Seville is in many ways, a city that knows no master. It has long been a capital, but its true essence has remained unchained. There is a collective sense of impermanence to the men who try to claim it, while the bricks and cobbles linger on. Even the current masters, adorning it with their monuments, are only dressing what is a deeper, freer, core that will last well beyond the lifetimes of that human arrogance.
The origins of the imperial city are in Phoenician trading posts and Iberian tribesmen. By Roman times, it had already become a notable hub of trade and acquired of its name, Hispalis, in Latin. Over the lifetime of the empire it developed into a major center of southern Iberia and even outlasted the collapse of that state to become a key city in the Visigothic grip on the region. Visigothic Seville was a center of classical learning even as the empire had long since faded. Especially Christian education, as many notable theologians came from its churches.
Moorish conquest brought with it access to the burgeoning Islamic world but also an influx of new migrants from the south. After a long siege it was even made capital of the new province of the Umayyad Empire, before ceding its position to Cordoba after the fall of the empire. The existing Christian and Jewish population of the city co-mingled with the new Muslim residents, forming a complex cosmopolitan blend of cultures. Many remaining Christians Arabized, retaining their faith while in all other forms integrating into Islamic, Arab, lifestyles. These Mozarabs would become a defining part of the cities identity for many centuries to come. In many ways they typified the unique adaptation of native Christian Iberia to suddenly being the westernmost outpost of Islam. While Islamic rule varied in its toleration of the dhimmis, persecution was never harsh enough to entirely stamp out or even staunch the relentless profusion of culture pouring out from the metropolises of Iberia. Only towards the end of Almohad ruler did the intensity of religious suppression reach a point where the Mozarabs faced serious threat as a group, as well as for the Jews. Religious laws governed separation between various groups, enforcing an increasingly rigid hierarchy that placed Arab Muslims at the top at the expense of the local dhimmi population. Constant wars drained the population, both as conscripts for Muslim armies and as casualties of the wars themselves. There were also declining crop yields in Iberia throughout the 13th century caused by overharvesting and a colder climate. All factors combined led to a shrinking of Sevilles population during the nadir of the Almohad state. The Mozarabic population especially, chose to flee north in droves rather than tolerate Almohad depredations, where they quickly integrated with their Latin cousins. While there were fewer than in Toledo, the true seat of Mozarab culture, the loss was significant enough that it aided the collapse of a already strained urban economy (Mozarabs held many pivotal roles in city administration and trade).
For many Sevillians, the rise of the Ayshunids was greeted with relief. After all, the Ayshunids represented a return to the glory of an Andalus that had seen Seville one of the wealthiest cities in Eurasia and a capital city of Iberia. This fact was not lost on either party when Ibn Ayshun made Seville the crown jewel in his newly formed Arab state, taking Toledo as his capital for strategic reasons but consciously styling himself as ‘lord of Seville’ all the same. Seville was the spiritual center of Andalus and represented it in microcosm. To control the city was in many ways, to control the roots of Arab Iberia themselves. Ibn Ayshun was also himself a Sevillian and lavished the city with rewards as his personal estate. On Yusuf Muhammads death, the capital was moved from Toledo to Seville under the sultan Sulayman, where it would remain until the fall of the sultanate in the early 1600s. Early Ayshunid Seville was still recovering from the chaos of the Almohad collapse and the ensuing wars of the young Arab state with the Christians to the north only stalled that recovery. Alongside the collapse of the Almohads was the severing of the longstanding bureaucracy that had united the Maghreb with Iberia. Now merchants had to deal with multiple states on each side of the straits, alongside resurgent piracy. Fueled by economic stagnation arab pirates ransacked the Iberian coast, undaunted by Ibn Ayshuns frequent attempts to curb the problem. Such issues combined to make early Ayshunid Seville a shell of what it had been only a century earlier during the early Almohad period. Many outlying neighborhoods were abandoned for the safety of the city walls, and simply because the population had shrunk. Much of the lavish spending of the early sultans was in part to help counteract this economic stagnation. Alongside a series of sprawling palaces erected on a plain outside the city, the first three Ayshunid sultans also revamped the cities defenses and its public infrastructure. Fariq I attempted to also construct a large bathhouse in the city center, but ran out of funds, and had to halt construction ( his successor Yaqub eventually demolished it in favor of a larger building according to his plans). The Ayshunid ‘golden age’, commonly the time between the rule of Fariq I in 1325 and ending sometime around the Castilian conquest of the Azores at the start of the 16th century, was characterized in Seville by a profusion of mosque construction. Each new ruler and governmental official would sponsor a newer, and larger, complex of mosques than his predecessor. In many cases, churches and synagogues would be demolished on flippant charges to make room for these constructions. As Seville became a center of western Islam, attracting waves of new Arab migrants from around Iberia and farther east, it gained a perception as a ‘holy city’, one that was unfit for a large, openly practicing, population of dhimmis as it had had in the past. This outward image disguised a hustle and bustle at stark contrast with the austere values of the Islamic orthodoxy in the empire. A constant glut of wealth from the expanding colonies in the west and trade with both the Mediterranean and Africa led to an explosion of personal wealth. Middle class merchants became the driving engine of Seville, spending like Syrian emirs at bathhouses, brothels, parlors, and concert halls. Initially this wealth was manifested primarily in constructing large estates within or near the city, especially over plantations stocked with African slaves, but over time as the population of southern Iberia grew and grew these slave plantations were pushed out to the periphery, increasingly stocked with nominally free serfs, and new municipalities springing up around these old estates. By 1450 during the reign of Muhammad I, there were 250,000 people living in, and around Seville. The population of the city would continue to increase through the 1500s, yet more slowly, before stagnating and declining following the devastating Aragonese invasion in the 1620s. Gradually, the old elite estates transformed into familial fortresses surrounded by newly grown neighborhoods. These families, now landed nobility rooted in their trading businesses, sponsored the sub-estates of their supporters and by extension their families around these estates to produce their own miniature city centers. The sultans continued to crowd the city center with their own personal projects, pushing the population further and further out into these new neighborhoods. The cities density became so intolerable that, to alleviate the intolerable din and waste, in 1478 Ahmed I sponsored the creation of a urban park, the Hadiqa al-Bijea along the Guadalquivir. Approximately a ½ by 1 mile rectangle, it was built around existing monumental structures in the city, but by clearing away the neighborhoods around them (these were largely filled by students and Islamic teachers who worked in the religious schools along the river). This park was also designed to clear land around the 14th century Ibhama Fortress, thereby giving a clear view from the fortress well down the path of the river in case of naval attack. Alongside this, Ahmed forced pioneering environmental legislation that helped reduce the overall ‘stink’ of the so-called holy city. However, expensive projects elsewhere caused a general stalling in investment in the city by the Sultans after the parks completion. Continued investment by local rulers was in improving especially the cities docks and merchant houses. Increasingly, the government of Seville was ruled by the merchant elite, sometimes directly, and they used the cities funds to bankroll their own economic squabbles. By the time the Aragonese invaded Andalusia to help crush the growing Caditano rebellion in 1624, Seville was a city flush with beautiful urban spaces, elegant neighborhoods, but had long neglected practical concerns like an effective city militia or even maintaining the original walls (long surpassed by new growth). Luckily the city itself was largely spared the destruction wrought upon the rest of Andalusia. The Caditanos managed to take the city easily specifically because its defenses were so neglected. In the urban battle that ensued the sultanates forces were routed quickly enough that a protracted battle of attrition was unnecessary. Mid-17th century Seville was smaller by a third than before the invasion, but this was not as much due to direct war casualties as a decision by those with means to move to less volatile regions in Iberia (such as the Algarve), or the colonies.
Sites of Interest
16th century Seville was a bustling port city that acted as a nexus of trade for half the globe. Not only Moorish ships but also ships from across Christian Europe and the middle east passed along the Guadalquivir to trade in its markets. The Ayshunids had a long-standing policy of restricting trade to the cities of Seville and Cadiz, channeling all trade to and from the new world through Iberia.
The city was divided into 16 districts on both banks of the Guadalquivir river. The heart of the city was the Alqalb (qalb appropriately enough means heart) district. This contained many of the lavish buildings commissioned by the cities rulers. This included the largest mosque in the city (but only the second largest in Iberia after the one in Lisbon), the mosque of Abdullah al-Mursi, built in 1430 and then expanded twice after. There were traditionally 8 great mosques in Seville, and half were in the Alqalb district. Along the waterfront, about a fifteen minute walk from the front courtyard of that mosque was the Great Funduq, a massive 5 story market / administrative building that supervised all trade from the new world. Outside of that sprawling along the river was a massive warren-like bazaar, once contained entirely inside a stone marketplace courtyard erected in the 1300s but then having expanded outwards as the districts population grew. This district is the only one entirely ringed by walls, preserved from a roman model.
The Alqalb was traditionally the eastern side of the bank, while on the west were the Arbala and Matarbah districts, both largely separated from the rest of the city until a new, innovative, moving bridge was built across the river in the late 1500s. The vast bulk of the cities population was on the east side of the river, since much of the west was kept as farmland and scattered villages and estates. North of Alqalb was the second oldest district in the city, the Shamal district. This area contained few sites of note besides the gardens of Omar bin Sulah al-Andalusi, who donated them to the people along with his estate in 1455. To the south was the Shams district, which formerly contained student apartments and madrasas but was cleared to make room for the Hadiqa al-Bijea garden. To the east was the large Jahr district, where much of the cities population was concentrated. This was an area that was filled out only during the mid 1400s by new migrants from the nearby countryside and encompassed the former palace of Ibn Ayshun, which was abandoned for a significantly larger one of the later sultans farther north. Squeezed between this district and the Shams was the Nefhiyan district, the heart of many of the brothels and gambling dens in the city. Many of the cities jewish population lived near it, part of reforms that forced the cities dhimmi population to concentrate in certain areas.
To the south end of the city were the minor districts of Rahhu, Majlad, and Santyaghu. These districts were built largely by immigrants from the colonies due to the affordability of the land. As a result, they collectively had a distinct ‘Riyshi’ flair to their local culture. The outlying districts were a mix of patchy residential blocks between lingering areas of farmland, and then palaces of the sultans themselves. They were concentrated in the Airtafea district, taking up its entire bulk along with servant housing. Between this district and the rest of the city was an area filled with middle-class estates and corridors of open land.
"The whole world is like a house filled with lamps, rays, and lights through whom the things of the house are elucidated…"
Ibn Barrajan, 12th century CE
The Final Conquest of Mexico and the New European Order
La danse du Aymure
The Dance of the Aymure [Botocudo]
1670 print from a French natural science book by Rene Lavaud de Saint-Pierre
1636
A second Catholic uprising occurs in northern Germany as attempted revenge for the execution of the Catholic leaders at Magdeburg.
Mishikan Arabs fight the Yashaq War against a coalition of native tribes, defeating them and wiping out one of the last pockets of paganism in the region.
1638-40
The Catholics are finally quashed at Verl. This rebellion was of little consequence except for the appearance of a minor Catholic lord Claus von Rutlinger, who escaped execution to flee to Austria with many other prominent Catholics. Von Rutlinger would come to dominate German politics over the next several decades.
The Normanos install a Catholic puppet ruler, Alfons I as the king of Aragon. They choose to operate behind the throne rather than incur open warfare with the still-powerful Catholics in the nation (and the catholic majority).
1641
James of Portugal, erstwhile of Orlean, complains to the Pope of his destitution compared to his brothers. He finds little sympathy and continues to nurse a deep resentment against Ferdinand the Handsome.
Ferdinand the Handsome gives colonial charters to the Frenchman Paquier Chabert to establish new settlements along the Great Lakes for the purposes of fur trapping. Many of Ferdinands French subjects felt neglected in the vast northern wildernesses compared to the increasingly prosperous colonies of his Spanish subjects in the south. Increasing French settlement in the rich areas along the Lageyo River [St. Lawrence] was meant to offset this discontent.
1642
A small number of Dutch settlers form a settlement on the far southern coast of Baraniya, at what is called Barnooga [Paranagua, near Curitiba, Brazil].
Poland-Lithuania expands to become the most powerful Catholic state in the east by far. The new king Sigismund IV repulsed the Ottomans and subsequently absorbed much of Transylvania as a vassal state. However, a Cossack rebellion erupted in the east and forced the Poles to abort their wars into Ottoman territory. Not to mention, a rising Russia threatened to challenge the union for control of the east. Russia, growing rich from unfettered trade with China was eager to secure Baltic and Black sea ports to sell directly to western markets. The Russians would spend the next several decades tied up in wars in Ukraine with the Polish-Lithuanians and local powers for control of the Black Sea.
1643-5
Arabs and Spanish clash during the Chocatawee War. There were multiple battles in the Mahjuran [Alabaman / Floridian Gulf Coast] interior, stemming largely from years of Arab and Spanish settlements moving closer and closer together. At the conclusion of the war (a Spanish victory), Ferdinand negotiates with the Wazirate a dividing line for the two nations possessions in the New World around the 28th parallel. This gave Valois half of Serenida [Florida] and all of the northern gulf coast, while it gave to the moors all lands to the south. This treaty was generally observed between the two parties, though settlers from both sides continued to encroach west and in conflict with each-other despite it.
Arabs settle the western coast of Mishiki permanently rather than as traders. This is part of a larger creep of Arab influence over technically independent states. Many of these Arabs are citizens of what are dubbed the Aljahidi states: native polities that are increasingly mixed Arab / Native, professing Islam as the state faith but still being culturally native.
Dutch settlers expand along the coast of Olseland [Labrador], establishing trading posts near Van Williams land [Prince Ruperts Land, Hudscon Bay] to trade for pelts. Continued Dutch incursion to the north concerns Ferdinand, who partially encourages more settlement in the north to more strongly claim those territories.
Rising English ambitions in continental Europe clash with Valois. An attempted rebellion in English-held eastern Ireland, backed by supposedly French conspirators inflames English passions and causes King Charles War to break out between the two.
1647
Claus von Rutlinger reappears, this time as a general of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles III. He shows distinction in supporting the imperial-backed factions during an internal Swiss conflict and parlays this into becoming the premier surviving Catholic general in central Germany (and one of the youngest, being only in his mid-30s). Von Rutlinger was appealing to the Emperor due to his war experience and by being a stabilizing force in the Imperial court (he was an incessant diplomat, and a skilled one).
The dominion of Hassan breaks down into conflict as the supporters of the two brothers turn on each-other. The native population takes advantage of this to throw out the Arabs, momentarily restoring indigenous rule in the region. The Arabs retreat to their strongholds on the coast, farther north.
1648-49
The English complete the long-aborted invasion of Ireland, fully incorporating the island under the crown.
Arabs explore further in Baraniya, establishing Shana [near Montevideo, Uruguay] as a major trade settlement.
Northern Germany shifts to Protestantism as many of the leading princes, those who were not affiliated obviously with the previous Catholic leagues, choose Protestantism as the religion for their territories. There develops a belt of Protestantism from the Netherlands east to the borders of Russia.
1651-54
Spanish sailors increase their trips to the southern and eastern shore of Africa for trade (there had previously been trade after Portuguese exploration a century prior), taking advantage of the weakening of Andalusian maritime control along the African coast (and an increased demand for cheap trade goods and slaves for the colonies). The explorer Santiago de Coronado erects a cross at Nueva Leon [Durban, South Africa] to commemorate his voyage. African slaves also begin to be shipped to the Castillineans [Carolinas] to work the plantations there.
Valois sends a fleet to Brania to capture some of the valuable lumber from the forests there. The fleet, under Jon Donnell, a Scotsman under French employ, land at île des colombes, [near Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil].
1656-58
Aragon again dissolves into civil war between pro-monarchy and anti-monarchy forces (really it is a religious fight between Catholics and protestants). The Andalusians back the Catholic faction initially, sending troops and aid in exchange for promised land concessions.
Led by captain John Rogers, English settlers found the colony of Peracasu [the area around Salvador, Bahia, Brazil]. Their colonial charter grants them claim over all the lands they settle west to the sea, in effect a huge area of land which they had no hopes of actually ever controlling.
The last lord of Tlaxcalla is defeated by Arab forces, and his kingdom is subsequently absorbed into the Arab colonial empire. With his defeat, only the Mexica remain as the last true independent native polity of significance (other states acting as independent in name only).
1659
The mixed-race (that is, partially indigenous) Arab Omar Al-Tezqaqi marches inland from Al-Yikaq [Mexican / Texan Gulf Coast] intent on discovering the pacific coast.
A revivalist religious movement spreading out of the Maya region [Yucatan] begins to catch hold in the Riysh among the Arab elites. Preaching an orthodox version of Maliki Islam, it calls to reform the byzantine legal system and restore a more equitable faith to the region. It is led by the native cleric Abdulkarim Al-Ash. There is a minor upswelling of violence between moderate and hardline factions of native peasants, but nothing compared to the rebellions in Mishiki decades prior.
The Wazirate faces a serious internal threat as the major landowner and former supporter of the movement, Hakam Ibn Ahmad Ibn Salah, threatens to call up another rebellion after a personal spat between him and the Sultan al-Bashara. Ibn Salah was one of the largest financial backers of the new government and a friend of the prominent Sunni cleric Al-Nouri – forcing Al-Bashara to capitulate, both personally and politically. Ibn Salah would eventually be granted the prestigious governorship of the Algarve in exchange for renewed loyalty to the regime.
The collapse of Songhai leaves a power vacuum in western Africa which is eagerly exploited by foreign powers. A Genoese fleet manages to drive the Arabs out of the fortress of Bolama [near Bissau, Guinea Bissau] among a rising trend of European ships sailing the African coast.
1660
The Catholics in Aragon under the duke Joaquim Alosanco defeat the protestant faction at Raspay. After crowning himself king of Aragon, he signs over the Balearics to the Andalusians. This being one of the most prized jewels in the Aragonese colonial empire, and a long-coveted prize of the Arabs shows just how desperate the Aragonese state was for any measure of outside support, and to ward off a potential Andalusi invasion they could hardly hope to defeat.
Christian missionaries continue to infiltrate the native population in Mishiki despite savage punishments should they be caught. They take especial hold in the Misiktu area, which is significantly less Arabized and harder to patrol. One priest, Friar Joao Avila, is martyred when he is betrayed by local townspeople while traveling in Tlashkallah [Tlaxcalla]. He is beheaded soon after by Arab officials in Tanaki. One area where the religious restrictions of the Arabs are lessened is in the far south of Baraniya where protestant Dutch and English mingle and trade with Arab settlers. A number of Jews even migrate to this area.
A coup topples the Mexica emperor Salah Shiban, who is replaced by his younger nephew Yashalaqh. This coup was sponsored by Arabs living in the region, since Shiban had attempted to curb their presence in the region. Yashalaqh proved to be an easy puppet for the Arab elite, doubling tribute payments to the Arab government.
Von Rutlinger, now with the Emperors ear, becomes the most powerful general at the imperial court. Fighting in the Rendsburg-Lubeck War against Sweden he scores a series of masterful tactical victories that drive the Swedes completely out of northern Germany and Schleswig. His star quickly surpasses that of the emperor himself in prestige, and throughout Europe.
1661
The Wazirate continues to go through constant internal power struggles as the new government dissolves into factionalism. The government does not collapse however, mostly due to the shrewd negotiation of the leading noble Mufarrij Ibn Ubada.
The Aragonese cede land south of Valencia to Valois in exchange for a substantial loan to the Aragonese crown, utterly bankrupt after chronic waste and mismanagement.
A spate of witch-hunting breaks out in Valoisian Portugal as a result of plague in that area. The general poverty and backwardness of this area after once having been a commercial powerhouse of Europe continues to shame James of Portugal, who continues to withdraw from the politics of Valois, frustrated and spiteful. He dies soon after from a hunting injury, but not before having conducted secret meetings with the Arabs against Valois. His son, James II is sent off to Paris to be educated under the close supervision of the Valoisian crown.
Arabs, settled in the Mishikian interior, begin to trickle northwards into the vast deserts there. The northernmost Arab settlement, founded as a cattle-grazing outpost, is at Al-Jarha [near Roosevelt, Arizona northeast of Phoenix]. These Arab settlers are overwhelmingly of mixed descent or are Arabized indigenous (called ghayimi when referring to Mishikian creoles, from the Arabic for ‘cloudy’. This becomes Latinized into hamihos, which becomes the Spanish term for all mixed-race Muslims in the new world).
The Portuguese sailor Diego Pascoal erects a trade outpost at Colombo [Colombo, Sri Lanka]. In the same year, Valoisian ships were able to defeat an Arab fleet off the coast of Benin.
A charismatic French writer, Robin Hachette, publishes a manifesto decrying the corruption of the House of Valois and advocating for a weakening of the monarchy. He is promptly put under house arrest by the state, though his ideas will have great influence in French politics over time.
1663
Black slaves are imported to the English colony of Virginia to work the cotton and tobacco plantations there.
The Turks counter-attack in the Balkans, beginning the Second Polish-Ottoman War (technically the fourth, but previous wars had been referred to as parts of separate conflicts). This comes on the heels of an ascendant Russia which had recently defeated the commonwealth a decade prior. With Russia and the Ottomans attacking, large areas of territory were subsequently cleaved from its territories over the next 7 years.
The great Italian crime families, the so-called Conciatori, which had dominated Italian politics after the vacuum left by the withdrawal of foreign powers at the close of the last century were defeated at the Battle of Melfi by the Venetian commander Ugo da Vigo. Afterwards, Venice would swallow up much of southern Italy along with its existing territories in the Adriatic, establishing itself as the predominant power in Italy. This included Lombardy, which had been shrinking in size gradually and effectively becoming a Venetian vassal state. That the new Pope was himself of Venetian origin did not hurt – Papal backing was entirely behind these expansions.
King Ferdinand of Valois dies from syphilis (dubbed the Moorish disease by Europeans). He is succeeded by the second-eldest of his union with Rosaline of Perpignon, prince James – now King James. James is much more Francophone than his father and had rejected his father’s Spanish heritage in favor of indulging in French culture (and women). This caused a rift in the imperial court, as it seemed the tensions between the Valoisian subjects in the new world had only just quieted down and might now be reignited by a king who clearly favored some over others.
1664
The development of creoles in the Riysh frightens local elites, as many local people no longer speak what can be determined as Arabic. Attempts to reform the education system and crack down on divergent dialects only drive these creoles underground but do nothing substantial to halt their development.
Conflict across Africa escalates as both the Wazirate and the Ottomans contend with European galleys attempting to break the long-held Islamic monopoly over African sea trade. A new class of European captains, usually Spanish or Italian, begin to seize ports and ships across the region. This newfound success is largely built on both the weakness of Seville (still recovering from political instability) and new European ship designs like the swift mangelo, a low, thin ship [like an OTL sloop] that could also handle trans-Atlantic voyages. Refined boat-building technology allowed these ships to easily out-maneuver and out sail the ponderous Arab trade ships, though they still faced threat from the infamous fleet of Andalusian galleys (even in the 1600s one of the most powerful navies on earth).
Valois erects a fort at San Cristobal del Mar at the southern end of the Mar Dulce [San Clemente del Tuyú , Argentina]. This was meant as a stopping point for ships crossing south to round the continental tip for the voyage to the East Orioles [Malay Archipelago].
The colony of Garters (after the order) is founded by former English soldiers [a strip of land from Aracaju to Maceio, Brazil]. It is more progressive than other colonies, and was composed mostly of pacifist sects.
1665-66
The Burki Arabs [natives of the Burku river region / Amazonia] are subdued and fully brought under the control of the Wazirate. The agreement with Ferdinand granted Andalusia control over all the lands of Brania, which obviously include the burgeoning English and Dutch settlements there. However, the difficulty in even subduing Arab populations had limited resources for also halting these Christian colonies. Now that the Burki were completely reintegrated, plans were made to root out the English from their stronghold on the tip of the continent.
King Charles I of England dies of typhoid, leaving room open for his son, Charles II to take the throne. Charles II was a youthful king beloved by the people and was seen as a welcome bulwark against a rising tide of radical Protestantism and the ensuing sectarian tensions these ideas had caused. He however clashed with an increasingly restive parliament, who feared that their rising power since Elizabeth’s reign would be equally curbed.
Arabs return to the Tar [northern Peru], but this time as a sanctioned expedition ordered by the Wilayat in order to subdue the rebellious Al-Azd brothers. To their surprise, the brothers were long-gone (both probably died from starvation, or were murdered by local peoples). They found evidence of Arab presence, but no Arab control in the region save for small numbers of traders. The Arab commander, Musa Ibn Rakim al-Ahbadi, signed a treaty with the local peoples there to establish a city on the coast, which was named Hawamey [Huamey, Peru], before returning north.
1667 – 69
Valois ends a series of minor trade wars with the English, King Charles War, King James War and then the Straits War, with the treaty of Brest. The English are only emboldened by this treaty, as it showed that they could operate on equal footing to the vast Catholic empire on the mainland.
Arab sailors scout the edge of the coast they call Salinah [California]. This term is also applied to the vast continental desert interior.
The Ottomans renew their peace accord with Seville, guaranteeing the control of Morocco would remain in Andalusi hands. It was a stalling tactic, as serious set-backs in other fronts of the empire meant that funds for an invasion of Morocco were simply nonexistent, and unlikely to soon materialize.
1670
Al-Tezqaqi stumbles out of the northern desert, having lost his expedition to a litany of disasters including torrential swarms of insects, native attacks, and even a tornado. He would eventually write a chronicle detailing his journey and the many places and peoples he encountered.
An Arab fleet under Abdullah Ibn Jasir al-Fath attacks the English fort at Goods Points [Bate-vento, Maranhao, Brazil]. The English repulse the attack, though the presence of an official Arab navy in the region vs. simple corsairs sends fear throughout the colony.
The Wazirate invade Mauritania, intent on expanding their influence in Africa to counter renewed European interests there. At the time, the region is dominated by the Dabo Sultanate, one of the states that arose out of the power vacuum left by the collapse of Songhai. At the battle of Oudane, Andalusi forces defeat a large native army and annex much of the Atlantic coast thereafter.
The Dutch merchant Martien Boomhof purchases the island of Abgewit [Prince Edward Island] from the local peoples for a new city he names New Amsterdam.
A massive native uprising, the Apalache War, drives Spanish colonists from a large area of the Castillinean interior. The rise of a powerful native confederacy, the Tusacarache, in the region follows the success of this war.
1672
The Dutch Confederacy and the Holy Roman Empire end the short, but decisive, German War (not to be confused with the War of the Dutch and German decades prior) – called in Germany the Gros War (after Peter Gros, the Catholic lord of Munster). While the war lasted for only three years, it had two major ramifications in larger European affairs. First, the Siege of Enschede marked the first engagement in Europe where flintlock muskets were used by the majority of the army, opening up a new phase of European warfare, and a major point in the decline of pike and shot warfare in favor of massed muskets. Second, it settled the question of Dutch independence decisively after a crushing Dutch naval victory at Norderney. This victory was so overwhelming (all but three Imperial ships were sunk or captured, ending the war early) Von Rutlinger fell from grace after his defeat at Wierden – used as an excuse by his rivals at court to supplant him.
