Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was an even starting in about the 18th C and continuing in parts throughout the 19th and 20th Cs as well. The areas that saw the most rapid industrialization were Ekuosia, Vaniua, and Soltenna, but even areas that didn't industrialize much still felt the effects of larger trade networks with mass produced goods sold there.
Leadup to Industrialization
While Nagu was late to industrialize, many of the advances that Ekuosians would combine to create true industrialization were pioneered there. For example, the pottery from the clay harvested from the shores of Ukutunajas was a valuable trade item. In Sarsa, cultivation of abacá (banana cultivar grown primarily for its fibrous leaves) for textiles and cordage was made large-scale, prompting the expansion into the interior. A new source of power, waterwheels, started to get widespread on the continent for breaking down amaranth grains for community consumption, but were not used for other purposes until later. The Cananganamese built an early plumbing system in their capital for gardens and chinampas during the Classical period, but it was not replicable until industrialization allowed for new types of pipes and power.
With this cheaper fiber, sought after pottery, and cheaper grain for longer voyages, proto-drydocks started popping up around Nagu. This increased ore export to Ekuosia, which sets up the cultural exchange that would cause Ekuosia to industrialize, as well as the raw materials that would allow for Ekuosian technological advances. This trade increased with improved textile methods.
Trade and culture also diffused to Soltenna because of religions from Boroso and Nagu creating connections. So, some of the advances filtered to Ekuosia not directly from Nagu, but indirectly from Soltennan countries like Qonklaks, which tried to also tie itself to Ekuosia.
On the other side of the world, there was also some economic activity before in Ystel. Gfiewistan developed a traditional cottage industry of wool fibers, which fueled long distance trade in Ystel in the 17th and early 18th Cs. This network included Gfiewistan, Lufasa, Osteria, later converging with the help of the river Ersaj to Mermelia and beyond, up to Nevira in Ekuosia. In the early 18th C, North Ystelian proto-industry started iron casting in blast furnaces.
All these technologies converged in Ekuosia, setting the stage for industrialization.
First Wave of Industrialization: Ekuosia
The first truly industrializing country was Letzia. They combined a few of these advances to make textile factories, applied to cotton and other fibers found around Letzia. Letzian cloth from these factories was cheaper and consistently high quality, bringing a lot more wealth to Ekuosia. Fairly soon, Lower Ekuosia started mimicking Letzian textile factories but with a greater focus on dyes and decoration. This newfound power shift leads to tensions between Rosland, Veridia, and Azerin. Eventually, this leads to mass urbanization in all of Ekuosia.
This shift did not just stay in Ekuosia, but also changed economies in other parts of the world. Miraria, being the most closely tied consistent to Ekuosia, saw a shift from the traditionally cloth producing regions, which end up in a recession, to the areas that traditionally import cloth, which boom. The Yahara region, even though many industrial precursors were in Nagu, starts importing cheaper foreign fabrics, leading to demand for other foreign goods.
In general, this made better construction materials and cheaper clothes available across Sahar, especially in places that traded with Ekuosia, leading the stage for a lot more improvements in the future. Especially because these materials and clothes can be more specialized from the abundance of production.
The Industrial Revolution Branches out: Vaniu
Vaniu’s industrialization directly comes from Ekuosia’s. A Vos man stole a patent from Ekuosia, and brought it home, spurring industrialization in Vosan. This secret is not guarded tightly, so factories start popping up in the region in general. Balakia, to keep up with Ekuosia militarily, especially with Terminia, applied these techniques to make early munitions plants. Introduction of industrial looms leads to a boost in Gushli textile industries, particularly the production of “Qabashan cloth” which was already a notable Gushli product, though this leads to tensions between textile factories and artisans. To match this increase in supply, and the larger armies that the area had, military uniforms become a major buyer of industrial output.
This industrialization also changed the Vaniu ship-building industry. Improved boats (especially ironclads etc) greatly improve accessibility to existing trade routes (e.g. to Puzimm) by reducing the reliance on wind patterns, as well as open up longer routes (e.g. to Lahan and Ystel). Sustenance whaling in northern countries leads to and is then threatened by the whale oil economy, causing revolution in food production in those areas.
Settling and Colonizing
The industrial economy needed two things, more resources, and more consumers. When one of these could not be met, there were various methods of trying to create the markets. Regional powers were able to set up colonies that gave exclusive trade rights or resource rights.
Resource rich areas were discovered in the Upper Borosan Highlands. Settlers from the industrializing and urbanizing lowlands moved there to take advantage of the boom in resource extraction.
Some colonies were more focused on extracting resources, mineral or agricultural. East Borosan colonies in modern day nations of Taanttu and Bavkirak exported luxury goods like spices and sugar, as well as more staple foods. Balak colonies in Lahan are particularly focused on resource extraction, as guided by the Imperial Colonial Service. These tend to leave the non-industrial colonies much poorer on independence.
On the other hand, Nevira set up basic infrastructure in their colonies. For example, it built a proper network of public pumps in trade hubs (rather than creating pipes for every individual household).
New Inventions and ways of life
Natural rubber from Lahan is used to make the first truly waterproof garments. Rubber begins to go from Lahan, first to Vaniua, and then to Vaniuan colonial areas like Puzimm, Akulanen, and Boroso.
