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Bergonian History
 Atlantis
-- Called "Catlantia" in Bergonia -- the mythic origins of Bergonia.
2000
BC to 200 BC: The Ancient Era--
Neolithic revolution-- beginning of
agriculture. Cities sprang up in both the west
and the Amota region in the east. Domination by
banda warrior
elites. The Empire of Ceiolai arose
and conquered half of Bergonia from 600 to 200 BC. A heroic age.
A time of epics, passionate pantheism, divination and sorcery. The
beginnings of high art and the stratification of society into social
classes.
200
BC to 200 AD: The Rise of Shufrantei --
The great Prophet Ierecina handed down the
Shufrantei
religion, and within 200 years of his death his followers had
united most of Bergonia into a single civilization. The
warrior
class evolved into a ruling class,
consisting of army officers commanding legions and a fat landed
gentry
living off the peasantry. A few large metropolises and many smaller
cities grew.
200
AD to 550 AD: The Age of the Two Empires: The
Shufrantei era peaked with the
creation of two highly organized Empires, the Necruruean Empire in the
west and the 2nd Ceiolaian Empire in the east. Both followed and
sponsored orthodox Shufrantei. Literature, philosophy, mathematics and
scientific inquiry all flourished. In later times people regarded
this the classic era of Bergonian civilization.
550
AD to 1000 AD: The Medieval Era --
The Necruruean collapsed in a violent
civil war that resulted in the ascendancy of the horrid dictator Prakai
Eleusi, who butchered people like sheep. He attacked and severely
wounded the 2nd Ceiolaian Empire, and thereafter it rapidly
disintegrated. Both empires
fractured into many small states, each ruled by either a tieri (king/dictator) or
a council of aristocrats. Severe famine from 615 to 649 killed
many. The "Endless War" from 771 to 886 took a huge toll on economic
and social health. All this travail depressed the population and
prompted a crisis of
faith in Shufrantei, with many new reformist sects now challenging
orthodoxy.
But this era ends as do most shakedowns-- all that does not die is
strengthened-- with new political and economic stability.
1000
to 1500 AD: The Tanic Era --
A time of expansion. Rise of trader ethics and an urban-based middle class.
In
this cosmopolitan and more skeptical era, a new "minimalist" religion called
Miradi swept Shufrantei aside like a house of
cards. Egalitarian ideologies, urbanism & professionalism sparked a "bourgeoisie
revolution" of sorts. A series of revolutionary wars finally ended the
power of the old military-gentry class, so in most places the rule of law and republican government replaced the
old tieris. After 1300 peace was achieved, the various peoples
prospered, art flourished, and life became very, very good...
Then
on 22 March 1496 came
Christopher Columbus...
1500-1780:
The Colonial Era --
European
explorers and conquistadors come. Plagues
of smallpox and other European diseases decimated the native population, allowing a wave of French, English and
Portuguese
colonists. Native Bergonian culture shattered. Catholic missions converted many of the surviving natives. After winning
the Seven Years War in 1763, Britain briefly controlled all Bergonia.
1780-1920:
The Bergonian Republic
-- In 1780 a coalition of French traders and
native strongmen declared an independent republic. The 1800s saw this state grow
and mature, though not without civil war and ethnic strife. A resurgence in native
population brought revivals and resurgence of Native Bergonian
culture. The Miradi religion adapts, perseveres and grows.
Tension & struggle between Atrei (native) & European cultures, but
mutual
borrowing & synthesis occurs too.
1920-1934:
The Revolution -- After
ten tense years a fiery civil war broke out, and a socialist-syndicalist revolution transformed Bergonia
in the early 1930s.
1934-1980:
The Socialist Era
-- The pluralistic revolutionaries compromised and wrote a
constitution enshrining individual rights and freedoms.
Strict monetary policy was enforced by the new government, while the
economy of worker collective consolidated.
Political debate about how to structure the new economy was lively.
1980-Present:
The "Greening"
-- A great revolution
in public opinion occurred during the 1970s and 1980s with the sudden
triumph of
environmentalism, allowing for a radical turn in public policy and daily
life. Top of the Page "Is there a logic of history? Is there, beyond all
the casual and incalculable elements of the separate elements of the
separate events, something that we may call a metaphysical structure of
historic humanity, something that is essentially independent of the
outward forms - social, spiritual and political - which we see so clearly?
Are not these actualities indeed secondary or derived from that something?
Does world-history present to the seeing eye certain grand traits, again
and again, with sufficient constancy to justify certain conclusions?
And if so, what are the limits to which reasoning from such premises may
be pushed?" (Oswald
Spenger, The Decline of the West)
Do you not
think that the logic of the ant colony eludes the individual ant? Do
you not think that the logic of the forest defies the colony? Aniuei
Capro, Epistemological Limits to History
[Rev. 9 June 06] |
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See an extremely
Detailed Map of Bergonia, 700-1500 AD.
(click, and then click again on the map to
enlarge)
See the entire
historical atlas, 28 maps in all.
The traditional
social classes of ancient Bergonia::
▪The banda
warriors,
once a sharply disciplined class of fighters who conquered Bergonia,
later degenerating into a military aristocracy.
▪The landed nobility, call the
iregemi,
evolved from the banda. In colonial times European settlers
moved into this role. It wasn't until the 1850s that their power over
the peasantry was finally broken.
▪The
priesthood,
by no means homogeneous, including powerful rich prelates who advised
the dictators, spiritual monastics, and ascetics living in the woods.
▪The long-suffering
peasantry,
bound to their
land more by custom an community than by feudal law, residing in
clan-based villages called lunra.
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