Nathan Brindle <-- redeacted --> writes:

> >> >   Later we hear of "the old U.S. data that General Lanningham brought to
> >> >South America after the debacle in the United States in A.E. 114." I would
> >> >assume that 2055 was quite a bit after the Thirty Days War and the other
> >> >achievements of the Hartley administration.
> >>
> >> Yes, this is exactly when I think the "big war" that followed the Thirty
> >> Days War happened.  And it's likely this is when Venus and Mars broke away.
> >
> >Well, Carr places the secession of Venus in 174 AE (2116 AD) in the *Empire*
> >"Chronology" (although his source isn't mentioned) which is sixty years
> >after this event.
>
> While I usually think Carr's chronology is questionable, you may well be
> right....I don't remember this being mentioned anywhere but it's been a
> while since I read the Empire stories.  (Can't find my copy.)

I couldn't find any specific (date-wise) reference in my recent rereading of
of the stories in *Federation* or *Empire*. :(

> >> It's quite possible that Allan Hartley's intervention (which I believe
> >> prevented the Third World War in favor of a shorter, smaller conflict--the
> >> Thirty Days War) just postponed the inevitable "big war" for 70 years or
> >> so.  In some ways that's a parallel to the Congress of Vienna keeping the
> >> lid on a simmering pot in Europe with little wars (what we would today call
> >> "brush fire" wars) that eventually blew up into the Great War in 1914.
> >
> >That sort of reasoning would seem very Piper-esque.  Wasn't it about 150
> >years between the Congress of Vienna and WWI?  Let's see, c30 AE (c1972 AD)
> >plus 150 is c180 AE (c2122 AD), right dab in the middle of the period between
> >the secession of Venus and the formation of the Second Federation!
>
> Yep.  I would always expect Piper to draw from history.  "You know, it's
> odd; practically everything that's happened on any of the inhabited planets
> has happened on Terra before the first spaceship."  :)

I've started re-reading *Four Day Planet* which mentions both "Third and
Fourth World Wars."  It's not clear--at least not yet--whether the Thirty
Days War and/or our hypothesized "Martian/Venusian War of Independence"
might be either of these.

Anyone have any further insight?

David Johnson                        Net: -- redeacted --
Rockville, Maryland, North America   Web: http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~david
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