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May 21, 2023

Earth’s nations by 2183 (1/?)

What are the nations of Earth by the time ME1 rolls in ?

By 2183, the Earth’s nations are roughly divided into two groups :

those under the aegis of the Systems Alliance, formed in 2149 by Earth’s eighteen “largest” nations, both for “collective colonial security” and because the “expense of colonizing entire new solar systems could not be met by any one country. With humans knowing that alien contact was inevitable, there was enough political will to jointly fund an international effort.” ;

and the other nations of Earth, left out, in the Union of Incorporated Nations (UNIN), which grew out of those nations that remained in the United Nations (also in 2149). To quote, “The smaller nations might have lacked the wealth, influence, and interplanetary reach of the Alliance, but they’d made up for some of that through close ties with a number of Earth-based corporations. It made them big fish in the small, backwater pond that was Earth …” (in Mass Effect Andromeda : Initiation, p.203) Representatives in whatever political body UNIN has are called Delegates.

From the get-go I should say there’s a bit of a contradiction in canon on who is and isn’t in the Alliance : while all the way back in 2007, the ME1 Codex said that “all [the nation-states of Earth] are affiliated beneath the overarching banner of the Alliance,” (though noting that there was significant economic and technological disparity between and within the nations of Earth), it’s very much not the case in later canon : for example, in Initiation (2017), as of late 2184, we’re told that the Alliance “is only the largest nations on [Earth] - about ten percent of the total number, really.” (p.44) So, if the Alliance stayed at 18 Earth nations, that’s about 180 Earth nations total at the time of the OT (slightly less than at the time of writing, about 195-200ish) - if more joined up after 2149, the total number of Earth nations is likewise higher.

The same ME1 Codex entry helpfully informs us that the Alliance, by 2183, has “a dozen settled colonies and a hundred industrial outposts”. It’s worth pointing out that the Alliance is officially “responsible for the governance and defense of all extra-solar colonies and stations”, i.e. anything not in the Sol system, but that at least parts, if not all, of what’s in the Sol system is considered “Alliance territory” administered by “Intrasolar Development”, an organization that appears to be part of the Alliance military (its head has the military rank of “Commander”).

It’s worth noting that, at the time the “ten percent” estimate is issued, it would make more sense if there were far less nations on Earth in the Mass Effect!22nd century than there are today, as at least two of the confirmed members of the Alliance, the UNAS and the European Union (now a full-on polity), contain many former countries which are sovereign today (3 in the UNAS ; 27 (as of 2023) in the EU). So if we really wanna make that “10%” bit credible, we have to assume there have been state fragmentation as well as state coalition in the ME!21st and 22nd centuries to offset (at least) the difference.

We also learn in Initiation (p.44) that the Alliance maintains a significant influence on space elevators and orbital airspace rights on Earth, to the point that, by 2184, it had pressured the governments of Earth to stop granting planetary-orbit licenses “decades ago” (i.e. probably at some point between 2160 and 2164, given that before 2160, the Alliance doesn’t exist as a political body).

Among those nations we know for sure are in the Alliance, there are three particular nations, which correspond to the three major economic powerhouses in 2010 IRL : the United North American States (UNAS), the European Union (EU), and the Chinese People’s Federation (CPF). They are mentioned in relation to the Alliance when the three had a dispute over who had dibs on the planet Watson, in 2165, leading the Alliance to broker the “infamous” Reykjavik Compromise, “allowing limited colonization from each coalition in cities comprised of populations from each nation.” Interestingly, it’s the only time - to my knowledge - that we hear of settlement colonies which are affiliated to individual Earth nations, as opposed to being under the general Alliance umbrella, which leads to so many unanswered questions, questions we’ll never get an answer on and which I’ll have to invent.

That being said, the US very likely founded the first Luna colony in 2069 (it’s called “Armstrong”), and the very first Mars colony was established explicitly by the European Union in 2103, with the UNAS and China having founded their own Martian colonies by 2113. This suggests, alongside the Watson stuff, that those recurring three were the dominant “superpowers” of Earth prior to being eclipsed by the Alliance.

Side-note : We have no idea if/when Luna and Mars became independent polities within the Alliance, with a status like Eden Prime or Terra Nova.

Also in the Alliance club : Brazil (given that N7 training starts close to Rio de Janeiro), which makes sense given forecasts on Brazilian economic growth for the remainder of the 21st century. Not confirmed but likely to be in : Russia, India and Japan.

