Anachronistic Hearts

Tis a world dominated by expansive machines of steel and brass. Technologies powered by steam engines, forging worlds and empires based around huge steam engines and mighty pistons. Dirt; a lot of it. Dirty, coal burning, smoky as Hell, overcrowded Steam Age cities!! Bronze-colored gears on everything, even if they serve no evident purpose. Computers, cars, and Zeppelins. Physically impossible floating islands, a feat caused by volcanic and seismic convulsions.

The Industrial Revolution is already in full swing, and as electricity is not yet as widespread; the emphasis on steam technology, or spring-propelled gadgets, and steam/spring-like aesthetics has flourished worldwide. This merge of man and technology is marked as a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life is influenced by steam, metal, gears, and glass, in some way, shape, or form. Most notably, average income and population have begun to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. The world's average per capita income has increased over ten-fold, while the world's population increased over six-fold; but such results are not all positive.

Socialism emerges as a critique of capitalism. Intellectual and artistic hostilities toward the new industrialization has developed and growing, stressing the importance of "nature" in art and language, in contrast to "monstrous" machines and factories…

Death and illnesses from working in factories, poor working conditions, and poor conditions within cities have become prevalent. And so is the introduction of new and improved methods of labor exploitation, by, from, and benefiting the employer… Children, women, dwarfs, and other types are all available for exploitation. Repression, child labor, and not to mention, rather basic hygiene practices, means that it is not the dreamy landscape that is often portrayed.

And lastly, what may be construed as “honesty in government”, does not exist… So opportunities for theft, bribery, extortion, and general dishonesty in the relationship between business and government are very broad.

Once a thriving planet full of greenery, crystal clear water and furry creatures, the Earth is now a planet overrun with humans, pollution, large cities and so much more. Technology from the Industrial Revolution’s violent attack on the planet has been in opposition to nature; produced at the expense of nature by destroying ecological habitats.

Mother Nature is such a powerful entity..., and she does not take such harm to her lightly. Time and time again, she has proven to be a destructive force, proving that she can take back what’s hers if she wants to.

Though humans have recklessly forced the entire planet down a path of destruction, tis every once in a while, Mother Nature surprises us with her resiliency, super healing abilities and willingness to step in and clean up our messes when we humans prove ourselves incompetent.

Mother Nature has provided us with all the tools we need to protect humanity from the violent and life-threatening spread of viral pandemics, rising seas, extreme weather, spiking temperatures, degraded habitats, uncontrolled wildfires and other catastrophes built from the sheer avarice of the human race.

So here we are… in an overcrowded steam-mandated world, and essentially taking those elements to the furthest extreme. The lands outside the cities are virtually in a time standstill, having been ignored by the city dwellers, and left to Nature’s own method of recovery... and in some cases, mildly over time... in others violently.

Still referred to by conservatives as “Great Britain”... but the countries are more like conglomerates with their own socio-politico-capitalistic agenda. To the Liberals, ”Pax Britannia” appeared to be an advantageous maxim.

The emergence of the ‘Industrial Revolution’, the great age of steam, canals and factories that changed the face of the British economy forever.

London
London is a city of startling contrasts; new buildings and affluent development went hand-in-hand with horribly overcrowded slums where people lived in the worst conditions imaginable. Your quality of life during the Victorian times depended on whether you were rich or poor.
-- Wealthy Londoners enjoyed a good and easy life;
-- Poor Londoners had a rough and hard life, often ending up in the workhouse or early death.

The Wealthy… With the economic expansion of the Industrial Revolution, there are those that made money, and lots of it… They are usually well fed, clean and well clothed…. didn't need to work… live in big houses with servants… went on holidays… their children have expensive toys and go to school.

The Poor… For all the economic expansion of the Industrial Revolution, living conditions among London's poor were appalling… They have few luxuries… eat food they can afford to buy… work long hours… live in damp, filthy conditions... and many children are, Children as young as 5 are street urchins, often set to work begging, or sweeping chimneys… many die of disease.



Liverpool

Liverpool had a large volume of trade was passing through city, and the construction of major buildings reflected this wealth. Liverpool and Manchester became the first cities to have an intercity steam-powered rail link, through the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The population continued to rise rapidly, especially from the 1840s when Irish migrants began arriving by the hundreds of thousands as a result of the Great Famine.

By the mid-to-late 19th century, the wealth of Liverpool exceeded that of London, and Liverpool's Custom House was the single largest contributor to the British Exchequer. Liverpool was the only British city ever to have its own Whitehall office. Liverpool also played a major role in the Antarctic sealing industry, in recognition of which Liverpool Beach in the South Shetland Islands is named after the city.

