I want you to know I've loved every one of your comments. When I eventually start another AAR-- either continuing this universe in Stellaris or starting a whole new campaign --I really hope to see more of these! I'm going to try and have my next one be much more interactive.
It was a joy to bounce off the work. And to play a good guy for once. I wouldn't mind doing it again. CKII is good for a merlin or gandalf type character thst judt pops in every now and again to advise and annoy.
Epilogue - 2017: 70 years later
Oh, a bit of a jump! This should be fun.
President Forster signed into being the Anti-Nuclear Treaty of 1947 with nearly all the countries of the world.
Thanks be to that.
Part of the agreement was that the US would support the independence of colonial regions so long as they agree to sign the treaty.
Sensible enough. And it boosts UNO membership.
In the election of 1950, he won by a healthy margin and continued his policy of upholding world peace. The relations between the US and Eurasia improved quite a bit with the Sancronis plan and the UNO. The US's lack of militarism and imperialism gained the trust of many of the countries formerly its enemies, and he proposed dissolving the Anglo Alliance and relying on the UNO for strength. Others did not like the idea, and it took until 1953 for the proposal to pass. The Anglo Alliance was brought to an end.
Of course, this did lead to a rather large debate over how...militant the UN was going to be.
"I understand the role of peacemaker but I do not see how having a large army to threaten the world with will help."
"If you prefer, they can be UN peacekeepers."
"Tt. Either glorified busybodies or policemen with guns. Either way, that doesn't seem helpful."
"Would you prefer each country to maintain its own monopoly on violence? Build up armies against their neighbours, again?"
"I doubt we can replace them."
"Not for large countries but they can be more easily negotiated with in the UN. Pacifying trouble spots would go a long way to pacyding the world."
"Mm. Approve the mandate. We shall have an armed force, to protect our personelle and humanity in general. No nukes, no chemical weapons."
"Yes sir."
Over the years the UN taskforces have grown larger as more countries abandon the expense of personal armies in exchange for UN protection. This is more common in new independent colonies and thus Africa for example has a large population of UN bases and very few private national militaries...save for a few troubled nations.
Sancronis became president in 1954, with support from former president Forster. He sought to continue the policies set forth by Forster, and he did so well. The next presidents to come, while differing in political parties and views on social policies, shared Sancronis' and Forster's wishes. The time from 1946 onward became known as the Era of Pax Mundi.
At least in Europe and Amercia, the world was rapidly becoming a utopia. The economy was booming, nations were friendly and people were in general becoming kinder to others.
However... In 1970, forces in eastern Europe, who still long for the good old days of the Empire of Russia, formed an anti western alliance. Volhynia, Yedisan, Russia, and most of Central Asia form the Ladoba Block and began to look to expand the alliance westward and eastward. In response, the Mutual Defense and Support Treaty (MDST) was created. This alliance included most of western Europe, as well as Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, most of the Caribbean, Canada, Terres du Nord, and China.
Unlike in previous alliances, the UNO took command of the MDST. The Russians protested, but TBC pointed out the alliance was quite literally a pact of mutual defence, nothing more, well within UN charters. He also pointed out that membership was open to all within and without the UNO.
War never broke out between the two, but several proxy wars were fought, mainly in Africa. Relations eased a bit in the 2000's after both sides signed a non-aggression pact to avoid war. They both agreed that a second World War would mean the end of civilization as we know it.
The rise and rise in power of the West and the new countries, as well as the UNO, made such imperialism impossible anyway. There were other reasons the Pact held out against the world but fundamentally, they had seen the battle was lost.
The US fought in several wars with other nations, though. The official ones were the Cambodian War of 1955 and the Persian-American War.
In 1954, a Fascist tyrant Phong Gipta took control of Cambodia and carried out mass executions of supposed enemies of the state. In response, the UNO authorized an invasion of Cambodia to bring Gipta to the International Court for crimes against humanity. Although expected to be a long and drawn out affair, the US generals, many of whom fought the Chinese in the same jungles, knew what they were doing; the war was over by 1956 and Gipta stood trial for his crimes soon after.
TBC, who was required to preside the trial of war criminals, later remarked that he was a most repulsive man, and a callback to an uglier past and side of humanity. Gipta was imprisoned in a UN facility and left to rehabilitate. This was not without critiscm but the UNO steadfastly refused the death penalty against any charge or crime. The former dictator eventually did move past his crimes and became something of an avid gardener within his prison. He died in 1985.
