Hesperia

"HESPERIA" Part one-Beginnings


In fall 50 B.C. a fleet of 25 ships sailed thru the Pillars of Hercules on a Trading mission to Cornwall {tin}. Unfortunally [for them] they ran into a hurricane that blew them far to the south. What great feats of seamanship allowed them to survive And stay together, are lost in the mists of history, but we know that 12 of the ships ended up wrecked on one of the Cape Verde Islands. They discovered the Island covered with tropical Fruits with a small native Population. Five of the other Ships ended up wrecked on the Canary Islands, where they were discovered a century later.

It took a over seven years, While they lived and Married with the locals. But, they managed to repair two of the ships for the return to Roman territory. Behind them they left a small Roman colony. With them they took a cargo [they were merchants after all] of wine made from the tropical fruit
[a big Hit when they got to Rome].

This led to a trade route where the Romans sailed down the coast, and turned west sailing out to the Remus Islands. Over the next century small Supply camps were established along the coast, Wherever water supplies were found. By 50 AD a string of Supply camps stretched from The Greater Pillars of Hercules, south to the New Tiber River {OTL Senegal}. Where the Merchants resupplied before heading for the Islands.

Along the Coast these Camps began to be visited by the Berber & Semitic Tribesmen in the north, and Malinke Tribesmen in the south, The camps Started trading with the locals, and Grew. Not all Visits were always Friendly, So soldiers joined the Camps. The Soldiers at the camps laid them out in the Army fashion, Streets, Roads & Walls were built. There also was a small number of farmers in with the settlers, so the camps became surrounded by Fields.

As most of the Settlers in these camps were male the trade involved more than just goods. This lead to the population of the camps and surrounding areas began to be a mixed Blood. By 200 -300 AD some of the camps had grown into small towns. Many of these raised their own local forces, modeled on the old Republic style, Citizen Legions. The difference being that at the heart of each local Legion was a small group of Professional Soldiers. Trained in the Imperial Legions back in Rome, and sent here to retire.

In the 300's Hesperia became officially Christian, along with the rest of the Empire. Of course due to the distance from the City of Rome, the Priests and officials sent were not the first tier, or even the, close second tier of talent. If You were being generous , You might, call them third tier. Also lots of Unusual Preachers and Missionaries, had come here when they were chased out , by more Orthodox believers. This Meant that while the Towns had a Official Orthodox veneer , in reality, all kinds of other religions from Zoamianism, to the old Roma-Greek, to Mithism, to Nestoian, Coptic & Native, flourished, just out of official sight.
:)
 
"HESPERIA" Part two- [ Roma De Sud]

"HESPERIA" Part two- [ Roma De Sud]


In 50 B.C. Due to a major storm a small colony of Roman Merchants was established in the Remus Islands [OTL Cape Verde]. Doing a brisk trade in Citrus Wine, a trade Route of supply camps was established along the coast. Of course, these camps followed the "Law of Unintended Conquenses"
Within a couple centuries, these camps had grown into small towns, and were generating more in the way of Trade & Revenue, than the Island Colony they were built to surrport.

At the Southern end of the Trade route, where the ships turned westward to the Islands, was the largest camp of all. Sitting at the Mouth of the Tiberian River [OTL Senegal], was the Camp "Rome de Sud". Situated on the fertile delta with a good source of Water, the camp seemed to double and Triple in size, overnite. By the early ~100's the camp, had become a small town, and by third century when the other camp were growing into towns, Roma de Sud was already a small City. As such there was never a question on where the Capital of the Province of Hesperia would be.

The first group of Soldiers sent to help protect the Camps, fortunally included some Greek Engineers & Architects. As such most of the first Temples, & other Public Buildings, were in the Open Greek Style. This style was then reproduced in the other camps, along the coast. Thro they didn't know it at the time, this was a great style for the climate they would encounter as they later expanded southward. Even the adoption of Xianity in the 300's didn't change this, as the Xians simply reused the same old temples. Even today this is the prevalent style of Public building, in Hesperia, and her former Colonies.

