Essay/Rant on a No-Byzantine 1204.
- Thread starter Eparkhos
- Start date
Eparkhos
Well-known member
Alright, in long:
The short-term future in a no-1204 world is the existing Angelos regime being deposed by a coalition of noble families similar to that which established the Komnenian dynasty a century and change before. The Angeloi were complete shitheads and widely hated, so they have a definite end date and will almost certainly be gone by 1210. The question is who replaces them.
To make a long story short there are two real options: The Laskaroi and the Megalokomnenoi, all the other contender dynasties being too weak or divisive to be plausible. I'm not too sure about the Megalokomnenoi, as with their backing by Tamar of Georgia (and her armies), Alexios and David might be seen as foreign puppets, and their was likely still some residual resentment after the trainwreck of Manuel's late reign and Andronikos I, so I'll assume Theodoros or Konstantinos Laskaris has succeeded in deposing the Angeloi with the support of a noble coalition.
The most pressing problem of the early 13th century is centralization, as the Angeloi had allowed thematic governors and pronoiai to effectively carve out statelets for themselves across the empire--according to a map I can't be assed to dredge up, Thrace, Epirus and Bithynia were the only parts of the empire where the state still functioned. Individually, these provincial governors could be crushed in one or two campaigns by a large and determined force (see the Frankokratia), but because of the noble coalitions that dominated post-Komnenian Byzantine power politics, doing so brings a serious chance of a revolt backed by the other governors, which grows stronger as more regions are incorporated. Even if this can be resolved, this period of decentralization will have caused God-only-knows how much corruption & institutional rot that will take generations to sort out, if ever, and will hamper the state indefinitely.
The second problem of the early 13th century are Byzantium's neighbors. Bulgaria is very strong in the early 1200s, and with Kaloyan poised to come down on Constantinople like the wrath of God fending them off will be extremely difficult in and of itself. Reconquering Bulgaria will likely be impossible for a century or more due to organization and protonationalistic thought, assuming Bulgaria doesn't just crush the Byzantines. At sea, the Venetians will be a constant nuisance and threat out of a desire for concessions and more power, albeit not as much as OTL given they haven't been whetted by 1204. I think they might get a few islands, at least for the short term. To the east, the Rumites are also a growing power (for now), with a series of capable rulers taking advantage of the ongoing chaos to push west, and with little to no institutional problems for them they will be a very resilient threat. Finally there is Tamar's Georgia, which can either be a great ally or a terrible enemy, capable of pinning down the Rumites and greatly relieving the pressure on the Byzantines or setting up a puppet dynasty under the Megalokomnenoi in Trebizond and contesting control of the Black Sea trade and leadership of the Orthodox world. It could go either way, though I think mutual conflict with the Turks will drive Byzantium and Georgia closer together.
Note: I'm skipping social and economic analysis for the short term, but the best option (and the one the Laskarioi are most likely to pursue) is to break up as many estates as possible/conquer more land to revive the themata and reform the pronoiai to make them more effective as they were under Alexios I/Ioannes II. Tradewise their best option is to increase trade ties to the West through multiple sources to reduce Venetian power and increase state revenues (focusing on wines, alum and other agri products) while encouraging domestic proto-industry.
(1/X)
The short-term future in a no-1204 world is the existing Angelos regime being deposed by a coalition of noble families similar to that which established the Komnenian dynasty a century and change before. The Angeloi were complete shitheads and widely hated, so they have a definite end date and will almost certainly be gone by 1210. The question is who replaces them.
To make a long story short there are two real options: The Laskaroi and the Megalokomnenoi, all the other contender dynasties being too weak or divisive to be plausible. I'm not too sure about the Megalokomnenoi, as with their backing by Tamar of Georgia (and her armies), Alexios and David might be seen as foreign puppets, and their was likely still some residual resentment after the trainwreck of Manuel's late reign and Andronikos I, so I'll assume Theodoros or Konstantinos Laskaris has succeeded in deposing the Angeloi with the support of a noble coalition.
