The New Athens - An Alternate North America


The Treaty of Florence



In 1703, the powers who had feared the rise of a massive Habsburg Empire had assembled a fleet of diplomats to meet in Florence in negotiations. The campaign to begin the talks was spearheaded by the Stadtholder of the Netherlands, Willem III, who was upset over the colonial fights breaking out. The Dutch military, shortly before the meeting, would begin a period of significant military buildup, in order to show that they were not in a position of backing down, and wouldn’t tolerate any shrinking of their borders.

1280px-Members_of_the_Peace_Congress_of_Baden%2C_by_Johann_Rudolf_Huber.jpg

The Treaty of Florence​

The members that had visited included diplomats from France, with famed ambassador Francois Bochart, The Netherlands, Portugal, who was now increasingly hostile, not seen since the Great European War, The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and Sweden. The first day of the meeting, on July 8th, the sun rose over Florence, and the city began its bustling about. The Palazzo Pitti was chosen as the meeting hall, and the various delegates gathered in one of the largest rooms to begin negotiations. What could be agreed was:

  1. Britain had become far more totalitarian and isolationist than what could be desired for her

  2. The seizing of Spain as a puppet state of Austria was overly expansionist and should be curbed by all means necessary

  3. The colonial claims of each of the colony-owning delegates should be respected

This led to the agreement on an alliance between each of the powers, and the end of July 8th marked a significant event in European history.


July 9th had each envoy and diplomat once again returning to the Palace to negotiate more over a treaty. This day marked several other, new things. An agreement was made to supply the Dutch and French with weapons and manpower in their colonies, in order to maintain American stability, and to strike back if the time comes. Another point was to establish a new monarch on the Spanish throne, perhaps a Hapsburg hostile to others in their own family. The powers also agreed on a military buildup along their borders with the countries in question in order to combat any military action from the enemy.


The last day, July 10th, was notably much more heavily guarded and kept secret from the other days, and it discussed the claims for each country in the event of a peace. France desired Southern Rousillon and a cession of claims west of the Appalachians in Spanish territory. The Netherlands called for sections of British New England and also a cession of claims, but also the notable releasing of several Imperial states from the HRE, right along the border of the Netherlands and the Ruhr, this was expected be in order to form a firm boundary between Germany and the Alliance. Portugal wished for the Duchy of Sardinia, in order to gain a Mediterranean foothold, some Spanish islands in the Caribbean, Spanish Indian settlements, and, their largest claim, at least half of the Spanish Philippines. Poland-Lithuania claimed Silesia, Moldavia, and, strangely, a cession of western Tirol to the Swiss Confederacy. Tuscany was the most humble, only calling for the release of the Italian states from the Holy Roman Empire, and a slice of Pisa (no pun intended). Lastly, Sweden desired colonies in America, and had set their eyes on British Virginia, as well as a claim on Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire, with minor boundary movements.


The Treaty of Florence is thought to be the first step in the fall of the ancient, crumbling Holy Roman Empire.




Kind of a short update, but I wanted to get this out today
 
24
I'm sorry everyone I haven't been inspired lately, thanks for everyone that follows the timeline, here's a short little update for now before I get my bearings straight after the holidays <3

Siberia and East Asia

As the new giant of Europe, now calling itself a true “Third Rome”, reeled backwards from the period of war that they embarked on, they began an era of increased development and expansion economically, diplomatically, etc.

One of these interests held by the Russian government was the vast untapped wilderness to the east. The region of Siberia had very few natives, and massive amounts of lumber and land ready to be expanded into. The first explorers sent by Russia actually went back to the 15th and 16th century, but mass-colonization efforts by them were deemed unnecessary at the time. However, Russia now had the willpower to begin to expand eastward.

Nikolai Spathari, who made himself known through his strict and well-organized division handling, was fascinated with the expansion of Russia into the east. He was able to procure an official grant from Czar Peter, who was now getting into his ‘60s and suffering a few physical impairments after a close encounter with some Turkish patriots in Tsargrad (Sometimes referred to nowadays as Konstantiyopl). Nikolai began his expedition with a full force of 7,600 Russian and Ukrainian guards, leaving from Omsk, with great fanfare.