Being described as "the New York of Europe", Liverpool is attracting immigrants from across Europe. This resulted in construction of a diverse array of religious buildings in the city for the new ethnic and religious groups, many of which are still in use today. A variety of churches, temples, and synagogues were all established to serve Liverpool's growing German, Greek, Nordic and Jewish communities. One of Liverpool's oldest surviving churches, St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, serves the Polish community as a place of worship.

Liverpool has been a center of invention and innovation. Railways, transatlantic steamships, municipal trams, and electric trains were all pioneered in Liverpool as modes of steamed-mass transit. In the early years of 1800s, the first railway tunnels in the world were constructed under Liverpool (Wapping Tunnel), and by the 1870s, steam-powred tram and trains began using the tunnels in regulated systems.

Accomplishments in Liverpool were numerous, beginning with the first School for the Blind, Mechanics' Institute, High School for Girls, council house, and Juvenile Court were all founded in Liverpool. Charities of various kinds all evolved from work in the city. The first lifeboat station, public bath and wash-house, sanitary act, medical officer for health, district nurse, slum clearance, purpose-built ambulance, X-ray medical diagnosis, school of tropical medicine (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), and steam-motorized municipal fire-engine, all originated in Liverpool. The world's first integrated sewer system was constructed in Liverpool mid-to-late 1860s and the Western world's first financial derivatives (cotton futures) were traded on the Liverpool Cotton Exchange in the late 1700s. In the arts, Liverpool was home to the first lending library (The Lyceum), athenaeum society (Liverpool Athenaeum), arts centre (Bluecoat Chambers), and public art conservation centre (National Conservation Centre). It is also home to the UK's oldest surviving classical orchestra (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) and repertory theatre (Liverpool Playhouse). In 1864, Peter Ellis built the world's first iron-framed, curtain-walled office building, Oriel Chambers, which was a prototype of the skyscraper. The UK's first purpose-built department store was Compton House, completed in 1867 for the retailer J.R. Jeffrey. It was the largest store in the world at the time. Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival. These games were the first to be wholly amateur in nature and international in outlook.


For good or ill, Scotland has horrified, mystified, and-or inspired since its earliest beginnings, all the way into the steam era.

The Victorian era brought huge changes to everyday life in Scotland. The advent of the railway shortened journey times and opened up areas of the country previously out of reach to most people, as taking holidays in the Highlands and the Trossachs became popular with those who could afford it.

When Victoria came to the throne in 1837 very few railway lines had been opened in Scotland, and those which were operating were mainly for the benefit of industry, transporting coal and other raw materials between Glasgow, Dundee, and Edinburgh. Within one generation, nearly all of Scotland’s railways had been built, linking most major towns and many small villages, stretching far across the Isle, and operating many lines. Journeys which had taken days, when the fasted method of travel had been the horse-drawn carriage, are now completed in a matter of hours with the advent of steam and steam-power and the rail expansion.

The Victorians of urban Scotland did take a small amount of civic responsibility and searched out new ways to deal with these problems - refuse collection, the widening of dark and narrow streets, huge public buildings and parks were all genuine attempts to create a beautiful urban society. This was often done through local governments, as in the Glasgow City Improvement Acts of the 1860s, when a great deal of the city's worst slum areas were publicly bought and cleared. It became regular practice for public bodies to provide, when the private sector failed to do so and, whether in water management, the creation of new housing, or the supply of gas and other fuel, Glasgow and Victorian Scotland did attempt to provide a basic standard of living through public bodies.


Glasgow and Edinburgh

Holidays in the Glasgow became popular with those who could afford it. Leisure time was more freely available than it had ever been and many new pastimes evolved. Tea rooms were opened and people found time to enjoy themselves in the newly opened music halls and pubs. The diet of the average citizen changed as refrigeration and faster delivery times made the transportation of food easier, and many of the staples which we now associate with a basic standard of living were introduced by the Victorian push to improve and reform.

As Scottish industry flourished and more people were drawn towards urban areas, overcrowding became a serious problem. Sudden, huge increases in the population of the cities, and the housing stock simply couldn't keep apace. The result was overcrowding and slum areas, which were to become the scourge of Scottish cities for many years. Conditions in the slums were appalling - at one point there were only ten water closets in the whole of Glasgow, six of which were in hotels. The problem was just as acute, with an estimated 20,000 people were crammed into dilapidated housing where sanitation was virtually non-existent.

