BT II - Years 600-270 BC
Americas:
The Olmecs and the Zapotecs are still the only two civilizations of note, albeit the Mayans are becoming somehow more civilized under their dual influence as well. The Olmecs are and were a mercantile civilization first and foremost, in spite of a dynasty and a capital change. The attempts to develop better cannoes brought not much fruit during all this time until recently an island to the east was - barely - reached. Back on the mainland, some rather minor expansion took place through a combination of cultural assimilation and actual fighting. The Zapotecs, meanwhile, expanded greatly, being much more warlike. Still, for now no fighting between Olmecs and Zapotecs took place.
Europe:
Facing the ever-growing Germannic, Portuguese and Ligurian/Kartyrian pressure, some of the Gaelic tribes were united under the rule of Luernios I peacefully, as per the decision of the Council of Gergovia in 598 BC. Others... by a combination of army-backed diplomacy and plain ordinary conquest. Either way, by the time of Atorios I (ruled 524-481), the southern third of Gaul and parts of Central Gaul as well were as good as unified under the enlightened Arvernii rule. However, not all went as well afterwards. An on-and-off war with Portugal filled much of the 6th and 5th centuries, and the Parisii united the northern third of Gaul using this distraction. Finally, some of the Germannic tribes to the east, between Rivers Rhine and Danube, were united as Allemagnia. The Allemagnii culture and nation were an interesting example of a combination of xenophobia and active trade, especially with Ligurians and thus also Kartyrians. Albeit they, after expelling the Danubean Celts, did not in particular harm any other Celtic tribes - not from either of the unions, anyway - the Allemagnii stood and still stand ready to fight. Back in Arvernii Gaul, the Gauls after a lengthy war with Portugal faced rather modest successes, and finally the Garonne river was established as the Portuguese-Gaelic borders. Britanny, which was hard for the Portuguese to control anyway, was thus now a part of Gaul, angering Parisii.
Portugal, for the most part, was doing quite well, apart from the shortcomings in Gaul. Expansion in North Africa brought about another war with Carthage (455-432 BC; a draw; North Africa partitioned), and as a result the past modernization efforts begun to pay fruit at an even faster rate, with a construction of a good fleet (which, however, so far proved unable to reach out far enough to the west to reach the rumored faraway land of Brasil; not that a lot of people believe in it, just king Raus IV, who ruled in late 5th century, seeemed to think that it exists).
The Gauls also - at first separately, but later from the unified Arvernii Gaul - raided Kartyria, Liguria (causing most Ligurians to flee to Kartyria, joining their relatives there, or to Italia, where they caused lots of havoc) and Italia. Italia was until then comparatively peaceful, but the raid devastated the Clusian League, causing it to fall apart and its cities to later join the Roman one for protection. The raids stopped by 270 BC, for the most part. But not before the Arvernii king Luernios III in 281 BC personally lead an army all the way to Rome and looted the city, killing King Valeris II in battle. The instability that followed firstly allowed a more permanent Gaelic occupation of Po Valley and secondly badly damaged the prestige of the Tarquin Dynasty; albeit Rome was rebuilt soon to be even better then before, and a new heir rose to power, this prestige was not to be regained and as of now there were in Rome talks of a revolution to impose a new form of government - a Republic. Ofcourse, different people had different perceptions of it, and many feared that it will end up just like with Syracuse. So perhaps a new dynasty was the way to go? Or maybe the old one could have made a comeback? Still, as Rome stabilizes, things didn't look as bad as they used to just a few years before.
Apart from defending stoically from Gaelic raids, Kartyria somehow expanded in Coastal Liguria, gained a colony in Corsica and turned Kartyr into a great Western Mediterranean trade center. Oddly enough, Kartyrian trade was not often attacked by pirates, who mostly concentrated on Carthaginian trade, greatly distracting trade from the Carthaginian port of Syracuse, albeit Carthage itself was still important. All-in-all, albeit Kartyria failed to expand across Liguria as was often hoped, it did quite well during these three centuries and three decades.
Further east into Europe... Two new nations arise, the comercially-minded Dacia (in early 6th century) and the more militant and also more civilized (some say Latinized/Hellenized/Trojanized) Illyria (in late 4th century). Neither of those so far left any serious mark on history, but as violent and interesting times draw close again, they will see either doom, either glory.
In the wake of Eram's death, a succession crisis nearly tore the Byzantine Empire apart, but finally it was decided that Eram's half-Thracian son should rise to power, confirming the Eramid Dynasty's rule. Trajan I, named so for the abandoned city of Troy, proved a capable ruler; he defeated the Scythians from the north, and the Illyrian raiders from the west; but sadly he died before he could invade Sparta. This would be done much later, by Eram III in 422 BC, when he used the instability in Greece - as the Aetolian polises seceded from Sparta in open rebellion - to crush the rebuilt, but still not fully recovered Spartan army of Mermerus IV. By the end of the century, the final rebellions were stamped down and (the burned-down) Sparta was already rebuilt as a Byzantine city. Byzantium itself became a trade center as well, and despite the defeat of Seuthes II at Scodra in 376 the Byzantines continued to be a great force, which now only needed a leader to awaken its strenght and lead its warriors to glory.