1673-76
Charles II gains the faith of his staunchly protestant parliament by conducting operations in the new world against both the Arabs in the south and the Catholic Spanish off the Azores. In 1674 the English fight the Long-Pipe War with the Burki Arabs, burning several Arab settlements along the coast with the aid of native peoples.
French colonial militia attack the Dutch and Christianized natives along Nouvelle-Biron [Nova Scotia], killing 83 civilians in one instance.
Arabs establish the city of Barakway [south of Ascuncion, Paraguay]. Expeditions were sent from here, the goal being to find routes to the western coast from the interior rivers.
Slavery is legalized in the English new world as the cash crop economy increasingly dominates local life. It is ironic, since Arab slave raids (while rarer than they had been in the past) still were a part of life in the colonies, where Englishmen were sent to the Riysh to work as domestic servants or even field slaves.
The Wazirate sanctions an expedition to the Tar to conquer the peoples there, and especially control the rumored mineral wealth there. The same Arab commander who had scouted the terrain previously returned, Musa Ibn Rakim al-Ahbadi, this time with a significantly larger force. By 1678 the Arabs had defeated the native chiefs and retaken Kuskuh [Cuzco], to serve as the provincial capital. It would take another decade for the larger region to be subdued however.
@dontfearme22 So it is a constitutional monarchy?
How did the ideas of a republic spread? When someone can argue using the quran against (you can assuce selim of being a kuffar as he is questioning the quran) it as it seems weird these ideas spread too quickly. Also surely their would be very much pro monarchy forces at work, except for the USA all republics had some sort of powerful monarchists groups.
Another major point, why haven't the ottomans intervened to put this down Andalusia has pretty much proved they are a house of cards, they cannot defend themselves and have no unity collapsing every time the wind blows. Moreover, religious wise and politically it makes all sense. even if their is a rivalry, the andalusian clergy should be moving towards ottoman intervention they literally have foreign ideas taking over and clergy proven by historical precident have been against push for these ideas when people push them, and tend to support monarchy, so why compromise when you can fight it with the ottomans at this point could crush the Andalusians easily it seems.
Sorry don't take this as me saying its bad but i believe your pushing for democracy/republic ideas to quickly (unless selim is just very radical but then why does he have support?) and in a muslim land the pace doesn't make sense, even the ottomans during the height of liberal ideas during the Napoleonic wars and French revolution never faced push for limitations. Literally someone can just say to salim your questioning the quran as your ideas of republic go against it.
Im not pushing for republicanism too quickly I think, mostly because the only person in the Caditano's who is a clearly outspoken republican faced constant attacks because of his views and was eventually pushed out of the government for it. So, he clearly wasn't speaking for the majority.
Yes, and they did - Salim had to fight against one of his old allies (who was a cleric, and who rebelled for the exact same concerns you are saying) and then was cut out of the new government because of his political views. Al Lurka won because he was a monarchist - he pushed for a sultan when Salim wanted to do away with the idea entirely. The monarchists won, but they still called for a reduction of power from the level that Hussein possessed because it was his tyranny, and the tyranny of previous Sultans, that started this whole mess to begin with.
Salim had supporters 1, because he did have people who agreed with him, and 2, because he was a very, very clever leader and consistently could either outmaneuver or seduce his opponents. It was only in peacetime that his skills in combat no longer could convince others to overlook his peculiar beliefs. Salim was one man, it was specifically fear of his seizing power that led so many to support other commanders once the Sultan was defeated.
As for the Ottomans, they were fighting their own wars elsewhere, and they did not want to contend with the Aragonese or Valois, who had their own army in Iberia at the same time.
The western mind was preoccupied with the ‘Moorish fashion’ in the 17th century. Artists painted grand scenes of Andalusi processions in gaudy wild dress. Fantastical colors swirled across the page through mad frenzies of pink caps, green robes and brilliant blue and red banners. Some have argued that one catalyst for the Paunaccio movement in western art, characterized by its bright colors and dynamic compositions, was western painters being captivated by the garishness of Islamic dress at the time. All of this has come together to give a popular impression of Andalusi fashion as uninhibited, exotic, lavish. As is the case with popular impressions, there is much more to the story.
All Andalusi culture owes its roots to Iberia, and farther back North Africa. Iberia is on the border of the Christian, and Muslim worlds. Seville is much closer to Paris, than it is to Mecca. This has impacted Andalusi culture in many ways. By the 17th century Andalusis had thoroughly syncretized with local Iberian culture and made it their own. Al-Andalus was unique among muslim nations in being so deeply tied to Europe. Far beyond the wartorn Balkans, the Arabs of Iberia had forged a truly European, but Islamic, identity.
Iberia suffered greatly due to multiple wars and natural disasters in the 17th century. This depopulated large swathes of the countryside, especially in the south. There was also economic restructuring, land seizures, and a severe famine in the late 1620s. This devastated the peasantry, many of whom emigrated to urban areas or even abroad to the colonies. This devastation did not shake the economy apart as many feared. The Andalusian bureaucracy was resilient for its scale and so the upper crust of Iberian society endured remarkably unscathed. As is often the case, while the elites continued to live in luxury the poor felt the brunt of the crisis.
The 15th - 17th centuries CE are the first time one could see the first stirrings of a global economy. Beyond even the muslim world, European ships were sailing to the far corners of Asia, Africa, and the New World. Along with this birth of an international world of trade was a new nternational world of fashion, but it was not open for all. There was a clear line between the dress of the common folk and the elite. Access to trade goods was restricted to those with class and status. While the rich, and the growing middle class, were developing new styles of clothing the dress of the majority of the population did not change significantly. Yet it was in this great number of peasants, craftsmen, housemaids and servants, that the true root of Iberian culture was. Where it was closest to the land, where the dress most closely reflects the demands of life. It is vital that we start our discussion of fashion proper with them.
All Andalusi men wore the plain cotton undertunic called the saya, an adoption of the christian tunic called sayo. This was made loose and belted around the waist with a round collar. Sometimes a more intimate layer of short cotton shorts would be worn as undergarments, but it was common to not wear this at all. The saya was cut at the knees for peasants, or at the ankle for other classes. It had billowing sleeves in the christian fashion, though in the conservative south tightly cut sleeves were used, recalling the jubba tunic popular several centuries prior.
The saya was worn over a pair of loose pants of the same material called bajama. These were worn during the day rolled up to the ankles and let loose in the evenings. The word bajama is actually not arabic, but punjabi in origin (and perhaps even further back persian). They gained popularity from Indian traders in the 15th century over the native sarwal trousers. By the 17th century sarwal refers to longer cuffed trousers like those worn by women. The bajama was not cuffed. Peasants wore sturdy wood and leather sandals, sometimes also reed. Leather boots were used in cold weather, but were not very tall. Tall boots were exclusively soldiers dress, and sumptuary laws forbade civilians from wearing them. Turbans had long since fallen out of common style in Iberia, at most a sash tied around a cap. Only clerics wore turbans. Men wore tight caps called ghifara, also called alada, or kufi. These could be either cylindrical or as skull-caps. Those who worked out in the fields wore wide-brimmed straw hats in the Christian fashion called shato, from the Spanish word for ‘plate’ (compare Portuguese chato, ‘flat’). In winter men wore wool caps.
Peasant women wore the ubiquitious head coverings of muslim women, but they were markedly less restrictive than even among the Berbers of North Africa. Women wore the khimar , a cloth that wrapped around the temple to cover most of the head but expose the face. They then could wear the azzar, a second, larger, cloth that covered the entire head to drape down to the shoulders and cover the chest. It could be tied to encircle the face, cover it, or not worn at all. Andalusi clerics frequently complained about women going about unveiled. There are equally frequent mentions in contemporary literature to phases of religious revivalism where women's headgear became more restrictive. Womens clothing was much more diverse region to region, even town to town, for this reason. It seems that local clerics had great influence on the degree of liberalization in an area. One author states that, in the region of Alcala (al-kala) in central Iberia:
“We halted at the town of kunka. It is at the foot of a great castle of the Romans, upon which the locals have built their mosque, and walk up to it each day for their prayers. When we had camped outside the town, the local woman passed by and how amazed I was to see they were bare-headed but for scarves over their temples! Their hair fell outwards over their shoulders, and their faces were all uncovered. I mentioned this to the mayor of the town, who said that it is the custom here, and that they are in all respects good muslims. It is the worst of habits (may God preserve us from such things)...
He goes on to describe the town of al-jabala near it, where the women were “fully covered [..] in all but the eyes.” He ascribes this difference to the backwardness of rural villages, but it is was more likely due to a deep-seated concept of rural autonomy that existed in Iberia since classical times. Jabala and Kunka were only 30 miles apart from each other. The villages of Iberia were fiercely proud of their own local traditions. Even before the Aragonese invasions, which greatly increased the level of isolation between the major walled towns (as smaller villages were depopulated between then), texts like this indicate that there was a great deal of cultural diversity between them. The author makes no mention of male dress, which along with other evidence indicates male dress did not change as much. This makes sense, given how much more weight there was on proper female dress vs. male in islamic thought at the time. In Andalusia between 1640 - 1680, there were five times as many references in legal writings to improper female clothing than male.
Below the azzar women wore the abaya, a loose robe much like the saya, and then the faltita, a long skirt of christian origin. They also wore trousers as mentioned above (sarwal). Skirt length varied according to class and region, as did the designs on it. Women wore sandals like men or slippers called babush, a holdover from Berber dress.
Both genders used cloaks called kaba during harsh weather. These were normally dyed yellow or red. In lieu of jewelry peasants decorated their clothing with elaborate embroidery. Quranic inscriptions and vegetation were popular themes. Embroidery became a highly developed folk art in Iberia by this time. Even though peasants were excluded from the vast wealth passing through Iberias markets they still could acquire at times dyes and fabrics that would have been valuable even to kings but a few centuries ago. Cotton overwhelmingly was the fabric of choice in Iberia after the 15th century, and even more so after the establishment of cotton plantations in North Africa.
Before the 17th, and arguably even before the 1500s, the greatest difference between class fashion was in quality of materials, dyes, and designs. Form changed little from the early Ayshunid years. This changed with the growth of another Islamic empire to the east: The Ottomans. In 17th century Andalusia, there was an inexorably growing cultural influence from the Ottoman Turks. As the Ottoman empire expanded, it began to wax a larger and larger cultural influence over Iberia, which once had been more under the sway of Egypt and even Persia. As the middle class grew, at the expense of the peasantry, it looked towards elite dress and foreign dress for cues on fashion rather than peasant dress.
After the Ottoman conquest of the Maghreb, Ottoman ports in Algeria were but a few days sail away from Iberia. Peace treaties between the two nations brought everything from artillery experts from Istanbul to coach the Andalusi gun corps to philosophers, musicians, and every sort of merchant. Turkish fashion captivated the mercantile populations of the coastal cities. This was as inevitable as a cultural trend can be. The circus of political instability in the early 1600s left many feeling like Andalusia was blemished on the world stage. There was a deep sense of distrust between the Andalusians, their Rishi subjects and North Africans were viewed as pitiably rustic.
European dress met mixed reception. Some embraced it as a sign of the times. Even this early, the explosion of European colonial activity heralded for some the waning days of muslim hegemony in the region. Others wished to find some suitably islamic neighbor to take cultural cues from. The Ottomans appeared at the exact right moment to captivate the popular imagination. While noble and middle class fashion in the early 1600s still follows Andalusi norms, as the century goes on and relations with the Ottomans become more amicable turkish fashion becomes more and more prominent.
Typical middle class dress throughout the century would have been the ubiquitous cotton tunic, belt and trousers. Earlier in the century a man might wear typically Iberian bajama trousers, and then later perhaps a turkish-style şalvar with characteristic high socks worn over the trousers at the ankle. At a glance both pants look identical, but the bajama is less baggy. Turkish style shoes, and a large sash, also betray Ottoman tastes. A man of gaudier tastes might wear a large-jacketed coat with buttons called a malluta that was traditionally only closed with one button at the front so it flared open at the chest and hips to display the undertunic. Bright dyes and jewelry displayed ones wealth. Andalusian cities were flush with color in the 17th century. If the Paunaccio ideal has Iberian roots, it is here. Even during and after the wars that saw Toledo torched, or Madrid so thoroughly ruined it was abandoned, in those cities untouched by war fashion shows no signs of moderation. The destruction of these cities did wipe out what was left of mozarabic culture however, which does not appear as a distinct entity in Iberia again after the Aragonese invasion.
One Ottoman style that never gained popularity in Iberia was the characteristic large Ottoman turbans. Andalusis favored modest headgear, and the image of ,for Iberian tastes, extravagant turbans, never failed to conjure ridicule in even the most turkophile circles. One Andalusian joked that, “One sees the turks turban before one sees the turk.”
Middle and upper-class women were no less liberal than their country cousins. They wore bright colors, with makeup and jewelry. For those who could afford it, thin silk cloaks called qamis accentuated their appearance. Some felt this was excessive, and during periods of religious revivalism city women had their fashion curtailed sharply. More conservative minded women wore the full-body robes called ha’ik which only exposed the upper part of the face. Skirts were worn like peasant women, but were longer and finer.
For the highest ranks of Andalusi society there was still a strong sense of heraldic, warrior culture. Noblemen wore fine tunics with long coats that went down to the knees, a civilian adoption of how a cavalryman wore his coat. They displayed their wealth through clothing made from exotic materials. The famed cavalry commander Abdul Haadi al-Sar had monkey-skin gloves from Mishica. His saddle was even lined with ivory bought in central Africa. Here also Ottoman fashion was popular. Noble women were paraded as accessories of their husbands and fathers. They wore all manner of finery, with strong perfume. They were kept veiled in public, but those veils were often silk and barely opaque, glittered on the edges. A uniquely Iberian trend was to lay a silk scarf (mandil) over the temple so it dangled in front of the eyes and went down the back of the neck.
Turkophilia was conquering the bustling cities of the 17th century Iberia. Even smoking, which had never become popular in Iberia became a popular pastime after turkish-style hookah bars (Argilah) were introduced in coastal cities. Tobacco was a major crop in the Andalusi economy, but while it was wildly popular in the Rish, Europe and the Middle East, it had never caught on in North Africa or Iberia proper. By the 1660s, one would have found turkish salons in every large Iberian city. Turkish tastes never completely overtook local fashion however. Traditional noble fashion survived in the rural villa, the ancient refuge of the Iberian elite.
Nobles relished the chance to retire to their country estates. Here they wore wide-brimmed hats in peasant style made out fine stiffened leather rather than reed (talmif). The famous painting of Andalusi aristocrats at a corral by the Dutch painter Breukers captures the essential characteristics of elite country fashion. A few Arabs stand outside the corral, wearing red leather buckled boots over wide bajamas. They have metal belts with riding equipment, and billowing cotton tunics. One man has a brown cloak casually worn over one shoulder. They have gloves, and all wear wide red hats with cords tied at the chin. The men wear short beards with no mustaches as was the style throughout the period. In the corral a rider performs a dramatic trick on a black pony. One arm is thrown outwards, where the midday light barely hits the delicate embroidery on his sleeve. In the distance by a row of cypress trees women watch wrapped up in red cloaks. In many ways this scene represents the apex of Andalusian fashion. It was european, arab, and international while still retaining a strong rooting in an ancient heritage.
Even as Iberia suffered more in the 17th century than in the centuries of relative peace before, Andalusian culture showed no signs of collapse. Its extravagance captured the worlds imagination. Yet, there were warning signs. Just as Andalusi styles were giving way to foreign ones, Andalusi hegemony was giving way to English, Dutch, Valoisian, Ottoman ships. Wars, famine, and disastrous economic policy were taking their toll on Iberia. The endless supply of colonial wealth that fed the insatiable Iberian appetite for excess was being strained by mismanagement. The Arab monopoly on Atlantic trade was under attack by European nations who chased new markets in the New World, Africa, and East Asia. The end of the Ayshunids and the rise of the Wazirate of Seville was viewed by many as a return to form, but perhaps this was just wishful thinking.
War is worse than hell, because hell only punishes those who deserve it. By the 1630s, the rebel alliance that conquered Seville and overthrew the last decadent Ayshunid Sultans was firmly entrenched in power. They had done such a feat amid the worst war in recent memory. Half of Iberia was ravaged by rampaging armies. From the hills of Navarre to the wide plains of Almansha (al-Mansha) [La Mancha] war blighted the land.
The 17th century is one of recovery, and dramatic change. The Wazirate of Seville, as the new state became known, is perceived as a last flicker of Andalusian glory in an age of ever-growing Christian expansion. This perception extends through both Muslim, and Christian historians. Yet it was by its own merits a uniquely enduring state. Through capable leadership and innovative policies, the Wazirate maintained control over a sprawling colonial empire while similar European nations saw their first efforts collapse into disorder. Much of this was because the Wazirate inherited a well-maintained, efficient, bureaucratic network. Yet with this bureaucracy they also inherited the seething regional tensions that constantly sapped at Ayshunid sovereignty. Whether the Wazirate is a continuation of Ayshunid rule or a repudiation of it depends on one’s perspective. It was equally both. A different note in the same key. For brevitys sake we will define the ‘Early Wazirate’ as those years between the death of the last Ayshunid Sultan to the Declaration of Nazur in 1677. To tell the story of the first rulers of the Wazirate, let us begin, as most things do in Andalusia, in Seville. The year is 1635.
The Sultan at this time was Salman Ibn Abdul al-Bashara, or Salman the Silent owing to his soft-spoken nature. He was a native of Cadiz (Qadis). That fact lent the entire movement its most enduring name, though in reality its most prominent supporters were based in Granada. This Rei de Cadis had spent his early years supervising a string of military expeditions to restore basic order to Iberia. He was really a figurehead for a cabal of powerful nobles who undertook the actual affairs of state, piecing back together the old Ayshunid regime that Hussain (The last Sultan) had threatened. In 1635 al Bashara succeeded in pushing the Rundah family out of power. This powerful family produced the first rebel leaders, including the outspoken republican Salim Ibn Hamas al-Din. By 1635 their support inside the royal council, or shura had eroded enough that the anti-Rundah faction in the court decided to remove them completely. Al-Bashara divided Rundah held lands in Granada between his own supporters. Salim himself fled to the Riysh, where he had a small number of supporters there. This marked the end of republicanism as a movement in Iberia. It also was the end of the first rebel coalition in favor of a new cadre of leaders. The most powerful member of the council became Ali Abu Badr al-Ghazi, a powerful landlord who was granted control over much of Granada after the Rundah fall from grace. He had previously owned lands in Colinas (Batalyaws) [Extremadura]. This made him one of the richest men in Iberia. His younger brother, also named Ali (called al-Zafra to distinguish him from his brother) took over control of these estates after Abu Badrs grants in Granada.
Together these two men masterminded al-Basharas reign. They were landed aristocrats of ancient stock but possessed among them a sharp wit for the intrigues of the modern world. They keenly recognized the need to maintain firm control over both the colonies, and the different factions in Iberia if the new government was to succeed. After their rise to prominence in 1635 they only continued to gather power through bribes and political negotiations.
Andalusia was in the midst of an economic revolution in the 1630s – 40s as many former peasants rose to middle class status. The decimation of the old village economy meant there was ample room for remaining farmers to negotiate better contracts with landowners and acquire more lands for themselves. This coupled with a centralization of wealth among an even smaller subset of the nobility. In short, those nobles who were bankrupt by the wars and famines had to sell of their land for cheap, and those nobles who still had money to spend bought this land themselves. They would then give it as grants to remaining tenants to manage in their stead, since nobles were increasingly pulled between estates in many different regions. Abu Badr bought land on the cheap in central Iberia, turned it over to mid-level farmers in return for their support, and used the profits to fund his businesses managing trade with the colonies. Some peasants were becoming richer, some poorer, but the gap between the rich and the truly wealthy was expanding at an obscene rate. Al Bashara was aware of his position as but a mediator between this ultra-rich families and played it well. He ensured that the favor of the Sultan in the form of title and legal privileges were bestowed on the leading families in the region in exchange for their support.
This system was corrupt in the extreme, but it was never designed to be anything else. The shura was a council of the elite, ruling for the elite, keeping the Sultan tightly in its grasp. Al Bashara never had qualms with this. He funneled wealth to his personal projects (he is favorably remembered for founding many libraries in Iberia and Morocco), content to leave decision-making to his backers. Inevitably this system began to degrade as these wealthy families clashed more and more over a dwindling surplus of open land. The first signs were minor rebellions in central Iberia. Local elites were frustrated by the states abandonment of them during the earlier wars. The influx of western landowners grabbing up land that had been violently depopulated by war was only a further insult. A group of central Iberian leaders petitioned al Bashara for concessions in 1638, who put forth a law granting an annual stipend to victims of the war there. This was too little, far too late. Not only were rebuilding efforts scattershot, they were tied to western leaders who only funded works in areas where they held lands. Further land grabbing after the concessions continued to inflame the issue.
One essential example of the political intrigue of this period involved Abu Badr taking advantage of the brewing discontent in central Iberia to further consolidate his families position. He had the shura pass a law that war veterans were entitled to land if they could prove their veterancy to their local landlord. This law was proposed by Zayd Ibn Idris, a Mishican merchant who did it ostensibly with colonial veterans in mind, a theatre of war where there was ample land to support such an ordnance. Ibn Idris was of course, following orders from Abu Badr. This law was truly designed to sow chaos in central Iberia, a region with many soldiers and much less land to give away. He also knew, that these veterans would be petitioning his rivals in the Daba family who had been responsible for much of the landgrabbing there.
Predictably, in 1639 riots broke out after hundreds of former soldiers were turned away in central Iberia. The Daba were buying land in central Iberia with the intent of turning them into massive farming estates. This law poked holes into those properties. It also made them look like poor administrators. Abu Badr was able to garner support from veterans while losing some support from landowners. He could weather that loss, since the landowners that backed him were in regions where this law had less effect.
It was the first of many efforts to purposely cripple Andalusian territories to hurt his rivals. It was an open secret, that his involvement in the 1643 negotiations to partition Serenida [Florida] with Valois was to get revenge at Serenidan officials for backing his rivals in Riyshi politics. Abu Badr died in 1648, succeeded by his younger brother. By his death, he owned more lands personally than any man in Andalusia. He used the fledgling state as his personal weapon while ensuring its prosperity. No other man can bear so much credit for the character of the Wazirate, as flawed as it was. Between 1648 and 1659 this factionalism only became more and more severe.
This constant undercurrent of political vindictiveness came to a head in 1659 when the merchant Hakam Ibn Ahmad Ibn Salah threatened rebellion against al Bashara over an argument at a boar-hunt. No details remain, but it is believed al Bashara had publicly rejected Hakams request to marry his eldest daughter. This was by extension, a repudiation of Hakams influence at court. The seething merchant soon whipped up public frenzy. He painted al Bashara (rightfully) as a corrupt pawn of the elites. Hakam had powerful friends among the clerics who held considerable sway among the populace. Al Bashara was soon forced out by his own supporters to be replaced by Al-Afdal Muhammad, a minor figure of little importance. Al-Afdals only policy of note was granting governorship of the Algarve to Hakam, and then was himself forced out in favor of Abdul Fatah al-Sidi. Al-Sidi was called the ‘Half-Turk’ and showed promise, settling a series of land disputes in Morocco before being assassinated 8 months into his rule. His successor, Ibn Al-Furas, lasted half that time.
The Wazirate state was broken up into two main power groups by this point, each putting forward candidates and conspiring to remove the other groups candidates. On one side were the families backing Ali al-Zafra (Abu Badrs successor). They constituted the western & southern Iberian and Riyshi colonial families. They had significant support from the merchant classes. On the other side were the supporters of Abu Abdallah Ubayd Al-Ben. He came from a powerful Iberian family with deep ties to the Baraniyan lumber trade. His family had actually bankrolled the expeditions that would eventually become the dominion of Hassan. The Ubaydis gained fame as accomplished seamen. Ubaydi admirals notched important victories against European vessels in securing the north African coast.
These groups pushed back and forth in the years between 1660 and 1664. The Ubaydis succeeded in keeping their candidate, Mufarrij Ibn Ubada as Sultan without replacement for the next two decades after 1661. Their opponents tried to recapture control but were rebuffed time and again. They finally collapsed after a scheme to cede Andalusian trade control over North Africa to the Ottomans in exchange for Ottoman support in a coup was uncovered by Ubaydi spies. Al-Zafras son, Mustafa, was executed along with 12 others for treason in 1665. The same year local authorities defeated a revolt in the Ubaydi stronghold of Baraniya, finally reestablishing full control over the region’s fractious interior.
In 1666, Mufarrij ibn Ubada purged the upper ranks of the government. Hundreds of governmental figures were exiled, executed or jailed. This included the Ubaydi family elders. Ibn Ubada followed this move by stacking the shura with sunni clerics supportive of his regime. He was keenly aware of the importance of public opinion. He carried out public works projects to rehabilitate the under-funded Valoisian frontier which made great progress in reintegrating the restive eastern nobles into the government. Abroad he cultivated an image as a restrained, wise scholar. He traveled widely, becoming the first Wazirate Sultan to visit the colonies. He maintained good relations with the Ottomans despite their support of his former rivals.
This popularity did not extend to everyone. Between 1666 and 1670 Ibn Ubada survived three assassination attempts. Continued expansion in the New World, and an expedition to Mauritania kept the empire growing, which he used to grant new lands as rewards to his commanders. By all accounts, Ibn Ubada genuinely cared about ruling, rewarding capable administration rather than slavish loyalty. His son, Muhammad, married into the family of the admiral Abdullah Ibn Jasir al-Fath in 1675. The al-Fath family were important traders and soldiers from the Riysh. By integrating them into the court, he united his personal Baraniyan interests with a respected Riyshi family. This marriage proved fortuitous, as the elder Abdullah al-Fath (the grandfather of Jasir) proved a crucial ally in promoting Ibn Ubadas 1677 Declaration of Nazur. This granted full citizenship rights to the so-called hamihos (in Arabic, ghayimi), Arabs of partial native descent.
Ibn Ubada wanted to restrain the Mishikan Arabs and granting political power to the hated Mishikan creole underclass was his tactic to do so. Wars with European powers in the New World were also demanding more and more men on the frontier. Andalusi law had previously restricted certain peoples from military service outside of temporary mercenary status, which was notoriously abused by local Arabs to create their own petty armies. Now Ibn Ubada could legally raise and field whole regiments of mixed-race soldiers for colonial defense under his authority alone.
The old Arab colonial elites smarted at the usurpation of their authority but could not gather enough support in the shura to counter it. Ibn Ubada had consolidated enough power beneath him that the oligarchical masterminding of al Basharas day was no longer possible. This move did endear him with the colonial lower classes. Ibn Ubada was a lifelong populist. It did have the mixed effect of only further encouraging national sentiments in Morocco. Seeing colonial peasants receive better rights while Morocco still languished as an occupied territory inflamed the nascent separatist movements there.