Let’s start with North America. It’s gotten very long already - gee, what a surprise - so that will be it for the post.

The United North American States (UNAS)

The United North American States (UNAS) is a new state which encompasses Canada, the United States of America and Mexico. Thanks to the Codex and Cerberus Daily News, it’s also the state on Earth we know most about, by far - to the point it is the only Earth nation to have its own specific page on the Wiki. This isn’t surprising, given that BioWare members are overwhelmingly Canadian or American.

We have three events in canon on the UNAS : the Second American Civil War at the end of the 21st century ; the joint assassinations of President Enrique Aguilar and Chinese Premier Ying Xiong in 2176 CE ; and the Ford v. Huerta case before the Supreme Court of the Alliance in 2185 CE.

While the Wiki page of the UNAS states that “Sometime around 2096 CE, Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America united to form the United North American States”, the source for that in the Codex actually says something slightly different :

… in 2096, a motley group called Freedoms First finally brought [the Statue of Liberty] down. Protesting the induction of Canada and Mexico into the United North American States, the New York chapter of Freedoms First wanted a symbol that they would secede from this new union if necessary.

Here, as with everywhere else, wording is everything : “induction … into the United North American States” indicates that in fact the UNAS already existed when Canada and Mexico joined them, suggesting the UNAS started as a successor state to the contemporary United States of America, which subsequently incorporated its direct neighbors. (This is supported by other elements we’ll see below, where we’ll find out that what we glimpse of the political organization of the UNAS is fairly identical to the US’s ; even the fact that the subsequent conflict is called “the Second American Civil War”, as opposed to the IRL Only American Civil War So Far (1861-1865), suggests that conflict had more to do with the US than with Canada or Mexico.)

We do not know when the US became the UNAS ; the expression “this new union” could refer to the UNAS, meaning its formation was fairly recent in 2096, but it could also refer to a UNAS with Canada and Mexico included. All we know is that the UNAS formed at some point between, well, now and 2096.

As to when Canada and Mexico joined the UNAS, the wording is ambiguous : while I’m inclined to read the quoted excerpt as meaning that Canada and Mexico had just been incorporated in 2096, it’s perfectly possible to understand “induction” as an ongoing process which has yet to be completed (but will be soon).

Likewise, we have no idea about the motives of Freedoms First beyond what we can extrapolate from those few elements :

The name “Freedoms First” suggests that the group wanted some unspecified political freedoms to be granted before accepting the new union with Mexico and Canada. In other words, for FF specific freedoms were being denied at the time by the UNAS and had to be acknowledged by the UNAS government before as a non-negotiable condition to FF assenting to the induction of Mexico and Canada.

We don’t know what those freedoms were, and by extension whether Freedoms First was a radical right-wing or left-wing group (not the same thing if they want, say, freedom to bear arms or freedom from the tyranny of the bourgeoisie and the alienation of the means of production). It is worth noting, however, that here “Freedoms” is a plural ; whereas a mass noun in the singular like “Freedom First” would have suggested FF was rebelling against a perceived or actual oppression, the use of the count noun here and the focus on rights as opposed to the absolute ideal of freedom are more suggestive, for me (a non-USAmerican), of a liberal slant - what immediately comes to my mind is the Four Freedoms speech of FDR where he defined as universal human rights the freedoms of speech, of worship, from want and from fear. I’m eager however to hear counter-arguments !

Basically, what I’m saying is we can perfectly imagine the UNAS as a perfectly normal liberal democracy with Canada and Mexico joining voluntarily but right-wing nationalists wanting to keep ‘Murica for the ‘Muricans ; or the UNAS as an altogether authoritarian state, or at least a more oppressive state than the US in a dystopia-leaning dark timeline, in which case the joint induction of Mexico and Canada is more of a subjugation and Freedoms First are actual freedom fighters ; or anything in between.

It is worth noting however that Freedoms First is described as a “motley group”, which suggests it united people with different political motivations but working together for a common goal - so FF can perfectly be uniting various right-wing, centrist and left-wing tendencies !

We also know that FF was fairly widespread (the existence of a “New York chapter” suggests other chapters in major American cities at least) and that it was organized well enough to be dangerous (since they were able to obtain “15.5 tons of high explosive” and smuggle them on Liberty Island).

