[BTS] Cahokia - Dawn of a Civilization

[Gruekiller]

(Yes, I realize I still have to finish up Carthage. But hey, it's not a crime to run two of these at once, is it? At any rate, I'm running a huge Earth map with 11 civs. I'm playing as the Native Americans, renamed as the Mississippian people.)

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Around the year AD 600, a group of peoples along the Mississippi river came together to form a village. Eventually, it became a city, which flourished until the 15th century, when its inhabitants abandoned the site. It was more populous than London, and its population would not be surpassed in the Americas until Philadelphia reached 40,000 inhabitants in the early 19th century. It posessed the largest structure north of Mexico, and the potential to have become a great city, had it survived.

What if it had?

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The Beginning

"May the Great Sun smile upon your harvest, and bring prosperity to your family." - Archaic Cahokian greeting, first words recorded by a system of writing.
​

In the year 4000 BC, a small village across the Mississippi from what is now St. Louis discovered that they could store their corn harvest in pots to gain a surplus. The population of the city boomed, and more and more trade came down the Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois rivers which made it grow further. Great earthworks grew from the ground upward, reaching towards the great sky. Among these was the greatest mound of all, and atop this the chieftain would live.

Thirteen acres at the base (5.5 hectares) and 100 feet tall (30 meters), it was the largest earthwork on the planet, with a base comparable to that of the Great Pyramid. Atop the structure was a building which brought the height an additional fifty feet higher. From here, the chieftain, a man of great wisdom would rule his people.

We don't know what the people called their city. But we call it Cahokia.
​

 

[Gruekiller]

I just visited the site of Cahokia a few days ago, actually. It's a UNESCO world heritage site, and is just a half hour or so's drive from down-town St. Louis. Hiking up the stairs to the top of the biggest mound was an ordeal, but it was quite a view.
Historically, the Mississippian culture began around the 7th Century. In the game, though, for the sake of game mechanics, they came into being in 4000 BC, along with all the other civilizations.
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Foundations of a Kingdom

"If a man steals, his hands should be removed. If a man spies upon his master, his eyes should be removed. If a man attempts to flee indentured service, his feet should be removed." - From the Mississippian Code of Law.
​

In the darkened ages during the dawn of history, great beasts still roamed the land. There were rumors of great, woolly beasts with tusks which were beginning to disappear from the great northern tundra, and, more real to the Mississippians, the ferocious American lions which still prowled the plains at this time. Few dared venture outside Cahokia's borders at the risk of falling prey to the big cats. As time went by, however, and human predation on the lion's traditional prey continued, the lions grew increasingly scarce. Once the Cahokians were sure the area was safe, habitation was possible for the areas east of the Mississippi.

​

One group of traders traveling up the Ohio River settled on its banks, near where the Scioto flows into it. This place was called Mound City, and it soon grew to become a sister city to Cahokia. While nominally under the rule of Cahokia's chief, it was effectively and independent city state; albeit with strong ties with the mother city down the river.

​

Mississippian explorers were brave folk, and ranged across the continent in the name of finding new trade routes for the home city's further growth. The majority of tribes interacted peacefully with them, but on the Yucatan a more hostile breed was found. These barbarians elected to attack the Cahokian explorers, and almost succeeded in overwhelming the men. Thankfully, the training of the exploring party was enough to fend off the attackers. However, the explorers brought back tales of the towering jungles of the south, and the grand canyons of the west. The Cahokians hungered to find more, despite that these barbarians would force them to be more cautious while abroad.

​

The Mississippians practiced an advanced form of sun-worship, in which they revered the sun, as well as the chieftain, whom they believed to be an incarnation of the sun itself. This religion was not unified in practice for some time, until, under the orders of the chieftain himself, the sun priests came together and formed a doctrine of their faith. After a word for "light" or "the sun", it was referred to as Confucianism. (This is a transliteration.) The Cahokian villages and cities were soon unified under the Confucian faith, leading to further unity between the disparate chiefdoms and city-states.

​

By the 4th Century BC, the foundations for a great kingdom had been lain in eastern North America. Expeditions had shown that, apart from a few small tribes, the Mississippians were very alone on their continent, and they would be quite isolated until contact with Europe some centuries later. The Cahokians knew that they would have to expand to survive, longing for those canyons and jungles which they knew only from tales. However, the Mississippian civilization had expanded as far as the chiefdom's stability could allow. A new, more advanced form of government would be necessary to expand beyond the Great Mountains to the west.