This law marks a pivotal change in the political situation of the Wazirate. It was a forceful assertion of Sultanate authority in the colonies in a way that colonial leaders had hoped to avoid during the Wazirates formative years. It showed the renewed power of the Sultan, and at the same time the importance of the shura in legitimizing that power. Sultans could no longer make laws at a whim, they had to bargain, negotiate, compromise, to garner support from the representatives of their empire. The Wazirate had fully assumed the mantle of a multicultural empire, a modern empire, a parliamentary empire. It is fitting to end the early Wazirate period with this.
A Note on the political organization of the Wazirate:
The Wazirate of Seville was never called that name by those who founded it. Formally, it was the Sultanate of Seville (Saltanat Ishbiliyya), also called the (Saltanat al-Baharin), “Sultanate of the Two Seas” to represent its control over the Atlantic and Mediterranean. It was ruled by a Sultan elected by an council (Majlis ash-shura) of 50 - 300 viziers (wazir) who engaged in consultation (shura) over state affairs. How much power this council had over the Sultans authority was rarely codified and varied greatly by the individual ruler. The councils greatest power was electing a new Sultan from among their members, but the Sultan once elected could technically overrule the councils decisions – and all council decisions were made in the Sultans name.
This council was meant to represent all the peoples of the empire. It maintained a rough ratio between clerics, the Iberian landed nobility, merchant classes, and colonial elites, the so-called ‘four feet’ of Andalusian politics. It created legislation for secular matters (qanun) where Islamic law (shari’ah) could not provide clear ruling. The Sultan could then promulgate their own personal edicts “under the Will of the Sultan” vs. “under the Sultans eyes” for qanun law. The Sultan could in theory rule as an absolute monarch in the traditional fashion, but in practice Sultans would have to negotiate with the council to ensure their laws were faithfully respected. This unspoken arrangement defines the Wazirate in relation to the Ayshunids, where the Sultan was sole undisputed master.
Alongside the Sultan, the council had twelve appointed ministers for state affairs, who each supervised their own department. The religious heads of the nation maintained considerable autonomy. Islamic courts were the only courts for all law except for where local authorities granted minority groups their own ‘communal’ courts (which could be overruled when the government saw fit). Judges were expected to be experts in shari’ah first, and qanun second. They were however also expected to be assisted by expert advisors on specialist matters like trade policy.
Each regional governor had to maintain order and collect taxes on behalf of the central government. They could petition for laws from the national council or make their own declarations as they saw fit. The Sultan reserved the right to overrule all other laws in the nation. This almost never happened. Local authorities had significant power in their own territories, and routine disobedience of state law was common.
Life on the Northern Arab Frontier in the 17th century
The Oriolan frontier [Northern Mexico, the Southwestern and Western United States] is one of the largest expanses of wilderness on the planet. Harsh conditions, dangerous wildlife, and hostile native peoples constantly threatened the Arab presence in the region, which forced adapting to a radically different lifestyle to that experienced anywhere in the Old World. Individual outposts could go months, or even years, without contact from the outside world. It was an accepted fact that the majority of land would go unpatrolled, unwatched, and unguarded at all times. Arab administrators governed over a territory they never personally visited, where their laws could only be enforced on paper.
Geography
On Arab maps the entire landscape was called Salinah [Northern Mexico, American West], but that term perhaps was viewed as insufficient to describe the true nature of the land the first colonists discovered. Arabs dubbed the frontier the Qafar, or ‘wasteland’. Over time it instead became the washuqa, a native placename [Huachucha Mountains, Arizona] that was extended to the entire landscape north of the borders of Mishica (Mishika) and east of the coastal lands of Yikaq [Mexican Gulf Coast]. Washuqa meant more than just a vague territory but the entire mindset, the lifestyle that came along with it. When the writer Abu Hazim visited the region in the mid-1600s, the locals did not describe themselves as Arabs but as Washuqi.
As one travelled north from Mishica the land becomes increasingly sparse and arid, reaching an apex in scorching, almost unearthly red deserts broken up by rock bluffs and the rare stream. Even farther north the land becomes covered by scrubland, and then stunted forest, and then dramatic mountains break up into soaring snow-covered peaks on one side, with an endless expanse of grassland on the other. The farthest north Arabs ever travelled in this period was the remote outpost at Tabula [Chinle, Arizona], though some explored much farther while on raids or trade expeditions. Stories of massive canyons and hostile tribes deterred settlement any further. To the south, the settlement of Al-Jarha [northeast of Phoenix, by the Salt River, Arizona] was the furthest year-round inhabited town. Further south still, Mashath was the de-facto regional capital [Sabinas, Coahuila, Mexico]. The immense distances between large settlements was always a major factor in frontier life.
Administration
The Andalusi administration in the New World was centered in the Riysh, the first, and most developed colonial possession by far. Continental territory was always treated as a military occupation first, where control had to be constantly reinforced with punitive measures. There was also an understanding among colonial officials that to maintain order concessions had to be made with groups on the ground. In the lack of close enforcement, administrators settled for intermediary relationships with local authorities and curbing excesses with selective applications of force – extreme force in some cases. This philosophy extended to the frontier. As long as taxes were paid the authorities were content to leave the region to its own devices unless their hands were forced. Despite the rare attempt at more inspired governing by some, this withdrawn method of rule remained the norm across Andalusi colonial possessions.
Formally the Arab official responsible for Salinah was an Amir al-Bariya, or the Amir “of the Wilderness”. This position protected the porous borders between the ‘wilderness’ and the Arab-dominated colonial sphere. The Amir ensured peaceful relations along the border, the consistent payment of tribute agreements, and watched Arabs engaging in operations outside of Arab territory to make sure they were acting in the interest of the state. Originally this position was a strictly military one reserved for someone of the officer class, but eventually it was granted to civilian administrators and even native (Islamized) leaders. It was a warrant by the state to create a local representative of its authority in a region where it could not govern effectively in the usual means. There was usually a dozen or more active along the Arab frontier at any given time. The Amir could appoint their own representatives, but how developed the bureaucracy was for an area depended on the command style of that specific individual. For most of the 17th century the northern frontier was under the jurisdiction of Imran Abu Amir al-Akhir (1588 – 1640) Abul-Hawari al-Nasran (1601 – 1665), and then Ziyad al-Hanahanu (1647 – 1730). Al-Hanahanu was mixed-race (on his mothers side), while the others were Arabs of Iberian or Riyshi origin. All were prominent landlords in Mishika before appointment.
In the individual towns the religious / judicial qadi and the secular shaykh were the principle figures of authority. The Andalusi state placed a strong emphasis on a regulated, powerful, and well-funded judicial system that existed alongside secular chains of command. The qadi, or judge, passed legal judgements in the service of God rather than the state. Their powers were always vaguely defined, and this was even truer on the frontier. The qadi became the lynchpin of the community in daily matters from settling disputes, supervising public works, or the distribution of charity.
Because the qadi was under no obligation to answer to the ruling administrator, whether that was an amir or wali (governor) the shaykh became the states agent on the ground. A shaykh is a traditional arab tribal title, but overtime it became an official position in the Andalusi bureaucracy. The shaykhs primary responsibility was ensuring the public order, organizing the defense of the community, and ensuring taxes were paid. Unlike the hated tax-collector (amil) who traveled from town to town, the shaykh was appointed within the local community and expected to live close to his subjects. The relationship between the secular shaykh and the qadi could be quite tense at times, but both were vital to the proper functioning of a town. Both officials had authority to appoint others to enforce their decisions, which could lead to a doubling-up of duties, or even conflict.
Demographics
Strict laws restricted the various groups inside the Andalusi state, whether ethnic or religious. This system placed Arabs at the top, then certain Muslim foreigners (Arabs, Turks etc.), mixed-race Arabs, Dhimmi, and then infidels at the bottom. Informally, Iberian Arabs were given favored treatment over colonials, and Muslim black Africans or Berbers were treated as inferior even if they were legally equivalent to Turks or other ‘preferred’ foreigners.
On the frontier pure-blood Arabs quickly gave way to significant intermarriage with native peoples. By the 1600s several centuries of intermingling had created a large population of half-Arab, half-native peoples called ghayimi. They spoke Arabic or Arab-based creoles and were raised muslim. Many of these ghayimi came from the native peoples of Mishika not Salinah, having been given incentives to settle the northern border lands. These peoples joined groups of Islamized natives who themselves had a long pedigree as soldiers guarding the distant borders of the Arab colonial empire.
Dhimmi and non-Arab Muslims (not native) made a small minority in Salinah. Riyshi officials were always terrified of the possibility of undesirable groups building communities in the region. While dhimmi were allowed in certain parts of the new world, they were always forbidden from the northern border. One proposed reason for this was that Riyshi officials still treated the northern frontier as ‘pure’ where the other border regions of the empire (Brania [South America], Niblu [Florida], and Yikaq [Gulf Coast]) had enough European presence that the effort felt pointless. As for non-Arab Muslims, there simply was no reason to travel to such a harsh landscape where other options were available.
As a general rule of thumb, about 5 – 20% of a frontier town was Arab, and the rest was a mixed proportion of ghayimi and Islamized natives, with 5% of other groups.
Economy
Unlike the Shishima [Northern Mexico] where silver-mining was a hugely profitable economic venture, the lands north of it had no such industry that could encourage investment by the colonial government. The Salinan economy was instead built on ranching, slave-raiding, and trade. Reports of gold deposits in the northern deserts never materialized despite several exploratory expeditions.
Like other Arab frontier zones, the first Arabs to probe the wilderness were slave-raiders and merchants before there ever were formal explorers. Some Sufi mystics also wandered the area. Because Islamized natives were legally barred from enslavement, and African slavery was banned in many areas for fear of revolt, slave-raiders were always incentivized to sweep further and further to fill their quotas. Mashath became the center it was because it was a key stopping-point for slave caravans heading for the Mishikan coast (and the plantations there).
Along with slavers came traders. Both Arabs, and native peoples preferred to trade at neutral meeting grounds where neither group had to be present at the same time – so-called ‘silent trades’. One group would leave their goods, and the other would arrive at a different time and leave their own goods. Both groups would adjust their amounts of goods until an acceptable ratio was reached. It was a push and pull relationship. Merchants were also willing to buy slaves themselves alongside other goods. The distinction between the two groups was always a blurred one. Besides captives, hides, precious stones, lumber, and caged animals were major imports. Arabs traded metal tools, textiles, luxury items and spices. Some native groups had developed their own herding cultures, raising sheep and goats in large herds on their own lands. Native ranchers, whether from Mishika (which had its own centuries old equestrian traditions) or from nearby tribes, were in high demand to manage Arab-owned herds.
Settling the Frontier
The border was so large that there was no realistic chance to watch its entire extent at all times. Neither was the border clearly defined. A network of widely dispersed forts dotted throughout the entirety of Salinah protected against hostile raids. Each used a system of mounted couriers and signal fires to communicate with nearby settlements (the concept of sending signals through puffs of smoke was adopted from native peoples). In effect, the entire frontier was treated as the border.
Most of the military infrastructure in the frontier was of Ayshunid construction. Several sultans provided funds for defense of the region, but where those funds were allocated was delegated to regional appointees. Forts were clustered to the east and northwest, where Europeans and hostile tribes concentrated respectively. A chain of forts protected the main roads into the north, each snaking along both sides of the Shishima desert. Many of them became larger settlements as local peoples settled down around them for protection.
Frontier towns were as a rule, small, practical, and built for defense. Ramshackle, with structures made of local wood and adobe. They clustered around a central mosque, the largest and often first building in the area. The native concept of a central sacred plaza merged with the old Arab idea of the souq to create towns built with large open-air meeting places, with religious, administrative and commercial buildings all at separate ends of it. In many towns this was called the atali, a derivation of a nahuatl term. Houses faced inwards without windows on the outside perimeter so there was a makeshift wall surrounding the town. Narrow roads could be easily blocked off in the event of attack.
Frontier towns were small, most a few dozen to a few hundred inhabitants. There were few stone buildings, with even the largest structures made out of adobe. Drywall stone architecture was used at times, when a local official could hire the services of a trained team of masons for a prestigious building project. For the dozens of small farming communities that dotted the landscape, every structure was built out of layers of adobe and plaster, with rugged local woods studding their outer surfaces.
Frontier Wars
War was a fact of life on the frontier. Native peoples often attacked Arab settlements, whether for plunder or as retaliation for Arab exploitations. After all, the Arabs were unwanted invaders in lands that long belonged to different masters. Arabs constantly tried to gain from native peoples, to convert them, to use them, to capture them. The Arabs themselves were no strangers to raiding either. Constant punitive expeditions against unruly tribes added to a cycle of constant violence.
Soldiers were always stationed at the many forts in the area. Before the declaration of Nazur these were Mishikan or Riyshi Arabs (service in Salinah was considered to be the worst position one could be selected for). After the Declaration, these were exchanged for locally raised levies led by their own officers. These ghayimi units were paid the bare minimum and equipped with the cheapest gear available. Uniforms were poorly regulated, with many wearing their civilian clothing. Soldiers used a mix of firearms, with some even using matchlocks a century or more in age. The local habit of wearing simple white head-wrappings under the ubiquitious wide-brimmed sun hats gave these levies their enduring nickname of al-buthur (lit. pimples).
Horse-riding was a crucial skill among any frontier Arab. As it became clear a highly mobile response force was necessary to combat mounted native horsemen, cavalry corps were formed at all border forts. Many forts also kept groups of camel-riders, whose mounts scared native horses. Unlike the horse, feral camels were shunned by native peoples who believed it to be a unclean, cursed animal.
As in other frontiers, native auxiliaries were used to supplement manpower and as guides. Islamized natives were either recruited, or compelled into service. At times, even unconverted natives were bought for temporary service. Slave soldiery was a old tradition in the Islamic world, but was never used in the frontier. It was rightly believed, that using local slaves against their kinsmen ran a high risk of those slaves rebelling. At most there are records of some wealthy men in the area using their own private black bodyguards for their protection (these bodyguards were obviously bought in the old world).
The days when a band of enemy warriors could be dispersed by a simple gunshot were long gone by the 17th century. Centuries of trade well beyond Arab borders had ferried weapons far into the north. Feral animals and even ones sold by unscrupulous merchants made their way all across the Oriolan continent. Whole nations had risen and fallen, societies reorganized, economies built on the power of the horse without a single Arab ever knowing of it. Native warriors were not only exceptional horsemen, but also skilled shots.
Only a combination of targeted firepower, discipline, and rapid cavalry to cavalry action could defeat a determined enemy warband. Often, when facing a serious raid the strategy was to board up inside defensible positions and let the enemy move unmolested through the landscape until they moved on to more vulnerable territory. Only when the Arabs were confident of superior odds did they engage a large enemy force. Most of the efforts of individual patrols were spent driving off bandits who could be more easily dissuaded than a enemy force prepared for a serious fight.
The Native Peoples of Salinah
The Arabs referred to the many different groups they encountered by as many names. At first, all the peoples of the north were shishimanah , but as the Arabs made more lasting contacts they learned new names for these peoples. Many were based on the lifestyle of a particular group. There was a distinction between those who lived in towns (dhanha) and those who led nomadic lifestyles (ub). These are both terms derived from one of the earliest northern peoples to have peaceful contact with Arab merchants, the Al-Shinadhi [a branch of the Pima peoples]. Arabs reserved special hatred for the peoples called the ghush [Athabaskan-speakers, Apache], northern tribes they saw as uniquely savage. Ghush raids, provoked by rapacious Arab slaving expeditions, devastated early settlements.
Over time many native peoples banded into larger confederations formed of many smaller tribes. These could control much larger territories, and acted more like nomadic states. Several of these dominated the frontier, though because their authority was hegemonic and less territorial, many of them held sway in ostensibly Arab-controlled lands. Arabs had amicable relationships with some of them, but the most famous one of them all was decidedly hostile, the Mamlukat al-Kashuratiyya – The Cachuran Confederation. This nomadic state appeared in the early 1600s but remained a bit player until a massive expansion in the 1670s till it rule land from the gulf forests across the plains inland. The ensuing war with this state crippled the Arab frontier until the core Cachuran tribes were slaughtered in a series of battles in the 1690s. It showed the real power of native peoples, and forced a complete rethinking of the Arab colonial strategy. More than anything else, it showed that the horse-empires of the Oriolan plains could be a more deadly opponent than even the mighty empires of Mishika had been so many centuries ago.
Not all relations were hostile. Generally, Arabs were much friendlier to sedentary peoples than nomadic ones. Arabs depended on native trade just as many tribes came to depend on Arab import goods. Native words entered the local dialects of Arabic, adding to an already substantial corpus of Mishikan loanwords. Lastly, local intermarriage was a common practice between Arabs and native communities. Sufism especially became popular among local peoples who merged their beliefs with its moderate approach to Islam.
"The whole world is like a house filled with lamps, rays, and lights through whom the things of the house are elucidated…"
Ibn Barrajan, 12th century CE
Een man van het Menorca
A Menorcan man of Arab descent, but in a European coat. By Van Stuyt, 1695.
The Waning of the Islamic West
The Late 17th century was characterized by both the further growth of European colonial empires and the looming realization among Islamic Empires that something needed to be done to reverse this. The Ottomans continued to suffer setbacks in their sprawling eastern European territories as internal rebellions and foreign invasion eroded the considerable gains of the last two centuries. Andalusia, still recovering from internal political crisis struggled to maintain control of its huge maritime empire, even as it was able to continue expansion into the unknown. Both empires had over-extended themselves, while rival powers had the luxury to pick scraps of the edges. It is simplistic to characterize this as an equal ratio, however. That is – as much as Islamic empires declined the Europeans benefited. The largest European colonial power, the Kingdom / Union of Valois could not fully express its ambitions of international empire due to its own internal ethnic tensions. With its capital at Paris, perhaps it was inevitable that this lopsided state would become merely another French empire, but the succession of increasingly Francophile kings greatly accelerated the process. This alienated the kingdoms many non-French subjects who felt – rightly – that their concerns were less meaningful to a distant court in the heart of the langue d'oil.
As Catholic Valois waned, Protestantism leapt at the opportunity. Spurred by an economic recovery on the mainland and growing political stability, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian rulers consolidated their powers. The many divided protestant kingdoms of northern Europe seemed to be circling closer and closer together as the century drew to a close. The medieval world-order was growing dimmer by the year.
Timeline
1677
The Declaration of Nazur by the Sultan Mufarrij ibn Ubada grants equal rights to mixed-race Arabs. He begins raising regiments composed fully of these hamiho Arabs for defense of the vast colonial borderlands, amid rising tensions with European powers.
The Cachurata (Kashuratiyya) War erupts in the Arab hinterlands of Salinah [American Southwest / far northern Mexico]. This marks the explosion of the Cachuran Confederacy outwards along the Arab border. Composed of several native peoples, it uses mounted horsemen in lightning raids to control a wide expanse of scrubland along the border.
The lord of Tzintzuntzan, Zurunaban, fends off an coup led by his younger brother Hireti. With the decline of the other native states in the area, it remains the largest non-Arab ruled polity in Mishikah [Mexico], even if it pays tribute to Arab colonial overlords.
1678
Peasants in Al-Mansha [La Mancha] riot against tax officials in the area.
Arabs erect a small mosque and outpost at Alaqay [Puerta la Esparanza, Paraguay].
Danish armies defeat an expansionist Poland at the battle of Rostock. This reversal marks the end of the so-called Polish Golden Age and the ascendency of Denmark as the most powerful state in the Baltic region. The subsequent disintegration of Poland into warring rump states, which lasts for the next half century, devastates the region.
Spanish sailors build the fort of San Francisco on the coast of Java [Cilegon, Indonesia]. This region has long been visited by Arab merchants, and even Ottomans, but the decline of Arab sea-power in the Indian Ocean is opening up the region for more intense colonization efforts. Massive pirate fleets around the Spice Islands discourage movement farther east. They begin to trade with the local Hindu kingdom of Banten, which controls much of the island.
Ibn Ubada goes on Hajj, he takes the opportunity to tour the Ottoman empire en route. By lavishing praise on the Ottomans, he secures his friendship with the Ottoman state. He also hopes to secure new trade agreements to protect Andalusian goods from European competition.
1679
Ibn Ubada sends Muhammad Sayf al-Sadr to negotiate a border treaty with Valois in Iberia.
The Al-Jahidi (Islamized Mishikan polity) Lord of Kuyulaban, Talashital, is granted the title Amir al-Bariya. He rises as an important figure over the other Al-Jahidi statelets after his victory at Shalangu [Chalcatongo de Hidalgo].
Abdullah Ibn Jasir al-Fath, the Andalusi admiral notorious for raiding English settlements, scores a major victory by sacking the town of Graysden [Natal, Brazil]. The governor of Virginia, Sir Charles Longstreet responds with a colony-wide mobilization effort. Sailing in a fleet of rafts, several hundred English soldiers ambush the moored Arab ships at night and set them ablaze. Al-Fath is slain in the fighting. The incident rouses national pride in England where Longstreet is hailed as a hero. A popular comic depicts him battling the Arab leader across the yard of a burning Arab ship with the caption: “Longstreete roasts the Muhammaden atop his own fire”
1680
The Treaty of Soria settles border disputes between the Wazirate and Valois in central Iberia. The rapacious border-crossings of Portuguese minor lords do not stop however. That this was an original point of the border treaty frustrates Ibn Ubada greatly. However, he is unwilling to risk a direct confrontation with Valois over the situation.
The pirate Raymon Barbet attacks the Dutch colony in Brania [South America]. Believing Raymon to be acting on the orders of James II, the Dutch seized the Valoisian ship Le Superbe in the Atlantic as retaliation.
Riyshi authorities exert their power over Mishika by appointing Riyshi officials to local administrative positions. Because Mishikah is still treated as an extension of the Riyshi colonial system, continental Arabs are viewed as subservient to that system rather than equal partners – as they considered themselves to be. In addition, growing cultural differences between the two regions is instilling separatist feelings in both parties. The governor of Muluk, the informal authority over the entire Riysh, Mustafa al-Mudhuk al-Sufi, places strict tariffs on Mishikan ships as the first part of several restrictive trade policies meant to coerce Mishikan authorities into compliance.
1681
Moroccans petition the sultan for redress against exploitative practices by Andalusian landowners. They find sympathetic ears inside the shura, but not enough to get proper legislation passed.
The Dutch seizure of Le Superbe begins a tit for tat of escalating incidents until James II dispatches an army to take Brussels. This city had been seized by the Dutch during the War of the Dutch and German years earlier but retained a prominent catholic minority. James II hoped to capture the Catholic territories in the Netherlands to curb Dutch power, with especially the port of Antwerp a prominent target. Under Jean de Montfort a French army with substantial German mercenary forces marched from the fortress at Maubeuge into the Low Countries in June.
The Dutch call on their English allies for aid but find that Crown unwilling to aid in a war they see largely to be entirely of the Confederations making. The English are fully engaged in colonial wars with Iberia. Charles II did not want to reignite war with Valois after putting in great effort to heal relations several years earlier. Despite this, he turns a blind eye as the usual host of English mercenaries travels to the Netherlands to fight for Dutch coin.
In July after several inconclusive skirmishes Jean de Montfort is recalled to court and replaced by Charles of Ghent, Count of Flanders. Charles is a middle-aged noble who had actually been born in the Low Countries, and spoke fluently Flemish, Dutch, French (and even Greek). It was believed that his intimate association with the region would enable him to fare better than Montfort, who had significant difficulty defeating Dutch skirmishing attacks. These hopes are confirmed when Charles defeats the main Dutch force at Nivelles. The Dutch flee in disarray to Brussels, where they are soon surrounded by Charles, who divides his armies to sweep the countryside. He is reinforced by Westphalian cavalry who engage in raiding reminiscent of a medieval chevauchee. Charles did hold sympathies for the local people. He tried to curb the excesses of his troops, but when Brussels finally fell in a brief, but violent, siege in October his army ransacked the city. Twelve Dutchmen were lynched and hung from the cities Town Hall after (allegedly) refusing to remove their hats before a German soldier. This incident becomes a rallying cry for Dutch soldiers for years to come.
The Wazirate passes laws further penalizing the sale of certain goods to non-Muslim natives, fearful of the growing arms trade into the hinterlands of the New World. Especially on the northern frontier, the rise of large, organized, and mobile native nations with access to firearms threatens Arab settlements.
1682
The Valoisian war in the Netherlands, or King James War (called Barbets War to avoid confusion with the several other wars of that name) stalls following a Dutch victory in relieving the fortress of Puurs. Without a way to securely encircle Antwerp as he had with other cities, Charles withdraws south for winter. Valois attempts to draw the Holy Roman Empire into the conflict but just as the Dutch were unable to garner English support so too did James II fail in his efforts.
James II favoritism to some of his subjects over others reaches a head when in a land dispute between Gascon and Spanish settlers in the Castillineans [Carolinas] he appoints the entirely foreign governor of Chesepiac [from Chesapeake, modern coastal Virginia, North Carolina] Roger Caron to adjudicate the dispute. In theory this made sense – Chesepiac colony contained the disputed lands, but in name only. The dispute was over farms deep in the interior where Caron represented coastal, largely francophone population. The rural Iberian frontiersmen felt their voices were not heard. When Caron ruled in favor of the Gascon side, the Spanish took the lands anyways. Brutal punishments on the Spanish families in the area lead many to flee farther into the lawless frontier.
1683
Ibn Ubada comes down with a serious illness and loses the use of his legs. It is viewed by his enemies in Iberia as a sign of Gods disfavor in his rule. Criticism led by the Iman Ibrahim ibn Muhammad becomes the first serious challenge to his rule after Ubadas initial rise to power. Ibn Ubada responds by showing airs of great piety, exchanging his usual lavish robes for plain cloth and consulting with clerics in the shura. Sympathetic Imans portray his disability as a challenge by God rather than a condemnation, making reference often to Surat An-Nur 24:61:
“There is not upon the blind any guilt or upon the lame any guilt or upon the ill any guilt [for remaining behind]. And whoever obeys God and His Messenger - He will admit him to gardens beneath which rivers flow; but whoever turns away - He will punish him with a painful punishment.”
Ubada concedes to orthodox demands on certain issues, including the restriction of Jews and Christians, construction of more mosques in the colonies, and the cracking down on prostitution in major cities.
Charles of Ghent is attacked by a Dutch army at the battle of Wesenbeek. In a daring maneuver the Dutch commander William de Dunne moves 20,000 men east of Brussels and caught Charles entirely off-guard. It is debated how William managed to march such a force without resistance. What is generally believed is that an extensive network of double agents fed the Valoisians false intelligence as to the location of the Dutch army. While Charles was fortified at Grandmont farther west, he received word the Dutch were building fortifications inside the border established by the last years campaign. He carried out a quick march and fought William at the battle of Wesenbeek. It was a catastrophic defeat for the Valoisians. Charles was taken captive while his army, near twice the size of Williams, was routed. The defeat was so harrowing that King James II was said to have wept, allegedly saying amissa est, in Latin: “it is lost.” The Dutch could not capitalize on the victory due to their own losses and have to retreat north without capturing meaningful territory.
