Heracleitus's successor was his son who educated from a young age for the task of ruling the Empire. Gnaeus Claudius Ursinius had a thorough education, showing talent above all in mathematics and military subjects, he also learned history, philosophy, military technology, geography, literature as well as Greek and European Latin. As he grew older, Ursinius showed an authoritarian character mixed with a certain stubbornness and enormous pride, not without signs of humility and self-sacrifice. Gneus stood out in his military skills, proving to be a good swordsman, shooter and an accomplished horseman, so much so that at the age of 10 he killed his first Bull Moose in the and at 13 he killed a bear that earned him his cognomen "
Ursinius": of the Bear. Later, Ursinius would be sent to the Bellica Academy where he would acquire the friendship of those who would be the beginnings of his so-called "Hetaroi".
Ursinius, in his accession speech, proclaimed: "
Born and educated in this great Empire, I glory in the name of Elysium. For this I will defend this great Fatherland as a mother bear defends her children." Although his accession to the throne was at first welcomed by politicians of all parties, the early years of his reign were marked by political instability, generated largely as a result of clashes between the Elyseans and the Christians. New Emperor immediately showed that he was a hard worker. Consul Vitellius stated that he had done more business with the Ursinius in ten minutes than with Heracleitus in the same number of days. Consul Calvus described him as an excellent businessman, asking enough questions to help him understand the matter, while others were afraid to ask questions lest they show his ignorance, and Ursinius asked too many questions and then didn't expect an answer. The Emperor went to great lengths to endear himself to the people to the point that he instituted a procedure in the Imperial legal code.
Ensuring that crimes committed by patricians, which almost never happened before, could now be won by the plaintiff. This class-oriented system ensured that someone's judge was always of the same social order as they were, the plebs were henceforth judged by a plebeian judge, and so on. This did nothing but give amazing popularity. On the other hand, Ursinius distrusted foreigners such as the Spanish, which he recognized as a "
prejudice that would threaten the values of Elysium as much as the Christians did in Rome". He also felt strongly that Elysium should not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations, which brought him into conflict with the interventionist Senator Matellus.
On the other hand, Ursinius discovered the colonization and creation of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (OTL: Brazil.). The discovery of such a colonial state made Ursinius give permission to the fantasies of the Martifilius: The Military Expansion of the Empire. The objective was to expand the Empire to the lands of the Guna people (located in Panama and Colombia). On the eve of the conquest, the lands were dominated by various tribal states. In the centuries that passed, kingdoms and small empires had been forged that could be compared to the Russian Principalities of the Middle Ages before the Mongol invasion.
The first of these kingdoms to fall were those established in the Yucatan Peninsula, a vast limestone plain in southeastern Mexico. The invasion of the Yucatan peninsula was hampered by its politically fragmented state. The Legions engaged in a strategy of concentrating the collaborating native populations in newly founded towns. The native resistance to the new settlements took the form of the flight to inaccessible regions such as the jungle or the union of neighboring Mayan groups that had not yet submitted and the confrontation that always ended in a massacre with few or no casualties among the Legions. due to their superior weapons, armor and combat training (remember that a legionnaire spends 5 years being trained before being deployed in a combat zone). But among the Maya, ambush was a favored tactic given its effectiveness.
Commonly, when the Golden Eagle of the Legions was seen, the most "intelligent" caciques or connoisseurs of their fate if they resisted, offered gold, food, clothing and a group of young slave women in homage to the Elysées who soon destroyed any kind of breach of the religious tolerance of Elysium. Others, on the other hand, resisted and ended up condemning their people to slavery. Unfortunately, guerrilla warfare was a style of warfare known to the Elysians dating back to the Conquest of Hispania or Britannia. Unfortunately, one of the most common problems was tropical diseases that seemed to be used by the tribals. Therefore, a young officer suggested the idea of use viruses or bacteria capable of inflicting massive damage on an enemy rather than risk soldiers. The Civil War taught the high command many things about industrialized warfare. But the use of bioweapons was only used to a primitive degree: either by poisoning a water supply, sending out infected plague or other types of disease transmission. However, it is one thing to read about its use on distant battlefields. It is quite another to see a soldier full of pustules or other kinds of plagues. This style of devastating warfare was horrible, but effective. The young Centurion stated that while his firearms were proven and effective and his methods of warfare were indeed effective, he would still pale in comparison to the ability to deploy what he called "
Terribilis Telum". Even so, the Emperor gave authority to begin experimentation with this
class of weapons on dangerous people and useless slaves.
This led to the creation of Castrum Tartaros: A fortified complex built on the expanse of the California desert (OTL: Nevada), made up of a large hexagonal walled enclosure of reinforced concrete, with a large housing area. The only way to get to or from the base was through a long road that basically glows in the desert sun. The fort was a state-of-the-art building, with state-of-the-art laboratories for the time, a huge underground prison complex for test in human and animals subjects, air conditioning, electric generators, and fairly luxurious quarters for the troops, including a shooting range. All the soldiers responsible for the construction of the fort were stationed there as security detachments. Dominarch Gneus Julius Albus himself visited them to inspect the first biological weapons test. Suffice to say, the time was too long for immediate military application, but Castrum Tartaros remained operational and would begin conducting all sorts of gruesome experiments to track the progression of various diseases, as well as to determine new diseases that could be weaponized.
