Introduction to the Third Civilization

(This is Part 3 of my chronicle of the history from the 21st century to my time period in the 109th century.)

Introduction to the Third Civilization

The Dark Age is generally regarded as ending in 2278 with the foundation of the American Theocracy. As the Dark Age had essentially reset the international power structure, many regions of the world that had been at a disadvantage in previous centuries now gained a decisive advantage due to their richness in natural resources. Similarly, regions that once enjoyed a great deal of geopolitical power and importance, but had since expended most of their natural resources, were relegated to third world insignificance.

The first national government to emerge from the Dark Age was the American Theocracy, followed about 400 years later by the First Chinese Empire, and the First Russian Empire about 100 years after that. The American Theocracy remained stable for hundreds of years, while successive Chinese and Russian empires rose and fell in Asia.

These early empires were surrounded by disorganized third world cultures, the most significant of which were the Mongolians, Japanese, Europeans, and North Africans. The Middle East, once vitally important for its oil, was reduced to a mostly forgotten wasteland inhabited only by a handful of nomads.

Eventually, the Third Russian Empire came to dominate the other empires that had been competing with it for power, quickly conquering the Third Chinese Empire and then a weakened American Theocracy in the 40th century. Russia’s supremacy, however, lasted only about 100 years. Australian statesmen responded to Russian aggression by unifying under a single democratic government with the goal of forging an international empire. This Australian Empire succeeded at rapidly conquering all of East Asia and North America, and left a cultural legacy that lasted for millennia.

Australian’s cultural and political reforms were not accepted by the entire world, however, and about 300 years after Australia’s celebrated conquests, a backlash against the Australian way appeared in the Amazon River basin. The people of this region rejected Australian-style democracy, instead unifying Latin America under a dictatorship that came to be called the Amazonian Empire. The Amazonian Empire conquered most of the world, which it dominated for about 400 years.

Eventually, the Amazonian Empire disintegrated, and several powers, including Chile, a unified Nordic state, and a resurgent England and Germany, sought to fill the geopolitical vacuum. Yet it was Africa that finally came into global domination, with Namibia, Madagascar, and Congo rising in international power and prestige.

In addition to ruling Earth, the African powers expanded into the rest of the Sol system, colonizing all of the planets, as well as many asteroids and other bodies orbiting Sol. Until this time, the people of Mars and Luna, descendants of 21st century American and Chinese colonists, had been living a kind of high-technology subsistence lifestyle in which their basic survival needs were met only with the aid of their technology. The African powers of Earth colonized and eventually terraformed the planets, bringing a higher standard of living to both the new colonists and the original inhabitants. However, some of the colonists eventually sought and gained independence from Earth.

By the time the Third Civilization came to an end, the Congolese had succeeded at uniting Earth under a single government in Kinshasa, and most of the planets were ruled by their own independent governments. Mars, which in time had become the primary power in the Sol system, even began sending explorers and colonists to planets orbiting other stars.

The history of science and technology in the Third Civilization is rich with innovation and revolution. Among the many theories to be formulated were the Theory of Observational Relativity, which accounted for consciousness in physics for the first time; a complete theory of gravity; Lahana’s Theorem, popularly known as the “God Proof;” and a complete theory of mass and inertia. These advances in theory were matched by spectacular achievements in technological development, which included the construction of the Space Lift, the manufacture of stable neutronium, the construction of levitating cities, the implementation of a quantum entanglement communication network, and the development of inertialess and superluminal travel.

The history of culture and society in the Third Civilization essentially resembled the swinging of a pendulum. For example, the American Theocracy established a theocratic republic, which was replaced by the dictatorship of the Third Russian Empire, which was itself superseded in turn by liberal Australian democracy, followed by Amazonia’s rejection of democracy in favor of dictatorship, and finally the reestablishment of liberal democracy in Africa. Similarly, the monotheistic inferences of Lahana’s Theorem, popularized by the Australians, were met by a polytheistic backlash in the Amazonian Empire and Norden. During the Third Civilization, the majority of the human population attained the fifth order of consciousness.

The Third Civilization is generally regarded as having ended in 6556, when a series of severe coronal mass ejections damaged infrastructure across the Sol system and caused a disintegration of the prevailing interplanetary political order.

(Future parts of my history will describe the Third Civilization period in more detail, beginning with the American Theocracy in Part 4.)