The most pressing problem of the early 13th century is centralization, as the Angeloi had allowed thematic governors and pronoiai to effectively carve out statelets for themselves across the empire--according to a map I can't be assed to dredge up, Thrace, Epirus and Bithynia were the only parts of the empire where the state still functioned. Individually, these provincial governors could be crushed in one or two campaigns by a large and determined force (see the Frankokratia), but because of the noble coalitions that dominated post-Komnenian Byzantine power politics, doing so brings a serious chance of a revolt backed by the other governors, which grows stronger as more regions are incorporated. Even if this can be resolved, this period of decentralization will have caused God-only-knows how much corruption & institutional rot that will take generations to sort out, if ever, and will hamper the state indefinitely.
The second problem of the early 13th century are Byzantium's neighbors. Bulgaria is very strong in the early 1200s, and with Kaloyan poised to come down on Constantinople like the wrath of God fending them off will be extremely difficult in and of itself. Reconquering Bulgaria will likely be impossible for a century or more due to organization and protonationalistic thought, assuming Bulgaria doesn't just crush the Byzantines. At sea, the Venetians will be a constant nuisance and threat out of a desire for concessions and more power, albeit not as much as OTL given they haven't been whetted by 1204. I think they might get a few islands, at least for the short term. To the east, the Rumites are also a growing power (for now), with a series of capable rulers taking advantage of the ongoing chaos to push west, and with little to no institutional problems for them they will be a very resilient threat. Finally there is Tamar's Georgia, which can either be a great ally or a terrible enemy, capable of pinning down the Rumites and greatly relieving the pressure on the Byzantines or setting up a puppet dynasty under the Megalokomnenoi in Trebizond and contesting control of the Black Sea trade and leadership of the Orthodox world. It could go either way, though I think mutual conflict with the Turks will drive Byzantium and Georgia closer together.
Note: I'm skipping social and economic analysis for the short term, but the best option (and the one the Laskarioi are most likely to pursue) is to break up as many estates as possible/conquer more land to revive the themata and reform the pronoiai to make them more effective as they were under Alexios I/Ioannes II. Tradewise their best option is to increase trade ties to the West through multiple sources to reduce Venetian power and increase state revenues (focusing on wines, alum and other agri products) while encouraging domestic proto-industry.
(1/X)
Eparkhos
Well-known member
(2/X)
Things change sharply in the mid-13th century as the Mongols roflstomp the Rumites, Bulgarians and Georgians and crush Byzantium's main rivals. I've heard speculation that the post-Byzantines survived the Mongols because they were too small/poor/isolated to bother with, but this seems suspect so I'll ignore it. With this sudden blow, Byzantium's foreign policies change dramatically and (assuming centralization and reform have progressed to the point where it is capable of foreign offensives) a return to the Komnenian Golden Era becomes truly possible.
The 2nd Bulgarian Empire was a deeply unstable state, with constant noble conflicts and extreme social tension (2nd Bulgarian Empire was the site of the only successful peasant revolt in European history), so once it is devestated by the Mongols it should be relatively easy to absorb. The technique is what matters, as a clumsy approach could easily unite the Bulgarians against Constantinople and draw out the conflict or, worse, drive it into Mongol tributage as a protection. The best approach, I think, would be to portray the basileus as an Orthodox ruler come to free the lower classes from noble tyranny and chaos, restricting the expansion of the pronoiai to secure a somewhat peaceable region and (ideally) a loyal base of men and money. No matter how it is done, this will take a time, likely more than a decade to truly pacify the region and half a century to truly integrate it, but if done well it will strengthen the Empire immensely. The Vlachs should be left as an independent state to shield Bulgaria from the Mongols, and everything should be done with great care to not provoke the khans.
Serbia was undergoing a period of domestic turmoil and civil wars (basically the entire Nemanjic Period), so the factions should be played against each other until Serbia is weak enough to be dominated. Care should be taken not to provoke the Hungarians or Venetians into intervention, however, as that could turn an otherwise backwater buffer into a cold war.
