United Interplanetary States of America
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===Failure to Compete=== | ===Failure to Compete=== | ||
| - | Whilst the Americans tried to regain parity in the [[Space Race]] with the creation of [[NASA]] in 1958, their program was much slower than the Germans and Soviets. The increased competition made the rewards much harder to reach for the slowly developing Space power. Responding to these perceived failures, Government spending slowly declined after the 1960s, the country focusing more on economic development programs, including the [[Nixon Plan]]. It was a Soviet cosmonaut who first set foot on the moon, and the Germans who developed it into a colony. The Russians bypassed the Moon after that, and shot for [[Mars]]. The US and [[SBE|Britain]] seemingly stood still. Their research programs were just not as well developed as their rivals'. THeir low spending meant that by the 1990s they were effectively out of the race altogether. | + | Whilst the Americans tried to regain parity in the [[Space Race]] with the creation of [[NASA|US Space Agencies]] in 1958, their program was much slower than the Germans and Soviets. The increased competition made the rewards much harder to reach for the slowly developing Space power. Responding to these perceived failures, Government spending slowly declined after the 1960s, the country focusing more on economic development programs, including the [[Nixon Plan]]. It was a Soviet cosmonaut who first set foot on the moon, and the Germans who developed it into a colony. The Russians bypassed the Moon after that, and shot for [[Mars]]. The US and [[SBE|Britain]] seemingly stood still. Their research programs were just not as well developed as their rivals'. THeir low spending meant that by the 1990s they were effectively out of the race altogether. |
===The American 21st Century: Terrestrial Concerns=== | ===The American 21st Century: Terrestrial Concerns=== | ||
Revision as of 07:09, 30 June 2006
The United Interplanetary States of America added the 'I' to its acronym in 2148 after the colonisation of New Iowa in the Griffin system.
Contents |
History
Return to Isolationism
Less than total victory in the Second World War meant that the US was left with a massive casualty list and no successful war aims to show for it. Germany still stood, stronger if anythign, and France and Britain were ruined. Soviet Russia's refusal to pay for Lend Lease equipment left a massive defecit in the US's forecast war profits. Japan may have fallen, but it was never the real threat. Concerned with these inexcusable mistakes, the Truman Administration chose to re-establish an isolationist foreign policy. America retreated across the Atlantic once again. This isolationism meant that subsequent Administrations concentrated on domestic policies rather than paying attention as closely as they might have to the Space Race.
Unlike Germany, with its system of Autobahnen constructed prior to the war, the US states were far more provincial just after the Second World War. Teh East coast had been modernised by Roosevelt, centering around NEw York, but the rest of the country's infrastructure was in a state of disrepair. It was not until the mid 1950s that the US finally threw off the last shackles of the Depression, by constructing public works on a grand scale, thus removing the last impediments to modernisation of internal trade. This program caused a boom that allowed America to once again lift its gaze to the wider world picture.
Failure to Compete
Whilst the Americans tried to regain parity in the Space Race with the creation of US Space Agencies in 1958, their program was much slower than the Germans and Soviets. The increased competition made the rewards much harder to reach for the slowly developing Space power. Responding to these perceived failures, Government spending slowly declined after the 1960s, the country focusing more on economic development programs, including the Nixon Plan. It was a Soviet cosmonaut who first set foot on the moon, and the Germans who developed it into a colony. The Russians bypassed the Moon after that, and shot for Mars. The US and Britain seemingly stood still. Their research programs were just not as well developed as their rivals'. THeir low spending meant that by the 1990s they were effectively out of the race altogether.
The American 21st Century: Terrestrial Concerns
This lack of spending did allow the US to maintain Arms parity with the USSR, and far exceed Germany's military abilities, thanks in the main to an extremely powerful economy designed to support it. The US was not afraid to use this massive army, either, with Johnson and Nixon sending it to Vietnam to fight off the Soviet-vbacked Viet Cong, and a number of wars in the Middle East in the 1980s and 90s (Afghanistan 1972 and 2002, Palestine 1968 and 1972, Egypt 1972, 1994 and 2010, Iraq 1988, 1991 and 2004, Iran 2006) to contest control of Oil with the Soviet Union.
- 2053 Annexation of Mexico
- 2080s and 90s Morgan Plan to develop South America - the New Monroe Doctrine.
America finally shoots for the Stars
By the time the US managed to reach parity int he Space Race, it was competing with its closest ally for the last slim pickings of Sol, and had to satisfy itself with a small outpost on Titan in 2096, and Ganymede in 2104. AT least money was not a problem; American solar outposts were the best supplied and best-maintained in the system.
In the early 2100s, the Migration Crises once again kick-started the flagging American Space Program. Government spending on the space program - in the form of the Ark Ship - reached an all time high (as a percentage of GDP) in 2124, in the leadup to the preparation of the Ark Ship Liberty in 2127.
- In 2084 NASA is replaced with the National Extra-Terrestrial Territories Administration (NETTA).
- In 2127 the USA sent an Ark Ship to New Iowa in the Griffin system.
- In 2147 the USA sent the then-largest FTL ship, the USSS Essex, to colonise New Iowa.
- In 2148 the USA renames itself the UISA in honour of the establishing their first colony world New Iowa. NETA split into the Department of Extra-Terrestrial Territories (DETT) and the National Extrasolar Exploration Administration (NEEA)
America Today
American Political Organisations
- The CIA
The American Military
American Territories
American Persons of Note
- President Gloria Ibanez de la Cruz
Current American Characters
- Secretary of Extrasolar Affairs Clinton
- Wing Commander Powers
