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.

2000s
The first Lunar and Martian colonies are established, as well as mining outposts in the asteroid belt. By the end of the century, the Lunar and Martian colonies have already become fairly thriving and attract more and more settlers.

In the latter half of the 21st century, 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.

2090: A limited thermonuclear exchange takes place on Earth.

Around this time, the underground facility is constructed in Kenya, East Africa and used as a base of operations by NATO.

2090s: The first colonies are established on Europa, followed shortly after by Ganymede. Since journeys to the outer system take months, the distant Jovian colonies mostly exist in isolation from Earth and Mars.

2100s
Minor bio-alterations of humans and animals to adapt to long-term spaceflight and low-gravity habitation are first pioneered and enacted during this century. Further (and highly controversial) mass genetic engineering projects, headed by the nascent UEG, virtually eradicate cancer and select congenital diseases on Earth and Mars by the end of the century, and other Solar colonies by the 2300s.

2112: The terraforming of Mars begins. Still, enclosed warrens and domed arcologies remain the only viable form of habitation for nearly three centuries. The Jovian Moons have not so far been significantly terraformed, apart from tentative augmentations to their magnetic fields to protect from Jupiter's intense radiation belt. As well, the existing settlement on Europa and Ganymede in particular would make extensive terraforming efforts difficult without extensive population relocations.

2117: The first colonies are established on Titan by Jovian-based corporations.

2160: By the mid-22nd century, human colonies on Luna, Mars, the Asteroid Belt and the Jovian Moons (mainly Europa and Ganymede) had become relatively well-established and self-sustaining. This era was characterized by overpopulation on Earth, increasing political tension, and corporate overreach in the off-world territories. 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 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.

The Koslovic ideology, loosely based on the works of Martian academic Vladimir Koslov who blended classical Marxism with space-age Martian techno-utopianism, mainly took root among the working classes of the off-world colonies, most prominently on Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and various orbital facilities. Koslovic demagogues skillfully exploited the (often legitimate) grievances of laborers working under Earth's multiplanetary corporations, proclaiming that armed revolution and consequent establishment of a pan-human collectivist state was the only realistic way out of their plight. Although there were various (often localized) groups and distinct worker revolts across the Solar System around this time, many of them unconnected to the Koslovic ideology, they were generally understood as being part of the overall Koslovic movement; as well, Koslovic agitators would frequently co-opt unrelated movements under their banner.

The Frieden were a largely Jovian-based movement with connections at the highest levels of the corporate-political oligarchies of Europa and Ganymede. Although they had their roots in radical anti-Koslovic (and anti-UN) eugenicist-identitarian ideologies that had taken root among segments of the Jovian population in the first half of the 22nd century, the Frieden movement largely became prominent thanks to the (tacit and eventually overt) support they enjoyed among several of the corporations and proxy governments active in the Jovian system, which was largely in response to the rising threat local Koslovic cells posed to their operations and shipping lanes. This support also enabled them to become a technologically formidable polity despite their relatively small numbers, though many of their supporters (particularly those with close ties to Earth) did not fully subscribe to the Frieden's ideology. After the tide of the Interplanetary Wars turned in the nascent UNSC's favor, most of these corporations and governments were quick to withdraw their support for the Frieden movement in order to preserve their own status, which led to its eventual splintering and demise soon after, leaving only the most hardline ideologues to fight until the end.

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, corruption within the UEG, and the rise of various megacorporations across the Outer System, all set against a backdrop of rapid iteration of technologies.

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. After several technological crises in the off-world colonies, there is a tug of war underlying human political discourse, with two opposing (if broadly-defined) factions -- the Cautionaries and the Exaltationists. Over time, these factions took the form of numerous discrete movements (both secular and religious) and political parties, and both encompassed a wide spectrum of views from moderate to extreme. The most radical Cautionaries called for a return to planet-bound life and shunned modern medicine and other amenities, while the moderates merely wished to regulate cybernetics, AI and genetic engineering more carefully. Meanwhile, the extreme end of the Exaltation movement were hardcore 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. Another group, albeit sometimes lumped together with the Cautionaries, were the (Moderates?), who acknowledged the benefits of certain bio- and cybernetic technologies, but still called for careful oversight and regulation on the part of the UEG and its protectorates. And it was this side that more or less won out. While the most heated debates had died down by the later half of the 23rd century, the divide between the two sides never truly did, and the constant back-and-forth between their descendant incarnations continues to act in the background of UEG policy-making.

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.

2291: A team of physicists led by doctors Tobias Shaw and Wallace 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
2310: 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. 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.

A widespread pioneering spirit emerged among the colonists of this initial wave, reaching even settlements that had thrived without much of the particular struggle that defined some of them. A particularly influential work in giving shape to this ideal was the widely-circulated A Pioneer's Struggle by the author Olga Palari, one of the colonists of Strauss' World in Tau Ceti. Although Palari spoke highly, even reverently, of "the Old Sun", her work had far-reaching implications in establishing trans-Solar colonists as their own identity group, and would be referenced by colonial authors, philosophers and ideologues for centuries to come. In most of the Inner Colonies, this philosophy faded to the background after the onset of the Domus Diaspora and the subsequent economic, cultural and political integration of Sol and the Inner Colonies; however, many Outer Colonial settlers would adopt it as one of the foundational texts of their emerging cultural identity around a century later.

2362: 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.

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.

2391: The Inner Colony Wars begin. Some Inner Colonies which received settlers during the Domus Diaspora would retain populations from the first half century of colonization, only for their worlds to be subjected to massive new waves of settlement enabled by the new technology. While on some worlds, the integration of the original "Pioneers" with the new colonists proceeded without issue, there were a number of sites where the divides between the two groups became too great to overcome, with accusations of the Pioneers being treated as second-class citizens or outright exploited by the Diasporan "elite". Such excesses did occur on two worlds, albeit by select CAA staffers and the less scrupulous colonization contractors, but radical elements of the Pioneer populations did not see the distinction between these institutions and the general Diasporan population.

Tales of scattered incidents, often exaggerated in the telling as they crossed the light-years, circulated among the populations of the emerging Inner Colonies. Riots and peaceful protests escalated into conflict. This eventually gave rise to the Inner Colony Wars in the late 24th and early 25th centuries. Although the political reality was often more complex and muddled, the general dividing lines in the Wars were between the "Pioneer" and "Diasporan", or old and new, colonists on the half dozen worlds where such a divide existed.

2410: 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.

2400s

 * 2456: The enters service.
 * 2463: The enters service.
 * 2470: The enters service.
 * 2476: The enters service.
 * 2480: The enters service.
 * 2482: The enters service.
 * 2483: The enters service.
 * 2487: The and  enters service.
 * 2490: The Stronghold-class battleship enters service.
 * 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.
 * 2493: The enters service.
 * 2494: The Callisto Incident occurs, formally beginning the Insurrection.
 * 2494: The enters service.
 * 2496: The enters service.
 * 2497: The enter service.

2500s

 * 2510: The enters service.
 * 2513: The enters service.
 * 2516: The enters service.
 * 2518: The, , and enter service.
 * 2523: The and  enters service.