On January 1st, 2025, 99% of humanity disappears randomly with no explanation. The surviving 1% live in an incredibly underpopulated world, equivalent to pre-vanishing Germany. They have plenty of food, water, and resources, but all government authority has collapsed. This is what happens next, how humanity rebuilds. (In the U.S and Canada)
The Thousand Cities - U.S and Canada after 99% of the population disappears
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Prologue
On January 1st, 2025, 99% of humanity disappears randomly with no explanation. The surviving 1% live in an incredibly underpopulated world, equivalent to pre-vanishing Germany. They have plenty of food, water, and resources, but all government authority has collapsed. This is what happens next, how humanity rebuilds. (In the U.S and Canada)
The First Months
Not just would the economy collapse, not just would governments collapse, but civilization itself would collapse. The entire world population (80 Million) is less than that of Germany. The modern world requires so many interconnected institutions to function, and with 99% of the people gone they just would just completely fall apart. Sure, some state or provincial government leaders may be in the surviving 1%, but you need those institutions too to have a functioning government.
So, the U.S and Canada have essentially become stateless societies. And while there have been historically many stateless societies, they need something else to stop people from murdering and stuff. Northern America has none of that, and people are used to having a government. Crime would rise rapidly due to the lack of enforcement, people going insane due to losing everyone they knew or cared about, the explainability of the situation, and the fact that people were now often alone. However, with the world drastically underpopulated, food is not a problem. People are able to feed themselves just via food from local stores.
In cities, people would conglomerate on particular sections of the city. This is for multiple reasons:
1. Due to losing so many people they knew, and due to there being just way fewer people, people would have a sense of crippling loneliness and would want to be with people.
2. With crime rising and there being no police or government, in some places people would form self-defense organizations to stop this. But in areas where this didn't happen it there would be more crime so people would flee to the areas where it did.
3. It would be a lot easier to move when most of the houses are empty
So you would have sections of cities with self-defense organizations being the closest thing to actual government. While the rest would be even more sparsely populated with crime lowering due to the sheer lack of people. As time would pass their government structures would become more advanced, becoming the first Post-Vanishing governments, city-states.
What about Ruralia? Well, it doesn't exactly exist. For example, let's say some small town had a population of 1000 people. Well, it now has a population of 10 people. You can't even have crime or anarchy if there's no one to murder. Also, due to the crippling loneliness factor, a lot of people in rural areas would move to the cities, decreasing the population even further. Essentially, Ruralia is empty now.
With chaos throughout the country, electricity, the internet, and similar things wouldn't last that long. And with them being the closest thing to a government, they would be the ones that would have to restore it. And this would be an easier task than it seems, as they don't have to restore power to the entire city, but less than a 100th of it. And there are so many supplies just sitting there. So via many different ways, electricity, plumbing, and the internet (I'll get into it later but it's more like the internet of the early 2000s). This wouldn't happen everywhere, but there would be a sort of natural selection, with people moving into areas that did manage to get utilities back up. This would turn what was originally just self-defense organizations into the beginnings of city-states.
So by the beginning of 2026, what was once the U.S and Canada is now about a 1000 city-states
So, the U.S and Canada have essentially become stateless societies. And while there have been historically many stateless societies, they need something else to stop people from murdering and stuff. Northern America has none of that, and people are used to having a government. Crime would rise rapidly due to the lack of enforcement, people going insane due to losing everyone they knew or cared about, the explainability of the situation, and the fact that people were now often alone. However, with the world drastically underpopulated, food is not a problem. People are able to feed themselves just via food from local stores.
In cities, people would conglomerate on particular sections of the city. This is for multiple reasons:
1. Due to losing so many people they knew, and due to there being just way fewer people, people would have a sense of crippling loneliness and would want to be with people.
2. With crime rising and there being no police or government, in some places people would form self-defense organizations to stop this. But in areas where this didn't happen it there would be more crime so people would flee to the areas where it did.
3. It would be a lot easier to move when most of the houses are empty
So you would have sections of cities with self-defense organizations being the closest thing to actual government. While the rest would be even more sparsely populated with crime lowering due to the sheer lack of people. As time would pass their government structures would become more advanced, becoming the first Post-Vanishing governments, city-states.
What about Ruralia? Well, it doesn't exactly exist. For example, let's say some small town had a population of 1000 people. Well, it now has a population of 10 people. You can't even have crime or anarchy if there's no one to murder. Also, due to the crippling loneliness factor, a lot of people in rural areas would move to the cities, decreasing the population even further. Essentially, Ruralia is empty now.
With chaos throughout the country, electricity, the internet, and similar things wouldn't last that long. And with them being the closest thing to a government, they would be the ones that would have to restore it. And this would be an easier task than it seems, as they don't have to restore power to the entire city, but less than a 100th of it. And there are so many supplies just sitting there. So via many different ways, electricity, plumbing, and the internet (I'll get into it later but it's more like the internet of the early 2000s). This wouldn't happen everywhere, but there would be a sort of natural selection, with people moving into areas that did manage to get utilities back up. This would turn what was originally just self-defense organizations into the beginnings of city-states.
So by the beginning of 2026, what was once the U.S and Canada is now about a 1000 city-states