United Republic of North America

The United Republic of North America was a former country in the 22nd century and now a current administrated territory of the Unified Earth Government. A political and societal union of the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico, the URNA adopted many cultural aspects and the global prestige held by its absorbed member nations-turned-districts.

During its reign before its absorbance and reorganization under the UEG and the UNSC, the United Republic was considered a global superpower and a dominating figure in world politics. Hosting a population of over half a billion people and the world's largest, singular landmass - the URNA was a stabilized and significant nation of the later 21st century and 22nd century.

Historical Significance
When a nation reaches maximum potential capability, becoming something akin to a globally-spanning empire, it's hard for a nation to go anywhere further. Instead, the historical tendency commonly ends with a violent collapse or explosion followed by a gradual evolution into the next influential state rises to take its place as the former power is forced to recede, becoming a part of the wholesome history of Mankind.

The United States entered this stage somewhere in the twentieth century but instead became part of the groundwork for another global power, though only briefly as the era of nations and the singularity of Earth approached its end.

In the 21st century, trends of technology entered a period of rapid expansion driven by the close networking of nations and the worldwide net. Technology and information flowed freely and gifted the world with rapid technological advancement into the development of cyborgs, artificial intelligence, alternative fuels, and space-faring technology in its infancy.

It was this rapid advancement that also forced the United States of America to enter a period of chaotic collapse. From this chaos, involvements in military action abroad and in Mexico eventually created circumstances for a union with neighboring Canada and the war-burdened Mexico. Thus, from this period of chaos in the late 21st century, the URNA or simply the "United Republic" was birthed.

National Ideology
"A nation birthed from the misgivings and flaws of a formerly robust system unable to tank the threats and issues of the modern era, the states that came before were forced to adapt and thus, a new union was born. We know we've all faced hardship - every generation of Mankind has seen their great battle and now we have seen ours. We may have been three different nations once, but now we are one - a nation where our diversity is a strength, not a weakness. We are not of one body or mind, but from here on out - we share the same heart."

- Anonymous URNA senator addressing the new nation.

Non-state Actor Threats
One aspect of the 21st century, was the designation of that century as the Information Era. Unprecedented and mostly unexpected, it became a point in human history where the aspects of society shifted greatly.

There was the establishment of a worldwide communications network and a global economy based on interconnected nations and heavily reliant trade routes. It promoted diplomacy over war and helped set the groundwork for greater unity of nations and later the establishment of the Unified Earth Government. But there was a long time between then and there.

The downside of the Information Era was the promotion of so called, "non-state actors." Depending on the situation, a threat, but the 21st century promoted the rise in their influence, number, and power.

Multinational corporations. Terrorist organizations. Faceless activist groups. Drug cartels. Organized crime syndicates. Online cult groups. These organizations were present during the most of modern history, however, from the 21st century onward, they were to become an integral part of human society, with the influence and prolific appearance to challenge the normally exclusive strength of nations as exclusive unions.

The United States of America saw an unprecedented rise in these sort of groups and spent much of its last century chasing after these groups, even if they were more shadows than anything else. The events of the Middle-eastern Forever War, Global War on Terror, the Korean Unification Crisis, and the anti-cartel operations in South America.

The United Republic and the Unified Earth Government would continue to deal with these kinds of threats centuries later but on an entirely different level. When centuries changed, so did the players.

Second Border Crisis
(Mexican-American Border Clash) (Mexican Annexation) (Global Warming)

The American Election Crisis
(Election Hacking Spree) (Government Freeze) (Maritial Law - Economic Collapse) (A Union Divided - Mini Countries)

A Nation Stagnates
"A hundred thousand years ago, a great civilization existed in this universe. Like all great civilizations, they faced a sudden and dire turn of events. A threat to their primacy from outside. Something they never expected, never prepared for."

- The Human AI, Cortana, lamenting the end of the Forerunner Ecuneme - a workable comparison to the collapse of the United States and the formation of the United Republic.

