H. Beam Piper | Olson's Chronology

Mark Olson's Chronology

"The only difference is that I can usually remember where I've read something in past history, but my future history I know without knowing how I know it."
— Edward Chalmers (H. Beam Piper), "Edge of the Knife"

Mark Olson's Chronology
January 16, 2000

[The following Terro-human Future History chronology was developed by Piper fan Mark Olson as part of his broader concordance of the Terro-human Future History. Unfortunately, only an excerpt survives from the original introductory text which appears to omit the early history of the Terran Federation through the period of the Federation civil war known as the System States War.]

. . . recover. Over the next century, planets began seceding successfully and sometime in the 10th century, the Federation can be said to have collapsed. Piper wrote no stories set in that period.

The defeated remnant of the System States Navy fled far from the victorious Federation and founded a new colony on a planet they named Excalibur. They became the ancestors of the Sword Worlders. Sometime in the 10th century, the Sword Worlds Joyuse, Durendal and Flamberge were colonized from Excalibur. Hautclere and Gram were colonized later still, perhaps in the late 11th or early 12th century.

The Interstellar Wars of the 11th to 13th centuries followed the breakup of the Terran Federation devastated a number of planets and destroyed civilization on many. The region of the former Terran Federation now contained few civilized planets (a civilized planet was defined as one which had nuclear energy and space travel).

In the about the 13th century, a ship from Morglay ventured back to the Federation and discovered that it had collapsed and that very few planets still possessed space travel. The Space-Vikings began operation sometime thereafter, raiding plantes of the old Federation for loot to return to the Sword Worlds. The story Space Viking takes place roughly in the 16th or 17th centuries.

The Space Vikings soon developed colonies amidst the ruins of the Federation, usually on planets which had dropped back to pre-atomic technologies. These planets and a few Terran federation planets like Odin, Marduk, Baldur and Aton which had never lost their high civilization eventually rekindled trade and ended the Space Viking menace.

About 800 years after the System States war, the First Galactic Empire began growing (based first on Marduk, then on Odin) and eventually annexed all inhabited planets. The Empire was a reasonably benevolent monarchy which succeeded too well, if anything. (The last glimpse we have of it is of the Emperor himself trying to jar it out of a stagnation of centuries of peace. ["Ministry of Disturbance"]

Over the next 4000 years, four more Galactic Empires grew, existed and disappeared.

[Note: dates shown in the following chronology are "Atomic Era" dates.]

0 The first atomic pile is put into operation by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago. (1942 AD)

29 The first unmanned rocket, the Kilroy, is launched

32 The first Lunar base is completed

32 The Thirty Day's War. The first Terran Federation is formed

52 This concordance was published (on a somewhat different timeline!)

54 The first Mars Expedition. ["Omnilingual"]

92 Contragravity is developed

108 The Mars Colony is established

114 Final debacle in the US.

116 The first colony on Venus is started

144 The first interstellar expedition

174 Venus secedes from the first Terran Federation

183 The first TF is dissolved and the second TF is organized

378 Christian Anarchist Party builds and maybe explodes an A-Bomb in Buenos Aires

390 The Chartered Fenris Company goes bust

425 Freya discovered. ["When in the Course —"]
(It seems likely that this date is as much as 150 years too late and should be something like 275-300 - Freya was discovered early in the first wave of interstellar exploration, and there was a native Freyan movie industry by 490)

475 The Loki enslavements

477 Uprising on Uller. [Uller Uprising] (In Fuzzy Sapiens, Piper says this occured in 526.)

490 Minor revolt on Fenris [Four-Day Planet]

603 The Gartner Trisystem is colonized

624 Zarathustra is found and colonized

654 [Little Fuzzy; Fuzzy Sapiens; Fuzzies and Other People]
(Carr suggests that this took place around 629, but that dating is inconsistant with several dates explicitly given in the novels.)

674 Svantovit Expedition.["Naudsonce"]

782 Foxx Travis is born

809 Native revolt on Kwann. ["Oomphel in the Sky"]

812 Aditya is discovered

842 Start of System States War

854 End of System States War. 10,000 refugees from Abigor leave the Federation and colonize Excalibur, the first Sword-World.

894 Merlin is located on Poictesme. [Junkyard Planet]

960 Joyeuse, Flamberge and Durendal colonized.

950-1000 Breakup of Terran Federation. Approximate start of the Interstellar Wars. Haultclere colonized

1050 Gram colonized. Effective end of pioneering within the Sword-Worlds. First Space-Viking attacks on planets in the Old Federation.

1359 Aditya is occupied by Morglay

1399 Approximate end of the Interstellar Wars (no large-scale interstellar governments remain).

1473 Skathi is deserted by the Space Vikings

1503 Six Space Viking ships attempt to raid Aton

1548 War between Aton and Baldur

1604 Pirating of Enterprise. [Space Viking]

1611 Battle of Audhumla

1613 Omfrey of Glaspyth invades Gram. The Battle of Marduk

1848 Stevan IV becomes first Galactic Emperor and begins reunification of the inhabited planets.

1904 The Sword-Worlds are added to the Empire

1936 Paul II begins building the Imperial Palace on Odin

2070 Aditya annexed by Galactic Empire. Rodrik III Emperor. ["A Slave is a Slave"]

2680 Paul XXII Emperor. ["Ministry of Disturbance"]

ca 4500 3rd Galactic Empire

ca 5000 4th Galactic Empire; Ice-age begins on Terra

ca 5500 5th Galactic Empire

ca 6000-6500+ Fifth Galactic Empire (Terran Federation counted as first Galactic Empire). Ice Age on Terra. ["The Keeper"]

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