The Longest March: One History of the World

So Mendes/Memphis has reunited Egypt... Nice! With an earlier introduction of horses and chariots, and a more north-oriented Egypt, is the "Second Unified Period" going to be a *Middle Kingdom behaving more like the OTL New Kingdom with regards to the Levant?
 
So Mendes/Memphis has reunited Egypt... Nice! With an earlier introduction of horses and chariots, and a more north-oriented Egypt, is the "Second Unified Period" going to be a *Middle Kingdom behaving more like the OTL New Kingdom with regards to the Levant?

Well, this Second Unified Period will be a bit more expansionist, but are they going to go for the Levant...well, you'll just have to wait and see. ;)

In other news; I think my next update may focus on Mesoamerica simply find what I got planned for their region pretty exiting, however I might just whip up another chapter on Egypt, Anatolia, or maybe or the Indus Valley; it really just depends on how I feel at the time. :rolleyes:
 
Well, this Second Unified Period will be a bit more expansionist, but are they going to go for the Levant...well, you'll just have to wait and see. ;)

In other news; I think my next update may focus on Mesoamerica simply find what I got planned for their region pretty exiting, however I might just whip up another chapter on Egypt, Anatolia, or maybe or the Indus Valley; it really just depends on how I feel at the time. :rolleyes:

That's a whole lot of PODs... are you rewriting the history of the whole world? :eek:
 
That's a whole lot of PODs... are you rewriting the history of the whole world? :eek:

Well, there's only one POD (Sargon's death), however there are a whole heap of butterflies that will go on and affect the entire world; the Americas included (despite being so far removed from the situation) but I'll get into that later. My end goal is to construct a compelling, expansive, and realistic world that takes place after the death (butterflies included), and given the massive amounts of time we're talking about here, I guess I do plan to change all of human history.
 
Dynasties and Divergences VI

In truth, the maintaining of unified political control in the north of Egypt following the rise of the Tenth Dynasty did in fact set-back the long term collapse of Egypt for a few centuries, however the reunification of Egypt also brought back a number of the drawbacks that existed prior to the first intermediate period. Of the numerous structural and institutional problems that had been returned with the coming of the second unified period, the first and foremost of all of them was the restoration of the aristocratic power of the king's governors, or nomarchs. Having built up his power base on not receiving tribute from the local rulers, but handing it out to them in order to deter violence and general uprisings, Ataruamtare and his successors created an atmosphere and stability that could only be maintained the continuing influx of luxury and living goods from the Levant and Nubia, the local governors growing rich as they succeeded time after time at maintaining the new status-quo that would preserve their new wealth and old powers. As a result, the basic building blocks of this 'new' Egypt wasn't structured around simply the worship or veneration of an 'all-powerful' monarch (the kings of the second unified period retained claims to be 'living gods', despite their reduced influence), but on the constant and consistent growth of the nomarch's affluence; and as such, the peace, prosperity, and isolation that ensured the long term nature of the first unified period was thrown away into a hundred wars over valuable trade routes and resource-rich regions.

For over a hundred years between the rise of the Tenth Dynasty (c. 2030 BCE) and the fall of the Twelfth (c. 1864 BCE), an almost constant conflict was being fought out between Egypt and (mainly) its two closest neighbours; the Nubian people in the upper regions of the Nile, and the slowly encroaching Canaanite Semitic tribes that riddle the Sinai Peninsula. During these wars, Egypt had successfully began to employ such successful usage of the Guti-Sumerian chariot (and later, the more advanced form of the invention utilised by the Canaanites) that it became riveted to the general culture of the Egyptian nobility; a number of the richest and most powerful kings and nomarchs being buried alongside their expensive and valued chariots to the point in which their living warhorses were sealed into the tombs (and to a lesser extent) pyramids¹ with them as a means for them to more comfortably cross into the afterlife. Similar usage of chariots were employed in upper Nubia during the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasty's campaigns in the region (primarily for the luxury goods such as incense and ebony that the nobility had craved, the lack of which having played a part in the downfall of the Tenth Dynasty), however such usage was far less effective than on the Sinai Peninsula or the Levant, and only aided in spreading the valued invention down the Nile to the ebony-skinned Nubians (the device later becoming a center-piece of one of their many faiths).