The Mississippian culture in 390 BC. Aztalan is in the north, Mound City in the east, Medora in the south, and Cloverdale in the west. In the center of the four major cities is the biggest city and capital, Cahokia. At this time, structures of marble were just beginning to come into use across the burgeoning culture of the Mississippi.​

 

[W|M]

What civs are on this map?

 

[99wattr89]

Why no montezuma? Doesn't the lack of competition make the early game trivially easy?

 

[Gruekiller]

The civs were chosen randomly. As of yet, I'm not sure which ones are out there. If they'd put more New World civs in, the early game wouldn't be as slow. :s

 

[Gruekiller]

Mississippia: One Kingdom

Cahokia, ca. AD 1. The earth mounds have been largely replaced by marble structures.

"By the grace of the Great Sun, of Cahokia and Mound City king, ruler of the Mississippi, sovereign of the Dakota tribes, and lord of Xachu, Great Hawk the First." - Full title of Great Hawk I.
​

As the concept of monarchy was established, the Great Chieftain in Cahokia took up instead the title of the Great King. His dominion was solidified into one meaningful whole. The concept of provinces was still foreign to the Mississippians, and as such the kingdom was not divided up into administrative regions. The first king, Great Hawk, encouraged expansion of Cahokian territories, resulting in the construction of Chaco Canyon near the Colorado River. Its sources of gold and copper helped add to the kingdom's growing coffers.

​

Approximately two centuries later, a military expedition from Mississippia subjugated the tribes of what we call Washington, and founded the city of Xachu, which was named after a local tribe. The Mississippian Kingdom now spread across the northern half of the continent, from Atlantic to Pacific. The king now had his sights set on lands to the south in Mexico, as well as across the Isthmus.

​

By the 5th Century, elevated stone platforms called aqueducts were constructed, which allowed the flow of clean water from the Appalachians to the Cahokian heartland. This alleviated some of the health problems beginning to afflict the city of Cahokia, and allowed it to keep growing. At this time, Cahokia reached 90,000 inhabitants, with 1,283,000 total citizens of the Kingdom. It was fourth in population, behind three other civilizations in the Old World.

​

Soon, the first Mississippian city in Central America, Teotihuacan, had been founded. With ready supply to spices and priceless silver, it had the promise to be a center of commerce. The silver mined from the deposits around Teotihuacan thrilled the Mississppians, creating a surge in jewelry creation around the kingdom.

​

Towards the end of the 6th Century, a great temple to the Sun was constructed, known as Chichen Itza. It instilled in the Mississippian people a sense of pride and belonging, so much so that the defenders of Mississippian cities defended their homes with renewed ferocity and vigor. The temple stood slightly higher than the great mound in the center of Cahokia, but was nowhere near as large when it came to its base.

​

By the end of the 8th Century, the Mississippian Kingdom stretched from Cree in the north to Oaxaca in the south. It contained 1,353,000 inhabitants, and was still expanding. In light of recent attacks on northern cities by scattered hostile tribes, the king made the decision to send more settling parties north, into what we call Alberta and Quebec. The presence of civilization, he reasoned, should make the barbarians see the light. With a complex feudal society now in place, the Mississippian Kingdom entered the Medieval age.

 

[99wattr89]

The civs were chosen randomly. As of yet, I'm not sure which ones are out there. If they'd put more New World civs in, the early game wouldn't be as slow. :s

Well you're making a good story out of it regardless. =3

 

[Gruekiller]

Thanks. xD

 

[Gruekiller]

Expansion and Discovery

"Hail to the Emperor!" - The populace of Cahokia, at the crowning of the first Sun Emperor, Great Hawk II.
​

The ninth century marks the beginning of the First Age of Discovery. The priests determined that by tracking the motion of the stars, sun, and moon in the sky, they could determine their position on earth, and mark dates. It was found that the known Mississippian world occupied only a small portion of the earth's surface. The other, vastly larger portion was a blank on Cahokian maps. A system of dating was devised around the earth's movement around the sun. With the year 0 as the date when Cahokia was founded (approx. 4000 BC), the year was 4800.

