OK, here's Part 3, Take Two:
The New World and the Plague Years: 1001-1300
1001: Mercian inventors experiment with ways to use kites as signaling devices and message carriers. Beginning of trade between Slavic settlements in Vinland and the Scralinga (native peoples).
1007: Timbuctu founded (Ghana).
1015: The Visigoths are commonly referred to simply as ‘Goths’ by this time; their nation is Gothica.
1022: Death of the last Tang Emperor, Wen Ti; the empire splits into six separate states – one ruled by Wen Ti’s brother, one by his son, the others by various military factions.
1024: Tibet independent of Chinese rule.
1025: Islam begins to gain many converts among the southern Magyars.
1029: Official establishment of Slavonia, the most prosperous of the Slavic settlements in Vinland (along OTL St. Lawrence River valley). Though officially a Norwegian colony, the Slavs enjoy self-government, for all intents and purposes, from the inception of the colony. For months at a time, the only Norwegian officials seen by the Slavic pioneers are a few soldiers and the odd tax-collector.
1030: After years of internal decay and attacks from southern Indian states, the kingdom of Kanauj disintegrates upon the death of Harsha V.
1032: Town of Insdern (OTL Vienna) founded to support garrisons guarding the Frankic frontier with Avaria and Magyaria.
1036: Mercian kite messaging network established as a means to combat increasing Norse and Danish coastal raids; the kites allow the quick relaying of messages across large distances, allowing Mercian units to intercept landing parties before they get very far inland.
1039: ‘Stolen Tomahawk War’ in Slavonia – a Slavic trading outfit is accused of selling a load of new steel tomahawks to an Iriki band, then ambushing them and taking back the merchandise. The brief war the incident fosters is resolved inconclusively, and sows distrust between Slavs and Scralinga which takes years to recede.
1050: Baltic Sea is proven to have no eastern outlet to the ocean, as had been previously believed. Astrolabes first used in Europe.
1060: Kagan Mauvili codifies Magyarian laws.
1061: Avarian spies steal the secret of Egyptian Fire from the Carthaginians. Its manufacture is strictly controlled by the Avarian Church, who view it as a holy weapon.
1068: Major famines and drought wrack Ghana and the southwestern reaches of the Carthaginian Empire; the peasant general Abi Biabetu leads a rebel army which captures Kaedi, the capital of Ghana.
1069: King Rwumdi of Ghana and his family executed by Biabetu; after his forces defeat a Carthaginian army in March, Carthage sends envoys to discuss peace; by the end of the year, Biabetu is installed as King in Kaedi; the Carthaginian support of the usurper alienates many Ghanans as well as several of the native governors along the coast to the south.
1070: Hsien Dynasty founded in northern China (ruling from Kaifeng), controlling the lands around the Ji (Yellow) River and into Liao in the north.
1072: Limited naval conflicts between Frankia and Carthage over fishing rights around Corsica.
1075: Several years of bad harvests and harsh winters wrack the Slavic settlements in (OTL) Labrador; more than 50% of the population dies; most of the rest resettle in Slavonia. Civil war in Ghana and the southwestern reaches of the Carthaginian Empire.
1077: The Ghanan War ends as Carthage brutally crushes royalist armies which sought to overthrow King Biabetu; Biabetu himself died during the conflict, and as a compromise a cousin of the late king Rwumdi is installed in Kaedi. Conflict to the south continues for another eight months as various factions flee to sanctuary among the coastal provinces, where the local governors are reluctant to surrender them, doing so only under threat of force from Carthage.
1080: Emperor Demetrios II imposes higher taxes on the southwestern provinces; as expected, the southerners are outraged, but have little recourse.
1083: The Luong, ruling from Hangzhou, unite southern China under their rule.
1085: First table of positions of the stars compiled at the University of Heracliopolis.
1090: Gondolas begin to see common usage in Venice. The first water-clocks are constructed in China.
1091-1093: War between Carthage and Avaria over territories in Macedonia; Avarian forces, using Egyptian fire adapted to army tactics (such as ‘fire lines’ filled with the stuff, and catapults flinging it) inflict devastating losses on Carthage, but superior Carthaginian tactics and supply lines eventually triumph over Avaria. Avaria is forced to give up much of its territory in Macedonia and Epirus.
1098-1099: The Grain Plague ravages western and northern Africa; spread by insects which inhabit grain stores and silos, the Plague kills many thousands of people from Mauretania to Egypt.
1100: Around this time, the Frankic Church begins to make inroads in converting the Magyars, mainly in the north.
1101: Martinus I, third son of Demetrios II, becomes Carthaginian Emperor. His two elder brothers died during the Grain Plagues.
1103: Renewed unrest in Ghana and the south, sparked by economic upheaval resulting from the Grain Plague. Emperor Martinus sends the great general Parmenos, hero of the Avarian War, to crush the revolts.
1110: Islam begins to replace Indian religions; the various fragmented successor states of the kingdom of Kanauj begin to become embroiled in religious conflicts.
1120: As new and strange trade goods begin to make their way from Vinland to Europe, the Norse begin to take more interest in their colonies, encouraging commerce and settlement as well as establishing garrisons to protect merchants in Slavonia and the other, minor, colonies to the east and north.
1125: Norse and Danish raids on northwest Frankia and down into Gothica.
1136-1138: Further Norse raids on Frankia and Gothica; Gothic king Jormongil begins to take an interest in the North, and in Vinland.
1140: Introduction of Vietnamese strains of rice into China make double cropping possible.
