History
This is the history of Mega Man MUSH. These events took place prior to
the Theme.
For information about events after the MUSH went IC, see
Timeline.
| The Early 21st Century | 2020 - 2030 |
| The Late 21st Century: Prelude To WWIII | 2030 - 2050 |
| World War III | 2050 - 2060 |
| China's Gambit: The Treaty of Beijing | 2060 - 2070 |
| An Uneasy Peace | 2070 - 2100 |
| The Chinese Collapse | 2100 - 2162 |
| The New World Order | 2163 - 2187 |
| Birth of the Second Renaissance | 2187 - 2200 |
The Early 21st Century
The world approached the precipice of World War early in the century, though few realized the danger at the time. Increased fuel prices, combined with a growing anger among the Middle Eastern poor, contributed to an environment where America's superpower status made it the target of terrorism. The wealthiest countries grew wealthier and the poorest countries generally grew poorer.
Some relief came to the world when a successful HIV vaccine was developed in 2021. While the disease had taken its toll on many nations, especially on the African continent, the vaccine was distributed by the wealthiest nations at very little cost in order to try to placate an increasingly militant population. Bolstered by this help, African nations began to wobble unsteadily toward recovery, though still suffered from corruption and civil unrest.
Europe and North America continued to sustain large-scale immigration from the Middle East and southeastern Asia during the first half of the 21st century. Increased pressure was put on these nations to metabolize these newcomers and integrate them into society. Ethnic tensions regularly flared up among Western European states, as well as in the United States. Among the most striking examples of the tension was seen during the Dearborne Riots of 2035, which eventually led to immigration reforms to liberalize the citizenship process.
In 2037, a series of massive earthquakes struck California in quick succession. Over the course of a week, most of the urban development in the state is destroyed, leaving one of the world's largest economies in chaos. The tidal waves released from these earthquakes badly damaged Hawaii's resorts, and caused havoc across the Pacific Rim that took almost a decade to fully repair. From the ruins of California, San Angeles, the first true megacity, was created.
The Late 21st Century: Prelude To WWIII
Perhaps the most significant event in the first half of the 21st century was the perfected form of the "water engine", released to the public in 2036. This "engine" was really a fusion reactor that powered hydrogen fuel cells, eliminating much of the world's demand for petroleum. This revolutionary invention destroyed the political power of the Middle East and is widely considered to have been instrumental in both ending the War on Terror and precipitating World War III less than 20 years later.
As the 2040s began, a sharp decline in retirees in Florida devalued much of the land on the peninsula. Simultaneously, a series of court cases were won by several large media conglomerates that permitted them to be considered as independent nation-states. The largest of these corporate nations was Disney, who had been accustomed to being a separate entity. The company began a series of large land purchases in 2042, and was able to acquire almost all of Florida by 2050.
Across Asia, China and India had become the main powers on the continent as the 21st century continued. A limited nuclear conflict in 2020 between India and Pakistan had forcefully ended the Kashmir question by rendering it unfit for human life for several decades. Pakistan's military dictatorship collapsed shortly afterward and caused the nation to be reclaimed by India. Over the next 50 years, Pakistan slowly regained most of its former autonomy, though its nuclear ambitions would be permanently snuffed out.
World War III
The surviving Russian nation-states, after almost 50 years of poverty and urban warfare, began to reform into a Soviet Union. With capitalism appearing to be a failure, radical socialists were able to seize power and co-opt the armed forces into creating what would quickly become another superpower. They quickly gained allies among the Middle Eastern states, increasingly desperate for both power and for revenge against the West.
This new Soviet Union initially was content to repress its own people, but by 2053 attempted to reclaim the former Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe. In a further show of defiance, the Russians sparked a revolution in the young democracy of Cuba, returning the island nation to its former status as a Soviet satellite state. Fears of an ascendant Soviet empire thrust the world into global war. At first, the conflict was only between the United States and Russia, as Europe and the slowly improving African nations claimed to be neutral. India chose to only provide humanitarian support to the Americans, while China felt no loyalty to the "new" Soviet Empire and enjoyed its trade relations with both nations.
