The aftermath of the Great War features a world in turmoil, and the events that led to Fallout’s inception were as ruinous as the Great War itself.

The Fallout universe takes place in a post-apocalyptic hellscape. The United States of America has become a radioactive wasteland. Every small town and city is a shelter for mutated creatures who are desperate to gain supremacy over one another. Nuka-Cola bottle caps have become a national currency, bounty hunters roam the countryside, and little pockets of society still exist within subterranean Vaults that protect their inhabitants from the effects of radiation and ongoing conflicts.

While the horrors of the Fallout world are plainly evident, the root cause of this disaster is not quite so apparent. The upcoming Prime Video Fallout show may not go too heavily into detail about the Great War that led to America becoming a radioactive fallout zone. The root cause of the disaster still deserves to be acknowledged, as everything in the universe is influenced by that one terrible conflict.

What Was Fallout’s Great War?

The Great War between China and the United States launched the world into chaos and was the foundation for the conflict that destroyed the world.

After decades of tension, the world of Fallout was rocked when the United States of America and China went to war. The Sino-American War began in 2066 and ended on October 23, 2077, when it evolved into the Great War. Originally, the war began when China successfully invaded Alaska, sparking a strong response by American forces. Aided by power armor, the U.S. managed to hold China to a stalemate, as the two sides desperately held their fronts in Alaska and Canada. The American public was frustrated with the stalemate, prompting the U.S. to launch a retaliatory invasion of China. The U.S. entered a second Red Scare, and tensions rose exponentially.

In 2077, the U.S. finally achieved victory in Alaska after over a decade of war. Fighting continued on the other fronts. Tragically, the long-held grip of Mutually Assured Destruction failed, leading to the event that influenced the lives of every Fallout character and companion: The Great War. Dismayed by their losses and seeking to end the war forever, China resorted to using nuclear weapons against the American mainland. After sensing that the nuclear warheads were launched, the U.S. President ordered strikes of their own. The Great War lasted only one day. Bombs fell over cities across the world and devastated the environment. By the end of October 23, 2077, the entire planet was a nuclear wasteland.

What Caused the Great War?

Disease and fossil fuel depletion were major causes of the Great War.

The effects of the Great War are readily apparent throughout the Fallout universe, but the causes are less clear. In the decades leading up to the Great War, China and the U.S. were becoming increasingly desperate for access to resources. With fossil fuel stockpiles slowly being exhausted, resource depletion became an existential threat to the great powers. The U.S. attempted to alleviate its own concerns by invading Mexico, but China needed the oil reserves in Alaska to survive. Fossil fuel is a major contributor to economic development, and China could not have thrived without it.

Another cause for the Sino-American War began when the European Commonwealth invaded the Middle East. Their presence plunged the world into economic turmoil, as another major source of oil was embroiled in war. The United Nations, an entity designed to prevent open warfare between great powers, was dissolved in July 2052. The Resource Wars would only escalate from there. Eventually, the U.S. even turned on its allies, as it annexed Canada during the Sino-American War.

Life in the 2050s only worsened in Fallout‘s lore when the New Plague was discovered in 2053. Hundreds of thousands died after its discovery, and the disease only continued to spread. The U.S. entered a nationwide quarantine, which only escalated the tensions of its people. Americans even voluntarily moved into Vaults to protect themselves from disease and the threat of a nuclear escalation. With so much of a need for resources and so much anger building, the U.S. would inevitably resort to an extreme response to the Chinese invasion. On the Chinese side, a need to fight disease and encroaching worldwide threats meant that an invasion was a necessary step for survival.

The Aftermath of the Great War

The Fallout universe has been plagued by the effects of the Great War since its inception.
From mutated animals to immoral science experiments, the worst of humanity emerged after the bombs dropped.

The Great War destroyed the world of Fallout. Every corner of the mainland U.S. is flooded with radiation, leaving horrific monsters around every corner. Mutant species, including radscorpions, deathclaws, and giant catfish roam the land and seas around the country. Two-headed animals with odd-numbered limbs regularly either feed or attack humans, leaving every inch of the countryside as a dangerous environment. The radiation is ever-present, and characters regularly succumb to radiation poisoning. The player character in the game must check their radiation levels, or else risk poisoning and death. The radiation is so prevalent that it has even gone on to mutate some organic beings, leading to the birth of long-living and deadly ghouls.

Warring factions have also taken over the world. The Brotherhood of Steel, the Underground, the Raiders, and the Followers of the Apocalypse are some of the groups that have come together in the hopes of surviving the apocalypse together. The Brotherhood of Steel, in particular, uses power armor to survive the day-to-day horrors of life in the wasteland. They hope to control the wasteland, while also continuing military tradition in the post-apocalyptic world.

One major faction is the Vault dwellers. Having purchased a place in the Vaults, they avoided the horrors of the Great War and survived in radiation-proof Vaults. Unfortunately, Vault-Tec’s Vaults vary in terms of quality and safety. Some are places of refuge, where the last semblance of pre-Great War humans lay in wait for the horrors to end. Most, however, were simply experiments that tested or tormented their dwellers. They tempted people with addictions, tested biological weapons on the dwellers, forced residents to live within simulations, and forced residents to kill each other. In forcing humans into the Vaults, the Great War brought out the worst of humanity.

Will the Fallout Show Depict the Great War?

The Fallout TV show is canon to the games, meaning that if it does show the Great War or what came before, the games will need to follow suit.
This also means that Prime Video’s Fallout needs to follow anything that the games have shown.

The Fallout show is likely to feature the Great War, but it is not likely to go into depth by featuring too many of the events. It has a strong core ensemble cast in Lucy MacLean, Maximus, and The Ghoul, and the story will likely focus on Lucy’s journey through the wasteland. The show will undoubtedly feature hints at the Great War and may feature the opening explosions, but the actual decades-long events will likely be left to future Fallout games.

Having lived when the bombs were being dropped, The Ghoul will likely reflect on the time before the Great War destroyed humanity. After all, he is in a unique position to remember it at all, despite the story taking place centuries after the end of the Old World. Lucy will likely reflect on the events as well, given that she lived in a peaceful Vault before journeying into the wider wasteland. She was undoubtedly raised with stories of the Old World and should be able to reflect on some of the events that led to Vault-Tec’s Vaults.

The Great War was the direct cause of the events of the Fallout stories. Without it, the world would still have been stripped of resources, but the mutants and monsters would not be roaming the world freely. Some semblance of society would remain. The Fallout world has suffered tremendously since the Great War, and Prime Video’s adaptation will need to reflect on exactly how it all came to be.