Overcrowding was only part of the problem - dirt bred disease. Glasgow was no stranger to typhus and typhoid. But the city’s trade connections with the Empire soon brought a new plague: cholera. The first Cholera epidemic in 1832 killed 3000 in Glasgow alone, and four hundred years' worth of progress in public health went into free-fall as death rates spiraled back towards 17th century levels. Infectious disease spread easily and it knew no class boundaries - everyone was at risk. Although Glasgow's doctors had first demonstrated a link between dirt and disease in 1842, it wasn't until the cholera epidemics of 1848 and 1853 that minds were focused on the issue. In 1855 the government made the registration of births, deaths and marriages compulsory. Among the information gathered was the cause of death. One of Glasgow's pioneering medical health officers realized that the filthy environment was promoting the spread of disease and he used the new registration information to help persuade Glasgow's City Fathers and reluctant rate-payers to fund an ambitious engineering scheme to bring a clean water supply into the city from Loch Katrine. This scheme combined with Glasgow's new sewage system, of which nearly 50 miles was laid between 1850 and present, began to ease the health and sanitation problem in Glasgow; however, other smaller Scottish towns were more reluctant to pay for such huge enterprises and were characterized by an overpowering stench for much of the period. It was the cities who, through necessity, led the way in public health issues. Sanitary Departments and Medical Officers were appointed who forced a reluctant populace into vaccination and forcibly removed middens or dunghills from under people's noses.

Skye, and her surrounding islands, were the retaliation of Mother Naturewhen the geological events, and its affects, were felt by everything and everyone. Pure Earth's steam, not the generated facsimile.

The Isle of Skye was much different than her kinsmen of other cities and locales. For years, due to the segregation of Scotland Main, those of the Analytical Heritage Party and the Science and Technology Party (STP) ruled most of the area. The lands managed by Sir Edward Robertson were turned into industrial magnates. Then Mother Nature had enough damage done to Mother Earth... and she rebelled with violent odd freaks of nature, shifts in the earth’s core and mantle plates, and volcanos have developed, causing severe damage and deaths... Mother Nature, in some areas, was reclaiming what was hers..


NeuStruan

NeuStruan is a large city of such modern designs. Designs that can be called radical; but truly is the shining star in the Science and Technology Party (STP)’s repertoire of new foundlings. NeuStruan, with a population of around 75,000, is situated on the west coast of the island, on the shores of Loch Beag, itself an inlet of Loch Harport, near the old city of Struan. The old city destroyed by decades of war, then infested with disease. It was the STP that offered a new life to those in the area willing to break away from five centuries of tradition. NeuStruan is powered by the machinations of steam, including the STPs most effective elevators and doors.



Sléibhte

Sléibhte is still the home of the powerful clan "MacDonald of Sleat". The name comes from Sléibhte, Scottish Gaelic for a “plain”, which well describes Sleat when considered in the surrounding context of the mainland, the mountain range on the Skye mainland and the sky mountains of Rhum, all dominate the horizon all about Sleat. The predominate fixture of the city is the Church, the last dominion of the once powerful Roman Catholics.



Isle of Rhùm

Rhùm had been inhabited since the 8th millennium BC and provided the earliest known evidence of human occupation in Scotland. The early Celtic and Norse settlers left only a few written accounts and artifacts. But it would be the explosions on the sea-bed that would nearly destroy the Isles of Lewis-Harris, Rona, and Rum… Now by some odd freak of nature, supposedly shifts in the earth’s core and mantle plates, a volcano has developed and large chunks of land now float above the island. The rich and those seekers of fortune soon develop ways to use the volcano and means to get to the sky islands.


Isle Eilean Leòdhas agus na Hearadh

And the Isles Lewis-Harris have been inhabited for an extraordinary long period of time, where history was history before it was ever written. Gone are the once plentiful golden eagle, red deer and seals... its beautiful scenery now replaced by an active steam volcano.


Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, was originally a Viking settlement and developed around its well sheltered natural harbor. Development of the town was spurred by the construction of the castle by the MacNicol family, themselves of Viking descent. Infighting between rival clans continued until Robert the Bruce brought it under control of Scotland. Stornoway had become a world leader in shipbuilding naval warships and cargo vessels. But as with all great intentions, there are those who would take the good intention down a wrong path. James du’Chere and his Mafioso connections grew like wildfire in the shipping industry… and here five and half centuries later…

Destroyed by war, greed, and the unexplained explosions on the sea-bed the large city was destroyed by tidal waves and a volcano. Beside the last operating pier, thrives a settlement of less than 250 people. Some say they are further developing steam machinations, using byproducts of the volcano.


