Great Lakes Union

As the USA crumbled, gangs in Chicago rebelled and took great swathes of land in Michigan and other states. Over time these gangs killed each other off leaving the populous to set up their own Democratic Monarchy in the style of the old UK Parliament. This means representatives from each territory in the union vote on important matters at the government building in Chicago. Every 5 turns a new prime minister is elected via a national vote in which the candidate with the largest percentage of the vote wins. Since the establishment of the union in 2141, the economy is extremely strong having the most valuable currency in  North America, the Bala. (Jax lore)

As the economies of American countries recover and more people can afford luxury items, Detroit's once-dominant car industry grows and the GLU quickly becomes the biggest car-producer in North America (jax lore)

between 1.1 and 1.2 there was a dictatorial takeover and it became the great lakes imperium or whatever.