The northernmost Aramid lands up to now were quite easy to maintain and control, albeit apart from the coastlands they were extremelly undevelopped. But recently, with the rise of Sarmatians who pushed Scythians and Iranians out of their old lands, the Lucan situation to the north begins to look as dangerous as it never before was. Far to the south, the Lucans after a century more of intensive naval fighting, already during the rule of Techae II, reconquered Cyprus and massacred the entire population; ofcourse, Techae the Horrible was well-knows for such massacres, much unlike most other Lucan Viziers. This was nasty, but efficient.
Africa:
Portuguese rule expanded far into Northern Africa, across all of the Mauri in the late 5th/early 4th centuries, but the area still was rather under-developed, and was increasingly threatened by the Berbers.
Carthage quite recouped from its losses despite the piracy. Megabal II (ruled 401 BC-342 BC) especialy contributed to this recouping by assembling a grand armade that has wiped out the pirates and allowed much trade to flow towards Carthage and Sabratha. With newfound force on land and sea alike, Carthage was now ready for a new, great war of revenge.
Egypt, meanwhile, was stagnating. The previous dynasty had made many great conquests, but eventually it was overthrown. The current dynasty, reigning since 532 BC, brought some expansion to the south, making contact with the land of Cush and coming into conflict with it; but after that, all it did is lose and rebuild the fleet in the struggles with various pirates. Not very inspiring, especially with the rise of barbaric peoples further south; yet, hope was not yet lost, as the people of Egypt looked forward at the rule of the new Pharaoh.
Middle East:
The behemoth of Aramid Luca still dominated this part of the world in 270 BC. It is hard to say if things were going poorly or not for it. Cypriot pirates brought devastation to the already-desolate land, but Techae II put an end to that - and to the Cypriots themselves - in 505 BC - and since then trade flourished, with Astya and Techea (former Nicosia) as trade centers. The Scythians were eventually assimilated by the Lucans, albeit in 498 the Aramid power was nearly overthrown in the Great Highlander Rising; yet, it was subdued. Hay-Urartu, as time went by, was almost-peacefully integrated into the empire, and the Minoan/Trojan/Babylonian rebel already shut up. But not even Tachae managed to exterminate the Phoeniceans, who started rebellion after rebellion, despite the futility of it all. By 270 BC, however, apart from the Phoenicean problem and the growing nomad threat to the north, Luca seemed to have recovered. Halaban, their religion, spread far, and much expansion into Arabia took place. But this brought Luca into conflict with a new, nascent power to their south.
The Semitic tribes in Arabia were not only the ordinary Arabs. Some of those pther tribes - that at some time lived in Ur, Babylonia and Phoenicea - were with driven out by constant warfare into this desert. They were the Hebrews, the Jews, who eventually settled on the western coast of Arabia; in the land they called "Israel" (nearby tribes called it "Yehudistan"). The Jews had their own language and their own quite unique monotheist religion, as well as something of an urban tradition; they built three cities, Mecca, Yathrib (later called Yir - "The City") and Jiddah. At first, however, they were something of outcasts because of their difference from the other Semitic tribes, and had no plans to change that. Their religion itself was not very widespread even in their own rank and not very developped until a few hundred years ago a man called Abraham started preaching Judaism, a reformed version of that religion. He had many followers, but they were all expelled from Mecca to Yathrib, from where they eventually came back in force, siding with Bedouins who were converted to this faith. And so he united Israel under one rule, and made Mecca his capital. Albeit in circa 410 BC he died, his followers continued his work, converting nearby tribes and expanding the trade network as well. Then came the rule of Judges,
shoftim, who lost control over large parts of Israel; however, eventually one particularily militant Judge, Moshe/Moses rose to power. He, too, reformed Judaism; the religion that emerged is often called Mosesism. The new religion was a one of war, war to spread the One True Faith. In 270 BC, the Israelite armies stood ready to begin conquering.
Further east, Cyrusid Parhae, a Mohenjo-daran vassal state, survived despite the occasional rebellion. However, those rebellions were by 270 BC beginning to become less and less rare, as Mohenjo-daro became clearly overstretched...
South (and Central) Asia:
To the north from Mohenjo-daro, a new sinister threat has appeared. Up until now, the Aranian tribes limited their activity to nasty, but ineffective raiding, being disunited as they were. But recently - in 278 BC - a powerful and cunning new warlord of the already-strong Bactra tribe, razh Viyatri, with stick and carrot unified many of those tribes. And promised them glory, glory and greatness. Or so the rumors said, anyway...