​

By the end of the century, the conquest and settlement of eastern Canada was complete. The cities of Inuk, Micmac, Meliseet, and Algonquian, all named after local tribes, were erected, and the taming of the surrounding wilderness began. This brought the population of the Mississippian Kingdom to 3,630,000 citizens.

​

Within the first decade of the following century, further expansion had spread Cahokian influence to the northern shores of the southern continent. The city of Carib was founded in the northern part of what we would call Venezuela. The Mississippian people were thrilled, and festivals were held all over the kingdom. No one was more thrilled than the devoted group of explorers and scientists who were devising a type of ship which could cross even the choppy waters of the Great Eastern Sea...

​

They called this method "optics". It involved using mathematics and measurements to chart the navigation of ships. This allowed ships to go miles away from the shore, and find new lands for the Mississippians to contact. Caravels were soon constructed en masse, and sent in every direction to find new civilizations.

​

Land ho! The cry signalled the beginning of a new age in Mississippian history. After months at sea, one of the caravels chanced upon solid land. We would call this the Kamchatka Peninsula of far eastern Russia. (In Soviet Mississippia, New World discovers YOU!)​

​

Almost immediately after the caravel made its way further down the East Asian coast, a small galley of foreign-looking people rowed out to meet the Cahokians. The leader among the group was a peculiar man with facial hair on his upper lip, who called himself Bismarck. "In Namen des deutschen Volkes, ich grüsse euch."​

​

It was eventually discovered that these people were not native to this area, and had simply colonized part of the Manchurian coastline. The caravel continued further down the shore.

As they neared an archipelago of large islands, they encountered more foreigners. These ones called themselves Sumer, and also apparently had merely colonized this region. They apparently hailed from a land far to the west called Sumeria. Where the Germans were somewhat more primitive than the Mississippians, these Sumer were at least on par with the Cahokians technologically. They would have to be cautioius around these people and their strange religion in the future.​

​

Weaving around the islands of Nippon, the caravel proceeded to a nearby peninsula, which the Sumer had told them was called "Corea". Here they encountered another foreign people, the Mongols. They dressed themselves in fur trappings, not unlike the Mississippians themselves, and resembled neither the Sumer nor the Germans in outward appearance. Interestingly, though, they followed the same religion as the Germans: Judaism.

​

The next foreigners met called themselves Indian. The Germans called them Indisch. In any case, they practiced a religion called Hinduism, which was far separate from both Judaism and Buddhism. The diplomacy of the wider world was turning out to be more confusing than previously anticipated.

​

A map of the German's home continent was purchased for the secrets of Optics, revealing a land of truly astonishing proportions. On the map were nations labelled Keltisch, Arabisch, Römisch, and Karthagisch. The size of these Arabs' empire startled the Mississippians. It stretched from the northern border of the Sumer heartland all the way into the densely jungled continent of the south - disturbingly close to the southern colonies of the Mississippians. Thankfully, a caravel was being sent to contact the Arabs. Relations would be conducted on the Mississippians' terms. Judaism seemed to be extremely widespread, with the exception of Hindu "Indien" and Buddhist "Arabien". Perhaps the Mississippians could play the differences between the Jews and the other two major religions to eliminate the troublesome Arabs.

​

Colonization of the coast of South America continued, until the borders of Mississippia reached the borders of the Guarani people. Attempts to conduct peaceful negotiations with the Guarani led to bits of Mississippian missionaries being left outside of Tupi's gates. Retaliatory action was swift and brutal. Assimilation of the Guarani would take time, but the king in Cahokia took the throne of the Guarani people, establishing a lop-sided "dual monarchy". As he held the thrones of two kingdoms, the king now styled himself the Emperor. And, by extension, he controlled an empire: the Mississippian Empire.

 

[Linkman226]

Dude. -_- Hindi is a language, the people are called Indians.

 

[Gruekiller]

... Oh. Well. That's embarassing. I'll fix it.

 

[Linkman226]

Otherwise an enjoyable read!

 

[Gruekiller]

Thanks. I'm looking forward to my first inter-continental war.

 

[W|M]

In Soviet Mississippi, Native Americans invade YOU!

