World War III (Caroline Era)

World War III was a brief but devastating incident beginning on 3rd March, 1995 and finishing on 13th March, 1995 with two "minor" nuclear exchanges in Asia and North Africa. There were millions of immediate deaths and millions more in the following months and years. Death and illness continues.

Prelude
In the early Caroline Era, the United States, Soviet Union, China and associated power blocs tied underwent a series of negotiations which tied them into reducing their nuclear arsenals somewhat. Although this reduced the risk of nuclear war between them, a number of nations were not included in these treaties but were nonetheless under the influence of one or other power bloc, and the now more surreptitious enmity between the superpowers was then expressed through the secret development of nuclear weapons.

It had been found that Israel had enough plutonium for about 150 nuclear weapons, and this seems to have provoked other Arab countries to manufacture their own, but nothing was revealed officially.

By the start of the second decade of the era, there were a number of potential flashpoints around the world, notably in the Koreas, between India and Pakistan and between Israel and its neighbouring nations. Israel claimed land in adjacent territories including the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and Jordan.

In February 1995, six Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Sa`udi Arabia and the Lebanon) issued an ultimatum to Israel that unless it withdrew from the territories concerned by 2nd March, a joint invasion would be mounted.

Demonstrations broke out in the developed world and a general strike began to be organised in several European countries and Canada. The authorities in these countries responded by imposing a state of emergency and martial law, and arresting and incarcerating a number of groups, including trade unionists, members of the peace movement, activists in a number of minority political parties and people involved in various pressure groups.

Despite diplomatic efforts, this occurred and Israel was invaded on 2nd March, leading to a mass exodus from Israel though many still remained. The Israeli government gave the troops two days to withdraw without specifying the consequences of non-compliance. The deadline passed and on 4th March, Israel launched a number of nuclear missiles on the capitals and other major cities of the nations concerned, including Mecca and Medina, provoking the launch of missiles against Israel. This devastated all major cities in the nations involved.

As this exchange took place, the Indian and Pakistani missile detection systems appear to have detected a false positive launch towards them and simultaneously launched their own arsenals against each other. Millions more people died in the Subcontinent than in the Middle East.

The result was the complete destruction of the nations of Libya, Egypt, Israel, the Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Sa`udi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Pakistan, and considerable devastation in India and Iran, which suffered damage from both incidents.

Once this had been detected, in an unprecedented move, the US and USSR worked together to defuse the situation and also jointly and quietly invaded North Korea.

The War officially ended on 13th March 1995, though there were no real victors. Of all the nations involved, the only one to survive was India, North Korea having been forcibly united with the South.

Aftermath
All of the involved countries except India and Korea are uninhabitable except with considerable radiation shielding to the present day and are expected to be so for many centuries to come. There is also a fair amount of damage to neighbouring territories, in particular Iran. Again, only India still exists as a nation and the land concerned is uninhabited with the exception of the new nation of Zion established in 1997 along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and temporary settlements in Mecca.

There was some effort to rescue the victims by the Red Cross, Red Crescent and various refugee aid organisations along with the UN and various military forces, but most victims died within a few weeks of radiation sickness. Surviving refugees were allowed to settle in some countries, mainly other Arab nations, and the Israeli citizens who had left before the outbreak of war initially settled mainly in North America and Western Europe, though in 1997 a few returned to the region to establish Zion.

A major result of the war was complete multilateral nuclear disarmament with effective international monitoring by the United Nations in concert with the US and USSR. This also had the consequence that nuclear rockets and other space activities are now under international control rather than any individual nations or alliances.