Earth, also known as Terra, is the third planet of the Sol system, and one of its four terrestrial worlds. Homeworld of humanity, Earth is the greatest hub of human politics and, technically, still is the capital planet of the dominant superpower, the United Nations. It has always been at the forefront of human history.
Prior to the attack launched by the Free Navy in 16 XTE, Earth was the most populous planet inhabited by humans, hosting approximately thirty billion people. The orbital bombardment left the planet's infrastructure and environment crippled, with many residents, including officials of the UN government, resorting to immediate evacuation.
In the wake of the Interplanetary War, a part of Earth's inhabitants chose to return to the planet and begin the rebuilding process. However, the population remains at a far lower figure than antebellum.
History
Antiquity and medieval ages
Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago, and gave rise to the first single-celled organisms about 3.9 billion years ago. About 200,000 years ago, the ancestors of modern humans, Homo Sapiens, evolved in Africa. Indigenous to Eastern Africa, they gradually spread across the entire planet. Eventually, the humans, originally consisting of groups of hunter-gatherers, began to develop into civilizations. Of these new civilizations, the Roman Empire rose to power and eventually became the world's first documented superpower. However, due to external pressure, the empire divided into two different sovereignties, of which one fell shortly thereafter. The other, which renamed itself to the Byzantine Empire, reigned until 1453.
For the better part of the medieval ages, the Ottoman Empire dominated Eastern Europe, while France, England, Russia, and Spain struggled for control over the rest of Europe and the newly-discovered American continents.
Modern ages
By the year 1914, much of the world was divided into two factions, the Triple Entente, or Allies: the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and later the United States of America, and the Triple Alliance, or Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and other nations of similar ideals. The Central Powers were defeated at the end of World War I in 1918, resulting in a decade of prosperity for the Allies, followed by an economic depression and the rise of Fascism, Nazism, and Communism in many countries. In 1939, another World War erupted, between the Allies (Britain, the Soviet Union, later the United States, and many other nations) and the Axis (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan).
In 1945, the Allies defeated the Axis. Later that year, the victorious nations, in an attempt to prevent more World Wars, founded the United Nations, an international assembly of peaceful nations, whose goal was to settle international disputes peacefully, and was the predecessor to the current, unified UN. In 1957, humanity finally made their way into space with unmanned probes, and by 1961, humans themselves had gone into space. In 1969, humanity had finally stepped on an extraterrestrial surface - Earth's sole moon, Luna.
After World War II, humanity would lack war on that scale, although smaller wars and conflicts erupted, including the Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War, and the first and second Iraq War. In the early 21st century, terrorism became a particular thorn in the side for the nations on Earth and small wars broke out along with civil unrest in many countries. However, no full wars on the same scale as past World Wars erupted until three centuries later.
Interplanetary colonization
By the mid and late 21st century, humanity's national governments, under the auspices of the United Nations, then simply a supranational organization, but with considerable more power since its inception, had begun to establish colonies on the other planets in the Sol system, the most notable of these being Luna and Mars. However, after continuous success and because of the precarious state Earth's ecosystem was due to extended pollution, nations decided to relinquish their national governing rights and make the UN into a global, unified government. Eventually, in the 22nd century, the colonial government that administered humanity's first colony demanded that they be independent. The United Nations, reticent to cede their control over Mars, refused. It was only thanks to Solomon Epstein and his groundbreaking invention, the Epstein drive, that war was avoided. The colonial government offered the UN access to the revolutionary drive in exchange for independence. To avoid Mars having a tactical advantage, the UN agreed.
For the next century and a third, the United Nations and its newly proclaimed rival, the Martian Congressional Republic, often competed over living standards, technology, and military strength. However, no true conflict erupted between the two superpowers, and relations kept a decent level of cordiality. After both nations had access to the drive and were able to mass-produce it, humanity expanded beyond the confines of the inner Sol system and began establishing outposts on asteroids of the Asteroid Belt, such as Eros and Ceres, eventually reaching the moons of the gas giants, such as Io, Ganymede, Europa, and more distant ones, such as Titan and Titania. One outpost in particular, Ganymede, began to gain prominence, having had orbital mirrors constructed to direct sunlight for crop-growing. Prior to the Ganymede incident, the Jovian moon was regarded as the breadbasket of the outer planets.
Until the discovery of the protomolecule roughly eight years prior to the Eros incident, the UN and the MCR remained neutral one towards the other, but continuously oppressed their colonies' inhabitants in the Belt and outer planets. Small insurrections started taking place, but were quickly stifled. This authoritarian process continued, which led to the formation of the Outer Planets Alliance, a multi-movement organization which sought the independence of the Belt and outer planets from Earth. Called 'terrorist' by both Mars and Earth, the organization saw itself opposed by the two superpowers. Eventually, through Tycho Station, Fred Johnson, a former UNN marine, became the OPA's de facto leader and spokesperson.