In the east, Georgia should be in flaming ruins after the Mongol invasions. The Byzantines should begin to establish political and military ties with the Georgian remnant states to increase their region and secure the Black Sea, with the eventual goal of establishing vassal states along the buffer and securing the warlike tribes of the region in service to the basileus. Existing Georgian missionary programs in the North Caucasus should recieve full aid as an important way of increasing support in the region, securing the support of the warlike Circassians, Vainakhs and Avars, future farmland and a buffer with the Mongols. It also helps protray the Byzantines as the center of the Orthodox world and increase cultural hegemony.
Finally, there are the Turks. This should be easy, actually. After the Mongol invasion, many Turkmen groups followed them from Central Asia and began settling in Anatolia. They, being truly Turkic fanatics, had little in common with the more Persianate and religious complex Seljuk Turks, and so in OTL and ITTL they set about a series of wars over land and culture. The Byzantines should play them off each other, slowly encroaching on the edge of the plateau with fortified settlements and networks of defense. This will take decades, if not centuries, but with a continuous program and rational(ish) actions it can be done very easily. Special care should be taken to play the Alawites/Armenians/'softer' Sunnis against the hardline Hanbali Sunnis supported by many of the Turkmen to intensify the conflict and ideally keep out outsiders. Eventually the two factions will have bled themselves, and as the Seljuks are far more familiar & reasonable than the Turkmen, the Byzantines should move in with overwhelming force to crush the Turkmen, kill all the men, sell the women and children into slavery and move various Greek, Albanian, Armenian and other Christian herder groups into their pastureland to make sure that they can't come back. The Seljuk nobility were very hellenized OTL, so with a stronger Byzantium and a longer and more galvanizing conflict with the Turkmen they should be even more so. They should be pulled into the existing Byzantine aristocracy as well as possible while all of Anatolia is conquered and incorporated into the Empire--a light hand should be used in much of it to keep the Sunnis and Armenians from revolting, but if this has been done right they'll be happy to just have peace after decades of war.
If everything goes well, by 1400 Byzantium will have expanded to include all or almost all of the Balkans and Anatolia, similar to their borders at the time of Basil II (minus Italy & Outer Armenia) and will have vassals stretching across Serbia and the Western Caucasus. Enter Timur.
Things change sharply in the mid-13th century as the Mongols roflstomp the Rumites, Bulgarians and Georgians and crush Byzantium's main rivals. I've heard speculation that the post-Byzantines survived the Mongols because they were too small/poor/isolated to bother with, but this seems suspect so I'll ignore it. With this sudden blow, Byzantium's foreign policies change dramatically and (assuming centralization and reform have progressed to the point where it is capable of foreign offensives) a return to the Komnenian Golden Era becomes truly possible.
The 2nd Bulgarian Empire was a deeply unstable state, with constant noble conflicts and extreme social tension (2nd Bulgarian Empire was the site of the only successful peasant revolt in European history), so once it is devestated by the Mongols it should be relatively easy to absorb. The technique is what matters, as a clumsy approach could easily unite the Bulgarians against Constantinople and draw out the conflict or, worse, drive it into Mongol tributage as a protection. The best approach, I think, would be to portray the basileus as an Orthodox ruler come to free the lower classes from noble tyranny and chaos, restricting the expansion of the pronoiai to secure a somewhat peaceable region and (ideally) a loyal base of men and money. No matter how it is done, this will take a time, likely more than a decade to truly pacify the region and half a century to truly integrate it, but if done well it will strengthen the Empire immensely. The Vlachs should be left as an independent state to shield Bulgaria from the Mongols, and everything should be done with great care to not provoke the khans.
Serbia was undergoing a period of domestic turmoil and civil wars (basically the entire Nemanjic Period), so the factions should be played against each other until Serbia is weak enough to be dominated. Care should be taken not to provoke the Hungarians or Venetians into intervention, however, as that could turn an otherwise backwater buffer into a cold war.
