On Known History

Preamble

Not much is known about how the world arrived at its current, unified state. As it stands, we have no information about the period of time surrounding the unification, or, indeed, the process of the unification itself. Speculating about these "missing years" is the domain of theoretical history, and therefore will be discussed no further here. This document deals exclusively with known history, specifically, the history of the world directly before and after the missing years. 

Date and Time Conventions

Because we have no way of knowing how long the missing years lasted, the defunct "AC" date system of the pre-unification world will be used for dates prior to the unification, and the Standard Unified (SU) system will be used for dates after. This article, for instance, was written in 103 (SU), and the last newspaper article from before the missing years was published in 2259 (AC).

Part I: Before the Unification

In the period directly preceding the missing years, the world was experiencing a widespread drift to the political left. In the late 22nd century (under the old date system, of course), more than half of the world's countries were practising some form of socialism, often democratic, and communism was experiencing a resurgence.

In 2193, Canada, Quebec, and the Nordic countries entered into an alliance called the Northern United Socialist States (NUSS). With delegates from each participating country, the NUSS put into place mandates regulating the behaviour of its member nations, and acted for their common good, much like the European Union (EU). As the NUSS gained power, political leaders from other parts of the world began to talk about forming similar coalitions. The first of these to form was the Pan-African Alliance (unrelated to the various other Pan-African Alliances that existed prior to its creation). Shortly after, the Pan-American Alliance (which didn't include Canada or the United States), the Asian Union, United Oceania, and the League of Arab Nations were created. With the exception of the United States and the Soviet Union, almost every internationally recognized nation was a member of one of these alliances. 

 
The power of these alliances, particularly the NUSS, continued to grow. After the EU merged with NUSS in 2211, requests to join started to come from all corners of the globe. In 2214, the NUSS changed its name to the Global Union of Socialist States, and began to accept nations from across the world into its ranks.

By 2251, the vast majority of nations were members of the GUSS. There was talk of adopting a single currency, standardizing the education systems, and removing all tariffs, but these ideas were met with much resistance by member nations that wanted to retain their autonomy. At this point, it becomes obvious on inspection of historical records that documents are missing. It seems that the US and Russia were on the verge of signing a treaty with the GUSS, but the terms of the treaty are uncertain, as is whether or not it was ever signed. The volume of information continues to dwindle with time. The last known legitimate document is a small-town newspaper article from 2259, titled "Grove Street Businesses Unite to Fight Local Crime!".

Part 2: After the Unification

As every child knows, the new calendar was established on Unification Day, year 1, by the World Measurement Standards Committee. In year 1, the world was led by a single government, the United World Party (UWA), much like it is today. The beginnings of the modern education, welfare, and economic systems were just being put into place, and the UWA was striving to achieve the ideals of communism set out in the Communist Manifesto. By year 32, all academic institutions, from primary to tertiary, were taught exclusively in Unic, the modern transportation system was well on its way to being functional and complete, and the modern age had set in.