Economy and Technology[]
- Mechanical clocks are invented in Italy. They are huge and lose a lot of time. The Italian Conventum decides to install one in every major city on the peninsula. Urban Vigintisexviri are mandated to hire people responsible for keeping their public clock working and showing the official time.
- Several pneumatic devices are developed in the Eastern Celtic provinces and used mostly in mining.
- A Persian engineer presents a draft of a battery-powered electrical motor. So far, nobody tries to apply the idea (or at least nobody succeeds in doing so).
Military[]
Adapting to the strategies imposed by firearms, which are now found in all sorts and sizes, many large developed countries switch from professional warrior armies to large popular armies. Targeting the infrastructure of the enemy becomes more and more important.
Philosophy / Science[]
- A natural philosopher from India develops the physical theory of inertia.
- In 926, Liu Zhiyuan becomes chancellor. He pursues reform policies similar to those of OTL Wang Anshi one century later: Liu Zhiyuan was an economic egalitarian as much as he was a political supporter of the absolute monarchy. He confiscates extremely large enterprises and has the government run them; he begins to build the imperial welfare state (orphanages, hospitals, hospices, reserve granaries from which the urban poor received something akin to the Roman cura anonae) and reforms the military by replacing the Fubing system, where only a limited amount of farmers were soldiers, too, with the Baojia system, which effectively turned the entire rural population of China into potential conscripts, but also introduced a sort of half-democratic local self-organisation which assisted the imperial administration. Liu Zhiyuan was assassinated by his conservative enemies in 948, but his policies were so popular that they could never be rolled back. Instead, they were copied on many Indochinese islands.
- Chinese scientists (similar to OTL Shen Kuo a century later) posit for the first time the theories of long-term climate changes and of the tectonic formation of continents and mountains.
Religion[]
- As new khans attempt to convert the Uyghur Empire to Buddhism (Mazdako-Tengrism had become too anarchic and dangerous for their positions of economic and military power), Mazdako-Tengrism becomes a suppressed, but nonetheless popular religious movement with support especially among the Mongols, Kyrgyz and others living in the less wealthy North. Rebellions are frequent, but in contrast to OTL, they are not tribal.
Nations of Europe[]
- Saxony: While kings from earlier and later dynasties in other centuries function as motors of social and political progress, the 10th century is marked by a 55-year rule of a dynasty which tries to monopolise royal power. This brings commoners from the cities and noblemen from the countryside, who had fought against each other, together in the Thing as the parliament must fight for its old and achieved rights. Economically, this is another bad century for Saxony, after high taxes to pay the reparations to Vineta have drained the country of capital.
- Sviþjod.intervenes in Finnish tribal conflicts between the Suomalaiset, inhabiting the South-Western coast of OTL Finland (Finland Proper), and the Hämalaiset (known to the Romans as Tavasti and to the Kriviches as Yem) in favour of the former. The castle of Turun Kaupungi is built, and the South-Western tip of OTL Finland becomes a yarldom under Swedish suzerainty, known as Finland to the Swedes and as Suomi to the Suomalaiset.
- Venedia: A peasant rebellion among the Pomoranians is barely contained by the knyazes. Lech, a leader of the rebellious peasants, becomes a martyr and a symbol for peasant resistance not only in the Slavic-speaking world.
- Along the Borysthenes, the Tanais and the Rha, peasants rebel, too, and often set the rich towns, where those who own their lands live, on fire. Sometimes, they manage to install peasant republics, but Koinon troops regularly defeat them and restore the old oligarchies. The Roman Republic, once a global advocate for democracy, has a vested interest in cheap grain from and political stability in the pontic space, and thus tacitly backs the Koina`s policies.
- An exception from this rule is a rebellion of Magyars led by the Magyar Bulcsú. They are supported by Great Perm and Rome, who hires the Chasars for a military operation, and endowed with the latest generation of firearms. Their rebellion of 953 overthrows Pecheneg rule and establishes the independence of the Magyars, who join the Great Permian federation, which now controls the entire upper and middle course of the Rha again.
