Cities (1983: Doomsday)

In a nuclear war, it is the cities that are going to be the major targets. In order to neutralize the enemy, an offensive would strike at the "control centers" - the major cities, the transportation hubs, and the communication hubs, and of course the military bases. As a result, most of the megalopolises of the northern hemisphere, as well as the three in Australia, were destroyed on September 25th and 26th of 1883. This left surviving cities on four of six inhabited continents in disarray. Population centers shifted as resources were allocated by make-shift governments that by necessity became socialistic in order to manage the crisis.

In the years leading up to the disaster of Doomsday, the United States of America was the major superpower in the world. Second behind it was the United Soviet Socialist States. It was these two superpowers that brought about the world as seen in these pages. With that in mind the lists of largest cities will begin with the most affected continents. The nation of Canada will be included with the USA in the list of the surviving cities of North America.

North America
On Sunday, September 25, 1983, the list of top 50 cities in the United States lost all but one to nuclear bombardment, the city of Toledo, Ohio, had been 40th on that list with a population of about 355,000. Today, as the capital of the Toledo Confederation, it tops the list of largest cities in North America (north of Mexico).

As the list below illustrates, cities in North America saw shifts in urban and rural populations in the attempt to survive. For the most part, cities became self-sufficient for years as the hubs of developing city-states. Some among these became the capital cities of larger confederations - some even calling themselves "nations" in their rebuilding of a new world.

Europe
Whereas North America received the bulk of the missiles fired from the USSR, Europe was hit by both the USSR and the USA as both superpowers neutralized the defense groups known as NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Most of eastern Europe had been under the control of the USSR, and along with the Socialist Republics in the USSR were reduced to scattered cities west of the Aral Mountains. Western Europe was the first to get hit by the missiles launched from Soviet silos and bombers. England and Wells of the UK were especially hard hit, but Spain and France were equally devastated. Berlin, the divided city, was spared due to its being the home to people from both sides of the conflict. It would become united under "new management" of the nation of Prussia as it rose from the ashes of Doomsday.

By recent estimates the top 15 cities by size in Europe are:
 * 1) Berlin, Prussia: over 1,000,000
 * 2) Stockholm, Sweden: 840,000
 * 3) Dublin, Celtic Alliance: 830,000
 * 4) Zagreb, Croatia: 775,000
 * 5) Palermo, Sicily: 655,000
 * 6) Helsinki, Finland: 585,000
 * 7) Skopje, Macedonia: 550,000
 * 8) Gothenburg, Sweden: 510,000
 * 9) Pristina, Serbia: 495,000
 * 10) Genoa, Genoa: 490,000
 * 11) Zurich, Alpine Confederation: 430,000
 * 12) Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania: 380,000
 * 13) Moglev, Belarus: 350,000
 * 14) Poznan, West Poland: 310,000
 * 15) Malmo, Sweden: 295,000