| Colony of Carolingia Kolonie Karolingen | |||||
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 Flag | |||||
| Capital | Burkhart (1533-1626) Jasmund (1626-1655) Wilhemstadt (1655-1717) | ||||
| Languages | German, Czech, Siouan languages, Iroquoian languages, Algonquian languages | ||||
| Religion | Mainstream Jungism, Anabaptism, Starckism, Wagnerism, Catholicism | ||||
| Government | Colony | ||||
| Legislature | Kolumbian Diet | ||||
| Historical era | Colonial period | ||||
| - | Kolumbian discovery | 1491 | |||
| - | First settlement | 1533 | |||
| - | Disestablished | N/A | |||
| Population | |||||
| - | 1770 est. | 280,000 | |||
The Colony of Carolingia was a Hanseatic colony in Kolumbia, first settled around the year 1533 during the colonization of the New World. The colony later evolved into the Hanseatic League’s sole “dominion” in Kolumbia through the consolidation of several smaller colonies.
Although under the jurisdiction of the Hansa, the colony attracted colonists from all across the Holy Roman Empire, as encouraged by the state and its colonial companies. As such the colony became largely wrapped up in the archaic imperial framework, and also came to encompass numerous semi-autonomous polities settled by various European groups. For much of its existence as a colony of the Hansa, the colony of Carolingia was one of its least profitable and least actively developed, due in part to the colony’s rejection of African slavery and the Hansa’s focus on other areas, namely the Caribbean. The Hansa’s laxed authority in Kolumbia and its overreliance on various other German states for labor encouraged a radically diverse landscape, with Carolingia housing a plurality of ethnic minorities, religions, and political systems.
Following the collapse of the Hanseatic League in the Hanseatic Civil War at the onset of the 17th century, the colony of Carolingia largely fell under the control of one of its successor states, the Hanover Republic.
History[]
Early Years[]
A 1525 map depicting the coast of the Outer Banks
The expedition of Christopher Kolumbus and Nicholas Sommer began the Hanseatic League’s interest in the New World, although early colonies were primarily centered in the Caribbean and the northern coast of Meridia. The first Hanseatic colony in the north would not take shape until 1533, when the Hansa launched an expedition to the Outer Banks of what eventually became known as Carolingia (OTL Carolinas). A settlement in the Outer Banks, the town of New Hanover, would be christened the following year. Initially trade posts along the Kolumbian coast served as outposts between Meridia and Vinland for Hanseatic traders. Unlike colonies established further south, which were largely envisioned as lucrative plantations for sought after crops, the Hanseatic government envisioned Carolingia as a true settler colony; the growth of the Starkite movement prompted the government to seek a land where religious dissidents could be sent to, which many Starkite leaders found mutually appealing. Toward the end of 1534 a Starkite community led by Johann Schmied would lead the colonization of Roanoke Island.
The discovery of the New World coincided with the end of the reign of Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperor, and he took a personal interest in the matter. In the year following the voyage’s return and while preparations were being made for a second voyage, Henry VIII traveled to Lübeck and met with the explorers and Hanseatic officials, where he bestowed a series of titles upon Kolumbus and Sommer. Henry VIII’s diplomatic mission was also partially motivated by the Emperor’s own mission to establish an Imperial Navy, which relied upon Hanseatic support. The Emperor’s adventure endeared him to the Hansa, and in 1492 the League agreed to transfer the island of Heligoland to the Emperor’s navy. Upon returning from his second voyage, Sommer would also gift a draft of his world map, which the Emperor displayed in the Reichstag in Frankfurt, while the newly founded Hanse Waffenfirma (Hanseatic Firearm Company) gifted the Emperor an artisanal hackenbüsche (arquebus) adorned with gold, iron, and red palmwood found in the New World.
German explorer Sebastian von Speyer leads an expedition around the northern Chesapeake, 1543.