Venetian warships capture the port of Sabtan [Ceuta] after the authorities in Morocco threatened to expel foreign ships. This came at the head of a long diplomatic crisis that neither side was interested in peacefully resolving. With three ships a contingent of marines stormed the city at night and captured the city center. The daring operation was reinforced by a larger fleet soon after. Andalusian authorities agreed to preserve the ports status as a free city in exchange for the withdrawal of the enemy fleet. This shows in a new, visceral, way the bravado that European admirals are developing as Andalusian sea power wanes.
1684
William de Dunne recaptures the conquered territory in the south, as Brussels and other cities capitulate without a fight. He marches into Flanders against the orders of the Zuidhoff, the leading council of the Confederation. William wins several other battles against increasingly hastily assembled forces, first at Bouchain, then at Montagne Road, and then at Cambrai. However, the more he fights the more his own small army needs to be supplemented with ill-trained reinforcements or mercenaries. He runs the risk of the same poor discipline that poisoned Charles of Ghents force.
A slave revolt in the Castillineans succeeds in wresting several dozen miles of coastal territory from the crown. Led by ‘Malond’ as the slaves leader is called, plantations are destroyed and the owners killed. Local authorities suppress the revolt, but it is the last straw for Castillinean slave-owners. They demand representative leadership instead of governments sent and appointed by the royal court. This is not representation in the democratic sense. Despite being overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking, the Castillineans are governed by French and even Italian administrators appointed by the court and sent from Europe. The goal of the petitioners was simply to replace those administrators, with local, Spanish ones. King James II grants this request under advisement from his uncle the Duke of Normandy, who perhaps recognizes more than most the growing ethnic tension between the kings subjects. Caron for one, is replaced by the Spanish plantation owner Don Carlos de la Herrada. The French administrative class naturally is upset by this, and instead of calming tensions this only continues to inflame them.
The Ottomans invade the Adriatic but are defeated at the Battle of Pomena by a Venetian fleet. The rise of Venice to conquer a sprawling territory on both sides of the Adriatic came with it an even more formidable navy, one that was playing a decisive role in reversing Ottoman naval power.
A bomb underneath the grand Majlis chambers in Seville detonates, completely blowing out the foundations under one of its towers. This then collapsed on the main chambers, killing several dozen lawmakers, along with some guards and servants. Notable casualties include the amir of the Algarve Abu Muhammad al-Qala and the respected Riyshi politician Bashar bin Yaqub. An extensive investigation turns up a group of Riyshi separatists who are subsequently executed. Authorities soon persecute many leading Riyshis, jailing many others.
Spanish sailors establish further colonies in the far east, building forts in southern China with permission from the Shun Emperor. The Shun dynasty was a rump state of the former Ming, that controlled the valuable south Chinese coast. It had successfully fought off several Qing attempts to conquer it. Seeing a chance to turn the tide, the Heping Emperor contracts Spanish privateers to attack Qing vessels along the coast. In return, he allows silver trade with Valois in addition to existing Muslim enclaves already operating in the region.
Aragonese fortunes stabilize under the new Catholic regime of Queen Catherine (Catarina) of Girona. She crushes the last vestiges of the protestant faction in the court, deporting many thousands of protestant normanos, moors, and other ‘dissidents’ to the rural hinterlands in northern Aragon, formerly Navarre. Unsurprisingly these flee across the border to Valoisian Spain. The narrow, ill patrolled, and rugged terrain of the region begins to crawl with refugees, soon bandits. This adds to the ills compounding in Valoisian Spain.
1685
William de Dunnes force splits in two after a vicious disagreement between him and his senior commander (and lifelong friend) Wim Pier Duivenkaate. While Duivenkaate counseled against over-extending the army so deep in enemy territory, de Dunne adamantly wished to march on Paris itself. The argument ended with Duivenkaate taking two-thirds of the army with him back to the Low Countries, where they ran into the vanguard of a Valoisian force hastily called up from the Italian border. Duivenkaate escaped, but lost many men in the attack. Later that month, the Zuidhoff signs the Treaty of Charleroi with King James II, which ceded Flanders to the Confederation, along with the empires possessions in Brania (except for the fort at San Cristobal del Mar near the Mar Dulce). This is all conducted while de Dunne was still encamped deep within France, who discovered the news after the treaty was signed. Upon hearing soon after that a party had been sent to arrest him from the Confederation, de Dunne flees to England.
Moroccan intellectuals call for a general uprising against the Wazirate. Rebel forces throw out Arab officials from the Rif region in northern Morocco, but expected supported from supposed wealthy backers does not materialize, and the rebels are forced to flee to the hills. They continue to fight a guerilla war for another decade.
An economic boom in Brania encourages rapid settlement of the region. English ships begin to trade amicably with the local Arabs rather than the vicious sea-fighting of previous years. It has been suggested that a growing number of native raids forced the two groups to ally against a common foe – but given that both used native allies against the other that is unlikely. It is more plausible that simply, they are weary of fighting.
1686
The Tar [Peru approx.] begins to cool down after intensive suppression of local rebels. Several hundred Mishikan families are sent to the region as part of colonial efforts. Local authorities develop silver mines in the hills.
The Dutch Confederacy allies with Denmark. Along with England and Norway they form the Quadripartite Alliance, or: King Christians Bond (after King Christian IV of Norway and Christian V of Denmark). Sweden, smarting from an economic downturn and military setbacks, remains a bitter rival of the Danes.
The short-lived Kingdom of Karelia bursts into existence after a Swedish-backed rebellion defeats a Russian army at the Battle of the Thousand Lakes. In the subsequent campaign, the Russians are driven out of the region. The Kingdom exists until it is formally absorbed into Sweden several decades later.
1687
The Spanish defeat an Arab-Malay fleet to uproot them from the East Orioles [Indonesia] off the coast of Java. A second fleet however, succeeds in destroying the resupply force intended for the Spanish garrison. The Spanish spend the next three years under blockade before events elsewhere in the archipelago force the opposing navy to withdraw.
1688
The Cachurata Wars continue to rage in the northern desert frontier, with reprisals on both sides. Native fighters targeted mixed-race, and Islamized natives for especially brutal treatment, while Arabs committed multiple massacres against native civilians. Worsening conditions along the frontier lead many to move to the more peaceful Yikaqi coast [Western Gulf coast].
Europeans, Arabs, Natives, and African slaves mingle freely at the growing port cities in Al-Yikaq [Western Gulf coast].
1689
Arab and Portuguese ships fight in Africa and the Indian Ocean over control of trade routes. The Arab Amir al-Bahr in the region Abdul Rahman al-Basa is killed in a skirmish with European forces. The multinational Acra Company, from the port its ships often resupplied at [Accra, Ghana] establishes trading posts along the southern coast of Africa and as far as India and Indonesia. In an effort to control European infringement on Arab shipping lanes, Ibn Ubada begins granting tasamah to non-muslim vessels: written agreements for European ships to use Arab ports in Africa in exchange for a portion of all revenues. To enforce this policy the Cinarian fleet [Canary Islands] is doubled, at considerable expense, to watch the African coast.
Ibn Ubada sends an expeditionary force to support the Adal Sultanate in its war against the Christian Ethiopian state inland. With this aid, the coastal Muslims successfully sack the Christian heartland, reversing decades of hard-fought gains by the Christian rulers. The reigning emperor Asres II is captured and ransomed. This expedition is an intentional gesture by Ibn Ubada to demonstrate the capabilities of his military to rival powers. Despite what one might think, the gesture was targeted as much to the Ottomans as to the Europeans. Overtures of friendship do not change the fact that the Ottomans are a major competitor for trade control in the Indian Ocean – Arab troops carrying out operations so close to Ottoman-held Arabia is a clear message to the Sublime Porte of the far-stretching power of the Andalusi state.
1690
French explorers explore the complex seaways of Découverte Bay [Hudson Bay]. They trade fur with natives in the interior.
Danish settlers establish a minor colony near Dutch Barnooga [Brazilian coast]. The humidity, disease, and heat ravage the settlers within a year, many who move up to live near Dutch settlements instead of the remote settlement of St. Anders (their original landing point).
King James II cracks down on informal colonial courts that had sprung up to adjudicate the many disputes between the multiethnic European colonies along the Oriolan [North American] coast. Since they existed without royal permission, he treats them as an affront to his rule. Unresolved cases are passed to formal courts in the larger coastal cities where they quickly create a backlog.
England dispatches an expedition to secure whaling rights in the north Atlantic, fighting the short-lived Whalers War. It ends in an inconclusive stalemate.
1691
King James of Valois dies similar to his father, of syphilis. He is succeeded by his eldest James as James II. James II continues his father’s Francophilia to the dismay of his Spanish nobles.
1692
The Cachuran nation is wiped out at the Battle (Massacre) of Wadi Jaya. Over 2000 tribal warriors are killed, and a large civilian population enslaved or executed. In the aftermath Arab settlers move farther north into the interior. Arab slave raids probe deep into the wilderness, as do Christian missionaries as part of a vast covert network funded, in part, by King James II.
1693
Soldiers of the Basa Sultanate on the west African coast [southwestern Nigeria] defeat their rivals in battle after battle, expanding the kingdom to cover a long strip of valuable coastline. The Basa Sultan Iginuwa drives European merchants from cities under his control with Arab aid. A Venetian fleet prevents Porono [near Lagos, Nigeria] from falling. The city becomes the sole point of European contact for that part of the African coast.
1694
Ibn Ubada succumbs to his many ailments. He had attempted to pass his rulership to his eldest son, Umar, but the shura intervened to elected the statesman Khaled Abdullah Al-Khuraq as Sultan. Al-Khuraq is of Riyshi descent (on his mothers side), and speaks with a distinctively colonial accent. Al-Khuraq gives Umar a prestigious ministerial position. Surprisingly, Umar accepts this demotion with remarkable grace, likely out of fear for his life should he act out. As much as Ibn Ubada enjoyed strong support, his son lacks the same magnetism.
1695
In a traditional show of force for Andalusian rulers, Al-Khuraq moves to secure his force by jailing or executing suspected political rivals. This includes former allies of Ibn Ubada, but not the Sultans family itself out of fear of public backlash.
Romanian rebels defeat the Ottoman Empire at Cheia. This remarkable upset combined with Ottoman setbacks in the Adriatic, Persia, and factionalism at court, bring Ottoman expansion to a grinding halt. In particular, the victory of the charismatic Romanian general Daniel Viteazu inspires copycat rebellions all across Ottoman territory in Eastern Europe.
Labor reforms in the Riysh improve living conditions for debt-workers (‘ayedi).
Discouraged by a poor economy at home, many English travel to the colonies.
1696
Extensive campaigning to pacify territories in Eastern Europe exhausts Ottoman military resources. The betrayal and brutal execution of Romanian independence fighters makes them martyrs, and one of them – Sorin the Gentle, is canonized as a Catholic saint. It is said that as the Ottoman executioners made him eat his own severed hands, he said nothing but that they “needed some salt”.
James II is assassinated by disgruntled nobles. His death ignites a conflict in the Valoisian court, with multiple parties putting forward claimants to the throne. One faction unites behind the infante Jean while three other groups press forward adult princes for the throne. Protestant nobles from northeastern Spain back one of their own in Hernando de Cotes. They enjoy significantly more independent military backing then the other factions. After a dramatic showdown at court in summer, they withdraw to Bilbao and crown De Cotes King of Spain. They have strong support in Navarrese regions and Gascony. Gascon nobles were promised support for their own separatist movement, which had been suppressed by the centralization efforts of previous monarchs. Because the Normano leadership had no interest in controlling Gascony, they had no qualms about fomenting independence movements in the area. The immediate goal was to ‘reconquer’ the perceived heartland of northern Spain, which included northern Aragon and the Sultanate, along with Galicia, Cantabria, and Portugal. Spanish commanders called up a large volunteer army along with their own private forces with plans to march on the regional capital of Burgos.
Catholic leaders in Cantabria are similarly dissatisfied with Valois, but also oppose a Protestant monarch, for obvious reasons. They declare King James II the rightful king of Spain, hoping the crown will alleviate their claims if the protestant rebels are defeated. Under the Italian captain Gianfrancesco Fiamolin and the aged general Antonio Escobar de la Vega Catholic forces are massed around Burgos to protect the city.
1697
An English fleet sails in support of the Protestant rebellion. They land outside Porto on the western coast. With an English army in the west, and a rebel army in the northeast, the hope is to divide the Catholic forces along a undefendable front. The Valoisian Regent Louis of Oisans is busy fighting off factions in Paris still vying for the throne and tells Escobar de la Vega in no uncertain terms to hold the Spanish possessions without royal aid. Escobar de la Vega instead turns to a new source for extra manpower: the Portuguese border lords, or Atacantes. These men were entrusted with protecting rugged terrain from Muslim attacks for centuries. In recent years they have become infamous as roving, almost piratical figures (and to local Christian peasants, folk heroes). Atacante groups attack English supply trains all throughout the year. The English bombard cities from the sea to support their army as they move up and down the coast. It is a coordinated campaign to strangle the local economy so much the Catholics would be forced to respond.
Escobar de la Vega chooses to cluster his forces around major cities central to Valoisian rule rather than protect the countryside. The rebel army met the Catholics at the battle of San Zadornil. It was a prolonged standoff due to both sides not wanting to commit out of fear of casualties. Several days of minor skirmishes ended when the Protestant general Eud de Queden withdrew to the east. The year ends with a stalemate while the English continue to cut away at the Catholic economic base.
The Gentleman Humphrey Tanner, anonymous portrait, c. 1617
Gwell angeu na chywilydd ("Better Dead than Shame!")
- Welsh war cry recorded at the Battle of Hawarden
Introduction
Wales has always been a rugged land that fosters an insular culture resistant to outside forces. It was the stronghold of Celtic culture during both Roman, and Saxon invasion. For centuries, Welsh was a byword for foreigner among the English, the word itself derived from an ancient Germanic term for “stranger”. The Welsh call themselves the Cymry, from the word for “countrymen”. Ever since the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons during the collapse of Roman Britain, Wales has been defined foremost by its conflict, and coexistence, with these newcomers. The Normans aggressively pursued conquest in Wales to stiff resistance. The border region between England and native Welsh lands became ruled by independent, fractious, Norman lords. It became known as the Welsh Marches and defined a key characteristic of the medieval relationship between the English crown and the Welsh: the English would try to assert their authority over the region through local intermediaries - equal parts antagonistic to their subjects and blending with them. A successful English campaign in 1283 ended the last independent Welsh kingdoms but did little to stop the now infamous Welsh rebelliousness. Constant rebellions and lawlessness in the region eventually pushed the English crown to integrate Wales fully into the kingdom, which it did with the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 and 1542, passed by Henry VIII. These extended English rule over all of Wales. They paved the way towards the full integration of Wales into England.
Britain in the 17th century
Centuries of English rule had integrated Wales into the larger kingdom, but much of Welsh society remained firmly rooted outside English control. The economy was largely agrarian, but with some developing industry to export meat and wool. Trade along the coast sustained a healthy seafaring economy. Most of the population, 70 – 80% still engaged in agriculture. As the English economy was beginning to develop more robust service and industry sectors, the Welsh economy remained close to a more stereotypically medieval one. This economy was held at the top by landed gentry who cultivated their wealth through increasingly sprawling estates. Craftsmen, educated figures and yeomen were forming a growing part of society at the same time the rural poor were being forced more and more into landlessness. These rural poor remained profoundly Welsh in culture, speech, and lifestyle. Like Ireland and Scotland, a ruling class of often distant estate-holding nobility of mixed native and Anglo roots supervised a large Celtic population. This is not to say that Wales was a state living in oppression, though certainly the Welsh were not masters in their land as they once were. Wales experienced slow economic growth brought on by a general peace, and its integration into the more prosperous kingdom of England eventually brought all that empires colonial riches to those who had access. Wales was characterized by rising social and economic inequality that separated the mixed gentry and middle class with the uniformly Welsh rural peasantry. This inequality was exacerbated by religious changes rooted in England.
At the opening of the 17th century, England was wracked by societal change. The foremost of these was the rise of Protestantism in increasingly militant varieties. War after successive war against Catholic forces in Europe, the development of a thriving pamphlet industry, return of veteran privateers from the Netherlands, and a general romantic fascination with crusader-like exploits in the New World all together fueled a profound religious awakening in England. England, specifically, because this awakening was coupled with a sort of ethnic nationalism that identified the English as stewards of this awakening against a global horde of “muhammadens, savages, and papists” as one pamphlet put it in 1605. English preachers like John Stevens, Peter Bostock and Jethro Cresswell spurred this movement through ‘big-tent’ speeches that captured not just the middle and upper classes, but also the English peasantry. Religion was a public, a populist affair. This revival targeted its ire on the continental French and Arab, but also made enemies of the dissident Scot, Irish, and Welshman. Wales was nominally Anglican, but pockets of Catholicism in the rural South-east and North became black spots on the English religious reputation. The Purity Laws of 1617 cracked down on religious freedom on the Isle of Britain at large. They enacted brutal punishments for those deemed in dissent from the Anglican church and forbade the use of any scriptures except for in English. It was targeted against the Scottish church foremost, but it was enthusiastically enforced in Wales as well by local Anglo-Welsh gentry.
King James had successfully maintained a general peace in Britain for much of his reign, but the development of such radical elements in his Parliament, especially against the Scots, threatened that peace. He had attempted to prevent the passage of the Purity Laws through negotiation, but after Scottish peasants rioted in March he threatened to dismiss Parliament unless they overturned their own law. This was taken by the Puritan branch of Parliament, or Blackbands, as a royalist intervention on the side of the Catholics – disregarding James own efforts to stamp out Catholicism years prior during the Popish Recusants Act of 1605. The Blackbands did not stand down, and Parliament was dismissed shortly followed by the passage of new laws that watered down greatly the controversial legislation. One provision that King James did not strike was requiring the imposition of Anglican ritual. This was a compromise measure to English Puritans, a significant bloc in English politics. This did little to prevent Scottish resistance, and since the punishments were no longer as harsh nor enforcement as vigorous the laws in general had little impact. King James had forced himself into an awkward situation, between Parliament and the Scottish Church with little to show for it. Similar consequences were felt in Wales, but where in Scotland there was a strong native church tradition to oppose it there was little such resistance in Wales. The burden fell upon the Welsh peasantry who, even if they were Protestant, resisted the imposition of an increasingly evangelical strain of the faith.
Prelude to Rebellion
The Purity Laws were characterized by mutilation, delivered irrespective of class. In British society at large men of means could expect exemption from the sort of violent, physical punishments delivered to lower classes for the same infractions, but the Purity Laws were an exception. Some Welsh gentlemen had their noses cut off for resisting the laws. Protests about such treatment among the gentry were a large part of pushing the King to intervene. Even afterwards, the Welsh were treated harshly for any perceived sign of dissent from mainstream English Anglicanism. Part of this dissent was linguistic. Purity Laws repealed the use of the Welsh bible. Historically the translation of scripture into Welsh was one factor that had driven the spread of Protestantism into Wales, but the Parliamentarians behind the Laws viewed any language outside of English as inherently unbecoming to the Anglican church. They further feared the use of languages like Scots, Gaelic, Cornish or Welsh, could be used to mask seditious intents. While Welsh gentlemen protested over their harsh treatment, the peasantry was alienated and furious by a perceived betrayal by the English church. The Purity Laws became a tool for local Elites to violently control their workforce, sanctioned by Parliament, who supported and rewarded such behavior by English gentry in the Celtic Fringe. Still, there was little talk of uprising. Wales was a firm royalist stronghold. Many believed the king would protect them from Puritan excesses.
The King was often trapped between different Protestant factions at court, in Parliament, and among his subjects. English Puritans pushed for reforms across society to bring it away from Catholicism and towards the supposed spirit of the English Reformation. Many in the English middle class were Puritan. As the maritime economy grew middle-class Puritans moved to growing coastal centers of industry. Wales, by its position on the sea had a number of these fast-growing coastal cities, like Swansea or Cardiff. These cities saw English and Welsh interact in a high-speed dynamic economic situation that, as previously stated, was prosperous but not equally among everyone. Coastal cities became the lifeblood of Wales, but they also were bombs of cultural unrest, fueled by economic inequality.
In 1619 one man, Thomas Mumford, accosted a priest mid-service in Swansee during an argument (it is believed the source of the contention was about giving the sign of the cross - seen as superstition by many Puritans). Another churchgoer, likely a Welsh migrant recent from the countryside, interpreted it as an assault and swung at him with a stool. This grew into a larger fight between the three men which ended in the Welshman in prison, and Mumford set free but for a small fine. The alleged sympathies of the local garrison under Lord Robert Devereux (Earl of Essex) towards the towns Puritans only further inflamed tensions in the town. Swansea was a traditional seat of glovemaking in Britain, but the availability of cheap bootleg fabrics from Iberia had put many out of business. Frustration with the perceived unfair treatment of the Welshman boiled over into rioting. Two days later a mob descended on the cities prison intent on freeing the imprisoned man, but were repulsed by the garrison. Several were killed. Mumford himself was caught and nearly lynched by a crowd. Protests began to spread across South Wales, turning into anti-Puritan (and anti-English) rioting in Catholic areas. In the Puritan port of Bristol, protests erupted in turn as a response to Englishmen like Mumford being targeted by mob violence. Some English preachers advocated moving to Wales to 'bring peace' to the region and protecting the faithful there. The situation was rapidly spreading out of control to the great worry of the government, in England and Wales.
Tanners Expedition
Later that year, Lord Buckingham, one of the Kings closest advisors, assigned Humphrey Tanner to curb insurrection in the region. Tanner, a gentleman of otherwise minor importance, was granted the job as an easy path to prestige in reward for aiding Buckingham financially. Tanner was less suited to military matters as he was to politics, mismanaging his finances so poorly he had to request an extra loan from the King to outfit his own troops. Many of Tanners men had volunteered from England, eager to do their believed God-given duty in protecting their countrymen. In 1620 Tanners force of 2000 marched into the area of the worst rioting, near the Catholic enclave of Flintshire in the north. The regions English community had been driven towards the border by violence. Tanners soldiers descended into the countryside, eager to rectify injustices. The situation was not helped by widespread propaganda painting violent excesses by papist mobs. Such propaganda certainly rang in the ears of the English soldiers when they began to torch the areas towns that spring. Moderates at court feared this escalation would not stop the fighting, and successfully had Tanner change his policy towards just incarcerating known 'trouble-makers'. This calmed the situation for a few months. After Tanner withdrew to camp for winter, it seems as if the violence had abated. Rioting was dying down in Wales, and unrest in now Scotland was occupying the crowns attention.
As part of maintaining the peace, Tanner planned to march his way west deliberately through rural Wales as a show of force. While leaving his wintering quarters near Wrexham he suppressed a small protest led by a local pastor named Lloyd Todd. Todd was unashamedly Catholic, and instigated a fight with English soldiers, who beat him to death. His death set the whole region into a new wave of riots. This time, local militias banded up to remove Tanner from the area permanently. These militias were nominally for local town defense, from bandits and the like, but the excesses of the English soldiers pushed them to band together into a larger fighting force. They elected Robert (Rob) Bowell as their leader, a former cavalryman returned from the wars in Ireland.
At the battle of Bryn Alyn a militia repulsed an attack by a force of soldiers under Sir Spencer Myddelton sent to suppress them. Shortly thereafter, another group assaulted English camps in the north near Caergwrle. These groups used guerilla tactics to evade reprisal by far superior forces, showing success in disrupting the movements of Tanners army. Frustrated by the renewal of violence in the area Lord Buckingham along with the Blackbands pressured Tanner to return to his previous tactic of mass evictions and house-burning. Weeks of more regional fighting ended with the massing of the local militias camped outside The Ffrith, a small pastoral area south of Mold. Intent on crushing this force before it spiraled into a larger rebellion, Tanner attacked with his entire army on April 5th. The Welsh had word of his force well in advance but decided that fighting defensively from camp was their best option. The Welsh camp was pitched with an open field at one end, and surrounded by scattered trees and low, rolling terrain to all other sides. Much of the camp rolled down and away from the field, but the normal stone fences that surrounded it had been dismantled by a previous expedition during the last year to punish the local landowners. Tanner scouted the area and decided to assault head-on across this open ground.
He placed his army at one end of a wide field against the Welsh force. He hoped to use his six cannon to break the militias and then ride them down with his small cavalry force, but wet, foggy, conditions rendered his cannons gunpowder useless. Rob Bowell massed the Welsh militias of 1000 at the far end of his own camp while putting several hundred at the front, facing Tanner. These men stood in a tight formation, but wide, to give the impression of being a more substantial part of his army than it really was. At high noon after an unsuccessful cannon volley, Tanner ordered the cavalry commander Godfrey Symeon to lead his thousand cavaliers at a hard charge against the Welsh line. The appearance of the ragged Welsh forces, armed with more pitchforks then pikes, gave Tanner confidence he could disperse the enemy without committing his infantry. Symeon charged, and as expected the Welsh broke far before he closed. They scattered back through the Welsh camp. Unprotected by any sort of fence or hedge, the camp was no deterrent to Symeons cavalry, who rode right into it. Once deep inside, Bowell gave the signal to his waiting force that surged into the camp. The weather was already foggy, and combined with tents, trees, and smoke from gunfire the cavaliers were quickly disoriented and surrounded. Symeon was struck down and less than half found their way out of the ambush. Worried by the commotion and smoke rising from the camp, Tanner had his men dress ranks for a larger assault. When scattered units of cavalry began to return to his lines, he committed his infantry. Colonel Thomas Chatham led the royal center right into camp. Sir John Redding took a regiment and moved into the rolling woods on the left to try and catch where Tanner believed the bulk of the Welsh force was, attacking his remaining cavalry at the back of the camp. Bowells force had just finished dragging the last cavaliers out of their saddles when the first English foot entered the camp. The Welsh attacked Chatham with surprising tenacity. After an half-hour of intense fighting the Welsh eventually abandoned the field in advance of Reddings attack. The battle was a draw, but the loss of a large number of heavy cavalry was a crushing blow to Tanners reputation. The Welsh force retreated with most of their number intact into the nearby villages. Tanner attacked the nearby village at Llanfynydd but could not proceed further, retreating to Wrexham.
The militia leaders wanted only to repulse Tanners army from the area, not contest any other English authority. This began to change as local priests started to give sermons casting the movement in a religious and cultural light. Gradually, led by the local clergy, the resistance movement took on an anti-Puritanical, anti-English tone, swelled by hordes of volunteers from the nearby towns. The eventual rebel petition delivered to the King on May 17th called for not just the removal of odious English forces from the area, but also the right towards free religious practice in the Welsh parishes, the final abolishment of all Purity Laws, and guaranteed protection of the right to use the Welsh bible.