In the east, Georgia should be in flaming ruins after the Mongol invasions. The Byzantines should begin to establish political and military ties with the Georgian remnant states to increase their region and secure the Black Sea, with the eventual goal of establishing vassal states along the buffer and securing the warlike tribes of the region in service to the basileus. Existing Georgian missionary programs in the North Caucasus should recieve full aid as an important way of increasing support in the region, securing the support of the warlike Circassians, Vainakhs and Avars, future farmland and a buffer with the Mongols. It also helps protray the Byzantines as the center of the Orthodox world and increase cultural hegemony.
Finally, there are the Turks. This should be easy, actually. After the Mongol invasion, many Turkmen groups followed them from Central Asia and began settling in Anatolia. They, being truly Turkic fanatics, had little in common with the more Persianate and religious complex Seljuk Turks, and so in OTL and ITTL they set about a series of wars over land and culture. The Byzantines should play them off each other, slowly encroaching on the edge of the plateau with fortified settlements and networks of defense. This will take decades, if not centuries, but with a continuous program and rational(ish) actions it can be done very easily. Special care should be taken to play the Alawites/Armenians/'softer' Sunnis against the hardline Hanbali Sunnis supported by many of the Turkmen to intensify the conflict and ideally keep out outsiders. Eventually the two factions will have bled themselves, and as the Seljuks are far more familiar & reasonable than the Turkmen, the Byzantines should move in with overwhelming force to crush the Turkmen, kill all the men, sell the women and children into slavery and move various Greek, Albanian, Armenian and other Christian herder groups into their pastureland to make sure that they can't come back. The Seljuk nobility were very hellenized OTL, so with a stronger Byzantium and a longer and more galvanizing conflict with the Turkmen they should be even more so. They should be pulled into the existing Byzantine aristocracy as well as possible while all of Anatolia is conquered and incorporated into the Empire--a light hand should be used in much of it to keep the Sunnis and Armenians from revolting, but if this has been done right they'll be happy to just have peace after decades of war.
If everything goes well, by 1400 Byzantium will have expanded to include all or almost all of the Balkans and Anatolia, similar to their borders at the time of Basil II (minus Italy & Outer Armenia) and will have vassals stretching across Serbia and the Western Caucasus. Enter Timur.
Orangeduke38
Well-known member
One simple addition would be Kaloyan falling off a horse and breaking his neck leading to civil war in Bulgaria.
Eparkhos
Well-known member
Eparkhos
Well-known member
(3/X)
Crisis of the late 14th century, or The Pain of a Thousand Days
I think the Black Death would happen roughly as it did OTL, probably with slightly different dates (c.1350-60?) and transit methods. With Byzantium being a very coastal and heavily trade-involved state, it'll be messed up pretty badly by it but not ultimately destroyed. What it will do is tip the balance of the conflict in Anatolia in favor of the more lightly dispersed Turkmen, which will force the Byzantines to intervene directly to prop up and then conquer the weaker Seljuks. This will drive the Turkmen east, while leaving the Byzantines far weaker than they were before.
Byzantine infighting and entropy has reached meme-level for good reason. Over the entirety of its existence, despite the existence of several long-reigning dynasties (Makedonians, Komnenians, Megalokomnenians, and Palaiologians) the average reign of any dynasty was exactly 100 years (99.857, technically). This is due to institutional problems exacerbating the usual secular cycle, and as the institutions which caused this remain in place the cycle should still be working. As the Laskarioi have so far been portrayed as uber-competent (an error on my part), I find it reasonable for them to hold onto power about as long as the Makedonians or (Imperial) Komnenians did, generating a great amount of popular support and loyalty like that which sustained the pseudo-Macedonians. However, these good times cannot last, and by 1375 the cracks will be starting to show.
With an earlier !Timurid Empire, a large Turkish population with a grudge and an increasingly unsteady government in Byzantium, the storm is obvious. By the 1390s, the provinces are starting to drift out from under central government once more and several noble revolts and army mutinies have occured in Anatolia and Greece, with the existing Laskarids clinging to power through concessions and being too popular to remove. In, say, 1392, !Timur pacifies Syria and turns his gaze westward.
