Miscellaneous locations

This article is a list of miscellaneous locations that are featured in the Metal Gear series. While some locations are identical to their real-world counterparts, their descriptions contain fictional elements.

Angola
Angola is a country within the southern region of the African continent. Like Mozambique, it was also a former Portugese colony.

It was involved in a long war of independence against Portugal, starting in 1961, with the conflict eventually ending in 1975 after a treaty was signed by the various groups. Several soldiers within Big Boss's private military group, the Militaires Sans Frontieres, were later dispatched to Angola during the final stages of the conflict, a job that Kazuhira Miller, during a secret business dealing with Cipher taking place before an internal rebellion instigated by Cipher occured, also alluded to. However, the period of peace was extremely brief, leading up to a civil war that lasted from 1975 until 2002.

Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is an uninhabited atoll in the Micronesian Islands and is a member of the Marshall Islands. Bikini Atoll was a site of more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958, including the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb in 1954. Big Boss, then known as John, took part in one of these tests, called Castle Bravo, or more accurately, Bravo Shot.

Colombia
Colombia is a country in South America. The San Hieronymo Peninsula, under the control of the FARC guerrillas, is located on the central Colombian coast, almost directly below Cuba. It was home to a secret Soviet Missile Base during the 1960s and early 1970s.

The Barranquilla Coast is also located in Colombia, which is where Big Boss stationed his army, the Militaires Sans Frontieres, in 1974, at the time under the employ of the Colombian government to take out guerilla units. Likewise, almost all of the cocaine drugs that Amanda's FSLN unit had to process also partly came from Colombia.

In 2014, Roy Campbell, using his status as a member of the UN PMC regulatory committee, arranged for the El Dorado International Airport in Colombia to give clearance for the Nomad to land in the region, while giving Solid Snake the cover job of an inspector from the United Nations, so he could infiltrate the South American country where Naomi Hunter was being held. It was also one of the places that gun launderer and weapons dealer Drebin 893 made business with in regards to small and local PMCs.

Cuba
Cuba is an island nation in the Carribean. In 1959, Cuba underwent a revolution that ultimately resulted in the country becoming Communist. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy inherited control of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's plan to have exiled Cubans retake Cuba and oust the Communist influence. However, things went awry and Kennedy held back on air support, resulting in a disastrous ending to the mission in what would later be called the "Bay of Pigs" Invasion. The Boss was also believed to have participated in the event, although this was actually a cover story for The Boss being in a coma from a failed space flight during this time, and the event also resulted in a souring of relations between the United States Department of Defense and the CIA. A few months later, in October, the country was the subject for the Cuban Missile Crisis, after a U2 spy plane uncovered evidence that the Soviet Russians were attempting to build a missile base in Cuba, which resulted in the world coming close to Nuclear War. As a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis being averted, America had to allow the Soviets to take back Dr. Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov (which was covered up by the Turkey Deal) in exchange for the Soviets pulling out of Cuba, as well as the Soviets secretly building a missile base in Colombia.

Approximately thirteen years later, Cuba was also involved in a nuclear attack, only this time it was the one being threatened by nuclear attack. Vladimir Zadornov, a KGB Agent, betrayed the Peace Sentinels leader, CIA Station Chief of Central America Hot Coldman by switching the false data (imaginary data of a missile strike programmed to trick Peace Walker into launching a nuclear strike) to Cuba, so that America would end up being blamed for the incident by the international community (as the missile was technically launched from an American Base located in Nicaragua, a country with a pro-American regime). Unfortunately, Vladimir severely underestimated Coldman, as while he hadn't initially thought of Cuba as being a target, he eventually decided that Cuba being the target would be perfect for his test, and nearly caused a catastrophic, all out nuclear war.

Eldera
Eldera is a country in South America. During the Cold War, America briefly occupied the country while the latter was under a pro-American dictatorship. During this time, America also ended up conducting a top secret project regarding the development of Metal Gear, a project that Matt Campbell was also involved in. Eventually, the Cold War drew to a close, and the Americans were to withdraw. Unfortunately, the pro-American regime as a result also collapsed, leading to various uprisings committed by the minority groups in the country (which was in fact instigated by Spetsnaz operatives under Sergei Gurlukovich's command), plunging the country into a long period of civil war, and the Metal Gear was also lost. It was eventually rediscovered by the Marines, although Gurlukovich, intending to gain Metal Gear for his own purposes, and also tricking Meryl with a false story about her father committing treason against the Marines to aid the rebels that he was originally supposed to trick to ensure her cooperation, then proceeded to hijack the tanker that the Marines were on. Six months later, Snake was then called in to quell the incident.

Eldera is a fictional country mentioned in the non-canon Snake Tales story "Confidential Legacy" included in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance.

