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Zalgisbeck: Difference between revisions
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==History== | ==History== | ||
Zalgisbeck's history long predates its status as part of Hendalarsk, as it was only incorporated into the country in the course of the [[Maximilianic Unification]] in the 16th century. The city was connected to the country even before then, however, as its position at the mouth of the Zalgis made it a key entrepôt for Hendalarskara traders intrepid enough to venture into the Vandarch. | Zalgisbeck's history long predates its status as part of Hendalarsk, as it was only incorporated into the country in the course of the [[Maximilianic Unification]] in the 16th century. The city was connected to the country even before then, however, as its position at the mouth of the Zalgis made it a key entrepôt for Hendalarskara traders intrepid enough to venture into the Vandarch. | ||
===Ancient history (c. 1000 BC - c. 100 AD)=== | |||
Recent archaeological excavations suggest that Zalgisbeck was first settled by the [[Nünsyak people|Nünsyak]], the auochthonous pre-Gothic inhabitants of northern Hendalarsk, in approximately 1000 BC; at that time the Nünsyak cultural sphere is believed to have encompassed all of the lower Zalgis as well as the better-known Nünsyak settlements along the [[Herne]]. Its [[Nünsyi language|Nünsyi]] name is not recorded, although Nünsyak political figures have adopted the name ''Nönst'Altx'' (Western Gateway) in recent years; Hendalarskara scholarly convention is to refer to the pre-Gothic settlement as Old Zalgisbeck and this is the only designation which enjoys official recognition. | Recent archaeological excavations suggest that Zalgisbeck was first settled by the [[Nünsyak people|Nünsyak]], the auochthonous pre-Gothic inhabitants of northern Hendalarsk, in approximately 1000 BC; at that time the Nünsyak cultural sphere is believed to have encompassed all of the lower Zalgis as well as the better-known Nünsyak settlements along the [[Herne]]. Its [[Nünsyi language|Nünsyi]] name is not recorded, although Nünsyak political figures have adopted the name ''Nönst'Altx'' (Western Gateway) in recent years; Hendalarskara scholarly convention is to refer to the pre-Gothic settlement as Old Zalgisbeck and this is the only designation which enjoys official recognition. | ||
Old Zalgisbeck was a substantial settlement by the standards of the time, with an estimated population of c.5,000 by 900BC, but was likely peripheral in the Nünsyak order, with the Herne rather than the Zalgis at the heart of Nünsyak culture, cosmology and trade. Although the original inhabitants of the Zalgis watershed before Gothic settlement cultivated the river's banks, there is little evidence of long-distance trade between Old Zalgisbeck and any area of the Zalgis south of modern Agaren, suggesting a patchwork of stable but relatively small subsistence societies along the river's course rather than major polities. Military conflict seems to have begun within a few decades of the Gothic irruption into southern Hendalarsk in around 750 BC, however, as the presence of Gothic-typed weapons in burn layers of the Old Zalgisbeck archaeological record imply destructive Gothic raids along the Zalgis. Both Gothic and Nünsyak oral traditions recorded in the early first millennium AD suggest that the lower Zalgis, and Old Zalgisbeck with it, had been dislocated from the Nünsyak sphere by no later than 500 BC, and Old Zalgisbeck seems to have collapsed as an urban centre of consequence by 300 BC, although small-scale habitation persisted well beyond the city's collapse due to the opportunities for a fishing economy afforded by its natural harbour. | Old Zalgisbeck was a substantial settlement by the standards of the time, with an estimated population of c.5,000 by 900BC, but was likely peripheral in the Nünsyak order, with the Herne rather than the Zalgis at the heart of Nünsyak culture, cosmology and trade. Although the original inhabitants of the Zalgis watershed before Gothic settlement cultivated the river's banks, there is little evidence of long-distance trade between Old Zalgisbeck and any area of the Zalgis south of modern Agaren, suggesting a patchwork of stable but relatively small subsistence societies along the river's course rather than major polities. Military conflict seems to have begun within a few decades of the Gothic irruption into southern Hendalarsk in around 750 BC, however, as the presence of Gothic-typed weapons in burn layers of the Old Zalgisbeck archaeological record imply destructive Gothic raids along the Zalgis. Both Gothic and Nünsyak oral traditions recorded in the early first millennium AD suggest that the lower Zalgis, and Old Zalgisbeck with it, had been dislocated from the Nünsyak sphere by no later than 500 BC, and Old Zalgisbeck seems to have collapsed as an urban centre of consequence by 300 BC, although small-scale habitation persisted well beyond the city's collapse due to the opportunities for a fishing economy afforded by its natural harbour. | ||
===Early medieval history (c.100 - c.1100)=== | |||
The city's fortunes gradually turned in subsequent centuries. Gothic colonists reached the site by no later than 100 AD, at which point its geographic value once again gradually became clear. Zooarchaeological analysis has begun to highlight the large-scale presence of Vandarch fish stocks in the upper Zalgis by c.200AD ± 35 years, with large middens also found around the port of Zalgisbeck itself. In tandem with the local salt springs, historians have tentatively speculated that early Gothic Zalgisbeck was therefore a fish processing emporium, where freshly caught Vandarch fish was salted and exported up the Zalgis to meet dietary and religious demand. Given the costs involved in transportation hundreds of miles upriver, Zalgisbecker stockfish may have been a status symbol among the nascent Hendalarskara elites. The city's subsequent early medieval political development is unclear, although archaeological and texual evidence implies that it may have been an early beneficiary of the Vandarch slave trade. What is clear is that by 1000 AD Zalgisbeck was a powerful Gothic-dominated oligarchic republic, with commerical interests across much of the Vandarch littoral. Christian preachers to the region often denounced the