Egypt's Coal Mission

[IronSpam]

Greetings. I am IronSpam, High Priest of History to Her Majesty, Cleopatra of the Egyptians. I have been in the employ of Her Majesty for quite some time now, and have been honored to be part of watching her great story unfold.

Her Majesty regards me as her favorite among all the court historians, because while many of my colleagues confine themselves to writing about wars, battles, and heroes, I choose to explore the events before wars. I believe that the things that happen during peacetime are more intriguing and more thought provoking than those of wartime.

What happens during war? Someone offends someone else. They fight. They try to kill each other. Maybe one actually succeeds, maybe one surrenders, or maybe they call it a draw. The variations are, as you can guess, limited. The only thing that is different is who is fighting and how long they fight for.

Beginning, middle, and end of story. Not very intriguing. No doubt I shall write my share of wartime history, but will never find it nearly as exciting as what happens between the wars. My Queen tells me that, "winning the peace is more important than winning the war.” I think that has something to do with why we get along so well.

* * *

First of all I would like to comment on the history of Egyptian leaders. I have reviewed the histories, images, and statues of the previous rulers of Egypt. Not only are all the rulers female, but the seemingly hereditary resemblance from generation to generation is remarkable. Perhaps the genetic inheritance has something to do with the consistency of government policy over the centuries.

I am aware that our priests have developed both a ceremony and a science dedicated to the death rites of our royal family. This involves everything from body preservation to artifacts for the afterlife. While this part of our culture has been maintained for many centuries of our great history, none of the priests ever recall ever having conducted or witnessed those death rites performed on a King or Queen of Egypt.

Mysterious, perhaps I shall investigate this story further in a future volume.

* * *

The following is an account of events surrounding Egypt’s much-celebrated Coal Mission in the early Industrial Age.

As regent to the Egyptians, Cleopatra led her people as the first to enter the Industrial Age. As was her preference, scientific advisors developed Steam Power in about 1550 AD, (5550 on the Egyptian Calendar). But when the research was finished, the Queen’s geologists found that on an Egyptian-dominated continent with every sort of terrain, no coal was to be found.

Without coal, the productive upside of the new technology could not be unlocked. Railroads, which proved to be so promising on a small experimental scale, would never be laid down across the vast continent, tying together the cities that were the lifeblood of the country. Meanwhile, throngs of industrious workers, anxious to get to the immense task of laying down track, were slated to either return home or spend the rest of their days engaged in forestry.

On delivering the news, Cleopatra’s scientists, graciously polite but brutally realistic, tried to soften the blow. They told her that they would continue to look for a domestic source of the precious anthracite. In the meantime though, Egypt would have to wait, and the nation’s long-term economic development would be held in the balance. Gathered around and staring at a huge map of the known world, the Queen of the Nile and her advisors all stood silent. After a long pause, she dismissed her court, and they left to ponder the uncertainty of Egypt’s place in the world.

Working into the night, Cleopatra stayed in the empty throne room and scanned the geologists’ worldwide survey laid down on the floor. She looked jealously at the black deposits sitting there, undiscovered on the territory of foreign powers. They were backwards peoples who did not realize the vital strategic resource they held. But this day they held all the cards. It pained the Queen to think that the Egyptian people would be forever dependent and vulnerable to a host of foreign coal suppliers.

Overlaying a recent map of the world’s political borders, Cleopatra undertook the task of discerning which future coal-supplying nation would be the least painful to negotiate with. To her amazement, she saw something that was missed by the eyes of all her top advisors. On careful inspection, she spied two coal deposits on slivers of unclaimed territory between some formerly Persian, now Zulu cities.

Shaka Zulu had taken those and many more cities from a once mighty Persia about a thousand years earlier. Apparently in all those centuries, the Zulus, who were “culturally retarded” as the Queen put it, never bothered to enhance the captive cities’ significance to expand their influence. Yes, those deposits were on a continent that was dominated by foreign powers, but the deposits themselves were in unclaimed wilderness.

Realizing the need for all deliberate speed, Cleopatra summoned her court advisors in the middle of the night. She pointed at the map and urged them to send settlers to mine the coal and troops to secure it. The sites were close to sea, and could be reached by ship if sent immediately. The claim on the land, she argued, while halfway around the world, would be recognized by the other leaders. She stated emphatically, “This action will not give our friends abroad cause for concern. Not now, anyway.”

The skeptical court disagreed. It would take years for even the best galleons to make the trip, which crossed the territorial waters of more than a few other powers. By the end of that journey, the Zulus might have Steam Power and find the need for their own source of domestic coal. Or even still, Shaka might expand his borders to envelope the deposits.

Furthermore, they argued, the security of the proposed Egyptian coal mining towns could not be guaranteed. Just because the Zulus did not extend their cultural influence over the area in question, did the Queen really think that Shaka would simply let Egyptians settle there? The coal was on Shaka’s continent, and he would not be friendly to the arrival of foreigners. In the end, the new towns, if founded, would be hopelessly isolated within the Zulu sphere of influence.

Egypt had not fought a war since Ancient Times. Even then, it was a straightforward and easy fight with the marginalized Romans to secure dominance of the home continent. The nation hadn’t faced foreigners in battle for a thousand years, let alone fought halfway around the world. Would it be ready to stand up against a host of fully developed powers whose military strength rivaled Egypt’s own?

But the Queen overruled her advisors. “The Egyptian people have to try,” she insisted. “The gamble is well worth it for the sake of the nation.”

And so, the fated journey, dubbed the “Coal Mission,” was launched. From her private galley, Cleopatra and throngs of Egyptian well-wishers said goodbye to the band of adventurers as their flotilla left on a mission from which they might not return.

The time for the nation passed slowly. At home, laborers worked the land for its forestry resources. Industrialization came and factories were built. With all the progress that Egypt made while the Coal Mission was underway, movement around the nation was still limited by the old but reliable roads that had been there since Ancient Times.

But in the end, the coal miners got there. Zululand neither took the resources nor researched Steam Power. The settlers landed and marched unimpeded towards the object of their quest. They planted their stakes right on top of the coal deposits. In EC 5635 (1635 AD), Kahun, the first of two coal cities were founded. The other coal city, Athribis, was founded five years later.

As the sources of coal were some distance apart from each other, the two new towns were located on either side of Samaria, a Zulu-held city. It might have been for only a short time, but coal was suddenly available to the mainland.

Laborers at home rejoiced and started traversing the continent. Lines like “I’ve been working on the railroad” (in hieroglyphics of course) were heard sung in the yards. Power plants were quickly constructed to boost the factories built during the Coal Mission’s journey. Soon the telling signs of their environmental damage could be seen dotting the countryside. And Queen Cleopatra had a jolly holiday, because that year she got her lumps of coal.

But of course that was just the beginning of the story.