1376-1422 (623-669 AD) (L'Uniona Homanus)

The State of Industrialization
Of all the nations in the world the Roman Empire appeared to be the most advanced. They were poised to break out into the Industrial form of civilization by the years leading up to the Second War for the North. With the loss of many of those resources and laborers as well as the money required to fight that and other battles, the Roman Empire had stalled in its development. The technologies of the railroad and of the steam engine made their trade and warfare much more powerful but they were still rudimentary throughout the Empire. These technologies spread however to the neighbors of the Romans, chiefly in Africa.

In the North of Europe much of the population found these technologies to be decadent and unnecessary, though large urban centers still found them tremendously useful. The Maurya had closed themselves from the Romans and this in turn had closed off the Far eastern nations from the technologies that were documented but not well enough to be copied. In Africa the first railway between the capital of the Zulu Republic, Zulu CIty (Kisangani), and Timbuktum (Timbuktu) was completed in 1082 (329 AD). Since then the Africans had been trying to brink a railway to every city in their Republic but were finding it increasingly difficult. There were not enough people in many of the areas of the Zulu Republic to properly maintain the rail system that was the goal of the leadership in the Capital. The same problem was felt throughout the Bantu Kingdom, the Siddharthist Republic and the Otjomouise Empire. This was only made worse as they expanded into New Africa (South America).

In most of these nations farming remained the most important and essential occupation. Even in the Roman Empire though more people were in cities than had ever been the case before, the total population was split with three quarters still living in rural communities. The margin was only greater elsewhere. In the year 1379 (626 AD), researchers in the University of Lixus (Larache, Morroco) had been experimenting with the renewed science of Alchemy. The Phosphorite rocks common in the region were combined with sulfuric acid, known at that time as vitriol, in a concentrated form to make what is today known as a Superphosphate. The chemical Monocalcium Phosphate was found to have extremely beneficial properties on the growth of plants and it became a very popular fertilizer from there after.

The African Industrial Revolution
In Africa they imported such an amount of what was called “Nature’s Ecstasy” that in left the production of agriculture to be more than could be harvested. Rather than move people out of the cities, more people needed to move into them to service the large amount of crops that were being produced. This effect, which shocked many in the African Kingdoms and Republics, was felt hardest in the Zulu Republic. The Zulu now had more food than they could handle and even less laborers than they had before. This were looking down until an engineer in the city of Bujumbura in the Bantu Kingdom combined the steam engine with the plough. This technology made just fifteen years after the first production of “Nature’s Ecstasy” spread through African countries quickly. The Bantu, who were becoming very wealthy off of their technology, were the first industrial power and were turning out many new factories to supply the demand for steam-ploughs in the continent.

New factories sprang up cross the African continent and the surplus of food allowed the Bantu to take a greater role in the stage of world affairs. Though the Zulu, Otjomouise and the Siddharthists did steal the technology in order to found their own factories, the Bantu were the first and they held on to this title for generations as not only the oldest but best producers of hardwares in Africa. The people of Africa, who now were without prospects in the farms as many of them were made obsolete, had few choices ahead of them. Many chose simply to enter factories but the more enterprising people, such as those who sold their farmlands in order to invest in a new factory, had a better idea. The colonies of the Africans had been growing neglected in recent years and some wanted to restore some deeper connection with them. One way this was achieved was in a third large wave of people to the new world. Not only were they looking to expand their country’s interests but also there own, entrepreneurs emerged in the new world for the first time a s a major demographic. The creation of factories producing steam ploughs for the already rich soils of the colonies was marked similarly by the discovery of large deposits of Phosphorite in the border region between the Bantu Colony and the southern Zulu colony. Soon there were claims all around the land currently controlled by these nations and there was a new reason for expansion. With expansion in this border region came war.

General Adisa's War
The wealthiest of the entrepreneurs in the new world was from the Bantu Kingdom. He had been extending production out into the disputed territories. His name was Adisa and though he held to official rank in the Bantu Military, he commanded such a large number of employees that he was called a General at first in jest but as tensions progressed the term became all the more applicable. General Adisa’s main rival was from the Zulu Republic and his name was Thabo. He not only used his new factories for the production of ploughs and other hardware but also weapons. The mass production of these weapons would be the flame igniting the war between the two nations over their border areas.