Around mid-24th century, the Martian government issued a project regarding the exploration and eventual exploitation of Phoebe for raw materials, mostly water. Their finding there prompted Mars to prolong research regarding the Saturnian moon, establishing a decently large laboratory. They sought partnership with Protogen, a megacorporation owned by Jules-Pierre Mao. Ultimately, they concluded that the pathogen found there - in the meantime dubbed the protomolecule, or the 'Phoebe bug' - was extrasolar in origin and must have been implanted there by an alien civilization. The Martian government saw this as an opportunity to finally gain the upper hand over Earth and the UN.
After a series of events involving Julie Mao, the eldest daughter of Jules-Pierre, the protomolecule was let loose on Eros station, killing 100,000 people. The biomass of the victims was absorbed by the alien pathogen, which then began manipulating gravity at the quantum level and launched Eros towards Earth. Hysteria quickly spread through the planet's population, while governmental officials were already evacuating to Luna. Eventually, thanks to former detective Josephus Miller, human extinction on the planet was avoided, with Eros ultimately impacting Venus instead of humanity's homeworld.
A relatively short amount of time later, UNN and MCRN marines were attacked by a human-protomolecule hybrid on Ganymede. The incident on the ground escalated into a full engagement in orbit around the Jovian moon. Thousands of residents lost their homes, while other had to leave the station as refugees to other human settlement across the system. Following the incident, the UN issued a research project regarding Eros' impact crater into Venus. Sensor data indicated the protomolecule's survival and the existence of organic material in an environment capable of melting lead. Eventually, the ship responsible with the crater's analyzing, the Arboghast, attempted a descend to the Venusian surface. The ship was stopped prior to reaching the planetary surface, and then completely disassembled by the protomolecule. The crew was able to withstand Venus' atmospheric composition and pressure only for slightly more than a moment before dying.
The later death of the remaining human-protomolecule hybrids determined the protomolecule to launch a 1,000-km wide Ring two astronomical units outside of Uranus' orbit. The Ring proved to be an artificially sustained traversable wormhole, capable of transporting ships to a hub of other Rings, each leading to a different system. This enlarged humanity's horizons, finally uplifting the species to the interstellar scale.
Interstellar ages and conflicts
Pre-Interplanetary War
The United Nations sent multiple probes to other systems, pursuing the existence of a habitable planet for humanity to colonize. Eventually, Ilus was found to be a suitable candidate. Unbeknownst to Earth's government, the planet was already populated by Ganymede refugees. The UN gave the rights of colonization and exploitation to the Royal Charter Energy, but the company was unsuccessful. It took James Holden and his crew's methods for the situation to come to a resolve.
Following the colonization of Ilus, the United Nations began sending multiple colony ships through the wormhole gates to colonize other planets in other systems. In a relatively short period of time, humanity had a decend number of interstellar colonies, having expanded more in a decade than it did in two hundred years. Prior to the ignition of the Interplanetary War, the colonies, Earth, and Mars had a relatively tensionless relationship.
Post-Interplanetary War
Roughly a decade after the Eros incident, a radical group known as the Free Navy, led by Marco Inaros, who, in turn, received commands from Winston Duarte, launched an offensive on humanity's homeworld. Before the UN and its allies could repel the invading fleet, Earth was left crippled, with more than 20% of its population dead in the attack, and the rest evacuated off-planet. This was the commencing act of the deadliest war humanity would come to see, the Interplanetary War. Eventually, the Free Navy was defeated, leaving the Consolidated Fleet victorious, but at costs deemed not worth perceiving. Even after the war, only a few of Earth's initial residents returned to the planet, with most leaving for other systems.
Living standards
Pre-bombardment
In the 24th century, prior to the planetary bombardment the planet would face in the Interplanetary War, Earth faced extreme scarcity and relied heavily on resources provided from the Belt to run its global economy. The combined population of Earth and its colonies stood at 31 billion citizens, and there were far more people than available jobs.
Anyone who could not apply for a job had the option of either enrolling into a governmental educational institution (commonly abbreviated as GEI), or living off of the UN welfare system known as Basic Assistance. Over half of Earth's population lived on Basic.
When an individual applied to a government educational institution, that individual was required to have a minimum of one year's worth of work credits in order to apply. This was mandatory to ensure that classroom space is not wasted on individuals without work discipline and lack of ambition.
Melting of the polar ice caps had led to a significant rise in sea level.
Post-bombardment
to right of the section title.Locations
New York City, United States, North America
New York City, commonly abbreviated as NYC, is the federal capital of the United Nations and hosts the nation's government and military center.
Before the global unification, New York served as the United Nations' (then a supranational organization) headquarters.
The Hague, The Netherlands, Europe
The Hague is the headquarter of the UN administration and is the principal nucleus of the judicial branch.