 

[Gruekiller]

Hehe. I love using the American civs for ironic effect. In my Aztec RFC game, I invaded and conquered Spain. And France, too, but I gave their cities to the Netherlands to make them collapse.

 

[Gruekiller]

Expansion and Diplomacy - The Second Age of Exploration

"The horde of native warriors came over the hill like a screaming, flailing tide of clubs and loin cloths. We turned our weapons on them, and began to fire. Within the hour, they had all been killed. I think I could grow to like these weapons." - Mississippian crossbowman, following the campaign in South Africa.
​

As caravel expeditions were redirected from the Great Western Sea to the Eastern, new peoples and civilizations were brought to the forefront of Cahokian diplomacy. The first of these were the Arabs, the civilization which the emperors had worried about since maps from Germany had first come to their attention. Cordial greetings were exchanged, but the Arabs already seemed to be rather annoyed with the Cahokians, presumably for trading with their enemies, the Celts, who also had contacted the Cahokian court. The Emperor made a note to prepare home defenses, in case the Arabs intended to sail across the ocean to fight the Mississippians.

​

The Romans, who occupied the southern part of the continent called Europa, were next to contact the Mississippian Empire. They, like the French, Germans, and Mongolians, followed the Jewish faith, which likely put them at odds with their neighbors, the Arabs. At around this same time, the nearby, and also Jewish, civilizations of Carthage and Celtia were also encountered by Cahokian caravels.

​

The Emperor made a bold move in the early 14th Century, devising a way to keep foreign attention off of unsettled lands in the Americas. (It's known that Westerners knew of these lands, as German maps, apparently traded from the Mississippians, were made around this time, with the two continents labeled Nord-Mississippien and Süd-Mississippien.) In order to do this, he intended to settle lands across the sea, within other nations' spheres of influence. His first move in this regard was to send a military expedition into the south of the south-western continent. (This is labeled on those same maps as Afrika.) These Mississippian soldiers, armed with mechanized bows, quickly took over a small city on what we would call the Cape of Good Hope, setting up the first overseas Mississippian colony. Missionaries and civilian workers, sent with the crossbowmen, started their work straight away. The conquest of the region was done in the hopes of distracting the Arabs from lands in South Mississippia (South America) - and forcing them to mind their own continent. The second stage of the plan was beginning to start production on the west coast.

​

As new methods of production were devised late that century, production of machinery and other implements accelerated to unparalleled levels. Watermills along the Mississippi worked full time to harness the river's mighty power, allowing the usage of primitive electric motors. With these new innovations, the Mississippian Empire initiated the Industrial Age, circa AD 1360 (5060, Cahokian Calendar, or CC).

​

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PS: Don't Native American knights look freakin' awesome?

 

[Gruekiller]

Industry and Imperialism - The 15th Century

"Your empire awaits you, Your Majesty." - First message sent by telegram, from a station in Australia to the emperor at his summer palace in Afrika.
​

By the 15th Century, the Indian Empire had demonstrated its effectiveness as a colonizing power by colonizing the East Indies, and even as far as Australia. As the second stage of his containment plan, the Emperor sent a colonizing party to the eastern part of Australia, setting up the city of Moundville on its eastern shore. This, he reasoned, should pressure the Indians into colonizing further into Australia, rather than to send galleons of settlers to the shores of Mississippia.

​

Missives reached the war department in Cahokia in 1416, showing a French colony on an island they called Islande. This concerned them, as it demonstrated France's potential as a naval power in the Atlantic.

​

Between 1412 and 1428, military expeditions further to the northwest subjugated more Inuk and Aleut city-states, bringing them under Cahokian rule. This eliminated the final armed resistance to Mississippian dominion in North Mississippia, a day comemorated on the 14th of July as Continental Day in the Mississippian Empire. Every year hence, celebrations have been thrown in Cahokia's main plaza, generally resulting in arrests for indecent exposure and disorderly conduct.

​

During the Summer of 1410, civilian workers on a farm near Inuk came down sick, apparently from radiation poisoning. Ten died and at least a hundred more were sick. This caused general uproar among worker's unions at what was at first assumed to be general disregard of worker safety on part of the government's agriculture department. Further investigation showed that a mineral in the ground known as uranium was responsible, and it was brought to a lab in Mound City for study.