In part due to Henry VIII’s early intervention, and also due to the environment it was born out of, the Hanseatic colonies adopted many of the customs of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1492 the Emperor drafted an edict addressing the Imperial military, which also carried a handful of terms regarding the new discoveries. These terms would have great ramifications for the future colonies, and would be later expanded upon. In particular, a trend began in which the many titles of nobility and honor associated with the ancient empire would be transferred to the New World as well. Explorers, leaders, and key figures of merit in the development of New World colonies would see their efforts rewarded with hereditary positions much like those in Germany, embedding a partially feudal, albeit far more liberated, theme upon Hanseatic Kolumbia. Additionally, in an effort to quickly expand their colonies in competition with the Spanish, the Hanseatic League would begin a policy of awarding grants of land to settlers from various German communities outside the Hansa itself. This would lead to a patchwork of settlements all dependent upon and nominally a part of an overlord Hanseatic colony, but locally segregated based on nationality and religion.
Colonies such as New Hanover and Burkhart (OTL Lejeune) remained highly Hanseatic, while around the same time the lands further south (OTL Myrtle Beach) were first settled by Saxons and Poles, the southern Chesapeake Bay was settled by Rhinelanders and Thuringians, and the northern coast of the bay was settled by Bohemian settlers. Appointments by the Hansa itself tended to be more republican and meritocratic, while appointments by the imperial government were often granted to people of noble birth or great wealth in Europe. By the late 1500s, as the Empire competed with Sweden and England for the Chesapeake, titles of nobility became more structured. For example, the settlement of the Chesapeake involved the promise to grant the title of “Baronet” to any man who settled and supported eight or more people, or financially supported the settlement of eight people while in Kolumbia, knightship for any man who led a settling or successful expedition of discovery (based on the value of returned goods), and the title of freiherr to the founders of cities and key defensive installations.
In 1547 following the Kerpen War religious violence in the Hanseatic League was intensified, and the League hoped to alleviate tensions by both establishing penal colonies for dissidents, and also safe havens for religious minorities so that they would leave Europe. The earlier, decentralized approach in Carolingia was augmented by stated-sponsored projects and government-supported charters. In 1547 a colony was established on the upper half of the Petronellia peninsula (OTL Delmarva) as a colony primarily for Catholics exiled in the wake of the Hansa’s protestantization. Additionally, multiple joint-stock guilds established in Germany competed for exclusive rights to colonize select areas, leading to the establishment of the Hamburg Company in 1540 and the Carolingian Company in 1546. These two companies established competing colonies in northern Carolingia focused on the raising of lucrative cash crops.
The arrival of the Hamburg at the Neueden colony, 1565
In 1548 the Hamburg Company established the settlement of Neueden (OTL Edenton), however the colony failed within a year. Upon the arrival of new settlers the following summer the colony was restarted, but by 1560 only some 400 settlers remained out of a total of 1,500 transported to the region. The colony struggled for the next decade, primarily surviving through trade with native populations and the selling of excess crops to plantations in the Carribean. It would not be until the introduction of tobacco that the colony began to thrive. The settlement also paled in comparison initially to the success of the nearby Sommer Isles Company, centered on Bermuda. Although Bermuda pioneered the growing of tobacco as an engine for economic growth, it was later outpaced by colonies in the Caribbean and in southern Carolingia, although the Sommer Isles Company prudently expanded there as well, staving off bankruptcy. The settlers of Bermuda would organize themselves into a diet in 1578 and petition the revocation of the Sommer Isles’ charter, transitioning from an economy based on agriculture to one of shipbuilding. The native juniper of the islands, nicknamed the Bermuda Cedar, proved to be excellent timber for ships, and Bermuda became a hub of local shipbuilding, trade, and maritime activities, such as whaling and privateering.
