700-799 (Abrittus)

Overview: Germania Magna 385-800
This is the only period in recorded history where the development of Germanic peoples is not marked by migration. (Before the Hun War, Germanic tribes had moved southwards for more than three centuries; beginning with the 9th century, the chasm of economic development between Magna Germania and the Celtic and Roman Empires becomes so large that millions of Germans leave their homelands to become migrant workers.)

Also, this period marks the beginning of urbanisation in Germania Magna and its integration into continental trade as well as the development of modern statehood. The enormous demand for wood in the two empires leads to massive deforestation across Germania, which opens up new opportunity for agriculture.

In all these fields, the Visigoths in the South-East are the Germanic vanguard; the further one moves along the Germanic "crescent" to the West, then to the North (Visigothised Vandals and other minor tribes; Baiuvarians; Alemanni; Franks and Burgunds; Frisians; Saxons; Scandinavians), the less pronounced are all these developments.

Ostrogoths
At 800, although there are people all over the world who call themselves "gothoi anatoloi" or Ostrogoths, the Ostrogoths have long ceased to exist as a Germanic people. Since the 5th century, all Ostrogoths speak  and write in the Greek language and alphabet. Nominally, 99 % of them are of Judaist faith, although religious practices are not very widespread and not very strict.

The Ostrogoths have become the backbone of sea trade all around the known world, from Norway to South Africa and from the Nesoi Atlantikoi (OTL: Azores) to China. With the exception of the Nesoi Atlantikoi, they have never built any colonies outside Tauris, though, preferring to settle in towns governed by other nations, mostly because the Treaty of 385 forbade them to wear arms, which precluded the establishment of colonies which they would have to defend on their own.

On Tauris, a democratic republic has developed. Local decisions are taken in general assemblies. Decisions concerning the entire commonwealth (so far, only Tauris and the Azores) are made by a legislative council with representatives from the local assemblies.

Although the Ostrogoths may be the least religious people of the known world, their cultural affiliation with Judaism and the necessity of formal education to read canonic Hebrew texts has made the Ostrogoths one of the best educated populations.

They do not share any meaningful characteristic with any of the Germanic peoples anymore.

Visigoths
The Visigoths have become good Roman citizens, are fully integrated into the imperial economy (providing e.g. oil, gold and copper) and enjoy the highest living standard and education levels of all Germanic people. They live in Dacia Superior, Dacia Inferior and Transdanubia; they colonised the second for the Roman Empire when it was depopulated and absorbed the third at the city states` own choice. Their king, although without any real political power, remains a symbol that unites Visigoths in all three provinces.

Most Visigoths are bilingual; the literate majority of the population is also mostly biscriptural: they use Latin for most professional and everyday communication and Gothic (with Wulfila`s alphabet) in religious or literary contexts. Gothic literature has developed well-known texts, both epical and lyrical. More than 90 % of Visigoths are members of the Arianist Christian Church.

The Visigoths have absorbed city states in Transdanubia inhabitated by Germanic people mostly of Vandal descent (but also including remnants of the Langobards and other Suebic tribes) during the 6th century; their particular languages have become mere Gothic dialects by the 7th century already, and most of them have adopted the Arianist Christian faith, too, and see themselves as Visigothic Roman citizens now, too. Visigothic influence extends to the North, too, where the neighbouring Slavic town of Peresechen has built a network of towns which trade with Visigothic Dacia, and where Arianist Christianity and Wulfila`s alphabet are adopted.

Baiuvaria
After tribal structures separating and defining Vandals, Lugians, Langobards, Varisci and Markomanni were crushed in the Hun Wars, then questioned by the influence of Roman civilization (directly felt in the case of the asylum germanii, indirectly through cross-Danube trade in the following decades and centuries), Germanic people of all these backgrounds built fortified cities and villages, where they lived together. Whereas the cities and villages in the East, especially in the Pannonian plains, came under Visigothic influence and finally Visigothised themselves and entered the Roman Empire, the cities and villages in the West, neighboring on the Roman province of Norica, developed a new common identity and called themselves Baiuvarians.

Highly influenced by trade relations with Roman Norica, the Baiuvarian cities and villages developed crafts as well as democratic structures based on guilds of these craftsmen. The development of crafts mirrored both the influence of Roman knowledge and the absence of sufficient amounts of capital necessary for large-scale production as it slowly developed in the Roman Empire. Baiuvaria`s main export produce is barley.

Different brands of Christianity seeped in and fell on fertile ground in some cities; Roman Catholicism being the most successful type of Christianity among Baiuvarians, followed by Arianism especially in the East. Roman Catholicism remained more influential, though, especially because the Latin alphabet established itself firmly across all of Baiuvaria (and Gothic liturgy depended on Wulfila`s bible and its Gothic alphabet).The traditional Germanic cult and mythology was also transformed by the catastrophe of the Great Hun War and the consequent import of ideas that led to economic development: A common interpretation developed, which saw the great war as a defeat of the Æsir and the subsequent time as a "Third Age" ruled by the peaceful Vanir, who are responsible for growth and wealth.

The necessity to defend themselves against Slavic attempts to expand into their territories led to the formation of a Baiuvarian Alliance, a loose federation comprising most cities and villages. The Alliance now fortified not only its dwellings, but also erected walls around its outer territorial borders, protecting its agricultural land against plundering and invasion. The Baiuvarian Alliance thus proved both oriented towards defense and able to defend themselves, as the successful rejection of Frankish attacks would show.

Alemannia
In the 4th century, the Alemanni had started to develop trade and cultural contacts with the Roman and Celtic empires and a confederal proto-state. The Hun War has destroyed much of this fundament and reduced the Alemanni both in number and in influence dramatically. After the Treaty of 385, the Alemanni started to build fortified towns (burgi), like the Baiuvarians. Throughout the 5th century, many of these independent cities were conquered or absorbed into the Frankish Confederacy, some as independent members of the confederacy, some bereft of ther independence and ruled by territorial kings.

In the conquered towns and their surrounding countryside, the Alemannic language (as it developed from the 2nd to the 4th century AD) and culture (as it resulted from the contact of Suebian Germanic cults with Christianised Romans) are less discernible and a greater extent of assimilation to Frankish German and a culture influenced rather by West Germanic cult and Celtic influences is observed. The newly codified Ripuarian Frankish law (in the 6th century) applies here.

Alemannic German and a culture influenced more deeply by Rome has preserved itself and taken its own path of development in free towns like Friburg or Basel. In the free towns, democratic political structures evolve (city councils, elected mayors etc.) around craftsmens' guilds. Some of these towns have significant Roman Catholic Christian minorities. Here, as in Baiuvaria, Germanic cult has shifted towards the "Third Age" interpretation.

In the 7th century, Alemanni fight on the republican side against the "old order" in Franconia. With the victory of the New Frankish Federation, relations between Franconia and Alemannic cities improve in the 8th century.

All literate Alemanni (roughly 60 % of adult males in the city states vs. 25 % within Franconia) use the Latin alphabet.

The economic back-bone of Alemannic society (whether Francised or not) is situated in the Rhine and Neckar valleys, where wine and tobacco are grown and traded with Romans and Celts.

