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Let's say we have a large super-continent(Pangea) that has an inland sea the size of South America. The sea to land ration is still 70:30 tho. The land is divided into 6 river valleys. Tho the valleys are divided from each other by Alps size mountains, and they all merge into the hill ranges and lowlands surrounding the inland sea. The equator runs thru the center of the land and inland sea i.e half is "north" of the Equator and half is "south" of the Equator. Let's say each river valley develops a civilization, technologically, equivalent to Egypt,Mesoptamia,India,China,Olmec,Chavin/Moche.

Anyway, I'd think that 2 of the great river valleys would be half jungle or more. Some of the great river valleys would have deserts though I suspect only as dry as the Kalahari. I'd suspect most if not all the rivers' delta plains would be mostly swamp/salt flat, but these could be drained. There would be Indian Ocean-like weather over the inland sea.

Civilization would begin at the same time as our world's did for comparison. The civilizations would expand upriver though slower than our Ancient Egypt. The civs would need to protect themselves against each other, so military tech and sea travel tech would both advance faster than our world. Technology as a whole will advance faster than OTL since innovations from one civ will reach the others much faster than our world. Being conservative, let's say long bows and chain mail by our 1000 BCE. Plus the faster military tech advances will lead to non-military tech advances as in our world.

Once we reach the point where each great river valley is mostly (70-90 percent) unified, we'd see alliances between empires to conquer others by sea and land. No one empire would be able to conquer and hold on to more than 2 other great river valleys. These expansions would be shortlived I believe. Should there be a world war (yes it is possible) then it's possible to have Pangea temporarily divided between 2 empires(about 1.5 Mongol Empires). These super-empires would be very short-lived however.

In time, the delta cities and the others of the inland sea plain would develop into Venice/Amsterdam-like cities. They would grow closer to each other than their respective empires. Their merchant classes would grow in power. Eventually, they would form a Hanseatic League-like alliance and free themselves from their respective empires.
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