Timeline of Humanity
While Human history is long and diverse and filled with Notable Humans, with multiple perspectives and a myriad of details that vary between accounts, here is a more succinct summary of the events stretching from hundreds of years ago, to the most recent of which events are set.
Pre-Second Space Age
The Sino-Soviet War
1969: In March, a contingent of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers raid a Soviet border outpost on Zhenbao Island, killing dozens and injuring scores. After two weeks of clashes the negotiations for a ceasefire fall flat and the conflict escalates to a full scale war. The USA reacts with hostility to Soviet overtures about a joint attack on Chinese nuclear facilities, but similarly refuses to provide assistance to Communist China.
1971: Despite early Chinese success in August, the USSR enjoys sharp, destructive retaliation on Chinese Manchuria. Mao Zedong evacuates Beijing as Soviet forces advance on the capital. Despite China being a nuclear power, the small size and unreliable nature of their arsenal combined with justified fears of massive Soviet retaliation keeps the conflict conventional.
1971: The USSR finds itself trapped in a immensely expensive occupation of most of China in mid-December. Soviet forces have reached as far as Shanghai on the coast but most of the inner mainland of China remains within PLA control. The Soviets had neither the capacity nor the interest in governing another continent-sized territory. Along with this the USA is believed to be heavily funding Chinese resistance movements, further sapping Soviet power in the region. Within the year they begin to withdraw.
1972: The Sino-Soviet War has seen over 1.6 million Soviet casualties, 2.4 million Chinese casualties, and a peace treaty is signed in March that redraws the political boundaries between the USSR and China, officially ending the conflict. With its strength and economy severely stressed the USSR continues to limp behind NATO and the United States, along with a newly US-aligned Chinese government eager to undermine the USSR wherever it can.
The Proxy Wars
1984: Angry and radicalized by the failure of the USSR domestically and internationally since the diasterous Sino-Soviet war, hardliner communist radicals stage a coup of Soviet leadership on August 13th, igniting Cold War tensions and animosity between the two superpowers. The new radical government, lead by Yuri Andropov, launches a massive campaign to intimidate its neighbors and forcefully project its influence, leading to over a dozen confrontations and small-scale wars across the globe. The series of conflicts would become to be known in the later years as the Proxy Wars due to later the heavy involvement of Private Military Companies in use by the USA, and later the majority of major powers.
1985: The Soviet Union invades Iran after it refuses Soviet demands for an oil embargo against the United States, echoing its invasion of the country under similar circumstances during World War II. The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, appeals to the United States for aid. The USA accepts, bringing the USSR and USA into their first ever direct confrontation. As American and Iranian forces take on the Soviets, China sides with the United States and enforces a full trade embargo on the USSR, while Europe remains neutral.
1986: Becoming desperate after its abandonment by China, North Korea declares war on South Korea during the month of March, continuing the Korean War. Early on Kim Il-sung is killed in an airstrike, destabilizing the already overwhelmed North Korean army. The South Korean forces, backed by the United Nations and with no Chinese objections, quickly overrun and claim Pyongyang. A new nation is borne by the end of the year, the United Korean Republic, with all of the immense challenges of a unified Korea.
The Rise of Mercenary Armies
1990: The new decade brings with it the reality that full scale modern warfare has immense price tags. Private Military Companies are quickly seen as the less expensive option both politically and financially. The United States and NATO found itself leasing operations to Samuel's Grey Feathers, whereas the USSR found itself similarly giving lucrative contracts to Tesova Employed Contractors. These mercenary armies began to replace uniformed servicemen, waging their wars and quietly growing their influence domestically.
1994: Samuel's Grey Feathers field the first Exosuits, the precurser to modern day RIGs. After field-testing the suits in Iran against Soviet troops, the CES (Combat Exoskeleton Suits) were mass-produced, and the US army would begin phasing out its entire range of light vehicles in favor of purchasing CES en-masse from the Grey Feathers. They prove immensely useful in providing infantry with rapid movement and individual combat ability, driving Soviet forces out of Tehran and nearly out of Iran entirely.
1997: The United States decommissions its range of heavy tanks in favor of leasing the Grey Feather's M5 Highlanders; all-terrain bipedal tank units that are the precursor of modern day battle Mechs. Highlanders were armed with experimental, clunky laser cannon prototypes. While the Highlanders themselves were expensive and quickly outdated, they've forever had an impact on human warfare and introduced the concept of heavily armored bipedal tanks.