By ~350 A.D. Roma de Sud and Hesperia were well established, With it's own Soldiers, Harbourages, Stone walls, Fields, and of course roads. While the Roads into the interior were short, [20 miles south, 30 miles up river] the north-south roads were much longer reaching almost 300 good Roman Miles north from Roma de Sud, and tieing the coast together into a Economic unit that rivaled the Axum empire in the East. Shipping quantities of Ivory, Exotic Timber, Dried Fruit, and of course the Citrus wine that started it all.
 
Name???

I Got the Name Hesperia [ at the Mouth of the Sengal river 100ad] from a sugestion here, So can anyone come up with a name for the Hesperian colony at the mouth on the Niger river in 950 ad or the one on the congo in ~1300ad. ?Should i just use OTL names. :confused:

Also any sugestions on what will happen when they meet the Muslim-Berber Kingdoms of the western Sudan [OTL Niger, Chad & Mali] ciria 800~900 ad.

?What whould they do after 4~500 years of isolation? ?How whould the Muslims react to a large Christian precense to the south and west? :confused:
 
Looks good, though typing Xians makes you look lazy, for X's sake. :D
As for other names, just find something noteworthy about the location, and pick a latin name for it. I think they might call Hesperia, Hesperia Nova, instead, as Hesperia is actually an old word for Italy (the land to the west).
http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm has a pretty good translator, though there's plenty floating around. If the location is pretty far to the south, you call it Antichthon or Antipode (a "counter" continent supposedly to the south).
 
"HESPERIA" Part three- Collapse

"HESPERIA" Part three- Collapse

In 402 An invasion by Alaric & his Visigoths forced the recall of the "Sixth Vistrix" legion from Britain & the "22nd de Sud" from Hesperia. Due to the distance the 22nd didn't arrive in till a year later just in time to help defeat a second attack by the barbarian chieftain, Radagaisus. Neither of these Legions would ever return Home. While this would cause problems in Britain as waves of Goths, Jutes, & Saxons swept across Gaul into Britain & Iberia, two thing would help protect Hesperia.

One was distance, between the southern towns of [Morocco] and the northern towns of Hesperia lay 2 weeks of sail, with only a couple of small watering stops. The south road ended at the bottom of the Atlas Mountains, with the North road in Hesperia 800 desert miles away. With the Introduction of the Camel to north Africa in the early 4th century this would someday be bridged, but that lay several centuries in the future.

The second thing was the Citizen Legions. While Hesperia never had to face the waves of hostile Barbarians, that Rome encountered in its expansion, Not all the Natives in Hesperia were Friendly. While the 22nd de Sud was the only official legion in Hesperia, almost all the settlers were armed. They also were organized by retired soldiers, and lead and drilled by the professionals from the 22nd. As the settlements started pushing east & south in the late third & early fourth centuries, these Citizen Legions went with them.

In 425 the Visigoths and Vandals crossed the Gilbrater Straights and attacked Mauritania [every west of OTL Libya]. As they attacked the coastal Towns, some refugees fled south to Hesperia. This would be the last Influx of Europeans, for close to 1000 yrs. By 430 the Vandals had captured Carthage. Over the next generation the Vandals would adopt Roman ways, this would include trade. By 450 Hesperia was again trading north, But due to the destrustion of the coastal towns in [Morocco], and the general collapse of Europe, this never reached the pre 425 levels.
 

Diamond

Banned
Enjoying it

Yeah, I'm reading it too. I just can't really find any major flaws - its entertaining and plausible - to me, anyway. Keep going!

BTW, there must be people reading it; the # of views was pretty high.
 
"HESPERIA" Part four- Isolation


In the mid 4th cent. with the ongoing collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Rome started withdrawing it's troops from the outer Provinces. While this left places like Britain open to the German migration, Hesperia with it's Distance and lack of any mass of threatening natives, simply started to stagnate.

In 430 Hesperia received a wave of settlers fleeing the Vandal invasion of North Africa. After that it was close to 20 years before trade restarted, and never at the same level. This had terrible effects on the Remus [Cape Verde] & Romus [Canary] Islands, that had started it all. With the collapse of trade, the island populations dropped, to self suficentcy levels. There they would stagnate till discovered by the Portugalese in the 15th century.