(Canada Annexes America) (Reorganization) (Mini Nations Annexation) (Unity Movement)

New Phoenix Incident
Five years after the end of the Human-Covenant War, in the summer of 2558, the United Republic city of New Phoenix was attacked by forces aligned with the rogue forerunner, the Ur-Didact.

Previously awoken through false pretenses by Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, the Didact, a former Forerunner warlord and Ecuneme leader, took advantage of his new found freedom from his eon of lonely slumber within the Forerunner shield world known as Requiem.



Ensuing casualties were taken by the UNSC Infinity crew when the ship was hijacked by the Didact's forces, having tracked the Master Chief's distress call. In the chaos, the Didact acquired his customary military vessel, the Mantle's Approach, and made a slipstream transit to Earth following a detour to Halo Installation 03 to acquire the Composer artifact.

Following his arrival within the Earth's orbit and well within the planet's defense grid, the Didact temporarily engaged the UNSC Home Fleet and defense platforms before retrieving a target solution for a designated population center, the city of New Phoenix.

Using the Composer, the Didact compose-collected the six million residents of the city in an attempt to develop more Promethean combat drones from the human essences. He would ultimately fail to see his plan to fruition, dying at the hands of a avenging John-117. The six million individuals however, had already been composed and officially dead - leaving only dust and questions to their sudden disappearance.



The Mantle's Approach would succumb to the the detonation of a HAVOK-class portable nuclear device, initiated by John-117. Following the New Phoenix Incident, only the URNA National Guard first respondents and select members in the UNSC HIGHCOM with required security clearance were privy to details on the true nature of the attack.

The public was misguided, informed instead of a biological weapon deployment occurrence in New Phoenix, one ONI Public Relations officer, Michael Sullivan, would further confirm that the incident was no a Covenant attack. Prevailing theories suggested by public reception mostly suggests consensus on either a Insurrectionist group or a Covenant fringe group holding responsibility though the UEG never publicly identified a culprit. The city would be quarantined off for six months for study by ONI and other science and intelligence organizations.

Surviving residents of New Phoenix like Spartan Gabriel Thorne only returned to a quiet, lifeless husk of a city after the quarantine ordnance had been lifted. At present, the true events of the Didact's attack remain top secret.

Since the quarantine ended, the population of New Phoenix stabilized to a few thousand people, most potential residents chased away by prospects of living in a graveyard and ghost-town. Trade and society in the United Republic have returned to normal, mostly. The loss of the entire population of the URNA's fourth largest city was a grievous hit to the district economy and the Houston Economic Zone has retaken its position as the URNA's fourth largest city with a population of 5.8 million residents.

Even compared to the Human-Covenant War, the URNA had never suffered an attack of a magnitude like this. Between losses taken from Covenant invasions and several terrorist attacks since the end of the Great War, nothing compared to the New Phoenix Incident - the closest casualty rate on URNA soil was achieved only over the course of years in a few other events. The American-pox trend during the post-Colombian Exchange and the two civil disputes fought by the US in 1861 and another in 20XX.



While distant, some eyewitnesses in the neighboring city of Tuscon, Arizona reported a large, orange beam striking from the sky,though hazy. The official explanation has been chalked up as just more desert lights by just about everyone except hardcore conspiracy theorists. From the ground, the Didact's ship notably appeared as a simple silvery star in the night sky during the incident.

There is currently legislation being examined by the URNA Congress into drafting the incident's day-of-occurrence as a time of mourning and a national holiday for resemblance.

