Line #160 Main/FallenStatesOfAmerica


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/Fallout3 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fallout_3.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:Land of the broken, home of the slain...]]
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10
11	->'''Captain Nately:''' What are you talking about? America's not going to be destroyed.\
12	'''Old Man in Whorehouse:''' Never? [[AncientRome Rome]] was destroyed, [[UsefulNotes/AncientGreece Greece]] was destroyed, [[UsefulNotes/TheAchaemenidEmpire Persia]] was destroyed, [[UsefulNotes/TheKingdomOfSpain Spain]] was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you think your own country will last? Forever?
13	-->-- ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo''
14
15	A common way to create a CrapsackWorld setting is to have the United States fall so much that it becomes much like a third world nation, with a collapsed economy, decaying infrastructure, fallen or incredibly corrupt government, and so on. Perhaps a new CivilWar has left the nation battered and weak, only a shell of its former self; or possibly economic collapse due to poor management, lack of an important resource, such as [[PostPeakOil oil]], food, or water, or because of the rise of another foreign power has led to a weak US. An [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invasion]] by a foreign power has either conquered part of or all of the United States, or weakened it severely; bonus points if it's {{Russia\|CalledTheyWantAlaskaBack}} and/or {{Mexico\|CalledTheyWantTexasBack}} on a revanchist drive. Or even a natural disaster of some sort has happened.
16
17	In a worst case scenario, it is even possible for the nation to cease to exist as we know it, either being swept into [[AnarchyIsChaos anarchy]], [[DividedStatesOfAmerica broken up into new nation states]], or the area as a whole being replaced by a new power. If the term "The Former United States" is said, this most likely happened.
18
19	Expect to see major cities from coast to coast become [[WretchedHive massive slums]], with the poor and homeless roaming the streets, sometimes with the tarnished remains of [[ProductPlacement familiar]] or [[BlandNameProduct similar]] staple American businesses. What remains of the wealthy will be living in [[UrbanSegregation fortified enclaves,]] separated from the common rabble, and the middle class will become all but extinct. Shanty towns become a common sight, and the only form of "reliable" rule is from organized criminal organizations who will jump on the opportunity to take advantage of the desperate situation or [[MegaCorp large corporations]] who can now operate above the law thanks to a weakened, corrupt, and/or apathetic government.
20
21	What is left of the government (if one even still exists) will be immensely ineffective and corrupt, with greasy politicians trying to hold onto power, or gain power by proposing solutions to regain the nation's once former glory and by claiming that [[UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover prosperity is right around the corner,]] or by arrogantly still believing (or trying to fool the populace) that the nation is still strong, despite obvious evidence to the contrary.
22
23	The work has a huge potential to become {{Anvilicious}} if the creator is trying to preach what will happen if the RealLife United States does or doesn't do X, Y and/or Z, or as a way to create a fictional America led by political strawmen whose political views are opposed to the creator's.
24
25	SubTrope of DifferentStatesOfAmerica. Also a SubTrope of FailedState.
26
27	SuperTrope of RockyMountainRefuge, where the US is seen reduced to [[TheRemnant a rump state]] hidden away somewhere in the mountains.
28
29	Can usually, but not always, go hand in hand with DividedStatesOfAmerica, OppressiveStatesOfAmerica, and/or InvadedStatesOfAmerica. Contrast with ExpandedStatesOfAmerica, although it is also possible for the US to join with Canada and/or Mexico not because it is empowered, but because it is so weak that it needs to. Compare with AmericaIsStillAColony, where the US never got off the ground in the first place. Possibly a result of a SecondAmericanCivilWar, even if the war ends in full reunification.
30
31	Settings in which either {{Japan\|TakesOverTheWorld}} or ChinaTakesOverTheWorld will often include this. Contrast AmericaTakesOverTheWorld.
32
33	%% '''NOTE''': In the case of a new nation(s) taking the United States' place, it must be recognizable as having descent from it, either with explicit shared cultural mores and practices, people who still remember the United States, and/or the successor nation actively trying to recapture the US, or directly referencing its influence. '''A new nation whose only connection to the US is that it occupies North America is not covered.''' For example, Panem in the Hunger Games wouldn't count, since it has no cultural or political connection to the US. The only thing Panem and the US share is the landmass on which they exist.
34
35	%% Also, the US becoming tyrannical is not enough to be an entry. '''It must also be weakened in some way.''' While the US losing democracy can occur, it is not always the case.
36
37	[[noreallife]]
38	----
39	!!Examples:
40
41	[[foldercontrol]]
42
43	[[folder:Advertising]]
44	* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTSQozWP-rM controversial 2010 ad]] ran by a conservative financial watchdog group showed the United States as a pawn of [[ChinaTakesOverTHeWorld China]] in the year 2030, thanks to a botched financial policy.
45	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiBCRQL58_k&feature=player_embedded This]] ad from 1986, set in 2017, in which the younger generation is putting the older generation on trial for the United States' crushing deficit.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
49	* The ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'' spin off ''Anime/HighlanderTheSearchForVengeance'' is mainly set in the distant future where the world has gone to [[CrapsackWorld crap]]. America itself has been split up into city states and if [[BigApplesauce New York]] is anything to go by; they're run by crazed corporations with their own personal armies. Throughout the film we see other great empires/countries fall so it's kinda a running theme.
50	* In ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' the whole world suffered, but we mostly see what happened to the former US: the Zentraedi [[OrbitalBombardment Rain of Death]] at the end of the First Robotech War reduced most of the country to wasteland (even if they somehow missed New York and Detroit), and even if the place was mostly rebuilt the Robotech Masters' attack on Earth concentrate on the Great Lakes area ([[JustifiedTrope as that's where what they were searching for was]]), with at least one city hit by nuclear-level weapons. We don't know what the Invid did when they invaded, but by the time the action returns there large parts of the country are in effective anarchy, Detroit has literally frozen over during the invasion (and gets destroyed when Scott's group rediscovers the place and the Invid give chase), New York, while mostly spared by the wars, is rundown even before a crazed Invid commander tries to kill everyone in Manhattan, and the entire Great Lake region plus areas south of it are now Reflex Point, the complex from where the Invid rule the planet.