Franconia
At least eleven tribes on the Eastern shore of the Rhine have merged to some extent and formed the "gens Francorum" in the 3rd and 4th century. Before 375, they have repeatedly attempted to raid the Roman and later Celtic empire. The Great Hun Wars have reshaped their identity, owing to two pivotal experiences:
 * The successful and well-organised retreat, which happened on the lone initiative of High King Lothar and was organised by free peasants loyal to Lothar, saved thousands of Frankish lives and became a semi-mythological foundation of the Lothringian dynasty and its state reason of efficient organisation.
 * In the later, reltaliative campaign, warriors in the confederate Frankish army witnessed the might and superior organisation of the much larger armies of the Celts, Romans and Sassanids, as well as the cruel and horrible fate they brought upon the nomadic people of the steppe, The Frankish nobility returned into a system, where the Lothringian state reason rendered high-bred aristocrats without any function, not only with slaves, who would cause changes in the socio-economic structure, but also with a view of themselves as caught between the empires on the one hand, with whom they could neither compare nor contend, and the "primitive barbarians" on the other hand, from whom they sought to distinguish themselves (in the hope that they would never have to endure their fate) and whom they had subjugated and brought home with them.

In the 5th century, several Lothars built a modern state apparatus which was in constant conflict with the old warrior nobility, whose powerbase was now merely military and economic (slaves), but no longer as a judicial or spiritual authority.

At the beginning, both groups were still united in their pursuit of securing Frankish power and bringing forth their own type of culture and civilization, which would protect them from imperial annihilation. After Roman models, a network of solid roads and aquaeducts was built as well as an impressive capital of the Confederacy (Bonn), where the new Lothringian central ministeries were situated, too.

Traditional law was codified in the "Lex Franca" and juries were to be presided by judges selected by the High King.

Even traditional Germanic religious cult underwent a transformation. Lothar II. banned all Christian churches, and Lothar III., in order to stop the proliferation of the "Third Age" interpretation, attempted to transform Germanic mythology and cult into a scriptural religion with priests selected by the High King and official temples erected by the confederacy. (This fixation of Germanic religion did not find broad popular support, though. Later, the label "Odinism" was created to describe it.)

In the first half of the 5th century, Franconia used the new military strategies learned from the Romans and Celts (especially the "Parthic maneuvre" the Huns had also practised) and conquered new territories. A Saxon attack on Western coastal Franconia resulted in a retaliative war, at the end of which Westphalia was brought under (Salian) Frankish control. Throughout the entire 5th century, Frankish kingdoms, who had their core settlements along the Rhine between Mogontiacum and Colonia Agrippina and would later come to be known as "Ripuarian Franks", conquered large swaths of the former Agri Decumates. But the Frankish Confederacy also expanded through voluntary accession: When the Saxons attacked the Chatti in the 450s, the Chatti asked for permission to join the Confederacy, which was granted. With some help from other Frankish tribes, the Chatti pushed the Saxons back across the Weser and Werra.

The beginning of the 6th century marked the end of Lothringian rule. Under Lothar V., central administration had become ineffective, the bureaucracy and judges were deemed corrupt, and local kings prevented tax collections and resumed judicial and fiscal authority. The Lothars were Ripuarians; so, in order to weaken the High King further, Salian kings managed to install Ucomer (from the small kingdom of the Chatti) as High King.

This backfired badly. When a slave revolt broke out in the land of the Salian Franks and three kings called for confederal help, Ucomer declined (the Chatti held no slaves, on account of not having participated in the Hun Campaign). The slave revolt was ultimately suppressed, although not only many slaves, but also many Frankish noblemen were killed in the fights. This paved the way for the later establishment of a Salian peasant republic.

The formal end of the Confederacy came in 559, when a war of succession between the Salians and Ripuarians ended inconclusively.

Overall, the 6th century marked a decline in Frankish power and a partial return to tribalist structures. This was aggravated by outbreaks of the bubonic plague towards the end of the century. (Only the Chatti were not affected and managed to expand across the Rhön mountains and further to the South.) Religious conflicts with Christian minorities in the South regularly turned violent, too.

But the myth of Frankish unity endured and fuelled internal power struggles throughout the 7th century, at the end of which the "New Frankish Federation", an alliance of the Salian Peasant Republic and the Inter-Mayorate, which comprised city states whose councils had declared themselves independent from the kingdoms surrounding them, emerged triumphant. Some old kingdoms continued to exist into the 9th century, but progressively, the NFF - and with it a modern state which combined the old and mythological Lothringian state reason with a solid bottom-up foundation of the polity - took control over all of Franconia.

In this later period, the Frankish economy became oriented towards Gaul and provided the developing Celtic industry with cheap coal and ore in exchange for advanced products manufactured by the Celts.

Literacy among the Franks is mostly limited to urban areas; an educated minority also speaks Latin. Frankish German is exclusively written in the Latin alphabet.

Burgundy
The Burgunds were already united under a single judge king in the 3rd and 4th century.

After the Huns defeated the allied Germanic tribes under the Langobard king Albert in the battle on the Eastern Pannonian plains, the Burgunds had considerably less time and were forced to retreat in a much less organised manner than the Franks. It is assumed that almost half of the population died, either killed by Huns or starved on the flight to Bohemia.

In Bohemia, the decimated Burgunds settled in unpopulated woodland, secluded by mountains on three sides, and quite large for their small number. Thus, no intermediary warrior nobility was required in the 5th century, which had proved so inadequate against the Huns anyway.

In three battles against the advancing Czechs and Moravians at the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries, the Burgundian yeomen army proved able to defend its land, and the Burgundian kings and Czech and Moravian chieftains agreed on the Morava as their common border.

In their relative isolation, the Burgundian social system remained unchallenged and unchanged throughout the centuries: the comparatively primitive economy was based on agriculture, cattle farming, hunting and fishing, with a free peasantry as its backbone. Most issues were solved by the heads of families, in village gatherings and by juries. Major conflicts and appeals were brought unto the King, who came from the same dynasty throughout the 5th-8th centuries. From the late 7th century on, population surpluses led to some Burgundian emigration into Transdanubia. In the 8th century, Moravia`s quicker economic development led to increased economic activity and interference in Eastern Burgundy.

During the entire period, Burgundy preserved its traditional cult and mythology. Only few people were literate (and then only in Latin). Burgundy exports a limited amount of its agricultural produce, especially pork and beer, and starts to import chemical products for medical and agricultural purposes in the 8th century.

Frisia
Frisia´s economy, society and geopolitical role were shaped by the North Sea.

In the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, unaffected by the Hun War, Frisia´s main military concern was to defend itself against Saxony. Sometimes, after military defeat, Frisia became temporarily tributary (first to the Angrivarii, later to the Saxon king), but the Frisians always managed to free themselves after short periods of oppression.