Notable Residents
A former Project Orion volunteer and Sergeant Major in the UNSC Marine Corps, Avery Johnson was born in the Greater Chicago Industrial Zone. While not a major figure in the Human-Covenant War, he played a major role in multiple battles including the final moments in the war when he gave his life to see the deployment of a Halo installation to end the Flood. He was often seen in close proximity to John-117, the SPARTAN-II. Sergeant Johnson himself went under experimental augmentations with Project Orion that made him of similar capabilities as that of Spartans. One of the most prolific military commanders from the early Human-Covenant War, Preston Cole was deemed a prodigy from an early age, born in the URNA province of Missouri. He spent a good deal of his life commanding the UNSC Navy as an officer during the Insurrections and later as an admiral during the Human-Covenant War. His life story has become something of a legendary myth both in the military and civilian spheres. Many half-victories against the Covenant have been associated to his brilliance and military success, though somewhat controversial in later years. A former UNSC Army Sergeant from New Phoenix, Arizona, Gabriel Thorne would be recruited into the newly established Spartan branch somewhere between 2553 and 2558. Following the New Phoenix Incident that ended with the complete digital-composing of his family and the entire population of New Phoenix, Thorne would deploy with his Spartan team to the Forerunner shield world of Requiem. Involved heavily in the Requiem campaign against the forces of the Covenant Remnant, Thorne would show talent as a Spartan and team leader that would eventually lead to his commandeering the command of his own Fireteam Majestic following the death of the previous team lead, Paul DeMarco. Gabriel Thorne's major motivation of service was driven by the hope for answers to the deaths of his family. The famed writer of the novel, A Soldier's Tale: The Rainforest Wars, Jeremiah Mendez served as a URNA Marine Corps Captain in the Rainforest Wars and the Interplanetary War. He lived long enough to see the reorganization of the Earth nations and the birth of the UNSC under the Castillo Treaty. His biography would become a cult classic among military folk in the centuries that followed. His supposed descendant, Franklin Mendez - a famous Spartan trainer was known to carry the biography on his person often as a personal memento to his life in the military.
 * Sergeant Major Avery Junior Johnson (2400s-2552)
 * Vice Admiral Preston Jeremiah Cole (2470-2543)
 * Spartan Gabriel Thorne (2534-Present)
 * Captain Jeremiah Mendez (21XX-22XX)

National Holiday Calendar

 * New Year's Day (Jan. 1st)
 * Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan.15th)
 * Legacy Day (Feb. 20th)
 * Easter Sunday (April)
 * Good Friday (Apr. 14th)
 * Cinco de Mayo (May 5th)
 * Nation Week (Jun. 1st-7th)
 * Labor Day (Sep. 3rd)
 * Day of the Dead (Oct. 3rd)
 * Dia de la Raza (Oct. 9th)
 * Remembrance Day (Nov. 12th)
 * Thanksgiving (Nov. 22nd)
 * Christmas Day (Dec. 25th)

District Distribution
While the transformation of the United States of America, the Dominion of Canada, and the Federation of Mexico into the United Republic of North America was not a truly peaceful transition, it was one that ultimately proved to be a successful one.

With the complete landmass of the North American continent under one flag, the nation had become the largest country by landmass and earmarked itself as one of the largest by population - only falling behind the historically crowded nations of China, India, and the European Union.



Attempting to govern the world's single largest governed landmass with a population numbering more than half a billion, they developed a tertiary state system of government to fill the apparatus between state and federal government, referred to as "districts."

Districts served as secondary apparatus for governing based on population size. Managed by assemblymen from each state or province in a district, they simply served as representatives of their state government and their interests. Established with an intent of information and agenda sharing, districts were managed by district assemblies to manage affairs in the different regions of the country. To promote the autonomy of states from the federal government, the districts were created as a meeting point for states to discuss their interests and agendas without involving higher level officials.

While the United Republic was a federation in practice, it maintained a strong belief in state and local autonomy similar to its predecessors. Districts held no official power politically, but, served as venues to discuss policy and to discuss jurisdiction when the population size and bureaucratic overreach among all the government facilities got to be too much.

First established to maintain some autonomy between the absorbed nations, districts eventually evolved into regional bodies instead of the autonomy seen with the early incarnation of the European Union. The old European system was deemed too open-ended and inefficient but taking away the autonomy of the old nations of the US, Canada, and Mexico would create too much infighting and dissatisfaction between the citizens who still continued to maintain a high degree of national loyalty.