51	** How much the damage to the US actually matters is unknown as most of the strikes were concentrated in the main 'body' of the continental US yet the vast majority of the American population lives near the coasts.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Comic Books]]
55	* The setting of MediaNotes/{{the Bronze Age\|OfComicBooks}} Creator/MarvelComics version of ''[=Deathlok=]'' was a future United States where [[ANuclearError a limited nuclear war]] has left the country devastated, with roaming gangs and independent groups vying for control with factions and remnants of the CIA and the military.
56	* In the Creator/DCComics series ''[[ComicBook/JonahHex Hex]]'', set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture (from the readers' perspective), the United States seems to have fragmented into various locales ruled by warlords or, in the case of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, by a successor to Franchise/{{Batman}}.
57	* Something like this is also the result of the supervillains' takeover in ''ComicBook/TheWastelands''. The United States is divided into the warring fiefdoms of various major Marvel villains, so that, for example, the Red Skull controls what used to be the Eastern Seaboard.
58	* The America of ''Comicbook/AmericanFlagg'' is falling apart from a variety of internal and external enemies (including a neo-Nazi revolution), natural and unnatural disasters, and simultaneously powerful and neglectful rule by [[MegaCorp The Plex]].
59	* In ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', America has collapsed into four independent {{mega cit\|y}}ies based around New York and Washington and the eastern seaboard, Los Angeles and the western seaboard, Texas and the mid-and southwest, and Las Vegas, each of which is a fascist PoliceState, separated by vast areas of lawless, radioactive wasteland. Mega City-2 (LA) is eventually nuked to slow down a zombie apocalypse, and Las Vegas is destroyed by Judge Death.
60	* During the ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' storyline ''Divided We Fall'', a combination of the revelation that mutants were created by the US Government while testing the Super Soldier formula, the unleashing of the Nimrod-type Sentinels to arrest or kill mutants and the destruction of Asgard and Washington DC at the hands of The Maker caused the US to fall apart, with notable instances being Texas becoming an independent ''nuclear-powered'' nation and Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma and New Mexico abandoned due to the Nimrod attacks. When Captain America took over as President, he gave a portion of Utah to the remaining mutants, turning it into Utopia.
61	* ''ComicBook/JourJ'': In "Apocalypse sur le Texas", the Cuban missile crisis went hot, with the US and the USSR nuking each other. While the USSR was completely destroyed (and they couldn't be sure until several years after the incident due to the radioactivity), the habitable areas of the US are effectively independent territories split off from each other (led by, among others, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Charlton Heston), with France and the UK being the only nuclear powers (in fact, the only ''world'' powers) left. The actual Texan Apocalypse referred to is caused by Heston's religious lunatics trying to launch unfired nukes in Texas, countered by a Franco-English landing. [[spoiler:In the end, the nukes wouldn't have launched because their fuel had been siphoned out years before.]]
62	* The series ''Post Americana'' is set several generations after a nuclear war destroyed America, turning it into a mostly barren wasteland sparsely inhabited by scavengers and small communities clinging to sustenance... and then there's The Bubble, an UndergroundCity based out of the NORAD complex where [[TheElitesJumpShip the descendants of the rich and powerful who rode out the war]] have been living comfortably, and are now prepared to reconquer America.
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Fan Works]]
66	* Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheReds''. After the events of ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals Zero Hour]]'', the US went into isolation, which wrecked its economy. Over the next 20 years, however, the US was able to recover, making its triumphant return by becoming TheCavalry to the ECA in its war with Russia.
67	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12441674/1/The-War-of-the-Worlds-Gravity-Falls-Edition The War of the Worlds: Gravity Falls Edition]]'', the US is one of the primary countries invaded by the Martians. By the time they fall to native disease, they've successfully devastated much of the contiguous States, with millions of people dead or displaced, and certain regions reduced to implied anarchy and/or warlordism. It's specifically stated that the provisional government [[GovernmentInExile operating out of Hawaii]] needs full political and material support from the United Nations to hold things together and rebuild -- Ford at one point notes how surreal it is to see the once mighty superpower requiring aid from countries as small as ''South Korea'' just to get by.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Film]]
71	* ''Film/SoylentGreen'' has America among many other nations ravaged by environmental changes with humanity and society both physical and psychological is falling apart, especially with the oceans polluted and the world economy collapsing.
72	* ''Film/TheLastChase'' has America being ruled by a new fascistic regime where those who oppose it are eliminated. Not good for societal development.
73	* Implied in the Film version of ''Film/VForVendetta'', which opens with Lewis Prothero claiming the 'Ulcered Sphincter of Arse-erica' has become 'the world's biggest leper colony' and its government is desperately petitioning the British government to supply it with humanitarian aid and medical supplies.
74	** Considering [[PropagandaMachine what the guy does for a living]], however, this information should probably be taken with [[UnreliableNarrator a large grain of salt.]] America ''is'' however in the middle of a second civil war, so there is apparently ''some'' truth to it.
75	* ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' and ''Film/EscapeFromLA'' feature a war-ravaged USA under a dictatorship in all but name, and former great cities used as penal colonies.
76	** Not only that, but the US military strength is not what it used to be, considering that an invasion by several South American nations is seen as a real threat, and the only way to stop it is to use a superweapon.
77	** WordOfGod is that Snake may be in part to blame for the state of the world in the second film, after stealing and (presumably) destroying the President's tape. According to the creators, the tape had the [[spoiler:secret to cold fusion]].
78	** The tie-in [[ComicBook/EscapeFromNewYork comic series]] goes much further with the concept, with dialogue and certain panels showing that the country is fractured in various ways. When Snake reads a map in the first issue of the series, one can see that at least ten states (including New York) have been crossed out with red X's, implying that they've been either completely destroyed or abandoned. The "Join or Die" historical image from the inside cover of each issue loses the segment representing Pennsylvania from the second issue onwards, implying the same thing. Finally, after the TimeSkip between the third and fourth storyarcs, the world has progressed into a NewOldWest state, with infrastructure having heavily degraded in the interim.
79	* In ''Film/TheForeverPurge'', as a result of the GovernmentConspiracy's plan GoneHorriblyWrong a significant portion of the United States has devolved into BombThrowingAnarchists seeking ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil, and ultimately succeed in their plan by destroying the government.
80	* ''Film/{{Americathon}}'' depicts an energy-starved bankrupt USA.