Politically, Frisia is almost a peaceful anarchy. Conflicts between clans are settled in consensus-oriented Things, criminal offenses are dealt with by juries, common endeavours are discussed and decided upon in Things, too. Frisian "counts" are basically only a guard paid by the peasantry to warn and organise evacuation in case of floods, to keep dikes in shape and assemble all young males in case of military attacks. With the formation of trading towns, the counts also became official heads of a police force protecting the market place, which was paid by the city council, who in turn financed themselves through excises and customs. Thus, with increasing urbanisation, Frisia turned more towards democracy in the 7th and 8th centuries.

Economically, Frisia is a trading nation with a great (and defiant) commercial fleet, whose cog boats are equally well adapted to landing in the shallow tidelands of Frisia, Luticia and Courland and to sailing on the high sea. Frisia trades its own products (wool, mutton, fish, salt) for all kinds of practical imports (wood, steel, glass, chemical products etc.). Starting in the 8th century, Frisian ships import cereals from all across Venedia; its modern windmills turn them into flour, which is both consumed domestically and sold in innovative sealed paperbags to Celtic wholesalers. Frisian fishermen control and exploit vast areas of the North Sea.

After Frisia recovered from the bubonic plague in the 7th century, it modernised its production to compete against cheap cotton etc. on the European market (inventing new manufacturing techniques for wool and building new and modern shipyards, selling ships to other nations like Franconia as well). Now, Frisians overtook the Ostrogoths in trade volume in the North and Baltic Seas. This has brought Frisian ships into repeated conflicts with (not only) Danish pirates.

Towards the end of the 8th century, Frisian settlers followed the invitation of the Celtic Empire to help settle Glaciana.

Frisian religion remained fixed on Nerthus. Foreign merchants have brought their cults with them, which are all tolerated in the liberal Frisian towns.

Saxony
In the course of the 3rd and 4th century, a distinct and homogeneous Saxon culture develops in Northern Germany. The Hun Wars do not affect Saxony directly.

Early Saxon society was highly hierarchical: led by the ethelinga caste, with frilinga (yeomen), lide (half-free craftsmen etc.) and indentured servants as the other castes, plus slaves (e.g.war captives) outside the caste system. Saxon religious cult at this time highlighted the Æsir and their rule over the Vanir (comparable to the warrior nobility ruling over the peasantry). Local ethelinga acted together across Saxony, but never chose a king in these first centuries.

This rigid order is dealt a severe blow in 410, when a Saxon invasion of Salian Frankish territory leads to a Saxon-Frankish war, which ends in an utter defeat of the Saxons and an enslavement of the Westphalian ethelinga. The catastrophe is generally interpreted as an absence of divine intervention. Nobility and peasantry differ in the details of their interpretations, though. While the majority of the Saxons takes over the South-East Germanic interpretation of the Hun War and adapts it - i.e. a Third Age has come in which the bellicose Æsir have been defeated by the earth-bound Vanir -, the Angrivari and Eastphalian nobility explains the defeat as the sign of a new era in which the gods would not intervene directly and humans would have to follow the divine rules revealed in earlier times (a position which paves the way for the later move towards scriptural Odinism invented in Franconia).

The catastrophe and the ensuing religious/mythological/cultural disagreement undermine the foundation of Saxon`s unique social model. Military difficulties in halting Venedian advances are attributed very critically to lacking military skills among the ethelinga by the frilinga and lide.

The socio-cultural frictions eventually lead to the establishment of the monarchy. In 484, Widukind, a North-Albingian noble, defeats his Anglian neighbours. For the first time in more than 100 years, Saxony`s territory is extended. And for the first time ever, Widukind does not transplant the Saxon model onto the Anglians, but grants them relative independence as a dukedom tributary to him. When Saxony comes under attack from two sides (Hermunduri in the South and Venedi in the East) in 486, thousands of frilinga from Northern Saxony decide to fight under Widukind instead of trusting their ethelinga to choose an appropriate war leader. While a weakened ethelinga army has trouble stopping the Hermunduri, Widukind`s new Saxon army pushes back the Venedi, then tackles the Hermunduri and defeats them. In the course of this war, Widukind is called "king", for the first time in Saxony, The Hermunduri are integrated into Saxony after the Anglian model, becoming the Dukedom of Thuringia.

Over the 6th century, Saxon kings are permanently engaged in power struggles against the ethelinga. To broaden their powerbase, Saxon kings facilitate the use of modern Northern ships and the growth of trading ports into cities and grant their crafts- and tradesmen far-reaching autonomy in exchange for royal loyalty. Especially Saxony`s capital, Hammaburg, grows considerably. The ethelinga react to the social transformations with the codification of the old Saxon laws. They are written down in the runic alphabet developed by the Norsk and Svear. This becomes the main function of the annual Things, after military leadership must no longer be chosen, but falls automatically to the king. The kings, in return, try to influence the Things, which over the course of the 7th and 8th century develop into a more permanent parliament, by securing the representation of commoners from the cities. After Hammaburg, Bremen grows to become the kingdom`s second largest city.

Anglia is temporarily lost (506-580) after King Derick`s unsuccessful attempt at conquering Jutland and a Celtic intervention on the Jutish / Anglian side. King Frerk regains Anglia in 580.

Venedian westward advances into Saxony are halted in the 6th century, and in 580, the Saxon king Frerk and the Obodrite chieftains of the Wagri and Polabians as well as the chieftains of the Milceni and the Sorbs formally acknowledge the Stignica-Delf-Elbe border between Saxony and Venedian land. From then on, Saxony`s only trouble seem to be the Danes, who often raid their Anglian ports and attack their ships, thus hindering Saxon participation in the Baltic Sea trade.

Towards the end of the 8th century, Saxony is a constitutional monarchy and a middle-sized power in Northern continental Europe. Beginning urbanisation has weakened social stratification. Saxon economy is still mostly dominated by agriculture, farming, fishing and relatively simple, but slowly developing craft manufactures in the port towns. Saxony`s most important trading partner is the wealthier Celtic Empire, which also brings new and revolutionary political ideas to the Western port towns. Compared to other parts of Europe, Saxony is relatively poor, but no acute famines have been recorded in the 7th and 8th centuries anymore. Literacy is mostly limited to port city dwellers and ethelinga, who use runes to write in their Saxon language. Religious cult has declined somewhat, but is still rather homogeneously Germanic in nature, with scriptural Odinism being a minority position in a mostly third-age-oriented mythology.

Scandinavia
The Scandinavian tribes, who speak North Germanic languages, remain almost unaffected by the changes in the timeline in the 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries. They have versatile longboats, but not yet endowed with sails. Trade and foreign contacts are limited, thus. Tribes are still relatively small, headed by "kings" whose power is not necessarily felt in the everyday lives, which have not changed a lot yet. Expansion and the formation of greater political units has not taken place. Armed conflicts aimed at enriching oneself take the forms of either moving from one region to another and driving the initial inhabitants away, or raiding and plundering.

Changes from OTL leading to quicker development, but also to a containment of the Scandinavians within their georegion in contrast to OTL, are caused by the political, military and economic power of the Celtic Empire and its increased involvement in the North and Baltic Seas from the end of the 5th century on.