In the Persian Wars, MDST troops landed on the Persian coast in 2006 to dethrone the tyrant Sultan Azar Hamid. One of the missing nuclear weapons never recovered after the World War was actually in Persia, where the government had been attempting to duplicate the design for use against Najd and Delhi. The Sultan also carried out attacks against his own people in order to keep power. He was dethrone in 2007 after several months of an American operation. However, the nuclear bomb was never recovered, and it is believe that terrorists funded by Persia are currently in control of it and plan to use it against Delhi.
Unlike the previous tyrbant, this one was lunched by his own people. The UNO was rather horrified, having succesfully halted most wouldbe dictators in their tracts well before they could inspire such pain and hatred. TBC upon hearing the news in California said, "It was the largest failing of my UN career that Persia was not joined with us. I am saddened by the lost decades of the persian people and their suffering. I welcome them now into the brotherhood of nations. They were always welcome."
The UNO were banned from Persia following several incidents in the 60's which reached a climax when TBC was nearly assasinated by three gunmen whilst at a confrence there. It would be the first of four attempts on his life as UNO General Secretary, US Congressman, President and Governor.
Hungary's collapse began in '91 after years of internal turmoil. The country collapsed into several states and the Hungarian Wars began. Kosovo, Romania, Volvodinia, Moldova, and Transylvania broke off of Hungary. Religious and cultural wars began, wherein hundreds of thousands were killed. UNO intervention saw the main aggressor, Romania, severely bombed in an attempt to stop their campaign of terror in the region. In the end, a peace treaty was signed in '99 and peace returned to the Balkans.
The UNO were kept very busy in the Balkans for much of this time, and though the expense and strain was great, it made the organisation far stronger. Many of the best programs of the UN developed during this period such as the International Monetary Fund for wartorn nations (an offshoot of the World Bank) and the Eden Project, which sought to end world hunger and disease (well on track to ending the first and managing to eradicate Polio and Smallpox).
Britain lost a lot of their land in Europe. Denmark partitioned for freedom in 2001, but they remained loyal friends to the Brits, with whom they share a lot of their culture. In France, the people of the small pocket of British control also partitioned, but they wanted, instead of independence, to rejoin Picardy. While most of northern France remained in British control, the two provinces cut off from the rest joined Picardy in 1995.
Britain and the UNO developed a very close relationship after TBC emigrated to Ireland in his 'exile' from the US. For a time, especially afrer recieivng citizenship and the birth of two more children, there was genuine speculation that he might remain in the country and run for office there after retiring from the UN. However, tragic events in Amercia changed his mind.
As of 2017, the UBP is going through rough times. Many, many politicians speak of independence for their countries, while Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia bicker over policies and diplomacy. If compromises cannot be found, the UBP is bound to break apart like so many great empires before it.
This has caused some trepidation for the world at large and the UNO in particular. After the war, several UN citt states were set up in the UBP as they were all over the globe. However many independence movements in areas around and within the baltic cities have been planning and asking for the city states to expand to become independant countries. In essence, if the UBP broke up, the UNO would be in a postion where a large portion of the population wants them to annex it.
Whilst the idea of a UNO country and talks of a one world state never really went away or was forbidden in UN charters, it has not been discussed seriously sonce the 1950's. TBC, at this point over a hundred years old and in retirement, has spoken for and againdt such a motion. He recognises his is a world long gone and the new generations should decide...but he also personally would love to see such great movement towards a United Earth in his lifetime.
Picardian Africa gained its independence in 1958, and several attempts to stop the move by Picardy was blocked by the UNO and the USA. After that, it was obvious to the rest of the colonial peoples of Africa that the UNO and the USA would assist in their independence, and Haitian Africa began seeing movements. South Africa was made a country in 1965 and left the commonwealth of Britain for good.
The rest of the African states gained their independence in the years leading up to 1992. On that year, Ndongo is given its independence from Haiti.
A few wars break out between states, notably between Benin and neighboring the Dahomey republic. That war, in 1974, saw the worst genocide since the Middle Eastern Civil War. It ended up as a stalemate after UNO intervention.
