Forced technological progression - info, ideas?

[Imret]

Something of a worldbuilding idea I'm tossing around, and I'd like to get some feedback and tips about it.

While the humans are slowly developing towards a civilized people in the shadow of the other races, they are partially conquered by a more advanced (if horribly cruel) race. While the Elvish nations hold back their invasions from the western half of the continent, the men of the east are screwed. They remain enslaved for about a thousand, maybe fifteen hundred years before their masters' civilization collapses, and by the time it's all over they're left in the ruins of a mid-Iron Age culture.

Fast forward a hundred years or so, and we have the world as it stands. I'm seeing the humans on this continent being at the city-state level and starting to form leagues and alliances. In the west the cities are united by blood and their intrigues are subtle, hidden plays of wealth and influence and knives in the back. To the east alliances are forged by ideals - a millenium of slavery can ruin any chance of tracing your bloodline - and the political situation is far more volatile and passionate.

Are there anything that this sort of forced advancement would do to a culture that I'm overlooking? Anything you just think would be right in this cultural and political climate?

 

[howandwhy99]

It is an interesting idea and a fun thought experiment.

The most important thing in shaping the human culture is going to be the previous 1000 years. (I'm assuming elves were the slaveholders here)
What happened to the elves now they are in decline? What was the nature of the decline? (a human rebellion?)
Are the elves still in control in some areas? (perhaps gathering in the west after 100 years?)
What kind of life did the humans have while enslaved? (Did they work with the new technology?)

I would think even 100 years after the humans took over the West would still be considered an uncivilized land. Former slaves in the Elven lands and those who ran wild in the West are not going to get along. Also, the West is far less likely to even have cities, perhaps something low tech by large. If the elves have run here, hidden slave camps / towns run by the elves may exist.

In the East, former slaver designations may still exist in some form in the human culture. Humans who knew how to use the new technology (iron-working, trade skills, etc.) would be among the wealthiest. I agree with you power would likely be in city-state form (with a wide variety of government styles). Trade would still be in its infancy, but growing. Small combat skirmishes between cities might even occur. I think Feudelism would be just starting.

Shoot, I gotta go.

 

[fusangite]

While the humans are slowly developing towards a civilized people in the shadow of the other races, they are partially conquered by a more advanced (if horribly cruel) race.

I strongly suggest you drop your late 19th century ideas about "progress" and advancement and think more precisely about which ways this civilization is advanced. When you have a decent quantity of magic or cheap labour, most types of technological engineering our civilization has developed don't actually make any sense. People built water mills and invented heavy ploughs in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages because of civilization's collapse, not in spite of it -- the slave labour supply of the Roman world had dried up.

While the Elvish nations hold back their invasions from the western half of the continent, the men of the east are screwed. They remain enslaved for about a thousand, maybe fifteen hundred years before their masters' civilization collapses, and by the time it's all over they're left in the ruins of a mid-Iron Age culture.

You mean the enslaving civilization was Iron-age? What kind of tech did the humans have before? Also, what aspects of human culture and society have remained distinct from that of the civilization that enslaved them and why? How separate were the humans from this group and what maintained this separation? Did the humans have any form of limited self-government?

Fast forward a hundred years or so, and we have the world as it stands. I'm seeing the humans on this continent being at the city-state level and starting to form leagues and alliances.

What has become of the civilization that enslaved them? What remains of it? How do the humans interact with it? Do any of the humans style themselves the successors to it?

If the humans have organized into city states within a hundred years or so, it seems probable that (a) their enslavers were probably similarly organized and (b) the humans have either inherited their former masters' infrastructure or had been maintained more as tributary states than personal chattel slaves. When you imagine the city states and leagues, do you see them more along an Aztec model or a Greek one?

In the west the cities are united by blood and their intrigues are subtle, hidden plays of wealth and influence and knives in the back. To the east alliances are forged by ideals - a millenium of slavery can ruin any chance of tracing your bloodline

Only very specific types of slavery can do this. More commonly, slavery is obsessed with tracking your bloodline so it can know who is born into slavery and who is not. But if politics in these eastern states is based on ideology, where have the ideologies come from? Are they subversions of the political ideas of the humans' former masters, survivals of an ancient oral tradition, handed down directly from the gods after liberation? Also remember that heredity is not the only basis on which to run a political system that is not explicitly ideological; it seems more likely that a group so new to self-government would be more likely to have political power follow armies (and those who can best rally and command men) or, if the slave population was unused to economic self-sufficiency, the ability to control and protect agricultural land or flocks.

Are there anything that this sort of forced advancement would do to a culture that I'm overlooking?

Yes. But before we can even get to that point, you really need to answer some basic questions about how the humans lived when they were enslaved, what the culture that enslaved them was like and why and how it fell apart. There are no general rules for this kind of thing; cultures change and arise due to the specific individual characteristics of the situation in question.

 

[Imret]

Well, having read over fusangite's reply, now I'm torn as to how I want to tackle the occupation. Having tossed a couple options my way I hadn't thought of before, there's a chance I'm changing it up.

Thanks for the replies, but I think I'm descending back to the drawing board for now. Maybe once I've got more put together I'll re-hash this question and see what I get then.

Mods, feel free to delete for space purposes.