The Fall of Japan and Taiwan. The Korean Unification. The Invasion of the Philippines. I’ve talked to people who lived through all of it. The funny thing is, most of them never even knew it was happening. America had her own domestic difficulties after the American government began to fail. Many State governments collapsed under the dead weight, and the fall of law and order in their own backyards is what most people noticed. But I’ve also talked to people who lived in those other nations when it started. People who came to America as refugees looking for a new home, only to find us in nearly as bad a shape as their homes had been. The difference was that we were far enough from China that we had time to rebuild. And with a whole new pool of Asian refugees to draw workers from, we had the people to do it with. It’s a matter of faith to them that they built the Republic of California. That without them, the entire West Coast would have collapsed into an apocalyptic wasteland of civilization. I’ve played more than a few games that started with that scenario. It’s scary dark, let me tell you.