1310-1376 (557-623 AD) (L'Uniona Homanus)

The Journey of Pontius Crispian
Brother in law to current Emperor Diocletian, Pontius Crispian ascended to the rank of captain in the navy at the rise of the new Emperor. Crispian was commissioned to determine the length of New Africa. The area that had been surveyed already by the Romans, Otojomouise and the Zulu was detailed enough but the Romans wanted to know how much land existed in the vast territory that they believed to be populated only by small pockets of tribes. Crispian started his journey by moving south below the colony of the Siddharthists in the Rio de la Plata. Knowing how violent the natives of that region were Crispian prepared himself with firearms and his associate ships were also armed in case of attack. The new iron slided ship developed in Londinium had been produced by the new Corporatia Cantium Ferriae (Kent Iron Corporation) in Britannia was used by Crispian and this company was also given a lucrative contract to experiment with improving defensive technologies. The Kent Iron Corporation was also historic for being the first to be established with a charter from the Emperor that lasted indefinitely and did not need to be renewed.

Captain Crispian when he was sailing to the territories south of the Siddharthist Colony he noticed that the people in that region were especially tall. He named these people Patagons, after the mythical race of giants in the mythology of the Romans and Greeks. The region of Patagonia was the first to be recorded by Captain Crispian in his official records. Pontius Crispian moved around one island and saw fires from the natives of that regions who he believed intended to scare his ships away by lighting their coasts on fire and trying to choke and blind them with smoke. Crispian named this area the Terra d’Ignita or land of fire. It should be noticed that the use of the word ‘di’ to mean ‘of’ rather than the genitive case or other older forms of speech moved into the higher class form of speaking rather than only the poor and minimally educated in the Empire.

following the Terra d’Ignita, the land began to move north and this was the southern edge of the continent. Crispian, knowing that he had found what he looked for intended to turn back but he soon encountered the terribly fierce winds and currents of this region. He name the cape the ‘Promontorium di Tempestium’ or ‘Cape Tempest’. Out of these harsh waters Crispian moved north still along these very unfamiliar coasts and eventually came across a totally new and rather civilized people who called themselves the Mapuche.

The Mapuche
The Mapuche and the Roman Captain Crispian met in 1312 (559 AD) and Crispian stopped and made a camp near the small southern village of Melipulli (Puerto Montt, Chile). The native people of the city moved a regiment of soldiers from this area believing that these people were hostile. When the leader of this regiment met with Crispian they noticed that the Romans were not of any known group. Their light skin made them look like the gods of these people and some began to worship them and follow their ships as they moved. One benefit of these people was that many of them learned at least the rudimentary Latin language. Over the course of around three years the Mapuche in the southern region and the Roman legions of Captain Crispian built such a relationship that people from around their nation were coming to visit them. The Chief of the Mapuche in the capital city of Mapocho had built up enough power in the nation that he demanded that the lords of the city of Melipulli move the Romans to the capital.

The current Chief of the nation, Chief Rimac II, wanted desperately to meet the new and tantalizing foreigners. He also believed that if they were divine that they would assist him in new conquests. Crispian came into Mapocho with his ship greeted with revelry. A parade down the main street facing the palace with tons of citizens cheering at the notorious celebrators reminded Crispian of the Empire. When Chief Rimac and Crispian met they discusses, though with some difficulty in translation, their home nations. Crispian described his home as being far beyond the harsh seas and that he has traveled on behalf of his Emperor in search of new lands. Chief Rimac II replied stating that the Mapuche would be a friend and ally to the “Romansuyu” or people of Roma. Chief Rimac II and Captain Crispian forged a peace with these people and Crispian stated that he needed to continue his journey. Chief Rimac supplied the Romans and they set sail for the Tastil and Chimu to the north according to what they learned while among the Mapuche.

The Tastil and the Chimu
With the Tastil and the Chimu the Romans met a very different story. Rather than being celebrated by the Tastil as they had been treated by the Mapuche, the Tastil were very hostile to them. They knew that they came from the Mapuche and believed them to be traps or spies sent by them. Their large ship was feared and the people ran from the harbors. The King of the Tastil declared that an invasion was happening and that they needed to respond. Unlike early conflicts with men like Columbus in OTL, these natives were not outmatched in terms of weaponry by such a great degree. The Romans were surprised to find that the Tastil had firearms and believed that they had somehow gained them from either the Sinicans or some other people of the old world. The Tastil fought very effectively. One of the technologies of the Mesoamericans that had been recently introduce to the other Mesoamericans was the flamethrower of the Uaxactunese. Though they were only test models the Tastil destroyed more than three of the Roman ships when the attacked the vulnerable and poorly plated sides of the ships. The Romans, who ran from these people, reported them as being very violent. Nowhere is the word ‘savage’ used and this displays more of a respect for the natives than could be said in OTL. The Romans collected themselves and moved towards the Chimu.

The Chimu were somewhat in the middle of the reactions of the Mapuche and the Tastil. The Romans weren’t trusted by the Chimu by any means and there were escorts for them everywhere they went. Word had spread quickly around these Andean civilizations about the journey of a strange foreign fleet throughout their seas. The Chimu escorts gained enough notoriety from the common people that the Romans believed that they were being looked at with more awe than suspicion. When Captain Crispian met with the King of the Chimu he developed enough report with the Captain that the meting had a much friendlier aim than the Romans had received from the Tastil. The Romans also learned more about these natives people than they had in any other of the nations they visited. With the maps and some of the history that had been gifted to Crispian the Chimu and the Romans now had a stable relationship. The Romans set out towards the Maya and Uaxactun who they knew had just engaged in an extensive war. The Romans hoped to build enough of a relationship with these civilizations that the Romans would have a more secure station in the new world.

