Timeline

2004	World oil production plateaus for the next several years
2008	A major recession begins, triggering a stock market crash
2010	Oil production begins a steady decline. The global recession continues to worsen.
2012	Sarah Palin elected President of the US. Fundamentalist revolution in Saudi Arabia; oil exports from that country cease
2013	US / UK invasion of Saudi Arabia; oil fields along Persian Gulf seized. Iran and a few other oil-producing countries restrict exports in protest.
2013	Russia seizes Caspian Sea oil fields. China invades Siberia and Central Asia.
2013	10 kT nuclear bomb explodes in Washington DC. Iran blamed for supplying the bomb; US and allies invade.
2015	9.6 magnitude earthquake in San Francisco bay area. Major bridges destroyed, highrises collapse, fires burn much of the city. Survivors are left without enough food and water as the Federal government is slow to respond.
2016	Palin re-elected in a landslide. Californian Independence party wins elections in that state. Anger over the economy, inadequate response to the earthquake, and the ongoing war responsible for growing independence movement.
2015 - 2020	Famine spreads in China and parts of North America as lack of oil for farms and transportation, as well as drought and soil loss reduce food supply.
2018	California declares independence, followed later that year by Oregon and Washington. The US does not attempt to use force, as the bulk of the military is deployed in the middle east.
2019	President Schwarzenegger blamed for using National Guard against rioters in famine-stricken southern California and San Joaquin Valley - called the 'Butcher of Bakersfield'
2020 - 2025	US and China continue to fight to control resources in Asia. Arctic Ocean is now ice-free for most of the year, and melting of Greenland ice sheets accelerates. Southern California secedes, falls into chaos. Cargo ships filled with Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian refugees begin turning up along Northern Californian and Cascadian coast.
2025 - 2075	Sea level rises at an average rate of about 6 inches per year, due to Greenland's ice cap melting and the gradual collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet; levelling off after a 25 foot rise. The new nations of Dong Guo and the People's Republic of California control the coastal territory west of the new inland sea. To the east, refugees from the inundated parts of the central valley swell the populations of the surviving cities along the new coastline. Freedom City, at the mouth of the San Joaquin River on the southern shore of the sea, will eventually become the largest of these when the unflooded half of Sacramento to the north is hit by several Chinese nuclear warheads in 2051.
2026	Coastal California secedes; forms "People's Republic of California".
Circa 2040	Player born
2047	War breaks out between Western and Chinese forces in Asia.
2050	The United States is permitted to use several air and naval bases in California and Cascadia, to defend the coast against an expected Chinese invasion.
July 7, 2051	Nuclear exchange. Hundreds of millions killed on both sides. Dreams of Before
2051 - 2070	The Collapse. The west coast slowly recovers, while civilization is nearly destroyed in much of the rest of the continent due to fallout carried by prevailing winds. Chinese refugees and raiders take control of the southern portion of the People's Republic of California.
2072	The Mormon nation of Deseret is founded. Over the next several decades, it takes control of most of the territory formerly belonging to the states of Utah, southern Idaho, northern Arizona, and Nevada.
2088	The nation of Aztlan is founded. It controls what was formerly southern California and southern Arizona.
2105	Game begins. Much of the current population was around pre-Collapse, and has been kept alive through cloning technology.