Human history

This page covers the history of the human species up until first contact with the Covenant in 2525 and the onset of the Human-Covenant War (which is covered by The Great War section of the timeline). While all human history since prehistory is technically covered, in practice virtually all events relevant to Daybreak's timeline begin in the later half of the 21st century. While the events on this page are concurrent with the later phases of Covenant history, Covenant-related events should be listed on the Covenant history page.

To view all of the era pages, see Timeline. See also Human technological development for a technology-oriented timeline.

1900s
1994: The enigmatic Yucatan Incident occurs. According to some historical sources, a nuclear device is detonated in the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula within the radius of the Chicxulub crater. Conspiracy theories claim this is instigated by a top-secret mission by the United States government to stop an imminent alien invasion, but no reliable records of sufficient fidelity to confirm this survive to this day. Also pertinent to the event are testimonies of an undocumented pyramid whose existence cannot be conclusively verified. Later AI cross-referencing of contemporary data from the late 20th century has led to various hypotheses regarding the nature of the incident. Of particular interest is an evident space-time anomaly surrounding the event, though some scientists attribute this to natural variances in the underlying fabric of space-time. The Covenant would later show interest in the Chicxulub crater during their invasion of Earth, suggesting the presence of something noteworthy beyond the Cretaceous-Paleogene impactor.

2000s
2012: The first manned outpost is established on Luna.

~2020s-2030s: The first steps of the Solar System gold rush: Pioneering efforts in colonizing Earth's orbit, mining near-Earth asteroids, and settling Luna and Mars inspire an increased interest in space exploration, and the race for the near-infinite resources of the Solar System spurs various technological advances by corporate and national actors alike.

~2040s-2050s: The Golden Age of Space Colonization begins: The permanent human presence in space begins to increase rapidly with a dramatic reduction in orbital launch costs. The Lunar and Martian colonies become fully self-sustaining while new space habitats are being constructed by the dozens. The challenges of spaceborne living, coupled with the untapped resources of the system, spur numerous advances in various fields, including medical science and AI research. The challenges of low-gravity habitation and even radiation exposure are overcome by revolutionary gene therapies which enable millions to live in space by the end of the century.

2060s-2070s:
 * The first permanent settlements in the Asteroid Belt and on Callisto, with the latter being used as a base of operations to launch missions around the Jovian system and Jupiter's trojans. Soon after, the first colonies are established on Europa, Ganymede and Io by various corporations wishing to exploit the resources of the Jovian system (including the gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter itself), as well as to establish footholds for expansion beyond Jupiter. Since journeys to the outer system take months, the distant Jovian colonies mostly exist in isolation from Earth and Mars.
 * A Sino-Russian war takes place.

2090s:
 * The height of a NATO-China cold war. Around this time, the underground facility Crow's Nest is constructed in Kenya, East Africa and used as a base of operations by NATO.
 * The first outposts are established on Titan and select other Saturnian moons.
 * A civil war is fought in the United States of America, leading to the union breaking up into smaller units.

As conditions on Earth slowly deteriorate, with political unrest and an ecological crisis, the colonies continue to flourish. Millions migrate to the offworld colonies in search of a better future.

Around this time, the escalation of Earth's ecological crisis as well as subsequent global unrest and population displacements, coupled with the challenges of policing the expanding frontier of outer space, prompt the United Nations to become increasingly involved in overseeing Earth's national governments and corporate entities, especially off-world. However, this "United Earth Project" draws significant criticism and accusations of UN partiality, breeding polarization on Earth.

2100s
By the 22nd century, human colonies on Luna, Mars, the Asteroid Belt and the Jovian Moons had become well-established and self-sustaining. This era was characterized by crowding in Earth's cities, increasing political tension both on Earth and in space, and corporate overreach in the off-world territories even as the interplanetary habitats took their first steps toward autonomy and self-rule. Humanity's acclimation to the new environment of space also led to the formation of new political ideologies and religions, as well as the re-examination and (often violent) revival of historical ideologies. The most notable political movements of this era were the Koslovics and the Frieden, which arose on the Solar colonies to challenge Earth nations' authority. As the old powers of North America, Europe and China were mired in conflict or diminished, fledgling space-capable powers arose in South and Southeast Asia, Australia, East Africa, and South America.

2100s-2110s:
 * The United Republic of North America is formed from the rump state left behind by the breakdown of the US, which forms a single federal government along with Mexico and Canada. Later on, most if not all former US states and splinter polities would be reconsolidated into the URNA.
 * Localized conflicts in South America.
 * The East African Federation is formed from some of the members of the East African Community (possibly following a limited conflict)

2110s:
 * A proxy war between polities backed by NATO and China sees a limited thermonuclear exchange and is one of the first conflicts to involve orbital assets, becoming a major point of controversy within the UN. China undergoes a notable political upheaval and its power subsequently diminishes in the global stage for the next few decades.
 * The first Martian colonies declare themselves independent polities along with a small-scale independence conflict, though in practice most of these still remain economically tied to their parent nations or the corporations that founded them.