81	* ''Film/TheRunningMan'': The world's economy is in shambles, along with the United States, which has become a police state. In [[Literature/TheRunningMan the book it was based on however, it's even worse,]] being a polluted {{Cyberpunk}} dystopia where everyone is kept docile through the use of BloodSport BreadAndCircuses TV and the poor are ridiculously, horribly poor.
82	* ''Film/DeathRace2000'': A financial crisis and military coup have devastated the US, turning it into a police state.
83	** The [[Film/DeathRace remake also features this]] with a financial collapse in 2012.
84	* ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'': In someways played here. The United States has become an idiotic dumbed-down society, ruined by years of mindless consumerism and pop culture, although it is PlayedForLaughs rather than drama, and the real focus is on the downfall of humanity.
85	** Society ''is'' about to fall, though. There's not enough food, and a huge dustbowl is messing up much of the country. Turns out the cause is [[spoiler:the use of a (salty) sports drink to water crops]].
86	* In ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'', the US becomes so endangered by a climate change superstorm bringing temperatures down that Americans had to emigrate to Mexico. There was even a speech by the Vice President thanking Mexico for their hospitality.
87	* The ''[[Film/RedDawn2012 Red Dawn]]'' remake has the US taken over by UsefulNotes/NorthKoreansWithNodongs (originally meant to be UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport but re-dubbed after filming to let the film be shown in China) using some sort of EMP weapon to shut down America's defenses.
88	* ''Film/BarbWire'' is a blatant ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' rip-off set in a dystopian future where continuous wars have turned the US into a third-world dictatorship with obvious Nazi overtones. It's telling when the protagonist demands that she be paid for the job in ''Canadian'' dollars, meaning American dollars aren't worth much, and everyone is trying to emigrate to Canada.
89	* ''Film/{{Tomorrowland}}'' makes out the present world to be a CrapsackWorld in general, but the United States is highlighted primarily through the lens of NASA's decline in addition to the general issues of economic decline and looming threats of climate change and war.
90	* The news reports in ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'' mention that the USA has collapsed, with a nuclear bomb going off in NYC, and militias taking control of the cities of Spokane, Cincinati and Bozeman.
91	* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'': America has become a rural scavenger society, with dust bowls, dwindling resources and food shortages commonplace thanks to a global blight. Technologies such as [=MRIs=] either no longer exist or can't be made in mass quantities, while regular people like Coop salvage solar cells from surveillance drones for their cars. In addition, militaries and agencies like [=NASA=] have been publicly disbanded, with references to them having bombed starving civilians, and schoolchildren are taught that the moon landings were a hoax designed to bankrupt the Soviets, all to convince them that they should stay on Earth to try and fix it, rather than leave. And America, while hanging on by a thread, is implied to be doing ''better'' [[CrapsackWorld than many other countries]].
92	* ''Film/America3000'' is set in a future where the United States is devastated by nuclear war. Out of the ashes, female warlords (war-ladies?) called Tiaras fight for dominance among the ruins of American cities.
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Interactive Fiction]]
96	* ''VideoGame/AMindForeverVoyaging'' depicts a world where the US is in danger of becoming this. The player experiences several simulations of a possible future, each one set 10 years after the previous one. The situation worsens with each simulation, as the economy collapses, law enforcement becomes more brutal and corrupt, a border security force frequently searches homes (and becomes less apologetic and more harsh about it in each period), racism and religious intolerance become more overt, and dusk-to-dawn curfews are enforced. In the final simulation, the last vestiges of authority have collapsed, and anarchy ensues with the city streets now home to violent gangs and wild dogs killing weaker people for food. Naturally, the player's goal is to prevent these possible futures from coming to pass.
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Literature]]
100	* ''Literature/{{Claw\|2024}}'': Carson alludes to the US government collapsing at least twice to Valentina, having been alive for the first time, and civil unrest is extremely common.
101	* Brandon Sanderson's ''Literature/TheReckonersTrilogy'' is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture after individuals with super powers (called Epics) have arisen and taken over the world. While at first the governments tried to stop them, they proved utterly incapable, so the United States devolved into the Fractured States. Basically any territory the Epics have no interest in.
102	* In ''Literature/SnowCrash'', America is just a stub-state, existing in the cracks between independent corporate domains.
103	* ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'', by Creator/PhilipKDick. America loses UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and is divided up by the Axis powers.
104	* ''Literature/SprawlTrilogy''. Because of [[Creator/WilliamGibson Gibson's]] love of the incredibly vague description, it's not certain, but the US Government has been destroyed following a financial collapse (ironically similar to what happened to the Soviet Union after the books were written). The most frequently seen part is the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Area or "The Sprawl", and most of the US outside the Sprawl is implied to be very, very unpleasant.
105	* In ''Literature/ParableOfTheSower'' the United States has collapsed into a dystopia filled with gangs, prostitution and slavery. (It's set in a TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture California)
106	* In Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka's ''Literature/{{Warday}}'', the US and USSR engage in a limited nuclear exchange; years later, the US is a third world nation slowly balkanizing into separate countries.
107	* In the AlternateHistory novel ''Literature/BringTheJubilee'' by Ward Moore, the US is defeated by the Confederate States of America in the Civil War. While the CSA is prosperous, the rump United States is plagued by poverty, unemployment, racism, and political corruption.
108	*''Literature/ElevenTwentyTwoSixtyThree'' by Creator/StephenKing: the main character goes back in time and stops Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating John F. Kennedy. When he returns to the present, he finds that preventing Kennedy's death has changed history for the worse: the United States is impoverished and wracked with racial tension, crime, and political extremism. The situation is so bad that Maine has [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere voted to secede from the Union]] and is now a Canadian province.
109	* Creator/KurtVonnegut's ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' has the United States of the future bombed "by angry Chinamen" and [[BalkanizeMe Balkanized]] into a number of heavily-militarized zones so as not to be a threat to anyone.
110	* ''Literature/TheRunningMan'': The world's economy is in shambles, along with the United States, which has become a police state.
111	* ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'': The Republic of Gilead that replaced the United States roughly a few decades before after an unknown disaster, a terrorist attack and military coup. For all intents and purposes, it is the United States, just under a totalitarian theocratic society.
112	* ''Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion'': Illegal immigrants escape not only to the US by the time the book takes place, but into Aztlán (what Mexico is called by the time of the book) as well. It is never detailed how bad the US is, but it is assumed it is pretty bad if people are justifying risking everything to escape into ''Aztlán''.
