United States



The history of the Fallout world diverged from the real world's shortly after World War II. In that world, the Cold War never ended, and it stopped being cold. Nonetheless, the United States (aka America) remained one of the major superpowers.

Federal government
See: Federal government

The commonwealths
Prior to the Great War, the United States had an intermediate level of government between the state and federal powers. The nation was divided into thirteen commonwealths. The United States flag was changed as well. Accordingly, the new flag depicted thirteen stars - twelve in a circle and one in the middle.

It was believed that the new administrative division of the country would help create legislation broad enough to affect states with common concerns, but narrow enough to leave dissimilar states alone. In reality, it created even more strife, as commonwealths typically did everything they could to promote their own interests at the expense of other commonwealths. The thirteen commonwealths were:




 * Columbia - Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia
 * East Central – Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee
 * Eastern – West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York
 * Four States – Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico
 * Gulf – Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida
 * Midwest – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan
 * New England – Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut
 * North – Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota
 * Northwest – Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska
 * Plains – Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma
 * Southeast – Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina
 * Southwest – Southern California, Nevada, Hawaii
 * Texas – Texas, Arkansas

Canada
It is unknown whether there were any changes to that after the annexation of Canada. It is possible that Canada was under military rule until annexation was finalized (2075 or 2076). Because of the number of its population Canada was equal to US Commonwealths. Borders corrections were also possible, eg. concerning Alaska and the pipelines.

Fallout 3

 * In Andale, Jack Smith states they live in the "Commonwealth of Virginia" having claimed to participate in an election. However, whether it's true or not is doubtful the name had to come from history and was likely the pre war political division. Furthermore the matter is complicated as the current state of Virginia is officially the Commonwealth of Virginia. So it is unclear whether he is referring to the modern state borders or whether the territory was expanded.
 * D.C is mentioned however, it is not explored whether it is still an independent district. Furthermore Maryland is not mentioned at all so it is likely that the two were absorbed into Virginia it (probably) would align to the "Columbia Commonwealth."

The Enclave


At some point in the 21st century, the Enclave, a shadow government of the United States, was formed. Members of the Enclave both embraced the idea of a nuclear war and knew that the common man could not survive it. They believed that as long as the "important people" of the United States survived, they could regroup quickly and wipe out communism once and for all. Though not technically part of the Enclave, many powerful corporations benefited from the Enclave’s actions and their research facilities were protected during the "firestorm" of 2077.

In 2073, as the global race to exploit the handful of remaining natural resources reached its fevered peak, the United States managed to stake a claim on the world's last known supply of crude oil, buried thousands of feet beneath the Pacific Ocean. Poseidon Energy, a major U.S. energy concern, was contracted to build an oil rig and extract the oil. Before long, the oil ran dry and the oil rig was abandoned by Poseidon.

Come 2077, with total nuclear war rapidly arriving at America's doorstep, the President of the United States and a number of other United States government officials leave their posts to take refuge in a number of secret locations around the world. Among them was the Poseidon Oil Rig. Here, the President himself set up a secret base from which the U.S.A. could continue to exist and wage war on China, with the eventual goal of retaking the continental United States. From now on, the remnant of the government, survived on the oil rig, started to openly call itself the Enclave.

Armed Forces
See: United States Armed Forces

The Flag
The United States of the Fallout timeline, at least since the formation of the Commonwealths seems to use the highly obscure Cowpens Flag, used in the battle of Cowpens, South Carolina in 1781 and one of the major victories of the young nation:



The only difference is a much enlarged middle star.

Appearances in games
All Fallout games so far take place in the territory of the former United States.

Behind the scenes
The initial idea of dividing the country into thirteen zones came from Leonard Boyarsky during the development of Fallout. In Fallout Bible 8 Tim Cain reported that Leon said he used that flag because it looked cool and he didn't want to use a standard US flag with 50 stars. Eventually he planned to make up something about 13 super-states or something, but he never did. It was further elaborated upon by J. E. Sawyer, who broke up the US into Commonwealths.

There is much misunderstanding about the number of stars on the flag and the corresponding zones, because not all of them are actually visible in the only available picture depicting it. Chris Avellone stated that there are 13 of them in Fallout Bible 8. He was "corrected" by Red, who sent him the picture with the location of 11 stars marked. In 2005, J. E. Sawyer tried to clarify the issue by saying that according to Tramell Isaac, who rendered the intro cinematic for Fallout said that they just took the old colonial flag with 13 stars in a circle and added a new star in the middle.

Sawyer's explanation was widely accepted until 2008, when Bethesda Softworks released Fallout 3, which features a flag with 12 stars in a circle and one in the middle, which is currently the only version of the flag fully seen in a released game.

Соединённые Штаты Америки