The UNO is the de facto and in many places the de jure power in Africa, and if there are calls anywhere for union to be made outsode of UBP, it is here. The continent was kept peaceful through a difficult birth and adolescence through the blood, tears and sweat of a determined UN movement to avoid the mistakes of the past. TBC and the original UN representatives from many African nations are spoken of in the same way you might speak of saints. Africa now gives so much to the UNO and its various offshoot organisations that the continent has been nicknamed the Bountiful and the Beautiful. The UN World capital is in the middle of the country, and is widley seen as a wonder of the modern world.
Eventually, the UNO met and agreed on a vote to determine what will happen in India. If the British Indian chose to create a new state, the UNO will help facilitate it. If they decided to join with Delhi, the UNO will not interfere.
The vote took place in 1953, and British India voted to join Delhi. The only state to not join Delhi was Sri-Lanka, which fought a Guerrilla warfare campaign against the Delhi forces that lasted over 10 years.
The second and third assasination attempts on TBC were both in the subcontinent. He joked: "one bullet per signature is the Indian standard."
Much of the credit for independence from Britain was given to a man name Mahatma Gandhi, who was considered the leader of the anti-British movement. Using peaceful means and hunger strikes, he and his followers convinced the British to consider the issue for the first time.
"Personally I found him rather poilte despite his abject cynisim and disdain for the West and a real horror of the horrible things we have done. He is a walking musuem to it, having been imprisoned, beaten and educated by imperialism. I would recommend him as Indian ambassador, were it not for his disturbing interests in nuclear weaponry, despite his abject pascifims in all things."
Persia and Delhi fought two war. In 1955, the First Persian-Delhi war broke out. Persia claimed that the Muslims in Baluchistan were persecuted by their Hindi rulers and invaded to liberate them. The war lasted several years and, surprisingly, the disadvantaged Persians came out on top. To save face, Delhi began a propaganda campaign claiming that Persia used dark magic to defeat the Indian forces. Surprisingly, many people believed it.
It was a hard week in the UNO.
Persia's victory, however, was overshadowed by the Najd revolution in 1957, where the Kingdom of Najd broke free of the Persian Empire and established itself in Arabia. Several attempts to retake the kingdom have failed since then; the UNO was not able to do much about it except sanctions, since Persia is one of the few countries which refused to join.
However, this did not stop them stuffing the new kingdom full of troops, economic support and peacekeeping missles pointed over the border.
To the west, New Zealand became free in 1951, although it suffered from apartheid segregation problems between its Castillian and British cultures, with the British being dominant until the mid 90's.
In the islands north of Australia, Ny Guinea becomes independent in 1951 after rising in revolt against Haitian rule. Haiti was hopeless to do anything about it, and no other nation was prepared to help. Eventually, Ternate would invade in 1962 and annex the nation entirely, much to the displeasure of the UNO. Years of sanctions and hostile relations from the UNO countries followed, until 1980 when I coup replaced the Kingdom of Ternate with the Republic of Ternate.
It was the last triumph of TBC's mandate over the UNO. He had served as its head for 34 years and finally brought it to a place where he was confident it could carry on without him. He had already been in the US for a decade or so and came back to California with a bang, getting elected to Congress and eventually served as President (not entierly because he wanted to). After that, he rather more happily served as governer of California for many years. It was a full life. A busy life.
By 2000, he was very old indeed, and a survivor of four assassination attempts. He was a grandfather and a great grandfather. He had served in the UNO since its inception and the United States his entire life. There was perhaps not a person alive that had been a symbol of the 20th century for better and for worse. He was respected, beloved and hated. His children and their children, perhaps because of the obscene pressure they would hsve been under, avoided politics like the plague. Instead, two became supreme court judges, one led the vaccination effort for the UNO for thirty years. His granddaughter became UNO amasador herself in the 1990s. His firstborn son, Theodore, became the face of the sexual revolution of the 70s and 80s, and was instrumental in ensuring that AIDs was contained in the United States and never became the pandemic that it was in South Africa. That issue continues to plague the country and its neighbours today.
After 2005 TBC rarely gave public appearance aside from various state occasions and national conventions. He also gave out the Nobel Prizes for Medicine and Peace each year, having received the latter himself and accepted the former on behalf of the WHO.
2017 saw TBC celebrate his 110th birthday and the presidency of his great grandniece, with the UNO lead by another descendant. Yet another was well on track to high offic in Great Britain, and seemingly the avoidance of politics in the family was at an end.