Because Celtic ships have difficulties sailing the Kattegat, where they become an easy prey of Danish and Geatic pirates, the only Scandinavian region with which Celts establish trading contacts is OTL Norway. This contact triggers learning processes concerning shipbuilding on both sides: Norwegians endow their longboats with sails, and Celts begin to use the small and fast longboats, too, diversifying their navy and commercial fleet, which had up to that point consisted only of the large, bulky types of ships that the Romans used, too. The Celts buy most of these boats in Norway, providing well-paid jobs for Norwegian craftsmen, who begin to buy imported textiles, glassware and alcohol and to learn the language and alphabet of the people they traded with.

In the 6th century, the Norwegian invention of the longboat with sails travels along the North Sea Coast to the Frisians and into the Baltic Sea to the Geats, Svear and Danes, but also the Slavic Obodrites and Lutici and the Baltic Prussians and Curonians. This development comes at least a century earlier than OTL thus, and the increased trade in the Baltic Sea is also less intra-Baltic; each tribe focusing rather on exchanging their products for advanced Celtic goods (looking glasses, brandy, fashionable cotton clothes...) rather than those of their neighbours.

The port towns, who sprang up along the Baltic Sea coast, become power centres and targets of raiders and pirates in the 7th century. To defend themselves, they were increasingly fortified. Some of these Scandinavian towns became the capitals of local kingdoms (Uppsala for the Svear, Malmhaug (OTL Malmö) for the Suions and after the victory of the king of the Geats over the king of the Suions in 787, as the new capital of the Geats) Karmøy for a Norwegian kingdom), whereas in other towns like Sørstad (OTL Kristiansand) or Älvsborg (OTL Gothenburg), traders of Norwegian and Frisian descent together with craftsmen formed city councils after the Celtic model of democratic self-rule.

Also in the 7th century, the trade networks extended to the Ugro-Finnic tribes of the Estonians and the Finns in the Northern half of the Baltic Sea. After another shipbuilding innovation, Scandinavians lost much to the Frisians who achieved a quasi-monopoly on trade with towns on the Southern coast of the Baltic Sea, where shallow tidelands provided difficult conditions for any larger cargo boat but the Frisian cog.

Increased contact between increasingly urban cultures along the Baltic Sea also brought the Runic as well as the Latin alphabet to all these port towns. As a rule of thumb, every literate person (only townsmen and priests so far) West of the Oslosund wrote in Latin, while those East and South of the Oslosund wrote in runes.

The towns cannot keep up with the pace of technological innovations from the Mediterranean, whose products they import, but slowly, Mediterranean knowledge and skills are received and reproduced along the Baltic Sea.

The crisis of the Germanic cult on the continent, most prominently in Saxony, does not extend to Scandinavia, where Svear priests, especially from the "Uppåkra school", become widely influential. Celtic Christianity, now firmly anchored in Norwegian coast towns, where several monasteries have been built, also finds followers among the inhabitants of the larger and more multicultural port towns like Älvsborg.

In the 8th century, a slow process of centralisation sets in. In Norway, the king of Karmøy gains control over several neighbouring kingdoms; the Ynglingar dynasty gains control over all other Svear kings and become the first High Kings of Sweden. They support cultural development; under their rule, two universities (founded on the above-mentioned schools of priests of the traditional Germanic cult) are built in Uppåkra and Mora. In this Swedish kingdom as well as in the Norse kingdom of Karmøy, laws are codified in runes in the 8th century.

Also, the Celtic Empire begins to place a great emphasis on the safety and stability of Baltic sea trade. Still unable and unwilling to engage its navy directly in the Baltic Sea, Celtic military enovys increasingly provide support for the Geatic kingdom and the Curonian chiefdom, who become Gaul`s well-paid mercenaries who combat piracy on the Baltic Sea and attacks on Celtic trading missions and direct trading partners. This increase in military power allows the Geats to subjugate their Suion neighbours (and in the 9th century, their Northern Svear neighbours, too, creating a unified Swedish Kingdom).

World powers remodel Türkestan
The new Persian Republic reaches out to all sides, attempting to establish good neighbourship relations.

One of these initiatives brings Rome, Persia, Gupta India and China together in talks about securing safe trade on the Silk route. The talks last several years; they are the world´s first semi-institutionalised co-operation of the two major world powers (plus Persia and Gupta India).

Chinese ambassadors surprise their dialogue partners with plans circulating among the Tang dynasty`s higher officials, which would transform China´s yeomen army into a professional army led by district commanders. Tang China announces it is going to strengthen its control over its borders, including its Göktürk-inhabited end of the Silk route, by this measure.

Representatives from Persia`s new republic strongly advise against these plans, giving vivid illustrations from their own recent history of the infights, instability and oppressive potential of professional armies. Rome´s ambassadors concur.

But what else could be done? ask the Chinese. Our task of securing both our northern border and the trade route to the West cannot be tackled by our yeomen army anymore.

Persia and Rome know they must provide relief, but neither want to overstretch their powers by permanently stationing tens or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers to control the entire steppe. The Gupta ambassador declares they could take over this responsibility after they dealt with the insurgent Pala nuisance, but China declines, preferring their strong, expansive neighbour to stay on the other side of the mountains. If only the nomads from the steppe would see the opportunities that the trade route through their territory provide! If only they decided to work together with the world powers instead of raiding them! But nobody has any idea how to convince them...

But then, the Persians propose to invite the kingdom of Tibet into the talks, too. What, by Jove, is Tibet? the Roman ambassador silently ask themselves, while Tang China´s representatives heatedly discuss the idea. Intitial reluctance is overcome and king Tride Tsugten is contacted.

He sends a delegation. And the Tibetan ambassadors have a great idea. They describe how Buddhism, which is currently all the rage in Tibet, brought political unity, stability and cultural exchange with advanced empires like India's to Tibet. (The Gupta ambassador is flattered at first, until he realises that the Tibetan ambassador must have meant Pala...) The Chinese and Persian ambassadors sigh: Buddhism had been tried twice already with the steppe people, first in the Kushana, then in the Göktürk Empire; it just doesn't stick with the nomads! But the Tibetans don't give up: Buddhism is so adaptive! We must only find a connection to their current religion, then it will take roots and the nomads will see its truth!

But what do these barbarians believe? The Chinese know a little about Tengrism. The worst part, in their view, is how the veneration of their leaders is part of that religion; that is why Buddhist monks have never become truly influential and honored.

And how exactly is this incompatible with Buddhism? ask the Tibetans. It turns out, to the surprise of the Chinese, that in Tibet, there is a variety of Buddhism which believes in one chosen spiritual leader, the lama.

After a short diplomatic crisis, where Chinese and Tibetan ambassadors call each other infidels and unenlightened - the Gupta ambassador, who knows both of Mahayana and of Tantric/Lamaist Buddhism,   happening to agree with both of them -, all sides come to the see the potential of the idea. A Tengrism-compatible buddhism could take deeper roots and succeed in creating an erudite culture with strong ties to China and India, and the leaders would still be venerated, but only if they mutated from warrior leaders to spiritual leaders. That seemed useful. Now, the only open question was how to sell the idea to the barbarians? Surely one couldn't be open about one's plans...