Gambler’s City is a village of about 150 people of various trades and is a sky merchant center. One of the first merchants to inhabit one of the odd freaks of nature, supposedly caused by shifts in the earth’s core and mantle plates.


Wentworth Castle in the Sky Another one of the freaks of nature, supposedly caused by shifts in the earth’s core and mantle plates. Again, in 1550, the earth shook, and this castle shifted on its foundations… and in 1785, it moved 3 meters… and in 1850, yet in a disturbed by another violent earth shudder, it broke free, entotale, from its earthly bounds, now floating 1200 feet in the air.

With an unforgiving landscape & no easy access, Wales is able to remain pastoral rather than industrial. Emphasis on livestock means the practice of seasonal migration between pastures, allows high mobility & difficulty to control. Wales was ruled by factions of both the Analytical Heritage Party and the Science and Technology Party (STP), thus ruling most of the area in the name of Queen and Country. The lands were turned into industrial magnates; except the Marshes, were industry ne’r tread for fear of financial loss.


Subsumed into the Pax Britannica, the Irish gained no distinctive identity of its own in the world of steam. But conversation and actions actually occurred as part of the struggle of the Fenian ascendancy into the STP against the British colonial powers.

As a consequence of the Rebellion of 1798 and the re-organization of Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom, the Irish Parliament was pressured to abolish itself. From that point on, Irish representatives would be sent to Westminster and direct rule would be imposed. Many in Ireland were skeptical of these events, especially when equal rights for Catholics failed to materialize. Presbyterians were also wary of the new United Kingdom, but, within a generation many of these Protestants became ardent supporters of the union, having benefited from it economically. In the 19th century, Belfast became Ireland's pre-eminent industrial city with industries in linen, heavy engineering, tobacco and shipbuilding dominating trade. Belfast, being situated at the western end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan, was an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry, which would eventually manifest in the Harland and Wolff steam company. Harland and Wolff were one of the largest steam-shipbuilders in the world employing up to 35,000 workers. Surviving the Famine of the 1840s, Ireland developed into the Irish Republic under United the Kingdom... and so the technological companies began to invest in the city of Belfast and Cardiff, while the remainder of the country remained agrarian.


Belfast

Belfast survived the years of Famine... and many individuals accepted the steam-machinations that was invading their city... Now Belfast was an iconic world of steam... but the underbelly of the technological wonders lay disease and hunger.


Cardiff

Cardiff became an industrial city... coal infested atmosphere eventually was cleaned by Mother Nature, and steam clouds replaced the darker clouds... industry would live on... and the people? Well, you may wish to investigate yourself.

England has *accepted* the Industrial Revolution with both the good and the bad; while mainland Europe seeks the opportunities to profit, and as such former countries seek allies, and consolidate against the machinations of Pax Britannia. Thus, the world moved toward a corporate alliance just as Pax Britannia, such as the French Federation, Spanish-Portuguese Alliance, German-Austrian Empire, Prussia-Poland Confederacy, Russian Federation, Italian Coalition, and the Scandinavian Alliance


The inability to compete in the steam-induced industrial revolution, France began consolidating steam enterprise ventures with Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Dutch Republic. Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Brussels, Marseille, and Amsterdam were prime steam-industry product cities, while the Agrarian Party was able to unite the farmers and ranchers by controlling the Federation’s food industry.


The inability to compete in the steam-induced industrial revolution, Spain and Portugal entered unto consolidated steam enterprises.
Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Lisbon were prime steam-industry product cities.

The union of these two countries was the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Spanish Crown. The kings of both countries had married into families of the Naturalist Improvement Party and who truly believes in the true intersection of both mediums, the Agrarian and Technology. In this merger of socio-politico groups, there has been a great improvement in improving food growth, supporting medicinal growth, and charitable endowments. They are also favorite with many scientists who are not extremists in either direction.


Barcelona

Barcelona is a prime example of what visionaries in the Alliance feel is best for the people of both kingdoms. Architecture and the Agrarian lifestyle trul have seemed to merge in this city.


Madrid
But Madrid was the opposite of her sister city. Madrid took on the brutish waves of technology, but was able to properly manage requirements of industry.