The Carolingian Company had success as well, settling the town of Jasmund (OTL Jamestown) upon a defensible island along the River Rhoda (OTL James River). The location would be a strategic choice, defended on each side by the river, and devoid of any native populations due to the area’s swampy and isolated features. However, this made farming difficult at first, and by 1550 about half the settlement’s initial population had died. However, surviving into that summer they were greeted by ships carrying several northern German and Czech craftsmen, who replenished the settlement’s population and established glassware as a foremost Carolingian product for exportation back to Europe. In 1551 the dire conditions forced a number of foreign settlers to defect to the local Powhatan tribe, bringing their equipment and supplies with them. Unsatisfied with the poor performance of the colony thus far, the Carolingian Company dispatched another group of settlers to the colony, along with leader Sir Reinhard Maack and other dignitaries, with set instructions to hopefully turn the colony profitable and self-sufficient.
Sir Reinhard Maack, governor of the Carolingia Colony from 1551 to 1570.
This expedition would become separated by a storm, leading to nearly half the expected forces for Jasmund landing instead at Bermuda. Maack arrived in Jasmund in early August bringing much needed supplies and soldiers to defend the colony, while the detachment from Bermuda did not arrive until the following spring. Under Maack’s leadership the colony slowly rebounded. The “Ancient Planters” class was created to describe the most senior settlers with the largest farm plots, and the first tobacco seeds were planted at the colony. In 1554 another expedition landed on the southern end of the cape and explored the interior, calling the region Jinramys (OTL Cape Henry). Over the course of the next decade land would be cleared and numerous plantations would be established all along the River Rhoda centered around a series of forts, such as Jasmund. This expansion quickly soured relations with the native Powhatan Confederacy, leading to the first widespread outbreak of violence between the colonies and the natives.
Following the Eight Years’ War, which saw the Hanseatic League and Sweden go to war, several prominent towns in Carolingia became increasingly autonomous. In 1598, as the Forty Years’ War damaged the Hanseatic holdings, the city of Halbmond became the first settlement in Carolingia to model itself after the Free Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire and declare itself an “independent city”, separate from the colony, beginning a trend among major cities outside the control of the overarching governor to become self governing, and adding another level of complexity to German polities in the New World.
Development[]
Non-contemporary depiction of an early tobacco plantation in northern Carolingia in the 17th-century.
The colony of Carolingia varied heavily from that of its other colonies, especially the Caribbean colonies, which were expressly established for the purpose of encouraging cash crop agriculture, with indentured or enslaved labor. Although the early Carolingian colonies experimented in the use of African slaves, the practice later fell out of practice for a number of reasons. Firstly, the Caribbean and the continent of Meridia presented a much easier region for the growth of tobacco, sugar, and other profitable crops, causing the early Hanseatic colonies in the Caribbean to be prioritized for this purpose. The powerful Caribbean conglomerates that formed with this early advantage, combined with the advocation of key Carolingian representatives, later lobbied the Hansa into heavily limiting if not outright prohibiting the African slave trade in Kolumbia. This coincided with a general decline in African slavery in the 16th century. The fervent protestation of the Catholic church, especially during the tenure of Pope Gregory XV (1579–1598), led to the practice of African slavery falling out of fashion in the Kingdom of Spain, and later the rest of the Catholic world, and Protestant nations of Europe soon also phased out African slavery as well as to not appear morally inferior to their Catholic adversaries.
Additionally, unlike the Caribbean islands, Kolumbia’s native population was not completely destroyed by the advent of Europeans. Although a significant number of indigenous Kolumbians died due to disease or early warfare with Europeans, the Kolumbian nations rebounded readily. According to the Vinland Hypothesis, one possible explanation for the indigenous population’s greater resilience to European diseases may have been the early settlement of Vinland, which spread diseases such as smallpox into the Kolumbian interior centuries earlier than their Meridian counterparts. Additionally, the lack of imported slaves from the African interior likely had an inadvertent effect on diminishing the spread of dangerous old world diseases in the first place, as compared to northern Meridia where a greater emphasis on African settlement led to a measurable increase in African diseases that limited both natives and Europeans alike.