And again, the Tibetans have an idea. How about a marriage between a Tibetan princess and a Khagan's promising heir? They had a particular young lady in mind: Chime Kalzang, who was as beautiful as she was educated and smart; many of her buddhist monk teachers considered it a pity anyway that she would in all likelihood not be involved in the kingdom's next leadership.

Chime Kalzang and her father, king Tride Tsugten, embrace the plan. Leaders of the Ashina, who have dominated the Göktürk confederacy under Tang China`s influence for almost a century, are invited. It turns out the Ashina have already been looking for ways to install Bilge Kutluk-Tengri as new Khagan, although at 13, he was clearly too young. A marriage between Bilge`s uncle, Ozmysh Khan, and Chime Kalzang is negotiated, under the condition that the next Kuriltai would accept the package deal of making Ozmysh Khan the confederacy`s Bek (executive leader), inviting Tibetan Buddhist monks to found monasteries, and trusting them to choose Bilge Kutluk-Tengri as the Göktürk`s first lama-khagan.

The Kuriltai goes exactly according to plan, which some historians attribute to the impressive dowry the Tibetan princess brings into the marriage and which was provided mostly from Tang China´s and Rome´s treasuries. Bilge is declared the new Khagan and Ozmysh his Bek.

Ozmysh co-operates with the empires and is rewarded with an expiration date on the Göktürk vassalage: If the next ten years would pass peacefully and the Göktürks would then agree to the stationing of a joint Göktürk-Persian Silk route guard throughout their territory, tribute payments to Tang China would stop.

And they do. Ozmysh (or rather his influential, determined wife) founds a dozen monasteries over the next decades, at first exclusively staffed with Tibetan monks hand-picked by Chime Kalzang, but later including the first generation of their Göktürk disciples. The monks (who could never have risen to prominent positions so fast back home in Tibet) do as they`re advised and announce with feigned surprise how it was revealed to them that Khagan Bilge is in fact a lama.

Bilge, who likes his new aunt a lot (some say, more than that), readily accepts his new role, which includes extensive buddhist studies for a couple of years.

He emerges a true spiritual leader, whose reinterpretations of Tengrist shaman practices in the light of Tantric buddhism subtly but irreversibly change the religious practices of his fellow countrymen across the whole wide steppe and include a very important social group into the new social system. In political matters, lama-khagan Bilge translates cosmic harmony / unity with the sky with a respect for justified rules and laws within the confederacy and a fair and balanced order with all foreign powers.

His uncle, Bek Ozmysh, translates this into pragmatic policies of codifying traditional Göktürk rules into written laws. These he submits to Kuriltai, which in this period become institutionalised as annual gatherings of representatives from all tribes, hosted by a different tribe each year, but always on the grounds of a monastery (which further contributes to the spreading of monasteries and Buddhism across the land). Ozmysh`s foreign policies are characterised by strengthening the ties with China and Tibet, institutionalising the co-operation with Persia and establishing friendly contacts with the Roman Empire. Trade on the Silk route multiplies in these years, and customs payments to the Göktürks and Persians stabilise and enrich both countries. Medical breakthroughs, glass and petrochemical products from Europe reach Göktürkestan just like high-quality steel products and the letter press from China does. Göktürkestan`s favourable geographical position does not require them to export much in exchange; renowned horse breeds and increasingly also cotton cultivated by sedentary Göktürks make up most of the exports.

When Bilge dies an old man at the end of the century, the funeral ceremonies take several weeks, and among the tens of thousands of attending guests are high-ranking officials from Rome, Saba, Persia, Pala, Gupta India, Tibet, Tang China and Silla. He leaves behind a calm, self-confident, open and rapidly developing Göktürkestan in the middle of a process of redefining its identity, uniting nomadic, agrarian and urban Göktürks behind the idea that together, they form the centre of the Earth and must fulfill this role responsibly.

The First East African War
The First East African War was a result of inner tensions caused by Aksum`s economic modernisation, which led to the colonisation of the plains East of the Great Lakes by Massai under Aksum´s protection, which in turn sparked a war between Aksum and Saba. Among its consequences are an increased engagement of Aksum and Saba in central Africa, which some scholars call a first phase of imperialism in Africa, and a political modernisation in Aksum.

The underlying problem: Frictions caused by Aksum`s economic modernisation
General descriptions of Aksum`s development in the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries AD often focus exclusively on its economic development (improved agricultural productivity, improved glass manufacturing, innovations in many crafts), increasing living standards, its important role in global trade, the establishment of universities in Aksum City and Meroe and scientific progress, the peaceful cosmopolitanism in Aksum`s colonies in Africa`s East Coast, where Persians and Indians were as welcome as Kanem`s aristocracy after the revolution, or the magnificent high-arched churches in Matara and Adulis.

But Aksum`s development had its drawbacks, too. Especially in the South of the expanded kingdom, native populations like the Nuer and the Massai refused to give up their nomadic lifestyle and animist faith in order to become modern farmers and Christianised urban professionals. But an intensification of agriculture especially in these fertile lands was deemed necessary in order to sustain Aksum`s growing population, just like an increase in agricultural imports became inevitable in the growing coastal colonies. The livelihood and the prerequisites of their traditional ways of life of the ethnic groups in the South was endangered, and the Massai rose up in a rebellion which even reached and devastated the city of Shewa.

At the same time, Aksumite and Saban towns on the Indian Ocean coast were repeatedly raided by bands of Kamba and others, who were both attracted by the cities` wealth and often expropriated and pauperised when their home villages were turned into hierarchically controlled plantations aimed at producing bananas and other products for the trade with Mombasa and other coastal towns. The high walls and solid fortifications of the coast towns stem from this period and were intended to keep such looters off.

Massai colonisation
In 756, King Ezana IV. attempted to solve all the problems described above with one bold move. He called in a royal council and negotiated with hundreds of representatives from the Nuer, Massai, Luo and other nomadic and semi-nomadic Nilote groups. In the end, everyone agreed to this plan:

The Massai would pack up and leave with all their cattle towards the savannas to the South of Aksum. Their migration would be aided, accompanied and secured by the royal army. Massai and royal Aksumite soldiers together would secure the land of OTL central Kenya and northern Tansania. The Kikuyu, Kamba and other tribes who live there and have begun to convert in rather unorganised ways (as the king thought) to sedentary agriculture, would be forcibly moved further East and South-East and, under the supervision and with military, technological and infrastructural "help and instruction" from Aksum`s army and settlers from Aksum`s coastal towns, would resume their process of constructing plantations in earnest there, in the vicinity of the towns with which they`d trade their produce. The entire land in question would become a part of the Kingdom of Aksum, but the Massai would be granted far-reaching autonomy in their territories and given the guarantee that they could pursue their herding way of life there without further interference.

The Nuer, Luo and other Nilote tribes would then have enough land to continue their socio-economic model in their present settlement regions in the South of the existing kingdom, even though some parts of the land would be used for conversion to intensified agriculture and settled by Northern farmers.

