1534-1553 (781-800 AD) (L'Uniona Homanus)

The Great Panic of 1534 (781 AD)
In 1533 (780 AD) Calimus died of a heart attack. He was, at that time, the wealthiest man in history. He held more stocks than any other man and commanded influence that was often considered far greater than that of the Emperor. Calimus had so much stock in companies from around the world that his death ended in the dumping of tremendous amounts of bonds and stocks into the market that people around the world began scrambling for a counter action.

A combination of events beginning in Asia sent the markets, with depressed prices, into a downward turn. In the Japanese colony in Northern Asia the Feudal-Industrial System began to break down. Farmers were suddenly hit with a barrage of climate shifts that rendered their crops worthless. Not only this but the landowners now had stocks that were suddenly worthless. With this the harvests of Japan fell dramatically and the large cities began starving. Similar was the story in Sinica who was hit by a combined total of three major earthquakes that led to landslides devastating farmers. Asia was in a severe depression and the farmers had no ability to pay to plant again.

The base in Asia left the colonies in similar bad shape. Quickly the drop in trade led to an increase in unemployment and an explosion of poverty in Rome. For the first time since Marcus Aurelius, tax revenues fell, and they fell dramatically. The Minister of Finance enforced a large number of cuts to several critical areas. One of these was the military and this would prove to be a deeply unpopular move by the government. Unemployed soldiers had friends with weapons and some of them would close off cities and refuse to pay taxes or trade. This only hastened the decline.

In Africa the drop in trade resulted in a surplus of industrial materials there, which they could not account for. The Africans began closing businesses and their employment rate was soon one of the lowest in the world. Farmers were in such demand that their prices were now over inflated. The colonies in New Africa and Hyperborea soon fell back to their Pre-Roman levels. The city of Cahokia became one of the poorest as trade was now no longer moving on the Mississippi. By the end of 1534 (781 AD), worldwide unemployment was approaching one quarter of the population and those with jobs had their wages nearly halved. With production falling, people without spendable income, and businesses without investors, the world slumped into the first backwards move in centuries. The Emperor tried to send out as much of his treasury as he could but it was soon depleted. The same was the story across the world.

The Indian Revolution 1537-1553 (784-800 AD)
The Indians, who did not know about the sudden hardship in the world, wanted to become part of the great amounts of world trade that they had had before their isolation. Indian trade towns in the north that used to serve as a conduit between Rome and Asia were now destitute and they were eager to make their own, profitable decisions. The Samraats, who had also been rigidly enforcing the caste system of hinduism to the point that the lower classes were completely immobile servants, lived in the lap of luxury and shared power with the traditional Hindu nobility. There remained a population of Buddhists throughout India that worshiped in underground, private communities or in the privacy of their own home. The Buddhists were largely centered in the south of India and the merchants lived in the north and during the large expansion of trade, started by Rovinius and his exploration to Asia, desperation to engage in a more free and prosperous society resonated through the subcontinent.

The first city to begin acting out against the government was in Karachi, a prominent former trade post and very close to the Roman border. The city of Karachi brought in several loads of guns gathered from businesses sympathetic to the cause of working against the elite in the government. The rebellion in Karachi was put down surprisingly quick but this action opened the door to other cities rebelling. After the Karachi rebellion then came similar importations of weapons to Hyderabad, Lahore, Amritsar, Srinagar, Purushapura (Peshawar, Pakistan), Sabarkantha, Jaipur, and Kanpur. Much of the northern Indian Empire was inflamed with rebellion, something that the Samraat was not used to dealing with. The local police did what they could but soon troops in large amounts were brought in. Most of these came from the eastern part of the country now bordering Sinica.

Rome sold weapons to these rebellious groups as a business transaction but the Sinicans wanted to send money to India so that they could expand trade in India again. The cities of Dispur, Shillong, Dhaka, and largest rebellion came out of Patna near the north central continent. The soldiers that left the eastern cities such as these were now being called in many different confused ways to each constantly changing and shifting circumstance. The situation in the north soon called for massive retaliation and it was at that time that the rebels began organizing. The police were soon overrun and the military were the only threat left. The government continued to use old style weapons that were greatly outdated by those from Rome and Sinica.

