United Earth Empire

The United Earth Empire (abbreviated to UEE) was a multi-system star nation, and was the first truly unified Human nation in history. It originated from the United Nations in the late stages of the 21st Century (early 3rd Century A.E), and eventually went from an organization of cooperation to become a nation in its own right.

It encompassed a large number of colonies after the start of the Exodus Era (E.E) in 2249, and had reportedly control over three dozen habitated worlds by 50 E.E.

History
Early History

The United Nations was formed in 85 Anti-Exodus (A.E, 1945 A.D) to prevent wars between the different nations on Earth at the time. It fulfilled this task admirably, and the amount of wars was reduced significantly over the next eighty years. It did not stop every armed conflict in its infancy, but the overall amount of people killed as a consequence of armed conflict and war-like actions decreased heavily. Much of the details surrounding the UN's ascension from organization to nation are very unclear, but some information remains. A great financial crisis wreaked havoc on the world's economy for several years coupled with the leading super-power's unrelenting warfare, heavily condemned by the majority of the world, slowly but surely crippled the world economy. In 181 A.E (2021 A.D) the super-power was dissolved following a brief, but bloody war with a large Eastern country, and half the country was placed under UN control. Six years later a UN controlled zone was established in Central Africa as well to stabilize the region and to build up the fragile economy. By early 3rd Century A.E large parts of the world's most underdeveloped and volatile areas were under direct UN jurisdiction by will of the majority of member nations in the UN.

Sometime during the 3rd Century the world polarized into four different regional super powers, all working in close cooperation with the UN working as overseers with their own armed forces formed from the UN areas. The super powers were, as far as historians can make out, the European Union, the Eastern Alliance, the African Union and the Pan-American States. Much information of this time has been lost, but there seems to have been a major war in Africa between the UN and the EU on one side against the AU and the EA. It lasted for at least five years and resulted in the EU and UN splitting the African and Asian continents between them. Many forays into space exploration were done in this period, especially from the Pan-American States and the EU.

Space Race and Expansion

By 320 A.E (2180 A.D) a permanent settlement had been created on Mars as the first human space colony. It is unclear as to the size of this settlement, but it appears to have been of moderate size considering the technology of the time and the resources at hand. It had its own space port, albeit small.

In 322 A.E (2182 A.D) Dr. Ian St. Vincent at the Bogota Space & Atmospheric Research Center in the Pan-American States, managed to create an artificial entry into a subdimension of timespace continuum where speed were relative. It was heavily explored and it was deemed possible, after 20 years of study, that it would be possible to create starship drives which would be able open a portal to this particular subdimension large enough for the starship to pass through. In 345 A.E (2205 A.D) the UNS  Endeavour was launched as the first starship with the new St. Vincent Drive. It was, however, unmanned as Dr St. Vincent, nor any of his associates, had been able to make living creatures pass through the event horizon of the portal without coming apart in a very gory fashion. The UNS  Endeavour surveyed several nearby solar systems and returned after ten months and made contact with the human settlements on Mars and Europa (the only extra-terrestrial human colonies at the time). It was deemed a major success and the St. Vincent Drive was put into mass production, and scores of unmanned surveyor ships were launched to explore far off solar systems.

The UN decided at this time that human expansion and exploration of space was of the utmost importance as the Earth's resources were growing scarce, and overpopulation was becoming a problem, especially in Asia and parts of Africa. The UN leadership, after long discussions and debates with the member nations of the UN, released in 350 A.E (2210 A.D) the "Unification Act". It essentially gathered all the nations and peoples of the world under the United Nations, which changed its name to the United Earth Federation. This was met with wide acclaim and enjoyed the support of the majority of Earth's population.

In 388. A.E (2248 A.D) almost all nearby (within a distance of 4 light years) star systems had been explored and mapped, and several habitable or near habitable worlds had been discovered, but there was no way for humans to survive the long passage using sub-light engines as a one-way trip to the nearest star of CD-26 (or Charybdis) would take over 300 years. The same year, however, Dr Line Thodesen, after a long series of automated tests and simulations, tweaked the St. Vincent Drive and made it possible for humans to survive travelling at speed close to and above that of light speed.