2120s:
 * Brazilian and Filipino space colonization efforts on Mars and Luna.
 * War in Russia/Eastern Europe.
 * NATO first establishes the prototypic iterations of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, then known as Drop Jet Jumpers.

2132: The ZGene Fiasco goes public. Public opinion on many of the off-world colonies turns against genetic modification, and various governments implement legislation to regulate rampant modification soon after. The resulting economic downturn on many habitats feeds extremist political ideologies and various conspiracy theories turn the public increasingly against Earth and the United Nations. As economic recession and unrest wracked the colonies, minor proxy wars and political demagoguery began to escalate tensions on both the colonies and Earth over the next two decades. With Earth itself struggling with internal divisions, many of its national governments lost their hold on their space colonies, many of which declared themselves independent over this period.

2140s: The Koslovic movement first emerges as a prominent force in the Martian colonies.

2150s: The Frieden movement rises to power on the Jovian colonies, with Ganymede and Europa serving as their hotspots.

2160-2161: The Jovian Moons Campaign. Attacks by Jovian Frieden secessionists on United Nations colonial advisors on Io lead to three months of fighting between Earther military forces and the Frieden, with the latter gaining the upper hand. A multinational UN task force follows several months after to reinforce the decimated Earth forces, with limited success. This marks one of the bloodiest conflicts on the colonies so far and results in a relative stalemate, leaving the Frieden movement effectively in control of some of the colonies on Io, Europa and Ganymede. The campaign escalates tensions in the system, and sparks various offworld proxy wars between colonies sponsored by Earth nations. This in turn leads to political and eventually military conflict on Earth.

2162: February: The Rainforest Wars begin as various political movements and national governments clash over ideological differences in South America, while the UN attempts to manage the crisis with limited success. This sparks further conflicts off-world and leads to a considerable civilian death toll and ecological devastation.

2163:
 * April–May: Offworld extremists target various Earth cities with kinetic bombardment, leading to a significant death toll. The United Nations issues an emergency resolution establishing the United Nations Space Command. All space-borne national military forces are subordinated to the UNSC for the duration of the ongoing crisis.


 * May: The Lunar pacification campaign begins. By the end of the year, most insurgent or secessionist holdouts on Luna have been eliminated or subdued.


 * December: The Mars Campaign: A large task force deployed by the UNSC arrives at Mars, launching blitzkrieg-style attacks on Koslovics at the Argyre Planitia industrial sprawl. This marks the first major off-world deployment of space-borne marines and informs future military doctrine considerably.

2164:
 * The Rainforest Wars have largely subsided, though minor actions continue on Earth.


 * The success of the Mars Campaign spurs a UNSC propaganda campaign and military buildup on Earth, with increasing resources now funneled to the UNSC. This is effectively the birth of the Earth-based patriotism that would shape much of the UNSC's and UEG's cultural character. The UNSC begins a systematic drive to crush the remaining Koslovic and Frieden strongholds across the system. New space warfare technologies, including open-cycle atomic rockets, are pressed into service at an unprecedented pace.


 * The Battle of Delambre on Luna sees the Frieden movement effectively eliminated on the Moon; it also marks one of the first signs of the Frieden movement's splintering.

2166: The Mars Campaign concludes after two full years, ending with the eradication of all Martian Koslovic opposition. The conflict continues in various habitats of the Asteroid Belt as well as further out-system.

2170: The last holdouts of the Koslovic movement are eliminated near Saturn and within the Asteroid Belt, and the surviving members are apprehended. With the Callisto Treaty, the UNSC is given complete military jurisdiction over the off-world colonies. The war has left significant swathes of Earth and the colonies devastated, and there are widespread famines and population displacements. To tackle these problems, as well as to address various issues inherent to the organization, the UN is reorganized into the United Earth Government, with the UNSC folded in as its military arm.

2200s
The 23rd century was the last one humanity spent within the confines of the Solar System. It saw mankind truly settling into their home system and pioneering many later standard technologies and traditions of space-borne life. While it did not see singular armed conflicts on the scale or death toll of the Interplanetary War decades prior, the 23rd century was nonetheless marked by various crises. Among these were the Earth's still-ongoing ecological crisis and overpopulation, exacerbated by the devastation of the Rainforest Wars and the wider Interplanetary War, the gradual unraveling of the UEG's emergency powers as those crises were slowly resolved, and the rise of various megacorporations across the Outer System, all set against a backdrop of rapid iteration of technologies. Culturally, the 23rd century was experimental and avant-garde, particularly in its later half.