The early slaves to Carolingia were purchased from the states of the former Mali Empire—a series of powerful coastal kingdoms that directly controlled the majority of the African slave trade. The coastal nations primarily extracted slaves from the interior through raids and local wars, which were exacerbated by the introduction of European guns and competition for the lucrative Atlantic trade. However, as the African nations became interested in colonial pursuits of their own, the supply of slaves easily available to Europeans began to decline. The majority of African slaves would instead be exported by other Africans to northern Meridia at the behest of the burgeoning West African colonial empires.
A German slave trader in Senegal, c. 1700
Considered less lucrative than the Caribbean colonies, but also containing less desirable land than other alternatives, the colony of Carolingia stagnated for much of the 16th century. The Hansa’s decentralized approach in Kolumbia led to Carolingian settlement instead being spearheaded by a mix of competitive companies, ethnic or religious minorities in search of freedom for their communities, and German adventurers. Unlike other Hanseatic colonies, citizens of the Hansa became greatly outnumbered by other German groups. This was encouraged by the Hansa, who sought to create a bulwark against other European colonies and quickly grow their less profitable colonies through the immigration of other Germans. In the later half of the 16th century the Hansa soon turned Carolingia profitable through the charging of tickets and indentured servitude; any able-bodied man and his family could charter passage to the colony through Hanseatic shipping assuming they could pay for their voyage through money, labor, or service. Although relatively new at the advent of the discovery of the New World, the Imperial Navy quickly grew through the support of dozens of imperial states, emperors, and wealthy princes, and became a staple of the transatlantic industry.
Without African slavery, the plantations of Carolingia were small in number and size, usually worked by indigenous peoples (both enslaved and paid) and European indentured servants, as well as the occasional African indentured servant. The relatively poor soil of the Carolingian colony and frequent labor shortages caused Carolingian plantations to hardly rival the profitability of the West Indies. The ruling class of Carolingia, including these plantation owners, developed into a highly diverse set of people. This included the merchant class from the Hansa and other seafaring German cities, who were broadly capitalistic, competitory, urban, and later well educated; they profited most directly off the shipping of goods and people across the Atlantic, the manufacturing of goods in the colonial urban centers, and beginning in the 18th century from early mechanization to address Carolingia’s low population. Kolumbian businessmen were instrumental in the creation of the Hansa’s first publicly traded companies, which proved monumental for world finance with the idea of opening ownership of companies, and the ideas they generated, beyond the landed aristocracy and in the hands of the capital market.
By the 18th century, the successors of the Hanseatic League had developed some of the most advanced economic and financial systems in the world, creating one of the highest per capita incomes in Europe. This extended to Carolingia, where joint stock companies were instrumental in the development of urban centers, industrial activities, and formative building projects such as canals, bridges, and roads. In the largely urbanized and territorially concentrated Hansa, and its successors such as the Hanover Republic, a spirit of frugality, reinvestment, and urban production associated with northern European Protestantism brought about innovations in banking and commercial practices. During the Luxembourgian Era in England during the union with the United Kingdom – one of the key rivals of the Germans – the concept of mercantilism became wholly adopted and integrated into foreign policy. The idea of a national balance of trade became prominent across Europe, as exemplified in the Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England, 1560: "We must always take heed that we buy no more from strangers than we sell them, for so should we impoverish ourselves and enrich them." This led to a fierce rivalry between the English, Spanish, and Hanseatic in the development of a strong home fleet capable of controlling trade and expanding bullion at home.
However, in Carolingia the nation’s historical reliance on and interconnectedness with the archaic laws of the Holy Roman Empire clashed with this entrepreneurial spirit. Carolingia’s early settlement was domineered by wealthy aristocrats and “second sons” from old Germany, who sought to emulate their prestigious, noble counterparts through enserfed estates of their own. This is no more evident than in the Thuringian settlement of Carolingia, led by dozens of disenfranchised Jenagothas in the decades after the death of the Thin White Duke in 1522. The establishment of the Rätian Union in 1534 further exacerbated this, as the nation’s social upheaval left numerous disenfranchised former aristocrats and nobles who chafed at the growing influence of extreme Thinwhitedukism in central Europe. Imperial law also contributed to this, as the Empire’s policy of granting numerous titles upon colonial leaders divided Carolingia into a theoretical patchwork of feudal-inspired lordships, counties, and duchies. These wealthy settlers were among the first to lead the colonization of Carolingia after the Hanseatic explorers themselves, and gradually evolved into the inward and dogmatic “Ancient Planters” of northern Carolingia.