1145: King Eyvak of Norway funds renewed colonization efforts in Vinland; several towns abandoned during the die-offs of 1075 are re-inhabited, and several new towns are founded, mainly around the site of OTL Sept-Iles, Quebec, and on the island of Karolmark (OTL Newfoundland). In addition, two monasteries are founded on the island of St. Marik (OTL Ile D’anticosti).
1148: Recent improvements in Gothic ships allow the Goths to repel renewed Norse raids, and to take the fight into Norse waters for the first time.
1150: Gothic fleet lands in southern Ireland, where they occupy several Norse villages.
1152: Battle of Scilly: Gothic navy destroys a major Norse fleet off the coast of Mercia; Mercian ships aid the Goths; large kites are used by Mercians to drop incendiaries on Norse ships.
1155: Commercial treaties between Frankia and Magyaria.
1159: Goths in control of much of southeastern Ireland.
1161: Attempted Norse invasion of Mercia repelled with Gothic and Frankic aid.
1166: Burkowa of Kiev describes his ‘Five Tenets’ of Islam – radical departures from traditional Islam designed to appeal to Magyar, Finn, and Slavic culture; Burkowa is condemned by traditionalists in the Caliphates, but his Tenets outlive him – Burkowan Islam is a viable sect by 1200.
1168: In the Americas, the Toltec Empire falls apart into dozens of feuding city-states after the capital city of Tula is sacked by an enemy coalition, composed primarily of Mayan forces.
1170: Hansic of Cartagena explores the coast of OTL New England for Gothica.
1189: Gothic settlement of Vitania (OTL Portland, Maine) founded.
1190: First recorded use of indigo in western Europe for dyeing purposes.
1195: Kongo River first explored by Carthaginians.
1200: Alcohol is being used for medical purposes. Islam becomes popular in Tibet. At about this time, the Anahuaca people (Aztecs), a farming people from the west, settle in the Valley of Mexico.
1202: Owydd Hayward becomes Pope Felix VI (the first Mercian Pope).
1210-1220: Plague ravages China; total fatalities are upwards of 45 % of the population.
1211: Gothic colony of Morveca founded (roughly OTL New England).
1215: Khitan tribes (OTL Mongols) united under Sagadei.
1218: Antinus Petronikus makes landfall in Nova Sicilia (OTL Cuba) and claims it in the name of the Carthaginian Emire.
1220: Kagan Wlachev II of Magyaria converts to Christianity; despite significant Muslim populations in the southern areas of his nation, he declares Magyaria to be a Christian nation. The Pope in Mainz sends his compliments, and even the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church admits it is “better the Magyars pray to Mainz than Meccaâ€.
1221: Hsien China conquered by Khitans. The islands of the Green Sea (OTL Caribbean) are named the Zephyrides by Carthaginian explorers.
1225: Tibet conquered by Khitans.
1227: Carthaginian settlement of Castrum founded (OTL Havana).
1231: Sagadei, Kha-khan of the Khitans, dies; succeeded by his son Ubotei.
1235: Carthaginian explorer Istrides Bael coins the name ‘Septentria’, meaning ‘Lands of the North’ for the great northern continent across the Britannic Ocean.
1240: First Khitans converted to Islam.
1243: First reported incidents of the Black Plague in Europe, around the Dniester river and regions east of the Carpathian mountains.
1249-1255: Plague ravages Europe, killing an estimated 25 to 30 percent of the total population; the areas hardest hit include southern Frankia and northern Italy, Danemark, and the Balkans, especially Bulgaria (where some estimates put deaths at over 75%).
1254: Led by Zagan, Sagadei’s grandson, the Khitans invade southern Magyaria, determined to capture Kiev and so decapitate the Magyar’s government in one blow; with aid from Frankia, the Khitans are repelled, but renew their efforts against the more vulnerable north the next year.
1255: Khitans capture large parts of northern Magyaria; they are unable to hold their conquests, however, as the Plague begins to afflict them in large numbers. In the winter of 1255, the Khitans undergo a limited civil war which splits them east and west; the so-called Ural Khitans remain under the rule of Zagan, while the Eastern, or Khalka Khitans are ruled by a cousin, Mettai.
1257: Renewed Khitan attacks against the Magyars repelled. Avaria annexes Bulgarica.
1258-1260: Khitan attacks against Svearia and Norway. By the end of 1260 the Khitans have been expelled from most Magyar lands, though small pockets remain to the north and west of Novgorod.
1262-1272: Still recovering from the Plague and further weakened from helping the Magyars combat the Khitans, Frankia undergoes a civil war which results in the loss of several southern provinces, which become independent, albeit weak, states, usually with significant Gothic backing.
1264: Last major Khitan invasion of Magyaria defeated at the Battle of Vogoska (OTL Cherepovets). Zagan Khan is killed in the battle; his brother Usuda assumes control of the Ural Khitans.
1268: The ancient kingdom of Hadramaut in southern Arabia conquered by Carthage and reorganized as a Carthaginian province.
1275: Islam gains in popularity in China – in the north, still under Khitan rule, its influence is especially strong, but even in the Luong-controlled lands of the south the religion begins to gain converts.
1282: OTL Cape Verde Islands discovered by Carthage.
1289-1292: The Plague makes a resurgence, mainly in Lombardy and Gothica.
1300: The European population of Septentria, while still relatively small, is steadily growing: Slavs – 21,000; Norse – 8500; Gothic – 1300; Other – 3000 (total: 33,800 approx.).