Mohenjo-daro, up to then oblivious to this threat, had an eventful time to say the least. The great Aryan rebellion was only put down in 587 BC, albeit smaller ones appeared here and then. Mohenjo-daro was clearly overstretched and would have collapsed if not for Emperor Doriva the Great (ruled 395-361 BC) who - apart from other things - defeated rebel chieftains and centralized the Mohenjo-daran Empire. He also oversaw the development of Sutkagen Dor into a trade center and the Gangetic War. That war arose over an old territorial dispute between Kuru-Pañcala and Kalinga in the northwest of Ganges. After the Magadhan Collapse, Kuru-Pañcala grabbed a small, but rich slice of land on the Ganges, and eventually laid claim to even more nearby lands. King Yakara of Kalinga did not like it at all, and in 378 the war started. Kuru-Pañcala fared unexpectedly well at first, having trained its army for the task for a few decades now, but eventually the Kalingans pushed Kuru-Pañcala back, winning the Battle at Mathura and invading Kuru-Pañcalan heartland. The king of Kuru-Pañcala died in battle, and the succession was unclear; the heir was to be either the future Emperor Viya II, either a local prince. Doriva promised help in exchange for Viya getting the throne, and thus uniting the two nations, and the Kuru-Pañcalans agreed. Even then, Kalingan forces after retreating somewhat won the battle at Vidisha in 371, but the aging Doriva persuaded them to sign peace, restoring status quo and partitioning the southern Dravidian lands. In 361, Doriva died, and Viya II inherited an even greater empire; but it was now even more desperately overstretched. That hardly changed by 270 BC.
Apart from that setback, Kalingans did fairly well. Arts and science flourished, sanitation was improved and trade brought prosperity. The Cholas, a rising power that tried to gain control over the trade routes in the south of the Bengalian Sea [1], were in 348 invaded by Deccania, Kalinga and Sinhala, and partitioned afterwards. This, however, needlessly strenghthened Sinhala, so Kalinga might have to fight that as well.
Religiously, India was also... interesting. Hinduism has fractured into two major branches - Kalingan (known for its more liberal and in the same time more documentary approach), or Vaishnavism, and Deccanian, or Shaivism. Deccanian is dominant in the west and the north; Kalingan, in the south and the east... but in Sinhala, a local religion, Sanghism [2], arose. All three for some reason didn't co-exist in complete agreement.
Ofcourse, that's not all we have in South Asia. There's also Indochina and Indonesian. Here, the Kalingans expanded rather freely, crushing some Mon-Khmer and Malay statelets, and coming into contact with Hong Kee merchants. Albeit the way Kalingans expand is somewhat ruthless, their policies are not in particular cruel, albeit they do destroy native cultures by assimilation. However, not all is well - for instance, the Sinhalese have followed them here, setting up trade posts on Sumatra. Native resistance also strenghthens and becomes much more organized, albeit in some cases it is hardly actual resistance - rather, large states, all of them Kalingan Hinduist, begin to appear. On Malay peninsula, the Tumasek League arose. In Indochina itself, Dvaravati and Funnan appear as well. Further east there, rumors appear of a state called Champa, which, however, is more under Hong Kee influence... speaking of which, the Hong Kees have set up a trade post on Borneo. And another one, too.
Far East:
The Hong Kees developed pink pottery. In response, the Han Chinese copied all the Hong Kee social reforms, ideas and even built a complete copy of the (now-finished) Kowloon Academy in Shanghai. This caused brief but violent border fighting, but when both rulers died in battle their successors got tired of that and stoped the war.
Apart from that, and some other stuff, this was a peaceful time. In Han China, after some rabid expansion at the expense of Sinites who are sent fleeing south, the attention was turned north instead, and the Great Wall was built. Confucius was invoked by yet another Emperor [3], and civil service appeared. A Silk Route was set up towards the great western lands of Mohenjo-daro and Bactrasha, albeit trade with lands further west so far was rather slow to be established. The real problem with that route was that it only existed at the whim of various Xiong-nu tribes in the area. Arts and science were encouraged [4], a fleet is built and sent to go boldly where no Han Chinese went before, but the problem is that most explorers take up to commiting suicide due to the "unexplored lands" they found often being already tightly-packed with Hong Kee merchants.
Speaking of whom, the Hong Kees send out annual expeditions, and despite the occasional storms destroying ships, especially in the east, the Hong Kees do discover some more lands, most interestingly "Ka-ling Ah". Academies are built, army, navy and militia are reformed, flying academicians are used for reconaissance purposes, Chen Dynasty rises to power... Money rolls in. Many lands come under Hong Kee influence, albeit only Annam, Ryukyu, Luzon, North Visayas and some of the Sinites join Hong Kong; Choson, Nagasaki, Dian, Champa and Sulu, how ever much influenced, still form their own nations albeit they agreed to trade agreements with Hong Kong. Dian and Nagasaki, however, recently got new leaders who some say might cancel those agreements. Either way, so far so good for Hong Kong.
OOC:
[1] Bay of Bengal, ofcourse.
[2] Similar to OTL Buddhism.
[3] Yay! I can call them "Emperors" now!
[4] Where did I hear that before?
Status of Drake Rlugia?
Insane Panda, any nations you want to take here?
Those who started new nations this BT - I hope I placed everyone right.