!Timur crashes through the eastern frontier, being greeted as a liberator by the Muslims of central Anatolia and capturing many of the strategic forts intended to maintain the eastern defenses. Sufficiently stunned, the basileus and the magnates put their differences aside and the basileus, let's call him Alexios VII for irony, gathers his army and marches eastward. !Timur crushes him and chases the remnants of the Byzantine army to the Hellespont and Bosphorus, where the Imperial Navy can stop him. A vast web of watch-fires, from the camp of 150,000 men, burns in view of Constantinople like the gates of Hell itself. He then lays waste to Anatolia, unleashing an orgy of violence and slaughtering Greeks and Armenians left and right, tearing every major city brick from brick sending waves of refugees fleeing to the islands or Crimea and unleashing a flood of Turkmen both new and old across Asia Minor. He then turns and sweeps northward, pillaging the Caucasus once more and sending the Orthodox peoples fleeing into the highest mountains before savaging the plains colonies, only being prevented from entering the Balkans by a desperate alliance of Mongols, Russians, Lithuanians and Poles. He passes through Anatolia in one last sweep, then turns and vanishes eastward, killed by one of his slaves in 1396. By 1400 his sons and generals have divided his empire amongst themselves, putting an end to the last of the Mongol conquerors.
The devastation is immense. Of all the Greek cities in Anatolia, only Attaleia, shielded by her high mountains, narrow passes and desperate sons, survives. Vast swathes of the interior are depopulated or completely empty, the European half of the empire is choked with refugees and the old thematic system has been rendered completely impotent. The Turks have come screeching back, carving out countless beyliks and tribal states on the corpse of a unified Anatolia. The empire is left in a succession crisis, as Alexios VIII died without an heir, and the entire state is paralyzed, almost in a fugue state.
It is a truly defining moment.
(P.S. If you think I'm exaggerating this, compare with OTL Timur's treatment of the Hindus in India. It may be slightly overdone, just because I'm tired of seeing TLs where the Timurids annihilate the rest of the ME while leaving the Byzantines intact 'because', but it is entirely within the bonds of plausibility.)
Crisis of the late 14th century, or The Pain of a Thousand Days
I think the Black Death would happen roughly as it did OTL, probably with slightly different dates (c.1350-60?) and transit methods. With Byzantium being a very coastal and heavily trade-involved state, it'll be messed up pretty badly by it but not ultimately destroyed. What it will do is tip the balance of the conflict in Anatolia in favor of the more lightly dispersed Turkmen, which will force the Byzantines to intervene directly to prop up and then conquer the weaker Seljuks. This will drive the Turkmen east, while leaving the Byzantines far weaker than they were before.
Byzantine infighting and entropy has reached meme-level for good reason. Over the entirety of its existence, despite the existence of several long-reigning dynasties (Makedonians, Komnenians, Megalokomnenians, and Palaiologians) the average reign of any dynasty was exactly 100 years (99.857, technically). This is due to institutional problems exacerbating the usual secular cycle, and as the institutions which caused this remain in place the cycle should still be working. As the Laskarioi have so far been portrayed as uber-competent (an error on my part), I find it reasonable for them to hold onto power about as long as the Makedonians or (Imperial) Komnenians did, generating a great amount of popular support and loyalty like that which sustained the pseudo-Macedonians. However, these good times cannot last, and by 1375 the cracks will be starting to show.
With an earlier !Timurid Empire, a large Turkish population with a grudge and an increasingly unsteady government in Byzantium, the storm is obvious. By the 1390s, the provinces are starting to drift out from under central government once more and several noble revolts and army mutinies have occured in Anatolia and Greece, with the existing Laskarids clinging to power through concessions and being too popular to remove. In, say, 1392, !Timur pacifies Syria and turns his gaze westward.
