[Aleph Null]

Timeline
U.S. Food Riots
U.S. History

Timeline
1992: The United States enters a recession.
1995: Drought strikes the United States.
1998: Widespread food riots in the United States.
2002: United Nations Dissolves
2004: Breakup of the United States.
2005: Earthquake strikes New York.
2006: First Chinese manned space mission.
2010: First Chinese manned mission to the moon.
2011: First cybernetic prosthesis becomes available.
2012: North and South Korea reunified.
2015: Riots in Los Angeles, DMZ formed.
2016: Royal Dutch develops AIDS vaccine.
2018: China launches space station.
2018: SimStim technology developed by Mitsui Industries.
2022: Mainland China and Taiwan reunite.
2023: Arab states form Islamic Caliphate.
2023: Tissue-engineers grow functional human hearts for transplant.
2024: Joint U.S.-Russian manned Mars mission launched.
2025: U.S.-Russian manned Mars mission fails.
2026: Chinese manned Mars mission launched.
2027: Chinese manned Mars mission successful.
2027: Collapse of the European Union.
2028: Three-weeks war. European & U.S. coalition halt Russian advance.
2028: Major Earthquake strikes Los Angeles.
2029: Chinese develop first orbital industrial park.
2031: Computers crash worldwide due to RedWorm virus.
2035: Joint India-Russia orbital industrial park launched.
2035: First low-sapient AI is created.
2037: Chinese found first lunar colony.
2038: India-Russian orbital industrial park destroyed by terrorism.
2038: Russian separatists attempt to secede from the motherland.
2039: Chinese aid to Russian separatists prompts the Sino-Soviet war.
2039: Quantum Supercomputers developed by UM&F.
2041: Commercial genetic engineering becomes available for parents.
2043: Islamic Caliphate attacks Israel. War ends with the Treaty of Jerusalem.

U.S. Food Riots
In 1995, drought struck the United States. Many farmers were looking at claiming bankruptcy in the next year, and many already had. Some few lucky farmers with savings tucked away and with government assistance managed to hold out a year in hopes of better times. They claimed they hadn't seen such drought, even in 1980. In farming, next year will always be better.

In 1996, fully fifty percent of American farmers in the south and central United States went under. They declared bankruptcy and in most cases intended to continue farming purely by government subsidies. A state of emergency was declared, the extra funding thrown into their lost causes as the nation felt the effects of global warming and an abnormally dry season, two years running. Water initiatives were passed in Congress, but were not economically feasible. The drought went on into 1997, and there was nothing the government, already facing serious recession, could do. By 1998, the volume of food produced by United States farmers had been reduced to less than one quarter of its former bounty.

The resulting crisis was far reaching. Whole regions with economies centered around the delicate farming industry were rendered insolvent. Unemployment reached record highs. Farmers and members of supporting and related industries fled to the cities, where jobs were equally unavailable. The banks who had provided loans to farmers for land and equipment went under with countless clients filing Chapter 11.

The economy destabilized. The United States was not able to import food enough to feed all of its people, and those segments of the population already marginalized or at risk suffered almost to a man. More surprisingly to the comfortable middle classes came the revelation that they, too, were in danger. With the realisation of the most profound gap between economic stratifications in United States history came civil unrest and intermittent, violent rioting, even in the heartland of America.

It was during this time that megacorporations acquired large tracts of land in normally fertile areas. Banks were willing to sell cheap to try to recoup losses. Those lands forfeited to government ownership for failure to pay property taxes, the hard earned soil of generations of labour, were sold cheaply as well. Farming was about to realise a revolution as those corporations large enough, global enough to be stable through a United States depression stepped in.

Foods such as soy and milo, formerly grown largely to feed to livestock, became major processed staples of the average American diet as the economy recovered. Livestock farming became sparse, the investment behind it too great to justify to corporate executives. From the food people consumed to the reclaimed water they drank, megacorporations were beginning to shore up the United States, for a price.

U.S. History
In 1992, the United states entered a recession. After six years of various economic strategies aimed at bolstering a failing economy, the markets hit lows unseen in decades. The repercussions were world-wide and in the next six years the world saw the destruction of the last superpowers, culminating with the breakup of the United States of America in 2004. While the rest of the world endured varying degrees of economic turmoil, the United States was the hardest hit of any of the first and second world nations. Government was no longer able to execute its functions, public services went neglected, and thousands died in food riots across the nation.

On the world stage, without the driving force of genuine superpowers, there was a marked lack of worldwide governing bodies. The United Nations dissolved in 2002 and without regulation, large companies such as the Royal Dutch/Shell group, Mitsubishi and DaimlerChrysler began to come into their own. International legislation and trade agreements became unenforcable and the megacorporation was born as already international companies swallowed up competition and made alliances with their fellows.

These new megacorporations would be instrumental in the secession of California and the other territories. In exchange for favorable operating conditions and limited extraterritoriality, the megacorps were influential in funding the secession and rebuilding the territories. Public services became privatized, jobs became available, and the economy turned around. By 2006, the former United States was on the rebound and catching up with the rest of the world.

Texas would be the next to follow suit, taking with it New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arizona. While there hadn't been any push for secession in any of those states with the exception of Texas, it became geographically and economically necessary for them to band together in their negotiations with the United States government and with the megacorporations. Parts of the central and southern United States would remain affiliated with the United states in name, becoming a loose confederacy. The very core of the United states now remains in its eastern seaboard, with its heart in the original thirteen states. In the northwestern united states, Washington, Oregon and Idaho united with British Columbia and Alberta becoming the independent nation of New Cascadia. Alaska, nominally still a part of the United States has increasing trade with Russia and has reverted to a largely uncontrolled territory where oil and mining interests reign supreme.

Following California and Texas, Montana didn't even have to put up a fight. They simply stopped sending representatives and paying taxes. Other states would soon follow their example, firstly their neighbors to the east and south. Utah and the northwestern part of Nevada would become the Mormon state of New Eden. Finding itself with no place to go, the rest of Nevada quickly became a part of California, retaining its own name.