As to the goals of FF, they destroyed the Statue of Liberty to protest the induction of Canada and Mexico and to signal they were willing and able to start a war and secede if the UNAS didn’t accede to their demands (whatever those were). The choice of the Statue of Liberty as a symbol to be destroyed by a group called Freedoms First suggests they didn’t consider (rightly or wrongly) that liberty/freedoms still existed in the UNAS (which, again, doesn’t actually tell us anything about the content of anyone’s politics).

Finally, I’d like to point out this story is strikingly similar to one of the most famous Judge Dredd stories, “America” (1990 ; summary with full spoilers), where the pro-democracy terrorist organisation Total War tries to blow up the Statue of Liberty (“I… I thought you were all for liberty…” “There’s no liberty - not here. The statue’s a sick joke. We’re just making a point. Headlines - that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it ? Sooner or later the message will get through.”). If it’s a coincidence, it’s impressive - I’m pretty sure the Codex entry is an homage, but I have no proof - and even if I had, the plot might be similar but it doesn’t entail that it’s 1:1 (for one, it’s beyond unlikely there’s ever been an enormous Judge statue looming over the Statue of Liberty at any point in the Mass Effect universe). Strictly textually, who was in the right and who was in the wrong at the start of the war can be interpreted both ways.

Interestingly, we’re told that the “outrage at the secessionists kindled the fires of the Second American Civil War”, which suggests (at least from the point of view of the in-universe author of the Codex) that civil war might/would have been averted had not Freedoms First engaged in terrorism. We don’t know when the Second American Civil War started - in 2096 itself or afterward - but we do know that it had started “two years” later, in 2098, which was the year of the “Battle of Washington” ; the former US capital and likely UNAS capital suffered “heavy shelling by secessionist forces”. The new Statue of Liberty was completed in 2101, which suggests that by this time either the war was over or New York was not at risk from any military. (No idea where the UN, which was canonically around at the time, escaped to - to Geneva I suppose ? IRL it has secondary headquarters there.)

(Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, we do not know either who won, at what cost, and what the immediate and long-term consequences of the conflict were. But we do know that Canada and at least some parts of Mexico remain in the UNAS in 2185.)

When we next hear of the UNAS, it’s in the same DLC when we learn that in 2176, a Virginia patent clerk by the name of Michael Moser Lang kills both UNAS President Enrique Aguilar and CPF Premier Ying Xiong. What’s really interesting, however, is who the actual culprits turn out to be and what were their motives : in a subsequent DLC, we learn that Cerberus had approached Lang and provided him funding in 2175, “cultivating” him as an unwitting agent. The goal of Cerberus, apparently, was to replace President Aguilar with Vice-President Belknap, someone whose policies included a “financial reform bill allowing for increased loopholes in [Cerberus] colony-based shell companies”.

What’s really interesting about that, though, is that we have confirmation that in the UNAS, exactly like in the US today, the President is the head of state and government and that they have a Vice-President who immediately takes over should they die (or, presumably, become unable to be President) while in office.

While Mexico also has a presidential regime where, like in the US, the President serves as both head of state and head of government, impromptu succession in Mexico largely depends on when the President died during their six-year-long, non-renewable mandate : the Secretary of the Interior assumes provisional and limited presidential powers until Congress elects an Interim President if the President became, uh, unavailable during the first 2 years of their term, and until a new president is elected within 14 to 18 months ; but if the President became “absolutely absent” during the last four years of their term, then Congress elects a Substitute President who will rule until the end of the original mandate.

Both of those are entirely distinct from what exists in Canada today : the Prime Minister is the head of government while the head of state (for now) is the British monarch, represented by the Governor General ; should the PM die in office, there is no official order of succession, but the past shows us that the majority party selects an interim leader while they find a permanent replacement. Either way, a Vice-President is a very USAmerican thing.

The UNAS presidential line of succession comes up again in the Ford v. Huerta case in 2185, which is the single most revealing plot line on the UNAS and its organization, as well as a glimpse on the influence of the US government system over both the UNAS and the Systems Alliance. It was a Cerberus Daily News storyline starting on March 4, 2185.