!Timur crashes through the eastern frontier, being greeted as a liberator by the Muslims of central Anatolia and capturing many of the strategic forts intended to maintain the eastern defenses. Sufficiently stunned, the basileus and the magnates put their differences aside and the basileus, let's call him Alexios VII for irony, gathers his army and marches eastward. !Timur crushes him and chases the remnants of the Byzantine army to the Hellespont and Bosphorus, where the Imperial Navy can stop him. A vast web of watch-fires, from the camp of 150,000 men, burns in view of Constantinople like the gates of Hell itself. He then lays waste to Anatolia, unleashing an orgy of violence and slaughtering Greeks and Armenians left and right, tearing every major city brick from brick sending waves of refugees fleeing to the islands or Crimea and unleashing a flood of Turkmen both new and old across Asia Minor. He then turns and sweeps northward, pillaging the Caucasus once more and sending the Orthodox peoples fleeing into the highest mountains before savaging the plains colonies, only being prevented from entering the Balkans by a desperate alliance of Mongols, Russians, Lithuanians and Poles. He passes through Anatolia in one last sweep, then turns and vanishes eastward, killed by one of his slaves in 1396. By 1400 his sons and generals have divided his empire amongst themselves, putting an end to the last of the Mongol conquerors.
The devastation is immense. Of all the Greek cities in Anatolia, only Attaleia, shielded by her high mountains, narrow passes and desperate sons, survives. Vast swathes of the interior are depopulated or completely empty, the European half of the empire is choked with refugees and the old thematic system has been rendered completely impotent. The Turks have come screeching back, carving out countless beyliks and tribal states on the corpse of a unified Anatolia. The empire is left in a succession crisis, as Alexios VIII died without an heir, and the entire state is paralyzed, almost in a fugue state.
It is a truly defining moment.
(P.S. If you think I'm exaggerating this, compare with OTL Timur's treatment of the Hindus in India. It may be slightly overdone, just because I'm tired of seeing TLs where the Timurids annihilate the rest of the ME while leaving the Byzantines intact 'because', but it is entirely within the bonds of plausibility.)
(4)
Eparkhos
Well-known member
(4/X)
The Post-Timur Era
Byzantine survival after the Timurid invasion was because of the Straits and an ongoing succession war in Poland (the king having been killed fighting Timur) drawing all of the Eastern Latins' attention away. By 1400 the situation has stabilized, or rather reached rock bottom. After a series of palace coups and civil conflicts, a minor nobleman named Nikolaos Vranas secures the support of the Bulgarian themes (the strongest force left in the empire) and installs himself as basileus. The one upside to the collapse of Anatolia is that its magnates have either been killed or rendered impotent by the loss of their estates, allowing Vranas to centralize power once more and embark on a program of recovery.
After the complete system shock of the collapse of Anatolia and the near-destruction of the empire (who will argue against giving the basileus more power when they see the watch-fires of Bithynia when they sleep?) the Byzantine state is greatly centralized. The nature of the pronoiai are greatly changed, with them now being given 'selective' tax breaks that can be revoked for failure to complete military duties, the bureaucracy is completely overhauled with any corrupt actors being summarily blinded and their jobs given to one of the many competent refugees from the east. There's a bunch of other reforms here, but their boring tax, finance and administration so I'm leaving them out. The army is greatly expanded, its ranks filled by displaced men with nothing to lose and a burning hatred of the Turks, and it is armed with a great deal of cannonade and no shortage of Vlach, Albanian and noble cavalry. All this underwritten through expanded taxes, tarriffs and many loans from Italian and Jewish banks.
The war in Anatolia over the following decades is incredibly brutal, entire villages being razed and their inhabitants put to the sword, prisoners from either side summarily executed or tortured to death, earth salted and countless pyramids of heads built in the ruins of once-great cities. It is a war to the death. Much of the western hill country is conquered within a decade, its small Turkish population killed or driven out and its land settled with Greeks, refugees or colonists. Pontus is retaken relatively easily, large surviving Greek populations and armies of vengeful Georgians, Circassians and Chechens slaughtering every Muslim they find and driving the survivors over the mountains. It is in the interior that things become more difficult, as longer supply lines, larger Turkish populations and the complete devastation of the region make campaigning extremely hard. The Turks are internally divided at the outset, but as outside pressure grows and the thunderdome begins to quiet, they rally around larger centers in Konya, Ankara, and Sivas. To make a long story short, by 1470 the Turks have been pushed away from the coasts, and by 1500 only the central desert and the eastern edge of the plateau are ruled by the sultan in Sivas. The war is immensely costly in both blood and treasure, and is the primary focus of the entire Byzantine state throughout this period.