113	** It was mentioned, though, that conditions have improved somewhat in Mexico while America has deteriorated.
114	* Creator/KimNewman and Brain Craig's ''Literature/DarkFuture'' novels for Creator/GamesWorkshop greatly expanded on the base concept of a crapsack US of A, piling economic collapse on top of a reduction in the President's status from Most Powerful Man In The World to somewhere around 138th Most Powerful Man In The World.
115	* ''[[Literature/JulianComstock Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America]]'' is set in a dystopian future where, after a series of dramatic setbacks, the United States has slid backwards to a 19th-century level. Not only technologically, but ''culturally'' as well, meaning slavery is legal again and women and minorities have no rights.
116	* Many modern Russian sci-fi writers tend to be anti-American and will gladly include at least a mention of America that has fallen on hard times, had another Civil War, or [[spoiler:[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking has become all-black]]]]. Naturally, the glorious Mother Russia rises again.
117	* ''In The Presence of Mine Enemies'' features a globe-girdling German Empire consisting of the Reich proper, satellite states in Europe, and Occupied North and South America. The USA in particular was nuked, blasting Washington, DC off the map. The new capital is in Omaha, and the US dollar is practically worthless.
118	* Mack Maloney's ''Wingman'' series of modern pulp novels takes place in a world where World War III led to the United States soundly beating the Soviet Union in Europe, only for the traitorous Vice President to lower the missile defenses and lead to a nuking of the United States. The entire Midwest is a mostly deserted radioactive wasteland, and at the time the series begins the nation has collapsed into warring states and city-states and SkyPirates. A major part of the series involves the protagonist and his military friends gradually rebuilding America and fighting the remnants of the USSR.
119	* In Brendan [=DuBois=]' alternate history novel ''Resurrection Day'', the United States has fallen on hard times ten years after the Cuban Missiles Crisis turned the Cold War hot. Washington, New York, South Florida, Omaha, and dozens of old SAC bases around the country are radioactive craters. Although ostensibly still a democracy, a military dictatorship effectively rules what's left, and people are subject to rationing, curfews, censorship, travel restrictions, and being shipped off to do decontamination work in the restricted zones if they get out of line. The nation is reliant on humanitarian and food aid from the UK, and the rest of the world treats the country as a pariah, since as bad as the US got, the Soviet Union fared far, far worse in the exchange.
120	* Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheLongWalk'' is set in another alternate history where the US is under military dictatorship. Exactly what form, and how things got to this point are left vague; there are a couple of comments indicating that World War II dragged out much longer in this reality.
121	* John Birmingham's ''Literature/WithoutWarning'' series is focused on what happens when a NegativeSpaceWedgie known as the Wave suddenly "removes" most of the population of the US, effectively removing the world's only remaining superpower on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The second novel in the series is even called ''After America''.
122	* In the beginning of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', it's a moderately decadent United States that merely [[DownplayedTrope downplays this trope]]. The events of the book involve the society of the United States undergoing a degeneration into extreme economic collapse, both because of the actions of the looters in the government, as well as the ways in which John Galt and the strikers react to these actions.
123	* In Fyodor Berezin's ''Red Stars'' trilogy, the Parallel!USA is barely hanging on against the expanded Parallel!USSR, and the two superpowers (if the US can still be called one) even occasionally trade nuclear blows (mostly of the tactical variety). It should be noted that the Parallel!USA is a military dictatorship, having been in this state pretty much since UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when the Parallel!USSR crushes Nazi Germany in under 2 years and continues taking over (sorry, ''liberating'') countries.
124	* The ''Daybreak'' series is about a radical environmentalist group using nanotech, biological agents, and fusion bombs (super nukes) to destroy modern technology and infrastructure, sending the world back into (at best) early [=1800s=] tech. While this is a global event, the main focus is on the United States, and its disintegration over the course of the series. By the time the series is done: after the nuking of DC, two rival governments emerge -- the Provisional Constitutional Government, based in Olympia, Washington, which directly controls the Pacific Northwest and has influence over the entire western half of the country, and the Temporary National Government, based in Athens, Georgia, which controls most of the South (and which is later taken over by religious extremists who declare the region the Christian States of America). Utah, Texas, and California (which is taken over by a neo-feudal movement and declared a duchy) become highly autonomous, with the latter two eventually seceding. Alaska secedes early on. Hawaii dissolves into chaos and loses contact with the mainland. Arizona loses territory to California and Nevada, as well as the Apache and Navajo nations, which declare independence. Oklahoma likewise loses its eastern half to Native American independence, resulting in the Allied First Nations and Western Oklahoma. Montana is part of the PCG, but has strong movements for both independence and federating with Alberta. And then there's the Lost Quarter, the entire region north of the Carolinas and east of Kentucky and Illinois, which is so heavily devastated by the immediate and after effects of Daybreak and overrun by pro-Daybreak tribals that any large government in the area is impossible. That said, there are a few centers of civilization -- Castle Earthstone in Indiana, a tribal stronghold that declares independence from Daybreak and eventually establishes a Domain around the eastern Great Lakes region; Pelissipi, several counties along the Virginia/West Virgina border region which banded together to drive off the tribals and found a new state; and Manbrookstat, which is technically just a city-state operating out of the ruins of New York City, but whose totalitarian leader, the Commandant, declares nominal control of all Lost Quarter territory not claimed by the TNG/CSA or the Domain. And further complicating things is the Commandant founding the Atlantic League (a confederacy of similar city-states around the Atlantic), and opening the Lost Quarter to colonization by his partners.
125	* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': The Nations of North America have been gone for at least 175 years. The United States and its Republic are even noted. In their place is Panem, a totalitarian state composed of thirteen Districts and the Capitol, which possibly represents the last bastion of humanity.
126	* ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'' takes place in this sort of BadFuture, where America was weakened by a [[HilariousInHindsight Second World War]] in which all of Europe formed an alliance against them, and is subsequently conquered by Mongolian invaders who sacked the entire country but don't bother subjugating the populace because there own technologically advanced society is too self-sustaining to have any use for America's resources or manual labor. As a result, America is left as an anarchistic wasteland where the ruins have been almost completely reclaimed by nature, and the closest thing to a government is a handful of loosely affiliated "gangs" (basically fiefdoms).
