- 09 May 2010 13:10
#13388024
Africa, South America, and Pacific nations would not be directly effected.
The nations of NATO, Warsaw Pact, and other various nations that might get involved in the conflict would be hit. Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Japan, China, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Cuba, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, and so on would get hit depending on whether or not they got involved.
The short-term? Nuclear winter lasting about a year would severely reduce harvest yields and would lead to famines in what was left of the countries directly hit as well as potentially causing famines in Third World nations that weren't. Hundreds of millions die in the immediate nuclear exchange and hundreds of millions more die within a few years later of starvation, radiation poisoning, and cancer. Every major city (and many minor ones) in the struck areas is in ruins. The surviving leaders leave their bunkers and find out they are not regarded as anything special by surviving commoners and that they rule a state which no longer exists.
The long-term? The nations that weren't directly effected go into an economic depression for a few decades with export markets or sources of aid. However, they still have a written language, some technological expertise, and a relatively intact infrastructure (albeit, not much). The various nations of Africa and Latin America war with each other with impunity and vie for power in their respective regions unmolested by outside influences. Eventually several contenders emerge and become dominant in their respective continents within a several decades. Once they become stable both economically and politically they begin to develop from left over Western technology and expand upon it. Europe, North America, much of the Middle East, and much of Asia are no longer radioactive, but are feudal societies with a few modern gadgets and methods left over from the pre-nuclear war period (basically Somalia with white people). Clans, tribes, and warlords control much of these regions. Literacy is about 10% and superstition rules the day while Africa and South America are experiencing a kind of golden age. As the decades and centuries pass Africa and South America eventually host powerful technologically advanced nations while most of the rest of the world is either still stuck in the dark ages or just starting to recover. Eventually the new powers start exploring Europe, North America, and Asia and possibly colonizing them.
*My hypothesis on the eventual rise of South America and Africa is based on the hypothesis that in many regards that Europe became the dominant region for technology, philosophy, politics, and trade after both the Black Death and Genghis Khan swept through Asia and the Middle East. The Black Death also hit Europe, but Europe was relatively unscathed from the Mongol invasions which devastated China and the Islamic Empires, which clearly eliminated actual and potential competitors of European states while the Europeans were given a chance to develop Chinese and Arab advancements while those civilizations were in ruins.
Communists have no more humor than Christians. No man who believes in apocalypses can possibly bring himself to laugh.-H.L. Mencken
I picture Dave's pickup lines including his sperm count and his ethnic background.-Truth-a-naut