The Russian expedition was able to make its way through the vast steppes and forests of Siberia, before reaching to Pacific Ocean about 2 months later, having little to no issues with the journey. They claimed all the land, from about the northern of frontiers of the Ming, who inquisitively communicated with the Russians. Russian companies began establishing their own businesses along a long path, being constructed from Omsk to Novmoskva, on the Pacific Ocean. Several logging corporations established their businesses along the road, as well as several more naval-focused organizations that helped build up the various villages and towns along the Pacific. Before long, a firm Russian stronghold was established over the Russian Far East.


As these expeditions continued to connect Russia and the far eastern nations, Russian artifacts traded from the Chinese became highly valued in Europe, reinvigorating the desire to travel to “Cathay and Nihon”. Spanish ships and colonists continued to push northwards from their bases in the Philippines, and Dutch ships traveled northwards from their Spice Colony, and France and Britain began looking into establishing cities in the east. Nouveau-Bretagne was created on the western tip of New Guinea, and France built it up to use it as a staging area for trade with the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Indians. The islands would become a future contest area between the French and Dutch.
 
Anywhere people wanna learn about? I’m interested what people want to hear about in the world, I’m still working on figuring out Europe’s coming conflict
 
25
The Re-emergence of Buddhism - The life of Abhayaraj, and his rise to power


At the age of 22, the young Abhayaraj claimed to have gone through the same process as the Buddha when he traveled from his palace and thought to himself for nearly a week. He told many of his friends and family that through this thought, an unknown voice, which he believed to have been the Buddha himself, told him to teach as many people as he could of his thoughts, and that violence was temporarily justified, in order to purge quote “monkeylike” thought from India, referring to the great Mughal Empire. His followers seemed to follow along his tremendous oratory, and he gained a significant following.


The unstable Ladakh tribal federation, which still followed a smattering of different Buddhist beliefs, saw Abhayaraj and his alliance of cult-like followers depose the current ruling leader and establish what he called “The Mindful State”, often referred to in English as Buddhesha. He became similar to an absolute monarch, being able to garner mass-support within 3 years of his formation of his way of thought. He vastly upgraded the military, ruling and directing orders himself often. Abhayaraj quickly ordered an invasion of the neighboring horde to the west, and they were quickly overrun out of sheer numbers from the state to their east and their unpreparedness.


Following this, he claimed himself to be the true leader of Buddhism and was able to successfully convert and convince many Tibetans of his “leadership” of the religion. Abhayarajism, as it is called, declared an enemy in Tibet as they followed “false Buddhism” and the few “enlightened” ones there needed to be liberated. He followed his statement with an official declaration of war on Tibet, and the fragmented, unstable state quickly buckled under the might of Abhayaraj’s vast armies. The borderlands were annexed into the Ming Dynasty and Myanmar, as Abhayaraj offered it in exchange for a non-aggression treaty, which was of course kept as a secret.


The last of the conquests during this period was Abhayaraj’s invasion of Nepal, which was rather uneventful, with the leader being kicked out after a small force marched into Kathmandu. By now he was only 32, and it was a decade since his revelation. He now had to centralize his conquests, something he proved to do very well.


Abhayaraj first established a unified currency system, which the various local governments implanted very quickly. He centralized the military and began to utilize the rocket technology learned of from the south, and was able to perfect parts of it, making it somewhat utilizable in warfare, useful for destroying large clusters of people. He also began looking into more gunpowder weapons which were learned of from other countries nearby. Finally, he worked on an intensive propaganda campaign to convert any of the remaining people to his cult.

(I'll put in more pictures on the European ones, because, well, they had more paintings survive :p)
 
So is this still active ?
Thanks for commenting, I'm sorry if you like the TL a lot and the lack of updates is probably annoying, I've always been a pretty disorganized person who has rapidly shifting focus. However, I don't intend to let it die off completely, and I'd really like to keep working on updates, I just haven't had any ideas as of late. My hope is that I have some sort of spark or something and I can start pumping out updates again.
 
Top