Ekuosia, Soltenna, and Vaniua all start mass production of shelf-stable food products. This radically reduces the amount of time most individuals spend on food preparation, allows for shipping to less agriculturally viable areas, feeds standing armies, allows for longer voyages, and a host of other changes to life on Sahar.
The engine was invented in Letzia. Engine production spreads to Veridia, from there exported to other countries and continents (eventually reaching via Nevira, Lhavres, and Ystel, too).
Everywhere it goes, the engine is used for now much cheaper power intensive activities. Soltennans hook early Letzian engines up to textile factories after warm winter stops spring floodwaters that power water wheels. Steam engine-based river boats are developed in the Upper Ekuos river and at some point in the future are exported to the rest of Sahar, but never to the same extent. Steam Engine Locomotives connect in-land routes allowing for higher volume of goods to be shipped faster. In Balakia, the national rail network was created for the easy transport of freight, and later passengers. This contrasts with Ukutunajas, which constructs a network in its major areas primarily for passengers. Large-scale rails for transporting resources aren’t developed until a little bit after.
Immigration
As some parts of the world industrialized, they needed more workers, and people from less industrialized areas moved for better opportunities. Cheaper travel options made this happen.
The earlier rounds of immigration were from the countryside into towns, especially in industrial heavyweights. Development of industry, especially mills along the Tynda and Yahara Rivers, drives immigration from across Lower Boroso into the city of Tynda. Likewise, smaller developments occured in Terenarth, Otofu and several cities in what would become the Hantruzan regions of the Confederation of Lower Boroso. In [insert region], you see a lot of very quickly made buildings at exactly 6 stories, because the water pressure did not go any higher. Because of this mixture of people from around various nations, you see significant dialect levelling.
Various educational models are made to try to deal with the influx of many peoples to industrial areas. The Qonklese food rations to Zaizungese factory workers were originally intended to Qonkify them, but were adopted more widely to allow for longer working hours. Across Sahar, you see the emergence of standardized languages, language institutes, etc. as part of gatekeeping immigrant communities.
Sometimes the knowledge transfer went the other way. Syncretic religions and beliefs spawning from mixed communities of migrants from various parts of colonial empires resulting in a spread of ideas and humanities in their host countries.
Sahar was also home to many racist backlashes to these new immigrants. Many nationalisms arose from urban people from the dominant ethnic group trying to assert a more “pure” form of their nation, so they adapted culture from more rural regions.
Changes to Food Cultures
Changes in how food was produced lead to a much more streamlined process. Because of the much quicker transportation, and ability to coördinate over much larger areas, food grown in extremely fertile areas could be shipped anywhere, and any urban factory region could import from anywhere, not tied to being near food producing regions. A major emphasis from this is that a lot more focus was placed on foods that were simpler to produce or were easily transportable.
Grain mills and agriculture were industrialized and increasingly automated, leading to diets that were much more reliant on those staple crops. For example, Pancakes became a staple on Gfiewistan (evolving from Gfiewish buckwheat flatbread), often filled. These pancakes were especially popular as street food and factory worker lunch. Military and civilian rations are more standardized due to mass cultivation of “staple” crops; crops may be exchanged between continents on a larger scale than ever before. They also shifted to crops that were easier to produce, like how increasing demand for Yaharan potatoes sparked an industrialization of potato farms.
Food culture had this split of becoming both a lot more inter-regional, because of increased trade and a rise in tourism, and national, both to promote a national culture and make a nation’s culture into a product that can be sold to other people. As traditional foods get easier to produce, people also start experimenting with them more to draw in more food tourists, who are a newly arising group with free time and can benefit from cheaper and faster travel. Balak peasants migrate into other industrializing societies and take some of their dishes with them, especially pasta dishes. Balak pasta and kebab take out becomes popular around the industrialized world.
Another big change to eating culture is much more reliable public drinking water. The first water treatment plants were constructed in Jikhein, the capital of Qonklaks, but the technology spread to most large Soltennan cities. While advances in pumping technology gave a lot more people access to clean drinking water, it also allowed a larger amount of water to be diverted to treating sewage or to pump water out of mines. These cleaner cities have less disease, and so urbanization increases rapidly at these inventions.
Written Culture and Ideology
The typewriter was invented in Vosan. Vaniuan scripts are the only ones in the Ekuosian family to be bicameral, so Vaniuan typewriters innovated the shift key. The Yehirim (Zarasaist holy book) became one of the most published books due to the typewriter and associated printing technologies. Inspiration from the typewriter sees variations abroad with other scripts where applicable
In all of this, the central role of Terminia means it developed a large body of literature and literary influence. Because it became cheap and easy to spread ideas between different thinkers, both in personal letters and manifestos, ideologies start to spread, especially to industrial centers like Terminia. For example, Kuulism developed as a reaction to the horrible working conditions in factories, commodification of and exploitation of labor. The literature produced wasn’t all technical, as you start to see recreational novel types develop, like Science Fiction invented in Terminia by a Zaizungese immigrant. Athsud models itself after Terminia while industrializing, adopting the Terminian script and setting the industrial model for countries in Milevia.
Other countries also develop their own publishing industry. While small, the industry in Jute printed a lot of political tracts, due to more relaxed censorship.