The final years of the Twelfth Dynasty have been viewed by some historians as the hight of noble privilege and power in the 'Ancient Egyptian Empire', their influence in governing the realm going unmatched as they simply reduced the once powerful position of king to that of a puppet ruler which the nomarchs constantly squabbled for influence over. The state and noble treasuries was overflowing with goods and resources shipped up-and-down the Nile, as well as transported down the trade routes of the Levant as Egypt was slowly coming out of its self-imposed isolation to the 'civilizing' world that surrounded it and it's famous River. However, following a short but brutal civil war in the kingdom that saw thousands die of the spreading Harvest Sickness and starvation as thousands more fell in battle (the conflict featuring one of the largest, if not the largest chariot battles in history) as the empire gave way to the far more bureaucratic and territorially expansionist Thirteenth Dynasty.

Known today as the 'king's who broke the nobility', the monarchs that controlled Egypt during the period between the c. 1864 BCE and c. 1707 BCE have been shown through a variety of sources as being far more aggressive in asserting their rule over the state, the complete collapse of the dozen-or-so noble and nomarchic rebellions that occured shortly after their dramatic rise to fashion being a testament to this fact (Bakhepepepi, the dynasty's third king often being pointed to as one of the more violent monarchs in Egyptian history). Indeed, the brutality and and martial that the kings of this dynasty had engaged themselves in destroyed the system of king-nomarch tribute that had successfully kept the region in relative 'peace' since the rise of Ataruamtare, however the destruction of various families and noble governors who were 'less than loyal' to the regime in Memphis saw to a balancing of stability as the kings began to appoint their own loyalists to positions of power and governance as 'governor inheritance' (the system that had by then seen the position of nomarch become hereditary) was stripped to the bone.

Coupled with the rapid rise of territorial acquisitions of resource rich regions (opposed to previous dynasties commercial acquisitions) during the latter years of the dynasty (King Petarekhrat II overseeing the largest of the expansions as he pushed the frontiers of the 'empire' outward across Northern Sinai), it appeared the 'second golden age' in Egyptian history would continue in spite of the reduction of noble power and privilege; however, the long-term stability of such a re-centralized system of governance, as well as the precarious balance of power between men in the king could not stand on its own for all time (especially for a kingdom that had been caught at the crossroads between two continents), and only time would tell when, and how, the resurgent Egypt of the 'second unified period' would fall...

...and history would never be the same again.


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Egypt under Petarekhrat II in c. 1736 BCE
Red arrows represent military expansion, and green arrows represent commercial ties

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¹ Following the first intermediate period, pyramid construction became such a drain on Egypt's treasuring (primarily due to king-to-nomarch tribute) that they were slowly being phased out of popular use, and by c. 1500 BCE they had been eliminated from Egyptian culture altogether
 
Well, here's the second update on Egypt for the time-being; I just wanted to get the general history up until c. 1700 BCE out of the way before I went onto anything else. The next update will definitely be focusing on Mesoamerica for a bit, and the divergences that have made their way over there.
 
Wow, the Egyptians have expanded VERY far into Nubia... Was the Kingdom of Kerma butterflied away? Is Egyptian rule in the region mostly maintained through the same sorts of garrison-forts as in OTL?

Given how far south this *Middle Kingdom has expanded, it could probably trade with Punt over land quite easily (especially since the OTL seasonal port at Sa'awaw/Mersa Gawasis doesn't appear to have been established).

Why no expansion into Canaan? Are there other powerful states on the rise there blocking them?

Will we be hearing anything about the Aegean in future updates? :)
 
Culture, Commerce and Technology I

Moving away from the ancient civilizations that was flourishing in Sumer and the fertile crescent around c. 1700 BCE, its time to take a brief look at the growing modernity and progressive development of a region so often overlooked in history classes; ancient formative Mesoamerica. Born out of the swelling population of the south-eastern regions of Mexico at the time, civilization on the North American continent (more specifically, the central regions of the Americas) had been growing more and more complex over the years as technological, cultural, and spiritual expansion marked the beginning of 'civilized' American societies. Of course, whilst such progression was marching at a rate similar to (or slower than) its fellow cultures along the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, and Yangtze rivers over half-a-world away, with the greater and greater development that occurred over the years between c. 2500 BCE and c. 1500 BCE, this first era of Mesoamerican history was the first definitive period of time that historians can look back on and point to when they speak of 'Ancient Mexico'.

