Poul Anderson's
Sci-Fi Future Histories

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World of the Maurai

The World of the Maurai is a post-apocalyptic setting several centuries after an unspecificed collapse of civilization on Earth. Most of the knowledge — and some of the artifacts — of pre-collapse civilization remain in this new world but industrial capabilities are limited because much of the planet's natural resources have been depleted. The Maurai, a sea-faring nation based in the islands of the Pacific, are perhaps the most advanced society in this new world and use their influence — and when necessary, their naval power — to enforce moderate development in other nations across the planet.

The setting, first described in the 1959 story "The Sky People," was inspired by Anderson's reading of Harrison Brown's 1954 book The Challenge of Man's Future and culminates in the 1982 novel A post-apocalyptic Earth of the distant future where industrial resources and technological know-how are scarce, culminating in the novel Orion Shall Rise which uses ideas inspired by the late 1950's Project Orion.