Exodus Era and Disestablishment

<p style="margin:0cm0cm0.0001pt;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;">The introduction of the new Thodesen Light Drive (abbreviated to TLD) was tested thoroughly and put into mass production, and put into every new starship built. The old surveyor ships were scrapped and used to make new ships. <span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;">Within only fifty years, before Dr Thodesen’s death, the United Earth Federation had spread to over three dozen worlds, many of them sprawling with natural life, others requiring the use of terra forming, which was still in its infancy. The UEF changed its name to the United Earth Empire, signifying its expansion from a single world government to a sprawling, interstellar empire.

<p style="line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">By 76 E.E (2325 A.D) Mankind had spread far and wide, occupying over sixty worlds, but problems and feuds soon emerged. Old wounds reopened, and in late 76 E.E the mainly Jewish inhabitants of Jericho attacked the neighbouring planet of Afridi IV, following months of agitations, threats and terrorist cell attacks based on old religious squabbles. It was the first interstellar war in human history. Over four million people died before the UEE could stop the fighting. This promted the creation of the United Earth Empire Defense Forces (UEEDF) to maintain peace and stop similar wars from occuring again. The first interstellar warships were made with the help of the now aging Dr Thodesen, which created a further improved version of her Light Drive for use in warships where speed and not space were essential.

<p style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;">Over the next sixty years, mankind spread further and further away from Earth, making it hard for the UEE to keep control over all the far-flung worlds and colonies. More and more planets formed their own nations, proclaiming their independence from the UEE. At first the UEE acknowledged this, but as time went on, they wanted to retain government over as many worlds as possible in an effort to reduce the number of petty border conflicts and wars of expansion that started to occur along the fringes of human space. And over the next decade, the UEE fought itself apart, not through military defeats, but through running its economy bankrupt, and alienating the majority of mankind through violent and bloody conflict. The UEE was disbanded in 137 E.E (2462 A.D), ushering in the Post Exodus era.

<p style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;">After the UEEs disestablishment, the majority of colonies established their own nations, while the Solarian Federation took over as the leading multi system star nation, based on Earth and controlling the Sol system as well as the most immediately nearby habited star systems.

Government
<span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;">The UEE was organized in much the same way as the United Nations had been. The General Assembly was the legislative branch of the political power in the UEE. Every nation (the EU, Pan American States, and other, smaller Earth nations) and colony had a number of representatives in the General Assembly. The Council was the executive branch, and served as a de facto government. There was no political parties and the Council was reelected each fourth year based on personality and personal views and political motives. <span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;">There appears to have been an extensive amount of lobbying and back room diplomacy involved in the election processes.

There was no head of state, the Council and the individual Council members served as the leaders of the nation. Nations were allowed to control themselves as long as they complied with the UEE Charter and remained at peace with other nations.

Law
Law practices and general law were based on the UN Charter as well as parts from different nation states' codes of law. There was no capital punishment and the longest possible prison sentence was fifty years. The Supreme Court of Earth served as the highest judicial instance, with high courts based in sector capitals (such as Epsilon Eridani Prime and Altair Prime) were the highest local courts of justice. The General Assembly and the Council had no control over the courts, per Montesquieu's Seperation of Power.

Military
The UEE military was placed directly under the command of the Council. The United Earth Empire Defense Forces was divided into the Space Warfare and Land Warfare branches, each with its own area of jurisdiction. In the beginning it was deemed unnecessary for a central UEE military, as it would be able to operate the same way the UN had with using volunteers from the different member nations in multinational forces to be deployed where and when needed. This changed after the Jericho-Afridi War of 76-81 E.E where the UEE had problems gathering as many troops as required for the total intervention between the warring sides.

The UEEDF was established with the intention of providing peacekeeping troops, but it became over time a full on armed forces to combat a range of nations breaking free and declaring war on the UEE. The personnel was for the most part composed of soldiers from Earth, which made the UEEDF seem like a Earth-based despotic empire for the rouge nations. The service was all-volunteer, and had over fifteen million men and women in arms at its height. It also had over two hundred warship of differing size at its peak.

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