The Ancient Planters were among the first to introduce slavery into Kolumbia in an effort to support their lifestyle. The abundance of land in the New World made old world serfdom economically infeasible, and those often fleeing the confines of serfdom had no reason to accept such conditions. After the decline of slavery, these planters instead transitioned toward indentured servitude and in controlling the legislative and economic reigns of the colony. The plantations of Carolingia tended to enforce stricter and harsher indentured servitude, which preyed on ethnic minorities from Europe who accepted out of desperation. Aside from this diminishing class of elites, the vast majority of farms in Carolingia were smaller than their Caribbean counterparts, focusing on tobacco, corn, and hogs.
The European Wars of Religion jumpstarted Carolingian colonization, as the region became a place of opportunity for religious minorities, both Protestants and Catholics. Carolingia would be primarily Protestant, although Catholic settlements sprang up after the Kerpen War and the Hansa’s eventual embrace of Jungism, especially in southern Carolingia. The majority of Carolingians would be mainstream Jungists, although the colony also attracted more distinct groups such as Anabaptists, Starckists, and Wagnerists. A smaller but likewise politically important group of leaders emerged: the pastors and ministers who led these settlements, which often featured strict, puritanical religious doctrine prescribed upon their populations.
By the beginning of the 18th century the power of the old elites of Carolingia began to diminish. Two major slave revolts would break out, the first known as the Jinramys Revolt of 1578, and the second being the Carolingian Revolt of 1599-1601, which combined with the colony’s growing disdain for the African slave trade led to the practice’s phasing out in Carolingia. Another noble event would be Nat’s Revolt of 1626, which saw an uprising of farmers against the encroaching practices of the Ancient Planters. Carolingia’s burgeoning slave society was slowly replaced with a free society spearheaded by explorers and adventurers in the lightly populated and rugged western interior.
Expansion and Powhatan Wars[]
Wahunsenacawh, the unifier of the Powhatan
At the time of the colony's creation, the northern half of what would become Carolingia was controlled by the powerful native confederacy of Tsenacommacah, an empire led by the Powhatan tribe that numbered over 25,000 people. The earliest German arrivals to the region landed south of Tsenacommacah lands and were at first undisturbed by them. The lands surrounding the settlement of Burkhart was highly depopulated, possibly as a result of disease or earlier war against Tsenacommacah, allowing the Hansa to gain a foothold easily. A small group of people called the Coree by the Germans inhabited the area just north of the colony and became supporters and traders for the Germans, however, records from Burkhart report that by the time of German arrival the Coree population was already nearing extinction from unknown factors. The Coree were devastated by a war with the Neusiok some time in the 1550s, effectively destroying them, and the Neusiok occupied the entire region south of what the Germans called the Neuss River.
According to the oral tradition of the Secotan, a tribe further north of the Neuss River, the Neusiok attempted to invade their territory as well. After several years of fighting a peace treaty was to be signed, but the Neusiok betrayed the Secotan delegation at a feast celebrating peace, slaughtering the delegates and their allies. This act of treachery devastated the Secotan, but also made the Neusiok social pariahs. In 1581, the Colony of Carolingia joined a coalition of native allies against the Neuisok, which all but destroyed them. This opened up the Neuss River to further colonization by the Hansa, while the Secotan, Pamlico, and other northern tribes settled the area north of the river unimpeded.
