The Division is inspired by Operation Dark Winter and Directive 51, real-world events which "revealed how vulnerable we've become"; society has become "fragile" and "complex". In the game, a disease that spreads on Black Friday causes the United States to collapse in 5 days. The player is part of an unconfirmed group that was established to combat the threat and do whatever it takes to "save what remains". Source: Wikipedia, "Tom Clancy's The Division", available under the CC-BY-SA License.