​

In 1432, the Cahokian military completed its first airship, the HMS Flying Serpent. This vehicle used fabric pulled over a rigid frame and fueled with a light gas called hydrogen to propel it through the air. The usefulness of such flying machines had been demonstrated by the first civilian aircraft of similar kind a few decades earlier, and the military application of these machines, for both reconnaissance and combat, was soon made clear. The airship was brought to the north to begin mapping out of far northern regions which were inaccessible by ship. At about this same time, word reached Mississippia that the Germans had captured the Celtic city of Bagacum, forcing the Celtic leader Brennus off of his throne. Celtia was made into a German vassal, along with, Cahokia soon learned, France and Carthage.

​

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I love this game. Lookie. Arabian Ireland, French England, and Celtic Norway.

Oh. And Sumeria's Chinese territory.

 

[Gruekiller]

Two posts in one night? For shame. I bring you: Worldwar!

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The Great War: Bloodletting in Afrika

Mississippian artillery crews outside Merw.

"I think something's wrong with the bloody cannons today." - A Mississippian marshal after two artillery installments had been destroyed in under an hour.
​

World politics can be a haphazard place. Especially during periods of international rivalry. In times like these, world wars are common. World wars sew destruction over entire continents, cause distrust and hatred between one and his fellow man, and exhaust the economies and manpower of entire nations. For us, the years 1914 and 1939 stand out in our minds. In Mississippia, it would be 1474.

In 1474, a Georgian separatist in Frankfurt murdered the crown prince of Germany during his tour of the Caucasus. Accused of backing the assassination, the Arabian government responded that enough was enough and declared war on the Germans and their vassals. Both in order to support their German allies and to eliminate their most dangerous rival, Mississippia declared war on Arabia. At the same time, Sumeria declared war on Germany; and India and Mongolia went to war in a separate but related conflict. Only China (more likely to side with Arabia and Sumeria) and Rome (more likely to side with Germany and Mississippia) remained neutral. Of note, is that Mississippia decided to wait until its war with Arabia was over to assist its allies against Sumeria.
​

Cahokia-Berlin Pact:
*Mississippia
*Germany
*Carthage
*Celtia
*France

Southern Alliance:
*Arabia
*Sumeria

Neutral:
*China
*Rome
​

Shortly after war was declared, an Arab raiding party was discovered by a sentry in the northern part of Mississippia's Afrikan colonies. The sentry ran twenty-six miles to Namib to warn of the invasion, and troops were immediately mobilized. Though the man died from exhaustion, he was forever comemorated by a 26-mile race in Cahokia known as the Namib.
​

​

The first Arab colony to fall to the relentless Mississippian assault was the desert village of Suhar, in the late Fall of 1478. A bold cavalry charge through the sands terrified its defenders into flight, but not before the knights took some minor casualties. Its entire population was sacrificed to the Great Sun, and the town razed.

​

A rifleman company, at about the same time, struck at the somewhat larger colony of Hayt Ras, which was built on the site of a razed Carthaginian city centuries prior. The garrison of longbowmen, in the end, couldn't stand up to a barrage of rifle fire, and the riflemen took the city with minimal casualties. This city would provide a base for potential strikes on Madagascar.

​

Two years later, a galleon which had been docked in Rome brought its deadly cargo to the Sinai: an army of riflemen. The troops were largely Italian mercenaries, contracted with the knowledge that there was no way to get Cahokians through the tight security of overzealous French officials in Gibraltar. (They hate me. lol. I landed riflemen in Siberia and marched them there many turns prior.) Though trebuchet fire dealt a heavy toll on the attacking mercenary riflemen, they eventually overcame the defenses of the fortified city of Damascus, cutting off Arabia's vital trade route into the Mediterranean.

​

By 1482, the war came to Europe. A regiment of knights, backed up by riflemen and siege equipment landed on the western coast of Ireland, and marched on the city of Balkh. Slogging through mud and rain for hours, the Mississippian force reached the city's walls, which were battered by trebuchet fire until they had all but crumbled. The knights charged, only to be driven off by longbow fire. In retaliation, the riflemen mowed down the defenders of the city without mercy.

