1871
the "golden age"
It all started in 1789 when piere dumont, a brilliant scientist, invented a new element, Arium,
It was lighter than air and less explosive than helium.
By 1803 every nation had thousands of airships, and with the airships came many new inventions to destroy propel and power them.
in 1869 A world council declared "peace" by agreeing to close up thier borders and not let food clothes candy people books inventions or anything else in or out so that nothing could spark a war and so the local cultures would'nt change.
In reality smugglers and dealers cropped up overnight, border patrols and secret police tried to stop the smugglers, and pirates of the air to set off to raid and pillage.

Here is A list of the most prominent nations at the time and thier common weapons, strategies and airship designs.

England: have mastered steam guns (also called machine guns) most of thier ships are shaped like old day frigrates
heavily armed with these same weapons.

France: use combination of old canon technology and incindiary rockets, use very long sausage shaped baloons and like to travel in wolf packs.

Turkey:utilize several strange new weapons such as net guns that shoot nets with sharp hooks attatched, which are pulled back by a rope tearing the enemys airbag or rigging, they also use slingshot guns to fire circular spike blades, lastly they use shotgun canons filled with musket balls to decimate the enemy crew.

China: ship designs usually resemble old junk designs, Masters of explosives, combine old but deadly canon weaponry with fusilades of exploding rockets.

Italy:build sleek ships famous for thier speed, use flame guns, canons in which burning vino or oil is poured, then A bellows then shoots it out at the enemy, setting decks rigging and airbag afire.Used in conjunction with gunpowder launching catapults and swivel guns makes the italians a force to be feared.

Spain: Masters of close combat, like to paint thier sails and airbags red, use pole canons that fire long poles to wreak havoc in the enemys airbags, in conjunction with shrapnel canons that fire metal shards to send the enemy dropping toward destruction.

Union states:forced to susped thier war the union ai'nt putting down thier guns , thier airships look like wartime monitors, they are masters of armor, most of thier ships have iron plated hulls and double thick airbags.they are also known for thier massive motors, canons and a few steam guns are very acurate.

Confederate states: The treaty gave the confederacy the time it needed to rebuild its power, it's ships are nicknamed "galleons of the skies" for thier famous acomodations, thier weapons are'nt acomodating, although mortars that throw 50lbs of canonball and broadsides that make the air thick with shells can easily send you to a snug berth for eternity.

Russia: well known for thier massive ships and reckless sailing, almost always use rams to crush smaller ships beneath thier keels, a common tactic is to attatch kites to an enemy airbag by a hook and copper line, when the unwitting enemy flies under a thunder storm and is hit by lightning, which creates the high heat needed to ignite airium. They also use small steam guns well known for thier very high rate of fire.

(note on aircraft)
Aircraft are used by most nations, they are small light gliders with the lightest steam engines possible, they also carry up to four steam guns or swivel guns, at first the weak engines would not keep the craft in the air.Finaly scientists sewed small bags of arium into the frame and the craft were tied down until takeoff.

thanks for reading this
benjamin.