127	* In Vera Nazarian's ''Literature/TheAtlantisGrail'' series, the United States has fallen into second-world status due to several causes such as damage through climate change (Manhattan is specifically mentioned as now being a city like present-day Venice) and the rise of China and new nations (such as 'Greater Scandinavia' and 'United Industan' - the merger of India and Pakistan into a single super-power). Also, it's heavily implied that the West Coast of the U.S. has fallen on hard times due to radiation from the 2011 Japanese tsunami and nuclear accidents, as the main character's family moves to Vermont from California after the mother develops cancer (from radiation exposure suffered during their time in Los Angeles).
128	* Parodied [[PoesLaw (probably)]] in Creator/{{Greg Egan}}’s story “In the Ruins”, which extrapolates America’s cultural AntiIntellectualism to such an extreme that the result is a country in which infrastructure is falling apart because of the populace’s embrace of every kind of pseudoscience, and the scientists who are trying[[note]]and failing, due to society’s refusal to cooperate[[/note]] to fix things are now derided, being called [[BigStupidDooDooHead “poopyheads”]] [[SophisticatedAsHell even on national news broadcasts]] at best, and outright hated at worst. It’s implied that the US took the rest of the Western World down with it, and its place on the world stage taken by the Middle East, which has become secular and democratic. This ultimately means that the direction of “brain drain” has been reversed, as now it’s young Americans who want to move to other countries to seek better lives than they would live if they remained at home.
129	* ''Literature/{{Patternist}}'': In the late 21[[superscript:st]]-Century setting of ''Clay's Ark'', the United States has mostly degenerated into walled enclaves of the privileged, crime-infested urban "sewers", and lawless rural areas dominated by gangs. One character is seen as nearly insane for immigrating from Europe. By ''Patternmaster'', America is entirely gone, replaced by a FeudalFuture and a SupernaturalElite.
130	* Implied to have happened in ''Literature/TheKillingStar'' before the [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter R-bombings]]. On the eve of her tricentennial, America had exclusive preservationist communities that replicated 20th-century architecture- from the streets to fake TV antennae- to recapture the "glory days." There's a mention of Mexico protesting the growing number of American illegals crossing the Rio Grande, while [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld China]] was the richest country and last democracy on Earth before the destruction of civilization.
131	* The classic 1950 sci-fi story ''Coming Attraction'' by Creator/FritzLeiber, set during an ongoing war between the US and the Soviet Union. A Hell-Bomb has been dropped on New York, violent street gangs make everyone afraid to go out at night, and the protagonist is involved in bartering British electronics for American wheat, implying that the US economy has collapsed. Plus both sides are racing to build a MoonBase that can be used for nuclear missiles.
132	* The Sixth World of ''Literature/TrailOfLightning'' saw the Energy Wars destroy much of the world and the Big Water flood what was left. Of the former United States, the last heir of its government is the Republic of New Denver (as known to the people of Dinétah in the American Southwest, at least).
133	* ''Literature/AfterTheRevolution'': After the SecondAmericanCivilWar and [[DividedStatesOfAmerica the division of the US]], most of the successor territories of the US became failed states. While the north-eastern American Federation is implied to be mostly stable (although suffering from economic inequality, is dependent on imports of practically everything and is an international laughingstock), the southern United Christian States are a theocratic backwater, Florida has become a BananaRepublic, Texas has turned into civil-war era UsefulNotes/{{Syria}} with a weak libertarian government battling several different ideological and popular uprisings backed by foreign governments, most of the south-west collapsed entirely from climate change and a lack of water, the Republic of California suffering from its own water shortage and a weak economy, and the north-western Cascadia being a stable but ultimately irrelevant rump state in constant conflict with California. Canada outright annexed much of the Great Lakes region to keep the area stable, and the midwest is halfway ruled by the [=AmFed=] and halfway abandoned entirely.
134	* In the backstory of ''Literature/FitzpatricksWar'', the United States of the latter years of the 21st Century is portrayed as a dysfunctional mess in which gangs and populist movements not only terrorized the streets but had grown powerful enough to control Congress. [[spoiler:It's little wonder the early [[TheConspiracy Timermen]] concluded that unleashing [[ResetButton the Storm Times]] and destroying modern civlization would be an ''improvement'']].
135	* ''Literature/ViceroysPride'': [[spoiler:Ibis basically conquers the entire world in book 2... only to promptly commit suicide on live television when he swallows a mana crystal in a vain attempt to gain magic. His Illuminati backers try to take over in his stead. In book 3, Dan manages to put things back together ''relatively'' quickly by running his mercenary company and backing a ReasonableAuthorityFigure mayor]].
136	* ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'' states that the United States still exists, but it is a shadow of its former self, following the disastrous Purity War. Many cities in the Midwest are quarantined as part of an experiment to produce genetically pure people. Nobody knows what happens in the West Coast, as the terrain is too rough to traverse, implying that it is a no man's land.
137	* In the ''Literature/LegendSeries'', not only the United States has divided in two, the remnants aren't idyllic places to live in. The Republic is a nightmarish dystopia ruled by a totalitarian government, while the Colonies is a consumer-dominated police state.
138	* In ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'', the U.S. government collapsed shortly after the Flare virus outbreak, and settlements now operate independently.
139
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
143	* ''Series/DarkAngel'': After the denotation of an EMP device by terrorist groups in 2009 (the series premiered in 2000 and [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture was set in 2019]]), the United States is barely more than a third world nation.
144	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft "Turn Left"]] suggests very strongly that this happens to the U.S. in Donna's AlternateTimeline after the Adipose kill a large portion of the American population. The fragmentation is used to end a HopeSpot, since the UK, beset by other alien invaders, was looking to America for much-needed aid.
145	* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': The BadFuture seen in the "Epilogue" episodes shows a United States that, like much of the world, has fallen into chaos due to [[spoiler: Rossum -- or someone else -- weaponizing the MindWipe technology from the Dollhouses.]]
146	* ''The Fire Next Time'': This 1993 TV movie has global warming turn the USA into a nation of climate refugees seeking entry into Canada.
147	* ''Series/Jericho2006'': The United States has been nuked to hell and back, and has been split into three nations, the Allied States of America, the United States of America, and an independent UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}.