When Mesoamerican chronologists look back at this obscure period of time (in terms of there being no written language or records yet), the primary civilization that they often refer to is that of the the Metcal people (from both metlatzotzona, or "grinder stone", and calquetzqui, "craftsmen"). Known also as the 'wheel builders', or 'builders of the stone', their distinct culture appeared between the years of c. 2000 BCE and c. 1800 BCE following the decline of pre-Olmec culture in their homelands, many historians believing that the Metcals are direct descendants of these more 'primitive' Olmec peoples. Arising around the foothills of the Papaloapan River and the Tuxtla Mountains, this newer civilization would go on to become one of the most distinctive cultures in the Mesoamericans own 'fertile crescent' at the time (the region stretching across southern Mexico); its notable and highly characteristic stone works (long and slender anthropomorphic figures, believed by some anthropologists to be gods) being immediately recognizable due to the sheer number of specimens found, as well as their shape and size (the largest found being three-and-a-half meters tall).

However, in terms of their historical impact, the greatest legacy the Metcals would leave for their neighboring civilizations was that of their advanced technology for the brief period of time their culture had flourished (c. 1700 BCE to c. 900 BCE), pictograms, large 'stone cities', and a form of early irrigation being among the more well-known inventions that appeared in the Americas as thanks to the Metcals. However, the most important invention (in terms of advancing the Mesoamerican's civilizations) would not be that of more advanced tools or their primitive metallurgy; no, it will be the one invention that will be focused on today; the wheel.

With the height of their civilization (some historians pointing to around c. 1200 BCE) coinciding with a remarkably wet period of modern human history that affected almost all of the civilized world, some historians have concluded that the 'invention' of the wheel in the Americas (an outstanding feat considering many believe that the technology was brought into being 'only one other time' in history, that in pre-Sumerian Mesopotamia) must have some form of connection to the rise of the so-called 'monsoon climate'. Perhaps born out of the need to move resources up and down the steep Tuxtla Mountains at a more effective and rapid speed during the wet season, or maybe to transport goods to other Mesoamerican settlements in the region in far more turbid and muddy conditions, the wheel has ultimately been (as it had been in Mesopotamia) a mystery to exactly why it had been built in the first place.

Indeed, the only 'true' historicity that can be assumed from archaeological finds at the time being that the invention was more 'progressive' rather than 'spontaneous'. The modern wheel wasn't simply invented by the Metcals (or Mesopotamians for that matter) in a vacuum; there was a progression of primitive wooden rollers-with-axles that must have slowly been tinkered with and improved over the period that defined the height of the Metcal civilization before the 'civilized wooden wheel' made its first appearance and proliferation (stone wheels appearing following the collapse of the civilization). Indeed, the sheer fact that the culture even considered using the wheel-and-axle for use on primitive wagons is a ancient testament to the ingenuity of the human species.

The invention of the wheel would ultimately go on to prove so successful in the 'Mesoamerican crescent' that, by the end of the Metcal civilization around c. 900 BCE, Sumerian-like wagons and caravan were beginning to spread throughout the entirety of south-eastern Mexico, all in spite of a domesticated animal that could draw their carts (Mesoamerican wagons were pulled by human hands). The effectiveness of wheel-and-axle equipped carts at moving goods and resources throughout their 'cradle of civilization' has often been pointed to by historians as one of the prime-movers that would support the growing cities and states that were beginning to appear in bulk during the 11th century BCE. Even in spite of the collapse of the Metcal culture at the end of the 10th century BCE (their downfall being attributed to the change of climate (from damp to dry) by a number of archaeologists), the wheel had by then become so entrenched in the culture and civilization that existed in Mesoamerican societies at the time; the proliferation of the wheel (which would ultimately go onto be used in other innovations, such as grinding stones for maize) seeing to a continued existence long after its inventors had disappeared from this world...

...and history would never be the same again.
 