In Hesperia the lose of contact was lots less terrible. While the Merchants were severly affected, most of the Population had long since lost intrest in European contact. While the News and Gossip from Rome was interesting, that was all it was, Gossip. Most of the Towns had their own local Senates to control the town. In Roma de Sud, There was a Imperial Governor, but Roma de Sud also had it's Senate. Many of the local towns had for years sent repersentatives to the Roma Senate, to keep up with what the Capital was doing. Thust Heperia had been govererning it'self for years with only slight input from the Imperial Court, back in Rome. Also while the settlers had adopted a few native words, mostly place names, the lanauge spoken by Hesperia was Latin. In Europe the lanuage had changed due to adapting to the native speakers, and the german migration. Even in Rome they spoke Proto-Italian, But in the farest outpost they still spoke Latin. And while the spoken lanuage would drift Slightly over the coming milieum, the written part would stay allmost pure.

In 430 A.D. when contact was lost, Hesperia consited of a strip of land some 350 Roman Miles [1728 standard strides, 2.5 ft /stride] by 30~50 miles wide. Reaching 300 m north & 50 m south of Roma de Sud. [cape Timiris--cape Vert (Dakar)]. By 460 exploring parties discoved the Poean River [OTL Gambia} & by 520 the Great Coastal Road, was pushing south from the Poean. Also in 520, Hesperia established a trading Town 250 miles up the Tiberian river.

In 535 A.D. Krokatoa in the Pacific exploded hurling Megatons of Ash and Debris into the Sratosphere, Causing a small "Nuclear Winter" and changeing weather patterns world wide. The British would suffer a famine leaveing them open to the Saxon invadsions, The great Yemen dam would collaspse ending the Axum Empire, & leading to Mohammad and Islam. In Central America the Olmac Nation would disapear, opening the door for the Aztecs & Mayas. In Hesperia, There were Problems too. A local Plague dropped the population by ~20%, and most of the outermost settlements were abandoned.

In Axum a mouse colony moved due to the climate change, the mice were carriers. By 542 the Yellow Death reached Continanople, were the record stop at 250,000 deaths. Not that this was all the Dead, but the record keepers were all killed. The Plague spread across Europe & north Africa. Fortunally for Hesperia, the distance once again rescued them. In 1973 divers off western Sahara diccovered a fleet of ships off the coast dated to 544 A.D. The Historians have concluded that they sank after the Yellow Plague had killed Most of the Passengers.

One Industry Hesperia had never devoloped was Ocean Ship Building, and so contact with Europe again was lost. This time it would be a thousand years before formal contact with Europe was reestablished.
 
"HESPERIA" Part five- Growth

"HESPERIA" Part five- Growth

{i'm going to use OTL names, I'm to lazy to try to keep making up Roman Names}


Hesperia started 50~40 B.C. as a string of supply camps for a trade route down the west coast of Africa. The Initial Population of the camps were Male Romans. This lead to lots of contact with the locals, espesailly with the female Part. This lead to increases in Population of the camps, and by 200 A.D. most of these camps had grown into small towns. The towns Had been layed out by soldiers in the Army fashion [like many of Europe's towns], with streets, walls, & of course Roads. By 430, when contact was first lost, the Great coast road reached 250 miles north of Roma de Sud, and some 50 miles south. There also were short roads leading east into the Interior. As the towns had expanded into the interior, the Romans had more assimulated the natives, rather than conquer. As such while there had always been a trickle of europeans, most of the growth had come from improved food, Roman Sanitation & Cleanness, Roman Medics, and the draining of Swamps.

Following the Great Plague of 538, where Hesperia lost close to 20% of her population, their was a common concensus that it had been the standards of Sanitation and Cleanlyness, that had prevented it from being worse. This lead to a increased emphasis on them, along with a renewed intrest in learning about how disease spread. By 550 the idea of animal carriers, was accepted and in 557, the idea of Mositios, carrying Malaria, was put forward.

These ideas helped the population rebound, so that by 600 most of the settlements abandoned after the Great Plague had been reclaimed. A half dozen towns in the north at the edge of the desert, were left empty. Hesperia contracted , so while Hesperia extented only 240 north of the Tiberian River, the Great Coast Road reached 60 miles farther north. The land returned to nature peopled by outlaws, bandits and other "ne'er do wells" . It would be another 300 years before these towns would be reclaimed and Fortified, as defense in war.


