Commonwealth of Kentucky (Doomsday Report)
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Commonwealth of Kentucky | |
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 Flag
 Seal
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Motto: United we stand, divided we fall Deo gratiam habeamus (Let us be grateful to God) | |
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Anthem: My Old Kentucky Home | |
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| Capital | Georgetown |
| Largest city | Louisville |
| Official languages | English |
| Demonym(s) | Kentuckian |
| Government | presidential constitutional federal republic |
| Legislature | Kentucky General Assembly |
| Senate | |
| House of Represeantives | |
| Unification | |
| June 1, 1792 | |
• Reestablishment of the Commonwealth | July 9, 1985 |
| Population | |
• 2022 estimate | 2,014,019 |
• 2020 census | 1,989,391 |
| Currency | Kentucky Dollar ($) (CKD) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+ (Summer) |
| Date format | mm/dd/yyy |
| Driving side | right |
Kentucky (US:/kənˈtʌki/ (
listen) kən-TUK-ee) officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky is a soveregin nation located in North America bordering the Appalachian Mountains to the west, Pond River to the east and the Cumberland River to the south. It is situated between the overlapping cultural and geographic subregions of the South and Midwest colloquially known as the Upland South. Kentucky's territory is comprised of 102 readmitted counties and 13 temporary statutory counties in the former U.S state of Tennessee. Its capital is located in Georgetown, and its three largest cities are Louisville, Bowling Green and Pikeville. It has a population of approximately 1.9 million in 2022.
Prior to colonization by Europeans, Kentucky was home to the Iroquoian, Sioux, Algonquian, Muskogean and Yuchi tribes. In 1774 the first permeant settlement was established in present-day Harrodsburg. Kentucky County was established as a subordinate subdivision of the Virginia in 1776 and attracted migrants by the Wilderness Road. Kentucky was admitted to the former United States as the 15th state on June 1, 1792. Kentucky was a border state during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and asserted its neutrality within the Union throughout the war. During this period two competing governments existed within Kentucky, with a Confederate government establishing itself in Bowling Green. Unrest in response to the tobacco industry monopoly in the early 20th century culminated into the Black Patch Tobacco Wars (1904–1909). Labor strife throughout the 19th and 20th century occurred in a series of armed labor conflicts during the Coal Wars between 1890 and 1940. In 1944 the Tennessee Valley Authority constructed the Kentucky Dam, creating Kentucky Lake. During World War II and the Cold War the mechanized forces of the United States utilized Fort Knox as its permanent garrison and training site.
During the nuclear exchange of World War III between the United States and the Soviet Union, Kentucky's major military instillations and population centers were either destroyed entirely or significantly damaged. Kentucky's former capital, Frankfort and second-largest city Lexington were destroyed entirely. Kentucky's major population center prior to the conflict, Louisville, was significantly damaged, but its eastern suburbs were relatively left untouched. Every major military installation in pre-war Kentucky was destroyed, including Fort Knox, Fort Campbell and Blue Grass Army Depot. Several important locks and dams of the Ohio River and the dam holding back the Kentucky Lake were destroyed resulting in extreme flooding. Ashland and Elizabethtown were also destroyed during the conflict. Radiation sickness, famine and extreme weather conditions contributed to significant suffering, leading to approximately 1 million deaths within the state and the internal displacement of 235,000.