The Buddhists in the south soon felt the need to rebel had come. The first attacks were in Sri Lanka but they did not have the same advanced weapons as the northern rebels with foreign support. The Buddhist rebels in the south exploited the areas with the least remaining troop levels because most of those troops were deployed north. The south soon toppled like dominos between 1535-1538 (782-785 AD). Sri Lankan naval officers, many with buddhist family, gave up control in many parts of Sri lanka. With these they supported many rebellions that proved successful in Chennai, Kanchipuram, Thanjavur, Coimbatore, Madurai, and even the large city of Bangalore. By 1539 (786 AD) both the Northern Indians, with foreign support, and the Southern Buddhist Indians defeated resistance inside of their border and the central area of India was now coming under attack from two fonts.

Foreign support quickly grew in the south and their advanced guns made their way to the provisional capital in Nagpur where the Samraat escaped at the first rebels coming into the capital of Pataliputra. The Samraat sought to establish peace with the Buddhists but the north insisted that the conquest be all or nothing. If any part was left in the hands of the elites of the Maurya then they would only prepare to take their country back and it would be more bloody than an invasion at that time would be. The South moved into Mumbai in 1542 (789 AD) which broke a ceasefire that had been going on for a few years while the Buddhists brought in guns from Sinica and potentially work out a peace.

By this year the North was approaching the capital but the Samraat seemed to also have a massive amount of weapons from the Romans and Sinicans as well. This made the standoff in Nagpur in 1543 (790 AD) last much longer than it would have otherwise. Similar stories came out of Mumbai, Ongole, Warangal, Srikakulam, Nizamabad, Bastar, Durg, and Jashpur. The Roman and Sinican governments were using weapons to India as a way to come out of their recession. As fields in India burned from the prolonged war they needed more food which the farmers in Asia and Africa were happy to provide for them. The war between the Samraat and the Maurya Empire and New India was much longer than expected. A Maurya general who turned his units to the North Indian cause of liberation was made leader of the North Indian Army. His name was Sanjay Narasimhan and he planned that the two rebellious areas would meet in the city of Nagpur by 1544 (791 AD) but the first troops of North India only entered in 1550 (797 AD). =This delay devastated the Iandscape of India but many in Rome and Asia were now able to support their former amounts of trade with the spark from India. In 1551 (798 AD) Samraat Harishchandra XIV was killed and the army in Nagpur surrendered to Narasimhan that same day. In 1553 (800 AD) the North and South joined to form what they named the Narasimha Indian Empire commonly called the New Indian Empire or simply India. Narasimha occupied the new position of Hamara Raja (हमारा राजा) meaning “Our King.” With “our” referring to the people who reserved the right to take down the government at any time under the new constitution. A new legislature called the Sansad (संसद) was also in place that gave voting rights to all male citizens. Religious tolerance was made the policy of the country and free trade was established from as far away as the Maya and Japanese Empires. =

The Michigan Delegation and the Nipigon War
In 1541 (788 AD) the Nipigon Tribe north of Michigan came under attack from the expanding Cimbrian colonies. The Nipigon centered around Lake Nipigon which contained several resources, such as oil, that the Cimbrians wanted to refine into the very profitable petroleum industry. It should be noted that gasoline as a form of fuel was not done at this time and its uses ranged from things like lamps and other combustion processes as well as lubricants. This was the first conquest the Cimbrians made on an established tribe in Hyperborea since 1417 (664 AD) with the conquest of the Qochata Kingdom and New Huritian League.

The Michigan, who had been severely reduced militarily due to the panic that was still going on, were unable to support the vassal state they created. The Michigan knew that they needed a larger ally to come in to reinforce their borders and they chose to make that request to the United Tribes. The Michigan believed that because they were another country created by natives they would receive support without hesitation but the United Tribes wanted something for their effort. If the Cimbrians launched a full scale assault on the United Tribes then the Romans would need to act which could result in a very destructive war for both sides. The United Tribes needed to be sure that they could defend the Nipigon without looking like aggressors. The only way to do this was to claim that it was their territory.

