2101-2110

      2101 - Italy embarks on an ambitious policy of expansion in both sea and space, popularly identified with Prime Minister Tortelli's famous "Alla espacia e alla oceanio" speech before the parliament. By the end of the decade, Italy has built three ion-drive ships, four orbital space stations, and the enormously successful aquacity of Tyrenia. Additionally, construction is begun on Alharazad Station, a major space station to rival the Soviet's Mir Station.
      2101 - Iberia begins a major colonization effort in America, founding bases in New England, Florida, and Colombia. Ravaged by disease, crop failures, and attacks by dangerous mutant fauna, the bases take more than a decade to become established, costing the colonial backers three times their initial estimates. The Iberian government is forced to send nearly 100,000 troops to defend the new bases from local inhabitants and animals.
      2101 - Fiji begins registering claims on Antarctic territories, prompting a land grab rush by individuals and corporations from throughout the world. Few governments actually recognize the claims. Only a small number of settlements, mostly minor aquacities, are actually established.
      2102 - Research and planning is begun on the construction of a mass driver on Luna. Kosmoskaja proposes the construction of a major space industrial center in orbit around Luna.
      2102 - Iberia sends military aid to Nigeria to help pacify the Guinea coast.
      2102 - Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and the Soviet Union invest over 32 billion francs on joint mining ventures in eastern Turkey and the Caucasus. Discovery of significant deposits of iron, gold, vanadium, and titanium promise to make the area a leading mineral exporter, boosting the economies of Turkey and the underdeveloped Caucasus nations.
      2104 - Scandinavia, Lithuania and Latvia begin a major effort to reclaim sunken lands from the Baltic Sea.
      2105 - The Pan-Asian League space stations relinquish all territorial claims on Earth and are recognized by the EC as an independent nation, the second such in space.
      2106 - Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia unite their space programs into the Balkan Space Cooperative. Within a decade they have doubled their presence in Terran orbit.
      2106 - The North Pacific Plankton Agency, a joint venture of the Soviet Union and Fiji, becomes a huge success, harvesting millions of tons of plankton annually, most of which is sold to the cities of southern Siberia and East Asia. The use of enhanced dolphin workers (the first time in a commercial operation) is a crucial part of the agency's success.
      2106 - Fiji officially annexes the island groups of New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Samoa. The rest of the islands of the South Pacific are declared to be part of the Oceania Economic Sphere, an agency created by Fiji. New Zealand participates actively, receiving much aid from Fiji.
      2106 - Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Aden States form an alliance to reject all incoming refugees. Boats crossing the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are shot, while barbed wire barricades are strung along the southern borders. Political prisoners and other undesirable citizens are exiled into Egypt with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The EC governments protest the increasing human rights abuses and tensions with Egypt rise.
      2106 - Don Brock, the famed Australian zoologist who was the only man to communicate with the Brocks, the enhanced chimpanzees of eastern Indonesia, is killed by a number of his proteges while teaching them about toilet paper. His colleagues are chased off the island and all human contact with the Brocks is lost.
      2106 - The Canadian government claims to be the legitimate government of North America. Farmers in western and northern Canada agree but refuse to pay taxes or follow laws. A number of incidents occur in which Canadian officials are thrown out of town, tarred and feathered, or lynched by local farmers. The Canadian claim is rejected by Alaska, California, Newfoundland, and the EC Council on Borders and Sovereignty.
      2107 - Two Rumanian expeditions into the Amazon disappear without a trace.
      2107 - The population of Greenland reaches 2 million. This doesn't reflect, however, the vast increase in automated mines throughout the mountains and coasts of Greenland, continuing the Scandinavian global dominance in mineral wealth.
      2107 - Unrest in West Africa leads Iberia to bring in security personnel from Nigeria in exchange for increased technological development assistance. Anti-Nigerian riots develop in Ashanti. Thousands of casualties result when Nigerian troops roll in to quell the violence.
      2107 - A major grant from the EC allows Natal and Madagascar to build a joint exploration fleet to search for new aquaculture sights in the Indian Ocean.
      2107 - In the Papal Union, Pope Quayle II dies under mysterious circumstances. His successor, Pope Regina, works on building a stronger agricultural base and development of solar power. The official religion emphasizes "God the Sun".
      2108 - The average per calorie price of marine food products falls below that of land-grown foodstuffs, despite major efforts by North African nations in agricultural research, desert reclamation, and genetic engineering of poverty grains and soil bacteria. Economists predict a recession in North Africa and the Middle East as plankton and fish farms continue to grow in the Mediterranean, the Norwegian Sea, the Arctic, the mid-Atlantic, and the North Pacific.
