Decade of Descent

The "Decade of Descent" generally describes the ten years leading up to the End. This was a time of especially heated global turmoil, triggered by massive climate change. Major world events during this time follow.

2051

 * Rising world temperatures, desertification, ocean acidification, and water shortage trigger widespead food shortages, especially in third-world countries and equatorial countries that are now too hot to grow any crops. Worldwide demonstrations, riots, and local civil wars break out.  These events continue throughout the Decade of Descent.  Although the following timeline mentions the biggest global events, many conflicts occur between India and Pakistan, Greece and Turkey, in the Middle East, in Africa, in Southeast Asia, and other places.
 * February, 2051. Mass coastal flooding due to melting ice caps causes a worldwide refugee crisis, leading to heightened domestic tensions in many countries, including the United States.

2053

 * December, 2053. The RHN viral pandemic sweeps the world, just in time for Christmas.  Spread by air and contact, symptoms include fever and vomiting, and in advanced cases, hallucinations, delusions, and even psychotic behavior.  In the most extreme cases, patients die by general exsanguination.  Tens of millions perish worldwide despite a concerted international effort to contain it.  Panic causes riots and looting in especially hard-hit areas.
 * January, 2053. Suffering from food and water shortage, buckling under the weight of a mass refugee influx from Mexico and elsewhere, and hit hard by the RHN virus and civil unrest, the United States federal government deploys military units in American cities to keep peace.  Citizens immediately protest, but accomplish little.
 * February, 2053. A three-way war breaks out between Russia, China, and Japan.
 * May, 2053. Peacekeeping units still patrol American cities.  Local militias spring up across the United States to resist what they consider a hostile, illegitimate government takeover.
 * August, 2053. Successes by civil militia guerillas force the federal government to crack down harder, lending legitimacy to what was earlier a fringe claim.  Popular secession movements spring up across the United States.
 * November, 2053. Texas secedes.  Several other states follow suit.
 * December, 2053. The federal government is unable to come to good terms with the seceded states.  The Second American Civil War breaks out.
 * December, 2053. The Republic of Texas, spurred on by popular support and boasting a huge infantry corps swelled by years of increased Mexican immigration, enjoys early success.  Texas spreads its influence across the South.

2054

 * October, 2054. Weary of war when there is no food to be had, the people of Japan capitulate to Russia.
 * November, 2054. In one of the greatest diplomatic successes of the century, Japan convinces Russia and China that both countries can succeed if they cease fighting and pool their resources instead.  The three countries form the Pan-Asian Coalition Treaty, or PACT.

2055

 * January, 2055. After two years of civil war with no end in sight, the United States federal military topples the civilian government in Washington, D.C., and immediately calls an end to the civil war.  The United States as a sovereign entity officially ceases to exist.  A measure of peace returns to the former states of America.
 * March, 2055. PACT adds the Unified Republic of Korea.  A terrified Europe steps up military production and deployment.
 * July, 2055. Widespread famine hits China hard.  The chronically unstable country threatens to break apart into civil war.  The other PACT members contribute what aid they can, but it's clear that China is failing.
 * November, 2055. A desperate China, against PACT wishes, launches a massive western offensive into India and threatens Turkey.  EU coalition forces mass in Turkey and Poland.  China has no chance of success, and Russia threatens to withdraw from PACT.  Eastern Asia teeters on the edge of war.

2056

 * January, 2056. Japan again succeeds in diplomacy, this time convincing Russia to aid China in its ill-considered offensives.
 * November, 2056. Against all odds, Russia and China succeed in their Indian adventure.  India capitulates and becomes part of PACT.

2057

 * October, 2057. Facing a strengthening PACT, the European Union rattles sabers and threatens nuclear retaliation if PACT forces move toward Turkey.  PACT backs down, for now.
 * October, 2057. In response to the continually growing PACT, most of the countries of the former United States form the Free States Alliance.

2058

 * 2058. It becomes clear that emergency geoengineering projects have failed to halt global warming.  Governments of the world face the facts: The coming years will be ones of ever-increasing hardship and lack of resources.  Global starvation and disease continues to grow.  These hard truths strain alliances like the EU, PACT, and FSA.
 * February, 2058. The United Kingdom withdraws from the EU, taking all its coalition forces with it.
 * Spring, 2058. The European Union continues to disintegrate.  The FSA vows to aid Europe if PACT attacks.
 * May 11, 2058. PACT launches a massive surprise assault on Alliance forces.  In an offensive coordinated to the minute, they cripple the FSA's orbital command and control system, disable many orbital weapons platforms, and launch pinpoint nuclear strikes at key Alliance military installations on the ground.  The FSA, lacking the unity of a federal government, is unable to respond with anything other than sporadic and ineffectual nuclear force.
 * May, 2058. PACT forces invade the former United States of America.  War rages as foreign forces invade American soil for the first time in almost three hundred years.
 * May, 2058. The remnants of the European Union attempt to retaliate against PACT, but are defeated.
 * October, 2058. PACT forces in America have faced bitter resistance, and although they hold several American cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, they are unable to progress across the Rocky Mountains.
 * November, 2058. Partisans in the former state of Washington launch a fierce guerilla war.

2060

 * Summer, 2060. After 18 months of fighting, PACT forces in the Western American continent capture major insurgency leaders and crush the majority of local resistance.  PACT leaders declare victory.
 * Fall, 2060. PACT forces push east across the Great Plains and start seeing sporadic battles at cities as far east as Chicago.
 * Winter, 2060. An outbreak of a mutated strain of RHN virus spreads across the world.  Although the second outbreak is less virulent and more controllable than the first, weakened governments across the world are unable to respond as effectively, and deaths exceed the first pandemic.  The PACT offensive on American soil halts.

2061

 * Summer, 2061. The second  RHN virus outbreak, although not finished, is generally under control.
 * August, 2061. PACT forces in America consider pushing farther into the former United States, but ultimately rest to gather their strength.
 * September, 2061. Formerly quiescent FSA forces launch major attacks on PACT units across the Midwest and the South.
 * November, 2061. Despite liberating Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta, Alliance forces are unable to make any further headway.
 * November, 2061. Another mutated strain of RHN flares up, this time more virulent than both earlier strains combined.  Thanks to a global downturn in air travel, it doesn't spread as quickly as before, but with a long incubation period it goes for days without being detected.  When RHN symptoms set in, the world is unprepared.
 * December 12, 2061. Without warning, a massive nuclear exchange occurs worldwide.  In minutes cities are laid to waste and entire governments collapse.  The End has begun.