You've truly out done yourself, my friend. This is absolutely amazing. You're completely rewriting the entirety of human history, which I can't say I've seen done on this board before. Bravo sir, bravo.

Now Mesoamerica has the wheel. I know next to nothing on ancient mesoamerica, but this must have huge repercussions on American civilization.
 
Alright, here's the first short update (there may be more, I'm unsure as of yet) regarding Mesoamerica and the rise of wheels in their societies. If you're wondering what led to the rise of the different 'civilization' in the update, as well as just the general rise of the wheel, it can largely be chalked up to the massive changes to the weather and climate in this timeline as compared to OTL (which obviously led to different men and women being born in the Americas, as well as vastly different migrations in the region) after the POD.
 
Wow, the Egyptians have expanded VERY far into Nubia... Was the Kingdom of Kerma butterflied away? Is Egyptian rule in the region mostly maintained through the same sorts of garrison-forts as in OTL?

Given how far south this *Middle Kingdom has expanded, it could probably trade with Punt over land quite easily (especially since the OTL seasonal port at Sa'awaw/Mersa Gawasis doesn't appear to have been established).

Why no expansion into Canaan? Are there other powerful states on the rise there blocking them?

Will we be hearing anything about the Aegean in future updates? :)

Essentially, the increased presence of the Sixth Dynasty in the upper regions of Nubia saw to the general disruption of most of the proto-states that existed in the region at the time, and allowed for the greater integration of the upper regions of Nubia into Egypt in later years. In terms of how the region's being controlled is that (at the height of the Twelfth Dynasty), several large towns had been constructed along the Nile in which troops would be garrisoned (forts being used the further you went down the river, but far less than in OTL).

With regards to Caanan and the Levant, the region's been notoriously difficult for Egypt (as well as other states such as the Hannalite Confederation) to hold down due to the higher population it holds compared to OTL (both the influx of Semitic peoples from the east and the increased trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia contributing to this). Of course, there's other factors that contribute to the inability to these empires to hold down the region, but generally, empire's like Egypt have just tended to trade with/over the Levant.

Also, yes; this timeline will be heading towards the Aegean and Mycenaean Greeks sometime soon, and I assure you a lot has changed in regards to their 'successes' of OTL.
 
Dynasties and Divergences VII

Whilst the rise of the technologically advanced Metcal culture has by some been considered one particular starting point of the ancient 'civilizations' within the Mesoamerican crescent, it would the rise of the post-Metcal city-states that would truly usher in the age of Sumer-esque societies on the North American continent. Prompted by technological radiation that rapidly worked its way out of the region, primarily following the introduction of wheels and carts, as well as the advent of primitive irrigation techniques that oversaw a massive growth in popular use at the end of the Metcal period, the population of Mesoamerica began to climb steadily upwards as the decades passed, and despite the significant drop in the rain-fall levels in the centuries after the final downfall of the region's first 'advanced' culture, the influx of people to large and larger settlements began the process that would ultimately see the first cities rise around c. 650 BCE. And, of all these new cities to bring Mesoamerican culture into the 'civilized era' of human history, it would be the oldest and grandest of all that would take the leading role; Amamatlacaqua.

With modern evidence that it had been populated for thousands of years prior to the rise of even the Metcal, Amamatlacaqua was first occupied an a long-term basis at the beginning of the 11th century BCE on the banks of the Coatzacoalcos. The epicentre of the rising civilizations of south-east Mexico at the time, this city was among the first to be raised and built up separate from the majority Metcal societies to its west, the culture that had settled in the region being more likely settlers and migrants who had arrived from the sparsely populated the mountains plains its south in the 16th century BCE, slowly integrating aspects of proto-Olmec and Metcal culture into their own as their lowly town grew over the proceeding centuries into a bustling up dominated by a Metcal nobility.

Having also been the epicentre of centralization and high society in the regions west of the 'first civilized culture in the Americas', Amamatlacaqua serving as the the city that was the gateway between the south-eastern Maya peoples (who were beginning to settle the aforementioned mountainous region, and the Metcal settlements along the Papaloapan River. Indeed, such was the cultural and technological 'trade' that passed through the city each year (that could only be supported by recent innovations such as the hand-drawn car) that Amamatlacaqua is sometimes considered to be the birthplace of large-scale metallurgy in the northern regions of the Americas, copper being the primary metal-of-commerce in this ancient world as early as c. 900 BCE.