The Michigan were in the most unenviable position, be subjected to a foreign power or be subjected to a native power. Either way it seemed that the Michigan were coming close to an end. The Michigan Delegation approached that Great Council that would give Michigan much more sovereignty over its own affairs than was given to any of the other constituent tribes. The Michigan claimed that because their annexation was under special circumstances that they desired special exceptions. The United Tribes replied with accusations of neglect and selfishness on the part of the Michigan government for ignoring the crisis at hand to get a special deal for themselves. A compromise was reached after seven months of debate where Michigan would be able to nullify laws for itself only if a majority of its people would meet in referendum affirming such action. The Michigan similarly gave up any control of their six buffer states with their last used of influence being getting them to enter the United Tribes also.

In 1543 (790 AD) there were now a total of thirty eight tribes in the United Tribes and one of them was under attack by Cimbria. The United Tribes, because they focused heavily on building their own economy, were not as deeply affected as the Michigan who relied much more on foreign trade. The United Tribes sent out troops to Lake Nipigon with the new combined barrel gun, a precursor to the machine gun, which combined the barrels of several rifles and fired several shots from a single person. Though it proved to work well the United Tribes were surprised at its efficiency and the Michigan were more than pleased with the decision they made. By 1546 (793 AD) the Cimbrians were off of Lake Nipigon and because they did not want to risk more losses at the hand of this new weapon they made a peace to not attack the United Tribes for ten years or to interfere with their relations for fifteen.

The Treaty of Cocopah and the Jaguar Alliance
The Aztec Alliance in OTL Mexico had been essentially cut off from most trade in the world since its inception. They pursued ambitions without aid from other countries and any advances made were either by their own work or by some luck that they came in contact with an example of one from the Maya or the Romans. The Aztecs did not emerge from this until they met with the Shigenobu Shogunate in OTL California which was coming exceptionally close to the border of the Aztecs. The Japanese and the Aztecs formed a small alliance in 1535 (782 AD) which would make trade secure in exchange for mutual support in case either of them declared war. Soon the Japanese realized that this was a mistake but the treaty they made lasted for enough time for the Aztecs to gain some new weapons from the Japanese and learn their mechanics. The Aztecs were now acceptably equipped to face the Japanese in a skirmish or to severely restrict their trade in California. Knowing this, neither let the agreement end in case of some conflict were to result. The Japanese, though confident, knew that by the time enough troops moved into California most of the cities would be in shambles. To avoid this the trade agreement stood and the mutual defense compromise in that agreement stayed with it.

<span style="font-size:13px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">There was a growing movement among some in the Aztec Alliance, The Kingdoms of Mapuche, Tastil, and Chimu and the Maya Empire. It was termed Nativism and was traced from ideas such as Hanon’s Doctrine that no more land would be taken by foreign powers from native nations. Nativism quickly spread in the Chimu, Tastil, and Mapuche Kingdoms in New Africa who had been essentially forgotten by the major trading partners in New Africa. In 1538 (785 AD) the Tastil and Mapuche formed the Antipatagonian Alliance which was meant to stop any advances by the Zulu in Patagonia onto their coutnries as well as to bolster Mapuche and Tastil claims in that area. It was later expanded into the Nativists of New Africa in 1541 (788 AD) which included the original two as well as the Chimu Kingdom and these also sought to protect land holdings of Native Peoples and to expand on them against the outsiders. The last incarnation of this group came in 1542 (789 AD) when the Aztecs joined in the Alliance forming the Alliance of the Native Jaguar.

<span style="font-size:13px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The Jaguar Alliance sought to incorporate both the United Tribes as well as the Maya Empire but they were both too influenced by the Roman Empire to join such a group. The Jaguar Alliance redoubled their commitment in 1544 (791 AD) when they agreed to a military alliance with specific language stating the “An attack on one is an attack on all and an attack on all native people of the New World everywhere.” The Jaguar Alliance created a much stronger trade network than had been seen before and this proved exceptional when the Panic took its full hold on the colonies and the nativists were still strong and wealthy.

