Kolumbia (Merveilles des Morte)
Kolumbia is a continent located in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by Meridia, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. Because it is on the Kolumbian Tectonic Plate, Greenland is included as part of Kolumbia geographically. Kolumbia covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), about 16.5% of the Earth's land area and about 4.8% of its total surface.
Approximately 40,000 to 17,000 years ago the first human populations entered Kolumbua during the last glacial period, crossing via the Bering land bridge. From approximately the 6th to 16th centuries the Kolumbian Classic Era occurred at various points across the continent. Around the year 1000 AD the first permanent European presence was established in the continent by Norse settlers, in what became known as Vinland. The presence of Vinland would have unintended consequences on the native populations of the continent, contributing to the widespread depopulation from old world diseases. In the Kolumbian northeast, where contact with Europeans was greatest, native populations coalesced into larger confederacies aided by the infusion of European technology. In the region of Oasisamerica in the Kolumbian Southwest a series of urbanized, technologically advanced civilizations emerged, influenced from trade across the continent and from Mesoamerica.
Although small scale European contact persisted for a few centuries prior, in the year 1491 widespread European exploration and colonization of Kolumbia began, following the expedition of Hanseatic explorer Christopher Kolumbus (the continent's namesake).
History
Early Classical Era
The period of archaeological cultures in Kolumbia from approximately 500 to 1200 AD is often called the Early Classical Era. Kolumbian societies of this period developed complex craft specialization and metallurgy. Social organization developed into the beginnings of urbanism and large ceremonial centers, as reliance on agriculture, production, and trade grew. Ideologically, classes of priests or theocrats developed to administer formalized religious rites.
In the center of Kolumbia the Mississippian Culture developed, famed for its large earthen platform mounds, urban settlements, and satellite villages linked together by expansive trade networks. The Mississippian civilization would spread from the Atlantic coast to the edge of the Great Palins, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Upper Midwest. The heart of the civilization appeared to be the city of Cahokia, located along the Mississippi River, which sprouted into a settlement of some 20,000 people by the 13th century. Cahokia would possess a complex, stratified social hierarchy, which appears to have been appropriated by most of its neighbors. The Mississippian Culture's trade network stretched far into the Kolumbian northeast, where traders developed a form of sign language that served as a lingua franca for merchants.
Vinland
Around the year 1000 explorers from Greenland first made contact with Kolumbia, settling the island that would later become known as Vinland. Over time the Norse settlers outcompeted the native Beothuk people, although they also heavily intermarried with native populations, creating a hybrid Norse-Beothuk culture after greater contact with the rest of the European world diminished. Early Vinland became consolidated into about a dozen different, loosely cooperative chiefdoms, who traded and interacted with various native nations to different degrees. The early Vinlanders would inadvertently introduce smallpox and other old world diseases into the Kolumbian northeast, which devastated nations in the region in the short term. They also introduced horses, steel, and Christianity into the northeast in small numbers.
Vinland revolutionized the native nations of northeast Kolumbia, in some cases for better or worse. Surrounding nations to Vinland were catalyzed into forming more centralized nations by the introduction of Vinlander technology, disease, and trade. The Miꞌkmaq just southwest of Vinland developed urbanized port settlements from the synoecistic amalgamation of earlier villages and seasonal gathering sites, in order to build boats and exploit trade with the Vinlanders most efficiently. The region later evolved into the Wabanaki Confederacy under pressure from Vinland and later Europeans. Other nations that used the Vinlander revolution to their advantage would be the Iroquois, who later became the foremost conquerors of the northeast. The spread of disease by Vinland may have contributed to the general decline of the Mississippian Civilization. By 1400 the civilization had branched off into numerous disconnected groups, and disease epidemics likely cut off trade temporarily and toppled old politico-religious structures.
Oasisamerica
In the Kolumbian southwest, a region commonly nicknamed Oasisamerica, the region underwent severe societal decline in the late 13th century, catalyzed by exceptionally long periods of drought. Older cities were abandoned or heavily depopulated, as Ancestral Puebloan peoples began migrating further south. Older religious customs and government hierarchies were toppled, warfare became common, and new centers of civilization emerged, including the town of Taos in the northeast edge of the region. Taos became one of the cities to weather the harsh conditions of the period and overcome them, later developing into one of the strongest urban centers in the Puebloan world. Taos would become a founding member of a tree-part alliance with the cities of Łocǫ́lhəo and Chaco, in what would become the so-called Pueblo Empire.
As the Puebloans and other groups pushed southward, more complex, fortified citadels emerged, known as the Hų́łothə́na, which began to dot the southern landscape. A series of conflicts known as the Hų́łothə́na Wars broke out throughout the 14th century, which saw the Puebloan peoples gradually assert hegemony over the southern reaches of OTL Arizona and New Mexico, settling key cities such as Cíwena (Phoenix). Puebloan style infrastructure spread across the region, and urbanized societies sprang up in neighboring regions, leading to powerful city states such as the Kingdom of the Delta centered at the city of Shuhthagi Ki:him.
A complex trade network emerged across the southern deserts of Ngáchishtemal, which linked the Puebloan civilization to the burgeoning coastal city states of the Pacific coast. A loose elective confederacy or "empire" emerged in the region, periodically dominated by hegemons from powerful tribes. States such as the Delta or O'odham traded extensively with the Mesoamerican cultures of the south, helping to introducing writing and other technology to the north.
European Colonization
Beginning around the year 1491, widespread exploration and colonization of Kolumbia occurred on the part of European and African powers. The earliest European colonies emerged in Meridia, Mesoamerica, and southern Kolumbia, with the first colony in Kolumbia proper not emerging until 1533, with the settlement of Carolingia by the Hanseatic League. Other European nations soon followed, including the settlement of New England by England in the midatlantic region, French colonies near Vinland and south of Carolingia, and settlements by Sweden, the Celtic Union, and others. Early European colonists traded with native peoples, especially those in the northeast, strengthening nations such as the Iroquois. In the south the lightly populated colonies that emerged worked extensively with native peoples, who became known as the "Civilized Tribes" for their rapid introduction of European technology and customs.
Footnotes
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