The Final Landing
Crispian landed in the Maya city of Zac Tzicnal (Golfito, Coast Rica) where he was again met with a large amount of celebration and welcome. Crispian was taken to the Chief of the Maya, a man named Mecatl who inherited the leadership position after the fall of Tikal. Crispian was led around the nation, as Mecatl believed that this could further establish his dynasty among his people. Here the Romans learend of the very thin isthmus that separated the seas. Crispian was persuaded to stay in the Maya territory and stall his movement towards Uaxactun, as the Maya did not want their enemy getting in contact with such an apparently powerful and perhaps holy person. Crispian’s ship was moved across the thinnest area of the isthmus and the Maya were in such awe when they say it that some would hold their prayers when it would pass next to their nearest road. When Crispian arrived at the other end of the Maya Kingdom he departed back to the city of Lurium along with a party of Mayan diplomats who would meet to establish relations with the Romans.

The Maya became a very large trading partner after the return of Crispian in 1315 (562 AD). The Romans and the Maya both moved into Northern New Africa and shared a border with each other with which to facilitate a trade relationship as well as through the ocean. The Romans began a whole new series of expansions after Crispian returned. Headlines circulated throughout the Empire about his encounters with the polite and the violent natives of New Africa. Books about heroes conflicting with these native civilizations became very popular and over about two decades a spirit of nationalism swept the Empire. Unity was widespread and the people were enthusiastic for territory. One of the projects that had begun was a move to conquer all of the small islands being discovered north of the New Africa colony. This new sea that became known as the Calinagian Sea after the Kalinagan natives, as they called themselves. Similarly the Maya had a much wealthier and more powerful standing among the nations of Mesoamerica and commanded much more favor than any of the other nations that the Romans had or would come in contact with in the new world.

The Mayan-Roman Expansion
The Mayans and the Romans began a series of joint expansions. The Maya and the Romans split the islands of Cubao (Cuba), Taino (Hispaniola), Arawakao (Jamaica), The Tatian Islands (The Bahamas), The Naucratian Islands (The Lesser Antilles), and Boricua (Puerto Rico) between themselves and intended to move out into the OTL southern United States. The Romans and the Maya were making such great advances by working together that they both had a much more vast extent of territory by the end of the year 1353 (600 AD). The Diocletian Peninsula (Florida Peninsula) was in the hands of the Romans and the mouth of the Mississippi river was discovered by the Mayans in the year 1331 (578 AD). It was named the Macatl River after the current King of the Maya people. The other areas conquered by the Romans and Maya were the coasts surroudnign these areas. The Maya held the areas of the Louisiana Coast and part of Mississippi and Texas while the Romans controlled the areas of Florida, part of Georgia, and the coast of Alabama. The compeltion of this project was made by the year 1353 (600 AD) and would mark the reigns of both Emperor Diocletian and King Macatl in their nations.

The Second Great Alliance
In the year 1314 (561 AD) the Zapotecs and the Uaxactunese were expecting a visit from the Romans as they had been rumored about for some time. When that move did not come some in these nations dismissed the supposed appearances of these men to be fictions and rumors of delusional people looking for attention. However once the Maya proved to be making new advances in their technology as well as becoming incredibly wealthy and expanding beyond their former abilities, it became clear what was happening. In order to combat the alliance of the Maya with the Romans the Mesoamericans sought to set aside their differences and unite against a common enemy trying to monopolize on the power in that region.

The leaders of Uaxactun, the Zapotecs, the Xochimilca, the Mexica, the Tepaneca, the Tlaxcalan, the Meztitlan, the Huastecs, and near the end the Chichimecs came together to found the Declaration of Eternal Unity and Strength which sought to set up a coalition to defend their common goals. The Tepaneca, the Tlaxcalan, the Mexica, and the Xochimilca who had expelled their leaders and who then went to establish the Meztitlan, Huastec, and Chichimec Kingdoms declared an end to all animosity between their nations. This organization was fought over greatly and mostly about the problems of the past. Eventually the nations agreed that their fighting was becoming increasingly irrelevant as the Maya and the Romans began expanding everywhere. The treaty was   agreed to and ratified by all these parties of the first of the year in 1330 (577 AD). The first order that the Second Alliance made was to secure their border by extending it to the edge of the Maya territories around what they called the Macatl River (Mississippi River). Through the vast and largely empty desert grew the new Alliance which called these desert provinces called Tonatiutl meaning lands of the sun god. The Second Great Alliance, though it was admired by historians later for the fact that these many nations came together, had several internal problems with regards to management.

The most surprising solution that was reached during the long conventions held to write the Declaration of Unity was to provide for a government that did not include a king. It was designed after the Tepaneca Republic as none of the individual states would allow themselves to be lorded over by a King from any of the other nations. The legislature of the Second Great Alliance was named the Congress of the Nations and was made up of the dukes, nobles, and leaders from the individual kingdoms. At first the only thing that they were able to agree upon was to have expansions and to have the leading generals and officers of each of the nation’s militaries head this coalition of forces. Over time individual militaries for the member nations faded into time.

<span style="font-size:13px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Eventually the government of the Alliance became triumphant in its goals but only with considerable compromises. The Revenue Compromise declared that the raising of revenue (ex. taxation) was under the ability of the Congress of the Nations. The Second Great Alliance grew into stability thankfully due to great politicians like Chiconahui who led the Congress of nations during its earliest stages. He personally wrote and negotiated many of the policies that became common place in the laws of this Alliance and focused on them ratehr fairly and equitably though he was himself a native of the Mexica Empire. The capital of the Alliance moved through cities over the early years but eventually settled in the city of Tlatelolco near modern day Mexico City. It was set aside from any individual member nation but it remained surrounded by the four Aztec nations. Despite this the Zapotecs and Uaxactunese led many actions because they were the largest members.