The settlement of Neueden established in 1548 placed the Hansa within the territory of Tsenacommacah, however, relations were initially cordial as the Powhatan recognized the value of German tools and goods. Correspondences between the early colonists and Tsenacommacah saw the natives attempt to convince the Germans to abandon their fort and live among the natives, where they would be treated as great craftsmen and citizens. However, this offer was rejected, and in 1549 a native hunting party captured several German men as hostages outside the settlement. Neueden itself was raided soon after, causing numerous deaths, and by the end of the year the settlement was abandoned. In 1550 a new group of settlers arrived in the region in an attempt to restart the collapsed colony, and negotiations began in which the Germans gave up weapons and tools to the natives in exchange for peace. The Neueden settlement continued to struggle due to frequent raids and conflicts with Tsenacommacah.
Around the same time the settlement of Jasmund was founded on the opposite end of Tsenacommacah territory. After initial struggles nearly collapsed the colony of Jasmund as well, the arrival of Sir Reinhard Maack in 1551 began the slow rebound of the Carolingia colony. Under his leadership the Hansa pursued a much harsher policy against the natives, demanding that all hostages and stolen property be returned or Tsenacommacah would face invasion. With no response from the natives and with new reinforcements having arrived, Maack declared war in 1553, beginning the first Hanseatic-Powhatan War.
Non-contemporary depiction of a skirmish between German settlers and native warriors.
That summer a group of 80 soldiers was dispatched into the heart of Tsenacommacah. Any village they encountered was raided and crops were burned. The Germans would kill hundreds of natives in battle and captured several dozen prisoners of war, including a chieftess and two princes, all three of which were executed. The natives were treated with brutality, with captured prisoners being executed, and some being tortured beforehand. The area west of Jasmund failed to recover and was abandoned, with hundreds dying of disease and starvation in the winter of 1553-54. Up river from Jasmund the town of Paspahegh was seized after a brief battle and razed, with its chief being killed in battle. At the eastern end of the peninsula the town of Kecoughtan was besieged, eventually succumbing to the Hansa that winter, effectively granting the Jasmund settlement full control over the Jinramys peninsula.
However, Tsenacommacah refused to give up and in early 1554 renewed raids across the colony. In February Tsenacommacah would achieve a victory against German settlers on the western end of the peninsula, with a fort on the River Rhoda being razed and at least 100 colonists being killed. Conflict continued throughout that summer, but by that time the German raids had begun to erode the confederacy, with some tribes that had been subjugated by the Powhatan rebelling and signing separate peace treaties. In Powhatan leadership a struggle began for the position of paramount ruler after the aging chief of the confederacy was usurped by his son and brother. This led to an informal truce from the end of the year into 1555, with neither side pressing an advance. It was also during this period that the Germans began negotiating with rival tribes to Tsenacommacah, establishing the alliance that would later conquer the Neuss River.
The war remained largely dormant until early 1556, when several German traders were ambushed on the River Rhoda. A German party soon grew from volunteers and traders, which was dispatched down river on boats. The group was attacked from the shore by a native hunting party, leading to a German assault of the nearby town of Arrohatoc. The Battle of Arrohatoc would grow into a major battle as both sides called upon additional reinforcements. Finally in March the Powhatan ordered a retreat and the town was sacked. This prompted the Powhatan to finally consider peace with the Hansa. A native delegation would invite the Germans to the town of Orapax, near the de facto border between the two nations, in May 1556. There a peace was negotiated which saw several native women married to German leadership, and numerous natives accepted baptism. An uneasy peace would last a little over a decade.
The Massacre of 1569, depicted in a 1575 woodcut by Mattias de Bry
War would not renew again until 1569, when Powhatan leaders ordered the capture of Christian missionaries in Tsenacommacah and the massacre of German settlers living in or around their territory. Known as the Massacre of 1569, this event was traumatic on the early colony, with some 432 people being killed, or about a third the population of the colony at the time. The Powhatan had hoped that the German settlements would be abandoned and the Germans would move elsewhere, but they instead became determined to destroy the Powhatan in retaliation. The Germans immediately set out razing all native settlements they found, while several members of the confederacy again defected and joined the Germans by supplying them with supplies. From 1569 to 1580 the Germans made seasonal raids on Tsenacommacah, killing all those they found.
