For some EVO information, check out (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/000739.html")this thread.(/url)
Here's some infor on the UE, straight from Peter Cartwright himself:
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**If UE seems like Western Europe, I would suggests that this is mostly because it contrasts strongly with well-known future United Earth/humanity examples like ST and B5 which (because they are produced by and primarily broadcast to) Americans, feel like America-in-space. (I often notice things like this in plug-ins or stories: references to the UE President, for instance. While United Earth does have a President, his role is mostly formal and just as a technical head of state (for a state which isn't entirely sure it is a state) - and it's a rotating position, and few people would know who it was at any given time (bit like Switzerland). So to see a US-style President portrayed (especially if he acts somewhat like Harrison Ford in Air Force One) amuses somewhat.)
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What the UE is based on is what might have happened to the Great Powers of the 19th century (who, yes, you will note were European) if a) they'd been colonising space, not the rest of Earth, and just around the time when the first world war would have been due, some unpleasant aliens arrived, forcing them to cooperate to survive - a cooperation which then continues once the crisis is over because the people of Earth begin to realise that they have more in common with each other than everything out there (so, in fact, a very European influence and reference, just not the one you thought it was).
A few other things: Planet names are fairly evenly distributed between the peoples and nations most likely to be first out there if (in the mid-21st century) interstellar drive did suddenly appear. If there's a slight bias towards European names - well just be glad I limited truly regional influence to one shuttle which might be called the U.E.S. Ipswich - rather than naming every last bit of space dust after small villages in Suffolk.
There are three UE Flagships (the Incontrovertible, the London and the Earth) - the London is a conceit on my part of course: no one would ever have been able to get that named passed for a Flagship. Trying to find a good name (ie. acceptable to all parties) for such a flagship would be difficult: it couldn't refer to any place or city, person or myth, anything at all in fact, which corresponded too closely with any particular country. Impersonal things like Victory or Defiance might sound okay - except that 'the Victory', at least, was of course the flagship of a rather famous British Admiral. Not to mention that the name would have to translate well into half a dozen other languages at least. I don't think there has ever been a warship called the Incontrovertible - and it's probably a good example of the sort of silly name the think tank involved would eventually come up with.
The 'capital' of the United Earth (or more correctly, the current seat of the United Earth Parliament) was at Lyons at one stage, however it rotates (in another mission it's in Lima) - how could people on Earth ever agree to have one fixed capital? There is no city 'international' enough to be acceptable. Everyone speaks British English because I speak (and write) British English - and didn't want to attempt corny American accents for any of the characters.**
The UE has a parliamentary system of government, which I included when I made "Reign of the UE."
God bless,
UE Patriot
P.S. The aforemewntioned thread went on a tanget or so on European countries, Russia, China, etc., but there's still some good information there.
P.P.S. Despite what Peter Cartwright said, I still think the Voinian Empire is evil.
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Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto; sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.