| abstract
| - When the changes caused from the POD in 1200 started to affect the lands of the Welfs (in the second half of the 13th century), Braunschweig was divided between two lines: Lüneburg in the North, and Braunschweig proper in the South. The latter line would be object to many splits and reunifications (see below). During 1304-1309, the Braunschweig War happened between Otto II the Just of Lüneburg and Albrecht II of Göttingen, who is said to be vying for the heritage of his five nephews. An important decision that would change the world happened in 1460 when the ambitious duke Bernhard I of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, who had inherited the biggest land of the Welfs, founded a colony in Atlantis at the site of OTL Philadelphia, called Martinsburg (with the help of the Hanseatic League cities Hamburg and Bremen). In the years 1475-95 many Germans fleeing from the Twenty-Year War in the HRE, and especially from the religious fanatics ruling in Münster, went to the colonies of Braunschweig (and the Netherlands, too). Braunschweig-Lüneburg itself however acquired the former clerical lands of Bremen and Verden (thus gaining access to the sea), and could also acquire Hildesheim and Eichsfeld (former property of the electorate of Mainz). The city of Bremen which felt threatened by Münster now sought the protection of Braunschweig, which helped further. The grown importance of Braunschweig became visible during the Reforms of the HRE 1500-1508, when Braunschweig-Lüneburg got the ninth electorate. Clearly they had profited from the Atlantean trade. During the 1530s, under the rule of Bernhard III, Matthias Lieber translated the Bible into the northern version of German. This translation even spread into the Netherlands. After the Twenty-Year War, the colonies in Atlantis developed well. In 1500, a ship from Braunschweig-Lüneburg discovered OTL Bermuda by accident. During the Great Occidental War, Braunschweig-Lüneburg claimed the islands of Martinique, Santa Lucia in 1533. And 1554, it was able to form its second province in Atlantis, called Waldstätten (OTL Pennsylvanian Appalachians). Experienced woodcutters and sawmill builders were invited there from as far as Switzerland. In 1588, duke and elector Ernst V of Braunschweig-Lüneburg inherited the lands of the last sideline, Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel.
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