      2108 - Lunar population reaches 100,000. Tourism, art, retirement communities, and entertainment become major industries in Kosmoskaja. Space weed, a mild hallucinogenic grown on the lunar surface, becomes a hit in Northern Europe and Fiji, despite customs restrictions.
      2108 - In response to Canadian diplomatic aggression, the Alaskan Freeholds draft a constitution based on the old U.S. government. They begin to solidify a central government, backed strongly by large land and mine owners (many of them foreign investors from the Soviet Union) and the Asian dominated cities.
      2109 - Rallies are held in many major cities to protest the Soviet investment of 20 billion francs over the last decade into unsuccessful research on spaceship drives. A consortium of leading politicians from Great Britain, Dalmatia, Latvia, Egypt, Algeria, and Jordan sign an official protest over this waste of resources when there are so many crucial problems on Earth. The Soviets point to the 72 billion francs they have given to foreign aid in the same period, but this raises the touchy issue of Soviet aid to the Kazakh Empire; the controversy continues.
      2109 - Emigration exceeds immigration in Egypt as the flow of refugees from East Africa dwindles and many Egyptians leave for jobs in the Aegean, Tyrenia, the Azores, and the Caucasus. The Egyptian population peaks at 62 million and the standard of living begins slowly to rise, assisted by massive foreign aid from Europe. Many of the incoming refugees find jobs in the military, defending Egypt's southern border from the increasingly hostile government of Ethiopia.
      2109 - The Cuban government violently suppresses anti-Iberian protests among the people. The increasingly militaristic government is intent on liberating Yu-kin and needs Iberian military assistance, despite popular resentment of the Iberian economic domination of the islands.
      2109 - The Kazakh Empire launches a major invasion of Turkistan. Kazakh troops capture nearly half the nation before the Empire is forced to withdraw troops to handle an Uzbek uprising backed by Iran. The offensive stalls, but fighting remains heavy along the front.
      2110 - Construction completed on Tiefgedank, a Scandinavian/Swiss deep-sea research facility housing thirty humans at the bottom of the Adriatic.
      2110 - Two decades of close cooperation between Fiji and Kosmoskaja give rise to Michiel, a major Fijian biological research station on Luna, and a major spaceport on New Caledonia.
      2110 - Lithuania and Latvia construct an astronomical research station on the farside of Luna. A diplomatic crisis ensues between Kosmoskaja and the Baltic states which is solved when the Baltics accept Kosmoskajan sovereignty of Luna and the base is recognized as a semi-autonomous foreign enclave.
      2101-2110 - The Soviet Union spends 75 billion francs on development of the eastern USSR, emphasizing training, schools, hospitals, utilities, police, and scholarships. The program has mixed results; while the skilled employee base increases, crime and corruption are accentuated by the influx of currency, and relaxed travel restrictions allow many of the newly affluent Asian citizens to leave the eastern USSR with their capital. A number of well-publicized cases of labor exploitation and mismanagement within the program cast doubts on the Soviets' ability and desire to handle the problem. Meanwhile, during the decade, an estimated five million more Asian refugees cross the Soviet border into Siberia.
      2101-2110 - Scandinavia and the Franco-German Confederation become the world leaders in pure research and applied technologies, attracting the best scientists and engineers from throughout the EC. Major breakthroughs are made in deep-sea engineering, micro-ecologies, marine mineral extraction, robotics, medicine, neurology, fertility suppressants, and vacuum agriculture. The amazingly successful Fernauge Operation launches over 100 automated probes to Mercury, Mars, the asteroid belt, and the outer solar system.
      2101-2110 - Fighting continues in South Africa. The war between Orange and Lesotho ends in a ceasefire in 2103; Natal remains aloof, despite border incursions by both sides. South Africa West attacks South Africa East in 2105. South Africa East fights only defensively and appeals to the EC for humanitarian aid. In 2107 it is discovered that the money and medical supplies are actually being spent on a futile attempt to develop a virus which will kill only Caucasians; EC aid is withdrawn. The war ends when Orange seizes territory from South Africa West in 2108, forcing them to sue for peace.
      2101-2110 - Rise of the Maya-Catolicos, a new religion among the slaves of Yu-kin. The incidence of rebellions against the Asian aristocracy increases, especially against government centers in Mayan ruins. The Asian rulers begin destroying all relics treasured by the local inhabitants.
      2101-2110 - In southern China, Soviet aid and the growth of trade out of Canton bring a measure of stability to the area. Numerous small city-states and feudal kingdoms are established. Though wars, plagues, and famine still occur with alarming fequency, the area is a growing island of comparative calm in the chaos of East Asia.
      2103-2110 - California is forced to builds walls around its communities to defend itself from the growing population of mutant opossums which are attacking their herds of hyper-cattle and domesticated giant rats.

NOTE: All references to currencies have been converted into Swiss francs for ease of comparison.

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