Panem

Panem is the country that represents the underlying spacial setting of The Hunger Games.

History
"'Just as the town clock strikes two, the mayor steps up to the podium and begins to read. He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained. The result was Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the distrcits against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games.'"

At some point in the future, a catastrophic climate shift ravages North America and most likely the rest of the world. Eventually, a new totalitarian government emerges across the remains of North America, organized into a capital surrounded by thirteen districts. Some point after that the districts attempted to overthrow the capital in a failed rebellion that resulted in the complete eradication of a district and the creation of the Hunger Games as a means of punishment.