United Nations Interstellar Protectorate

## Flag

The **United Nations Interstellar Protectorate** ( **Abbr.**  ***UNIP; IP***), also referred to simply as the **Protectorate** or the **United Nations** ( **Abbr.**  ***UN***), is a sovereign interstellar colonial empire that spreads across a hundred-light-year bubble of human-inhabited space outwards from Sol. The unified human state is the direct successor of the intergovernmental organization founded in 1945, after World War II, which gradually evolved its mandate, stripping national governments of their prominence on the world (and later interstellar) stage to the point where it held sovereignty over all of humanity.

## History

### Inception

The idea of a United Nations system of global governance began in 1920 after the end of World War I. The brainchild of American President Woodrow Wilson, the purpose of the League of Nations was to spark economic development and to keep the peace after the destruction of the war. However, this organization would soon collapse without the support of the United States Congress and growing tensions caused by the Great Depression of the early 1930s. Its ultimate downfall came with World War II, which the League was completely unable to prevent.

The concept, however, had not been discredited: in 1941 when US President Franklin D. Roosevelt named the Allies the "United Nations", with the name being kept after after the Second World War's end as a peacekeeping organization comprised of the members of the military alliance. This was a significant time in human history, as it sparked growing tensions between the two superpowers of the time, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which would lead to the space race and the development of many advanced technologies as part of a technological arms race. Had humanity not endured the Cold War, it is likely that humanity would have been even less prepared for the interstellar ages.

The UN began as an international organization that described itself as a "global association of governments facilitating co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, and social equity." It was founded officially on June 26, 1945 after the end of the Second World War at the signing of the United Nations Charter by 51 countries, replacing the previous "League of Nations."

### Unified government

By mid and late 21st century, near–lightspeed prototype engines, possible because of unexpected gargantuan breakthroughs in quantum physics, were in the process of being built by Earth's most technologically advanced nations. Soon, the first colony ships would leave the Solar System and head out to colonize worlds around stars in the interstellar neighborhood. One of these worlds was Harlan's World, colonized circa 2150, a planet roughly 80 light–years from humanity's home planet. Another one of these worlds was Latimer, a planet predominantly inhabited by Asian colonists. To combat the problems individual national governance over colony planets would give birth to, the United Nations gradually evolved its mandate, overshadowing nation–states to the point that they existed solely as *de facto* administrative divisions of the UN. Following more than a hundred years of continuous expansion, the United Nations Interstellar Protectorate was founded.

### Rebellion

Some sort of anti–UN sentiment began arising in the hearts of several inhabitants within the UN. Eventually, an elite–soldier group was formed, the Envoys, dedicated solely to bringing down the UN and ending the cortical stacks. However, they were unsuccessful in their endeavor and, eventually, all of them were either eradicated or their stacks imprisoned on ice. Thus, the unified government endured and rules over humanity to this day.

## Trivia

* Currently, as of 2020, the UN is effectively directed by the Secretary–General. In *Altered Carbon*, however, the government has transitioned to a presidential system.