With the next seasonal migration, the plan was put into practice. By the middle of 757, Massai and regular Aksumite army units had conquered already half of the projected territories easily. As the would-be deportees began to put up more resistance to the relocation plans, army leaders decided to leave the task of further Southward expansion to the Massai in order to bring the Kikuyu and Kamba under control.

The Massai decided to consolidate first, used up what they found in the plantations and burned them down and spread across the savannah secured so far. Fights between the Aksumite army especially against Kikuyu resistance proved bloody and lengthy, but finally, this part of the plan was executed, too.

Outbreak of the war
What nobody had thought about beforehand, though, was that, with all the warfare in their hinterland, Aksumite and Saban coastal towns were a) cut off from food supply they had come to rely on and which, due to the dependence of sailors on seasonal winds, could not be replaced quickly enough with imports from elsewhere, and b) flooded with refugees from the hinterland (especially Saban towns), who did not trust the Aksumite army in the slightest to help them build up a new livelihood.

Starvation in the coastal towns caused even more casualties than the fights between Aksum´s army and Kikuyu and Kamba resistance. The cities on the coast cried for help and demanded an immediate end to the nocive interference in their hinterland. While the Aksumite citiy of Kismayu was, with great effort, brought back under royal control, Saba`s cities of Lamu, Mombasa and Bar ul-Zandj were a different piece of cake altogether. After diplomatic interventions and economic sanctions had proved ineffective, the Queen of Saba declared war on Aksum in September 757.

Since Saba`s navy was unable to deploy landing troops at the coast, too, the war did not make itself felt in the first five weeks, which Saba used to complete its mobilisation and send spies on the long horseback ride into the hinterland of the coast towns, where Aksumite troops tried to occupy favourable positions and maintain control over the deported natives.

As the Monsum turned (rather late that year), Saba set a massive fleet in motion and landed near its colonies, which it first secured and supplied with the direly needed goods.

Uprising, Saban advance and battle of Amboseli
Saban spies had forged an alliance with the Kikuyu, Kamba, Okiek and Nandi. In January 758, the war began in earnest, with a renewed uprising of the allied indigenous and an advance of three Saban armies from the coast towns Eastward into the hinterland held by Aksumite troops.

The two Saban armies advancing out of Lamu and Mombasa managed to break through Aksumite defenses, especially since the defenders had been caught between the rebellion and the Saban attack. Using huge flamethrowers, Aksum`s troops managed to cut through indigenous lines, withdrew from the land near the coast and regrouped in the new territories of the Massai. Saba`s armies pursued them.

Saba`s third army did not manage to land. Aksumite presence near Bar ul-Zandj was limited because no indigenous had been deported so far to the South, but for the same reason, it was also still co-ordinated and focused on stopping Saba`s invasion. After repeated failure, the Bar ul-Zandj troops were shipped further to the North to secure Mombasa and Lamu and occupy the hinterland of Aksum`s city of Kismayu.

In March 758, the two Saban armies and their indigenous allies confronted Aksum`s troops and their Massai allies in the high plateau of Amboseli. Regular Aksumite troops and Massai warriors on the one side and Saban troops and Kikuyu, Kamba, Okiek and Nandi warriors on the other fought for three weeks, with great losses on both sides.

Back home in Aksum`s heartland, the war was not very popular. So, when Ezana IV. wanted to mobilise further troops, many warlords let him down. He decided to learn from his Northern neighbour, Rome, and began to draft untrained common citizens for the defense of Aksum`s mainland, with the promise of political reform and participation after the war, so that the remaining professional troops could be deployed.

After three weeks, Aksumite reinforcements reached Amboseli before Saba`s. In a decisive battle, Saba and its allies were defeated and forced to flee Eastward. Saba`s retreating troops and its advancing reinforcements missed each other, so Saba`s third army ran into defeat, too.

War on the sea and in the Swahili coastland
While Saba`s cities on the coast were supplied with important goods via Saban ships, Aksum`s Kismayu was hit very hard by the interruption of its mainland supply lines. Aksumite ships trying to deliver goods to Kismayu were intercepted by Saban vessels. To relieve the starving population of Kismayu, Ezana IV. sent armed Aksumite navy convoys in February. Near Barawa, Aksum`s and Saba`s fleets met and engaged in a short, one-sided battle, which ended in an utter defeat for Aksum.

After victory in Amboseli, further Aksumite troops were deployed to clear the shores of the Jubba river from Sabans in order to restore supply lines to Kismayu. Skirmishes on the shores of the Jubba continued for many months; while some ships managed to deliver goods to Kismayu, no side managed to establish complete control over the river.

Further to the South, Aksum`s troops fortified the Eastern flanks of the mountains, while Saba strengthened its control over the lowlands near the coast. A stalemate was reached. The rebellion of the Kikuyu & co. with its surprise element had bought Saba`s side control over a strip of land 200 km wide and 800 km long.

In order to build up a more permanent supply for Lamu and Mombasa, Saba had to do what Aksum had intended to: force the Kikuyu, Kamba, Okiek and Nandi to settle near the coast and build efficient plantations with which they could supply the coast cities. As Saba achieved this during the summer of 758, its indigenous allies became frustrated and alienated. Their goal was to reconquer their homeland in the West. With the threat of another rebellion, they forced Saba`s military leadership to launch another offensive.

Since the flanks of the mountains were solidly fortified now, Saba`s troops tried to enter the rift from the South. In November 758, their advance was stopped at Tarangire. After two inconclusive battles, the Sabans withdrew their troops under the protest of their African allies and turned against Aksum`s Southernmost city Kilwa, which had not yet been affected by the war. Due to its fortifications, the siege and battle of Kilwa took several further thousands of Saban and Aksumite lives. In the end, Kilwa fell into the hands of Saba`s troops in February 759, who plundered and burned down the city and killed many of its inhabitants.

Battle of Adan, peace and immediate war results
Aksum`s new-formed mass army retaliated for Kilwa with an attack on the splendid town of Adan at the shore of Saba`s Arabic heartland. In March 759, within one week, Adan was destroyed to a significant extent and more than 50,000 inhabitants and defenders (and 10,000 invaders) killed.

After the escalation of Kilwa and Adan, it became clear to both monarchs and their advisors that the war had cost way more than its initial cause even remotely justified. In April 759, King Ezana IV. and Queen Belkis II. signed a peace treaty which stipulated the following: The indigenous peoples who had fought alongside Aksum and Saba were not asked. While the Massai were content with the solution, the Kikuyu, Kamba, Okiek and Nandi were outraged by what they perceived as Saba`s betrayal.
 * Kilwa is returned to Aksum, Adan to Saba.
 * Aksumite control over the highlands colonised by the Massai is accepted
 * Only Saba may station troops in the Swahili lowlands, but not within a range of 10 miles around Kismayu and Kilwa.

