Mar. 24th, 2010

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It's the year 2200, and humanity has reached the stars. It was a long road, and some of the mistakes made along the way still plague us today, but it is inextricably tied to the history of our species.

The Beginning. Ariadna, Aurora, and the fall of the Powers.
It started late in the first half of the 21st century, with the finding of Object GA6037283, the first "stable" wormhole. This made viable several theoretical developments that pointed to the possibility of interstellar travel, and got NASA, the European Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency embarked in a joint project to study that possibility. After the first automated probes returned information of a planetary system with at least one world that could easily be terraformed into habitability.

The next phase was the development of  the Ariadna, a huge colonization ship, and the recruitment of personnel for the expedition to the newly named planet, Dawn. In a few years the Ariadna was launched and started the terraforming and colonizing work. Meanwhile a second ship, the Aurora, was built and prepared for launch as soon as the terraforming and initial settling were complete. Enthusiasm about the colonization was massive on Earth. The USA, Russia and the European Union were deeply invested in the project, both economically and morally.

And then, tragedy struck. Due to unknown causes, the wormhole collapsed as the Aurora passed through it. This meant not only the loss of the crew, but the total loss of contact with the colonists already on the planet's surface. And it had a deep impact in the political situation of Earth. The three powers which had invested so much money, manpower and effort in the project were severely weakened. For the USA, recovering from the politically disastrous results of the so-called Centro-American Conflicts it was almost a death blow. Russia and the European Union, plagued by internal problems, were even less ready to deal with such a crisis. Their weakness was the opportunity for new powers to expand and arise.

Yu Jing, first to rise.
Of these, China was already on the way there. During the first half of the 21st century, the Chinese Communist Party had started a series of ambitious reforms to better adapt to the relative cultural aperture under the Socialist Market Economy. Hoping to stall the cultural encroachment of the West that was stripping away all the ideals both old and new upon which the Chinese identity stood, the Party chose to reforge China, to transform it into something else while at the same time recovering its cultural identity. The ancient religions were accepted anew, albeit under control of the State. Those values of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism that were the most compatible with Maoism were exalted once again. At the same time, neighboring countries within the Chinese area of influence were drawn more and more under the political control of the Chinese state, and most notably countries that had formerly cast their lot with the USA like South Korea and Japan, and were now deprived of their largest outside market grudgingly accepted economical dependence from China. It was to allay their fears that  the Party took two final decisions that may seem more symbolic than practical, but helped shape the first of the great Powers of our time.

No longer would this super-country that comprised much of Eastern Asia be known as China. In a show of its will to make a fresh start, the Party decreed a change of name to Yu Jing (Capital of Jade). The other unifying symbol the Party wanted was found, and it was probably the least expected that it could have been: The Emperor. A figure uninvolved in the inner politics of the Party, a figure that with the right media treatment could be promoted as connexion to tradition and a more harmonious, ideal past. The figure of the Emperor was reinstated and given power as head of the Judicial branch of the government to show that it was more than a mere decorative change. To prevent the excessive accumulation of power, and because there were differing opinions on which dynasty should be reinstated, both the Ming and the Qing dynasties were granted the title of Imperial Family. The title of Emperor would be rotated between them, thus ensuring that while one family held the title, the other would do its best to keep their rivals from gaining too much power. Thus the ImperialState was born.

PanOceania, the Hyper-Power.
With the decline of the USA and the European Union and the rise of China, the economies of Australia and New Zealand found themselves standing on very shaky ground. This prompted an alliance with their former competitors in the area, Indonesia and Malaysia. Soon the Philipines joined in, providing even more manpower and a strategic situation that could compete with that of the Chinese ports. Also threatened by the political and economical expansion of China and later Yu Jing, India joined into the fledgling new nation which would soon become a political unit under the name of PanOceania. The new Power would complete its formative period with the adhesion of Chile and Brazil, the two richest countries of South America after the Conflicts.

Politically, PanOceania is a direct democracy. Thanks to the expansion of the Maya Network and the fact that every citizen of PanOceania owns a Comlog (A portable wristworn personal computer), and the decline of the traditional political parties as the 21st century advanced, PanOceania has structured its political functions around lobbies. All the important lobbies are formed by several minor entities, the larger monolithical ones having been rejected by the voters once and again. Companies, non-governmental organizations, religious groups and multitude of anonymous citizens form each lobby, and most citizens participate in the decision-making process of more than one lobby, choosing those that better represent their interests in several areas. Likewise, the government is chosen from among all the lobbies by direct vote. Each citizen votes separately for each Minister, which results on most lobbies specializing on one or two areas and presenting candidates mainly within those. The Prime minister is chosen in a vote where the lobbies forming the Government have a 50% weight and the citizens' individual votes make the other 50%. This process allowed PanOceania to quickly integrate very different populations into a cohesionate unit where individual cultural origins are proudly maintained while at the same time most citizens are fiercely proud to be a part of PanOceania. Said capacity for integration and the individual's apparently easy access to participation in Government affairs have left PanOceania free from any deep internal tensions, which in turn has allowed great economical and technical development for all the systems under PanOceanian control.

For PanOceania is the only human Power that holds more than one planetary system.

[Next: Space expansion of the two Great Powers.]

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Tarik Mansuri

December 2011

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