Rob Bowell attacked more English positions in the nearby valleys. By mid-summer Tanner had lost governmental control of a large swath of the area around Flintshire. After Welsh fighters slaughtered a band of soldiers outside Mold, Lord Buckingham was forced to renounce his ties to Tanner and called him back to London. King James blamed Tanner for instigating a revolt among the Welsh and drove him from political life. James replaced Tanner with the young Edward Montagu, Earl of Manchester. In the time between when Montagu was appointed and could begin to march with renewed forces, and when Tanner was called to London (June 1st to September 12th, or 103 days) Welsh forces fought constant battles with the remaining English soldiers in the country. This became known as the 'Hundred Days of Terror'. It was the fighting here that truly transformed the rebellion from a reaction towards a single punitive expedition to a larger seperatist movement. Rob Bowell became a more prominent leader, writing letters to solicit funds from across Britain. This bore fruit when the Earl of Pembroke himself, William Herbert, began to funnel weapons to the cause. The Earl himself was not Welsh, or even Catholic, but believed that fueling the insurrection would help occupy the Lord Buckingham, for whom the Welsh problem was already proving a serious political scandal. Pembroke was by far the most influential supporter, but Bowell also successfully gained support from Scots, Irish Catholics, and of course many in Wales. Bowell himself was a Catholic, but not ardently so - he went to great lengths to paint the insurrection as a movement against Puritan excesses not a Catholic uprising, or even a Protestant one. This put him at odds with many even of his own men, who followed him out of personal admiration above anything else. The greatest weakness of the Welsh Rising, as it would become known, was the constant tension between Protestant Welsh, and Catholic, united only by their hatred of England.
Montagus War
As fall came around, Montagu was finally able to march north with over 6000 men. He arrived at Chester in mid-September. The city was on edge after reports of Welsh raids targeting nearby towns. Montagus scouts reported an enemy force of several hundred marching to take Raglee Castle. He quickly intercepted and crushed them and moved to reinforce Connahs Quay against another attack. At the battle of Deeside, Montagu again defeated a rebel army, but Bowell was nowhere to be found. He had given off such minor raiding operations to subordinates. Bowell himself was busy raising forces in central Wales for a larger invasion of Flintshire. Bowell’s growing alliance with rebel cells across the nation gave him the means to orchestrate both a war across Wales, while he concentrated on the north. In January 1622, the protestant Welsh leader Owen Gwynn captured the border town of Oswestry to the south, blockading a large swath of rural land from resupply. Bowell led his main army against Wrexham soon after.
Montagu took his force south to defend Wrexham. James called for the campaigning army of the heir apparent Prince Charles to return from Ireland to aid in the suppression. Both sides were digging in. The Parliamentarian Blackbands gained many supporters from the moderate, pacifist faction ("Greenbands") in the wake of the Kings decision. Despite Bowells best efforts to transcend the movements Catholic roots, his war was marked as a Catholic one in England, not a Welsh one. Unlike the Glyndŵr Rising 200 years earlier, Bowell never experienced a large-scale exodus of English Welsh to his cause. For many in England, the goal was extermination of a Catholic threat, not compromise. In mid-February Bowell surrounded Wrexham. Montagu, confident in the cities defenses, decided to wait out the rebel force until Charles arrived from Ireland.
Bowell attacked the city with captured cannons but had little success. Multiple attempts to force Montagu out equally failed. Raiding the countryside for supplies hurt Bowell’s own base of support. After months of ineffective sieging, Bowell withdrew in May. He marched west to intercept Prince Charles before he could unite with Montagu. He succeeded at the Battle of Mostyn on June 14th. Issues crossing the Irish sea meant that the Princes army arrived only piecemeal. By the time the Prince knew the Welsh had taken the port before him he had already lost four ships worth of troops. He redirected his fleet to Liverpool, fearing Chester too was lost. Emboldened at his success, Bowell then turned south and attacked Montagus army marching from Wrexham. His daring offensive pushed Montagu to give battle at Hawarden on the 21st.
Bowell based himself near Hawarden Castle. The local garrison had turned it over to him without a fight when he arrived. The Welsh army enjoyed the considerable support of the local people, while Montagu was forced to rely on an extended supply train from Wrexham. With now an army of almost 14,000 men Bowell was confident in his chances against Montagu. The great bulk of this was regional Welsh levies, many from farther south and outfitted cheaply with donated equipment. Supplies smuggled from Catholic nations in Europe meant that Bowell had better-armed, more conventional pike and shot regiments than when he fought Tanners forces, but this charity effort paled to what the Tower of London provided Montagu. A small number of Irish and Scottish supplemented the Welsh army, along with 2,000 horse, and 5 cannons.
Montagu had considerably less men, 6000, but he had the benefit of more horse and cannon which often proved more significant in battle than more infantry. Unlike Tanner, who recruited from Puritan volunteers in East Anglia, Montagu raised his levies from the areas around London and then the Midlands, to avoid the sort of destructive behavior that plagued Tanners army. These men were outfit according to the popular military fashion at the time, with tight-fitting metal helmets and in cheap red-dyed coats. Montagu had twice as many horsemen as Bowell, and 12 cannons. A number of these horse had trained in the 'Moor' fashion, where they operated as wide-ranging dragoons rather than proper cavaliers meant for direct charges. The young Earl gave the bulk of his army to his elder commander Lord Ayleward, a gentleman of standing at court. Ayleward was experienced from fighting in colonial wars, and pushing 60, was three times his superiors age. Montagu himself took his dragoons and marching from the south, taking the hamlet of Dobshill early in the day. Ayleward established himself at Broughton to the east. The battlefield between the three villages (Hawarden, Dobshill and Broughton) was divided up into many small farming plots with thick stands of trees between Dobshill and Broughton. Montagu feared that Welsh fighters might use the forest as cover from which to break into his lines, and so moved his cavalry up to the high ground left of the trees past Dobshill to get a vantage point.
An attempt by the Welsh command to negotiate prior to battle was rejected, Montagu, as other English commanders would, refused to treat the rebels as a legitimate force with all due privileges. By mid-morning Montagu sighted the Welsh force moving against Broughton. Fire between the English cannon at Broughton and the few Welsh guns broke out just before 10 am. On the far side of the forests Montagus cavalry engaged with a force of Welsh cavalry under Howell Dee. The intensity of Dee's charge forced Montagu to retreat, but both forces found it difficult to maneuver through the fenced farm plots of the area. Montagu fought Dee off and withdrew to reunite with Ayleward. At noon the Welsh reached firing range with the English muskets. Both sides engaged in an intense firefight, with the English muskets using makeshift barricades as defenses and the Welsh hiding behind stone walls out in the fields. All the while intense English cannon-fire pounded the Welsh center.
Montagu would try to move his cavalry back around to defend Dobshill, but soon found himself in a vicious fight with the Welsh cavalry over the town. His temporary withdrawal earlier in the day gave the Welsh enough time to move their light Irish mercenaries nearer the town, who supported Dee with skirmishing fire. Montagu was almost stabbed in the throat, but his gorget blocked the strike. The greater English cavalry force was cut down to size by a combination of relentless Welsh attacks and supporting fire. At 1 pm Montagu had begun to withdraw to Broughton, and by 3 the Welsh had captured the entire left flank of the battlefield.
The Welsh center was in desperate need of support. On hearing he had broken Montagu’s cavalry Bowell commanded Dee to flank the main English army. Dee's cavalry rode up from the left and attacked Montagu’s flank. Montagu’s own beleaguered horse were unable to resist, and broke to flee to Wrexham. Seeing the Welsh horse attack the English, the Welsh center broke into a spontaneous charge. With a cry of “Gwell angeu na chywilydd!” (Better death than shame!) the Welsh frontline attacked the English barricades. Many threw away their pikes to wield daggers, clubs, axes and swords instead. Ayleward rallied his men to face the Welsh advance, ordering his cannon to load grapeshot, but before they could get off a volley the Welsh engaged his defenses. The English center broke before overwhelming numbers. Montagu managed to withdraw his reserves before a total rout ensued, moving to regroup at his supply center at Wrexham. Nearby Chester was a more achievable target for the routing infantry, many of whom fled east rather than south with their commander. Ayleward was killed in the fighting to protect Broughton. The town was subsequently looted by the victorious Welshmen. Bowells army suffered greatly at the hands of Montagus guns, with 1300 wounded and 700 killed among the infantry alone. Dee's cavalry force lost a quarter killed, but it paled in comparison to the lossess inflicted on Montagu. The English suffered almost 2400 wounded with 1800 dead. The disorganized rout and envelopment of the English center had enabled the Welsh cavalry and infantry to ride among them and slaughter as they pleased. The brutality of the Welsh can be chalked up to how the war had become a religous one - the Welsh Catholic forces were notably crueler to the English than the Welsh Protestants. The ghastly slaughter of so many Protestants was one part of the growing tensions between the Protestants in the Welsh army and their Catholic comrades.
The Battle of Hawarden was the second time an English army was defeated in the field by supposedly disorganized rebels. The Welsh victory can be most attributed to the tenacity of the individual soldiers and the skill of the nascent Welsh cavalry under Howell Dee. While Montagu conducted himself ably he underestimated the fighting ability of his enemy like Tanner before him. He would not make that mistake again. He had time to reorganize his army at Wrexham while Bowell tended to his own losses. Prince Charles army marched at full haste to Chester a week later. Bowell retreated south to recoup his losses with fresh levies. He had exhausted the northern countryside, and with far superior English forces in the region he hoped to outmaneuver them in the south. Leaving Owen Gwynn in the north to harass Montagu he marched to Welshpool in Powys. Local rebels had risen up to take that region during the Hundred Days of Terror, giving Bowell a stronghold where he could recover without harassment.
Montagu joined up with the Prince Apparent. They lacked proper reconnaissance in the rural Welsh heartland, so together they decided to pacify the north while waiting for the Welsh army to appear again. At the end of summer, Bowell had raised fresh levies and set his sights on new targets. He united with the main southern rebel force under Rhys ap Cadwgan. The archetypical Welsh mountain fighter, Cadwgan had spent the last year building a roving army in the Welsh interior, coordinating with Bowell to build up support while Bowell was campaigning in Flintshire. Cadwgan attacked Swansea on September 15th. Taking it delivered the first large city into Welsh hands since the rebellion began. However, Bowell wanted to strike England directly. Soon after Cadwgan had taken Swansea, Bowells army sieged Shrewsbury on the 24th of September. If the city fell, Bowell reasoned, he would have an open path to raid deep into England. Welsh tried to supplement their meagre artillery train with improvised 'log cannons' dug around Shrewsbury. Bowell took the city after a short few weeks, but his tactic of mass assaults cost him gravely in casualties. He left the city under the command of his senior officer Dafydd Maddox and marched to Birmingham. Shrewsbury’s quick collapse sent panic through Parliament. The Blackbands authorized funds for a new army to defend the city. King James, beginning to suffer from disease in his old age, even prepared himself to take personal head of this force.
Cadwgan ran into resistance in the far south from a new force from Bristol - the so-called Lords Army, a volunteer protestant force bent on protecting southern England and Cornwall from a feared Welsh invasion. 2500 men of this army landed at Cardiff on October 6th. Cadwgan had planned to take the city, along with Newport, to rob England of the valuable commercial wealth of the area, but the reinforcement of the Lords Army motivated him to instead continue to raid along the coast. His own force numbered 4000 men along with a sizable fleet of small boats meant for coastal sailing. Cadwgan fortunately did not have to worry about invasion from the west, since the nominal English force at Pembroke castle chose to remain neutral. He concentrated his efforts to further deplete English resources in the south-east.
England on the Retreat
Around October, the English were fully on the retreat in Wales proper. The rural interior was wholly ceded over to rebel forces, though these same forces were rarely unified among themselves. Cadwgan was fighting small indecisive battles with the Lords Army and Montagu, now fighting in rebel territory around Monmouthsire, while Bowell marched to Birmingham. Prince Charles had to march out of Wales to defeat a rebel force in Scotland aiming to take advantage of the unrest, leaving just the Kings army to protect Birmingham. James was unable to take command as he had hoped, but placed Lord Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex at the head instead. Devereaux raised fresh levies of 5000, with Sir John Eliot commanding another 5000. Devereaux had humiliatingly lost Swansea to the Welsh raiders earlier in the year and appealed to the king at having a chance at redemption. Sir Eliot was a respected man in Parliament but quarreled with Buckingham. his position of trust for such a critical campaign indicated how far Buckingham had fallen in the Kings favor by this point.
Eliot quickly became recognized as the primary commander of the English defenses. He was a more able politician, and it was not lost on contemporary observers that he overshadowed Devereaux through sheer personal charisma. He advocated an aggressive strategy to counter the Welsh army. He followed to the letter the Blackband position of suppression Catholicism through both military and cultural persecution. Recognizing that the Welsh army was already prone to religious tensions, he sought to intentionally inflame them. Parliament passed a law stating that while Protestant rebels might expect amnesty in the event of peaceful surrender, those Catholics who rebelled could expect execution if captured. As expected, this drove a wedge in the Welsh army. Bowells army was commanded by all Catholics. Increasingly, Bowell had also placed his Protestant forces at the front of his army, leading to them suffering the heaviest casualties. Feeling disenfranchised by their commanders, Protestant Welsh began to desert to the English side.
Bowells army faced another new problem: supplies. When fighting in Wales, he relied on his men receiving aid from friendly villages who would equally deny them to the English. Now that he was in England, local people actively resisted his foraging parties. He also lacked the developed supply infrastructure the English army had. By October 11th Bowell needed a decisive victory or he risked his army hemorrhaging to nothingness. That day his scouts sighted an English force stockpiling supplies at the village of Cosford. From his camp at nearby Telford, Bowell dispatched his reliable cavalryman Howell Dee to capture the much-needed supplies. These supplies were in fact, being prepared ahead of the incoming English vanguard. Dee had no difficulty routing the small English party guarding them, but the English had broken their own supply wagons as they fled, leaving Dee no easy way to cart the supplies back to his own lines. He requisitioned a few from local farmers, but as time went on more and more English scouts were sighted in the area. By noon Dee decided to abandon the supplies and ride at full haste before he risked combat. Soon after, forces of English dragoons gave him chase. A Welsh rider was able to give word to Bowell, who doubled his marching pace to support Dee before the English infantry arrived. As the day went on, hour by hour, more Welsh arrived to the area and made contact with English units arriving piecemeal themselves. By 5 pm Sir Eliot had arrived with the entire English force of 10,000. Bowell successfully recovered the English supplies, which gave much-needed ammunition to the Welsh musketeers. Fighting paused for nightfall. Both armies camped in preparation of a decisive battle tomorrow. On the morning of October 12th 1622, Bowell deployed his army as best he could through some fields by the town. Sir Eliot deployed opposite, leading the center himself while Devereaux’s force brought up the right flank and Colonel Robert Walker leading Eliots cavaliers on the left.
Battle started as Bowell moved his center towards Eliot. Bowell placed at the head his remaining force of Scottish mercenaries (some of the only Protestant soldiers he had left). The Welsh center bunched up to make a deep pike formation to drive right through the English line. With only one volley of musket fire the Welsh slammed against the English force. Howell Dee's cavalry engaged Robert Walker on the left flank. Devereaux moved up on the right but was impeded by skirmish fire from Welsh troops based in Cosford and a small party of dragoons. It was around mid-morning that a heavy rain broke out, turning the field into a sodden mess. Without his cannon or muskets, owing to the weather, Eliot decided to force victory through his infantry. Eliot sent his reserves to his left flank in support of Walker. Dee's cavalry had been fighting on and off for nearly two hours by this point and faced with a fresh charge by newly arrived English cavalry withdrew. The thin English center buckled against the Welsh attack, curving inwards. With the left flank open without Dee to stop him, Eliot moved all his remaining non-committed men up the left to further press the Welsh center. Reminiscent of Cannae, the bulk of the Welsh forces soon were trapped in a tight space unable to maneuver. Bowell tried to rally his remaining cavalry to break the English left, but to little avail. Bowell signaled the retreat at 4 pm. This was a grave mistake, as the withdrawal of the Welsh right allowed Devereaux to press to the Welsh center as well. Walkers cavalry broke to pursue the fleeing Welsh cavalry, but the English infantry stayed, and continued to envelop the Welsh infantry.
The center became a muddy nightmare. Ceaseless rain and the moving of thousands of men liquified the soil. As the Welsh were forced closer together, many cried out for quarter, but in the din of battle their cries were not heard. Fighting continued well into the night as the English methodically hacked through the trapped Welsh infantry. Some Welshmen managed to escape, but lost in unfamiliar country were easy prey to English cavalry. Eliots commanders were so appalled by the fighting that some asked him to call an end to hostilities, but Eliot refused. He believed all remaining rebels to be Catholics, and decided it was better they were wiped out than made prisoners. By the morning of the 13th, almost 7000 dead lay about the field, of which all but 800 were Welsh. Bowells army fled in disarray to Shrewsbury. On the retreat local townspeople rose up to harass his survivors, so that Bowell lost several hundred more men just on the short way between Cosford and Shrewsbury. This defeat broke the confidence of Bowells army, who usurped him on the 16th. Bowell himself fled back to Wales, from which he vanishes from history. It is believed his shame on defeat led him to go into a forced exile. Bowells army was passed over to Colonel Brychan Maddy who led them in a retreat back into Wales.
Cadwgans Cornish Invasion
Cadwgan now was the most powerful rebel general in Wales. a Protestant, he had tolerated the Catholic Bowell as an ally of convenience but in Bowells absence decided he had little need of the alliance. He provided no support to Maddy as the withered army made its way to Powys and then Flintshire. Maddy had some success in taking the long-coveted prize of Wrexham on December 1st. A harsh winter caused even more to desert to seek shelter with their own families, and so Wrexham offered no resistance when Sir Spencer Myddleton, at the head of an small English force, reclaimed it for the crown on the 18th. Maddy was captured and beheaded in Wrexham on the 20th.
The remaining Welsh rebels gathered around Cadwgan. The Catholics now weakened the English felt more comfortable negotiating with those who remained. After recapturing Shrewsbury Eliot made good on his promise to those protestant Welsh he captured, giving them amnesty after an oath of allegiance to the crown. Cadwgan had a far smaller force than Bowell did, and had little hope of fighting Eliot, so he turned towards a source of potential support, Cornwall. The Cornish had their own long history of rebellion against the English. Cadwgan used his small navy to ferry what troops he had in Swansea to Crantock [Newquay] on the Cornish coast in January 22nd, 1623. Cadwgan made an alliance with the pirate Richard Finch, who represented one of the Gentlemen Pirates of Elizabeathen fame. Finch was no friend of the crown after a personal spat between him and the King and helped Cadwgan ferry troops and supplies from Wales into a rapidly growing base in western Cornwall.
After defeating an ad-hoc response force at White Cross on February 17th, Cadwgan marched across Cornwall towards Exeter. The city fell due to collaborators among the garrison lifting the gate. Cadwgan used Exeter as a base to compel nearby towns to provide him new troops. Reinforced with Cornish volunteers, and now English soldiers, Cadwgan relied more and more on his English-speaking officers to manage his force. Cadwgan refused to learn English himself. Among these turncoat officers were William Coryton, William Thornton and Sir Eastyn York. Cadwgans was, for lack of a better term, a pirate army. The appeal of loot did far more to win over non-Welsh to Cadwgan than the Catholic crusades of Bowell, even if Cadwgan always refused to ingratiate himself with non-Welsh. Following a general plan to sweep up through Southern England, York took the Cornish regiments and moved north through Devon towards Somerset while Cadwgan and Finch sailed up the Bristol channel to raid the coast. Cadwgan intercepted and destroyed ships carrying arms for the Lords Army on June 7th, and then by June 11th sailed up the River Parrett to take Bridgwater. Eliots army reached Bristol a month earlier and had reinforced the cities defense in preparation for a siege. With reinforcements from Sweden, and plenty of time to rebuild any weakened regiments with new levies, Eliot was fully prepared to crush this last rebel army.
Cadwgan had difficulties moving on land through the Somerset Levels, a large area of moorland separating Bridgwater from Bristol. Cadwgan considered moving a force south through Dorset but did not want to separate his army. He decided to stay in Bridgwater and attack instead from the sea. His combined fleet attacked settlements along the coast until he tried for a serious landing at Portishead to take control of Bristol river ports on the Avon. Finch died when a cannonball struck his command deck while attacking the nearby fort at Battery Point. The combined Anglo-Welsh fleet withdrew in disarray after several failed landings.
More minor naval actions ended in July 25th with the Battle of the Rocks where an English fleet under Admiral Lord Holyoke sunk much of the rebel navy. Soon after Eliot defeated Cadwgan in Bridgwater town proper forcing him towards the coast. Cadwgan hoped to take his remaining forces and board what ships he had to sail back to Wales but was intercepted mid-march at Bridgwater Bay. In a surprising turn the Welsh survivors inflicted a devastating blow to the English pursuing army, giving them time to lick their wounds and withdraw south to their waiting fleet at Watchet. Cadwgan left Cornwall on August 3rd.
Once back in Wales, at Swansea, he immediately faced a deteriorating situation at the hands of the Lords Army. In his absence his subordinates had difficulty containing the stream of English military volunteers into the area. Setback after setback drove Cadwgan to flee to the hills. On August 17th the Lords Army under Isaac Chelsea defeated Cadwgan during a botched raid near Brynna. Cadwgan was captured, and delivered to Parliament where he was tried, and then beheaded, on September 6th. Scattered resistance kept up, but the Welsh made no further significant victories against the English before the last rebel stronghold of Machynlleth fell on November 14th. The rising was over.
Aftermath and Legacy
The immediate aftermath of the rebellion was characterized by a harsh crackdown on any causes Parliament deemed responsible for the original unrest. Anti-Catholic sentiments were at a fever pitch in England. Conspiracy among the Welsh priesthood, foreign aid to rebel forces, and the steep cultural divide between the native Welsh and English were some of the foremost concerns. The Parliamentary Blackbands came out as the leading clique in government after the rebellion. They passed with near-unanimous support the Suppression Acts which targeted the power of the Welsh clergy. The Acts forced churches to register their members with English courts (in English), banned town militias in the Welsh boroughs, outright banned Catholicism, newly banned the Welsh language, and required all Welshmen to swear an oath before a court to the King, and Parliament. This last point is crucial, because not only did it elevate Parliament symbolically to equal status with the crown, it also meant that the traditionally royalist Welsh would have to swear allegiance to a now-infamously Puritan Parliament.
Alongside legal reforms, John Eliots army went on a wide-sweeping campaign through Wales in 1624 – 25 to enforce the religious bans. This campaign saw mass evictions from Catholic areas to be forcibly resettled by Protestants. Financial incentives offered to Englishmen and Scots to move to cleared lands swayed few, and in practice the great bulk of new arrivals were other Welshmen. Welsh Catholics fled to continental Europe where they settled in Brittany, parts of Iberia, and even the colonies.
Thousands of supposed rebels were hanged, and thousands more were fined. Widespread devastation in Wales led to economic decline that lasted for decades. English flight from Wales had started during the Rising but only accelerated afterwards. By the time Wales began to recover economically, one side effect of this was the development of a much more solidly Welsh middle-class than had existed previously. The Welsh interior saw brutal ethnic cleansing that left many Anglo-Welsh estates wiped out. These estates would lie fallow or be bought up by this Welsh middle-class. The greatest economic consequence of the Rising was in fact, a more robust, equitable economy than had existed prior.
England was changed as much by the rebellion as was Wales. Prior to the Rising, tensions between Parliament and the King were heating up over differing religious and political opinions. The Rising galvanized the English people, united them against a common enemy and demonstrated the effectiveness of the English military. Both the crown and Parliament contributed to fight off the rebels. King James died in 1625 and was succeeded soon after by prince Charles. This transition happened at the high point of the crackdown. Charles found himself having to reconstruct a nation at a time when he was more interested in playing court politics. Years of campaigning in Ireland, Scotland and Wales left the young King an embarrassing bachelor. He would eventually marry the Swedish princess Katherine of Scheven while again, abroad. Charles became so (in)famous for travel that he was known by the dubious nickname of ‘Charles the Missing’. Charles had firm opinions about his power as a sovereign which clashed often with Parliament. He was keenly aware of the power of money, but less aware of how to best accrue that power – months of debate over who should bear the brunt of the financing for the rebuilding of lost English military infrastructure ended with the crown paying the bulk of it. This combined with the utter desolation of the royalist stronghold of Wales left Charles in a lesser position than Parliament for much of his reign. Charles gained a deep respect for the Welsh people while campaigning there. He lifted bans on Welsh cultural practices and ensured that funds for the rebuilding of forts in the Welsh interior also went to rebuilding civilian structures like mills, churches, and the like.
Leading Parliamentarian generals like Eliot and Devereaux saw their political careers lifted by the Rising. So did their soldiers. England involved itself more and more in continental wars on behalf of Protestant allies. Not only did the common soldiers of the Rising receive ample payment for their service, many went on to serve both in regular armies and as privateers in later continental wars. One English commander John Longstreet, would become a famous soldier in the colonies. His son, Charles, was appointed governor of Virginia. Another, Robert Cromwell, became a prominent Englishmen who resettled in Wales. His son Oliver was, like Longstreet’s son, appointed to government office.
Andalusia cultivated a reputation as a society of letters, of a society of learned men, long before Islam came to Iberian shores. Romans and then Visigoths both nurtured a rich scholarly tradition in Iberia that continued under the Umayyads and then the Caliphate of Cordoba. Andalusia was famous in the Islamic world for its poets, scientists and historians. Even beyond the borders of Islam men like Averroes and Ibn Tufail gained renown for their writings. Al-Andalus formed the western corner of an international network of high culture that spiderwebbed across Eurasia. The rise and fall of invading Maghrebi dynasties only momentarily stifled the literature culture in Andalusia, more commonly bending it to serve their own agendas. Under the world-spanning Ayshunids and later Wazirate, Andalusi literature grew in scope just as its political infrastructure did, but it always retained the same core sensibilities of periods past.
It must be said for any cultural topic, that in any society, half of that society, is women. That this article focuses more on men than women should not be taken as a judgement about women’s literary skills but more the nature of Andalusi society. Gifted female authors did exist, but the organs that existed to educate, disseminate literature, and sponsor authors, all heavily favored men. Al-Andalus was in many ways more equitable than much of the Islamic, or Christian, world, but it was still a rigid patriarchal society. It was a classist society; it was an unequal society. This inequality was not lost on those who lived within it. Literature was both a tool to attack society, and one to reinforce it. Different genres served different purposes for different audiences. Fittingly then, this paper will then begin with what sorts of literature was most popular at what periods, how it was written, how it was distributed, who produced these works, and then end with the effects the most notable books had on society at their respective times of cultural impact.
Putting aside the omnipresent genres of law and theology, the most popular artistic literature was by far poetry. Before Islam, poetry was the main sort of literature among the Arabs. After Islam spread Arab culture to the farthest ends of the Mediterranean, Arab, Bedouin poetry fused with regional cultures to create different styles at each end of the Caliphate. As Al-Andalus developed as a center of high culture poetry was the center of this culture – it was the defining way for an educated man to express himself in words, to demonstrate his mastery of language, his command of emotion, and his awareness of the world. Poetry was intertwined with the Arabic language, but not the Arab people. Many famous Andalusi poets were Jews or Arabized Christians (Mozarabs) during the Umayyad through the Berber Dynasties. The prestige of good poetry gave opportunity to scholars to gain political support for themselves. This prestige was tied to the place of poets among a ruler’s traditional entourage.