Corporate projects experiment with life extension, nanotechnology, the uplifting of simians and cetaceans, and even human cloning. However, as rampant alteration and genetic engineering raise widespread concerns, particularly after the devastation wrought by such technologies in recent conflicts, laws are instated to curtail uncontrolled and potentially harmful development, especially in nanotechnology, bio-augmentation and uplifting. A notable movement to rise in this era were the Technarchists, who called for an end to technological regulation, particularly in cybernetics and biotechnologies, as well as a governmental reform into a cybernetic-based "online democracy". The extreme end of the Technarchist movement were hardline transhumanists hoping to leave behind biological existence altogether, though many were "softer" social utopists, dreaming of futures where AI and widespread bioengineering had eliminated human inequalities and the systemic problems of traditional societies. To accomplish this, several Technarchist communities established highly experimental societies in the Outer System, including Saturn's moons and the Asteroid Belt. This gave rise to various conflicts in the later half of the 23rd century among rogue micronations and corporate entities, which saw the first use of cybernetic supersoldiers, then known as Battleroids. This, in turn, inspired the UNSC to initiate their own supersoldier projects, leading to the first iteration of the ORION program in the early 24th century. However, a widepread media panic dubbed the "Cyber Scare" would see the project shelved for over a century, along with the effective demise of the Technarchist movement in the first half of the 24th century.

The technological progress of this era and the perceived stagnancy of weapons in the intervening centuries is often exaggerated for comedic effect. A common joke among UNSC personnel goes that by the 23rd century, a weapon was nothing more than a glass of water, and all one needed to kill one's enemies was to drink it. However, the UNSC soon found this boring, and decided to go back to "the cool stuff", such as jeeps, assault rifles and tanks. Drill instructors often proclaim this legend to fresh recruits to foster pride in the UNSC's "big green style" if faced with grumblings about equipment or physical hardship.

2200s-2210s: Various secession/autonomy conflicts are fought on Earth and Luna as holdouts in Earth's remaining national governments continue to resist UEG encroachment. The UEG's and UNSC's hegemony over humanity is further solidified over this period.

2207: The Traxus Crash: Traxus Industries' smart AI Traxus-VI undergoes rampancy. By the time this is detected, the AI has already spread across Mars' planetary network and subverted two other AIs on the planet. Unable to root out Traxus-VI, the Martian authorities enact the total shutdown of Mars' planetary net, and the isolation of said network from SolNet. It takes over years to repair the damage, and the effects on the Martian economy are felt decades later; among them the sinking of Traxus' budding AI business. The incident also serves as a sobering demonstration of what a rampant AI is capable of, and informs emerging legislation on the final dispensation of rampant AIs.

2220s: The UNSC intervenes on Mars in a conflict that stemmed from the Traxus crash.

2230s: The first fusion drives are developed. The far outer planets and even the Kuiper Belt become more reachable.

2240s:
 * The young physicists Tobias Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa get first started with slipspace development during the initial "slipspace craze", which would in the coming decades die down as no useful results were produced. Interstellar colony efforts would subsequently focus on slower-than-light vessels, only for them to be rendered obsolete following the later slipspace breakthrough.
 * The first gas-lifter ships traveling to Saturn and Neptune and back are developed to fuel Earth's growing fusion economy.

2250s: Mars begins to recover from the Traxus Crash, beginning its development into the Sol system's industrial powerhouse.

c. 2250s-2280s: Various conflicts in the outer system. Automation & swarm subversion crisis leads to UEG statutes and public outcry against combat robotics?

c. 2260s: The "Titan Experiment" is initiated (possible Technarchist involvement). This is the birth of what would later become the Assembly.

2290s:
 * First Project ORION precursor.
 * Possible trouble in Visegrad countries/Eastern Europe leads to crowding and misc. issues, leading to some segments of the population being prioritized for colony efforts in the first wave.

2291: A team of physicists led by doctors Shaw and Fujikawa announce the first successful transition through slipspace and back. While little more than a glorified probe, the experiment proves one key point: that humans can safely enter slipspace and return. By this point, the theory of slipspace has existed for nearly two centuries, with solid proof of the para-dimensional realm existing since the late 2100s, but the trick of actually boring a hole into space-time and sending a human through in one piece turned out to be a challenge. Before Shaw and Fujikawa's breakthrough in 2291, many scientists had already given up on the possibility of a functioning slipspace incursion apparatus as a pipe dream. Had their group not succeeded, it is possible that the UEG and other powerful entities may have significantly cut the funding for slipspace projects and instead focused on the development of intra-Sol space habitat colonization as well as slower-than-light interstellar travel. By the time Shaw and Fujikawa break the news, the UEG's plans for the first interstellar colony ship are already underway, as is the vetting process for potential colonists.