France
The French Republic, more commonly known as France, and sometimes known as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") for its geometric shape, is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe, with various territories on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans, and is the founder of the French Foreign Legion. It's capital is Paris, derived from Elysium, the Greek paradise of the afterlife. It is also known as the world capital of art and culture, and its primary language is French. It is the birthplace of ornithologist and Militaires Sans Frontières member Cécile Cosima Caminades and terrorist member/Zanzibar Land mercenary Running Man. Pieuvre Armement, one of the world's largest PMCs in 2014, was also based in France.

The name France is derived from the latin word "Francia" which translated to "Country of the Franks." France during its history also had an immense rivalry with Great Britain, which was at the time one of the most powerful nations in the known world. Because of this rivalry, France also had some involvement in America's fight for independence against the British during the Revolutionary War. Shortly after the Revolutionary War, the French people also underwent a revolution of their own by disposing of King Louis XVI. Afterwards, it underwent a reign of terror by Robespierre, resulting in several people being executed by the guillotine until Napoleon took power. The national anthem for France, La Marseillaise, was derived from the French Revolution.

France also acted as one of the allied powers of Europe in World War I. In World War II, however, it ended up occupied by Nazi Germany. Several French scientists also defected to America to avoid it, which also led to them partaking in the Manhattan Project. The tide eventually turned during the Battle of Normandy, where the Allied Forces stormed the beaches, and eventually drove out the Germans occupying the area. The Boss also gave birth to Revolver Ocelot while she was storming Normandy to take out V2 missile launch sites. It also became a member of NATO by the Cold War, alongside West Germany. In 1954, France fought a war against one of its colonies that wanted independence, Algeria, of which the Umbrellas of Cherbourg was based on. By the 1960s, as a result of the French scientists defecting to America during World War II, the French became the fourth nuclear power with their nuclear test "Gerboise Bleue." As a consequence, it also held the Algerian War in check. In May 1968, a large protest occurred that nearly brought down De Gaulle's presidency, and was also believed to be one of the more successful long-term protests. In 1972, the wine industry in France suffered, with some refusing to drink wine made in that year because of it.

Galzburg
Galzburg is a region in the Republic of South Africa, on the southernmost tip of the African continent. It was located 200 kilometers south of Big Boss's fortress state, Outer Heaven. The region later experienced a massive earthquake before sunrise in 1995. In actuality, the "earthquake" was the result of NATO bombarding Outer Heaven with an air raid that resulted in a nuclear explosion.

Germany
Germany, officially known as the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. It possessed the largest economy in Europe and was the founder of various paramilitary groups such as the GSG-9 antiterrorism group as well as SEK. It is the birthplace of the psychic woman known as both Elisa and Ursula, the Outer Heaven mercenary Fire Trooper, and the Dead Cell strategist and former Wehrmacht soldier Old Boy.

Germany was involved in World War I as one of the Central Powers. After the war, Germany also ended up getting a lions share of the blame, being put under a lot of debt. As a result, by the time of the Great Depression, Germany's economy collapsed. It also came to be known as the Weimar Republic, and had a lot of its territory shrink down, until the rise of Nazism in Germany during the Great Depression. Germany then began invading its neighbors, leading into World War II. The Philosophers, as part of their blueprint of defeating Germany, also formed a pact to save up a hundred billion dollars for the war effort. After the war, both the American and Russian factions of the Philosophers utilized portions of the money to gain the most intelligent scientists within Germany. The Soviet Union also invaded the eastern portion of Germany. During the 1960s, because of The Boss's mission to orchestrate sabotages within the Soviet Union via an anti-Moscow faction of the Philosophers, The Boss also arranged with clandestine meetings with the anti-Moscow faction in Berlin. In addition, the Berlin Wall was also developed during the Cold War in Berlin, splitting it into East and West, with various defectors often crossing over the wall, including Nikolai Stepanovitch Sokolov. The Berlin Wall collapsed during the 1990s, signifying the end of Communism in Europe.

Gindra
Gindra is a small country within Central Africa. It was home to various Ethnic groups, including the Boias. The country was fairly poor and uneducated. In addition, various developed countries usually exploited the people for wealth and otherwise would not help them under normal circumstances. At some point, the Boias were being exterminated by an unknown ethnic group before General Augustine Eguabon arrived to turn the tide. Eguabon and the other Gindrans later formed the Gindra Liberation Front to create themselves to be a self-sustaining nation, and were involved in an incident during their declaration of independence where they stole a Metal Gear unit from America during transport to South America for testing.

Gindra is a fictionalized location in the non-canon Metal Gear game, Metal Gear: Ghost Babel.

