First Terrean War

The First Terrean War, often abbreviated as 1TW or ITW, officially began with the United Nation's invasion of the Russian Federation and CSTO allies on 28 July 2181 (-83 XTE) and ended with the capitulation of NATO on 14 October 2195 (-69 XTE).

## Timeline

After the unsuccessful Russo-Ukrainian war, both a political and military failure, the Russian Federation sought to reinforce their authority over members of CSTO and make further connections in Asia, South America and Africa to extend their influence. In the early 22nd century, leadership of 16 different nations, (later nicknamed the United Cartel) spearheaded by the Russian Federation, began Operation Snow White. This was series of large-scale propaganda campaigns and infiltrations into government agencies, embassies and consulates in addition to private organizations, with the goal to destabilize NATO and invoke public support for another war. Propaganda was centered around NATO's expanding influence, chiefly over the solar system, criticizing the costly and increasingly common expeditions to Mars and the Moon, and juxtaposing them to the extreme wealth inequality and poverty in third-world nations.

The United Cartel had over 5,000 covert agents working under the United Nations as early as 2140. By 2152, 9 members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) were employees of the Russian Federation. Throughout the 2150s, membership of the UN changed dramatically. Files critical to the Russian Federation and CSTO allies were routinely destroyed. The UN Charter and documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were secretly terminated and replaced.

In 2158, the United States Department of Defense controversially released a statement condemning the United Nations and partially exposing the Russian Federation's plot. Most major members of NATO released similar statements in the following weeks. These were later criticized for coming too early. Due to a lack of coherent information on the plot, western political support for a counter-operation was weak from the beginning. Conspiracy theories dominated the sociopolitical space in the US afterward, with some American politicians claiming it to be a false flag to destabilize relations between the US and Russia, which was initially seen as improving.

In the year 2160, President Filipovic and all chairmembers of the UN officially adopted a constitution and formed the United Nations of Terra, a satellite state of the Russian Federation. For many years it largely consisted of destitute nations impacted by the widespread effects of climate change and economic instability. The first nations to pledge their loyalty to the UN were the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Soon thereafter, they had peacefully annexed much of southeastern Asia. China had initially been neutral, but in 2164 the CCP announced a declaration that the United Nations were enemies of the state and any attempt to threaten the sovereignty of China or it's allies would result in war.

The year 2170 marked a major shift in the political efforts of the United Nations. In India, the opinion on UN rule was split with many citizens supportive while the official government maintained the stance that annexation by the UN was not an option. On the UN-India border, clashes heightened. Widespread protests against the Indian government caused the rapid expansion of UN control over India and their ultimate fall to the nation in 2176. The UN rapidly annexed all of the Central African Republic, which had been weakened by the economic fallout.

Due to the rapid success of the UN's annexations, the secrecy of it's funding from the Russian Federation and CSTO allies quickly became more transparent. Russian oligarchs, principally the regime of the Russian Federation, began losing control of the state in 2179 as information spread across the UN's domain causing widespread revolt. In November of 2179, a coup orchestrated by over a dozen high-ranking military personnel resulted in the expulsion of Russian-affiliated agents. With the formal adoption of a new constitution in February 2180, the UN was officially a sovereign state.

The United States of America, United Kingdom of Great Britain and France declared war on the UN on 28 July 2181. By August 2, 34 of 37 NATO member nations had declared war on the UN. The UN quickly gained ground on the southern front in Brazil, while the war in Europe stagnated. Australia was the first major nation to capitulate. They were at a massive strategic disadvantage with the vast majority of naval forces concentrated in the nearby UN territories of Indonesia and the Philippines and were officially annexed on August 6 after an intense four-day long naval barrage and large scale air raids.

Western Europe maintained a strong eastern front for some time, but naval forces on the west and the growing war in Northern Africa and Spain essentially caused a domino effect in the capitulation of European nations and on October 14, 2195, all of NATO had officially capitulated to the UN. The war had been costly for both sides with an estimated 52 million casualties. In its aftermath, the world was left in disarray, with North America and Western Europe being particularly divided and plagued with instability in the years after. This was a partial cause in the eventual breakout of the Second Terrean War and the ongoing conflicts on Terra.

## Background

### Political and military alliances

Much of the 21st century was a tumultuous time for Europe. With the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine the west, in fear of another world war, quickly began concentrating on expanding NATO influence. This was initially successful and lead to the expansion of the Republic of South Africa and the Republic of the Congo, and is largely cited as a driving force in the reunification of Korea in 2047. However, this was challenged by the Russo-Chinese Front, an alliance which still held a large sphere of influence over southeastern Asia.

The United Nations initially held a public image of simply unifying nations that were damaged by the economic booms of the west caused by the intersolar expansion. During this time they were not necessarily hostile towards the west, but propaganda and recovered documents of the time indicate quite clearly that they planned on using their influence with the Russo-Chinese Front to annex as many nations as possible before turning on them.

In order to isolate Russia, the United Nations was very careful in keeping their alliance with the Chinese, whose leadership would later reluctantly accept an annexation by the United Nations. Despite the UN's efforts to isolate Russia, however, the United Soviet Socialist Republics of Terra (USSRT) formed in 2171. The USSRT quickly secured control over much of eastern Europe and rapidly began closing their borders. This greatly alarmed western nations and is a partial cause of the First Terrean War as tensions between the USSRT, the UN and what would eventually become the NATO continued to rise throughout 2180-81.

## Aftermath

### Formal end of the war

With the signing of the Treaty on Terra on October 14, 2195 in Washington D.C., USA, the war ended. The NATO had capitulated and ceded control of North America and Europe to the UN. Full scale fighting ended shortly thereafter, but skirmishes along the new borders continued for years after, particularly in North America and Cuba where resistance movements were headquartered. The First Terrean War had dramatic consequences for all nations involved. It was a costly war that resulted in the death of 52 million people.

In its aftermath, many small resistance movements formed and quickly began to spread throughout annexed territories as citizens attempted to reclaim their independence from UN rule. This would eventually lead to the outbreak of several wars across Terra between UN forces and rebel factions including what would later become known as the Second Terrean War in 2252 which by some metrics continues today, though the UN no longer has a presence on Terra. Outer colonies in Sol such as Luna and Mars were forced under U.N. rule by the end of the war. The UN rapidly began expanding and settling these outer colonies in an effort to secure them. Luna remained mostly unchanged, while Mars suffered protests and riots. The UN cracked down on these protests with force, which is commonly cited as a cause of the later Marsian War of Independence and Second Terrean War.