By 2060, the stage was set for a global conflict. The Middle Eastern nations aggressed against India's western border, bringing India into the war. China continued not to act for over two years, allowing Russia to be repeatedly hammered by both the Indian and American forces. When China finally chose to move, they did so with sudden, devastating force.
China's Gambit: The Treaty of Beijing
Russia's North American ally Cuba, which had only recently returned to being a "socialist paradise", was the target of the first fusion-neutron bomb in 2062. The unobtanium warhead (the only one ever made, as the cost and effort required was too high) obliterated most of Havana and caused Disney Universe to close theme park operations for 24 hours out of fears that they would be next. Simultaneously, the Chinese army mobilized and marched on Moscow, capturing the capital and paralyzing the Russian forces.
The Americans and the Indians were able to easily defeat the confused and demoralized Russian forces, bringing an end to the global conflict within a month of the strike. A peace summit brokered by the Chinese officially ended the war with the Treaty of Beijing in 2063.
The Treaty of Beijing set the stage for the present day. The Soviet Union was disarmed, and its remote holdings stripped. Russia's Middle Eastern allies were made to pay reparations, but the Palestinian question was answered by compelling Israel to yield a large portion of its land fully to the Arab majority. Jerusalem was placed under the authority of a multinational UN force, becoming its own cosmopolitan nation.
Cuba was returned to being a puppet state of the Americans, with a new democratic government installed as part of the cleanup process. Both India and the United States agreed to reduce their military forces to a defensive force only. This concession rankled the Americans and was widely unpopular across the country. However, exhausted by the decades-long war, the United States had no choice but to agree or risk facing a fresh, well-supplied Chinese military. Disney Universe was also acknowledged by all parties as being a legitimate state as a result of the treaty, and immediately declared itself to be neutral.
Without the ambitions of world domination to unite it, the Soviet Union unraveled. By 2070, the Russians were once again divided into scattered, warring states. The fall of the Soviet Union brought further unrest to Europe and resulted in a fresh wave of Russian refugees battering across central Europe.
An Uneasy Peace
The world stage moves to focus on the Pacific Rim as the 2070s continue. China, as the last world superpower, imposes its will on the scattered Russian states. In 2075, once the American forces were rendered relatively toothless, China crushed Taiwan in a three month campaign, returning the nation to its control. Through the remainder of the 2070s, China asserted its dominance over Tibet and obliterated numerous rebellions. It appeared that China could not be opposed by any nation save Japan, whose quickly-expanding defense forces presented China with a battle too costly to win.
What is believed to be a nuclear accident in Tokyo destroyed much of the city in 2082. While the radiation leakage was minimal, the intense heat of the fusion reaction incinerated much of the city, including numerous historical sites. Tokyo was left in ruins, and throughout the 2080s it was slowly rebuilt. Accusations of Chinese sabotage fell on deaf ears, as Japan's allies did not have the power to assist it. Yet, like San Angeles, Neo-Tokyo rose from the ashes as a gleaming sprawl of ceramics and earthquake-resistant materials. Japan would not fall so easily.
In the summer of 2099, the first gravitic repulsor (commonly known as anti-grav) units were developed. True anti-grav development revolutionized mass transit, allowing trains to become more efficient and allowing for cheaper orbital launches. It took decades to fully master the technology, but the human imagination was captured by the drives.
On January 1, 2100, a summit in Geneva between China and the remaining nuclear powers led to the banning of all nuclear weapons. This was, at the time, supposed to mark the beginning of a "new age of peace". Nuclear disarmament proceeded over the next ten years, which was widely believed to be the end of the Nuclear Age. To signify their commitment to peace, a new Colossus of Rhodes was built over the straits of Gibraltar, with construction costs paid by all the former nuclear powers.