The Empirical enterprise of Germany, Yugoslavia and Austria, with Berlin, Koln, Vienna, Bern, Sarajevo as the prime steam-industrial product cities.

Reich Deutschösterreich is a historically prominent German – Austrian state. Following a prolonged struggle in Germany between liberals, who wanted a united, federal Germany and Austria under a democratic constitution, and conservatives, who wanted to maintain Germany as a patchwork of independent, monarchical states with Austria competing for influence. One small movement that signaled a desire for German unification in this period was the Burschenschaft student movement, by students who encouraged the use of the black-red-gold flag, discussions of a unified German nation, and a progressive, liberal political system. Because of Austria's size and economic importance, smaller states began to join its free trade area in the 1820s. Germany benefited greatly from the creation in 1834 of the German Customs Union (Zollverein), which included most German states but excluded Austria.

In 1848, the liberals saw an opportunity when revolutions broke out across Europe, and joined the German version of Britain’s The Analytical Heritage Party, Burschenschaft. Alarmed, King Frederick William IV agreed to convene a National Assembly and grant a constitution. When the Frankfurt Parliament offered Frederick William the crown of a united Germany, he accepted on behalf of all Germans.

The two decades after the unification of Germany were the peak of fortunes, but the seeds for potential strife were built into the political system. The constitution of the German Empire was a slightly amended version of the North German Burschenschaft's constitution. Officially, the German Empire was a federal state. The Hohenzollern German Empire could include more than three-fifths of the Austrian territory and two-thirds of its population. The Imperial Hohenzollern German Army was, in practice, a united army, that bolsetered benefits that could include the other kingdoms (Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg), as well, while Austrian remnants of their Empire was vastly diminished. The imperial German crown was a hereditary office of the House of Hohenzollern, but the empire itself had no right to collect taxes directly from its subjects; the only incomes fully under federal control were the customs duties, common excise duties, and the revenue from postal and telegraph services. While all men above age 25 were eligible to vote in imperial elections, Germany retained its restrictive three-class voting system.

The Austrian Empire functioned as an absolute monarchy until the Revolutions of 1852, after which forced Austria’s monarchy to forfeit to the rights of the people who wanted unification with Germany, and incorporating a Ministerpräsident (prime minister). The Reich Deutschösterreich 1862 Constitution established a two-chamber parliament. The lower house, or Landtag, supported by Britain’s Agrarian-Populist Party (APP) and the Pastoral Union Labor Party (PULP), represented all taxpayers, who were divided into three classes according to the amount of taxes paid. This allowed just over 25% of the voters to choose 85% of the legislature, all but assuring dominance by the more well-to-do elements of the population. The Erste Kammer (First Chamber or upper house), supported by members of Britain’s Analytical Heritage Party and Science and Technology Party (STP), retained full executive authority and ministers were responsible only to the Ministerpräsident.

Witnessing the unification of the Austrian and German government, Yugoslavia, now a failing state made a business arrangement with the stronger imperial organization and joined the Empire thru a treaty.


Berlin


The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the Prussia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary that served as its first constitution of the new mid-European steam confederacy. A guiding principle of the Articles was to preserve the co-dependence of each one of the sovereign signatory states. The central government established by the Articles received those powers which the former sovereign signatory states had recognized as belonging to one steam-industrial corporate nation with prime cities in Knigsberge, Warsaw, Budapest, and Prague.


The steam federation of the Ukrainian amalgamate and the Russian Economical Districts of Tsentralny (central), Uralsky (Urals), Kavkazsky (Caucasus), Povolzhsky-Vyatsky (Volga-Vyatka), Sibirsky (Siberia), and Chernozyomny (Black Earth), with steam-industry capitals in Moscow and Kyiv.


The consolidated steam alliance of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, the Isles of the Barents and Kara Seas with a steam-industry capital in Stockholm.


The coalition of steam amalgamates on Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia, and the Peninsula, with steam-industry capitals in Venezia, Palermo, Cagliari. But one Italian city held out of the Coalition, and burgeoned on its own accord on its own path: Rome and the Vatican City.


Religion has always been a dominating social factor, and this same religious domination can be seen… marked by The Church in the Vatican City which developed such an influence in politics as well as religion that it became difficult to separate the two. Thus, such power began to absorb the other religions a piece at a time, until none remained as any resemblance of their former glories. Religions were reduced to mere conclaves.

The tyrannical power of the Church fostered many problems (lack of space, not relating to its people, hypocrisy, etc.) and created an air where a variety of dissenting groups could form and develop. The atmosphere of the High Church compared to that of the dissenting groups explains why the shift of religion occurred with such a large response.