By 1500, the Byzantine state has become exhausted, its armies barely able to be fielded from a lack of men and money, most of its territory depopulated from decades of war and chaos, its foreign relations limited to a few weak allies/vassals in the western Caucasus. There will be no rest for it, however, as relations become worse and worse with her Latin neighbors...
The Post-Timur Era
Byzantine survival after the Timurid invasion was because of the Straits and an ongoing succession war in Poland (the king having been killed fighting Timur) drawing all of the Eastern Latins' attention away. By 1400 the situation has stabilized, or rather reached rock bottom. After a series of palace coups and civil conflicts, a minor nobleman named Nikolaos Vranas secures the support of the Bulgarian themes (the strongest force left in the empire) and installs himself as basileus. The one upside to the collapse of Anatolia is that its magnates have either been killed or rendered impotent by the loss of their estates, allowing Vranas to centralize power once more and embark on a program of recovery.
After the complete system shock of the collapse of Anatolia and the near-destruction of the empire (who will argue against giving the basileus more power when they see the watch-fires of Bithynia when they sleep?) the Byzantine state is greatly centralized. The nature of the pronoiai are greatly changed, with them now being given 'selective' tax breaks that can be revoked for failure to complete military duties, the bureaucracy is completely overhauled with any corrupt actors being summarily blinded and their jobs given to one of the many competent refugees from the east. There's a bunch of other reforms here, but their boring tax, finance and administration so I'm leaving them out. The army is greatly expanded, its ranks filled by displaced men with nothing to lose and a burning hatred of the Turks, and it is armed with a great deal of cannonade and no shortage of Vlach, Albanian and noble cavalry. All this underwritten through expanded taxes, tarriffs and many loans from Italian and Jewish banks.
The war in Anatolia over the following decades is incredibly brutal, entire villages being razed and their inhabitants put to the sword, prisoners from either side summarily executed or tortured to death, earth salted and countless pyramids of heads built in the ruins of once-great cities. It is a war to the death. Much of the western hill country is conquered within a decade, its small Turkish population killed or driven out and its land settled with Greeks, refugees or colonists. Pontus is retaken relatively easily, large surviving Greek populations and armies of vengeful Georgians, Circassians and Chechens slaughtering every Muslim they find and driving the survivors over the mountains. It is in the interior that things become more difficult, as longer supply lines, larger Turkish populations and the complete devastation of the region make campaigning extremely hard. The Turks are internally divided at the outset, but as outside pressure grows and the thunderdome begins to quiet, they rally around larger centers in Konya, Ankara, and Sivas. To make a long story short, by 1470 the Turks have been pushed away from the coasts, and by 1500 only the central desert and the eastern edge of the plateau are ruled by the sultan in Sivas. The war is immensely costly in both blood and treasure, and is the primary focus of the entire Byzantine state throughout this period.
By 1500, the Byzantine state has become exhausted, its armies barely able to be fielded from a lack of men and money, most of its territory depopulated from decades of war and chaos, its foreign relations limited to a few weak allies/vassals in the western Caucasus. There will be no rest for it, however, as relations become worse and worse with her Latin neighbors...
You might be interested in this blog:
byzantium-blogger.blog
It contains numerous alternate history articles about various events in the Byzantine Empire. It's highly worth checking out--and I say this from personal experience reading this blog!
Powee Celdran – The Byzantium Blogger
Posts about Powee Celdran written by The Byzantium Blogger
byzantium-blogger.blog
It contains numerous alternate history articles about various events in the Byzantine Empire. It's highly worth checking out--and I say this from personal experience reading this blog!
History Learner
Well-known member
Why would Timur still happen with a POD predating his birth by 130 years?
Eparkhos
Well-known member
That was a mistake on my part, I don't think it's very realistic after longer thought.