Christopher Huerta can first be mentioned in ME1 as a noteworthy Earth politician on par with Matriarch Benezia for the asari by Alestia Iallis on Peak 15 : “Do you know President Huerta of Earth ? I did not think so.” This was in 2183 ; but as we learn during Ford v. Huerta, at some point in 2184, President Huerta suffered a stroke and was left “legally dead and in cryocool for an hour and a half before his brain functions were fully transferred to a computer.” While Huerta continued his presidency, “The amount of memory degradation was never fully revealed.” Ford v. Huerta was started by UNAS Speaker of the House Lisa Ford, who argued that “the last year of [Huerta’s] term was illegitimate.” Perhaps relevantly to Ford’s motives, “According to the United North American States' line of succession, if Huerta was considered dead, then power would transfer to the Vice President and Speaker Ford would have held the position of Vice President for the last year.”

That storyline allows us to learn a few things :

If Lisa Ford is “Speaker of the House”, an IRL American political title, then it follows the UNAS has a House of Representatives as well. I can’t find evidence for or against the existence of a Senate, however.

Exactly like the US, the UNAS presidential line of succession goes Speaker of the House [of Representatives] => Vice-President => President.

The final appeal court of the UNAS, as with, presumably, any single polity in the Alliance, is the Alliance Supreme Court. The fact there is a Supreme Court at all is in and of itself a clear American influence, and even more so once we take into consideration the fact that it has nine members, led by a Chief Justice. All I’m saying is, American political theory and organization has a disproportionate influence in both the UNAS and the Alliance because the writers are laaaaaaaazy and we should try to explain that with headcanons. If we want.

Lisa Ford very likely belongs to the party of the opposition, who have a majority in the House of Representatives.

Moreover, immediately after the Alliance Supreme Court rules in favor of Huerta (5-4) on April 15, riots erupt on “the Washington, D.C., Mall and in Mexico City's Chapultepec Park”. This allows us to confirm that Mexico and Mexico City are still part of the UNAS in 2185 [and that the District of Columbia is still a thing - no statehood for you] ; moreover, we’re told that the protests had to be cleared out of the “capitols”. Here, “capitols” suggests that both cities contains one legislative building ; alternatively, it is a common misspelling of “capitals”, meaning that the UNAS has at least two (and likely three) official state capitals.

By April 17, the riots were still going strong in those two cities but had now spread to Ottawa (and we also have confirmation that at least one/the only capitol was in Washington-still-D.C., and the Capitol Police was still a thing). By April 18, there were about 3 million protesters in Washington D.C., 4 millions in Mexico City, 1.5 millions in Ottawa and new massive protests in “Los Angeles, Toronto and New York”, nicely confirming for us all that all those cities are part of the UNAS.

The storyline ends on April 19, when “Earth's politicians called for a stop to the rioting in the UNAS even as some of them praised the rebellious spirit of the protesters” ; those included Speaker Ford herself, who had to concede there was no legal way to challenge the decision of “the Systems Alliance oppressors”, going so far as saying that her supporters and fellow UNASicans needed to “categorically reject the violence” the Alliance was known to use.

…that is… tantalizing. That is the third most senior official in one of the founding members of the Systems Alliance openly calling the Alliance violent oppressors - and given the nature of politics, it’s likely those aren’t just Lisa Ford’s views but also the opinion of a significant part of her electoral base and something that isn’t out of line for a member of her party to say. How common is it to think along those lines in the nations of Earth ??? It’s not necessarily surprising given the “infamous” Reykjavik Compromise of 2165, but what is inflammatory rhetoric here, and what is bone-deep feeling ? We’ll never know.

We do get something of a proper send-off in an ambient conversation in ME3, at the Huerta Memorial Hospital on the Citadel, where we see it’s still a very divisive issue :

VISITOR : It’s completely tasteless to call this place “Huerta Memorial”.

RECEPTIONIST : President Huerta died of a stroke two years ago, ma’am.

VISITOR : I think you meant to say the man was dead for an hour and a half and his political enemies piled on enough propaganda to get the hospital’s name changed.

RECEPTIONIST : He can’t remember his own name without the VI in his head telling him what it is. Trust me, in this building, we know dead.

VISITOR : The Supreme Court says he’s alive.

RECEPTIONIST : Five Justices say he’s alive - two of them appointed by him*. The name is what it is.

… and as is commonplace in ME3, Shep can side with either of them and get +2 Reputation.

* : Probably a continuity mistake, but suggestive that Ford brought up the issue before the UNAS Supreme Court prior to 2185, before appealing their own 5-4 decision with the Systems Alliance Supreme Court. In any case, can be interpreted as proof that the UNAS has a Supreme Court as well.