148	* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'':
149	** 15 years after the blackout, all American cities are ruined {{Wretched Hive}}s, and the rest of the country has been divided up between militant warlords.
150	** At least only the Monroe Republic -- the warlord state the series so far takes place in -- has been confirmed to be a warlord state. The other republics haven't even been mentioned by name, let alone what governmental structure they've adopted.
151	** [[http://revolutionison.blogspot.com/p/map.html This map]] (shown in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E5SoulTrain episode 5]]) gives an idea of the size, shape and names of the major powers in what used to be the United States, some of which, including the Monroe Republic, stretch into what used to be Canada and/or Mexico.
152	** In addition, "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E14TheNightTheLightsWentOutInGeorgia The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia]]" show that the Georgia Federation is a much nicer place to live, with wealth, commerce, and international trade. Then the episodes "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E15Home Home]]", "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E16TheLoveBoat The Love Boat]]", and "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E17TheLongestDay The Longest Day]]" show that the people of the Plains Nation are living very much like the Plains Indians (without the racist implications), and that the friendliness depends on which tribes you encounter.
153	* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'': As might be expected given that the protagonists keep jumping from one parallel Earth to the next, this happened in a few episodes. The pilot in particular showed a world where this happened after the US lost the Cold War.
154	* ''Series/{{Incorporated}}'': Climate change has devastated the United States so that outside the corporate-owned "Green Zones" the country is one big slum. The pilot shows a news report about Canada building a wall to keep out illegal American immigrants and the fourth episode opens with a Chinese ad soliciting donations to aid children in America.
155	* ''Series/VanHelsing2016'': At the very least, the West Coast has been overrun by vampires in the years since Yellowstone erupted and blotted out the sun, leaving all humans not kept enslaved as cattle either holed up in isolated sanctuaries or reduced to scavenging for survival. Season 4 reveals that other parts of the country, though, are still operating in pre-Rising conditions, with the federal government even still operating out of Washington DC.
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	[[folder:Podcasts]]
159	* ''Podcast/ItCouldHappenHere'': The United States in the podcast's hypothetical scenario details the US becoming this, leading it being pushed into civil war.
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
163	* Creator/GamesWorkshop's now-defunct TabletopGame/DarkFuture had an [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture America of the mid-90s]] wracked by environmental damage, essentially owned by Japanese {{megacorp}} [=GenTech=] in which the cities were divided into Policed Zones and No-Go Ghettos and most of the Southern States were effectively independent of Washington.
164	* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' has a time-travel supplement that describes an alternate timeline where Germany has won World War II and made the U.S. a police state under its influence after annihilating a few cities to show who's the boss.
165	* The 80s action-inspired free game ''[[http://livresdelours.blogspot.com/p/in-english.html The Hard Way]]'' features an America much like the one from ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'', with MICOM[[note]]'''M'''ilitary-'''I'''ndustrial '''COM'''plex[[/note]] and the Yuppies controlling everything, Manhattan being turned into a state penitentiary, political dissent being considered treason under the "[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Freedom Act]]," HOMSEC goons blackbagging people at night and sending them to FEMA camps, Chinese-Americans being interned because of the current war against China, survivalists, death cults and racial supremacists thriving outside the big cities; and everyone with slave wages, potato chips and TV sets -- basically a corporate-fascist America nightmare. All this in the backdrop of a three-way conflict between the US, the Chinese and the Soviet Union for the last remaining natural resources, with the [[CrapsackWorld rest of the world not being much better than America]].
166	* This is the end result of the ''TabletopGame/{{OGRE}}'' universe, though to be fair, [[spoiler: the entire rest of the world goes first.]]
167	* This is basically the state of the UCAS (United Canadian and American States) in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. It's a standard {{Cyberpunk}} dystopia, with much of the original U.S. lost to the Native American nations, extensive MegaCorp influence, and so on. [[spoiler:By the time of the game's Sixth Edition (2072), the UCAS is officially on its last gasps]].
168	* In [=GDW's=] ''TabletopGame/{{Twilight 2000}}'', the US was shattered by a nuclear war in the late '90s. The government has fractured into two factions, "Civgov" and "Milgov" but most of the country is actually in anarchy. The follow-up game, ''TabletopGame/TwentyThreeHundredAD'', shows that the nation eventually recovers, though it does not regain super-power status.
169	* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' has the trope bad, as it takes place in an AlternateHistory where America collapsed instead of the Soviet Union. The US still exists, but is only really in control of the Eastern seaboard. The Midwest and Southwest are dominated by corporate enclaves, roving nomad bands and subsistence farmers trying to eke out a living and avoid being swallowed by big agribusinesses. Texas, Utah and Nevada have all broken off from the Union. California has seceded, broken up into [=SoCal=] and [=NorCal=], and is owned in all but name by [[MegaCorp the Arasaka corporation.]] In the Pacific Northwest, Militech has for all practical purposes taken over the function of the Federal, State and local governments, and Wyoming (of all places) is a socialist state that pays lip service to the Federal government, but is ''de facto'' independent.
170	[[/folder]]
171
172	[[folder:Video Games]]
173	* Not explicitly stated, but implied in order for the settings of video games where you play as a VillainProtagonist who did criminal acts, mostly WideOpenSandbox games, like ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'', and ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' to exist. Those games feature largely autonomous city-states run by criminals with easy access to military-grade firepower fighting against systematically-corrupt and highly-militarized police forces, while the political leaders are even more cartoonishly corrupt than they are in real-life, approaching an odd mix between post-collapse former Soviet states and war-torn African nations.
174	* In ''VideoGame/AfterTheEndAPostApocalypticAmerica'', the United States, as well as Canada and Mexico, have imploded after "the Event". The USA is now little but legend, and the continent has fallen into neo-feudalism. Invasions by Japanese, Russians, and Great Britain can also occur, and DC is explicitly stated as being slowly swallowed by the surrounding swamps.
175	* ''VideoGame/{{Assassins Creed\|I}}'': An email in the first game reads about a border conflict between Mexican soldiers and Americans trying to escape into Mexico. [[spoiler: Later revealed to be hoax emails planted by a resistance group.]]