As rivaling claims circulated between the two businesses they worked out their problems peaceably at first. However every time that one side lost they would write back to the colonists in disappointment and with such bombastic tones that they would be riled into reactions. The colonists ended up purchasing more fertilizers this way, often more than they needed at the time, and this not only raised the profits of the businessmen, Adisa and Thabo especially, but also raised the stakes in every dispute that they got into.

In 1399 (646 AD) the dispute became violent. In this year the large vein in what is modern day Catalao, Brazil was discovered and the small Zulu mine that existed on the edge of this vein believed it had a claim to the entirety of the phosphates there though the Bantu found the center of the deposit. Tensions rose past any point of return and the Zulu, with approval from Thabo, brought in armed miners to take the Bantu factories and mining communities. Many of these communities were filled with families and were unarmed. This made the reports from the Bantu particularly brutal and the victory by the Zulu particularly swift.

The governments of these two nations got involved in this war, which was painted very patriotically by the media of the time. Calls to enlist in the army or be employed by these large mining businesses were very popular. Sever people died as the Zulu and Bantu shipped men out to the colonies to fight for the best fertilizer that had been created. Millions died in mere months in one of the bloodiest wars of African history. The mechanical nature of business, and its approach to violent warfare, made the battles into massacres with little or no survivors. In the end the Bantu held on to Catalao, which they named Adisa City after the leader of their campaign. Both nations emerged with heavy losses in terms of men but also in many new territories. To settle this dispute there was a line drawn horizontally some fifty miles north of Adisa City and this would be the border of lands that the Zulu and Bantu would expand into. It was named the “Fertile Line” after the products that caused its creation.

Roman Industrialization
The Romans had similar interests in “Nature’s Ecstasy”. Other important advances made in agriculture by the Universities in North Africa were new drought resistant forms of wheat, barley and other crops that could grown in areas where the soil may not be as rich as other places. Similar advances included more efficient irrigation technologies and canal building plans as well as methods of producing topsoil to apply to regions where it had been stripped or introducing it to newly climatized areas.

The Great Irrigation Act of 1392 (639 AD)
In the year 1392 (639 AD) Emperor Sidonius had been in power for ten years and he was having a problem which faced almost every Emperor in Roman history. The short memory of the Roman people made it necessary for the actions of the Senate and the Emperor to consistently become greater lest they risk losing their support and having a revolt break out. Romans, as in the people in the city of Rome itself, were very easy to incite into riots provided that there were wither an increase in the cost of bread and a lack of encouraging news about the current government.

Sidonius had been an intense admirer of the former Governor of Mauretania, Bacarius Mentelus, who oversaw the production of the Bacarian River in Mauretania which greatly increased his province’s population, production, arable land, and potential for development. The Bacarian River, also known as the First Great Mauretanian Canal, was the envy of North Africa and especially of Sidnoius whose family grew up in Numidia where the merchants constantly complained and dreamed of the wealth of Mauretania in Carthago (Carthage), Thermae (Sfax), and Tripoli (Tripoli, Libya).

The coffers of the Governors and of the Emperor were looking for a project just like this and the Senators from across the Empire wanted similar large scale projects to move throughout their territories. Many new canals spread through Africa and the deserts of Asia. The most important of these were the Great Canal of Sinarum which connected the Mare Rubrum (Red Sea) and the Mare Meditereneo (Mediterranean), and the Canal Parthicarum connecting the Mare Caspius (Caspian Sea) and the Oceanus Arabius (Arabian Sea). This entire process was not completed until the year 1431 (678 AD) more than twenty years after the death of Sidonius. The memory of Sidonius and of his successor Vetranio were marked significantly by this project but also by other economically revolutionary changes.The Romans had similar interests in “Nature’s Ecstasy”. Other important advances made in agriculture by the Universities in North Africa were new drought resistant forms of wheat, barley and other crops that could grown in areas where the soil may not be as rich as other places. Similar advances included more efficient irrigation technologies and canal building plans as well as methods of producing topsoil to apply to regions where it had been stripped or introducing it to newly climatized areas.

