What if the Doñana theory was right? What if the ancient civilization of Atlantis as described by Plato existed in Southern Spain, and what would the world look like if it survived?





Founding

Ancient Atlantis began as a Phoenician colony on a marsh near the mouth of the river Certis. Initially little more than just another trade port, Atlantis used its position as a major conduit to Alisubo and west Africa to build up its status as a major trade port. By the 18th Century BCE, Atlantis had successfully built its city at the center of an artificial harbor or Cothon. Only a century later would the first Cothon, and with it their civilization, be nearly destroyed when an earthquake struck southern Hispania. Following the quake, Atlantis rebuilt and expanded the Great Cothon, adding successive harbors throughout the centuries.





Height

By the 13th Century BCE Atlantis had grown to dominate the Phonetician colonies of the western Mediterranean, building a maritime trading empire stretching from the Hispanian peninsula all the way to Egypt. Atlantis was a center of art, literature, and engineering unrivaled at the time. The Great Cothons that made up the City of Atlantis were regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and stands aside the Great Pyramid of Giza as one of the only two survivors.





Decline

Despite this power, the Bronze Age Collapse did not spare Atlantis, and while its civilization did endure along with that of the Egyptians, it would never be the same. Its fellow Phoneticians would either rebel or attempt to take what little Atlantis still had, as was the case of Carthage, a former Atlantean Vassal. Carthage and Atlantis fought numerous wars throughout its decline, though the Carthaginians were never able to take much beyond the eastern coast of their fading empire. It was for this reason that Atlantis sided with the Romans when the Great Punic War finally began and while the Atlantean navy was a far cry from what it had been centuries before, the two front war eventually led to Carthage's total destruction.



Atlantis would start its relationship with Rome as an important ally, then Vassal, and finally a province. The region would remain under Roman subjugation until the 5th Century CE, upon which the former Atlantean heartland of Hispania would fracture into several perpetually warring states and fiefdoms, only occasionally allying together to repel Utican and later Christian invasion, each with limited degrees of success.





Resurgence

By the 14th Century, the Atlantean Renaissance had begun in earnest and the region was reunified, though by the political maneuverings of Hungarian royals. Atlantis is once again an important maritime power, and one of the first countries to engage in trade with the Indian Ocean maritime networks. As the Uticans recede and the Christian Golden age comes to an end, Atlantis is poised to make its mark on history as a naval superpower once again.





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