Shortly before the Plague and the need to rebuild, Hesperia had reached the Gambia] River, by 612 Hesperia was back , and starting to explore up it, like they were doing with the Tiberian. They had also repaired to Coast Road, and were prepared to push south again. The next couple of centuries is a story of slow and steady growth, South along the Coast, and Up the Rivers as they came to them. By 800 they reached the headwaters of the Tiberian & Poean, and had a string of towns between them.

From the beginning Hesperia like Britian , had a solid core of Engineers and Architects, helping to build Roads and Buildings, in the Roman style. But unlike Britian, Hesperia didn't lose them all to collaspse & invasions. Therefore while the Roads are not quite like the original Roman built, They are better than any roads being built west of Cathay.

{i'm going to use OTL names, I'm to lazy to try to keep making up Roman Names}

In 852 two major events unfold. One is the reaching of [Cape Palmas], and the turning east of the Great Coast Road. The second is the discovery of the Niger River by a Hesperian party exploring the Guinea Highlands, south of the Tiberian & Poean rivers. By 904 a Party reaches the Mouth of the Niger, where they encounter a exploring party mapping east from the end of the Coast Road. In 932 Hesperia establishs its first ex-territorial Colony on the Niger River Delta.
 
OPPS

:eek: There is a old saying –My mind is made up; don't confuse me with the Facts-. Unfortunally for me I don't believe that saying. When I started this TL, I also started looking at the History of West Africa. The facts avalible about WA 500BC-500AD were very skimpy, so I was able to make up any thing I wanted. Unfortunally as I have continued to look, I have found a lot about WA 500 AD-1000 AD, and Lots & Lots about Post 1000 AD. So I will have to Rewrite parts five-seven, and Rethink where this TL is Going. This will take several days, I'll be back next week to continue. :eek:
 
DuQuense said:
:eek: There is a old saying –My mind is made up; don't confuse me with the Facts-. Unfortunally for me I don't believe that saying. When I started this TL, I also started looking at the History of West Africa. The facts avalible about WA 500BC-500AD were very skimpy, so I was able to make up any thing I wanted. Unfortunally as I have continued to look, I have found a lot about WA 500 AD-1000 AD, and Lots & Lots about Post 1000 AD. So I will have to Rewrite parts five-seven, and Rethink where this TL is Going. This will take several days, I'll be back next week to continue. :eek:
Don't forget that the west african situation could change easily with contact with a European element (hesperia).
 
"HESPERIA" Part five- Trade [Take Two]

"HESPERIA" Part five- Trade [Take Two]

I Started rereading my notes and time lines I've been using and realized I was going way out in unreal land Going to fast with out dealing with the other forces around. [not that there isn't a ATL of Unreal land, I just don't want to rite it] So I've redone this.



The single most important development in the history of northwestern Africa was the use of the camel as a transport vehicle. In ancient times, the Egyptians and Carthaginian's engaged in just a trickle of commercial trade with west Africa, even though west Africa was rich in gold, precious metals, ivory, and other resources. The reason for this was the imposing barrier of the Sahara, which in Arabic simply means "The Desert." Around 750 AD, under the influence of Islamic peoples, northern and western Africans began to use the camel to transport goods across this forbidding terrain. Camels do several things exceptionally well: they can carry unbelievably heavy loads for impossibly long distances and they can keep their footing on sandy terrain. It was as if someone had invented sand ships and its effect on western African culture was just as profound as if they were sand ships. The most important developments occurred in the Sahel area just south of the Sahara; the Sahel provided southern terminal points for the goods being shipped across the Sahara. The Sahel is a dry, hot area with fertile areas and grasslands; all of the major north African kingdoms grew up in this area: Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem-Bornu: the Sahelian kingdoms.

Since the Third Punic War, the Romans controlled all the coastline of northern Africa. In the fourth century, however, the Romans gradually pulled out of their northern African provinces and territories. The power vacuum that they left was filled by desert Berbers, an indigenous African people (Saint Augustine, born in Carthage, may have been part Berber). The Berbers were primarily a nomadic people and would eventually play a crucial role in the spread of Islam across northern Africa. In the fifth century, however, they formed a new kingdom, called Ghana or Awkar in an area that is now southeastern Mauritania. This Berber kingdom would form the model from which all the Sahelian kingdoms would be built.

