Why Chicago?

I lean towards it being a natural choice because The Chicago Way is how the Solarian League is run.

ericth wrote:I lean towards it being a natural choice because The Chicago Way is how the Solarian League is run.

Yeah, Kolokoltzov is da boss, Mayor Daley reincarnate, only not nearly so smart!

Don

Hasek wrote:Of all the places on Earth, how the hell did Chicago become the capital city of the SL?

Could be worse- in Julian May's Galactic Milieu/Exiles Saga Concord New Hampshire is the captial of the Human race.

from "Ashes of Victory"

Pit was known to the rest of the universe as the Central War Room of the Royal Manticoran Navy, but no one who had spent time in it ever called it by its official name. The Pit was kept permanently on the cool and dim side, the better to encourage alertness among watch standers and to enhance the visibility of their displays. Most of the time, as now, the vast chamber actually was as calm and orderly as the dim lights and chill air might suggest to the casual observer. And, truth to tell, the Pit had never been able to match the frenzy which must, for example, have gripped the Western Alliance's war room under what had once been a huge chunk of granite called Cheyenne Mountain back on Old Earth during the Final War. Then again, no enemy had ever successfully invaded the Manticore Binary System, even on a high-speed, hit-and-run basis, so no one in the Pit had ever had the doubtful pleasure of seeing a deep penetrator, two-hundred-and-fifty-megaton warhead headed directly at them.

Okay, fine, realistically it's fairly simple. Old Earth was dying before the following happened, this is Honor's Uncle Jacques speaking to some of the GA leadership:

Cauldron of Ghosts wrote:"My own ancestors--and Honor's of course... ended up in command of the Rescue Fleet. In a way, since the League grew out of the relief effort and the kick start that gave to interstellar commerce and travel in general, you could say the present day Sollies are at least partially our family's fault..."

So fine, the Rescue fleet arrives in Terran space, contacts someone to announce their intentions. If you're the Benton-Ramirez y Chou commanders, you need to protect the biggest agricultural production areas (the US Midwest) and fresh water supplies (the Great Lakes, specifically Michigan and Superior) first. Then you protect and start working with the medical personnel o the area to multiply your "healer count" while you begin work. [Ukraine might have been comparable on the first two counts, but is likely in ruins. Same for agricultural France.]

Chicago is the transport hub of that area, and the communication center. Where else would you land ships?

Alamo wrote:from "Ashes of Victory"

Pit was known to the rest of the universe as the Central War Room of the Royal Manticoran Navy, but no one who had spent time in it ever called it by its official name. The Pit was kept permanently on the cool and dim side, the better to encourage alertness among watch standers and to enhance the visibility of their displays. Most of the time, as now, the vast chamber actually was as calm and orderly as the dim lights and chill air might suggest to the casual observer. And, truth to tell, the Pit had never been able to match the frenzy which must, for example, have gripped the Western Alliance's war room under what had once been a huge chunk of granite called Cheyenne Mountain back on Old Earth during the Final War. Then again, no enemy had ever successfully invaded the Manticore Binary System, even on a high-speed, hit-and-run basis, so no one in the Pit had ever had the doubtful pleasure of seeing a deep penetrator, two-hundred-and-fifty-megaton warhead headed directly at them.

Hi Alamo,

Yep. That was the text I was referring to. Thanks for posting it.

Don

Why did Asimov have Chicago as his planetary capital in his Robot Shorts? Asimov lived primarily in NY and Boston.

And blame it on Roland Green, "Deck Load Strike" or That guy "From The Highlands".

A war involving KEWs would emphasize distance from the oceans. Only a handful of strikes would be needed to wipe out over ninety percent of hominids on Terra. Chicago would be the least worst choice under the circumstance. Other than Beijing or Moscow. Moscow would not survive Ukrainian nationalist victory in that area and Beijing would have been severely damaged in the "Beijing Coup" mentioned in CoG.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

n7axw wrote:Hi Phillies,

There is textev for Cheyenne Mountain in the Final War. I'm too lazy at the moment to hunt it down. But off the top of my head, it happens in AOV when Caperelli enters ONI's domain called "the Pit" where it is commenented that unlike the control room at Cheyenne Mountain, its denesins (sp) never had to face a nuclear armed penetrator missile headed directly at them...or something like that. At any rate, its there.

As for Chicago, why not Chicago.... it's home to da Bears, da Bulls, and da Cubs....sounds completely reasonable to me!

Don

Not to mention the White Sox

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Nobody mentions the White Sox.



-- Stewart

kenl511 wrote:Why did Asimov have Chicago as his planetary capital in his Robot Shorts? Asimov lived primarily in NY and Boston.

And blame it on Roland Green, "Deck Load Strike" or That guy "From The Highlands".

A war involving KEWs would emphasize distance from the oceans. Only a handful of strikes would be needed to wipe out over ninety percent of hominids on Terra. Chicago would be the least worst choice under the circumstance. Other than Beijing or Moscow. Moscow would not survive Ukrainian nationalist victory in that area and Beijing would have been severely damaged in the "Beijing Coup" mentioned in CoG.

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I believe Asimov had relocated the North American capitol (and by inference the world capitol in Asimov's series) for the same reason Washington was the decided US Capitol -- approx. mid-distance for all the then-colonies / states. Chicago is the relocated capitol due to mid-continent and access to major transportation access.
Another good mid-continent candidate would be St.Louis, but Chicago would be preferred.

-- Stewart

At the moment and for quite a while, The Great Lakes have emptied through the St. Lawrence River. One theory has been that what is the imediate Lakes region was previously emptying into the Mississippi watershead until the last set of glaciers melted back and exposed (having already contributed to) the course of the St. Lawrence.

If you take a look at the area south of Chicago and read back into it's history there was a portage route out from the South End of Lake Michigan and into the Des Plains River and then to the Illinois River which goes---to the Mississippi. There is also the Calument River that had a canal d that was dug over to run parallel to the Des Plains River, eventualy to connect to it for shipping. IF, --and it would take a really really large amount of water to do it-- you could not empty the lakes through the connection between, L. Michigan / L. Huron, then to L. Erie (that is the bigger choke point with the river and lake needed to pass Detroit) you are going to find the water making it's way at least over to the Illinois River and south to the Gulf of Mexico from there.