<span style="font-size:13px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Rather than be encouraged to join the movement towards nativism, the wealth of the Jaguar Alliance during the Great Panic caused the United Tribes and the Maya Empire to move further away from them. Despite their prosperity, Rome remained many times larger and they supported the mistrust the United Tribes and Maya shared for the Jaguar nations. The United Tribes and the Maya formed a separate group called the Anti-Nativist League which worked to foster good relations between the nations from the Old World of Europe, Africa and Asia and the New World of Hyperborea and New Africa. Wisconsin and Cahokia allied themselves with Anti-nativism but they did not have many other options since their neighbors were foreign colonies or foreign-supported.

The Great Awakening
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.15139938729826619" style="font-size:13px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The Panic caused shifts in people’s mindsets as well as their economies. In New Zion, where things had been very prosperous since the last natives were expelled, had fallen on its hardest of times. The Western Mediterranean Banking Trust closed from the Panic and in the liquidation they sold their control of the New Zion colony to the Emperor. The government could not help them any more than the Banks could. Being isolated on the continent of New Africa the Gnostics in New Zion turned away from trade and called depending on the Roman Empire as a crutch that made them weak. They appealed to their beliefs heavily and became much more devout. The Gnostics were saying that if they did not move against the luxuries from the continent then that would lead to the end of the world. The Ipsissimus (High Priest) in Hierosolimitanum (Jerusalem) was also enraged by the poverty he saw all around him in Judea. People were turning to crime and debauchery and the temples of gnosticism were turning much more conservative. They would smash bars and destroy hashish harvesters and their buildings across the province. In New Zion, any person who had significantly more than their neighbors was called a “witch” and often killed with their possessions turned into community foundations. The mix of religions that had existed in Judea soon devolved into intolerance. The Archepiscopus (Archbishop) of Hierosolimitanum was exiled and the other religions in the area were ordered to convert or no longer be subject to the protection of the law.

<span style="font-size:13px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Religious fervor was not restricted to the gnostics. The Archepiscopus of Rome was using the massive stores of money they had into charity for the poor. This won him tremendous favor and the Gnostics for their fanaticism caused a significant decrease in membership outside of Judea and bordering provinces. The Roman religious leaders, such as the other Archiepiscopi, were upset that their money was going to the poor. Rather than settle with them, the Roman Archbishop issued the Order of Samarobriva (Amiens, France) where eight leading Archbishops were expelled for acting against the neediest of the followers. These eight were in Lutetia (Paris), Toletum (Toledo), Burdigala (Bordeaux), Londinium (London), Alexandria, Carthago (Tunis), Pergamon and Athenae (Athens). All major cities and all powerful men were now to be exiled and their property seized. Most chose not to put up a fight and the one who did, in Alexandria, was overrun by the navy. The Roman religion grew quickly as the charity became very important in the Empire and by the end of the Panic, though the church was reduced monetarily, they were aided overall with greater and more devoted membership.

<span style="font-size:13px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The Zoroastrians in Asia also grew more religious but not in a good way. They turned to the practice of human sacrifice to their gods in order to gain higher employment and more trade. Many desert towns depended on trade and they had fallen apart in recent years. Others depended on oil and other forms of manufacturing which now no one could afford or desire. Zoroastrians believed that a strong community led to a strong nation but in the leading years to the Panic young people turned away from a strong devotion to the religion. They would arrive weekly or biweekly at most. The many rituals and festivals were seen as social gatherings or even transactions rather than religious celebrations. This decay was blamed by many as the cause of the destitution now plaguing the Zoroastrian people. In response many returned to their families and they, in turn, returned to Zoroastrian services. Extravagance was denounced but not in the way the Gnostics were doing. Other religions continued to be tolerated but attempts to convert away from Zoroastrianism were received violently.