"Yes, it does. But the China of that period was WAY larger than it is today. They ruled half of modern Mongolia, all the Tibetan plateau, and all of Manchuria.
It also claimed to rule Taiwan, though that was more fiction than fact. Regardless… China would never reach the size it once had been."
...
She flipped the sketchbook once more, showcasing a bunch of maps over countries that Izuku recognized from around the world. One was Japan, one Brazil, one Ethiopia, one France, and finally the Caribbean.
"Of course, the collapse wasn't equal everywhere. There was generally a trend. Large, heavily populated nations like Russia, China, The USA, Japan, REALLY didn't do very well, as their gigantic populations suddenly became a massive problem to feed. By comparison, there were smaller, less populated nations like Switzerland or the Scandinavian Kingdoms, who did… Decently well for themselves. However… This complete downward spiral didn't last forever. Things DID begin to stabilize after over a decade of non-stop chaos."
She tapped the block.
"Which, FINALLY leads us to the actual topic at hand. The origin of the Caribbean League."
"After around 15 years of non-stop chaos, things finally began to slow down, as the situation had drastically changed. For one thing, the countries that were still kinda in existence had now reached a level where they could actually feed their population. And with that, trade began to rise up again. Slowly, but surely. Of course, it didn't all happen at once. Spain was still a broken mess, at the same time as Japan was put back together again."
"There was also the simple fact that since Society had collapsed, there was suddenly way more Quirk users. Way more of them had been born, and people without quirks… Well, the end result of all of this, was that quirk users had jumped from 3% of society, all the way to 12%. Needless to say, at this point, any country that wanted to exist had given up on the idea of stripping quirk users of their human rights. But the question of quirk regulations still raged on, and would so, for almost 15 years more. Racism between quirk users and people without them didn't just go away either."
"And then… There was the final reason why the world was really beginning to put itself back together. You know the story about All For One yeah? A single, incredibly powerful quirk user rose in the complete chaos, and, as things finally began to stabilize in Japan, he began to gather an army of Quirk Users under his influence. And with those, he controlled huge parts of Japan from the shadows, as it finally began to rise from the ashes."
Izuku nodded.
"Yeah, it's… Not really something anyone could forget."
"Yeah… Anyway, here's the thing. When All For rose to such prominence… he wasn't exactly the first of his kind. Oh, he was in Japan, but by that point, there were plenty of people like him in the world."
She tapped Ethiopia.
"In Ethiopia, The rainmaker, a man with absolute, total control over the weather, did the exact same thing as All for One. Using his incredibly strong and useful quirk, he began amassing an enormous amount of followers, though Unlike All For One, this wasn't just quirk users either. The rainmaker made the entire Horn of Africa bloom, forever turning the empire he and his followers carved for themselves into the biggest breadbasket in the world. To put it bluntly, if his new empire hadn't suddenly become a breadbasket unlike any other, and he began to trade away that food with other nations, it's very likely that the societal collapse would have gone on for another decade. Of course… He wasn't the only one."
This time she Tapped Brazil.
"Similar story in Brazil. An extremely powerful quirk user shows up, rallies an army of superhumans behind him, takes over his crumbling nation, declares himself emperor, uses quirks to keep his nation running, being the only reason everyone has enough oil to keep going for example."
"Same thing happens in France, where the descendants of old Napoleon managed to keep the nation from disintegrating through the use of quirks, and rallying the quirk users Behind them. And on and on it went. Of course, it wasn't this dramatic everywhere, but you get the point. Frankly, speaking, what separates All For One from the rest of his ilk, wasn't his success, it was the fact that he chose to simply be a power behind the Throne, while the rest of the "Great Conquerors" at least tried to run their countries, with varying levels of success."
"But, before there was France, before there was Ethiopia, before Brazil… There was the Caribbean."
She tapped the island nation, slowly and deliberately.
"Before the Collapse, the Caribbean archipelago was divided into a dozen different nations. France, England, and the United States all owned parts of it, but for the most part, it was made up of a bunch of weak, independent island nations. And just like all the rest of the world, these nations collapsed. For 4 years, the entire archipelago was anarchy, death, and chaos. Then… Out from Haiti, came Maria Lincoln."
"She… I'm guessing she was the ancestor of The Big Man."
"She was. Maria Lincoln, just like All For One, possessed an amazingly strong quirk, and quite a bit of Charisma and intelligence. Her eventual Endgame, however, was the exact opposite of All For One. Whereas he simply ruled from the shadows and was content with that, she would rule in the open. She was the first of the great Conquerors, and she laid down the strategy so many of them would use, though none quite with her level of success."
"First, she rallied the quirk users of Haiti behind her. Then, she took over the country and then did something remarkable. She restored law and order. The thing that really separates her from the rest of her ilk, was that she focused on restoring the peace BEFORE she was down with her conquest. And that really did make a huge difference, as she and her quirk users began the work to rebuild Haiti, she became EXTREMELY popular. Like… I don't think there is a ruler alive today, who is as popular as she was when she restored order to Haiti."
"And from there… Well, it was a conquest. A gradual one, that wasn't quite as drastic and spectacular as the Rainmaker's, or the Napoleons, but on the other hand, it was quite a bit more stable. Her armies would move into her completely collapsed neighbors, restore order and peace with force while rallying the quirk users to her side, then using the power of those very same quirk users to rebuild everything that had been destroyed in the chaos."
"Frankly speaking, when the first vigilantes began to appear in America, they operated with the same kind of mentality as Maria did. She broke down the barriers between quirkless and quirk users by showcasing quirks as a positive thing for all, while also giving quirk users an actual purpose in society. It wasn't perfect of course, the fact she was a brutal autocrat kind of gave that away, but compared to the rest of the world, the empire she forged was a fucking paradise."
This… Sounded really interesting to Izuku. It also brought up a LOT of questions. He also did remember something he had read about while reading about the Amazing Spider-man.
"So… She built an entire empire, on the power of quirks, and united the Caribbean… But… in the 2130s the Caribbean was under American occupation right? How did that happen?"
"Oh, so you DO know something about history after all? Well, we'll get there."
She once again tapped the Caribbean. On her page.
"The Caribbean Empire had a… Kinda strange way it operated, where every quirk was utilized to it's fullest for the benefit of society. Electricity quirks were used to help power plants, quirks like that Momo girl were used to help create things out of thin air, teleporters helped move people and equipment in a single time, while quirks like ours were put to use to keep law and order. All for a better society. And the thing is… It worked. The Caribbean was the first place in the world that the barrier between Quirk users and non-powered humans began to break down. Sure, it wasn't an instant change, and again, it was a dictatorship ruled by a single family, but compared to the rest of the world, the Caribbean Empire was doing amazingly well."
"As the rest of the world burned around them, the Carribeans began to build a nation, and not only did they survive, but they actually thrived, as the archipelago began to take it's place as a great power. They also did something that they would deeply regret many years later. They helped out their neighbors."
...
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