- Led and funded by Roman enterprises, Burgundy begins to develop its economy and seize on its wealth in coal and ore. Roads are built, towns grow into cities.
Nations of Asia[]
- After their defeat, the Pechenegs rebuild Suvar with stronger walls. They reorient themselves towards the woods in the North-East, where they subdue the Chanti and Mansi and collect furs as tribute from them.
- The Kimek Khaganate expands West- and Eastwards and temporarily subdues the Kyrgyz Khaganate, too. Later, the Kyrgyz restore their independence in a war.
- Movements for economic policies akin to those of Liu Zhiyuan in Sui China fight against conservative forces in Baekje and Nihon.
- Sui conquers yet more lands in the North-East up to OTL Kamchatka, and even more islands in OTL Indonesia and the Philippines. Rome, Sheba, Eran, and Aksum support Indian-led Malay anti-Sui states, alliances, navies and even pirates to break the Sui monopoly on the sea trade.
Nations of Africa[]
- The Gao Federation thoroughly modernises its administration, infrastructure and educational system. The federal institutions, including a mixed army of professional soldiers and conscripts, are strengthened and shaped mostly after the Roman model. Manufacturing develops along the Niger, modern agricultural techniques drastically increase the production per acre, and more and more cooperatives venture into the rainforest, creating plantations of cash crops designed for exportation in a more socially cohesive manner than on the East Coast. Permanent diplomatic relations and treaties are established with Aksum, the Roman and the Celtic Empire. In West Africa, the acephalous societies of the Dogon and the Tallensi are incorporated into the federation while being allowed to not govern themselves.
- The elites of Jolof, on the other hand, write in Greek letters now and scripturalise their animist state religion and their hierarchical body of traditional laws. They, too, begin to expand into the rainforest, but less cautiously than Gao. They plant imported crops from Asia and Central Africa (bananas, coffee et.c) alongside the native and very profitable kola nut. On their plantation colonies, they are increasingly faced with resistance movements, which form secret societies like the Poro, Yassi and Sandé.
- In the wake of doctrinal disputes and fears of revolution and social unrest, the Yoruba leadership expels all Agonstici and Samailans, who had formed small communities along the Niger, from their empire, and start a - failing - military expedition onto the Jos Plateau.
- The Kingdom of Benin turns into a republic and receives Roman and Celtic military help against potential attempts of Gao to expand into their territories. in exchange for providing them with (privileged) access to their ports and allowing them to station their new Classes Africanae there.
- To the South-West of Yoruba, various port towns inhabited by different Igbo tribes (among them Opobo, Bonny, Akwa Akpa and Ikpa Ora), but also frequented by Ostrogothic, Horon, Celtic and Roman traders, form the Federal Republic of Nri.
- Celts and Romans establish a large emporium each at the mouth of the Insadinsera (OTL Kongo River).
- Aksum and Kirinyaga compete for control and spheres of influence in the Great Lakes region. In the North, where Aksum's influence is strongest, a number of tribes have been forged into the Kingdom of Kitara, an agriculturalist Bantu vassal state of the Aksumite Empire with its capital at Bigo bya Mugenyi.
- Further to the South and bordering on the lands of the Kirinyaga Alliance, the Kingdoms of Burundi, Ankole and Kyamutwara have formed, allied with the Kirinyaga.
- The 10th century is a time of technological development in Africa, in which modern steel manufacturing, dam and road building are undertaken and new types of boats and ships are used for transportation and fishing on the Great Lakes. More and more people in central Africa know how to read and write, with the Aksumite Ge'ez alphabet, the Sabaean alphabet and the Tifinagh alphabet contending for supremacy in the fixture of the various Bantu dialects. In the tropical forest, Aksumite, Sabaean and Samailan missionaries have limited success so far. Only the aristocracy of Kitara is converted.
