The Collapse

THE COLLAPSE

This took place in Year -105, theorized to be sometime around 2200 CE in the old system. Most of the records regarding the collapse were destroyed in the wars and riots that came after.

THE TRIGGERS

The precise cause, or causes, of the Collapse are not known. Historians and archaeologists have been able to determine that it was most likely a combination of factors. Any of them by themselves may have been manageable, but the combination, in a short period of time, was enough to bring the old world system down.

Terrorism and insurgency centered in the old fossil-fuel states slowly gave way to terrorism and insurgency centered on water shortages. Unfortunately, this involved many of the old fossil-fuel states, already destabilized by the collapse of the fossil-fuel industry. Unusually powerful monsoons and hurricanes, combined with massive drout and widespread desertification, exacerbated famine and shortages worldwide. The result was a decade of widespread revolution and civil war. Nations which became isolationist to protect themselves experienced massive inflation and economic collapse due to a lack of import and export markets. The details around the first thermonuclear detonation are unclear, but for decades after, record-keeping was sparse, and most digital records were lost forever as whole banks of servers were obliterated. The few that remain can only be read by refurbished antique machines, mostly owned by private collectors or museums.

CONSEQUENCES

The most significant result of the Collapse was the rise of independent corporations capable of independent action, sometimes in opposition to governments. This triggered what is now referred to as the Neo-Feudal Era (historians disagree about an exact date, but the general consensus is sometime around -80).

Also important was the founding of the African Union Free State Council, the first African governmental body with power and enough coherence to take effective action, transforming the continent into an influential power (as witnessed by the AUFSC's landing of astronauts on Luna in -61.

The destruction in many Earth cities and the damage to the environment caused by the various wars and conflicts of the Collapse also meant that the population shift from rural to urban that has been part of all of human history accelerated until more than 99.3% of the world's population lived in arcologies or the cities immediately surrounding them, leaving the wastelands to a scattered few.