If the Eastern Roman empire collapsed in the 600s, would effect would it have on the development of catholicism?
If the Eastern Empire collapses in the 600s, it could be an Arab field day in broken, battered, and largely pagan Europe. Catholicism is left at most with Italy
I'm more interested in if the Byzantines completely collapse.
And what of the Franks?
I think Christianity will still survive- an Arab conquest of the Balkans probably means no Arab conquest of North Africa and Spain, for simple regions of overstretch. The Arabs will have enough on their plate dealing with the Slavs and Bulgars in the Balkans, not to mention putting down revolts in Persia and Egypt, to really focus on cracking the west.
So I think we'll see North African Christianity surviving. Italy, as the front line against Islam, will be impacted upon by this, whereas Spain, by contrast, will become something of a safe haven for the faith, as will Gaul. Expect to see fierce Christian vs. Islamic attempts to convert the Bulgars, Avars, and Slavs.
The Moslems only have so many soldiers and so on to go around. Spending them on the Balkans makes them unavailable for a western push into the exarchate of Carthage.
Roman Africa did have a decent sized force OTL,if memory serves, so if the Muslims are busy fighting everywhere else, it might not be as badly off as its present condition would imply it was in those times.
Did Islamic division in Egypt that executed the invasion into North African Exarchate, receive any meaningful infusion of reinforcement form elsewhere, primarily from Syrian division, beforehand IOTL ? If yes, I guess there will probably some delay, but I cannot see North Africa lasting Christian once Islam has Egypt.
It has to be noted that early Caliphate fought many fronts simultaneously for several times, so the question of overstretch really depends on the timing of the PoD being proposed.
1) I think, regarding the original premise, the question is how the Eastern Empire collapses, and also when. Assuming it's collapse occurs contemporary to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, there is certainly the possibility of Islam getting butterflied away altogether (as a rule of thumb, I would say there, the question would be: is the POD before or after the Plague of Justinian?)
Depending on the POD, we might have a scenario in which Arianism becomes the main brand of Christianity, at least in the western Euro-Mediterranean area (I'm think about a surviving Vandal kingdom here, assuming that the Eastern Roman Empire collapses too early ).
2) Arguably, the Umayyad Caliphate did overstretch in OTL, but that only occured in the 730s.
1) The OP said that s/he wants Eastern Empire to collapse in the 600s. But yes, no specs for the PoD for it
2) Every empire can and will overstretch, however doesn't only depend on internal factors for this. Elimination of a big neighbor will contribute positive number to the "elasticity" of the empire in question, not negative.
Did Islamic division in Egypt that execute the invasion into North African Exarchate, receive any meaningful infusion of reinforcement form elsewhere, primarily from Syrian division, beforehand IOTL ? If yes, I guess there will probably some delay, but I cannot see North Africa lasting Christian once Islam has Egypt.
It has to be noted that early Caliphate fought many fronts simultaneously for several times, so the question of overstretch really depends on the timing of the PoD being proposed.
And occupation of a large amount of additional territory will suck up resources and attention.2) Every empire can and will overstretch, however doesn't only depend on internal factors for this. Elimination of a big, competent neighbor will contribute positive number to the "elasticity" of the empire in question, not negative.
I have to agree with Elfwine. The Arabs are going to have a hell of a time dealing with Bulgars and Slavs, and on top of that taking care of Anatolia and Egypt.
This is likely. I don't think the Arabs would go for conquering the Bulgars and Slavs; they would probably at least wait a couple of decades. There is only so many Muslim Arabs you can throw at Europe.
Christianity will survive for the most part as it did in the Islamic realms. I would like to see how the Ummayads would do in making Constantinople much more of a beautiful city than it was in the 600s.
The Arabs would most likely try to convert the Slavs, actually. It seems sort of interesting to have an Arab-Catholic conversion race instead of an Orthdox-Catholic conversion race.
Yeah. That's pretty much likely to happen. The Arabs won't waste much men in conquering them; they will be competing with whatever Christian missionaries that come from western Europe though it's worth noting that it was Byzantine missionaries that aided in the conversion of the Slavs and Bulgars. So it's likely they'll convert to Islam.
The Slavs could also play a role like the Turks did if a "Ruman" Caliphate arises.
Indeed. I don't think the Arabs would bother with the inland areas of the Balkans; the Aegean islands, Greece, and Thrace will be enough for them. Regarding the conversions,I think that if the Arabs start attempting to convert them in the 700s-800s They could have most of the Balkans as Islamic. Russia's a wild card, though.
I always wondered: who's going to cave in terms of conversions? The Eastern Roman nobility and whatever's left of the imperial family and military? The peasantry?
I always wondered: who's going to cave in terms of conversions? The Eastern Roman nobility and whatever's left of the imperial family and military? The peasantry?