Long-term consequences of the war
In addition to the obvious consequences of more than 300,000 casualties, destroyed cities and the relocation of the Massai, Kikuyu and Kamba, which also concerned the Okiek and Nandi, into whose lands Kikuyu and Kamba were deported, the First East African War also had important long-term effects:
 * Aksumite democracy: The population of Aksum`s coast colonies was extremely alienated and demanded never again to be dragged into a conflict that would affect them so massively without even being consulted beforehand. King Ezana IV. also had to honour his word to the commoners of Aksum`s heartland, whom he had promised political participation in exchange for their military engagement. And so it came to pass that Aksum´s political system was complemented with a bicameral parliament. One chamber was to bear all the legislative and budgetary responsibility and would have to be consulted by the king when war or peace would be declared. Members of this chamber were to be elected by all adult male Aksumites in their constituencies. The other chamber would have solely counselling functions for the King and his government; its members were nominated by the King. Although constitutionally powerless, this advisory chamber proved an important factor in turning Aksum into a pluralistic society where the voice of every group was heard. Aksumite kings regularly nominated bishops of Aksum`s official miaphysitic church as well as representatives from other religions as counsellors, also chiefs and other representatives of the various indigenous nations who did not partake much in the party-controlled political processes of the heartland, as well as representatives of professional groups (which aided the dialogue between classes as industrialisation took up speed in Aksum in later centuries), ethnic minorities like Persians, Indians, Arabs, Sri Vijayans etc. in the coast cities and later other social and non-governmental groups. Democratisation not only stabilised Aksum`s power; it also became a model for other African countries.
 * Halting Southward expansion of Swahili colonies: Aksum`s and Saba`s Swahili colonies turned out to be quite a burden on the kingdom`s defenses. Thus, no Swahili colony was established south of Saba`s Quelimane. Instead, the cities were endowed with a second, outer circle of fortification, which protected urban plantations aimed at securing a minimum of food supply at all times. Outside the extended city walls, the city councils pursued an active settlement and integration policy among local (and sometimes even distant) tribes in order to turn them into the city`s farmers. Thus, the influence of the coastal cities did not span great distances anymore and intensified on their immediate surroundings instead.
 * Formation of the Kirinyaga Alliance: The Kikuyu, Kamba, Okiek and Nandi were not content with becoming farmers under the aid and supervision of Saba. At the same time, their coexistence with each other and with military and technological supervisors from the highly developed Kingdom of Saba shaped a new sense of identity and new elites. In 782, 23 years after the war, they declared their independence. The Kirinyaga Alliance, named after the holy mountain of the Kikuyu and the Meru, whose occupation by Aksum they refused to accept, was the first multi-tribal black African state where one tribe did not dominate the others, but all tribes were equal and represented in the Supreme Kiama - and even further: all age groups also formed nation-wide "riikas". Kirinyaga`s political system was to a great extent influenced, ironically, by the democratisation process in Aksum, the country whose military aggression had caused their deplacement. The multi-tribal, democratic Kirinyaga model influenced African societies to its South, in turn. Saban troops were invited to stay and guarantee security (not only against Aksum; for Kirinyaga kiamas came to realise that stability and security were the foundation of the rapid economic development they went through and which was mostly driven by Saban investments).
 * Lasting military engagement in central Africa: To contain Aksum, Saba supported not only the Kirinyaga Alliance, but also the forming kingdom of Kitara in the Great Lakes region to the West of the Massai territory and supplied it with firearms when these became more widely available in the 9th century, while Aksum took a more active role in the former lands of Kanem and later aided Congo in its defense against Kitara. Due to Saban and Aksumite meddling, central Africa underwent a transformation from small structures and tribal conflicts to states who had to carefully establish a balance of power or else descended into majour wars.

Centennial developments and trends
Co-operation between Rome, Persia and China to keep the Silk route open has far-reaching implications, first for the central Asian steppe and later due to intensified contacts between Europe and China.

Economy & Technology

 * Across the Mediterranean, wood shortages create crises and rising prices, leading first to the shutting down of many public baths and a widespread change in diet towards vegetables and fruit which do not require cooking, then to increased efforts in finding new coal deposits and new ways of extracting coal from deeper strata.
 * Exchange through the Silk route brings advanced glass products for distillation, optical devices, alcohol, new ailments and fertilisers to China - and advanced steel products and gunpowder to Europe.


 * In this century, several technological innovations are not yet exchanged (Chinese furnaces, Roman mills, scientific theories), only their products.


 * Fertilisers and the green revolution following them are able to increase agricultural output throughout Europe, North-East Africa, Persia and China.


 * Many more substances can be generated and transmuted in chemical laboratories. Tests for several metals are developed and widely used.
 * In Asia Minor, batteries are used for electroplating for the first time.
 * In Aksum, high arched architecture for buildings develops and is used for the construction of churches.
 * In China, the nautical compass is invented.

Military

 * The Academia Martiana immediately perceive the potentials of gunpowder that Tang China had not thought of. First primitive firearms are used towards the end of the century in a punitive campaign against the Chasars, who had violated the Don-Volga-Caucasus dictate and attacked Slavic settlements in the Borysthenes region.
 * Sponsored by Rome, Saba`s fleet and ground troops undertake dozens of punitive campaigns against pirates of different smaller Arabian tribes in the Persian Gulf.

Philosophy / science

 * Roman biologists discover the cellular structure of living organisms.
 * Trying to understand the different paths social, political, cultural and economic developments have taken in China and in Europe, rudimentary economic theories are being formulated at the universities - but also racist theories and explanations. Both are widely discussed among the population of the empires, too. This is also an era in which geography diversifies and matures as a discipline.
 * Celtic scientists develop the alcohol thermometer.

Religion

 * Imported from Tibet, Lamaist / Tantrist Buddhism takes deep roots in Göktürkestan. This is perhaps the last major step in Buddhism`s ascent to world`s no. 1 religion.

