Timeline of recent history
From SaschaWiki
Contents |
20th Century
21st Century
2000s - The War on Terror
The 2000s saw a drastic and permanent shift in the foreign policy of the US following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Declaring a "war on terror" the US invaded and neutralised the countries of Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. This period of attacks is remarkable primary for the way the US acted on its own security interests, regardless of the strictures of so-called international law, and the failure of United Nations Security Council to react to or censure them. This set a permissive, almost helpless tone to international politics and set the stage for the events of the following decades.
The 2000s also saw the worldwide spread of so-called "broadband" (although pitifully narrow by today's standard) 'Net connections, establishing the true groundwork for the InterWeb as we know it.
2010s - Korea and French Taxes
2014: The war on terror climaxes with the Korean War 2.
2015: First Executive Trust Clause used, starting a trend of upwards growth in the size and power of corporations.
2016: iDesk on sale.
2017: The French Tax Incident dramatically raises international tensions.
2018: US pulls out of NATO.
2018: First deployment of Bionic Special Forces by the US Military.
2019: First serious Mars colonisation project made, citing potential sources of raw materials and expansion space for over-populated Western and Asian countries. No country seriously invested in a colonisation program.
The late 2010s saw a gradual increase in passive smog worldwide, but particularly in America and Europe due to relaxation in emissions laws.
2020s - Neopunk and BSFs
During the 2020s, Neopunk rose to prominence as a worldwide fashion movement.
The 2020s also witnessed the birth of the so-called "Megacorporations". Long predicted in science fiction of the 20th Century, the tendency in the early 21st Century was actually towards smaller rather than larger companies, and very few successful conglomerates had survived. However, an important consequence of the widespread Executive Trust Clause of the 2010s was a renewed interest amongst senior management in the long-term success of their companies, something which had been largely abandoned in Western management thought since the 1950s. The tendency towards smaller companies was a result of a strict policy of quickly shedding non-profitable aspects of a Corporation's business, but the so-called "Trust" era brought about a change in that thinking, and small conglomerates started to horizontally, vertically and diagonally integrate additional companies. The "Megacorporations" of the 2020s were barely noticeable by the standards of the Big Five of 2074, but they exerted a strong influence on contemporary culture.
During the 2020s the smog that begun subtley during the 2010s had risen to 19th Century levels in major urban centres, particularly New York, London, Paris and Mexico City.
2022 saw the first official deployment of Bionic Special Forces during the Korean Purge. In June 2022, "The People's Liberators", a faction of northern Koreans loyal to the old Kim dynasty first threatened and then attacked the new Korean capital of Seoul with chemical weapons that had escaped decommission in 2015. Their first attack on the Democratic Assembly Building left thousands of civilians dead, including a substantial proportion of the country's elected government. Korea's status as a protectorate of the United States was to last until 2028, and the US response to the attacks was swift. Special forces soldiers (including large numbers of apparently field tested Bionic Special Forces) were deployed into the country and conducted rapid military reprisals against the terrorists which extended into suspected revolutionary cells over the next few months. No further terrorist attacks were made against Korea, and the swift resolution of the incident by US forces was both widely praised in the United Nations and widely cited as a reason for massive additional funding for counter-terrorist military operations.
Work in dialective polymers as a result of the worldwide research in bionic human augmentation lead to practical designs and working prototypes of the first self-powered exoskeletons in 2022 and again in 2024 at the Thanex Military Research Institute. The technology was not adopted as standard battle armour by any of the world's militaries due to the outrageous cost, although small numbers of suits found use amongst police and intelligence services across the world.
In 2023 the Mars Colonisation Foundation was set up as a not-for-profit scientific endeavour to design and build a functioning orbital facility and eventual colonisation modules. At initiation the Foundation was little more than a think tank, but by 2028 it had attracted a world-class selection of aeronautical engineers, astrotechs and other specialists.
In 2026 the HK AR2025 AICW was deployed to US and NATO forces across the world.
In December 2029 the first marketing of bionic human augmentation in the civilian sector occured, with the Sony HeadMan.
2030s - Androids, Chroming
The 2030s and 2040s saw a period of rising global stability. The last bastions of oppression and terrorism in the Middle East, South America and Africa were noisily destabilised and silenced by the US Military.
During the 2030s Neopunk was largely eclipsed as a fashion movement by Chroming, which was the practice of surgically grafting metal plates (typically made of titanium, stainless steel, or in one case, platinum, but never actual chromium) to the body, especially the biceps and the head. Chroming began as part of Neopunk, and early Chromers wore otherwise Neopunk styles, but the movements quickly grew apart and Neopunk gradually disappeared.
2040s
- Sascha Station constructed in Earth orbit
- 2045: Android rebellion
2050s
- Cityshield developed and deployed
- Cold War 2 period
- Moon Race
- Neo Sengoku Jidai
2060s
2070s
- Present day
