Order in which the Continents were unified:
The first attempts to unify a continent were taken on Continent 5; however most of the earlier attempts were by force, and failed.
Continent 6 was unified as it was settled, and there was never any need to attempt to unify it by force.
About the same time as Continent 6 was unified, so was Continent 3. Continent 3 was the only one of the continents to be successfully unified by force.
Once Continent 3 was unified, it lent its weight to worldwide attempts to unify Continents 4 and 2.
After that were several more forceful attempts to unify Continent 5, which all failed. Each of these led to increased commitment to attempts to unify Continents 5 and 4 and 2 peacefully. Finally Continent 5 was successfully unified by peaceful means.
This lent serious impetus to the movement to peacefully unify Continent 4, and that was accomplished.
There had never been any attempts to unify continents 1 and 2 before that; but now, with each of continents 3, 4, 5, and 6 unified, first Continent 2, then Continent 1, were finally unified by peaceful means.
"Separation of Church and State" on various continents.
Continent 3 was the first continent to make an attempt to constitutionally separate matters of religion from those of government. This was successful, and was eventually adopted as a model by other continents. Although these attempts were resisted on some continents, and were attempted with more enthusiasm on others, nevertheless, eventually Continent 3 was "left in the back" as the one Continent in which religious matters were most convolved with political matters.
Events Before the Religious War
After the end of the Great War, the first beginning steps of the Return to Space were taken.
Also, attempts to peacefully unify Continent 2 were begun.
Also, Continent 5 was finally, successfully, peacfully unified. As a result Continent 5 immediately shot to the forefront as dominant on the planet.
(Because East-West travel and transport was much easier on Continents 1 and 5 than on any other Continent, it had long been held that these Continents would naturally be the wealthiest and most technologically advanced -- if only their disunity ceased to be an obstacle.)
It was felt that if Continents 3 and 4 could combine forces, they could challenge the dominance of Continent 5.
It was also felt that if Ocean 1 could unify, it could challenge the dominance of Continent 5.
It was quite clear that if Continent 1 could ever unify, it would be the dominant Continent, unless some of the other Continents joined forces.
Prelude to the Religious War.
A small-time dictator in the isthmus between Continents 1 and 2 Crash Isthmus tried to conquer the entire isthmus and the area near the Great Lake and the southern end of the Great Sierra mountain range between Continents 1 and 5.
Other states in that area resisted, and appealed to the whole planet for help.
This appeal was successful. Nearly every state sent help; in particular, Continent 3 (whose government at that time was secular) sent help.
The dictator was defeated.
However, certain religious fundamentalists within the states that had appealed for help, objected on religious grounds to the invitation of armed foreigners -- armed "infidels" -- onto the "holy soil" of their nations.
These fundamentalists conspired, and succeeded in bringing about various disasters in various parts of the planet.
Among them was a great disaster on Continent 3.
Unfortunately at that time the government of Continent 3 was in the hands of a party dominated by religious fundamentalists.
One of the beliefs of some of these fundamentalists was that a prophesied "Armageddon"-like war was eminent. Many of the people at top levels of the government held to this tenet. Therefore they neglected to energetically pursue peaceful resolutions to the problem of the conspirators and the disaster they had caused.
The resulting world-wide religious war was abhorred by the majority over most of the planet, and by growing and increasingly-well-organized and increasingly-well-motivated minorities in the belligerent states.
The Secularization Movement Resulting from the Religious War.
As a result of this, some people in Continent 3 and elsewhere began to feel that some aspects of some forms of the Adpihi "philosophy" or "religion" were either outmoded or dangerous or both. They began to feel that people who adhered to these tenets should be kept from certain government offices or that certain weapons should be kept out of the hands of all such adherents.
Another part of the movement was that some people came to feel that the Reptigan aspects of their lives were much more important than the Adpihi aspects. They began to call themselves "Reptigan people" instead of "People of Adpihi".
For parallels; it would be as if someone declared of himself or herself, "I am no longer a Christian; henceforth I am an American"; or, "I no longer believe in God; now I believe in Democracy".
Planetary Unification
The following events all took place under the growing power of the Reptigan Movement and the waning importance of the Adpihi Faith. (The Adpihi Faith remained dominant on Continents 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; but except for Continent 3, it became less and less influential politically.)
- Unification of Continent 2
- Unification of Continent 4
- Unification of Continent 1
- Unification of the Planet Adpihi
- Exploration of Space
- First Contact with Non-Adpihi Humans
- First Contact with Non-Human Species
- Mostly Peaceful Admission of Non-Adpihi and/or Non-Human Groups into the Reptigan Union
- Is it the Reptigan Union or the Reptigan Empire?
- Recognition of importance and desirability of a few changes to the Reptigan constitution originated by some of the recent, non-Adpihi and non-Human "admittees"
- It's "the Reptigan Union", not "the Reptigan Empire", at least in its own eyes
That last event marked the completion of the lasting dominance of the Reptigan point-of-view over the Adpihi point-of-view.
These next few events take place under the dominance of the Reptigan movement.
- The acceptance of non-Adpihi and/or non-Human citizens as completely equal
- The Adpihi faith grows, as a tolerated minority viewpoint, off the planet Adpihi and among non-human adherents
- The acceptance of Artificial Intelligences as equal citizens in the Reptigan Union
- The average member of the dominant groups within the Union have ancestral ties to Adpihi, but do not consider themselves to be "People of Adpihi".
- Re-establishment of communication with Earth's sphere-of-influence
- Not everyone on Earth is so sure the Reptigan Union isn't "the Reptigan Empire" after all.