One of the few pitched battles of the war occurred in 1572 at Machot, where about 2,000 natives combatted 160 German colonists. Despite being outnumbered, the Germans repulsed the natives from the field and proceeded to burn the village of Machot and any nearby corn fields, causing a widespread devastation. By 1580 numerous tribes surrendered to the Germans, and Carolingia openly expanded. The Jinramys peninsula became enclosed by a guarded palisade at the northwest end of the peninsula after 1583, effectively marking the whole peninsula as safe for colonization, and growing it into the center of the colony. Elsewhere settlements sprung up across the River Rhoda, sometimes on leased land from native allies.
Forty Years' War[]
Following the outbreak of the Forty Years' War in 1596, discontent within the Hanseatic League soon followed to its colonies. Carolingia was home to a large number of differing religious factions, as the government incentivized settlement by welcoming settlers from across Europe, and relocated religious dissidents. As a result, Carolingia was uniquely divided by the outbreak of the war, with a large number of settlements sporting a Protestant majority despite being governed by a Catholic elite as posted by the government. Elsewhere, autonomous cities dotted the colony with affiliations to one side or the other. In Europe the Hanseatic League quickly devolved into the Hanseatic Civil War, and for a brief period the colonies became cut off from orders from Europe and were largely left to their own devices.
In upper Carolingia, the Catholic governor Gunter Barth declared his intention to remain loyal to the Hamburg government, which angered his Catholic base but also did little to win over Jungists. As the war at sea intensified the Burkhart administration became cut off from the colonies, putting pressure on Barth to switch sides. In 1598 the situation persuaded a Jungist trader and adventurer named Isidor Nachtigal to take up arms against the government; he had a personal vendetta against Barth after the governor had seized the Jungist trade post of Adrian Insel (OTL Kent Island) under dubious circumstances. Nachtigal's small band of Jungist soldiers raided several farms near Jinramys, sparking a series of skirmishes between Catholic and Jungist militias.
The conflict around Carolingia would primarily be fought at sea, with privateers being financed by both sides to raid and intimidate. In 1599 the Starkist Karsten Niebuhr established the pirate haven at Rotelandung, becoming the center for Protestant raiders. Violence remained relatively low, with Catholics instead being forced to swear allegiance to the assembly of the Hanseatic League rather than being outright killed. Nonetheless, dozens of people would perish in the fighting. In 1600 a Jungist fleet successfully raided Burkhart, and Barth decided to flee into exile. Under the command of Karl Mauch, at the head of 100 additional reinforcements sent that spring, Burkhart was retaken and several privateers would be hunted down, but the colony passed an edict of toleration later that year in an effort to curb the violence.
177 men under the command of Karl Mauch engage English militia at the Battle of the Susequehanna, 1606
The early 1600s saw the colony experience an economic downturn brought about by the war, a reduction in shipping, and the decline of markets in northern Europe, especially for luxury cash crops. The situation further deteriorated with the passage of the 1604 passage of an act prohibiting trade with the colony by the League of Meppen. A series of Catholic victories at sea, especially the Battle of Fano Bay the following year, granted the Catholics naval supremacy, cutting off trade to Carolingia and ushering in a new surge of privateering. In the spring of 1605 Mauch retaliated by leading a ground force into the English colony of Courtenay Bay. The expedition became a boost to Carolingian morale, with several towns being pillaged. Success also helped to unite the colony under a common cause of survival rather than sectarianism for some; some Catholic communities drifted further away from central control and elected their own councils, other Catholics fled the reaches of Carolingia.