Although it originated in the late fourth century, Ghana only became a major regional power near the end of the millennium. Although the state was originally formed by Berbers, it was built on the southern edge of Berber populations. Eventually the state became dominated by the Soninke, a Mande speaking people living in the region bordering the Sahara. They built their capital city, Kumbi Saleh, right on the edge of the Sahara and the city quickly became the most dynamic and important southern terminus of the Saharan trade routes.

While eighteenth & nineteenth century European Historians would call the period between 500 ~1500 AD Hesperia's Isolation period. More modern Historians like Ann Mc Dougall, John Hunwick, & Dierk Lange, look at the extensive trade Routes that grew across north Africa During this time and how the Sahelian Kingdoms Influenced the Growth of Hesperia, and how Hesperia responded to the Increasing Militaristic development in Islam.

To Quote Ann Mc Dougall [?Is it permissible to Use real quotes and then expand them into the ATL?]
"In Africa, regional variations of the most extreme kind--from desert to grassland to forest--meant both that natural resources varied widely according to region, and that inter regional demand for commodities not locally available would be high. Hence, despite the importance of agriculture in the savanna zones, commercial wealth would take priority over agrarian wealth. While in medieval Europe, for example, the rise of trade sprang from agricultural productivity and then had to be incorporated deliberately into the conceptual framework of a profoundly agrarian society, agriculture in Africa was only one player on the wider stage of the drama of trade in goods and resources. Between Sudanic regions, mutual needs for commodities such as salt and metals were happily matched by a corresponding rich diversity of natural resources in different regions. The salt of the desert, the copper of the savanna, and the gold of the forests did not eliminate trade in agricultural and pastoral goods, but they certainly overshadowed it, at least in the historical record. In the Sudan, the merchant was not seen as a menace to the traditional hierarchies of governmental authority; rather, he was the key to their remarkable growth and prosperity. Trade in Africa did not threaten power structures. It sustained them."

"Nor did religion condemn trade outright; perhaps the Prophet Muhammad's own early success in business disposed his followers to a more accepting view of trade from the beginnings of Islam. In any case, merchants and clerics found common ground in medieval Africa. Legal opinions of north African jurists show that Muslim law sought to regulate, but not suppress, commercial activities, and was concerned that stability and order should exist (even in non-Muslim realms) for the protection of Muslim merchants. Finally, not only did merchants carry Islam across the desert and within the Sudan (the Wangara traders from Mali played an important role in this latter process), but the religious class itself--whose members are termed the zawaya--produced some of the most successful and active merchants. Clerical kin-groups within this order relied on their trading brethren for material blessings, while the latter benefited from the prayers and spiritual protection of the "men of religion." The lives and economic interests of warriors, clerics, shepherds, and traders converged on the fringes of the Sahara; every "order" of medieval African society in the regions with which we are concerned depended on trade for its very existence. Accordingly, trade was readily accepted by the society it came to underpin and transform."

Roman Soldiers had gone into the fringes of the Empire in order to Secure access to various commodities, Tin in Britain, Silver in the Balkans, ETC. The Settlers and Merchants had followed. However in Hesperia the Merchants had been first, followed by the Settlers, and Lastly by the Soldiers who followed to protect. As such the Merchant Class in Hesperia, had always been the real Power in the Province. The Merchants, choose the Senators, from there on numbers, and had a separate council to debate purely trade issues. [think Chamber of Commerce, here].

As such the Christian Church in Hesperia, from the beginning seeked to accommodate, the Merchants. And after contact with Rome and the Pope, was lost in 540, It developed on this same path, accepting Trade, & Commerce as natural parts of the Social Order.

Hesperia, Founded by Merchants, Also had no real Problem Joining the trade network as it developed in the second half of the first millennium.
 
map of Ghana

hist1_antiquity.jpg
 
I've just finished reading Hesperia TL. And I must say that it is remarkably good. Very good indeed! Nice work, DuQuense! Oh, and keep it coming! :)

Best Regards!


- Bluenote.


Honeste vivere, alterum non ladere, suum cuique tribuere!
 
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