Grenada
Grenada was an island in the Carribbean Sea located next to Cuba. In 1977, thanks to Chico leaking a photo of Chrysalis to a magazine publisher making it seem as if it were a UFO photograph, the prime minister of Grenada, Sir Eric Gairy, requested that the UN establish an agency to study the "UFO problem" both due to the magazine photo as well as reports spawning all over the Americas about UFO abductions and Cattle Mutilations. In 1983 it was overrun by the Cuban army under the guise of a supposed communist revolution. The U.S. military promptly invaded Grenada, driving out the Cubans and restoring the lawful government.

''In the manual for the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Metal Gear, it was stated that prior to Operation Intrude N313, Solid Snake had taken part in the Grenada Invasion. Based on the information presented in later installments, Snake would have been 11 years old at the time, thus making his involvement extremely unlikely.''

Japan
Japan, known by the locals as Nihon, as well as nicknamed the "land of the rising sun," is an island nation located within Asia, off the coast of China. Militaires Sans Frontieres subcommander and FOXHOUND drill sergeant Kazuhira/McDonnell Benedict Miller was born in Japan. In addition, the Les Enfants Terribles children, due to mitochondrial DNA from an egg donated by a Japanese assistant of Dr. Clark, also possessed some Japanese heritage. It is a monarchy and the sole remaining country to retain the head of state title of "emperor." It also had the Japan Self-Defense Forces, and often produced anime, which Hal Emmerich was a fan of. Likewise, Dr. Clark and Colonel Volgin were Japanophiles.

Japan's first encounter of the outside world barring Asia was when some Dutch traders supplied weapons and items in exchange for learning their culture in trade. One of these items was the Tanegashima musket rifle, although it was also given to another region of Japan by mistake due to navigational errors, originally intending to be shipped to Okinawa. During the 1930s, Japan attempted to invade China, and later got involved in World War II after bombing Pearl Harbor, siding with the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and Italy. By the time the Allied forces got to Japan in the Pacific theater, they started firebombing Tokyo, leaving several buildings either destroyed or heavily damaged. Shortly thereafter, Nagasaki and Hiroshima were hit with nuclear bombs Littleboy and Fatman, respectively. Japan was then occupied by the allied forces, with some Japanese women also sometimes surviving by servicing the troops via prostitution. After the war, Okinawa served as a major U.S. port with cooperation with the Japanese government, although there are some protests by the Okinawans, often leading to some revisions. In addition, Japan created the three nuclear principles, and was under the nuclear umbrella during the Cold War, being of strategic importance to America and the West due to its close proximity to the Soviet Union. In addition, Che Guevara also visited Japan as part of an economic delegation after the Cuban Revolution was won, and briefly visited Hiroshima, and was devastated at what happened at the location.

In the non-canon sequel to Metal Gear, Snake's Revenge, one of Metal Gear 2's targets was stated to be Tokyo, Japan.

Lobito Island
Lobito Island is the location of a physics and chemistry laboratory, within the Moloni Republic in South Africa.

Mozambique
Mozambique was a country within the Southern region of the African continent. Frank Jaegar, later known as Gray Fox, originated in this area.

Mozambique was originally a Portugese colony, and remained so for much of the Cold War. However, on September 25, 1964, a group known as FREMILO, which was also marxist in ideology, attempted to rebel against the Portugal occupying government, leading to the Mozambican War of Independence, a conflict that Big Boss, during his mercenary days, also briefly participated in the year 1966 acting under the employ of the Portugese government. The war of independence eventually entered a ceasefire on September 8, 1974, with the war eventually ending for good on June 25, 1975 with Mozambique gaining its independence. However, approximately 2 years later, conflict resumed in Mozambique in the form of a civil war between FREMILO and RENAMO, the latter being backed by Rhodesia. Gray Fox eventually participated in the conflict as a RENAMO operative before he got captured and tortured up to Big Boss, who was also involved in the conflict, rescuing Gray Fox from imprisonment as well as evacuating a girl from Rhodesia from the war zone.

Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a country in Central America. Bordering Costa Rica, Nicaragua is a country under political turmoil, with the Somoza regime putting its citizens in a harsh treatment. In addition, Nicaragua was never given a chance to think for itself, often obeying the will of the Spanish when it was a Spanish colony, and later America when it was an independent nation.

Nicaragua was once under the rule of a Southern United States mercenary by the name of William Walker until he was driven out. They were also given a lease by the United States to build a canal in Nicaragua until it was revoked. In actuality, America never intended to build a canal and only leased it to prevent other nations from developing on Nicaragua, and sent the Marines in to cow the Nicaraguans into submission, under the pretext of "restoring order." Eventually, Sandino managed to drive out the mercenaries. America also promoted the Somoza regime's rise to power, which one of the former presidents of the United States mentioned that "[Somoza] may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch!" in a speech. This was the country that the Sandinista National Liberation Front, also known as the FSLN, was originated by the KGB in its plot to control Central America and win the Cold War. A United States Missile and Supply Base was located near Lago Cocibolca on its eastern shore, established around the time of the 1972 Nicaraguan Earthquake. In addition, various monetary aid from the West was donated to Nicaragua, but the Somoza regime pocketed all of the donations and used it for their own pleasures. This ultimately was the last straw for the Nicaraguan people.