The New Millenium
1999: With its manpower depleted and the tides turning, the USSR agrees to settle the war and withdraw from Iran. The Soviets lost 300,000, with the US and Iran losing 350,000 as well as 30,000 civilians. While neither faction ceded territory nor money and the treaty was little more than a white peace, the involved PMC's found their influence and power deeply entrenched within their respective governments. In the years to come they would expand to become the primary source of stability for nations that could afford it.
2005: Economic scare causes stock market to briefly plunge due to waves of investors selling their stocks to preemptively cut losses. World markets recover by December, but the United Kingdom suffers immensely as the pound loses nearly all of its value, causing ripples across global markets. The Pound never regains its value, and the global economy continues to stagnate for the next decade.
2015: The European Union, having struggled for a decade since the collapse of the UK economy, officially votes itself out of existence in its final summit. With the hopes of a federal Europe destroyed, European influence on the world stage plummets in turn. The world itself has managed to recover from the debilitating Proxy Wars, though the United States is facing immense domestic challenges from a population growing increasingly hostile to the dominance of Private Military Companies.
2020: The United States, China, Mexico, and France form a combined space program (United Orbital Enterprise) that pledge to colonize the moon within 20 years. The USSR forms its own competing space program (Cosmonaut Enterprises) and swears to colonize Mars within 15 years.
2025: French scientists and engineers successfully activate the worlds first fusion reactor, sparking a wave of celebration across the globe. The technology is extremely expensive and slow to be proliferated across the planet, but it promises to completely turn the growing stress on the climate and non-renewable resources on its head.
2037:The worst terrorist attack up until that point is committed against the American-based HeRMITCorp, a primary shareholder in the fusion energy market. The target was the largest fusion production lab in the world, based in Nevada outside Las Vegas. Heavily armed gunmen with military-grade exosuits and C4 explosives assaulted and sabotaged the highly volatile fusion core, causing a catastrophic explosion of two square miles. Though many terror groups and rebel fighters claim responsibility for the act, the real culprit was never revealed. Speculation by UN investigative analysts has determined the most likely involved party may have had connections to the US military and their armaments, leading to the impeachment and imprisonment of the US President Roger G. Fox. In the resulting fallout and domestic unrest Congress authorized the PMC Samuel's Grey Feathers to operate domestically, awarding them security contracts to supplement US police forces across the nation. Soon the national military and even domestic police force of the United States were replaced with private security contractors.
The Second Space Age
2070: The UOE launch three ships, the "Santa María", "Niña" and "Pinta", to colonize Venus, Mars, and the Moon. They form small science outposts, with over a dozen residents each officially becoming the first human colonists in space. The USSR's own space agency faces setbacks in colonizing the surface of planets or the moon but finds itself remarkably adept at deep space constructions, with the rugged, over-engineered Soviet crafts able to survive the harsh, unforgiving vacuum of space better than the more expensive, fragile western counterparts.
The Crisis of 2127
2127: While Humanity has faced success in tentatively spreading across the Solar System in the baby steps of colonization, Earth itself faces its greatest economic crisis in human history up until that point, triggered by the world's largest petroleum company, Titan Energy Incorporated, declaring bankruptcy after years of increasing maintenance and unforgiving costs in extracting and refining deeper and deeper oil wells, which had a cascading affect of suffocating nearly every other oil company worldwide. The world economy, already in the midst of what was thought to be a brief recession,collapsed utterly and completely as news networks fanned the flames of panic about the end of oil. The world's GDP dropped by half within three weeks as economies went under overnight. Many nations would simply cease to exist as their central governments effectively stopped functioning in face of economic collapse and disastrous energy shortages. The political map of the world would, within just a few short years, become completely redrawn.
The Discovery of Warp
2130: Soviet scientists in orbit successfully prove the existence of Warp travel, marking the start of the Interstellar Era. With the financing and support of the United Nations (the only functioning form of government left in the chaotic, economically beleaguered Earth) the technology is refined and installed on probes that will be sent out to map the stars surrounding Sol. The technology allows travel to other star systems within weeks, but the energy required to keep the warp engine running is massive, reliant on mining, refining, and shipping vast amounts of helium-3 from the moon and other asteroids within the Oort Cloud.
2132: The United Nations had seen its mandate grow increasingly important and vital since the Crisis of 2127. The supranational organization had been the primary source of deliberation, peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance to beleaguered nations of Earth. Individual nations had no way of financing their space programs to even begin to dream of colonizing Tau Ceti or expanding into space. After years of intense negotiations it was finally decided to transform the United Nations into the Sol Alliance. Even if it was out of naked self-interest, the remaining stable governments of Earth recognized that if they didn't pool their resources and sacrifice political independence to a new world government that they would face utter extinction or a return to the iron age. Private Military Companies had become large and powerful enough to match the peacekeeping force of the United Nations, and managed to intimidate themselves to the negotiation table. The influence of PMCs had a profound impact on the early policies of the Sol Alliance.
The Founding of the Sol Alliance
2140:: The United Nations officially forms the Sol Alliance, which becomes the new government of humanity. This new one world government oversees Earth and the colonies in the solar system, effectively bringing all of humanity under one banner. Its early years bring the Crisis of 2127 to an end, ushering in a new era of optimism, expansion, and greed.
The Discovery of Biesel
2147:: Biesel is discovered in Tau Ceti by Sol Alliance probes, promising new resources for the desperate Earth. In orbit, colony ships are constructed as efforts begin to colonize this habitable world. With the trip expected to take months with current warp travel technology, it is considered a one-way trip for the colonists.
2152:: A second habitable world is discovered in the Epsilon Eridani system, bringing even more possibilities of expansion for humanity.
The First Trans-stellars
2155:: Habitable planets closest to Earth see their population steadily increase as colony ships make round trips between the settlements and Sol. Einstein Engines becomes the first Transstellar corporation, specializing in producing Warp engines and supplying colonists with affordable equipment to tame and exploit the new worlds they inhabit. Despite this growth, it's not yet possible for the Earth to see a true profit emerge from this. With the growing instability, Earth itself has age-old feuds break out on its surface while Einstein Engines continues to profit.
2166: Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals is founded by Zeng-Hu. It has patents on many new medicines and drugs distilled from the natural flora of the new colony worlds, as well as performing research in the power of cloning.
The New Galactic Economy
2200: The Martian Terraforming Project begins, transforming the barren surface into lush plains and having ancient riverbeds flow for the first time in millions of years. Mars sees a huge immigration boom, with former inhabitants of Earth craving the perceived freedom and prosperity available on this new frontier. With interstellar trade now becoming a huge market, the complexities of currency exchanges becomes more trouble than its worth. The Sol Alliance creates the Credit, a standardized currency that all of human space will use.
The Second Great Depression
2260: A massive recession strikes the Sol Alliance as the largest stock exchanges see a sudden collapse, effectively tanking the entire economy. The trans-stellar corporations nearly go bankrupt, and desperately use their influence to reap massive bail-outs.
2265: With no end of the "Great Depression" in sight, a desperate and bankrupt Earth establishes extortionary taxes on its colony worlds. This leads to anger, and questions over the credibility of the Sol Alliance's claim of representing all of humanity.
2275: Fighting breaks out in the outer colonies, spurred on by extremist elements and anti-Alliance sentiments. The Sol Alliance is slow to respond, paralyzed by confusion and uncertainty. As a result, other Colonies on the fringe begin to break away, forming the Coalition of Colonies.
The First Interstellar War
2278: The Coalition of Colonies is still not recognized by the Sol Alliance, and in anger the Coalition attacks Sol Alliance military forces who refused to leave systems that had seceded. The Coalition fleet is drastically smaller and less equipped than the Sol Alliance, but the massive size of their territory and the slow response times of Sol means they enjoy a very successful, defensive guerrilla war.
2286: Many Megacorporations profit from the war, selling arms to one or both sides, trading in dangerous systems and staking claims in otherwise dangerous locations. Despite all the chaos, humanities' population has risen to 22 billion people.
2287: The First Interstellar War is said to have ended on this date with a ceasefire between the Sol Alliance and the Coalition of Colonies. But despite the formal peace, skirmishes continue to break out, and the frontier remains lawless and untamed...
The New Capital of Humanity
2300: The administration of the Sol Alliance is moved to the newly constructed Unity City, a space station in Earth orbit. The new capital is intended to increase ease of access while also better reflecting the Alliance’s stated mission to represent all of humanity, not just any single nation or planet.
Formation of Nanotrasen
2346: Formation of Nanotrasen by Xavier Trasen. Initially specializes in advanced gene therapy. It eventually becomes a more broadened scientific company, rivaling Einstein Engines.
The Warp Gate Project
2355: The Warp Gate project begins with the goal of connecting humanity's most populated and profitable systems with permanent, mammoth structures that cut travel time to mere days. The work itself is contracted out to Einsten Engines, with the Sol Alliance shouldering most of the cost.
2384: The Warp Gate Project is completed. While Einstein Engines now enjoys the immense profits from controlling the most effective and commonly used method of intergalactic travel, the Sol Alliance is facing a new economic crisis as the project has put a heavy load on their coffers. Desperate and facing a new potential recession, the Sol Alliance grants major concessions to both trans-stellar corporations and its colony worlds over the next decade, effectively granting both factions independence in many areas.
2390: The Warp Gates bring an influx of wealth to the inner-colonies closest to them, but disrupt several established trade routes, leading to economic decline in several systems. The Sol Alliance, largely bankrupt from the Warp Gate project, is forced to grant independence to a number of border systems. These worlds quickly join the loosely organized Confederation of Colonies, or strike it out on their own.
The Rise of Nanotrasen
2400: Trans-stellars capitalize on immense profits from the past decades, diversifying to a great degree. Some begin swearing allegiances to these corporations, making them nations in their own rights that rule in the fringes of known space, while lobbying for even more benefits from the Sol Alliance. Their power is divided almost equally between Einstein Engines, Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, and Hephaestus Industries.
2403: NanoTrasen acquires the mining rights to the Romanovich Cloud in the Tau Ceti system (an Inner-inner colony system).
First Contact
2413: First contact is made with the Skrell. Sends shockwaves throughout human space. Over the next few years, these two species come closer and begin to cooperate on developing new technology. The Sol Alliance, optimistic about this new alien race, creates an alliance with them while the trans-stellar corporations compete to reverse-engineer Skrellian technology for various fields.
2415: First contact is made with the Vox. This contact has remarkably less fanfare due to the fact the Vox immediately begin raiding and scamming human settlements.
Discovery of Plasma
2417: In the Romanovich Cloud in the outer edges of Tau Ceti, NT discovers the resource ‘plasma’. This element becomes an immensely efficient fuel source, effectively ending the growing energy crisis that humanity was facing, while further research quickly proved that it can make bluespace travel safe, efficient, and profitable. Plasma quickly becomes the prefered fuel and energy generating commodity. NT becomes excessively wealthy, using its exclusive patents on plasma refining and generation to become the single most powerful corporation in the known galaxy.
2420: Earth is made effectively self-sufficient, with plasma effectively ending its energy crisis. Now the stagnation reverses completely, and Earth is revitalized. Terraforming efforts are made, funded by the Sol Alliance, to bring quality of life to a world covered in urban sprawl and ruined eco-systems. Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals begins reintroducing previously extinct animals back into the wild, using clones created from the animal's genetic information.
The Age of Bluespace
2425: Bluespace Link gates begin to pop-up in the most developed systems across Human and Skrell space. The Alliance Sol Warp Gates are upgraded with Bluespace technology, greatly increasing their efficiency and giving Nanotrasen control of all travel throughout the Sol Alliance; dethroning Einstein Engines.
2450: Tau Ceti, a Sol Alliance system in the inner colonies, has Nanotrasen dominating nearly every facet of life. Sentiment is pro-Nanotrasen, with politicians praising the corporation's efforts to improve the local economy, while ignoring the many morally questionable actions that Nanotrasen has taken.
The Lawless Frontier
2452: The Coalition of Colonies suddenly dissolves over a disagreement on the Coalition's relationship with trans-stellar corporations, with claims of many outer colonies being corporate police states rather than true colonies. The frontier of human space become a lawless expanse with pirates and mega-corporations becoming the new law of the lands. It becomes very much a "Wild West" in space.
Present Day
2458: Current Date. NT is an economic powerhouse which the Sol Alliance relies on for plasma to keep its trade routes to the outer colonies alive and satisfy the energy needs of its largest colonies. Anti-NT sentiment grows in Tau Ceti, but many others continue to support the megacorporation keeping the gears of the (human) galactic economy going.
However, the Syndicate continues to position itself to strike back against the NT on a larger scale; and many more exotic, fantastical elements of the universe such as the Vox, undiscovered alien life, extremists, even ancient powers beyond comprehension may be moving to strike at arguably the most powerful organization in human space.