Skilled poets were kept on retainer in court. It was considered vital to a ruler’s cultural education that they associated with the leading authors of the day, even being able to produce a few decent lines themselves. Poets were included on a list of recommended royal advisors in Al-Talis 1344 manual, Instructions of Good Governance. Rulers encouraged competition between poets. At times, they participated themselves. Al-Andalus was a deeply literate society and this literacy manifested in a political lens over language itself: A ruler who could control the most skilled writers of his day could control the very high culture that gave his kingdom legitimacy on the world stage.
The thriving court poetry of the Caliphate of Cordoba transitioned into a full-fledged renaissance during the Taifa period. Paradoxically the breakdown of Cordoba into bickering princelet states also provided many new patrons, eager to out-do each other, for enterprising poets. This period produced some of the most renowned writers in Iberian history: Ibn Gharsiya, Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, Al-Asbahi. Poetry was a extension of these states bids to out-do each other, unfortunately to the detriment of Al-Andalus as a whole in the face of Christian expansion. It would take the militaristic Berber Dynasties: Almoravids and Almohads, to temporarily reunite Al Andalus, albeit under a foreign ruler.
The Almoravids and Almohads were two tribal confederations, the former from the vast Saharan desert and the latter herders from the Atlas. As Berbers, they were culturally distinct from the Arab states of Iberia and often not on good terms. Equally they endorsed a more orthodox brand of Islam that disdained this flowery, urbane, culture. Early rulers stayed close to their tribal roots while in both dynasties later ones came to embrace urban life and literature – the Almohad Caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur (1184 – 1199) protected the famed philosopher Averroes at court even while he cracked down on dissident literature elsewhere. Even in the dustiest Saharan camp, law and religion are both bound up with writing. This protected the art of literature even under the most militant rulers.
The Almohads were able to hold off Christian attacks but at the cost of their own political stability. The Caliphate was never as sturdy of a state as its neighbors. It was quickly swept out of Iberia by a native dynasty under Ibn Ayshun, and in the Maghreb by rival tribal coalitions. Under the Ayshunids, Berber culture was forcefully suppressed in favor of Umayyad revivalism. This revivalism manifested also in literature. The court poetry of the Taifa period came back in full. Initially, many poets found patronage simply by rehashing classics from the pre-Almoravid period, which lent a certain staleness to the writing of the years immediate after the Ayshunid reconquest. Umayyad style poetry was characterized by the Muwashshah style: a multi-lined strophic verse poem with five stanzas alternating with a refrain. It lends itself well to music and indeed many Andalusi songs were made with Muwashshah verses as lyrics. The refrain, or kharja gave a poet an opportunity to incorporate some extra flourish to their poem. Most were romantic in nature, many with a feminine voice even. The kharja anchored the rest of the poem thematically, and was considered the most important part of it as a whole – it was believed that borrowing someone else’s good kharja, was better than trying to write something original. Alongside the Muwashshah the qaṣida¸or ode, the colloquial improvisatory Zajal, and the harsh wit of the hiya were the staples of the ‘classic’ Andalusi poetic tradition nurtured under Cordoba and revived now under the Ayshunids. The first signs of a meaningful attempt at finding new literary ground appeared around the early 14th century, led by progressives like Ja'far Al-Himsi and A’isha bin Salim Al-Rundi.
Al-Himsi in particular symbolized in microcosm the changing literary landscape of Iberia at the close of the 13th century, itself a microcosm of a changing political situation. Fariq I was crowned Sultan in Seville in 1325. His reign was characterized by ferocious mercantile expansion without and cultural flourish within. Renewed peace with Europe brought new trade into Iberia, and along with it new ideas. The reconquest of Mozarabic lands in central Iberia brought much of that culture back into the fold. With it, influential writers like Alothius of Toledo became newly popular among the literati. Al-Himsi himself was a poet of some standing among the conservative crowd but took advantage of his wealthy patrons at court to travel widely, first publishing a rihla, a travelogue, before producing new poetry in the 1330s. His style borrowed freely from the Christian poetry of Castile and Italy to make a more free-wheeling equivalent of the popular Christian ‘epic’ poem. His Qasidat al-Asawira told the imaginary story of a Sassanid cavalryman converting to Islam during the conquests of the first Caliphs. It neglected the traditional format of a panegyric qasida to linger on realistic details of life. It drew heavily from Christian works though the subject matter was obviously changed to suit an Arab audience.
Al-Himsi also did something radical by the standards of his time. In a traditional qasida, the subject is praised beyond critique. Indeed, a common subject of a qasida was the Prophet Himself. The form originally came as a way for poets to petition their patrons for favor. As such, it behooved the writer to cast their subject in a positive light. By contrast, Al-Himsi saw a world of grey shades. As much as his homeland was recovering from decades of violence, centuries of conflict, he saw avarice, corruption, faithlessness at home and abroad. The main character of the Asawira¸ Mansur al-Jaffer, was far from a perfect man. He sins, as an infidel Persian and even as a convert to Islam later in the piece. The Qasidat al-Asawira was a smash hit. It broke the conventions of Arab long-form poetry in favor of a more flexible narrative structure that kept readers guessing. It did concern some in the elite, who saw the work bordering dangerously on heretical slander. The work came dangerously close to critique of the early Caliphate itself and the Prophet. Al-Himsi was protected from attack by Al-Jaffer being fictional, but as a precautionary matter a later addendum to the poem lists a series of praises for the Prophet. Al-Himsi had friends at court, who indulged his ever more realistic, murky, style of writing taking the literary world by storm. Later authors (some would say lesser, authors) disposed of Al-Himsi’s grit for more fantastical stories.
The exotic 'ahlam poem became very popular as the 14th century went on. Much of this popularity was drive by the discovery of many new peoples across the seas. The expansion of the Andalusi colonial empire brought a wide, weird world to the writers of Iberia. A newfound freedom of style gave poets the confidence to explore new subjects as well. During the Ayshunid ‘Golden Age’ approximately in the 14th – 15th centuries, poetry took on a cosmopolitan flair that actively tried to shed its former odes to Levantine authors. Authors like Muhammad ibn Nusayr, Faruq al Sa’id, and Abu Nahid embraced radical styles that focused on natural themes and exotic places. The discovery of many new peoples across the seas became a literary tool: Poems used the foreign savage as a foil to explore the oddities in Andalusi society. This technique was so common as to be noted and codified by contemporary literary critique. Abdul Allah Abd Umar labelled it the tayni in his critique of Andalusi poetry, published 1398.
The tayni was a character in these narrative poems that acted as a bumbling, ignorant primitive pagan, but not wholly idiotic. A common theme in the ‘ahlam genre was the conversion of the tayni through logical argument. It was central to the Andalusi missionary ideology that the peoples of the Riysh, as the far west was called, could be brought into the fold of Islam willingly. Some took it further. The influence of Christian epic poetry suffused Arabic poetry to such an extent that a good / evil conflict almost like an Arthurian story developed in the ‘ahlam. The hero would contend with evil beasts, wicked pagans, and save the good pagans by bringing them into the fold. Princesses, vile traitors, and noble equestrian warriors added to this host of characters. Unlike in the flourishing Christian epic poetry at the time, ‘ahlam often had educated men as their main characters, not warriors themselves. These Christian poets, like the French trouvères (troubadour) catered to the small court as much as they did to the market square. In contrast, the lay Andalusi population still favored the zajal and even muwashshah styles. The development of long-form epic poetry in Al Andalus was restricted to the middle class and above. These poems fed a fascination with world exploration among those with means to travel to these places.
It appears that a separate sort of poetry became popular with the military around this time too. These poems replaced the educated, gentleman hero with a more stereotypical warrior hero. Of special interest are the ‘soldiers poem’ ayat al-hezzi (a Riyshi Arab term), popular among the adventurous colonial mercenary class in the colonies. Soldiers would pay travelling poets to perform for them. Naturally, these poets tailored their works to this audience, including performing in the nascent colonial dialect of the early 15th century. This was also the first time that colonial, non-Iberian poetry developed its own native forms. They would find little purchase in Iberia, however. Consistent throughout all Ayshunid history is a common theme of the stark divide between colonial, and Iberian. For many years Iberian poetry was dominated by the lingering popularity of older, more ‘song-like’ styles and then Christian-influenced epic poetry. The grandness of these works and their seeming distance from the struggles of common people led to a slow backlash against these works around the mid-late 16th century. By this time, prose literature had surged in popularity driven by the rise of printing. Political instability led to a more somber tone in works. The change was drastic. In 1580, 50 unique fantastical poems were published in Iberia alone. In 1585, 12. This was driven by widespread unrest in Iberia due to land reforms. The next half-century saw full-scale foreign Invasion, famine, depopulation, a general crisis of faith in Iberia.
The Aragonese invasion of 1624 devastated much of Al Andalus. It drove many to flee to the western Algarve region, or to the colonies. The art of the early 17th century shows a dark, dour tone drawn from the horrors of this war. The writer Umm Zubaida devoted her 1630 work The Weeping Flower to the victims of war she encountered at her home in Granada. Abu Haq, the artisan, and supposed lover of the famed politician Ali al-Zafra, wrote many short poems over his lifetime that dwelt on complex subjects like violence, adultery, and pollution. In the aftermath of the wars the new government of the Caditanos (the Wazirate of Seville as it is more commonly known) promoted greater equality with the colonies drawing many colonial elite back into Iberia. They brought with them their own poetic tradition. In some ways, Riyshi poetry maintained more conservative styles than those in Iberia – preserved from changes in the homeland. Riyshi poems for example, kept the old rhythmic style of the qasida. They differentiated on subject matter, author, and language. Riyshi poetry was set in, to little surprise, the Riysh. The different environment of these many islands contrasted sharply with Iberia and informed a different worldview. In his themed diwan (collection of poems) based all around the imagery of birds, the Sayadini [Cuban] author Mashal al-Kukuna Abu Nassar in one piece compares his unrequited love to two parrots chasing each other from island to island. Riyshi poems carried a prevailing sense of forlornness, that ones efforts could always be in vain, that it was the effort itself that made life worth living not ones successes. This oddly compliments the driven capitalistic nature of Riyshi society but it spoke to the deeper colonial anxiety – that their order was one built on taking gains from others, and that those gains once taken always had a chance of being reversed. This mindset influenced Iberian poets in the mid – late 17th century, who wholly disposed of the old epic poetry once and for all for shorter pieces. Satirical poetry became popular as the Wazirate slightly eased political expression.
Poetry under the Wazirate enjoyed freedom only under the conditions that it distanced itself from the old order. Many poets who had served in the Andalusi court during the dying days of the Ayshunids found themselves ostracized in favor of upstart authors, colonials, or foreigners from the east (especially Egypt). Some of these, like the former theologian Muhyi al-Wahid, rebuilt their careers by producing pieces that criticized their former government. Others, like Abdullah Al-Hami, the court poet of the last sultan himself, were whipped out of the state altogether and died penniless. The Wazirate encouraged revisionist literature to such an extent that for a short time poets were mandated to receive government license to practice their craft, and produce a quota of pro-government pieces. This law ended after a few years, but it showed the willingness of the government to regulate expression in a more ordered way than had happened before.
This quickly soured the literate class on the new state, and satirical pieces against the Wazirate soon popped up. Two poets famously criticized for their works went so far as to flee to the Levant to escape punishment. One piece by the Barani [Brazilian] author Rashid Sa’id al-Munaru that compared the bickering majlis (parliament) of Seville to a chorus of monkeys, became a popular folk song. Increasing state centralization under Sultan Mufarrij ibn Ubada over the course of the 17th century saw a crackdown on free expression. Peace with the Ottomans brought in a flood of Turkish influence. Turkophilia became such a powerful cultural phenomenon as to be dubbed the ‘Turkish Years’ by later authors (the 1670s – 80s). It did not take fully however. The satirist Ibn Ahmed famously quipped about the foreign merchants he saw in Iberia: “One sees the turks turban before one sees the turk”.
Still, he was the minority. Many Andalusi poets adopted Turkish themes into their poetry and by extension Persian. This period went a long way towards reunifying poetry across the Islamic world, though Turkophilia made little impact in the colonies. Here, as usual, older forms would remain popular alongside truly new creole styles. As the Andalusian empire continued to wane through the 18th century poetry retained its prestigious place in society, but it continued to lose the vigor of years past in favor of stale repetition of older styles. The revolutionary movements of the mid-18th century brought with them a fresh wave of radical writers, but equally signed the final death-knell of a thousand-year poetic tradition. Iberian-authored poetry in both Umayyad and ‘ahlam style continued to be printed until the 1750s, when the great printing house of Cinaru shuttered its doors.
*Printing became a industry in the Canary Islands over the 18th century due to economic restrictions in Iberia proper. Iberian authors often wrote in Iberia, and then had the manuscripts shipped oversea to be printed, and then shipped back for sale in Iberian markets.
"The whole world is like a house filled with lamps, rays, and lights through whom the things of the house are elucidated…"
Ibn Barrajan, 12th century CE
Sbara Refugee Camp c. 2015
The strong make history, and the weak teach it
- Oriolan Author, Jen Huysburg.
Introduction
This timeline revolves around a simple question. What if an Islamic society had colonized the Americas instead of a Christian one? I find that some expect it would result in a dystopian world fueled by holy war, slavery and dogma. Others would see a utopia, a world free from the horrors of European colonialism. I expect however, one would find a world depressingly like our own.
This Islamic society is the Arabs of Al-Andalus, Muslim Spain. In our world a civilization that succumbed to a grueling reconquest by the end of the middle ages. Indeed, it was that very reconquest that directly preceded the Christian age of discovery itself. In this world, that reconquest fails. Iberia remains home to a vibrant Islamic, Arab state that carries out its own expeditions for much the same reasons Christian states did in our world. Prestige, power, wealth, driven by the cutting off of old markets to find new ones.
This Arab state colonizes the New World. It exploits just as viciously as any other colonial power, but it does so in slightly different ways. In this world racism is less of a defined concept, egalitarianism is more tolerable between the colonizer and the colonized. This worlds Caribbean lacks the great slave plantations of our own, replaced by hordes of debtor workers. Colonialism is in general a messier affair. The colonies are more loosely governed, smaller, more divided. The Arab state allows vassal kingdoms more easily than our worlds own Christian powers. Yet this timeline is still a story of European colonialism, after all, an Arab Iberian is just as European as his Christian neighbor. The many familiar Christian states of our own timeline engage in their own colonial activities but direct their energies in often very different directions. Here we have a French Carolinas, a Spanish Virginia, and the English established in Brazil. Creole cultures flourish as indigenous culture dwindles in the face of disease and degradation. Arabo-guarani cowboys wander like Boers across the South American savannahs while Dutch settlers probe the shores of northern Canada.
Colonialism spreads around the world. Just as in our world Africa is divided up, Asia is pecked up, and the many islands of Oceania are claimed haphazardly by foreign nations. This timelines colonialism is not as divided so strongly between the European and the to-be-conquered. India spreads to cover central Asia, and the Malagasy conquer much of the immediate east African coast. A more disorganized, slower pace of colonialism gives other peoples time to ‘catch-up’.
Technology advances both more quickly, and more slowly. Ideologies can be radically different in what is mainstream and what is absent. There is no communism, but nationalism runs as hot as ever. Planes are bit a recent fad while electric cars buzz down highways across the world. Mechanical technology is many decades ahead of our own. Modern war is between legions of wheeled robot-soldiers and their dogged human opponents. There are fewer people in this world, as disease reaps a more horrible toll in this world many times over. Much of this is not immediately predictable from the original premise, but history is anything but predictable. It is a collection of millions of different logical chains of events interacting to produce the truly illogical. I enjoyed writing this, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
I prepared two maps for this post. A colonial empire map, and a modern world (2019) map. The modern world map is so large that it exceeds easy viewing here. I have uploaded it on a specialized large-image sharing site accessible through the link below. A reduced preview is posted in this post.
[This timeline is written with OTL Geographic names for ease of understanding.]
Prehistory
c. 700,000 BC
Homo Erectus begins to migrate out of Africa.
c. 8,000 BC
Modern humans exist on every continent, early agriculture begins.
c. 3,500 BC
Organized civilization begins around the world.
Ancient World
c. 3350 BC
First writing appears in Sumer.
c. 1400 BC
The Olmecs appear as the first organized civilization in Mesoamerica.
c. 1200 BC
Beginning of the Bronze Age Collapse, large societal shifts across the Near-East.
c. 900 BC
Human populations spread across the Pacific Islands on migratory canoes.
753 BC
Tradition states that the city of Rome is founded on this date.
c. 250 BC
The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka unites almost all of India under one ruler.
221 BC
Qin Shi Huangdi unites China for the first time under one ruler.
c. 100 BC
Teotihuacan founded in Mexico.
c. 4 BC
Jesus Christ is allegedly born in Roman Judea.
286 CE
Roman empire divided into four, and eventually two, separate parts.
476 CE
Last Western Roman Emperor is deposed by Germanic invaders.
Middle Ages
c. 600 CE
Height of the Classic Maya civilization.
618 CE
China reunited under the Tang Dynasty.
800 CE
Charlemagne crowned emperor by the Pope, the first to do so in western Europe since the fall of Rome.
c. 985 CE
North America sighted by Norse sailors.
c. 1000 CE
Great Zimbabwe built in southern Africa.
c. 1040 CE
First movable-type printing invented in China.
1095 CE
Beginning of the 1st Crusade.
1215 CE
The Magna Carta is signed in England.
1220 CE
The Khwarezmian Empire collapses under Mongol invasion.
1299 CE
Ottoman empire is founded by Osman I.
1324 CE
Mansa Musa makes his hajj to Mecca.
1325 CE
Tenochtitlan is founded as capital of the Aztec Empire.
c. 1347 CE
Black Death first enters Europe.
Age of Colonialism
*Only major territories displayed
1370 CE
An Iberian Arab fleet reaches the Caribbean Sea.
1438 CE
Inca Empire is founded by Cusi Yupanqui.
c. 1440 CE
The Gutenberg movable-type printing press is invented, spreading literacy across Europe.
1445 CE
First non-Arab Europeans explore the New World.
1453 CE
Constantinople is conquered by the Ottoman Turks, marking the official end of the Roman empire.
1489 CE
Aztec capital sacked by Arab forces.
1517 CE
The Protestant Reformation begins
1526 CE
The Le Guen Expedition maps the northern shore of North America.
1538 CE
The Treaty of Torrelavega divides North America between Castile (south of the 36th parallel) and France to the north.
1544 CE
England adopts Protestantism as the state religion.
1571 CE
The Bruijine Map shows the American interior in detail for the first time.
1575 CE
France and Castile unite as the Union of Valois.
1585 CE
English settlers colonize the Brazilian coast.
1642 CE
Poland-Lithuania becomes the most powerful empire in Eastern Europe after the battle of Czachow.
1644 CE
Niu Jinxing founds the Shun Dynasty in China.
1648 CE
The British Isles are united after the final conquest of Ireland by the English crown.
1650 CE
The Steam-engine is invented in Misica as a tool to help lift buckets of ore out of mineshafts.
1659 CE
The Songhai empire collapses in West Africa.
1663 CE
The first black slaves are imported to Christian colonies in the New World.
1672 CE
The Siege of Enschede is the first battle in Europe to primarily involve musketeers.
1684 CE
Castilian sailors establish trading enclaves in China.
1687 CE
The Kodina Emperor, Bhatt Shah, unites northern India.
1705 CE
China collapses into the northern and southern Shun.
1717 CE
France conquers central China.
1720 CE
The Union of Valois dissolves into France, Castile and the short-lived kingdom of Gascony.
1730 CE
The Basa Sultanate is defeated by the Fon Empire in West Africa.
1741 CE
The Students Rebellion in Iberia marks the begin of the Collectivist movement in Europe.
Revolutions
1749 CE
The Grand Cape War begins in the New World (called Bloody Jacks War in Europe).
1754 CE
The Kingdom of Castile is conquered by Andalusian armies.
1757 CE
Andalusia cedes its southeastern American colonies to France.
1762 CE
The Sharuan Arabs begin their Guatta, great trek, south through South America.
1765 CE
The Ottoman empire conquers almost all of eastern Europe to reach its largest territorial extent ever.
1779 CE
The Rishi Republic is retaken by Andalusian armies.
1789 CE
The Russian revolution begins.
1800 CE
Ayowadda is the first North American nation to free itself of colonial rule.
1803 CE
The Amore War of Independence begins, starting over a century of revolutionary movements in South America.
1806 CE
The Ottoman sultan is deposed, his empire is divided by European powers at the Conference of Sofia.
1820 CE
The Chinan War breaks out in South America.
1834 CE
The first assembly-line factory is built in northeastern North America, starting the Industrial era.
1845 CE
The Great Scottish Rebellion starts in Britain.
1848 CE
John Adams invents the first usable battery.
1856 CE
Russia conquers the Aral Sea.
1861 CE
Britain completes the annexation of southern Africa as the colony of Nuholland.
1869 CE
Free elections begin in Andalusia.
1875 CE
The Sise Emperor is deposed by Arab agents.
1884 CE
The Ethiopian empire loses its Asian colonies.
1897 CE
The White Plague appears in Europe.
1901 CE
The provisional government of Kongo is overthrown by the Semye Junta.
1910 CE
Northern Africa is partitioned by Christian European powers after the fall of Sise.
The Modern Era
1925 CE
The last colonial claim on mainland China is surrendered to Chinese freedom-fighters.
1931 CE
The second White Plague appears, killing 3 – 5% of the global population.
1944 CE
Laurentia secedes from France.
1945 CE
The first robots are used in combat with the suppression of the Peker revolt.
1953 CE
The electric car becomes the primary mode of transportation in the developed world.
1966 CE
Covnan is the last colonial territory in the mainland new world to gain its independence.
1972 CE
The global population reaches 2 billion people.
1981 CE
The third, and final, White Plague kills a further 0.5% of the global population.
1990 CE
The Western War begins in North America.
1993 CE
Peaceful protest brings down dictatorships in France, Poland, and much of the Balkans.
2005 CE
The Jobsburg disaster marks the beginning of the decline in airships as a primary mode of aerial travel (in favor of planes).
2012 CE
The BA Conference bans the use of combat robots.
The History of the World
A brief history of the world, divided by continent. It is impossible to summarize human history properly in any amount of words, and much has been left out. The goal has been simply to give the largest-scale overview possible, from the birth of humanity to the present day.
This history is written with ATL terms first, and then OTL equivalents in [square brackets].
The Northern Orioles
*Oriolan is a common term in early modern geography. It refers to the Spanish for gold. Traditionally, the Northern Orioles are the continent, the Southern are what is now called the Rish, and the Eastern are the islands of Nusantara. The islands of Macaronesia or even the current N. Orioles have sometimes been called the Western Orioles, but it is uncommon.
(North America)
Pre-Contact
Many millennia before colonization, humans crossed into the vast Oriolan landscape during several large migrations, the youngest of which was only several thousand years before the present era. They developed a wide variety of civilizations, spanning across thousands of unique languages and cultures. Their lifestyles ran from sprawling urban cities to individual hunter-gatherer clans. Sadly, the histories of these peoples are largely lost. Many of them had no writing, and of those that did, saw their numbers so reduced and their cultures so ruined by colonization that few sources survive even there.
The densest concentrations were in modern-day Misica [Mexico], the southeastern Oriolean mainland [Southeastern United States], and the western coast. In the first two, civilization was built around intensive agriculture, centered around large cities with monumental ritual architecture. The third was so dense due to an abundance of natural resources, which supported some of the largest hunter-gatherer societies in recorded history. Trade routes snaked across the entire continent. Contrary to early views of the so-called ‘savages’ the pre-contact Oriolan peoples were engaged in a massive, continent-wide interconnected enterprise. This enterprise had been threatened before by population collapse whether due to drought, disease, or invasion. Indeed, many regions were in population decline even before contact with Old World diseases, such as in the Southwestern Salinan interior [American Southwest and north Mexico], where large stone cities had been abandoned only centuries before contact.
Colonization
Whatever collapses there were, paled in comparison with what was to come. There had been intermittent trans-abarian [Atlantic] contact, most notably with Northmen discovering the so-called ‘Vinland’, but it was the Islamic west that would initiate the most sustained contact. Many years of war in Iberia left the Islamic Andalusian state the dominant naval power on the peninsula. Cut off from maritime trade to the east by rival states it was forced to explore west to alternative routes, first encountering the island chains just off the African coast in the mid-14th century CE.
These efforts served as a blueprint colonial effort, showcasing many things in miniature that would be deployed in full force in the New World: cultural subjugation of the locals, focused extraction of local resources, development of a local ‘creole’ working population, and administration as a province by the central authority with little to no political autonomy. Whatever the effects were on the native population (though, only the Cinarian islands had an indigenous population to begin with), the economic benefits could be great for the colonizing power. Based on the success of the conquests of these islands each subsequent Andalusi ruler devoted more resources to westward expansion. Colonialism became both a matter of national prestige and establishing political dominance beyond what the limited territory in Iberia allowed. The Sultans foresaw a maritime empire, spanning across the Abarian Ocean, and put great effort to building up their navies. Fleets sailed west and south, aiming to secure both unknown lands and African ports.
Crossing to relatively close coastal islands is a far cry from crossing the full Abarian Ocean, however. It would take until 1370 for a fleet under Abu Ali ibn Mahmud al-Mursiyah to successfully cross the sea and reach the verdant islands of the Adran Sea [Caribbean]. Over the next century, Andalusian fleets surveyed much of the sea, establishing small trading settlements across the islands. Rumors of gold drove an expeditionary frenzy, which brought them into conflict with the native peoples. The Arab colonizers hungered not just for gold, but land and slaves, and the region had ample amounts of all three. Many thousands of native Taini [Taino] people were enslaved, outright killed, or forcibly converted. Many thousands more died of disease. Without immunity, they suffered ghastly mortality rates, leaving entire regions depopulated. From these islands, disease swept far ahead of Arab ships, creating a phenomenon wherein disease would ravage a region years before colonizers would arrive, finding its local people weakened and unorganized.
Arabs gradually expanded their presence from coastal trading posts to full control over the entire region, which they called Ar-Riysh [Caribbean Islands], after one of the first islands discovered. Massive amounts of wealth flowed back to Iberia. Gold, exotic materials, slaves, hardwoods, and cash crops like cotton, and the newly discovered tobacco, all made the Andalusi sultans some of the wealthiest rulers in Eurasia. Even as African trade developed, the Rish, an uncontested, protected source of pure revenue, remained the everlasting jewel of the Andalusi empire. This region became a base for expansion into the mainland.