During the Campaign, the legions ended up developing light infantry tactics. So by A.D. 1537, the Legions learned counter-insurgency fighting and the tribes by the time the Legions arrived, were fighting well organized and displaying orderly battle lines. Due to hostility, the native Nicarao were wiped out by a combination of the slave trade, disease, and warfare. It is estimated that up to two million slaves came from the region. By 1542 AD, the region was organized under the Provinces of Yucatan and Sterculia.
Meanwhile, in Europe and North Africa, a direct commercial and cultural exchange between Elysium and the Old World was taking place. The Elysians were allowed to trade and create "
Emporium" trading posts where they traded numerous items: Swords, armor, crossbows, bows, cloth, food seeds even animals and the almost present Chocolate which became synonymous with Elysium. At the same time, people were inspired by new ideas and fields of study. The Elysean books brought to Europe stimulated interest in learning, some physicians, for example, used concepts from Elysean medicine to help spark a revolution in European ideas about human anatomy. But on the other hand, knowledge of the usefulness of technology and firearms made some states consolidate their domains: The Iberian Peninsula led by Miguel de la Paz with his Hispanic Tercios, The Holy Roman Empire led by Charles V of Austria with his Landsknecht, The Ottoman Empire led by Suleiman "the Magnificent" with his Janissaries.
At the same time, the introduction of better firearms techniques, and a new push toward total battle, away from traditional individual combat and concepts of honor and personal bravery, had particularly dramatic effects for several decades to come, to the point that by the 1560s thousands of gunpowder weapons were in use and began to have revolutionary effects on tactics, strategy, army compositions and fortification architecture although most nations had outdated and decentralized military forces compared to Elysium.
Unfortunately, colonialism and the desire to have territories with which to extract exotic resources, made it difficult to colonize Cassiopeia (America), Africa was the objective of European colonialism. Initiating an aggressive competition for territorial acquisitions outside Europe and the emergence in the colonizing countries of doctrines of racial superiority that denied the suitability of the subjugated peoples for self-government. The European colonization of Africa involved the emigration of large numbers of settlers, soldiers and administrators with the intention of owning land and exploiting the apparently primitive (for Old World standards) indigenous peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa.
European colonialism highlighted by different variants. The most prominent were:
Iberian Colonialism consisted of the creation of a new colonial society through the fusion of European culture with indigenous cultures, similar to the case of the Roman Empire.
French Colonialism concentrated more on establishing fortified trading posts with a strong religious element while trading with tribal groups or establishing sugar fields or mines at key points.
English Colonialism concentrated more on not integrating the subject peoples into their society, limiting itself to exterminating the local population to later occupy their territories where they transferred the entire European ways of life.
By AD 1560. The following European countries had territories in Africa:
Kingdom of Spain: Viceroyalty of New Spain (OTL: Brazil) and Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, Viceroyalty of Morocco (OTL: Morocco, Algeria), Viceroyalty of Mozambique, Viceroyalty of Angola and Viceroyalty of Buena Esperanza (South Africa.)
Kingdom of France: Vice-royauté de Tunisie. (OTL:Tunisia)
Kingdom of England: Colony of Goldcoast (OTL:Ghana)
Habsburg Empire: Friedrichsburg (OTL:Namibia.)
While on Elysium, cultural developments gave rise to many types of music, dance, literature, cuisine, and visual arts. It is important to note that Elysium as "Rome's heir" tends to be an exporter of culture, as well as absorbing other cultural traditions with relative ease, such as music, entertainment, and even clothing. The cities offer classical and popular music, scientific research centers, museums, musicals and plays, as well as artistic projects and world-class architecture. This development was the result of contributions from private philanthropists, as well as from the government.
At the same time, the Collegia (Latin singular Collegium) began to emerge, such as the Collegium Armariorum, which was mainly made up of the Gladiator area and the fight in the Arena, the Collegium Communionis Minirum, which was focused on the actors, even the Collegium Lupanariorum. who organized the brothels. But there was a Collegium that came as a surprise, this is that of the Velox thermopolia, a type of specialized establishment where food is prepared and served to be consumed on the street, which had a wide fame in the cities and Legions, especially there was special liked the isicia omentata, a type of hamburger made with minced meat, wine and pepper, which was also liberally poured with garum, a sauce made from fermented fish viscera, which was healthier and in itself much more nutritious than the that we know
On the other hand, the use of electricity en masse led to the creation of more elaborate refrigeration systems, previously, people used axes and saws to collect ice for their primitive refrigerators. This method turned out to be difficult, dangerous, and certainly unlike anything that could be duplicated on a commercial scale. So a series of researchers tried to find a system that would allow them to store their dairy products, fish, meat and even fruits and vegetables in a cold and safe way. It would not be until years later that the first practical refrigeration system that worked with electricity. The refrigeration systems were large and cumbersome but they allowed the creation of refrigerated wagons that, with the dense railway network, became an extremely important link between the market and the farm, which meant a greater internal commercial impulse.
The meat industry gave the first impetus to the demand for refrigerated railcars by giving the beefpacking industry dominance of the refrigerated railcar business with its ability to control ice plants and set icing fees. The refrigerator wagons made it possible to transport perishable crops hundreds and even thousands of kilometers or miles.