end of the year they imposed an embargo on all Earth trade, cutting off most of the more important cultural and scientific exchanges. Soon with the Kaferians in tow they demanded that the UN get its act together and some form of a single united Earth government body be formed before they would deal with Earth again.
Of course Humans being Humans they responded as countless generations had before them in such situations with talk of war and of forcibly opening the closed ports to Earth ships. The fact that Earth at that time did not even posses a force capable of destroying one single asteroid, let alone opening no less then several hundred alien ports by force, did not seem to stop such moves in the early months of the crisis. Soon after the Vulcans and others imposed there embargo the newly established Earth colonies also imposed an embargo on Earth demanding the UN form a new united Earth government. In 2109 the UN faced with what seemed to be hostile acts from intergalactic interlopers especially now with Human colonies siding with them ordered the establishment of a Solar Fleet which was to be made up of ships and crews from all over Earth to defend its merchantmen no matter of what nationality. Despite the fact of these warlike preparations something else happen: humans did begin to think of unifying at last.
Reply With Quote