…and Avina can tell you that “The donor who requested this tribute expressed the desire to remain anonymous.” That same donor, in one of the two outcomes of the conversation, is revealed to have bought the hospital “90-million credits’ worth of life-saving equipment”.

(Presumably both Ford and Huerta died 100% during the Reaper War.)

(I’d like to point out that the UNAS is the only polity of the Mass Effect universe where we know so many leaders : President Kaitlin Cheung (in 2096) ; President Enrique Aguilar (? - 2176) ; President Belknap (2176 - ?) ; and President Christopher Huerta (throughout the entirety of the OT, in all likelihood dead or indoctrinated in 2186).)

Beyond history and politics, here’s everything else that I found about the UNAS :

The single longest and best depiction of life in the UNAS is the comic Mass Effect : Homeworlds #1, perhaps one of the only ME comics worth a damn in my opinion. Most of it takes place in San Diego on the day James Vega enlists in the Alliance military (as it happens, on the very same day the Skyllian Blitz takes place, in 2176).

In the same issue, we also briefly meet the elderly Mrs Stanfield who laments that her “security chip” (presumably implanted) “[has] never worked properly since they installed it”, whereas her “birth chip worked for seventy-three years”. Now, I’m not sure if a) Mrs Stanfield is 73 years old and still uses her birth chip but now recently acquired an additional security chip, or b) Mrs Stanfield had a birth chip from, uh, birth to the age of 73 until it was replaced by a security chip, but it does mean that UNAS citizens had identification chips implanted at birth at the beginning of the 22nd century at the very least. [No idea if the practice is prevalent outside of the Alliance ; the go-to ID in Citadel Space and beyond are identitags, medicards and passports. Birth chips and security chips are not referenced anywhere else.]

We also learn in that issue (seriously, it’s good) that Camp Pendleton, a major US Marines base in California IRL, has shifted to training Alliance marines when James enlists.

In Revelation, we’re told that the Texan Megalopolis is one of the poorest regions of Earth. I don’t know why Karpschyn singled Texas out - maybe because of oil drying up ?

American football and the Super Bowl is still a thing, as are the New York Giants, but now there are alien players, such as Bragus Thul, a krogan quarterback for the Giants. In 2023, Super Bowl LVII (the 57th edition) took place, and in 2185 it was Super Bowl CCXIX (the 219th edition), which entails that the annual Super Bowl game was not postponed even once during the 162-year-long interval.

Baseball, likewise, is still going strong, and both real contemporary teams the Detroit Tigers and the Baltimore Orioles still exist.

Biotiball, meanwhile, is the only non-human game which (to my knowledge) has become popular enough on Earth that several cities in the UNAS have their own teams : the New Orleans Loa, the Seattle Sorcerers, and the Washington Hackers.

…and urban combat is now popular enough that it is reported on on par with major events ; teams include the Edmonton Blood Dragons and the Rhode Island Knights.

Leaving sports aside, the MIT still exists.

And New York still elects a mayor and traditionally celebrates New Year’s Day on Times Square.

Chicago still celebrates Saint Patrick’s Day by dyeing the Chicago river green for the day, though in 2185, when it coincided with Janiris, the river was dyed asari blue.

The Question of Mexico

Interestingly, even though the UNAS include what was once Mexico, the Codex mentions here there is still, as of 2183, a sovereign political entity called Mexico whose currency is the peso, as with present-day, real Mexico. Doylistically, I think we can address this discrepancy if we take into account that the “UNAS” were first mentioned in ME2 (Watson, the Kasumi DLC stuff) and ME1 “Protheans : Mars Ruins” Codex entry clearly says the “United States” established a colony on Mars between 2103 and 2113 - meaning, that at the time of ME1, the writers conceived of the United States and Mexico as separate nations, whereas by ME2, as we saw, they’d decided the United States had stopped existing as an entity by 2096, the year Mexico (and Canada) stopped existing as sovereign polities.

Watsonianly, there is - of course - no explanation (because it’s an oversight), but it should be said that, strictly speaking, both the UNAS (including at least Mexico City) and a sovereign entity called Mexico can exist simultaneously - for example, if during the Second American Civil War or another, later conflict, parts of Mexico successfully seceded and became independent - but that means you have to try and fix canon with your own headcanon spanner.

And that’s it for today !

#Mass Effect #earth #systems alliance #unin #union of incorporated nations #humans #united north american states #second american civil war #Christopher Huerta #Huerta Memorial Hospital #unas #James vega

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