​

In 1484, the main Cahokian army landed in the Western Sahara. Though the Arabs fought with valor, their longbowmen ultimately could not withstand the awesome power of the Cahokian military. Impressive though its army may have been, Cahokia was beginning to feel the stress of a worldwide war at home. Meanwhile, on the Persian-Caucasus Front, the advance of the Sumerian army overtook the German cities of Frankfurt and Essen, while brave French cavalry units arrived to combat the Sumerians. Little happened in the Asian theater of the conflict, due to the remoteness of the two combatants.

The Mississippian army continued southward, hoping to eventually meet up with the forces from South Afrika.
​

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The next few years will be... interesting.

 

[Gruekiller]

Moar update.

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War Rages On

Cahokian riflemen prepare to go "over the top".

"War is hell." - French soldier during the war in the Caucasus.
​

As the campaign in Africa ground on, thousands upon thousands of soldiers gave their lives for king and country. Though the war went well all throughout for the more well-trained and more numerous Mississippian forces, the long time necessary to do it took its toll on even the hardiest of men. The losses mounted, in one year the death rate of soldiers even exceeding the birth rate.

The economy suffered as well, putting many factory workers out of a job. Disenfranchised workers would come back to bite Mississippia in coming years.

The campaign year of 1486 was a success for the Cahokians, as the South Afrikan force entered the gates of the Taoist holy city, Muscat. After a brief fight with its defenders, the city was occupied, giving the Mississippian army a toehold in central Afrika.
​

​

Welcome news came from the Middle Eastern theater: The French had taken Frankfurt and turned it over to the Germans. Briefly afterward, the ancient Arab city of Medina, and then the Sumerian capital Uruk, were taken by German forces. The Mississippians were glad the Germans were on their side.

In 1488, the bulk of the Cahokian army had marched south from Merw to Shiraz, and quickly overtook the city's meager defenses. Arab forces in the area were sent east to protect their main holdings in the northern regions of their heartland, making the job of Cahokia's knights and riflemen in Africa easier.

​

The campaign gained speed again in 1490 as forces from South Afrika launched an invasion of Madagascar. The city of Mosul fell first, its macemen unable to stand up to the rifles of the Mississippian forces. Towards the end of that same year, forces conscripted from Australia made an amphibious landing on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and marched on the ancient and fortified city of Baghdad. With their forces amassed to the north to hold back the Germans, the city was left surprisingly sparingly defended. The Mississippian forces poured into the city, slaughtering its garrison. By this point, defeat for the Arabs was nearly certain. This day would forever be commemorated on Australia's Summer Solstice (December 21st, usually) as Baghdad Day, in memory of the Australian soldiers who gave their lives taking the city.

​

The campaign year 1492 was comparatively slow south of the Sahara, but Italian mercenaries who took part in the capture of Damascus advanced to the southwest, to take the Arabs' foothold in Egypt, Najran. The city fell with minimal casualties, effectively ending any hope of support for African Arabs from the homeland. By this point, the Cahokian airship fleet, based in Medina and in the southern part of the Roman Empire, had begun pounding the defenses of Arabia's northern cities, dampening the resolve of the nation's populous and crumbling its defenses. About this time, Muscat was retaken by the Arabs. In retaliation, Cahokian knights struck back and burned the Taoist holy city to the ground. As Taoists comprised less than 1% of the world's population at the time, none of whom lived in Mississippia, outrage at home was minimal.

​

The Mississippians were relieved in the beginning of 1494, when the Germans and their vassals ended the war against Sumeria. Unwilling to continue its losing war against the great European power, the Sumerian government, now based in the conquered Chinese city of Beijing, sued for peace. This eliminated the need for a second war with Sumeria for the Cahokians.
​

​

That year, the campaign in Sub-Saharan Afrika ground back into gear, with advances all across the continent. First to fall was the city of Aydab on Madagascar. With its surrender to Cahokian knights and riflemen, the last Arabian colony had been captured. Soon afterward, Aden, in East Afrika, fell to a regiment of riflemen. The defenders were classical-style archers, which seemed to indicate that the Arabian Empire was running low on funds.

​

By the end of 1494, the Arabs' largest Central Afrikan city, Fustat, fell to Cahokian knights. The remaining knights of the South Afrikan army headed west from there, to finally reach the West Afrikan coast.

​

In 1496, on coast of what we would call Cote d'Ivoire, the general of the northern army, and that of the southern army, met as their armies approached one another. They shook hands solemnly, secure in the knowledge that the war was essentially over.