The Chinese Collapse
Japan is not convinced of the Chinese commitment to peace. With China becoming a dominant player in the United Nations, Japan declares itself to be a neutral power in 2111 and withdraws from the organization in protest. The move is provocative, but China appears to choose to let Japan leave without incident. However, the true motivation for China not pursuing their traditional Japanese foes was much different.
China's success had become its own undoing. By 2110, rebellions within the country were becoming more common. While China had been able to keep its internal unrest relatively quiet, the dissent was beginning to spill over into neighboring nations. In 2125, an outright revolution occurs in China in the public view of the world. Even as the revolution is defeated, the underlying problems are not. The world senses China's weakness and begins to contrive its downfall.
In 2135, a Chinese terrorist group gained access to a limited nuclear arsenal that was supposed to have been destroyed. Papua New Guinea was the target of their assault, designed to get the attention of the world's governments in order to compel tribute. The United Nations, no longer able to stand by and watch China's slipping internal control cause harm to its neighbors, began a 35-year campaign to initially help China restore order, and later to impose order on the Chinese.
The United Nations' peacekeeping efforts were not effective in ending the unrest. The government of China became increasingly unstable, with the Chinese government finally withdrawing from the UN in 2160 and attempting to extract all of the foreign fighters on its soil. The United Nations resisted, trying to maintain its humanitarian aid to the needy people of the nation. The true scale of the danger in China did not become clear until the Chinese began to use the tactical nuclear weapons -- the same it had been instrumental in banning -- to strike at UN positions. This lead the UN to formally declare war on China in 2162.
The New World Order
To address the nuclear capability of China, American and British scientists develop a cutting edge missile shield driven by satellites to protect the rest of the planet from China's missiles. By 2163, traditional notions of nuclear warfare are rendered completely ineffectual, allowing the United Nations to focus on winning the war through conventional means. The free-for-all violence of the rebellions continued to increase, becoming a major humanitarian disaster by 2170. The difficult terrain and the unwillingness of neighboring nations to cooperate with UN forces drag the war out over a decade.
Finally, in late 2185, the United Nations develops a technological edge that allows them to end the war. Prototype ion cannons tear through the conventional armor of the Chinese forces, allowing for a quick advance through the formerly entrenched positions of the most powerful warlords. The country is secured by the UN. The UN forces become the most dominant military force in the history of the world.
Over the next two years, the United Nations secures China and begins reconstruction work. A new UN charter was proposed, designed to create the One World Government that so many had feared in the early years of the organization. With this unified world government, according to the United Nations, peace could be restored to the world, and the centuries of bloodshed could finally end. Indeed, a generation of fighting a common foe had done much to unite many nations across the world.
Yet, nation-states did not join this new UN charter out of altruism. It was apparent that the UN could smash the remaining military forces of the world with relative ease. The Chinese army had been the most dominant military force of the age, and with the ion cannons the UN wielded they were rendered ineffectual with ease. Rather than face conquest, most of the nations of the world joined the new charter. Those who did not join made arrangements with the new world government to remain neutral and not to interfere in UN affairs. The world was, for the first time in its history, fully united on January 1, 2187 -- 87 years after the "new age of peace" was to have begun.
Birth of the Second Renaissance
What became the golden age of science (generally agreed to have started in 2190) was spurred on by the demands of the UN's warfare in and around China. Practical anti-grav vehicles appeared in the late 2140s, with the first "flying cars" being released through Japanese and Korean developers in 2161.
The modern age of cybernetics was also created by the war, and was born in the neutral (and lightly regulated -- and some would say corrupt) nation of Japan. Starting in 2150, humanity saw the creation of more sensitive, higher-resolution integrated systems that became available for the average person for the first time. Most significantly, combat-quality cybernetics began to appear for military purposes, funded by the United Nations. Industrial teleportation was perfected by German academics in 2163, and was initially used to rapidly move troops through China. Gradually, teleportation was developed for commercial use starting in the 2190s.
As the 22nd century ended, the groundwork for the Second Renaissance had been laid. With a dominant, unified government and the resources of an entire planet at the disposal of world scientists, the advance of humanity was now inevitable.
It should have been, anyway.