On Lago Cocibolca, there is a volcanic island called Ometepe which was formed from two connected volcanoes in the shape of a porongo (Spanish word for "gourd"). One of the volcanoes, Concepcion, still smokes and erupts once in a while. The other, Maderas, has not erupted in recorded history and contains a crater lake. However, Sandinista Amanda Libre once stated that it might have erupted again if one of Peace Walker's nukes was detonated within Maderas if it had a factory inside, due to the nuke's detonation destablizing the magma underneath, resulting in terrible consequences for Nicaragua.

Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, commonly known as the Soviet Union) was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. Out of the 15 republics of the USSR, Russia was the largest in terms of size, and making up over half of the total USSR population, dominated the union for its entire 69-year history.

In the early 1960s, the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union reached a vital point following the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. In 1962, a U2 Spy Plane photographed a Nuclear Weapons Disposal Facility in Cuba, gaining evidence that the Soviets were in fact using it to store live missiles, sparking the fear of nuclear war. President Kennedy made a deal with Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev, that in return for the US not invading Cuba, the Soviet Union would remove their missiles. As a result of their failure to establish a Missile Base in Cuba, the Soviet Union searched for two years for a new location to build their missile base, eventually finding the San Hieronymo Peninsula.

In actuality, the US's part of the deal was not just to not invade, but in fact to provide the Soviet Union with scientist Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov. In 1964, in an operation known as the Virtuous Mission, Naked Snake was sent to rescue Sokolov and return him safely to the west. The operation was, in official records, a disastrous failure. However, in a follow up mission, known as Operation Snake Eater, Snake was succesful in destroying a secret nuclear weapon, being developed by the extremist GRU Colonel, Volgin. Afterwards, the Soviet Union hailed Naked Snake, now known as Big Boss, as a hero due to his fight against Volgin, given Jonathan's comments, during the San Hieronymo Takeover, to Big Boss.

When the era of détente began in 1970, the Soviet Union, in order to participate in the SALT Talks endorsed by Nixon and Brezshnev, halted on the construction of the San Hieronymo Missile Base, and forced the personnel to remain stationed on the base cutting off supplies as well as communications being cut, which ended up creating an uprising as soon as the FOX unit took over the base, and was nearly the target of the ICBMG, although it was later revealed that Gene never intended to launch the ICBMG into the Soviet Union, and only made it seem as though it were to do this.

At some point later, the Soviet Union dispatched KGB operative Vladimir Alexandrovich Zadornov to Costa Rica, to help spread Communism across Central America, and to split America into two and thus win the Cold War. He tricked CIA Station Chief Hot Coldman into forging an alliance with him and attempted to use Peace Walker to launch a nuke towards Cuba from an American base in Nicaragua, to ensure the plan succeeded. However, the KGB's plan backfired when Coldman ended up going through with the launch upon dying, and leaking false data to NORAD, which almost resulted in an all out nuclear war.

United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, and Great Britain, is a sovereign state comprising England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and is the founder of various military groups such as the Special Air Service and the Secret Intelligence Service. It was the birthplace of David Oh, a.k.a. Zero, and Strangelove, as well as the country in which Liquid Snake was raised following his birth. Praying Mantis, one of the world's largest PMC's by 2014, was also based in Britain.

In 1776, Great Britain fought against its thirteen colonies in North America, which sought independence after being taxed without representation. Britain later fought the United States of America in the War of 1812, which it ultimately lost, although not before burning down portions of the U.S. capital, Washington D.C. In the first half of the 20th Century, Britain served alongside America as a member of the Allied Forces during the two World Wars. In World War II, it was faced with several bombing runs by Nazi Germany. During the war, the newly formed SAS carried out a dummy run in Heliopolis and conducted nighttime raids during the North African campaign. In addition, a researcher named Alan Turing decoded the Enigma, allowing Britain to eventually use their communications against Nazi Germany, which contributed greatly to the Allies' victory in the war.

Britain became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and one of the Western powers in competition with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It also became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and was the third country to develop a nuclear weapons arsenal (with its first atomic bomb test in 1952). Despite his contributions in World War II, Alan Turing was later arrested under the charge of practicing homosexuality. The "James Bond" novels were first published in Britain, beginning in 1953, with Major Zero becoming a fan of the later film series that they would inspire. During the 1960s, Britain began to grant its remaining colonies independence, including Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia). In the 1980s, Britain fought against Argentina over the disputed territory of the Falkland Islands, in the Falklands War. The British later participated in the First and Second Gulf Wars in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively.