United States of the North Atlantic

11.2% Asian

0.8% Native American

0.1% Pacific Islander

20.5% Multiracial

3.6% Other

2.9% Other

The **United States of the North Atlantic (USNA)**, commonly known as the **United States (US)** or **America**, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 68 states, a federal district, four major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. It is the world's largest country by both land and total area. It shares only a single land border with Mexico, and has maritime borders with Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of 437 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is the Northeastern Megalopolis, commonly referred to as the East Coast or the Big Apple.

The United States Government is a federal republic with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. It is a liberal democracy and has a market economy. It ranks very high in international measures of quality of life, income and wealth, economic competitiveness, human rights, innovation, and education; it has low levels of perceived corruption. The United States has the highest median income per person of any polity in the world, although it has high levels of incarceration and inequality. As a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, the USNA has been shaped by centuries of immigration.

The United States is a highly developed country, and its economy accounts for approximately a tenth of global GDP and is the world's second largest by GDP at market exchange rates. By value, the United States is the world's largest importer and second largest exporter. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

## History

### **Post-Cold War Era (1988 - 2020)**

With Soviet revitalization in the early 1980's cementing the nation's status as the world's second superpower for the rest of the twentieth century, response to communist movements worldwide continued to play a key role in United States foreign policy, especially given President Reagan's continued hostility towards the Soviets. Indeed, foreign policy became one of the most important policy debates throughout the 1988 presidential election, with Republican candidate George Bush promoting a hardline stance similar to that of his predecessor, and Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis promoting a stance of detente.

With the American public's interest shifting to domestic affairs rather than continuing to engage in the Cold War, the 1988 elections ended in an upset, with Michael Dukakis carrying both the electoral college vote and the popular vote. Americans were pleased with Dukakis' actions throughout his first term, particularly with the Stockholm Summits of 1989 which many consider the formal end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Disarmament agreements were signed, in which both nations agreed to limit their nuclear arms stockpiles to a thousand warheads each, and continued plans for cooperation in space were reached.

With international relations on a more peaceful trend, the Dukakis administration also made the decision to cut defense spending by as much as twenty percent in 1990, and contributed most of that money towards paying off the national debt instead. As much as three percent of that figure was also allocated to NASA, who had gone through numerous budget deficits in their efforts to succeed with the Space Shuttle program. The program was eventually cancelled in 1990, however, and a return to expendable launch vehicles was marked by the 1991 launch of the Demonstrative Core Module (DCM) via the Saturn V rocket. Continued use of the Saturn line of rockets was seen up until the 2000's, after which, the Standard Launch Vehicle program was completed and the SLV line of partially-reusable rockets emerged as the United States' foremost launch vehicle.

With Dukakis' popularity still at a high point given his successes in negotiating with the Soviet Union, he won his re-election bid in 1992 and continued the policies of budgetary restraint and cooperative foreign policy that made his first term so successful. However, growing media attention towards liberal movements in the Soviet bloc and China contributed to a partial return to Cold War rhetoric of anti-communism amongst the American public. The growing influence of China in the world economy also contributed to public tension, and eventually the Dukakis administration was forced to pull-back on some of their campaign promises aimed at decreasing defense spending even further. Efforts were even made by the Republicans in congress to pioneer a new defense program in space aimed towards missile interception, however, plans for this program never materialized.

The militarization of space would eventually become an inevitability, however, with the return of American astronauts to the Moon in 2012, aboard the Artemis VII mission. With Artemis Station completed in orbit of the Moon from 2007 to 2010, and the New Jamestown Habitation Core landed in 2011, all that was required of the Artemis VII astronauts was to land and kick New Jamestown into full operation. Concerns of Soviet and Chinese interference in American activities on the Moon emerged after the construction of a permanent Soviet base in 2014, however, and the landing of the Chinese rover Yutu-2 in 2015. These concerns motivated the United States to found the Space Force, whose earliest guardians were posted at New Jamestown in 2017.

### **Multipolar Era (2020 - 2050)**

With the emergence of China as the world's third superpower by 2020, the United States entered the multipolar age, sharing its status with multiple powers for the first time since the Second World War. Sensationalist media corporations were quick to launch fear campaigns once the Chinese economy overtook the American economy in GDP, and their effect was felt immediately. A record percentage of Americans polled in 2022 that they were concerned about a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan or South Korea, and as such, military spending was increased to as high as seven-hundred billion dollars in 2023. Domestic concerns were generally put aside as the Second Cold War emerged between the United States and China, and an intensified space race concluded in the first humans landing on Mars in 2025, as part of the United States' Helios program.

### **Stagnant Age (2050 - 2080)**

##### **Free States Movement (2058 - 2079)**

One of the most important social movements that emerged as a response to the general stagnation of American society was the Free States Movement, pioneered by the Secessionist Party of California and its leader, Harrison Assante. Founded in 2058, the secessionists called into question the federal government's numerous bailouts of large American corporations throughout the Mid-Century Recession, and questioned corporate influence on Washington in general. In particular, they propagated contemporary theories alleging that American president Holland Carvallo won the 2052 election through corporate-backed voter fraud in the state of Florida.

These secessionist ideals appealed to many lower-class citizens throughout the growing megacities of the West Coast, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Phoenix. Growing sentiments that the western states would be better off without federal oversight only increased throughout the recession, and the Free States Movement gave disgruntled workers a platform from which to voice their opinions. The movement eventually came to encompass the New Republic of Texas movement and the Free Hawaii movement as well, only serving to embolden the secessionist bloc within congress.

This bloc campaigned for the creation of an independent election commission in the lead-up to the 2060 presidential elections, and sought to bring an end to corporate lobbying. These efforts were impeded by President Carvallo and the Democratic Party, however, and the 2060 elections ended with the victory of Carvallo's Democrat successor, Yvonne Lowe. Outraged by these elections they accused as being fraudulent, the secessionist bloc of congress spent the next two years attempting to impeach and remove President Lowe, before coming to the conclusion that rebellion was the only path forwards. California was the first state to secede from the union on the 17th of August, 2062. Texas followed the next day, with Alaska, Nevada, and Hawaii following on the 19th. Some cities throughout the western states attempted to leave their states once secession movements failed in state legislatures as well, including Seattle, Portland, Phoenix, Tucson, and Tacoma.

In the direct aftermath, the federal government of the United States refused to recognize the independence of the Free States, but did not attempt to engage in open warfare. Economically, the Free States and the rest of the United States remained intricately intertwined as well, with only the state of Texas having truly moved towards economic independence by 2070. Tense relations worsened after border skirmishes in 2071, however, leading to the adoption of independent currencies by most of the Free States such as the Californian Dollar, the Nevadan Chip, and the Alaskan Bond. The adoption of these currencies and their interconnection with the growing Digital Yuan of China all served to decrease the use, value, and influence of the US Dollar on the international market as well, and contributed to the Valuation Crisis of 2079 and the collapse of American insurance companies.

After more than a decade of semi-autonomous rule among the western states, the federal government finally consented to negotiations in 2074, with Washington accepting the inevitability of the the Digital Yuan's overtaking of the US Dollar's value and attempting to mitigate the effects of such an event through reintegration of the Free States. Alaska was the first of the Free States to reintegrate, incentivized heavily given the unionization of the United States and Canada in 2075 and the newfound ease of transportation. Nevada and California followed in 2076, though both secured self-governance rights, and to this day remain some of the most deregulated states in the USNA. Texas consented to reintegration in 2079, under similar terms. It would take the devastation of the First Corporate War to motivate Hawaii to reintegrate with the rest of the United States in 2087, however, with Hawaii securing no special rights when compared to the rest of the American states.