After several months of anarchy, the state government began coordinating relief and reinstating control within the region between Louisville and Lexington. Within each county there was varying levels of disorder, and in some extreme cases political infighting led to local conflict. Within the Blue Grass Region support coalesced behind the surviving Lieutenant Governor Martha Layne Collins, who at the time was the Democratic nominee for the 1983 Kentucky gubernatorial election. In Eastern Kentucky mining communities with strong union sympathies aligned themselves with the local leadership of United Mine Workers of America. In 1985 county executives from 25 counties assembled in Georgetown for Collins to sign to the Reestablishment of the Commonwealth Act, outlining the protocol for reestablishing contact with neighboring counties and insubordinate counties. Salvaged radio equipment was furbished and communication became stable among key government officials throughout central Kentucky. Collins was reelected during the 1987 election and through the remainder of her term continued to push for the reestablishment of local electoral processes and judicial authority, by 1991 roughly 89 counties had be readmitted to the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a federal republic with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. It has a strong presidential system with an dominant-party system, ranking lower than its neighbors in the Local Government Freedom Index (LGFI). It is ranked poorly in indexes reporting on political corruption, wealth inequality, and quality of life. While being one of the more long lived provisional state governments it is considered by most international institutions as being politically unstable. The current serving President is Wallace Holt, first elect in 2019. Kentucky has been a major center of coal mining, the tobacco industry and has recently seen a revival in manufacturing. It is a major agricultural producer, and ranks 1st in goat farming, 6th in cattle exports in North America. Kentucky is also the largest exporter of liquified coal which has become the main fuel source for vehicles and military equipment in North America since World War III. It is the largest exporter of coal in the former Eastern United States. The two largest employers within the commonwealth are state-owned enterprises, Kentucky Liquified Coal Corporation (KLC) and Eastern Fields Coal Extraction Corporation (EFCEC).
In 1993 the Kentucky General Assembly rejected joining the United States, Chillicothe during a Constitutional Convention with Appalachia, West Tennessee State, Provisional State of Western Virginia and the Provisional Assembly of Indiana Townships. It has refused to align itself with various contemporary claimants to the successorship of the United States federal government, although it maintains close ties with United States, Hot Springs. In 2020 the last cohort of counties joined the Commonwealth, with six counties in western Kentucky counties seeking admittance in 2025. Kentucky maintains diplomatic relations with the majority of North American nations, and maintains embassies in 39 sovereign nations. It is a member of the Central States Economic Compact (CSEC), Forum for the Restoration of the United States (FRUS), Assembly of Provisional State Governments (APSG), and the Ohio Valley Navigation Compact (OVNC).
Etymology
Geography
History
World War III
During the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union had roughly a combined total of 21,000 nuclear nuclear warheads in their arsenals. Both the Soviet Union and the United States employed a policy of Mutal Assured Destruction (MAD), where both belligerents had the understanding that any attack would be devastating to themselves. Both the Soviet Union and the United States wielded multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), which could deliver several nuclear warheads on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The United States defense policy employed the usage of "nuclear sponges" in Montana, Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming and Missouri. In these western states the United States had developed expansive nuclear silo sites that held the nation's nuclear arsenal and was the primary target of the Soviet Union. The United States did not develop nuclear sites in Kentucky prior to World War III and was not a primary target for the Soviet Union.
On September 26, 1983, roughly three weeks after the Soviet Union had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the Soviet nuclear early-warning system known as Oko detected that a missile had been launched from the United States. After five additional missiles had been launched the Soviet Union initiated its counterforce nuclear strategy. The United States also deployed its counterforce strategy after the North Warning System detected launches from the Soviet Union. Both the United States and the Soviet Union valued military targets over civilian targets during the counterforce exchange. In Europe and Asia targets were also calculated into the Soviet Union's counterforce strategy. With the detonation of high altitude nuclear weapons over the United States and the Soviet Union missile silos in both nations were effectively cut off from their command structures. The nuclear capabilities of both nations were mostly either destroyed or severely damaged and the remaining arsenal of both nations for a countervalue attack were limited. In the later stages of the nuclear exchange, missiles were used at the discretion of select surviving officers. Prior to the breakdown of communications, it was recorded and documented that both Soviet and American military's were aware that the exchange was an accident.
Primary targets of the Soviet Union in Kentucky included Fort Knox, home to the 1st Cavalry Regiment, and Fort Campbell home to the 101st Airborne Division. Other targets included the various locks and dams of the Ohio River and Cumberland River.