With the discovery of faster-than-light travel, dozens of lucrative colonization and development projects across the Sol system collapsed almost overnight, especially around the outer worlds such as Saturn. The Venusian terraforming project died off. Some lesser colonies simply emptied out and died as the populations flocked to greener pastures across the stars.

2300s
2310s:
 * The First Wave: The colonization of what would later be known as the Inner Colonies begins with the launch of the UEG's first faster-than-light colony ship. Several more waves of colony ships would follow over the next five decades, giving rise to the 17 first human colonies. With settlers chosen from among Earth's "best and the brightest", these early efforts are experimental and often risky endeavors, with several colonies struggling to maintain themselves or failing altogether. In addition, the first colonies are highly isolated, and with the limited slipspace technology of the time, journeys to those worlds are one-way trips for most. However, learnings gathered from these early colonies would give rise to plans for the next stage in interstellar colonization.
 * The Colonial Administration Authority and the Colonial Military Administration are formed by the UEG to represent the Earth government's interests outside Sol.

2319: The first Hungarian pioneer settlers arrive on Reach. This marks the first wave of the planet's colonization, to be followed by another in the 2360s.

2320s:
 * First-generation ORION operators eliminate dissidents near Saturn
 * Undefined insurgency/rioting on Earth or Luna

2330s: Undefined data catastrophe

2362:
 * The Domus Diaspora: The launch of the Odyssey Fleet marks the start of "assembly-line colonization" with standardized terraforming equipment, prefab colony starter units and other equipment pioneered over the previous half century by humanity's first colonization efforts. Colonization becomes cheaper, safer and more accessible, though applicants are still carefully vetted by the UEG. This is widely regarded as the beginning of the Domus Diaspora, humanity's first major wave of expansion outside Sol.
 * The enters service.

2372: What is widely regarded as the first of the Inner Colony Wars is fought in Tau Ceti.

2380s: The Belter Exodus reaches its height, leading to a huge reduction of the Sol Belt's population and causing a regional recession.

2390:
 * A major overhaul of the UN Colonial Charter opens interstellar colonization for a much larger segment of the population; many of the former restrictions and government regulations are lifted, on both individuals and corporations. This is often regarded as the birth of the Outer Colonies, though a number of worlds colonized since have nonetheless been lumped together with the Inner Colonies.
 * Reforms to the CAA and UEG; creation of the CAA's Colonial Congress.

2400s
2400: The Inner Colony Wars have largely subsided, aside from scattered minor conflicts. This marks the beginning of the "Pax Humana" - a later-romanticized period of relative peace, expansion and prosperity within humanity's interstellar dominion, at least in the minds of many Earther and Inner Colony ideologues. Belief in the UEG's unifying mission, which had begun to wane prior to the advent of interstellar travel, was now at an all-time high, and even many Outer Colonies enjoyed its benefits at first. It was this belief that served as a major underlying motivation for the UEG to retain their hold on the Outer Colonies by any means necessary; for unity was not merely vital for the UEG's economy, but the root of their ideology.

2440s: The Hydra system massacres take place as a bloody conflict between two major factions erupts in the Hydra system, leading to a massive civilian death toll. The CMA's response is ineffectual and bumbling, discrediting the organization in the eyes of the UNSC admiralty.
 * 2468: The Martian orbital asteroid-facility Chiron, a former commercial spaceport since abandoned, becomes a UNSC Marine and Naval Special Forces training ground and extreme-conditions test lab.

2450s: After almost a decade of effort, the UNSC is granted approval to take over all security and military concerns in the Inner Colonies. Although not the cause of their distrust, it intensifies tensions between the UNSC and the much better established Colonial Military Administration, and also leads to a massive expansion of the UNSC Navy.

c. 2470s-2490s: The UNSC-CMA Cold War takes place.

2475-2485: Undefined Outer Colony uprisings take place.

2492: The Far Isle Rebellion occurs, ending with the nuking of the entire colony. Along with the Callisto Incident, it would be used as justification for widespread uprisings of the Insurrection.

2494: The Callisto Incident occurs, formally beginning the Insurrection.

Behind the scenes
The Daybreak Continuum's timeline of human history diverges from our own around the early-to-mid 1990s, and the projected advances in space travel and colonization and purposefully very optimistic to allow for the kind of human space presence a large interplanetary conflict in the 2160s would require.