States on the mainland were a far cry from the small chiefdoms on the island. The Meshican [Aztec] empire had conquered a sprawling territory across the mainland, taking some coastal areas only years before Arab traders arrived. It maintained a professional standing army several thousand strong, ruling its conquered territories through appointed local governors. Word of foreigners had reached the emperor well before Arabs appeared on the coast. Arabs were able to negotiate trading enclaves along the coast, but this amicable relationship did not last long. Tensions rose until Arabs, aided by Islamized natives, began to fight openly against the Meshica and their own allies.
The success of a colonial expedition depended heavily on the leadership skills of the commander. Expeditions in the Maya lands to the south had been much more successful, with less bloodshed, because of the ability of the local Arab leaders to maintain a greater semblance of equality between them and native peoples, but in the newly dubbed Meshica lands Arab leaders viewed the locals as bloodthirsty infidels, and little else. Local religious practices such as human sacrifice horrified the Arab government, and eventually under great pressure they sanctioned a full military campaign to subdue the Meshica. An Arab army sacked the Meshica heartland in 1489, coinciding with a native revolt that saw the empire crumble to a rump state. Soon after Arab forces conquered many of the remaining native states until the region was under firm Arab control, even if on the ground native (Islamized) rulers retained a semblance of autonomy.
Just as in the Rish, Meshica became a base for expansion into new frontiers. Fleets sailed towards the new Branian [South America] frontier to the south, and expeditions moved into the great deserts to the north, but by the 15th century Arabs were no longer the only colonial empire in the west.
Christian Colonialism
Andalusian conquests were never able to dislodge the native Christian states from northern Iberia. As these states rebuilt their militaries, they began to probe Arab conquests in the western seas. Christian kings hoped to both tap into Arab wealth and begin to bleed their southern neighbor’s empire. Castilian fleets attacked the Tawil Islands [Azores] twice in the late 15th century. Soon after, a Christian army crushed an Andalusian one at the Battle of Segovia in 1506. Nor were Iberian kings the only ones to consider westward expansion. A small French expedition reached the far northeastern Oriolan coast in 1490. Within the next century, every major western European nation sent expeditions west, with varying degrees of success.
The most successful Christian colonies were those sent by Castile, France (later joined for several centuries under the unified House of Valois), the Dutch Republic (or, the Netherlands), and England. Christian ships sailed for the northeast Oriolan coast to try and tap into unconquered lands north of Arab territory. This region was a far cry from the verdant Rish. It was temperate in spring, covered in sprawling woodland forests and rich coastal seas, but with viciously cold winters. Other regions were covered in coastal muggy swamps or dense rocks, but it was full of abundant natural resources like fish, lumber, and pelts. Colonies sprung up across the eastern coast, governed at first under separate French and Castilian governments, and then under a unified Valoisian one. The Union of Valois in 1575 put all of continental Abarian Europe under a single ruler, with claims over many more miles of territory than the entire Arab colonial empire. This empire had a tiny population however and had true control over only small coastal enclaves.
War for the Continents Heart
As each empire expanded west, it seemed inevitable that Valois and the Arabs would clash. It was not entirely predestined. There had been some semblance of power-sharing between the two, even going so far as to negotiate a general border between the two that cut midway through Niblu [Florida], but this border was not respected by explorers and settlers who soon clashed all along the colonial border stretching from Niblu west to Majura [Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and east Texas]. Piracy was rampant, sanctioned by colonial officials as a way to sap the strength of the enemy and enrich themselves. Many fought with local native tribes as allies. There was also violence inside the colonies. The Andalusi government faced repeated revolts by discontented Rishis, millenarian movements in the mainland and native wars in the desert frontier. Valois faced a much graver problem.
Before the union, both France and Castile had sent many colonists to the New World. These colonies sometimes fought each-other. After discovering they were newly part of the same nation, many still did not want to associate with former enemies, enemies who spoke a different language, culture, and even practiced different forms of Christianity. Tension between Francophone and Hispanophone communities continued throughout Valois existence. It was always exacerbated by government policies, which never properly addressed issues with power-sharing between the two groups. The French became the more prosperous, gradually displacing the Castilians in all upper levels of government, even in traditional Castilian colonies like the aptly named Castilians [Carolinas].
Valoisian efforts in the colonial interior were hampered by constant infighting. This let Arabs expand their presence all across the western desert and plains without any significant opposition (excluding native wars). Arabs could never fully defeat the tribal nations of the interior, who provided a useful buffer to safeguard Christian colonies from Arab expansion eastward. The destructive Dog Wars of the 1710s – 20s century ground Arab expansion to a complete halt in the central plains, but the complete collapse of the Valoisian state in Europe at the same time meant that no Christian expeditions occurred to take advantage of this. It would not be until decades later, that the Arabs could continue to move northwards, but by this point the new French and Castillian Empires began to expand west to out-maneuver each other in their wars over control of the eastern seaboard. The outbreak of the Grand Cape War drew the Arab Empire into war with France and Spain in the mid-1700s.
In earlier colonial wars the Arabs had maintained the decisive upper hand in colonial manpower. They had the largest fleet and army, but also were able to avoid open conflict by putting most of the fighting into the hands of privateers. The Grand Cape War was the first war where the full force of the Arab military clashed with Christian states in the New World, it was in many ways the first global war. Campaigns occurred on every inhabited continent, with the bulk of the fighting off the eastern Oriolan coast and the southeast interior. The war was nominally fought over Spanish-backed raids on native groups allied to the Arabs in Niblu, but quickly spiraled into a war over fundamental control over the Abarian trade routes, the Misissipi Region [Mississippi River], and even Iberia itself. In 1755 a French fleet crushed the Andalusians at the Battle of Pugansett, subsequently driving the Arabs away from the eastern coast and turning the tide of the war. It ended 2 years later in a decisive French victory, causing the entire southeastern Oriolan coast to be ceded to France – not crucially, to Spain. The Spanish fleet had been thoroughly wiped out in a series of battles early in the war. Combined with political turmoil at home Spain was pushed out of the war to be replaced by the French. Over the next several years, cash-strapped Spanish kings sold much of the Spanish land territories to France, choosing to keep their holdings in Southeast Asia and Africa.
France took hold over all the Christian European possessions in North Oriole, driving out Spain, and all over minor European colonies. England maintained small footholds, avoiding conflict due to peace treaties signed earlier in the century. The Arab empire was shattered by the defeat. It had lost large areas of economically valuable land, but more importantly it had lost for the first-time large areas of colonial territory to a rival power. Financial pressure from this defeat provoked yet another crisis, this time, from within.
The Era of Revolution
The Grand Cape War ruined the Rishi economy. It had borne the brunt of the manpower burden, Rishi ports had supplied these armies, and Rishi businessmen bankrolled the war effort. The Andalusian government made efforts to help the region recover but stirrings of rebellion had already developed, led by dissatisfied war veterans. An uprising in Morocco in the 1770s caused a brutal Andalusian crackdown, which instigated sympathetic protests in the Rish, soon spiraling into general rioting. The Andalusian government replaced the leading Rishi governor and instituted reforms to try and curb the unrest. This did not alleviate the unrest and a council of Imans in Sayadin eventually declared open independence. Rishi forces separated from the central state and asserted open control of the region. Rishi attempts to involve the mainland colonies in the rebellion failed. Andalusian forces from the mainland and Brania soon invaded the Rish to put down the unrest, ending the independent Rishi republic by 1779. The independent republic planted a deep separatist seed in the region that could not be defeated by just military means. There was a strong sense that the Rish should govern itself, a mood that would eventually spread to other parts of the Arab colonial empire.
Continual unrest in the Arab regions left their large frontier ungoverned and unprotected. Expanding native states swept across the region, establishing themselves in previously conquered territory. Christian settlers continued to push west, putting pressure on these states so that by the start of the 19th century the great plains confederations were under a new assault all across the Oriolan west. Massacres, forced exile, and the outbreak of disease tore through the region. France openly claimed the entire Oriolan continent north of Misica, sending traders and explorers to establish forts all across the interior. Embattled Arab settlers fought back in a new wave of frontier wars. Fighting continued for many years. The French could never unroot determined Arab guerillas who, working with native allies, could easily out-maneuver their opponents.
Coastal French cities saw great growth throughout the 18th century. By the early 19th century the populations of burgeoning metropolises like St. James and Lacoulan matched those of cities in Misica. There was a concerted effort to unify the region culturally, with Castilian placenames being given French labels, and Protestantism being outlawed in favor of French Catholicism. Many Castilians settled in the west to avoid growing persecution, becoming the frontline in the French war against the Arabs and natives. The early 1800s saw the reappearance of the English in the Northern Orioles, as English ships surveyed the western Oriolan coast for potential colonization. England was hoping to head off Russian ambitions in the New World. By establishing footholds on the as-yet-unclaimed northwestern coast they could block off Russian expansion. English ships established coastal forts, even in regions where there was already Arab or French settlement.
Russia made its first forays into the region in the Johannesland region [Alaska] but never penetrated as deeply as its colonial rivals. By the mid 19th century, every part of the continent was being actively explored or settled by foreign powers. These colonial states were also all experiencing their own unrests. While the Arabs suffered the worst, unrest in French Oriole led to a series of revolts culminating Haicalian War where Castilian settlers fought against both Arabs and French forces for control of Majura. They succeeded, in part because the Arabs provided substantial financial support to gain a much-wanted buffer state against French expansion.
Large parts of the Arab interior would secede one by one over the course of the 19th century, frustrated with mismanagement and alienated by cultural differences. Economic innovations in French Oriole spread to these interior states, who became a major buyer of goods for the rising cities of the eastern coast. The walling off of the Oriolan interior by new Arab states forced shifts in the French colonial economy from one based on constant expansion to developing what territory they had. Agricultural innovations encouraged by political reforms in Europe led to even more growth, and the early 20th century saw the greatest developments of all: mechanization.
Mechanization changed the world in innumerable ways. It shifted the economy to large centralized factories, it allowed for widespread economic growth among the lower classes, among changes in goods production, living, transportation, but also negative environmental effects and widespread exploitation of those same lower classes.
Multiple Oriolan regions contributed to this economic shift. Inventions in mining, metalworking and transportation in Misica starting as far back as the late 17th century improved the Misican economy, but by the 18th and 19th centuries the mines were beginning to run dry, pushing many skilled workers to emigrate back to Europe and the Mideast. On the contrary, growing metalworking centers in the French Orioles were in demand of experts to help manage mining companies, and many Misicans emigrated northwards. Other growing centers of manufacturing included Central Europe and Iberia. It was in northeastern Oriole that mechanization and industrialization merged. The French state managed large industrial factories that extracted raw materials for shipment back to the home country. These skilled Arab workers would then return home, spreading these technologies (despite strict bans on information distribution by the French government) with local businesses. Industrialization spread until Misica, West Africa, Western Europe and the Levant became major centers in a global economic competition.
Misica in particular helped develop many important innovations, like the assembly line, hydraulics, and steam powered vehicles for pulling cargo. Cheap textile manufacturing from Misica out-performed the still un-mechanized textile industry in France, spurring an economic renaissance in the Arab world. The early 20th century saw Andalusia restored as an economic superpower. Provinces continued to rebel despite this growth. The old inequality between Iberia and its colonies had never been remedied, and as these regions grew in population and economic size they relied on the mother nation less and less. The Cinarian islands [Canary Islands] fully separated after centuries of near-autonomy in the early 20th century, followed by small states across Brania and even the Rish itself successfully seceded in 1910. Decades of political deadlock in Iberia allowed many of these to leave without much opposition, though the election of the conservative faction in 1907 did see some attempted efforts to recapture lost colonies. The disastrous invasion of Cinaru in 1911 caused such severe political fallout that no further efforts were made. Iberia did keep many of these states in a broader economic alliance, attempting to preserve a coalition against the still-unified French and English colonial empires.
A Land of Immigrants
The 1920s – 30s saw a series of global pandemics that devastated the Oriolan population. Population shrinking, especially in dense urban cities, pushed widespread reform of urban living conditions while many chose to travel to rural developing centers out of major cities. There was also great migration out of the muggy southeastern coast towards the central cities. The Rishi population suffered terribly, pushing many to immigrate into the Oriolan mainland like the Misicans had decades earlier. Waves of Arab immigration caused great consternation among Christian lawmakers, who instituted a program where Arab settlers were paid to travel to the wild northwestern Laurentian frontier [Northwest Canada]. This did not sit well with local Anglo-French settlers, who outright seceded in 1944 over the issue. They drove the Arabs out into the hinterlands, forcing them to work in appalling conditions where many chose to flee south to independent Arab-ruled states. Wars in the new Branian states in the 1950s – 60s caused many refugees to move north. Other wars in Africa pushed similar travel as well. The end of slavery in 1953 in the French Orioles (Laurentia would push the same act a decade later in ’66) saw millions of black Oriolans emancipated.
Migration reached its head in the 1980s where over a million people per year were immigrating to various Oriolan states, with the bulk travelling to the northeast. A third of these immigrants were Arabs from various parts of the Rish, Misica, and Brania. Demographic shifts provoked hostility from French lawmakers. Widespread poverty, social unrest, and wealth inequality formed the backdrop to the global economic recessions of the late 1980s. This recession led directly into the horrors of the Western War which broke out in 1991. This saw the full horrors of modern warfare visited on the Oriolan continent proper for the first time, with war waging across the center of the continent between France and Misica. The wars end in 1996 ended with a Misican victory, and the economic ruination of the Oriolan plains. Refugee camps from this war still exist today. Another economic downturn in the early 2000s, a successful referendum on independence in 2005 on the Confederated Oriolan States from France, the political aftermath of the Jobsburg Airship disaster, and the communication revolution spurred by fiber optics all were notable driving forces changing Oriolan society by 2019.
Brania
(South America)
Brania suffered the same fate as the Northern Orioles. Millennia of native history was extinguished under colonialism. Brania suffered more terribly than the north did. Its great supply of raw materials drove colonial powers to exploit more totally and more ruthlessly than anywhere else.
Mountains form the continents spine. The massive Chinan Mountains [Andes] curve down the continents western side, with only a thin strip of coast separating them from the ocean. To the east, a massive jungle river basin occupies the north, separated on both sides by verdant savannahs, highlands, and scrubland. Much of the continents lower ‘cone’ is a great grassy plain becoming colder, and drier as it reaches the rocky southern tip.
The most organized states existed in the central Chinan region and the jungle. Especially the Chinan region developed a series of empires that used organized mass labor, military power, and innovative architecture to conquer the mountains – the land and the people. The last, and greatest of these was the Tahuantinsuyu [Inca Empire] who conquered almost the entire Chinan region just over a century before the Arabs arrived in 1626. Disease had arrived first, pushing to empire to total collapse well before Arab contact. Who the Arabs actually encountered were smaller successor kingdoms each ruled by Inka, separate kings all claiming the mantle of the original Inka who ruled the old empire.
Slave Raids and Subjugation
Arab first contact in Brania was rarely peaceful. As the colonial economy in the Rish developed the plantations there began to run out of local slaves, who died quickly from overwork and disease. Initially the new source of slaves was the mainland in Misica or the Maya lands, but as those regions Islamized, Arab slave traders soon turned towards Brania as a source for labor (Islamic law traditionally regards only those non-Muslims on the frontier of the Muslim world as valid targets for slavery). Arab slave fleets scoured the Brania coast for decades before peaceful traders and settlers attempted to properly colonize the region. When these groups did, they found native peoples either withdrawn from the coast or outright hostile. Many settlers were killed in retaliatory raids by peoples that viewed all Arabs as slavers. This only caused Arabs to return with more violence and be willing to sanction even more slave raids to ‘pacify’ violent regions. When African slavery was outright banned in the early 17th century over fears of slave revolts, Arab slavers redoubled their efforts, but many landowners in the Rish were already shifting over to indentured workers by the 16th – mid 17th. Slavery remained strong in northeastern Brania which was more distant from the central authorities. Abuses were worst on the western shore, where individual Arab conquerors made petty fiefdoms in the interior, extracting wealth as they saw fit and paying lip service to the central government.
Arabs sailors rounded the southern tip of the continent by the early 17th century, establishing many colonies along the coast. One area of robust growth was the wide plains of the Sharu [Northern Pampas, Brazilian Highlands, Gran Chaco], which came to support a large number of settlers living in relative peace with native peoples. Unlike Brania proper (the term originally referred to just the northeastern jungled coast around the Burku river) which was already viewed as a predominantly young male, lawless place, the Sharu attracted whole families emigrating from Iberia.
Arab populations across Brania remained small during this period. Efforts to colonize the region were always secondary to wealth extraction. Expansion was also hampered by the lack of governance by the central Rishi government, which always concerned itself with affairs in its own islands or Misica. Christian settlement towards the end of the century pushed greater involvement in the area.
The Virginian Plantation
English ships began to explore the Branian coast as early as the late 16th century, but intensive settlement began only in the mid-17th century. Families (and a crop of African slaves) were sent to the region to expand it as the crowns prime colonial endeavor in the New World. England wanted to involve itself in the cash crop industry that had fueled the Arab economy, establishing sugarcane plantations all along the northeastern Branian coast, now dubbed Virginia. Sugarcane was grown already in the region by Arabs, but steep tariffs on its import encouraged many European Christian powers to explore producing it for themselves. English Virginia became the largest producer of sugar among all the Christian colonial empires until the explosion of the Dutch and French colonies in Southeast Asia centuries later.
The plantation (establishment) of Virginia also became a barrier to Arab expansion south just as French and Castilian colonies were becoming in the north. The English fared about as well as Arab settlements did initially. Disease, weather, wild animals and native attacks inflicted an awful toll on the early colonists. English settlers also fought Arab pirates for control of the many waterways along the coast. More colonists came, and within half a century other Christian powers had followed suit in establishing themselves along the eastern coast. This was primarily made possible by the unusual situation of the Sultans of Cinaria. This was ostensibly under Arab control but was all but an independent state. The Sultans allowed Christian ships to use their ports as a staging point for travel west, playing both sides against each-other to maintain their independence.
By 1676, English colonies covered a large portion of the Branian eastern shore, sharing land with Dutch, and Valoisian holdings. Over the next century smaller colonies would be founded by almost a dozen Christian polities, though few would survive to become notable states.
Imperial Wealth
Huge plots of Brania were claimed by the various colonial powers involved, but foreign settlement was always concentrated along the western shore, the northeast and the Sharuh. Initial settlement along the west was inland to be close to traditional indigenous centers of power (and avoid piracy) but as the Andalusian fleet cracked down on piracy – not privateering – in the late 17th century the largest cities developed on the coast instead. Piracy declined on the eastern shore as well due to a general cooling of tensions between the English and their Arab neighbors, ushering in a general period of prosperity called The Goodly Years by the English. This was not ‘goodly’ for everyone. Native peoples still suffered relentless abuses and economic inequality was rife, but populations across the region began to rise far above what they had been prior.
The early 1700s saw many new migrants to the region. The rising Dutch Empire expanded in the area while the English colonies continued to move south and inland. Arab settlements deep inland traded in tea, metals, and raw materials north to the cosmopolitan Iberian and Rishi cities. As Valois collapsed its colonies in the south quickly allied themselves to France instead of Spain. This region of New France was concentrated around the mouth of the Charua delta [Uruguay Rio de la Plata] which gave it considerable strategic value should France and the Arab colonies ever come to war. When they inevitably did during the Grand Cape War, France promptly blockaded the Sharuan settlements, but never put resources towards conquering them. When the war ended, many inland Arabs had been forced to turn to local natives for aid and many of them intermarried.
Years later, these Sharuans (Shari Arabs) began to expand as a separate entity from the central Arab state. They successfully repelled English, French, and Andalusian attacks to expand down the southern cone. These conquests going from the late 1700s through up to even the very late 19th century left a decisive demographic impact on the region. All the modern Arab states in the region are descended from bands of Shari Arabs. The coast Europeanized more and more. As the 18th century progressed the French expanded further inland, eventually agreeing on a power-sharing relationship with the English. The general balance of power, unchanged to this date, would leave the south and west to Arabs while giving the English the northeastern scrub coast and France all lands between that and the Sharuans. Increasingly French ambitions turned towards its Asian and African colonies, leaving its great tracts of Branian land sparsely populated and governed.
Arab colonial expansion stopped after the Grand Cape War, but populations did not stop moving around the continent. At the same time the Sharuans were expanding south English settlers were moving inland into French territories. Many settlers on the English fringe were actually Germans seeking refuge from wars in Europe. England for virtue of those settlers being protestants, would claim it was protecting them from foreign raids to justify claiming large parts of French Brania.
Wars of Revolution
Only shortly after the Rishi republics downfall the Andalusian parliament granted significant autonomy to the separate Branian provinces. The Burkuan Arabs under the Muhzarajji movement established themselves as a political force and pushed for independence from the mother country. They achieved it peacefully in notable contrast to the violent suppression of the Rishi rebels – and in contrast the wars many other Branian colonies would end up fighting. The Branian Wars of Independence lasted from 1803 to 1966 when the last continental colony of Covnan separated from Britain. These wars varied by the ruling colonial power, the figures involved, but they all shared characteristics that have caused them to be loosely grouped together. First, all wars were led by middle to upper class commanders, primarily landowners. They all involved a wide variety of ethnic and economic classes, but all wars resulted in initially dictatorships ruled by charismatic military men. Some of these states remained authoritarian to the modern day. The most impactful war was the first, the Chinan War between landowners in modern-day Hadbara and the Arab government. It happened in the first decades of the 19th century and its success inspired copycat figures across the continent even among European colonies. Much of the success of the Branian revolutionaries was because of the Sharuan expansions. The Sharuan Arabs formed a buffer space between the colonies on the west and eastern coasts, which made it more difficult for the Arab government to supply its garrisons across the continent except by sea, which after the Sharuans took possession of the far southern Branian cape became a difficult prospect as well. Alternatively, local fighters were supplied within their colonies.
The Sharuans also affected European colonies. Growing Sharuan raids from the interior provoked militarization from the English, French, and German settlers on the continent. Many of them banded together to form the larger nation of Barnugua, but the northern, and older colonies on the northeastern shore seceded as separate nations, with Covnan particularly fighting a long war for freedom in the 20th century.
New Nationhood
The young Branian states were set up for failure from the beginning. The colonial economy is not designed for the colony to sustain itself. The colonial economy is designed with every intent of extracting raw materials from the colony and selling manufactured goods back. Despite this some states faired surprisingly well. Barnugua developed into a robust democracy while Abrania, the oldest Branian colony, used its vast natural resources to make itself a prime global exporter. Others were less fortunate. Branie, formed out of the poorest, most remote Arab provinces went through a string of military warlords and today remains the least developed Branian nation. All nations retained ties to their mother countries, some developed their own colonies. Barnugua and the S.A.S (South Arab States) would emerge in the mid-19th century as leading expansionistic powers. Competition over guano islands would even bring the two into a trade war, and then open conflict, in 1875. These two states became proxies for a larger cold war between Iberia and France. This defined much of Branian relations for decades, though Barnugua developed itself as a leading world power after an economic boom in the early 20th century, fueled by its gains against the S.A.S.
Europe
Europe was one of the heartlands of Eurasian civilization. For many centuries cultures in Europeans southeast like Greece and Rome spread their influence not just to other parts of the European continent, but to Africa and Asia also. After the fall of the Roman empire successor states merged Roman culture with new Germanic groups migrating in from the northeast. These states were deeply Christian, united by a common religion as they developed a broader sense of Europeanness during the middle ages. Parts of Europe bucked this trend. In the east, regions like Lithuania remained pagan for centuries, and even places like Hungary, Scandinavia, and eastern Europe came from distinctly non-roman, non-Germanic traditions while still participating in the larger European culture exchange. In the far west, much of Iberia was conquered by Muslim forces from North Africa and became deeply Arabized over the next centuries.
Medieval World Order
European cultural attitudes presented themselves as a distinct unique group of peoples in contrast to foreigners on all sides, but Europe itself was just as deeply divided within. Small feudal states covered the continent. Feudalism even reached regions that did not share the Christian faith, like southern Iberia. The main medieval powers varied greatly in their individual governmental structure and culture, but generally were, from west to east, Al-Andalus (under various dynasties), Castille, Aragon, France, England, the Holy Roman Empire, Poland, Lithuania and then Russia. Other nations would join these ranks just as some would leave it. Cultural identity did not equate to national identity. Nationhood was a foreign concept at the time, one’s loyalties being bound up more to a current ruling dynasty. Germans were divided among literally hundreds of polities, only some of which were included in the Holy Roman Empire, but still differentiated themselves from non-Germans.
Populations rose dramatically during the 11th – 13th centuries AD alongside an increase in political organization. Arts and culture flourished alongside new religious ideals. Some of these ideals were less benign than others. This period saw the great holy wars of Christianity, from the Crusades in the levant to wars against pagan kings in Scandinavia and fighting in Iberia. International trade connected European ports with those in faraway west Africa and even China. The Mongol empire, terribly feared in its own time, pushed this trade to even new heights as it unified the disparate peoples along the so-called ‘silk road’ in the 14th century.
This order began to crumble with the onset of disease, climate change, and civil strife. The Black Death ravaged Europe alongside peasant uprisings and the religious crisis of the Great Schism. Less than a century later the Ottoman Empire conquered the last remnants of the Byzantine empire, ending the Roman Empire proper. In the far west, the reconquest of Iberia ground to a halt against a resurgent Arab Andalusi state. The encroachment of hostile Islamic powers on both ends of Europe effectively sealed the continent off, adding to the general economic stagnation of the 14th century.
Breaking the Blockade
Christian Europe slowly recovered from its crisis but was still sidelined by Islamic powers. The discovery of the New World and the ensuing flood of cheap goods into Christian markets massively enriched Andalusia and gave Christian kings a taste of the wealth of colonialism. After the unification of western Europe under the Union of Valois, and the victories against Turkish armies in the east by the Poles, Hungarians and Romanians, Islamic expansion into Europe stalled again, but its economic power over Europe remained. Not that this was entirely negative. Increased political centralization, flourishing trans-abarian trade from Iberia and a new intellectual class, partially influenced by the great philosophical traditions in the Arab world, spurred culture to new heights across Europe. Religious schisms threatened the stability of the Catholic church, ending with the massive Protestant Reformation. Printing improved literacy, and the scientific revolution drastically changed the Christian understanding of natural law. Much of this was centered in Italy, a fractious region where individual rulers patronized artists, thinkers, and inventors.
Populations continued to rise again. Different Christian powers competed with each-other, and the Andalusians, for colonial territory in the west, Africa, and then increasingly in Asia. European powers started to spread across the globe, conquering and exploiting new territories wherever they landed. This great wealth flowed back to Europe even at a time when the continent was riven by brutal wars. War in Italy, Germany, Iberia and the Balkans reached new heights of cruelty and destruction. These wars became to be less about ideology, and more about competition between sovereign states for status and territory. There was a rise in the professional diplomatic system, so that the 17th century saw the development of a nascent ‘world order’.