176	* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'' is set ten years in the wake of a successful attack on the United States that kills 27 million Americans and leaves the nation in shambles. Industry is all but destroyed, cities are decaying, and the government is unable to field a proper military, leading to the ones responsible for the attack (a collaboration of various South American nations led by Venezuela) able to stage an invasion of the country and occupy the American Southwest. The "Ghosts" are a collection of individuals who worked in special operations prior to the assault and now fight to defend the remnants of their broken nation from its enemies.
177	* A strong possibility in ''VideoGame/ChoiceOfRobots'' either due to the [[spoiler:Sino-American War]] or the [[spoiler:Alaska Rebellion]].
178	* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'': Since America has appeared in every version of the game, this can happen anytime they lose. Given that later versions make America a Mid-Late Game Power House and an expansionist, they tend to get very big, very early, and have little ways to specialize in defending themselves, this can often result.
179	* In ''VideoGame/CookServeDelicious'', the year is 2042, and the United States is in shambles after the "Blue War". Five of the states were bombed to hell and are just perpetually burning, several east coast states and the entire state of Oregon (as in, the entire landmass within its border) got flooded, and Texas seceded from the country and built a great wall around its borders. People have to go outside wearing radiation suits in the worse off states, and there a lot of displaced android soldiers trying to live out a life after the war. You play as a humble chef just trying to make ends meet in this world.
180	* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': This trope is less in effect than in the tabletop game (see above), mostly due to [[EvilInc Arasaka]]'s influence waning in the aftermath of the Fourth Corporate War. The New US has been able to reassert its influence in many parts of the South and steadily push west, regaining at least partial control over almost all of its former territory. However, a lot of people have noticed how the Federal government seems to be depending heavily on support from Militech, and a lot of former and [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny not-so-former Militech employees have appeared in key positions]]. The general feeling is that while the United States' power is growing, it's essentially [[OneNationUnderCopyright become another Militech subsidiary]].
181	* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': The United States is in a what is the worst economical state it has ever been in its history, as implied by a conversation between two French civilians. The Grey Death has hit the nation hard, the majority of civilians encountered are homeless, many citizens are in active revolt, parts of Texas have been [[MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack conquered by the Russo-Mexican alliance,]] and the backstory explains the United States has been in the gutter [[RegionalRedecoration ever since a massive earthquake sank a good chunk of the West Coast]] twenty years before the game starts, which along with new gun control legislation about twelve years afterwards, led to a [[DividedStatesOfAmerica second civil war]]. News articles read show that politicians still act like the nation is a superpower, but this is obviously no longer the case, with that honor now taken by [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld China.]] [[spoiler: One ending has the US dissolve in the turmoil of the collapse, and the other it can be assumed that it's functions were absorbed in the JC-Helios government. If one doesn't reject Invisible War, it fell apart completely in the years during the Collapse.]]
182	* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'': Not as bad as the original game, but it is on its way there. News articles and books read mention that the economy for the United States has taken a turn for the worse, and secessionism, cities and states declaring or demanding more autonomous rule and internal fighting is starting to become a political issue. An e-book mentions that Canada is starting to become the place to be in North America. By the look of things, China is already in the lead by this point. Just look at Hengsha, an enormous two-tiered city.
183	* ''VideoGame/{{Dystopia}}'': The United States in the backstory began a downward spiral as its currency collapsed as more and more nations switched over to other reserve currencies. By the time of the game, it no longer exists, now broken up into several different nations, the most powerful being the United Dominion of Canada.
184	* Even before nuclear war broke out in the universe of ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'', the United States was on the decline, with the government growing increasingly tyrannical and warlike in the wake of resource shortages. Hundreds of years after the bombs fell, there's nothing left of the U.S. government but the Enclave, who are always the antagonist when they show up and were secretly responsible for [[spoiler:the many inhumane experiments conducted on the citizens of the Vaults]].
185	* {{Downplayed\|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/FarCry5'', but radio broadcasts make it clear the United States isn't doing great. The reason the Federal Government hasn't gotten involved with stopping Eden's Gate are the ongoing tensions with North Korea in the Pacific and across the Middle East, with many response teams moved to cities along the coasts. Meanwhile, America is also facing terrorist threats, a multi-state drought, a security breach at a major credit company, a nuclear power plant having to be shut down following a malfunction, and major federal budget cuts and many store chains declaring bankruptcy, suggesting a depression is on the way. [[spoiler: Made worse following a nuclear attack on Moscow that leaves millions dead, eventually spiraling into a full-scale nuclear war.]]
186	* ''VideoGame/{{Homefront}}'': Even before the Korean invasion, the United States was a mess, with gas prices skyrocketing, and the nation's states threatening to go to war with each other. Both Canada and Mexico closed their borders in order to stem the wave of refugees flooding in.
187	* ''VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg'' (a mod for ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron 2/Darkest Hour'' and ''Hearts of Iron 4'') has the USA in a bad state in the alternate 1930s of the game, with extremist factions both left and right rising, secessionist rumblings on the Pacific Coast, and the economy in a depression without an FDR-like inspirational figure amongst the democratic factions. Then comes a four-way civil war... though the end-result of that is likely to still be a powerful America, it just might be under the aegis of the Combined Syndicates of America or the American Union State rather than the USA. It really only sticks with this trope if the Pacific States of America wins and goes for remaining the PSA (in which case the the rump USA established is a puppet state of the PSA -- the alternative is restoring the USA by becoming it) or if the USA becomes and remains a military dictatorship under [=MacArthur=] and then collapses into chaos upon the general's death (which leads to the USA splintering into several independent republics).
188	* A ZombieApocalypse results in the complete collapse of the United States in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs''; during the initial outbreak, the government is dissolved and taken over by the military, who rules over a series of walled-off "Quarantine Zones" across the country. Within 20 years, the vast majority of Zones have fallen, either to civilian uprisings (like Pittsburgh) or simple neglect and lack of supplies (like Hartford and presumably Salt Lake City). By the time the game starts, Boston is one of the only Zones still under total military control, and they rule with an iron fist, executing suspected Infected along with anyone who so much as looks at a soldier funny. A [[LaResistance resistance group]] called the Fireflies fights to restore the original US government and find a cure, but the country is arguably too far gone for any of that to help.
189	* ''VideoGame/ShatteredUnion''
190	** Washington DC was destroyed by a nuclear attack killing everyone in the federal government, and the US had been divided into 6 factions, all plus the European Union vying to reunify the country in their terms and not to mention [[RussiaCalledTheyWantAlaskaBack Russia "taking back" Alaska]].
