The Arctic states, known in North America as the First nations, were a number of 21st-century arctic lying states created by mostly aboriginal peoples south of the Arctic during the Flood in Eurasia and North America.
Background[]
Arctic Nations at their peak in 2049.
Following the loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet, a wave of refugees in the North Atlantic and China had fled to find new opportunities around the Arctic Circle where the demand for skilled labor was high.
Beginning in the 2040s, aboriginal leaders began expanding their autonomy, gradually gaining independence from a combination of local political action and support from foreign corporations and governments looking to capitalize on newly accessible resources in the Arctic. In North America the First Nations were able to amicably achieve independence from Canada by allowing favorable access to arctic oil supplies to Canada without having to pay to build the infrastructure, or administer the flow of refugees.
Refreeze[]
In 2054 the Earth Working Group positioned Mars Solar Reflectors in Earth Polar Orbit in a geoengineering projects to return global temperatures, and by extent sea levels to pre-anthropocene levels. The project was widely supported by most of the planet which had been adversely effected by the environmental devastation of the Flood, however the Arctic Nations stood in vehement opposition to the project. The solar reflectors would functionally black out the skies over the First Nations, killing crops and reducing temperatures to inhospitable levels; additionally the return of the polar caps would close the Northwest Passage which the first nations depended on as both a major trade rout and access for arctic fishing and hydrocarbons. After several loud protests at the Organization of American States and the Global Environmental Council, the First Nations outrage was ultimately ignored and the project proceeded.
First Nations War[]
To survive, the First Nations allied to invade Canada's northern territories which were still warm enough to support some agriculture and industry (thanks in part to the Earth Working Group's "rewilding" of the subarctic). The Arctic Nations had long prepared to defend their valuable oil supplies and funded a military buildup before the Refreeze. Canada and Quebec quickly found themselves being invaded by the First Nations. In 2065, only three weeks into her presidency, US President Carla Anderson deployed US troops into Canada to end the civil war. US forces in occupied Cascadia and the Yukon invaded westward, while forces from Newfoundland pushed into Quebec to aid the nation in repelling an invasion from the North. With America's entrance into the First Nations War, Canada had hoped that victory would be assured, but one year on, the President Anderson's commitment was clearly marginal at best as she kept US forces in a purely defensive role, mainly to keep the war from reaching American interests. Facing an impatient public in the 2066 midterms, President Anderson put the US on a more direct path to end the conflict. The US successfully captured and occupied Calgary within two weeks after the surge, pushing north into Tlicho proper. Fighting in Alberta calmed, but as Tlicho began to take control of northern Canada's prairies and by extension the majority of Canadian farmlands, the government fell to internal fighting in Manitoba and Ontario. To secure American interests on a larger scale, the US sent peace keeping forces to restore order and installed a military government in Ottawa. By 2067 the US had deployed Space and Naval forces into the Arctic nations, and forced a ceasefire.