​

On November 11, 1498, a ceasefire was agreed to by Arabia and Mississippia. With his capital threatened, his homeland ravaged, his colonies conquered or destroyed, and his armed forces reduced to a non-entity, the Arabian caliph beseeched the Mississippian emperor for mercy. The people of Arabia, enraged at their leader's perceived cowardice, stormed his palace and beheaded him. The Cahokian occupying army used this as an opportunity to place a Mississippian-friendly caliph on the Arab throne, effectively turning Arabia into a Mississippian vassal state. Mississippia kept its conquests, but eventually turned Baghdad over to the Arabs and established a base on the island of Socotra instead.

​

With the only potential military threat against the Mississippian heartland humbled, Mississippians took a collective sigh of relief. November 11 would forever be celebrated as Armistice Day across all of Mississippia, Europe, and the Middle East. The Indian-Mongol conflict had ended some months prior, and the Germans declared peace with the Arabs after the caliph was replaced. But still, the Cahokian emperor was unnerved by the slaughtering of the Arab monarch by his own subjects, and withdrew even further away from the populace than he already had. This stirred discontent in an already alienated populace, who soon grew to resent the distant and occasionally even cruel aristocracy. With a suffering economy, disenfranchised workers, and Marxist rhetoric floating around the darker parts of the capital, the air was ripe for revolution.

The Cahokian Empire in 1498. Not visible is Moundville, in Australia.​

 

[Gruekiller]

Revolution and Modernization: The Troubled 16th Century (Pt. 1)

Red revolutionaries storm the palace in Cahokia.

"For the people! For the workers!" - Pictured revolutionaries prior to storming the palace.
​

By AD 1500, it was too late for the corrupt and inefficient imperial government to survive. Groups of varying communist and socialist viewpoints worked in concert to plan the overthrowing of the emperor, launching the Mississippian Revolution that November. A horde of unemployed soldiers and laborers overcame the palace's guards, and executed the last emperor of Cahokia, Great Hawk XI. By the time the dust had settled at the end of the year, the capital had moved to the Delta city of Poverty Point, and all private property had been seized by the state. A representative body, the People's Council, was set up in the capital to rule Mississippia as a totalitarian, communist oligarchy. This raised alarm all over the world: if the emperor of the mightiest nation on the planet could fall to rebellion, all of them could.

​

India, fearing for its continued survival in a hostile world, came to the People's Council and beseeched them for protection against potential threats. The People's Council agreed, setting up a socialist government in Delhi. India would from then on fall within the Cahokian sphere of influence.

​

A major policy of the new Mississippian ruling council was the granting of colonies' independence as sovereign People's Republics, to increase the number of its socialist allies. One step in this direction was to send galleons with settlers to the continent of Australia, in the hopes of making the colony self-sufficient enough to become an independent nation.

​

The first Mississippian colony to gain autonomy was the Democratic People's Republic of Afrika (DPRA), a sprawling nation comprised of both Cahokia's old colonies in South Afrika, as well as conquests gained from the Arabs on the continent. This nation was to hold the vital trade route city of Damascus as well. Its capital was at the city of Afrika, the oldest city in the continent's Confucian south.

​

Following shortly afterward was the much smaller Democratic Republic of Madagascar (DRM), comprised of the cities taken from the Arabs in the Great War. It was very much a mix-matched country, being ethnically Afrikan, culturally Arab, and politically Mississippian.

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As settler parties advanced into the Australian interior, they found, to their dismay, that the Chinese had somehow managed to slip a colonizing party into the island continent some time during the Great War. A hasty decision was made in Poverty Point, and the riflemen sent to garrison the new cities rushed in to burn the city to the ground.

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Upon the city's destruction, the Mississippian city of Etowah was built to the south of its ruins. Twelve years later, after a long "phony war", peace was signed with the Chinese, just as the Mongols had declared war on China to join in on the fun. Mississippia went back to building up its Australian cities for full autonomy.

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In 1530, the Australian People's Republic (APR) was granted full autonomy by the People's Council, further lessening the load on the struggling Mississippian economy. Finally, after years scarred by war and political turmoil, Mississippia could return to a semblance of normality and peaceful growth.