Nations of Europe

 * Celtic explorers discover Nova Hibernia (Newfoundland). Here and in Polaris, first contacts between Europeans and Northern American indigenous people occur. So far, Celtic (and generally European) interest remains marginal.
 * Towards the end of the century, the Celtic Empire decides to colonise Glaciana. Not only Celts, but also Germanic Frisians, Jutes and Norwegians are invited to settle there. Glacianian fishermen hunt whales and extract whale oil, an important resource for the Celtic Empire, which has not yet found any significant amounts of oil on its territories.
 * Roman Empire: Another wave of infrastructural projects and the increasing number of public hospitals in cities put a strain on public budgets. With land becoming a less important economic factor as more and more capital is accumulated, a tax reform passes the Senate in 783 after decades of heated debate. Imperial taxation is now extended onto all kinds of property, based on census information. The reform contributes to a fiscally evasive behaviour among the wealthy, who begin to hide some of their possessions in strongboxes and vaults.
 * MODIFY Denmark: Ongendus, a Danish king in Lejre, becomes High King in the Eastern part of the Danish archipelago in 701. In a sea battle, he defeats Ragnfrid of Gudme in 707, nominally uniting about three quarters of the Danish archipelago under his reign. Ongendus sought contracts with the Frisians and the Celts in order to profit from increased Baltic trade to a greater extent, too. The Celts were wary, though, and rather supported the Geats as peacekeepers in the Kattegat. Unable to gain powerful foreign support to centralise his dominion, Ongendus only left several great architectural landmarks behind. After his death, smaller kingdoms regained independence again.
 * Venedia: Vineta constructs a set of windmills and manufactures on the surrounding islands. It increases its exports of manufactured goods and extends its trade network along the Odra and other Baltic Sea tributaries, becoming the richest and most powerful city in all of Venedia.
 * MODIFY Sweden: Traders from Sørstad build a large fortification around a Geatic harbour and its villagers: Älvsborg is built in the 700s. Having excellent relations with the Celtic Empire, they can lobby the Celtic government into forcing the king of the Geats to protect Älvsborg`s safety, too, if they want the exclusive Celtic military support (instead of the Celts building up Ongendus` Danish kingdom, too). King Leif agrees. Älvsborg becomes the largest port town in the Kattegat, being considered the only safe stopover in the entire region.
 * MODIFY Sweden / Baltics: In the fall of 786, the Curonian port town of Grobiņa refuses tributary payment to Gotlanders claiming to act in the name of the king of the Suioni. A Gotlandic/Suionic punitive campaign damages the town and kills many inhabitants before the eyes of a Frisian merchant fleet destined for Grobiņa in November 786. Angry Frisian merchants and even angrier Curonians appeal to the Celtic Empire to restore peace and safety. After negotiations regarding compensation fail because the Suionic king Ragnar refuses to accept Celtic adjudication, the Geatic king Harald sails with a strong fleet, mostly paid for by the Celts, to Malmhaug. After three weeks of siege, Malmhaug falls. Harald decapitates Ragnar and declares himself king of the Geats and the Suioni. After a successful campaign to gain control over Gotland in June 787, he moves his throne and the capital of his kingdom to Malmhaug (OTL Malmö). Grobiņa receives a small portion of the Suionic treasure as compensation, while the rest goes into Harald`s vault, but at least Courland`s independence has been established this way.
 * The Chasars lay siege on Bogatygavan in 721. After five months (Bogatygavan had huge grain deposits),most inhabitants of the wealthiest, proudest and most sophisticated city in the Slavic world flee on board of their ships, and the city is taken over by Chasars. Many Slavs from Bogatygavan remain in the Black Sea region (its Roman Western and Southern shore), but some emigrate as far as Rome, and the more religious arrive in the splendidly new-built Jerusalem. The Chasars are unable to maintain the trading network or don`t even try to. They plunder what´s left in the city and continue to use it as a fortress. Peresechen takes over some of Bogatygavan`s former daughter cities. (This has confessional implications, since among Peresechenians there are many Arianist and Catholic Christians, whereas Bogatygavan had brought Judaism to its daughter cities.) 14 years later, they launch their first attack on Ostrogothic Tauris from here, which was easily fenced off by the Ostrogoths, who are allowed defensive weaponry now. Chasarian raids become frequent in the Black Sea region, and the Roman Empire begins to seriously consider intervention. A positive decision is taken after major Chasar attacks both on Dacia and Tauris. Rome agrees to fund and train a Slavic Bogatygavan reconquest army and to let it experiment with the latest Academia Martiana madness: firearms, based on a civic innovation from China... The reconquest is immensely successful and the new weapons cause high casualties on the side of the Chasars (among whom were many Slavs, too, now).
 * Czechs and Moravians have finally settled their conflict and developed a system of re-forestation and wood management that ensures permanent and sustainable wood trading opportunities with Rome while keeping the sacred hills green and leaving a few ritual woods completely untouched (a system which would be copied elsewhere only centuries later). Meanwhile, in the cities, skilled crafts have developed, and agriculture has intensified, using Roman innovations. To settle their conflicts, Czechs and Moravians have decided to copy the Roman model and devised a mostly republican constitution. In this Moravian Republic, there is freedom of religion. In reaction to the Chasar attacks on their Slavic brethren further to the East, Moravia requests to join the Roman Empire. Optimates consuls begin negotiations for adherence, but after three years, a pacifist and isolationist Populares Senate rejects the ratification, unwilling to defend a new province militarily. Thus, Moravia remains independent.
 * Ostrogothic sea merchants explore ever new parts of the world, including an island far away across the Atlantic Ocean inhabited by Taino people.

Nations of Africa

 * The non-Simonist Mandé colony in Sere Kunda expands and establishes a sister colony further to the South in Romarong at the mouth of the Bankasoka river. The Mandé elite of both towns starts to call themselves "Horon" (the free; the noble) and learns the Greek alphabet of their Ostrogothic trading partners. They employ the natives of different tribes around them as elephant hunters, lumberjacks and on new plantations of Kola nuts etc.
 * Modernisation leads to tensions in Eastern Africa, resulting in Aksum`s expansion and inner reform and the first East African War between Aksum and Saba.
 * In the aftermath of the First East African War, the multi-tribal Kirinyaga Alliance becomes black Africa`s first independent democracy.
 * In the area of the Great Lakes, the empire of Kitara establishes itself and manages to balance out influences from Simonists from the North-West, Aksumite Massai from the East and Saba`s coastal towns in its own favour.
 * In the Gulf of Guinea, Yoruba emerges victorious from among a dozen nascent and warring kingdoms and controls the entire Guinean Golf Coast and large swaths of its hinterland.

Nations of Asia

 * Using the nautical compass, Chinese ships discover dozens of islands in the Taipingyang (OTL Pacific Ocean), some of them inhabited.
 * India: After prolonged warfare, Chola breaks away from Pallava.
 * Pala chemists manage to reproduce fertilisers and no longer depend on Roman imports.
 * Roman textile imports swamp the Gupta Indian market, causing economic upheaval. To divert the population, Chandragupta V. attacks Persia, but his troops are devastatingly destroyed by the last generation of flamethrowers used by the Persian Republican forces.
 * Pyu and Dvaravati craftsmen manage to produce leadlights, too.
 * Anuradhapuran and Cholan architects manage to copy Aksumite arched buildings.
 * Sri Vijaya forges a successful alliance with the Javanese Saliendra dynasty, whiom they help to seize power from Sanjaya. Together, they destroy the Sunda empire around 750 and annex its cities.
 * Having expanded onto Java, Sri Vijaya decides to tackle the problem of Cham piracy (operating from the Chinese province formerly known as Lam Ap) and occupies Champa in 770. Tang China decides it is time to stop Sri Vijaya`s expansion and sends its navy to drive Sri Vijaya off the mainland. The naval battle in the Gulf of Tonking (776) ends with Sri Vijayan victory. Champa remains under Sri Vijaya`s control.
 * Saba`s increased military presence in the Persian Gulf region finally leads to it being perceived as a part of the Kingdom of Saba, too, which in the middle of the century stretches across the lower two thirds of the Arabian Peninsula. Between Saba and the Roman Empire resp. Persian Republic lies only a small strip of land controlled by Ghassanid and Lakhmid kings.
 * Persia and Saba agree on a joint control of the Strait of Hormuz and sharing customs revenues equally (after the Gibraltar model).
 * After Saba-Aksum relations brighten up again towards the end of the century, the same agreement is replicated for the Bab-el-Mandeb.

Salvador79 (talk) 12:49, March 12, 2014 (UTC)

Abrittus