Following the beginning of the rapid decline of Metcal power throughout Mesoamerica at the beginning of the 10th century BCE (prompted by the long dry seasons that had grown more and more common around this time), the city at the centre of so much trade began to enter a brief period of decline, the population leaving the settlement as several of its first great technological marvels ( primitive canals, irrigation channels, as well as their first place of worship; the characteristic 'Temple at Atlacaman') falling into disrepair. However, after an even more brief period of increased rainfall around the mid-point of the 9th century BCE, the population in the region around the city began to swell again as further and further migrations began to erode away the cultures of the first men and women who lived there, replacing it with the culture of a post-Metcal nature; the Chixan. Bringing along with them the many aspects of what had built up the Metcal society to its height, the Chixans continued in their practices of early metallurgy and advanced construction as they settled within the rebuilding city known as Amamatlacaqua; and over the next few centuries slow (albeit nominally peaceful) expansion dominate the region.

By the beginning of the year c. 400 BCE, Mesoamerica was beginning to look more and more similar to the city-states that dominated Sumer during their formative period (c. 2500 BCE to c. 2000 BCE), and whilst they're economy was far less interconnected than the far-flung trade routes that were so important to the fertile crescent, there was greater sense of commercial trade and business between the growing statelets that were looking remarkably alike (in terms of internal structure that is) to cities such as Lagash, Ur, Uruk, and Nippur. Indeed, of the five city-states (or proto-nations) that had controlled overland commerce at the time (those being Amamatlacaqua, Cēntan, Cactlalli, the small put powerful Kalohtal States, and Hahuēyi), four-out-of-five were nominally controlled by an all-power priest or monarch (the Kalohtal States being believed today to have been led under a 'council of merchants') who in theory were granted the rights to oversee and control the majority of their state's governance, this 'right' usually being justified (in a Sumerian-like fashion) through a godly mandate.

However, if there was one limitation that could be pointed out amongst the new-found growth in civilization throughout the Mesoamerican cradle at the time, it would that of extreme decentralization. Similar to the levels of 'centralization' found at the center of Egypt by the end of the Sixth Dynasty, this system of governance in these ancient North American societies has been considered by some historians as being far, far worse. As an example; whilst Amamatlacaqua had wielded nominal control over their 'empire' during this time, it's believed that the general warring and commercial activities that were undertaken by the statelet had been dominated by the smaller cities 'conquered' by the Chixans years earlier. Amongst these cities, the amantecatl¹ ruled with an iron fist, barely paying their dues to the cabesatl² in the capital whilst only giving lip service to those who supposedly 'ruled' over them as they conducted their own diplomacy and trading with the world around them. In essence, the structures of state were more of an 'alliance' between the amantecatl and the lordly cabesatl, the former merely being in a position of society slightly 'lower' than the latter (a situation that didn't necessary lead to the most 'peaceful' atmosphere during this period).

Very soon however, a new innovation would soon be breaking forth in a rapid information radiation out of the ancient city of Amamatlacaqua that would forever change the course of not only politics and relationships between these rising states in the Mesoamerican cradle of civilization, but also commerce, faith, and technology. For the over-one thousand years that has been discussed of Mesoamerican history thus far, the dozens of cultures and societies that have sprung hand fell in that time (the Metcals included) used simple and primitive pictographic depictions of the world around them as a record, but throughout the 4th century BCE in this small region of the world, one of the defining factors of 'modern' civilization was soon to spring forth in an outstanding display; a written alphabet...

...and history would never be the same again.


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The Mesoamerican cradle of civilization around the year c. 400 BCE

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¹ The Chixan title used for rulers of local communities (similar to énsi in Sumer)
² A similar title used for overlords of the amantecatl (similar to lugal in Sumer)
 
Here's the final update for Mesoamerica for the time being (I apologies if it's a bit 'lacking'; I'll try to expand on it all later). In the next couple of updates, I'm thinking of heading over to the Levant and Greece to see how butterflies have been at work in those regions, however I'm always open to requests on where in the world I take the timeline.
 
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