Late Colonial Era[]
By the onset of the 17th-century, Carolingia had become a major contributor to the Atlantic “circular trade” that developed between Europe, Africa, and the New World. The West African colonial powers brought a large quantity of slaves to the north Meridian coast and the Caribbean, where large scale plantations grew cash crops such as sugar, cotton, and tobacco. Carolingia became a prominent destination for merchants from the Caribbean, who exported raw sugar or molasses to the colony, and in turn bought Kolumbian furs, lumber, and other exports to bring back to Europe or Africa. In Carolingia, raw sugar was sold to distillery companies who produced rum, becoming one of the colony’s most lucrative exports. Merchants often exchanged these goods in Europe for manufactured goods which could then be brought to Africa or Meridia, completing the circle.
European colonies in the region, which largely rebuked the use of African slavery, attempted to compete against African labor through strict, mercantile laws which prohibited trade between colonies and foreign nations. However, the Hanover Republic remained unique among European maritime powers in that it favored few mercantilist policies; Hamburg had grown into one of the financial centers of Europe and possessed near unrivaled trade efficiency, and had little interest in any restrictive practice. Conversely, the English attempted to disrupt the growing economic power of their rival through such laws as the Navigation Acts, which banned foreign ships from transporting goods from Asia, Africa, or the New World to England or its colonies; only ships with an English owner and majority English crew could be accepted. The law went into effect in 1641, in an effort to curb Hanoverian and Dutch dominance of shipping, and to deter the growth of Carolingia, which directly benefited from Hanoverian-led trade. Although trade between Carolingia and New England was not significant prior to the law, its implementation deteriorated trade relations between the two further, and led to political friction in the colonies and much more blatant smuggling in the northeast of Kolumbia.
The economic war waged between England and Hanover would spark the Anglo-Hanoverian War of 1642–1644, the first of many such conflicts. England would pursue a policy of paying down its debts – caused by the Forty Years’ War and subsequent colonial wars – through acts of taxation and mercantile policy. The Navigation Acts would be followed by the Molasses Act, which sought to regulate the lucrative Kolumbian industry. Hanover’s approach proved more cautious but stable; Carolingia enjoyed relatively free trade, and a decentralized hierarchy that incentivized individuals to lead expansion of the colony—not through grand military action or direct order from the government, but through individual proprietorship. The imperial-born system of titles in Kolumbia was only expanded under the Hanoverians. After 1640, lordships were granted to any individual who could finance and establish a settlement of at least 50 families within four years, and this arrangement popularized the settlement of the interior.
This placed the colony in greater contact with the Cherokee, and other indigenous nations of the interior. Throughout the 17th-century a greater number of European merchants and settlers began to live among the Cherokee, or settle villages around Cherokee lands, which welcomed greater trade between the two parties. The Cherokee became increasingly involved in the deerskin trade, especially after beaver from the northeast began to decline as part of the fallout of the Beaver Wars. The Cherokee’s dominance of the mountains, whose cooler climates produced higher quality deerskin, allowed them to gain an advantage. Fueled by Carolingian trade, the Cherokee gradually coalesced into a centralized nation state centered around an “emperor”, the first of which receiving that designation from a German observer. Although relations between the Cherokee and Carolingia remained mostly cordial, they would be on opposite sides of the Battle of Taliwa in 1711, which proved a disastrous defeat for the Carolingian-led alliance. Although the Cherokee would be beaten back from the colony by its militia, the Hanover Republic would soon after pass legislation prohibiting colonial settlement past a certain westward boundary, effectively ceding some of its gains back to the Cherokee in an effort to ensure a stable peace. These developments transformed both societies; Hanoverian laws angered the colonial population leading to calls for fuller representation, while the effects of the war and the deerskin trade revolutionized Cherokee society to be more “civilized”.
Primarily leading the settlement among the Cherokee and into the interior were protestant refugees, especially Swiss Germans and Scots. Taking advantage of the Hansa’s lax settlement policies which catered to Europe’s minorities, these peoples began to form a significant population at the western edge of Carolingia. Working as traders, explorers, and mercenaries, many of these settlers married women from among the indigenous peoples of the region, leading to a significant mixed-race population, from which many leaders of the Cherokee and other Southeast tribes emerged.
Footnotes[]
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