Kharn said:
That's not right, Baboon. The Fallout timeline only follows our timeline until WW II, after that it diverges. We know that China probably continued to be communist rather than turning centrist.
It's a completely different universe. Current facts for the most part can be used for speculation, but they'll often diverge. I know you might like it more if it diverges at 1992, but it simply doesn't, it diverges at WW II. You said yourself the space race never occured, which is a pre-1992 divergence.
China was said to be communist, and that's how it is in our world too. China is about as communist as the US, but it's still
called communist. We're probably talking about two Chinas that are roughly identical here, even though the Fallout one might be slightly more powerful.
Of course the post-WW2 events are different, but the divergence doesn't have to be very significant. The Cold war was a result not only of WW2, but the historical events before that, such as colonialism. A cold war was pretty much inevitable after WW2. The question is who the major players were. Like: "Who defeated Hitler?"
The space race never occurring is not equal to the Cold war never occurring. It never occurring though was probably due to the Soviet Union not being one of the victors after WW2, maybe it was defeated by Hitler and then liberated itself after the Americans liberated all of Europe. The only probable consequence this had for the world of Fallout was the lack of miniaturization in computers. I still think 1992 is a major date.
Maybe Europe bombed the States.
Very unlikely that they started it. I think Europe ended up bombing each other and everyone else when the first planes were in the air.
Pakistan being oil rich doesn't really matter for the political situation
I think it does. The war was named the "Resource war" for a reason. Pakistan needed the oil as much as the EC did, so I'm not surprised if they joined in. Also because they didn't like the idea of having the EC as neighbors, in case they won (wars in the fallout world seem to be of conquest).
where does that leave the US?
This is thoroughly detailed in the Fallout canon. They started an extreme isolationist policy, focusing everything on their own continent (i.e taking over Mexican oilfields and later annexing Canada). They probably aided the EC indirectly in the Resource war , but barely, being self-sufficient thanks to the Alaskan oil reserves.
It wasn't until China invaded Alaska in 2066 that they woke up, resulting in the end of civilization 11 years later. China probably dropped the bombs first, as a sign of desperation, because their resources were stretched thin, and the US Army was winning the war in mainland China, due to the new power armor, something the Chinese couldn't truly rival.
The EC, USSR and Middle East were probably a mess at this point, unable to do anything but send their own planes and enjoy the holocaust.
The Great war resulted from a runaway energy crisis, something that doesn't strike me as neither odd nor unrealistic.