Colonial Developments
In the Roman Colonies they were surprised at how quickly they were able to manage their own affairs. The Imperial Governors who were set in place during some of the earliest days of Colonization had grown into a new establishment base and had been running the day-to-day acts of governance. Their members had grown de facto independence through the neglect of their higher-ups still living in the mainland areas of the Empire. These leading families, the Quinctili in the Orinoco River Valley; the Corneli in the New Zion Colony, The Pinari in the area surrounding the port of Ulixes, The Sulpici in the north west on the border with the Maya, The Hostili in the Calinagian Islands of Cubao and Taino, The Tarquini in the Tatian Islands, the Fabi in the southern areas of New Africa, the Cassi in the Naucratian Islands, the Aquili in the Lower Amazon River, and the Volumni in the Diocletian Peninsula made these different areas very unique and independent and aided their development when their leadership neglected advances in these populations as a waste.

Because of this growth without the sponsorship of the incredibly wealthy, the colonies grew slowly but steadily. The economy in the area was rising from its earlier primitive state and would eventually spring forth into the world.

Romans and the Natives of North America
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.13557699153018643" 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;">In 1401 (648 AD) Aulus Inregillensis Volumnius, Governor and Consul of the Diocletian Peninsula (Florida), ventured north in order to find the real extent of the new land mass that the Romans had found. They knew that the Cimbrians had a large colony to the north in similar latitude to their European homeland but were expecting there to be a large empty amount of land between them. Volumnius met the Waccamaw tribe first and believed that they were the only power in the area between the Cimbrians and the Romans. The Waccamaw leader, Chief Niyol, attempted to express to Volumnius and the other Romans he brought with him that there were more than thirty other tribes throughout the lands that they knew of. The Romans also learned that some of the most northern tribes had made contact with the Cimbrians but most of the native chiefdoms discounted their claims.

<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;">With the arrival of the Romans the claim of the people to the north seemed much more viable. At first the Waccamaw were discounted as the New Huritians and Qochata had been with regard to their claim of a new and unknown people coming from the south. Just as Captain Crispian had done, Volumnius began sailing around the coast and stopped to learn about each of the chiefdoms he found. There were so many nations and such a complex societal structure that the Romans were overwhelmed with the prospects. So many people lived in this region that the Romans could only imagine the profits from this new and expansive marketplace. With this there was a new wave of Romans moving to try and trade with these groups.

Responsive Tribes and Isolated Tribes
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.13557699153018643" 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;">Some of the Native people were more open to the Romans than others. Only a few chose to isolate themselves from this new group of people and the wonders that they brought from the south. The Weapemeoc did not trust them and on what is OTL Long Island the two groups of people both chose not to involve another group of people as the Shinnecock and Montaukett were preparing for war with each other. The jumbled mass of peoples in the northeast, OTL New England, were the most responsive. Many of them felt that they had fallen behind in the years and desired an edge over the other nations. The fault was that when they all desired this they all had much of the same advantages. Many of the Native Chiefdoms began to forget how they managed their lives without the Romans.

<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;">The most interesting of the reactions of the Native Cheifdoms was in the Chesapeake. Their three great Cheifs questioned the Romans about their own nation and how they could be from the sunny areas to the south but be lighter than them in skin tone. The Romans told these Chiefs of their vast Empire and it intrigued them greatly. The prospect of being such a large and powerful nation as to create their own rivers, as to be able to move ships in any current, to have more crops than they knew what to do with, and to be as prosperous as to take over whole continents and then move out to other ones was astonishing to them. The Chesapeake asked how they could do it and they ended up being the largest market for books, manuscripts, and treatises on subjects as far and ranging as Government, Art, Industry, Philosophy, War, History especially, and the Literature seemed absolutely remarkable.

<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;">The Chesapeake’s interest in the process that led the Romans to become so great allowed them to copy many of these processes. The Germanian, Britannian, and Francian steel and iron companies that had specialized in rail and weaponry opened their first foreign factory in the Chesapeake. The process of creating the much more efficient and lethal weapons as well as the advanced technologies of the Romans was copied by some entrepreneurs in the region. The large European companies tried to stop this and succeeded in most cases. Despite their efforts the knowledge of these technologies spread faster than the Roman capitalists could keep up with and the Native Americans took to these advances very quickly.