In the High Church, funding came from the wealthy, which in turn gave them a piece of the church as property—pews. These pews were branded with a family name and would pass from generation to generation. If the family moved, the pew would remain vacant not open for others to sit in! This left the lower classes to standing rooms or sitting on the floor -- neither of which leave a person feeling morally or spiritually uplifted.

Rome and the Vatican City became a wealthy, and brilliant, example of cleanliness, technology, and religion merged... on top. Beneath its layer of prosperity lay the subsurface scum of criminality.

The American continents, both north and south, are making their own way with technology; with steam-industry capitals in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, and Lima.

The technological and industrial history of the United States describes the American emergence as one of the most technologically advanced corporate-nations in the world, only behind Pax Britannia. The availability of land and literate labor, the absence of a landed aristocracy, the prestige of entrepreneurship, the diversity of climate and large easily accessed upscale and literate markets all contributed to America's rapid industrialization. The availability of capital, development by the free market of navigable rivers and coastal waterways, as well as the abundance of natural resources facilitated the cheap extraction of energy all contributed to America's rapid industrialization.

The technological and industrial development in the United States was facilitated by a unique confluence of geographical, social, and economic factors. As time passed and steam-technology burgeoned, the use of coal and other fuels, lessened... In competition with Pax Britannia, the US opened borders to Canada and Mexico to facilitate trade and ideas... within a few years, major companies began to invade the countries of Central America and South America. Cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, and Lima became powerful partners, far outreaching those of the frozen northlands, deserts and jungles of the southlands.

In order to successfully compete in the world steam industry, the peoples living in the land of East Asians, Southeast Asians, South Asians and Oceanians, where China, Mongolia, Japan, Han Gul, and the Southern Thais leading the way, have banded together to form the Asiatic Empire, and are prime contenders in the Steam market and Airship business; and amalgamate countries seek allies, and consolidate against the machinations of Pax Britannia, with steam-industry capitals in Tokyo, Sydney, Auckland, Shanghai, Bombay, and Jakarta.

This Asiatic Empire is an imperialist concept which was developed in the Tokyo and propagated to Asian populations, extending across the Asia-Pacific and promoted the economic and cultural unity of all Asians and Oceanians. It also declared the intention to create a self-sufficient bloc of Asian nations which would be led by the leader of each nation formulated into a governing bloc that would also be free from the rule of Western powers, and the ability to compete with Pax Britannia in the world’s steam industry.



Tokyo


Sydney


Outer Islands

The African Territories are a rich resource of conservative, untouched wealth and a big resentment of advancement. Prime cities in the loose alliance are Cairo, Casablanca, Jerusalem, Nairobi.

Africa has the longest and oldest economic history. As soon as human societies came into existence, so did economic activity. Even then there was considerable trade that could cover long distances, with evidence of trade in luxury items across the entirety of the continent were the main trades of the Berber people, lived in dry areas and became nomadic herders, while in the savannah grasslands, cultivated crops and thus permanent settlement were possible. Agriculture supported large towns, and eventually large trade networks developed between the towns.

While some level of trade had been ongoing, the rise of cities and empires made it far more central to the African economy. North Africa was central to the trade of the entire Mediterranean region. Outside of Egypt, this trade was mostly controlled by the Phoenicians who came to dominate North Africa, with Carthage becoming their most important city. The Greeks controlled much of the eastern trade, including along the Red Sea with Ethiopia. In this region a number of Greek trading cities that were established acted as a conduit for their civilization and learning.
The forests of West Africa also became part of trade networks. Much trade in the forest kingdoms was done at the local level, typically by ordinary people at local markets.

Then came the years of colonization by the European powers, literally dividing the *Dark Continent* amongst themselves for the riches the lands could afford.

As steam and industry merged in Britain, and rapid industrialization spread like wildfire through the world to compete, controlled countries in Africa, sought freedom from European... European countries as well as world neighbors found nations realigning as steam-technology took, and the socio-politico cultures it formulated was changing the Earth and its national structures. Pacts, Alliances and Confederations were increasingly developing...political conflict erupted into civil war in some countries, particularly the undeveloped lands of Africa... and the political instability kept some economies mired for many years. Some African governments faced practical problems in implementing industrial change as they attempted rapid modernization of their economies; costing and mismanagement problems in agricultural, manufacturing, and other sectors meant the failure of many projects. One result was African countries becoming increasingly dependent upon foreign food imports.