- In the Kirinyaga Alliance, the "genuinely African" faction gains the upper hand from the 910s to the 960s. It attempts to form an anti-Christian, anti-Aksumite, anti-colonial influences bloc. During this period, political debate and philosophy blossom in Central East Africa, with the Kikuyu philosopher Gathi being the most influential. Gathi formulates the foundations of a philosophy which unites the Kirinyaga ideals of kiyama democracy and Bantu cosmogony in terms which were partly recurring on the philosophical categories imported from Europe, Arabia, Persia and India, but which sought to delimit itself from their connotations at the same time. Gathi was assassinated - some say by Sabaean agents - which led to a temporal radicalisation of Kirinyagan policies against interference from the coast, and a Christian coup against radical Gathists in 969. But Gathism survived these early conflicts and became influential across much of the Bantu-inhabited central, Southern and Eastern African regions.
- Aksum`s large underdeveloped newly acquired Nilotic South is increasingly perceived as a problem in the North. Christianisation campaigns are begun, which alienate old and established Aksumite nations like the Luo and the Nuer and lead to regional rebellions. After several decades, they are abandoned.
- At the mouth of the Limpopo, two Indian towns - Marwargarh, founded by Northern Indians from Bharikucha and Ujjain, and Tipukolu, founded by Cheran Tamils - develop. They trade with Mapungubwe and its sister towns and influence them deeply:
- In Mapungubwe, Chibuene, Ziwa, Zhizo and Nkope, towns begin to form, where Shona traditions and Indian influences mix. The model of the Indian city federation becomes politically influential; first written Shona documents in the Kilunguwari script, based on Indian Nagari, but adapted for the Bantu context, appear. But also canals, irrigation and draining systems, watermills, furnaces, new herding animals and crops revolutionise the economy of OTL Mozambique, Zimbabwe, North-Eastern South Africa, Malawi and Eastern Botswana.
Nations of Atlantis[]
- Glacianian merchants and missionaries establish permanent contacts with the Inuit, Beothuk and Miqmaq of Northern Atlantis. Toward the end of the 10th century, Celtic monasteries and trading ports are built on Polaris and Nova Hibernia. Explorations along the Algonquin Coast are undertaken. So far, Celtic control is very weak and locally limited; trade and contacts with the natives are not yet fraught with heavy conflicts, and the land has not yet become an imperial province.
- Ostrogothic ships full of Taino gold stimulate interest in Europe and beyond. The Roman Republic establishes naval bases on the island of Yara (OTL Cuba) and in the lands of the Muskogee as well as on the uninhabited Insulae Laruales (OTL Bermuda) and small colonies: Colonia Sabina Atlantica in a small portion of OTL Georgia and Colonia Maura Atlantica on Yara. Roman colonisation is thrown back by diseases and unfamiliarity with the local flora; it proceeds slowly, but Roman naval dominance keeps all other potentially interested powers off.
- An Ostrogothic university opens in Guaynia on Borikén (OTL Puerto Rico) after a network of schools has always been laid out across the Ostrogoth-settled Taino islands. Educational language is Greek, whose alphabet is increasingly also used by Taino to write in their own language.
- Years of drought and measles pandemics kill tens of thousands of Maya. The drought takes a high toll on the civilizations in central Mexico, too.
Nations of Asambadha Anuttara[]
Buddhist monks sail to Papua in the 940s, trying to proselytise the indigenous population. As a side-effect, Papua and all its surrounding islets are mapped. In the 970s, other groups of monks move on and discover a very large island South of Papua, which they call Asambadha Anuttara (Sanskrit: the wide south; OTL: Australia). Mapping the continent and establishing new monasteries on its Northern and Western coasts takes many decades. Sui state exploration missions map the continent from its West Coast and build a few outposts. Salvador79 (talk) 12:10, April 22, 2014 (UTC)