In 1955, the UNOSA (United Nations Organization Space Agency) was born, funded by over a dozen countries. The first man was put into space-- an American named John Glenn --in 1956, after a chimp named Ozzie successfully left the atmosphere.
The Earth Space Station (ESS) was created in 1971 by the UNO, and it was jointly operated by a dozen members of the UNO. As science improved, it became obvious that the earth is not infinite; the resources will not last forever, and the planet will eventually die. For the future of mankind to be secured, humans must reach beyond the solar system and colonize planets in other parts of the galaxy.
TBC was an avid space-convert after this, and was a big fan of Star Trek. The UNS Enterprise was a prestigious name for any future spaceship to posses, and both the Space Shuttle and its replacements had them within their ranks.
He also published his memoirs, Life of a Soldier, detailing his long (and not really glamorous) military career, from his days in the Great War to the surrender of China. Life of a Soldier would become a bestseller, boosting his postwar image.
Infamous for having a foreword by TBC in the first edition and then Forster's in every edition afterwards until 1982, because politics.
Ellie gave an address to the UNO General Assembly warning about the atrocities being committed in Cambodian and the necessity of intervening "for the sake of human rights."
"Never underestimate the power of stupidity," Ellie always said.
She was a regular goldmine of quotations, and subsequently misatributed to have said most of the interesting quotes of the last 100 years.
Ellie won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in brokering the peace deal,
The first of many UNO nobel prizes.
TBC set up UNOSA, and Ellie negotiated a lasting partnership between USSA and UNOSA. This led to an era of innovation, as countries worked together and competed to leave their mark in space, with America and China leading the pack (but mostly America).
The great scope and expense of space travel necessitated international cooperation however, and most major projects were UN operations.
His general election opponent, though, was a challenging one. He had a distinguished service record, like Phoenix's, but he was younger. Although his platform was very similar to Phoenix's, he managed to keep himself afloat by always pointing out Phoenix's age and Ellie's job at the UNO, claiming Phoenix was too old for the job and Ellie would create a conflict of interest.
Given he had already been a high ranking military officer within the United States government and Ellie was a world reknown diplomat, those criticisms really only highlighted what the man had to give his country.
At home, Phoenix passed comprehensive social reforms. The cornerstones of such reforms were his "War on Poverty" program, which would establish a modern welfare system, expand healthcare, and overhaul education, and the Civil Rights Act, which would give all Americans, regardless of their background and origins, an equal opportunity to work, contribute to society, and participate in the democratic process. Elements of these programs remain a cornerstone of American politics and society today.
TBC's children grew up and returned to this Amercia, determined to follow the president's example. They did so with great gusto.
In 1969, while he was visiting his father's hometown in Britain after touring the Great War memorials in France, he was assassinated by a Picardian nationalist. His funeral would be attended by dozens of American politicians and generals, among them Forster, Sancronis, TBC, and the many fellow officers he befriended and helped out over the years, and foreign dignitaries, like retired President Zhen. Ellie gave the eulogy at his memorial service, hailing Phoenix as one of the best of the "Greatest Generation," the generation of American heroes who won the war. After receiving a 21-gun salute, Phoenix was buried at the National Cemetery, where all of America's war heroes were buried. He would be the first modern president to be buried there.
TBC was greatly saddened by his death. And shaken. The security arrangements that would save his own life repeatedly in the years to come were designed based on the errors of what happened that day.
Ellie outlived Phoenix by several years. By then, her duties at the UNO had been winding down for some time, as she prepared to retire and to train her successor. Her last acts as UNO ambassador were to broker the treaty leading to the establishment of the ESS and to help negotiate the peace deal ending the Cambodian war of 1973, with her last appearance before the General Assembly later that year to warn about the increasing dangers of climate change. She passed away in 1974, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.
A true world stateswoman.
All eyes settled on a young woman. Her name was Heidi Zen. A young thirty-something graduate of TBC University with a dual degree in economics and international relations, she had little experience in politics, despite her family ties. But this was an advantage. Distant from the rest of the family, she wasn't tied down by the scandals plaguing her relatives, and she wasn't even wealthy like the rest of them. Without decades of experience cutting deals in political backrooms, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind and bluntly point out what was wrong in America society.
This neatly coincided with TBC's descendant Miranda's nomination to become president.
Once again, a TBC and a Zen were going to take over the world. The more things change...
). I'm glad you managed to finish it (or maybe there will be a last part with Stellaris ? 
