Overview of World War IV (Neo-British Imperium)

Following the discovery of QCI theory by Benjamin Eyrie, energy production was revolutionized. Antimatter could be drawn from parallel universes and used to produce enormous amounts of power. While not unlimited, the amount of energy that could be generated was enough for the construction of practical interplanetary spacecraft. Solar System General, Inc., was a large corporation that aided in the colonization of planets and asteroids. Following the discovery of vast amounts of copper, iron, titanium, various ores and minerals, as well as many varieties of rare Earth metals in the worlds of the solar system, interplanetary trade became a booming activity.

Europe, America, and the Nigerian Empire were the only nations left in the 2090s (for an explanation, see http://future.wikia.com/wiki/The_Three-Sided_Cold_War ). Control over the Interplanetary mines and trade routes led to an extremely costly and bloody conflict between the three superpowers that culminated in the Treaty of Lagos in 2112, which left the entire Solar System in the power of Nigeria. The Nigerian Star Empire (a somewhat confusing title, as it was an interplanetary, not an interstellar, government) ruled the worlds for over a century.

Science of the Twenty-First Century
To understand this conflict it is essential to be aware of the state of science and technology at the time. During the 2050s, at the height of the Three-Sided Cold War, a theoretical physicist named Eyrie formulated a multiverse theory which involved parallel universes (for a real-world perspective on this, see http://www.qciphysics.com/index.html ). In these different universes, it seemed, the laws of conservation of matter and energy could be violated. This effect became more pronounced at higher energies. In the 2060s, Eyrie developed a machine that could transport stationary particles between these different universes. By 2070, he had developed an apparatus that could generate energy, by transporting stationary positrons to an adjacent universe, accelerating them with a strong electric field to high energies, and violating conservation of matter by taking advantage of the different laws of physics in the different realities. Thus, by generating antimatter from "nothing", he had developed essentially a free energy machine. The amount of power that it could produce was not unlimited, but exceptionately large and for a cheaper economic cost than fossil fuel or nuclear energy.

It should be noted that, at this time, computer science had already reached its limit. With the advent of atom-sized transistors in 2025, Moore's law had hit a wall; attempts to produce more powerful quantum computers were to no avail.

Space Travel and the Great Migrations
By the year 2080, QCI power was widely used, already displacing fusion and solar-microwave as the primary source of energy. A 10-Gigawatt QCI plant cost less than 1 billion USD, compared to higher prices for other power sources. The next application was to be Interplanetary transit; while colonies in the hundreds of thousands had already been established on the Inner Planets, various moons and some asteroids, any trade was far too costly due to the nature of fuel. Solar System General, Inc., was the first corporation to adopt QCI power for the purpose of space travel. The discovery of vast amounts of iron, copper, nickel, zinc, various other metal ores, a large variety of minerals and rare earth materials throughout the System encouraged colonization. By 2085, millions of poor laborors were flocking to Mars to work in the Mines; by 2095, the population outside Earth was greater than the population on Earth. The control and taxation of this enormously profitable trade led to significant conflict between America, Europe, and the Nigerian Empire.

The War Itself
The Asteroid Belt was perhaps at the heart of the conflict. The area contained a large amount of extremely valuable metals and minerals, but administration was extremely complicated due to conflicting colonial claims and the sheer number of astronomical bodies. In 2098, the American Colonial Administration cited the large, 123 km asteroid AR-234 as having a large amount of potential Niobium, a valuable element, useful for superconductors and speciality steels. The agency also noted a significant amount of potential Rare Earth Metals, in high demand due to the booming electronics industry. The body was to be colonized by 2100. However, in 2099 a Nigerian mining and colonization vessel set up operations on the asteroid, bringing nearly twenty thousand workers to the new mining sites over a four-month period. American authorities demanded that the Nigerians turn over administration to the US, but the African Empire refused. The destruction of the Nigerian colony by an American military vessel, causing thousands of civilian casualties, initiated the war. On September 8, 2099, the EU declared war on both America and Nigeria for failing to recognize its own claims on the asteroid.

Due to the mutual, triple sided nature of the war, conflict was long and extremely deadly. The conquering of Mars by Nigeria in 2108, coupled with its successful invasion of Mercury in 2109, brought victory close to Africa. After the Sieges of New York and Brussels, US and EU both signed over sovereignty to Nigeria. Thus, the Nigerian Star Empire was born, controlling the solar system until the 2202 collapse.