These continental wars declined in favor of colonial wars. France and England emerged as leading powers in the west while Poland, Russia and Sweden competed in the east. A series of massive colonial wars in the 18th century reshaped the European continent. These wars were so large that they had different names according to region, being more properly a collection of smaller conflicts coexisting at the same time. In Europe, Bloody Jacks War ended with England ascendant as the greatest protestant power, France seizing large portions of the New World from Andalusia in the Grand Cape War, and Castile and Aragon reduced to an outright vassal in the first, and a rump state in the second. A series of Great Turkish Wars in the east ended with Ottoman forces pushing as far as the Baltic Sea before being pushed back. The Ottoman empire became the greatest continental threat to Christendom, absorbing huge populations inside its borders that left a cultural mark lasting to this day. Andalusia isolated as it was in Iberia never attempted the same scale of conquests, but it did fiercely defend its territories abroad from Christian raiding.
Ottoman influence deeply affected eastern Europe while western Europe changed little despite its proximity to a large Islamic empire. Throughout the 17th – 18th centuries in contrast, Christian European culture affected continental Arab culture deeply, and even its colonies. Christian European culture became as potent an export as any amount of Arab sugar, tobacco, or cotton an import. This was in part possible because new colonies in Asia helped break the Arab monopoly on cash crops, allowed European kingdoms to begin to match, or exceed Andalusia in wealth.
Russian expansion east brought new wealth into eastern Europe as Russia became the greatest Christian champion in the east against Ottoman aggression. Russia was an aggressor itself against the Siberian and central Asian khanates. It expanded to cover a massive swath of territory until it reached the Strait of Orlean [Bering Strait] in the early 19th century. Russian armies could never penetrate central Asia fully, but was able to capture the Aral Sea region decisively in the mid-19th century.
Declining Empires and New Opportunities
Absolute rulers governed over increasingly fractious empires as the many disparate peoples in them began to clamor for a new sense of identity. The spark of national upheaval was strongest in the west, especially in Iberia where the Students Revolution of 1740 inspired many thinkers across Europe to clamor for radical political change. Then, the final collapse of the old Castilian empire and the Arab-French war of the 1750s provoked the ‘Great Experiment’ of western Europe and the rise of the elected monarch, inspired by the Arab model. European kings and queens across the continent faced uprising through the 18th century, some of them being deposed. During this period also rose the idea of collectivism, radically eschewing any need for a king at all. The collectivist movement reached its peak in the Balkans, where Slovenia, Serbia and Wallachia became hotbeds of revolutionary sentiment. This contributed to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the east and helped spur its total collapse in the early 19th century.
The decline of Islamic power in the east ‘reopened’ eastern markets once again just at the same time Christian states were competing intensely over Asian spices. Expansion also intensified in inland Africa. Arab explorers had covered the continent for centuries but Christian powers joined in the mad rush for African territory. They were notably less successful than in the New World, as native African states were already either under the firm control of the Arab empire or able to put up substantial resistance to colonial operations. The spread of Islam across much of west and southern Africa transformed European Christian colonialism into almost a holy war for both sides. Christian and Arab influence came to reach an approximate 50/50 split vertically down the continent, defining it up to the modern era. These colonies did not appreciate foreign rule. Rebellion was common. Generally it was easily suppressed but over time they grew in size and impetus until the wave of independence movements of the 19th century in the New World, and 20th century in Asia and Africa. European states fought with varying levels of tenacity for these colonies, based really on their economic value and prestige but each colonial empire eventually waned. France retained the greatest number of possessions into the modern era, shedding many of its colonies as late as the last decade.
Europe entered a remarkable period of peace after the 19th century, with many decades of growth through the 1910s – 50s except for small sectarian wars in central Europe and the Mediterranean. The 20th century was defined by great social and technological changes. Europe rapidly industrialized, maintaining its position as an economic global powerhouse well up to the modern day. In recent years, the robotics revolution has sparked a labor crisis that for the first time in nearly a century, might threaten the Pax Europa.
Asia
Asia is a continent so vast it defies easy characterization. Its spine is the worlds largest forest, the taiga, a great green ocean that extends across the north separating arctic tundra from a wide belt of steppes, an ancient natural superhighway connecting west and east. The land then divides into deserts, forests and grassland as one move through the verdant lands of China, south to the jungles of the southeast Asian peninsulas, and then west to the great, diverse lands of India ending in the grassland and deserts of the Mideast.
The greatest Asian civilizations by population were easily those of China, and India. Each occupies a relatively self-contained geographical area, and each boasted incredible technological advancements from a very early date. China moved from dynasty to dynasty while India was perpetually divided between hundreds of small kingdoms, periodically united under imperial rule. Asia also produced the worlds great steppe empires. From the Huns, the Turkic empires to the Mongols and Manchus, mounted warriors periodically descended from the steppe to reshape history. The history of Asia is really, the histories of distinct coastal agricultural civilizations bound together by a great interior wilderness.
The Great Faiths
Asias greatest impact on world history is undoubtedly religion. All the worlds largest religions originated in Asia. Three of them, the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) all originated in western Asia within a millennia of each-other. While Judaism became the eponymous faith of the Jews who would later scatter across the world, Christianity dramatically reshaped the face of European civilization, and Islam pushed a massive empire to reshape the face of Asia itself some centuries later. The rise of Islam totally transformed western and central Asia, sparking a golden age that saw great technological and artistic gains for centuries during the middle ages. It was eventually ended from within and without, most notoriously by the Mongol sack of Baghdad, a traditional center of learning.
The same steppe that produced so many hordes (itself a word from an archetypical steppe language, Turkic) it also facilitated trade between the many peoples of Asia. The Silk Road took its modern name from one of its most valuable commodities: silk, produced in China and exported around the known world. It was a collection of trade routes snaking across central Asia that bound the farthest corners of Asia with Europe, Africa, and everywhere in between.
Over the course of the middle ages, the Islamic world reached its apogee and then began to decline under internal strife and foreign invasion. A similar fate reached India and China, who each suffered serious unrest and conquest. In India Muslim conquerors dominated much of the north while in China the Mongols briefly conquered the entire land before their expulsion in the 14th century.
As the middle ages progressed, the scale of empires drastically increased. The Mughals in India became the largest empire in that lands history, and the worlds third largest economy. The Ottomans and Russians expanded across central and north Asia, while in China the Shun Dynasty grew to conquer all of east Asia and even down through Vietnam. European empires began to move east to tap into Asian markets directly. Russia traded heavily with the Shun while simultaneously conquering all of Siberia, while Valois, England and the Netherlands established settlements all across southeast Asia. Arab traders had moved through southeast Asia for centuries, and working with local intermediaries competed for trade opportunities in the region. India and China became battlefields in the international colonial endeavor, as rulers from each region interacted with different colonial powers for their own benefit. Eventually south China was conquered outright by Valois while the Dutch successfully drove out most competitors across South-east Asia and Insulia [Pacific Ocean, Australasia].
India remained independent for several centuries, with parts of India remaining to this day as never having been colonized.
India Rising
Asia in the early modern era was a colonized continent. The great exception to this was India, which reunified after the collapse of the Mughals into several competing warring empires during the 17th century. Eventually the largest of these, Kodina grew to encompass all of the Indian subcontinent and westwards into central Asia by the late 17th century – early 18th. The Kodina Empire exerted its influence across central and south Asia, pushing many colonial powers to focus on southeast and east Asia instead, where the weakened Shun dynasty left a large power vacuum in China.
Gradually southeast Asia was carved up between different foreign powers. The Union of Valois controlled much of China, the offshore islands to the immediate east and small enclaves on the Indian coast while the Dutch and Arabs each held about a third of the great Nusantaran archipelago. Small trading outposts were dotted across the islands of the African Ocean that supplied ships carrying spices and crops back to European markets.
Industrialization
Industrialization impacted Asia deeply. It became a marker by which some Asian powers were able to lord over overs, while also allowing for a new wave of foreign entry in Asian markets. India industrialized rapidly, as did parts of SEA and north China. South China, Central Asia and Nusantara notably lagged, as did Japan – which would eventually be colonized by the English before their expulsion in the mid-20th century. Large parts of western Asia were subdivided between foreign powers and in the east China was almost totally partitioned except for a rump state in Central China. This ended more quickly than in other regions, as the native Chinese put up an intense resistance that restored native rule in 1925. The main colonial powers in Asia during the 20th century remained the English, French, Arabs, Dutch and Russia. The Ottoman empire in its last days fruitlessly invested heavily in expansion through India and its associated islands, which is considered by many one part of the financial strains that led to its collapse. The Arabs never expanded beyond Southeast Asia despite many attempts to defeat the French, Dutch and English. The last colonial power to hold major territories remains today the Dutch, who have meaningful political ties to many of the central and south Asian states. European influence never penetrated deeply in Asia however, which retained the great bulk of its native populations and customs like Africa, and in contrast to the Americas or Oceania.
Africa
Africa formed the southern node of the great Eurasian trade network. Northern Africa was home to many powerful Islamic kingdoms and even further back, the great cradle of civilization that was Egypt. West Africa was the worlds largest supply of gold for centuries, while all along the Eastern coast prosperous trade cities formed one end of the Indian Ocean trade network. Central and Southern Africa were more cut-off from this, but by no means backwaters.
The history of pre-colonial Africa is shaped most dramatically by three events, one geographical, one demographic, and one ideological. They appear in order from oldest to newest.
Green Sahara
When one looks at a map of Africa, it is a continent divided by its own geography. A dense jungle cuts through the continents center while in the north the vast Sahara separates a thin strip of Mediterranean coast from the rest of the continent. The Sahara Desert is relatively young as landscapes go, only appearing in the last several thousand years. Before it the entire northern portion of the continent was a great green savannah, dotted with lakes that supported small wandering human bands.
This landscape nurtured humanity. Before the rise of organized civilization, Africa was a verdant land that provided for a wide-roving lifestyle. This changed several millennia ago, as climate change slowly desiccated the landscape. The great lakes dried up, and sand replaced grassland. Humans were forced to ever-shrinking water sources, forced to live closer and closer together. One of these sources was the Nile River, and almost as soon as the regions desertification was complete do the first signs of Egyptian civilization appear. Egypt became the most influential civilization on the African north coast, inspiring Greece and later Rome with its refined culture and history. The new desert cut Egypt off from the rest of the continent. The Nile became the lifeline of civilization in the region, and a conduit the south. Across Africa the Sahara was, and remains, the greatest barrier dividing peoples on the northern side from the south.
The southern side of Africa was once a diverse mix of hunter-gatherer and pastoralist peoples, wandering the landscape much like they had for millennia. This changed with one of the largest ethnic migrations in human history: The Bantu Expansion.
The Bantu
Across Sub-Saharan Africa in the present-day, most languages show remarkable similarity. There is such closeness in vocabulary, grammar and phonology that they must all be related and moreso – have not diverged long ago in the past. They also showed similarities in lifestyle. Most were farmers, using iron tools and weapons. These peoples are all grouped together under the name Bantu, who refers to a reconstructed root-world for simply ‘the people’. Around 4000 years ago in west-central Africa groups of Bantu speakers began to move out, displacing the existing populations they encountered or intermingling with them. These migrations continued for centuries, with the last waves happening well within the modern era. Today all of Sub-Saharan Africa except for West Africa (which likely was populated during a much earlier wave of similar languages) and small pockets in the south and east speaks related Bantu languages. This totally changed the demographic landscape of Africa. It made Africa a continent of farmer-warriors, divided into innumerable kingdoms, tribes, and empires.
The largest empires were not however in the Bantu lands but in the west, where access to gold, salt and trade routes to the Mediterranean fueled a succession of large native empires such as Ghana, and Mali. On the other, eastern coast, contact with ancient Egypt and later Rome established the states here as another node on the great medieval trade network. These gateways between the larger Eurasian world and the African continent brought foreign ideas into Africa, the most impactful of which was religion.
Conversion
Africa plays a role in some of the earliest Abrahamic traditions. Ethiopia specifically is mentioned frequently in both the Bible and Quran. Judaism and Christianity both spread to East Africa, with Christianity eventually encompassing all of North Africa also. During the Roman empire Christian cities dotted the African coast, while in Ethiopia the worlds oldest Christian kingdom became a long-lasting and robust empire. From Egypt to Ethiopia, and all the lands in between Christianity gathered converts. The faith never penetrated widely elsewhere. That was a task later taken up by Islam.
Islam roared out of Arabia in the 7th century. During a comparatively brief period of expansion Muslim armies conquered the entire Persian empire in the east and swept across the middle east and Roman Africa. As these gains solidified under the succeeding Caliphates Northern Africa Islamized (and to a lesser degree, Arabized). Islam did not spread purely by conquest but also by trade. Muslim merchants would travel south to West Africa, entering into the trade routes there and gradually spread the faith among native African kingdoms until it was firmly entrenched among the ruling classes of many states. Some, like Mali were intent on becoming centers of Islamic knowledge, bringing books and scholars all over the world to enrich their culture. Others were originally more warrior cultures, and holy war in West Africa would arise as Muslim peoples would raid their non-Muslim neighbors. In the East a similar story played out. Arab traders founded many cities along the East African coast while at the same time, Muslim armies were waging war against Christian and pagan peoples inland.
Over the course of the middle ages Islam expanded across Africa through trade and conquest. Rarely was the conquest done by Arabs, but converted native African peoples carrying out their own conflicts for competition over resources or status. Intermarriage was another avenue for the religion to spread, as Islamic peoples lived peacefully intermingled with those of other faiths. Foreigners, Arab or otherwise, appeared most commonly as traders in Sub-Saharan Africa, whether trading raw materials or more sinisterly, humans. Slave-trading has a long history in Africa and many different groups participated in it. Initially the largest buyers of African slaves in the medieval era were Arabs, who used great numbers of slaves as workers, warriors and servants. Later this role was taken over by Christian Europeans, eager to stock growing plantations across their colonial empires.
Trading Flesh
Colonialism changed Africa many years before the continent was parceled up itself. Its effects were first felt economically. The European Age of Exploration was kickstarted in Iberia, as Andalusian Arab traders sailed to the New World and down the western African coast in search of new trade routes. As colonies grew in the New World, there was a demand for manpower. At first, native peoples there provided the labor but the mortality rates were so gruesomely high that Arab slavers in the region were hard-pressed to meet demands. So, many turned to importing African slaves across the sea, but a wave of destructive slave rebellions caused the Andalusian government to outright ban African slavery in these colonies. Slavery in west Africa did not end, but was just redirected. Just like Arab slavers had done on the eastern coast for centuries, west African slave ships now carried slaves up to the Mediterranean, where they were put to work as laborers there. The development of North Africa as a place for mass cash crop plantations gave Arab slavers an eager buyer for African slaves they could no-longer ship west and the industry was saved. Slaves moved into the Islamic World along four main routes: Up the West African coast, through the Sahara, up the Nile, or out from the Eastern coast across the African Ocean.
Arab-owned slaves were used in bulk either as soldiers or laborers. Some were used as part of elite cadres to protect valuable figures or simply as specialized combat forces. This tradition largely died out in the Maghreb by the late medieval period but remained strong in Egypt for many more centuries. One state, Cinaru in the Abarian sea, used almost entirely black slave-soldiers, so much so that their descendants now form a plurality of the entire island population.
Slave-trading was a source of great revenue for those African states that facilitated it, like Fon in the west or the rulers of Zanzibar in the east. It always came with a cost. The need for slaves never abated. Because most slaves died before they could have children slavers always were looking for new sources, and because those peoples who were the target of slave-raids would often withdraw far from the coast to avoid it, slavers had to rely on native allies to raid and capture slaves, constantly. Slave-raids caused severe demographic damage in many parts of Africa, and if traditional sources ran out slavers would quickly turn on their former allies to fill quotas.
Arab slavery was a pale shadow of what would be the worlds largest slave-trade in history. This started with the first Castilian ships sailed down the African coast, buying a crop of slaves for passage west. The Christian slave trade had begun.
The Great Trade
Arabs started the great colonial scramble out of Europe, but it was the Christian powers that would refine colonialism, with all its horrors, to its most efficient level. Christian kings had wanted to partake in the African trade system but were always blocked by the power of the Andalusian military. This changed in the 15th century and beyond, as faster, better, Christian ships could increasingly battle Arab fleets and come out on top. Christian armies also successfully conquered, if only for temporary stays, the Arab fortresses in the north Abarian. As the Arab naval monopoly on Abarian trade weakened England, France, Castile, the Netherlands, and others took advantage of this to establish their own trading posts along the African coast, or even outright seize existing forts. Italian city-states were leading players in the earliest Christian trade down the western coast. Venice and Genoa rose as powerful maritime states off wealth acquiring trading gold, slaves, salt and cloth between Africa and Europe. These states were later superseded as they turned their attentions to the Mediterranean Sea. It was Castile that started the first experiments with exporting slaves on a near-industrial scale, shipping thousands of them to its colonies in the Northern Orioles. When absorbed into the Union of Valois its existing trade fleet was greatly expanded in size. England also exported slaves for its plantations in Brania. It was English shipbuilders that pioneered specialized cargo-ships for moving several hundred slaves at a time.
African slaves were moved by the millions to the Northern Orioles and Brania. This devastated African societies, crippling empires and economically stunting the entire western part of the continent. The 15th - 17th centuries saw the first expansion of European powers beyond coastal ports inland, at first as attaches inside existing governments and eventually as outright controllers of territory. This push was led by Arab rulers, who eager to cut off their rivals from African trade attempted to intervene directly in inland trade to command what reached coastal ports and what didn’t. This was at first an anomaly restricted to the west and northwest (where Iberian rulers controlled large parts of the Maghreb). In East Africa the tradition of coastal trading continued unabated, and it was only the 19th and 20th centuries that saw inland colonization.
Age of Resistance
European colonization succeeded primarily because of European technological and logistical superiority, and the comparative divisions between opposing peoples. Africa was covered in thousands of separate polities, many at war with each-other and foreign powers were often brought in to serve on the behalf of one ruler vs. another (or just as frequently, the foreign powers outright conquered individual kingdoms at a time). During the 17th century Africa experienced a wave of large-scale political unifications that dramatically slowed interior colonization. The causes behind this seem to be improved agricultural technologies enabled greater population concentrations, the spread of horse-riding far into Sub-Saharan Africa, and widespread Islamic conversion. Larger populations that could travel further and shared a new sense of shared identity led to larger states, but this was not a hard and fast rule. Much of West Africa suffered under a series of repeated jihads led by Fulani horsemen during the mid 17th – early 18th centuries that dramatically changed the ethnic makeup of much of the coast. The brief Fula empire discouraged European expansion inland, and by its collapse in the 1730s colonial powers were too occupied by wars in the New World and Asia to press their advantage into the power-vacuum. It was soon succeeded by new large states like Sise, Nakumbe, and Obo that effectively walled off the interior from European expansion.
Significant Arab Andalusian resources were invested in propping up the Islamic empires of West Africa as a bulwark to foreign competition. Many Christian slavers moved southwards where the local peoples were more divided. The greatest European expansion into the African interior would occur below the Kongo region, with Britain annexing large portions of the area starting in the mid-18th century to more effectively extract its resources. The British colony of Nuholland grew to cover all of southern Africa, operating as a base to expand across the continents southern end. Native African powers also engaged in colonialism, such as Ethiopia and the Malagasy state. These nations used European advisors to modernize and expand at the expense of their neighbors, though in the case of Ethiopia it lost much of its hard-won empire to the rising Arabian states in the 19th century.
Empires End
The 19th century saw dramatic changes across Africa. Colonial expansion reached its height, with foreign control over all of southern, eastern and northwest Africa. The Andalusi Empire and its allies in the sprawling Sise state conquered all of West and Saharan Africa by 1870. Britain, the Netherlands, France and Germany competed over territory along the eastern coast with Britain taking the lions share. European expansion was facilitated by technological advances like automatic firearms, armored vehicles and electric communication. The Sise Emperor eventually was overthrown and the Andalusians took control of his empire, suppressing the ensuing rebellions with his son as a figurehead. Widespread ethnic cleansing across West Africa carried out by Sise officials provided an excuse for other colonial states to carve up parts of the empire, which they did in the 1st Kongo War (1897 – 1906), and second (1907 – 1910). At the wars end the Sise / Arab state was forcibly partitioned into the modern nations of Kongo, Sudan and Coast Kwanza. The other Arab holding in Africa, Morocco, would only gain its independence after a violent revolt in the 1930s.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire established the modern nations of Egypt, Libya, Bakara and Bejeria who almost immediately erupted into small-scale intercine conflict. British, French, German, Dutch and Malagasy Africa would all slowly collapse during the next century up to the present day. Currently only Nuholland in Southern Africa remains as the largest state relatively unchanged from its colonial predecessor. It still retains seats in the British Parliament, and works directly with the British government. Today Africa is riven by violence and poverty borne from its long exploitation, though the south is notably worse off than the north. Active industrialization in southeast Africa and in Kongo by the Malagasy and Arab empires with the goal to establish large home-country expatriate populations has left these places as significantly more developed than their neighbors, whereas other colonial empires never developed more infrastructure than necessary to extract resources.
Insulia
(Australasia, Oceania, Phillippines, Taiwan)
On its face, Insulia is a difficult region to categorize. It shares no great landmasses outside of Australie, which is itself culturally distinct from all other parts of the region. It is bound only by two things: the ocean itself, and the people.
Insulia is best thought of as a collection of peoples of related lifestyle, speaking a few groups of related languages, connected by the ocean the same way the great civilizations of Asia were connected by the steppe. The earliest human populations in the region were restricted to the more coastal, eastern islands off the shore of China, like Taiwan. Australie and the West Orioles [Papua New Guinea] were ancient homes for humanity, but while the population of Nusantara became an integral part of Asian civilization Australie remained almost totally isolated until modern times.
The most iconic inhabitants of these land are the Tangan peoples [Polynesians], who cover perhaps a greater breadth of the earths surface than any other pre-colonial people. Between 3000 BC and 900 CE they expanded across the Occidential Ocean, establishing populations on island chains as they went. The Tangan are related to the modern Bumans [native Indonesians] and other Jawi peoples, who form the dominant ethno-linguistic group across Insulia.
Island Kingdoms
Insulian history can be divided into broad regions based on their predominant cultural influence. The westernmost is the many islands of Nusantara that extend from the Asian mainland south and east towards the Papuan islands. To the south is the massive Australien landmass, culturally, genetically, and linguistically distinct from almost all other peoples on earth. East across the Occidential Ocean are the many Tangan islands, while the northern archipelagos along the Chinese coast include the Amay islands and the original home of many Insulian peoples, Taiwan (from where the Tangan migrations began c. 3000 BC).
For millennia China and India have served as dual cultural weights, extending their influence across the region. Nowhere is this clearer than in Nusantara where the effects of both mingled with native culture to create a wild menagerie of different customs and traditions. Further north the Amayan Islands and Taiwan were more heavily Sinicized, with the latter being almost totally Chinese by the modern era (except for small groups in the islands rugged interior).
Nusantaran kingdoms developed gradually around the trade routes that snaked through the region. Many of these early ones were Hindu or Buddhist, albeit ruled and populated by native Nusantarans. Islam arrived during the middle ages, adding a new religion to the region. Arab traders spread the faith among its many states, some of which eagerly adopted the religion. When Europeans arrived, the land was a blend of Islamic sultanates, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, tribal societies, Chinese trade enclaves and more.
A similar situation played out in the Amay islands where Islam was embraced by some rulers, but not all, and the region existed divided among many small states participating in trade with the mainland.
Island Riches
The Nusantaran islands have always attracted foreigners for their natural wealth. These islands also provided another opportunity, in spices. Spices were a highly valued part of the Eurasian economy going back to the ancient era, and the many archipelagos of Insulia either produce many world-renowned spices, or are the ideal places to cultivate them. It is what drew Indian merchants, Chinese merchants, and then the Arabs. Christian explorers also hunted these spices. The first non-Arab Europeans to reach the islands were likely the Castilians travelling around the bottom of Africa. Large Andalusian trade fleets had been sailing out of the region for centuries, rigorously defended against any interference. Travelling secretly Christian explorers began to survey the islands. As Christian nations more boldly challenged Arab and Turkish naval hegemony in the African Ocean they began to assert their claims to the regions ‘spice islands’.
The Arab Empire did not directly control territory anywhere in Insulia, but operated in alliance with local intermediaries. The Christian powers initially followed the same pattern, but over the course of the 15th – 17th centuries began to build their own settlements, and take lands for themselves. Andalusia responded in kind, fighting many wars for control of the trade routes in the region. The Dutch and French each conquered portions of the islands, with the Dutch taking the southern tip of the Thai peninsula and the French establishing themselves in Sumatra. The major foreign powers – Shun China, Kodinga (India), Andalusia, The Netherlands and France, all sponsored local powers in proxy wars for control of the entire region. The Mandala Tangar Empire, a Hindu state rose as the pre-eminent power in the central islands, backed at great financial expense by the Shun. After that empires sharp decline in the 18th century, the Tangar turned to European powers for aid who happily obliged. Eventually, the riches of Nusantara were informally divided between the Netherlands and France, later challenged by Britain in that nation’s expansion in the late 18th century.
The Papuan islands and Australie were charted by sailors from Kodinga but never settled by non-Asian powers until the Netherlands expanded its holdings in the area to counteract French wealth farther north. The Dutch settled across Australie, importing over 2 million Malay over the next century to work the land as laborers. These became the basis of a large Nusantaran population that would in time out-number all other peoples on the island. France would lay claim to the only land beyond Australie: the two Atorian islands, and compete for territories on the eastern Australien shore. Australie was never a productive agricultural colony but did produce great mineral wealth (at the cost of inhuman work conditions). The separate Dutch provinces of the island would gain their independence as separate nations in a short period during the early 20th century, an intentional bid to keep them divided and reliant on foreign support.
Scramble for China
Amay was viewed as a peripheral territory for its entire history. Chinese merchants often visited the archipelago, and some Chinese settlers even migrated to the region, but it remained largely under native rule until the 17th century when French ships conquered the southern island of Mindanao in response to invitation by a local ruler. Amay gained importance as a base for expeditions against China, where colonial Christian powers exploited its internal power struggles to establish claims over much of the empire. Ports in South China became conduits for sending resources back to Europe across the Occidential, and Amay became a prime stopping point for these fleets. The islands were eventually conquered by France, who ruled them for 250 years before independence.
Many wars were fought over control of the southern spice islands. After the collapse of Shun China into the modern Republic all of Nusantara was open to European exploitation. The entire region was totally colonized, divided between powers but gradually over time France dominated the entire archipelago. This possession would gain independence as one nation after a long national native-led movement in contrast to Dutch Australie, which gained independence as many small states quite quickly. The new Jawi Island Republics was a confederation stretching across the entire land except for small native sultanates on Java and Borneo. This state fell into a brutal dictatorship that last until the 1990s when it was overthrown and became the modern republic of today.
The many Tangan islands were separately colonized over the 18th – 20th century, with most remaining under foreign rule to this day – the last great vestige of the colonial empires of the recent past.
Disclaimer
I will be checking this thread after posting to answer any specific questions people have about places, people, and events that transpire across the entire timeline.
With such a large post editing is difficult in the extreme. If people notice discrepancies or simple dumb errors, please let me know and I can edit them.
Many thanks to al_numbers, who gave feedback and early opinions.
