WIP 
Name: Greater Interplanetary Commonwealth 

Location: Approx. 4200 ly sphere of influence originating from Sol, in the galactic South 
 

Form of Govt. and Applicable Leader(s): Deliberative Democracy 
 
History: Germany and Poland's continued economic and military growth until 2035 and the slow decline in many other EU countries left them as the strongest, most prosperous economies in Europe, which meant that they became a practical magnet for many industries looking to escape the economic declines in the Russian block, the rest of the EU, China, and many other parts in the world. The US's strong position meant that it was able to weather these troubles and grow closer with Poland, an emerging economic power, and Germany, an economic power that continued to grow. 
 
The growing robotics fields in Poland and Germany(particularly nanorobotics) provided an extremely attractive method of industrial production, while the renewable energy programs present in the EU meant relative shelter from the looming fossil fuel crisis. When the crisis did finally hit, several years later, the effects were massive. Particularly due to the effects the crisis had on China's trade partners, growing distrust for the PRC's government, and the slow movement of many industries out of China due to the shrinking need for a manual labor force, the Chinese economy began to quickly fall, barely recovering thanks to further increased need for rare earths - though even that sector of Chinese industry was in danger thanks to growing interest in extraterrestrial mining operations. Continued economic stability in Central Europe allowed it to quickly become an important part of the astronautics industry, eventually expanding into a top-notch, quick to join others in the construction of far less temporary space stations. 
 
Intense investment in astronautics research in the German/Polish-led EU, in a coalition with the US and Canada, culminated in 2073 - as the US remained powerful in the economic field and was already a major space power, the advent of Alcubierre Drive allowed for the coalition to rapidly expand into space. This meant far easier access to extraterrestrial resources, and thus domination over an abundance of valuable resources that were quickly becoming scarce on Earth. Poland, eventually, became not only a military power on Earth, but also one in space, along with Germany and the rest of the EU The eventual spread of the technology did soon allow other nations to follow suit, though not until the US-EU coalition so thoroughly dominated the field that other nations simply couldn't make much headway. They were simply forced to capitulate, as most nations not within the US-EU coalition we unable to recover from economic woes that had been going on for several decades. Evidently, though, the emergence of FTL technology posed a danger in that, were there extraterrestrials who existed but had not contacted or taken not of the human race, they likely would do so very soon. Upon the detection of transmissions in an unidentified language from the galactic north of Sol, formal military alliance between the nations of Earth became very soon necessary. In fifteen years, the necessity of it became clear, as the very same aliens whose transmissions had been uncovered began to attack human mining vessels near human space - as a result of their own economic troubles and slow collapse, the aliens made the decision to attack the humans in hopes of curing their economic ills and to prevent the rise of a new power. 
 
The Human response, in essence, was a closer alliance - to become as one nation in order to prevent their downfall. Quite simply, the humans were utterly militarily outgunned. Direct confrontation would be virtually suicide, and, as a result, covert action was the only option. Earth's best special forces units, equipped with new cloaking technology, managed to infiltrate the aliens and taint their food supply with a specially engineered bacterium, designed for maximum incubation period so that the absolute maximum number of them would become infected. 
 
Their next step was to sabotage military facilities in certain sectors, to divert attention away from the spreading bacteria by way of creating fear of a military offensive that, in reality, never even existed. In mere Earth weeks, the deaths began to occur - millions dropped dead thanks to the disease, long before a cure or vaccine could even be produced. Humans - now known as the Greater Interplanetary 
 
Commonwealth - began a vicious assault on the alien territory, sweeping them aside with sheer numbers and careful yet extremely deadly sabotage. Before any of the other extraterrestrial nations could even react to the conflict, it had already been won, by the very beings that were expected to have been swept aside. Humans made their mark on the galaxy that day, and quickly set about manipulating the knowledge of the aliens they had just defeated for their own advancement. Soon after, with the discovery of photon-matter conversion technology, they were able to refit most of their military craft, and began to dispatch envoys just as they made contact with the Stoor. 
 
Though initial relations were rocky thanks to an unexplained, diplomatic relations were quickly formally established as Stoor envoys arrived at Earth and began formal negotiations, although, once again, relations quickly spiraled into chaos as Stoor raids and attacks on the borders of human space became common. The government of Earth, after discovering the Stoor homeworld and the worlds surrounding it, pushed for a peace deal, which, in essence, allowed for transit of immigrants and trader between both nations, albeit with some controls. Even as Stoor business enter Terra's markets, the human government makes plans to strike back - and obtain a fearsome reputation in the galaxy. 
 
Other(anything beyond this point is additional information and, really, stuff I wrote for pure fun):