[On The World]
Up until a point, the history of Cyberpunk 2077's world largely echoes that of our own (plus or minus some obvious deviations in terms of certain historical events and characters). However, that all changes by 1990.
It was around that time that the United States stepped up its war against drug cartels and corrupt governments in Central America. Their desire to win the war on drugs becomes so intense that they even resorted to forms of chemical combat. Such tactics not only cause former allies to denounce the U.S. but inspired the most powerful cartels to take the drug war battles to U.S. soil. In 1993, a cartel is even able to detonate a nuclear device in New York City.
In 1994, a global market collapse, and another nuclear incident in Pittsburgh, plunge the United States into further disarray. Corporations began taking over more aspects of Unites States life (including control over agriculture production) in an attempt to stabilize an increasingly uncertain world. Nevertheless, things somehow get worse in 1996 when the President and Vice President of the United States are assassinated.
As various gangs rise across the country in response to this incredible shift in the power structure, the NSA, CIA, FBI, and DEA form the "'Gang of Four" and the Defense Secretary of the United States claims executive power in order to declare martial law. It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but that move is not successful. More and more gangs appear across the United States as officials struggle to keep up with the madness. Around that same time, a variety of natural and unnatural disasters kill millions and inspire some states (including California) to secede.
Where the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War leads to a dissemination of nuclear weapons on the black market. Coupled with the US government's "deep state" ergo the Gang of Four, the world soon finds itself in the midst of an economic crisis and the Collapse. Proxy wars, trade wars, and a resurgent Europe butt against the prevailing US world order. Eventually, brief nuclear exchanges and biological warfare around the globe cause the gradual decline of Western civilization. Societies collapse and many governments either dissolve or are reduced to reactionary, petty authoritarian states.
In the chaos, corporations fill the vacuum of power amidst a collapsing social order. Technological advances, unbridled from government oversight or ethical limitations, lead to hundreds of new inventions. As time wears on, some corporations become as powerful as the countries they are housed in. Ultimately, four corporate wars have occurred by 2023, each one becoming more overt and deadly than the last. The infamous Fourth Corporate War was brought to an end by the detonation of a nuclear bomb in the heart of Night City. The years that followed until 2045, the Time of the Red, were a period of global reconstruction as corporations and governments alike tried to recover from unparalleled economic and environmental damage. By 2077, corporate influence is more pervasive than ever, and fears of another devasting corporate war loom large on the horizon.
Somewhere along the way, advancements in technology afforded people the opportunity to enhance themselves with various cybernetic implants. While those implants are largely used by gangs, soldiers, and operatives, they've also worked their way into daily life. This discrepancy between available technology and the horrors of the world (as well as some drastic gaps in financial equality) is why you see some areas that look incredibly advanced and "futuristic" next to areas that appear to be dangerously underdeveloped.
[On Night City]
In 1992, a wealthy corporate executive named Richard Night began work on a massive urban development project he referred to as Coronado City. Night's goal was to establish a city that would essentially be a corporate paradise and a testament to the philosophy of capitalism.
Night also believed that the city could one day be free of the crime and economic horrors that plagued the rest of the United States (as well as many of the laws which attempted to regulate corporations). Considering how many poor workers died building the city, though, that vision was certainly a matter of perspective.
In 1998, Night was murdered by organized crime elements who felt nobody left room for them in Night's vision for Coronado City. That's when Coronado City was renamed Night City in honor of its founder.
That's also when various gangs started to clash with the corporate armies on the streets of the new city. That battle lasted until around 2005 when the corporations decided to pull out of Night City and leave the gangs to battle for control over what remained. At the peak of the Night City gang wars (around 2011), the Arasaka corporation intervened to take on the now weakened gangs in order to secure Night City for the corporations once more.
While the corporations did gain control of Night City for all intents and purposes, gangs and the corporate armies still clash with and amongst each other often.
[On The Badlands]
Beyond Night City and its surrounding suburbs, there is a wide-open space of endless dry Californian scrub, punctuated by the occasional abandoned town or dry lake bed. The Badlands, as it is often referred to, were formed at some point during the 2020s because of the persisting drought Northern California was suffering, turning much of the region beyond Night City into a desert.
The Badlands has been a place that few Night Citizens have ever willingly ventured out into, save for the hardy nomads who have always crossed the desert in their huge and well-protected caravans, as well as the plenty of dangerous gangs that plague its open roads. During the Time of the Red, the Aldecaldos set up a camp on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, from which they ran an expansive trade and transport network, often hiring themselves out to guide people across the desert and transport goods. It was during this time that many refugees from the Fourth Corporate War reclaimed abandoned towns and cities not far from the urban sprawl of Night City.
By 2077, nomads were not the only ones who called the Badlands their home. A gang made up mostly of exiles from local tribes and families known as the Wraiths resided here in great numbers, being the ones responsible for the corporate transport disappearances in the region. Anyone that crossed into their territory without armed transport wouldn't likely survive