First implemented based on national capitals, then transferred to rule of population size. Major district capitals include the Greater Chicago Industrial Zone, the Greater New York/Ottawa District, the Greater California Coastal District, the Greater Mexico City Industrial Zone, the Houston Economic Zone, and the Vancouver Coastal District. Interchangeable names of the group include districts, zones, and regions.



State and locale governments still maintain their previous level of autonomy before the reorganization into the United Republic of North America. At the point of reorganization under the creation of the Unified Earth Government in 2170, the states and provinces from its absorbed predecessors were still intact.


 * Canada — Ten provinces and three territories.
 * Mexico — Thirty-one states and one federal district.
 * United States — Fifty-one states, fifteen territories, and one federal district.

Military Capabilities
One of the defining features of the United Republic of North America was its military prowess, before its inception, during the Interplanetary War, and as a UEG province in Earth.

Before the late 21st century, the URNA's predecessor, the United States, maintained the world's most expensive and experienced military fighting force on the planet. A direct legacy from World War Two - the US maintained its military might to supplement the receding British Empire and to counter the rising strength of the Soviet Union. This continued till the nation's collapse.



The URNA would continue to maintain the same military prestige set by the United States. While not the largest military, the United Republic boasted a highly experienced combat force directly acquired from the United States. Boasting a 12-carrier navy, the United States was synonymous with the Carrier Battle Group - a military standard maintained for five centuries and counting as similar to the URNA, the UNSC would gain much of its modern military doctrine from lessons learned from the United States.

In the later 21st century and early 22nd century, the United Republic played a key role in maintaining security as part of the early UNSC and as a major transportation method for UN peacekeeping forces.

The United Republic maintained five military branches; an active Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The space forces of thr URNA continued to be maintained under the Department of the Air Force.

During the Interplanetary War, a good chunk of military forces for UN forces were rerouted military troops from the URNA.

Before the restructuring in 2170 under the Castillo Treaty, the United Republic maintained a military force of 1.8 million active troops and another 1.0 million reserve troops, an uptick from its combined total of its predecessors but still not a comparable match to the number maintained by other regional powers.

In the modern era, the URNA is no longer an autonomous country but it plays host to a number of military bases and was witness to Covenant invasion in 2552.

Installations
The United Republic, similar to the American military before its establishment, maintained military bases across Earth and throughout the Sol System to sustain and to maintain their influence.

Many of the legacy installations maintained by the United States saw continued operation under the United Republic. Some were sacrificed in the chaos of the American collapse but the majority of installations were maintained and secured. In many ways, while the United States faltered - its military presence and most prolific diplomatic force never wavered.

Over 800 overseas bases were operated by the United States in seventy sovereign nations - similar to the Portuguese Empire's method of power projection - the United States and later, the United Republic favored a "trade port empire," establishing bases in key trade cities and important geographical locations. About sixty major American bases were seceded back to their national owners or were acquired by rival powers in disputed spheres of influence.

Notable examples of this trade of bases include the seizure of the Guantanamo Bay naval installation in Cuba - the base was later operated by the Russian Federation and Cuba through a security treaty. Other such scenarios include the similar shift in political relation between Japan and the United States during its collapse. US bases were gradually depopulated and returned to ownership of the Japanese government as the Japanese sought to expand their military power and political strength in the face of a hesitant China suffering from economic struggles whereas Japan had come out strong following its major involvement in the Korean Unification Crisis. While still allies with the later United Republic, similar to the Unified Korea in this case, Japan sought further self-determination in its power projection and political influence - this involved providing for its own defense and establishing its own political sphere of influence that came to rival China in the beginning of the 22nd century.



With the falter of the United States, the ability for other nations to take advantage of the power vacuum was notably exploited, both by formal allies and adversaries. The proliferation of nuclear weapons became more common at the end of the 21st century, following the US collapse.

In any case, the United Republic managed to retain much of its military dominance in the 22nd century, though its hiccup and transformation promoted drastic political change on Earth.