city by comparing it to the legendary Babylon, while Nünsyi texts and oral traditions alike record the city as alternately a trading partner and a baleful foe. Increased awareness of the Latin world around this period led Zalgisbecker rulers to begin styling themselves as "Archons", and the high medieval republic of Zalgisbeck is consequently often referred to as the [[Archonate of Zalgisbeck]] (''Arkonat Zalgisbeck''). | The city's fortunes gradually turned in subsequent centuries. Gothic colonists reached the site by no later than 100 AD, at which point its geographic value once again gradually became clear. Zooarchaeological analysis has begun to highlight the large-scale presence of Vandarch fish stocks in the upper Zalgis by c.200AD ± 35 years, with large middens also found around the port of Zalgisbeck itself. In tandem with the local salt springs, historians have tentatively speculated that early Gothic Zalgisbeck was therefore a fish processing emporium, where freshly caught Vandarch fish was salted and exported up the Zalgis to meet dietary and religious demand. Given the costs involved in transportation hundreds of miles upriver, Zalgisbecker stockfish may have been a status symbol among the nascent Hendalarskara elites. The city's subsequent early medieval political development is unclear, although archaeological and texual evidence implies that it may have been an early beneficiary of the Vandarch slave trade. What is clear is that by 1000 AD Zalgisbeck was a powerful Gothic-dominated oligarchic republic, with commerical interests across much of the Vandarch littoral. Christian preachers to the region often denounced the city by comparing it to the legendary Babylon, while Nünsyi texts and oral traditions alike record the city as alternately a trading partner and a baleful foe. | ||
===The Archonates (c.1100 - 1472)=== | |||
By 1250 AD the Archonate was at the height of its power, but the emergence of powerful states further up the Zalgis - previously a commercial boon - came to pose a threat, a dynamic which was also true of the Vandarch piracy which had previously been such a reliable source of slaves for the Archonate's markets. As the city's population swelled, it also became a site of economic production as well as an entrepôt. This in turn spurred the rise of craftsmen's guilds, which came to chafe at their exclusion from positions of power in the Archonate that were overwhelmingly reserved for the city's richest mercantile families. It was this internal tension that ultimately proved the Archonate's undoing, with a string of urban uprisings throughout the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century gradually undermining the Archonate's claims to wider power. The final and most bloody of these was the [[Rising of 1343 (Zalgisbeck)|Rising of 1343]], where a coalition of minor merchants and guild militias - with the support of a fleet from the newly-founded [[Pentapolis]] - toppled the Archonate, drove the senior merchant families into exile and ruled the city as a guild commune for the next three years. The elite families responded by hiring Gothic and Nünsyi mercenaries, besieging the city in March 1346 and then [[Sack of Zalgisbeck (1346)|sacking it six months later]]. The Archonate was restored and the guilds cowed, but the price of this soon became clear; quite apart from the economic damage of the sack itself, much of Zalgisbeck's hinterland had fallen under the sway of other lordships, the Pentapolitan cities had risen to prominence in the Vandarch trade, and the Archons found themselves under regular political pressure from the mercenaries they were now politically dependent on. The city therefore stagnated until | Increased awareness of the Latin world around this period led Zalgisbecker rulers to begin styling themselves as "Archons", and the high medieval republic of Zalgisbeck is consequently often referred to as the [[Archonate of Zalgisbeck]] (''Arkonat Zalgisbeck''). By 1250 AD the Archonate was at the height of its power, but the emergence of powerful states further up the Zalgis - previously a commercial boon - came to pose a threat, a dynamic which was also true of the Vandarch piracy which had previously been such a reliable source of slaves for the Archonate's markets. As the city's population swelled, it also became a site of economic production as well as an entrepôt. This in turn spurred the rise of craftsmen's guilds, which came to chafe at their exclusion from positions of power in the Archonate that were overwhelmingly reserved for the city's richest mercantile families. It was this internal tension that ultimately proved the Archonate's undoing, with a string of urban uprisings throughout the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century gradually undermining the Archonate's claims to wider power. The final and most bloody of these was the [[Rising of 1343 (Zalgisbeck)|Rising of 1343]], where a coalition of minor merchants and guild militias - with the support of a fleet from the newly-founded [[Pentapolis]] - toppled the Archonate, drove the senior merchant families into exile and ruled the city as a guild commune for the next three years. The elite families responded by hiring Gothic and Nünsyi mercenaries, besieging the city in March 1346 and then [[Sack of Zalgisbeck (1346)|sacking it six months later]]. The Archonate was restored and the guilds cowed, but the price of this soon became clear; quite apart from the economic damage of the sack itself, much of Zalgisbeck's hinterland had fallen under the sway of other lordships, the Pentapolitan cities had risen to prominence in the Vandarch trade, and the Archons found themselves under regular political pressure from the mercenaries they were now politically dependent on. The city therefore gradually stagnated until 1472, at which point the mercenary captain [[Anton Ferdelandt]] toppled the Second Archonate (also known as the Lesser Archonate) in a [[Rising of 1402 (Zalgisbeck)|bloody coup]], supported by the very guilds his forebears had crushed. The newly-minted [[Captaincy-General of Zalgisbeck]] soon became a major power in the lower Zalgis basin once more. | ||
===Captaincy-General and the Hendalarskara conquest (1472 - 1571)=== | |||
===Decline and decay (1571 - 1900)=== | |||
===Civil war and reëmergence (1900 - present day)=== | |||
==Geography== | ==Geography== | ||