191	** The [[AllThereInTheManual manual]] implies that the country was already in a downward spiral. The President effectively disqualifies all potential opponents and "wins" his re-election. The resulting riots on the West Coast cause the President to declare martial law and send in the military to put them down. Domestic terrorism is on the rise, resulting in the above-mentioned nuking. However, [[spoiler:it's revealed close to the end of the game that the whole thing was deliberately set up by the Russian President to cripple the US]].
192	** Interestingly, your actions in the game will reflect whether or not you will restore the nation to its former glory or turn it into a dictatorship with many cities nuked into rubble. Essentially, if you avoid damaging cities, you're good. If you frequently damage cities and/or use nukes, you're bad.
193	* The Nazis TakeOverTheWorld in ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'' and that includes America, topped off by dropping an [[NukeEm atomic bomb]] on [[BigApplesauce New York City.]] The rest of the country surrenders shortly after. ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'' follows on as [[LaResistance the Kreisau Circle]] heads to America to liberate it from Nazi oppression - coming face to face with an America with such timeless media classics as ''Liesel'' (an ABoyAndHisX-style story about a young girl and her car-sized, fire-breathing RobotDog) and ''German or Else!'' (a game show testing contestants' knowledge about Germany - with anyone who fails a question being sent to a re-education camp) that is soon coming up on "Changeover Day" (the day when speaking English in America will be outlawed and [[DisproportionateRetribution punishable by execution]]).
194	* In ''VideoGame/MentalOmega'',a GameMod of VideoGame/RedAlert2, the poor US falls ''twice''.
195	** Throughout Act 1, a re-tread of the Third World War from the base game, the Allies do ''much'' worse against the Soviets than they canonically did (as in, they spend the entire Act getting their faces smashed in), including the US...which isn't helped ''at all'' by the other Allied subfactions, the Euro Alliance and Pacific Front, slipping into UngratefulBastard mode and deciding to help themselves to the US' laser technology instead of fully help them against the Russian/Latin Confederation invasion. End result? The whole country's conquered by the end of Act 1, re-organised into the ''Soviet'' States Of America.
196	** Act 2 has them falling prey to the influence of the newly-emerging Epsilon Army (the mod's version of Yuri's faction), starting with Stalington DC getting mind-controlled by a Psychic Beacon and [[spoiler:ending with the ''entire'' country being mass-brainwashed, along with the rest of the world, by the [[AntagonistTitle Mental Omega]] [[MindControlDevice Device's]] activation at the end of Act 2.]]
197	[[/folder]]
198
199	[[folder:Webcomics]]
200	* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', Uncle Sam often appears in strips depicting this.
201	* ''Webcomic/BluRiversRevolution'' features the fractured United State, a massively corrupt and unstable republic controlled by corporate interests in the midst of a civil war.
202	[[/folder]]
203
204	[[folder:Web Original]]
205	* ''[[http://www.wielkarzeczpospolita.net Wielka Rzeczpospolita]]'' is a humorous writing project illustrating Poland's rise to power over the course of 50 years, starting in 2018. By 2069 Mexico and Canada west of Ontario [[ExpandedStatesOfAmerica have been annexed by United States]], but the states of Alaska, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania [[DividedStatesOfAmerica have been ceded to Poland]] and the USA is suffering from catastrophic economic collapse and is dependent on Polish assistance.
206	* ''Literature/{{Winchester}}'': In the story's AlternateHistory backstory, WWII started much later, and as a result both Axis and Allies had nuclear weaponry, which led to mutually assured destruction. While there are plenty of areas left untouched by the bombs, the East Coast is a wreck and the US has balkanized.
207	* In the Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom story ''[[Literature/FearLoathingAndGumboOnTheCampaignTrailSeventyTwo Rumsfeldia]]'', the American government implements a hyper-capitalist economic policy, dismantling all corporate regulations, completely eliminating all forms of welfare, and even implementing an "investment certificate" system as a substitute for wages so that corporations don't have to actually pay their employees. Without any social services or worker protection, living standards in the United States go down the toilet with widespread poverty, terrible working conditons, and rampant disease caused by the gutting of the healthcare system.
208	* A civil war in the U.S. prior to the events of the ''WebVideo/SMPEarth'' Octangula ARG has led to Wyoming becoming "Laramie" and Oregon, California and Washington becoming "Cascadia".
209	* ''Website/AtlasOfMedievalAmerica'' imagines a world where human civilization is blasted back to TheMiddleAges overnight, and what the USA (which had no medieval period to revert to) would become by the 26th Century. The site remains unfinished to this day, but some of the resulting countries are named. The [[VestigialEmpire rump United States of America]] is an oligarchic maritime republic centered in Baltimore that controls isolated enclaves and the major shipping lanes along the East Coast extending into Canada; the Great Plains are inhabited by a loose confederation of nomadic tribes; the Confederate States (including an independent Georgia and the "Red River Territory") have reverted to plantation slavery but not along racial lines as [[InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace everyone in the South is biracial]] by that point; California splits into the northern "Republic" and the Scientologist-controlled southern "Free Zone"; the "Territory of Iowa" is a military dictatorship controlling all land between the Missouri and Wabash rivers; the "State of Deseret" is a Mormon theocracy controlling Wyoming and parts of Utah and Ohio; Washington DC became a city-state under the control of the American Non-Denominational Church similar to the Holy See, with the Supreme Court and Chief Justice filling the roles of the College of Cardinals and Pope; it also mentions several warlords in the East and Ancient Egyptian-style kingdoms clustered around rivers in the Western desert.
210	[[/folder]]
211
212	[[folder:Western Animation]]
213	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In ''May The Best Stan Win'', a cyborg version of Stan arrives from the future to train the Stan of the present to fight in a RobotWar against common household appliances which have achieved sentience and TurnedAgainstTheirMasters (he's actually just there to steal Francine from his past self). Stan and Francine comments on his weird accent, which sounds like a mix of Spanish and Canadian, and Cyborg Stan reveals that this is because Mexico and Canada form an alliance and takes over the U.S in about 100 years.
214	--> '''Stan''': My god, a great nation brought down by an army of gardeners and boring people!
215
216	[[/folder]]
217

Context Main / FallenStatesOfAmerica