1) The Americans were coming from Northern Europe to an identical climate, all their skills apply 100% rather than having to learn new things in a cliamte that isn't as productive.
Within the immediate Cape zone we are talking Mediterranean-style farming conditions which the OTL Dutch and...
First the Bulgars will undoubtedly expand into the Balkans more freely and more quickly than OTL due to the post-Constantinople power vacuum. This will bring many Slavic tribes under their control (which, as history tells us, are not the loyalest and most of docile of subject peoples) and give...
I agree with Falecius given the resources under the command of the Muslims in this ATL -I think that the Bulgars would chose to endorse whatever Islam was mainstream in Constantinople. Unlike OTL, the Bulgars are in precarious position but also (as I have said before) the Bulgars would have a...
Not sure about the Greek language but if we ask ourselves what happened to Persian Culture after the Islamic conquest we might find an answer to the question: how would Greek culture adapt to Islamic conquest?
In Persia you had "Shu'ubiyyah". What is "Shu'ubiyyah"? If you rely on wikipedia...
On the subject of the Bulgars. An Islamic conversion I think makes most sense to me. It seems to me that the Umayyads will spend most of their military power in the southern Balkans fighting the numerous Slavs that have poured southward in the 6th and 7th centuries. In order to do this...
This is astounding as I have been writing and formulating a World in which Constantinople fell in 678 AD. In honour of ImmortalImpi's suggestion I might call it: the World Without Callincius. Personally I believe (along with Fredrick II Barbarossa) that the odds are against the Fall of the...
Second Italian Reconquestia: Part III
The Tome of Elias was a divisive document: although supported by many of the more puritan-minded clergy in Western Europe (particularly the infamous monks of Murbach) many bishops in the West rejected the Tome. In the North, the charge was led by Charles...
Second Italian Reconquestia: Part II
In 935 AD, Romanos Lekapenos, Emperor of Byzantium, received word that his commander in the West Leo Kourkouas had defeated the main Lombardi army. After several days of manoeuvring near Cupua, a cavalry wing of the Lombardi army –which had secretly pledged...
Second Italian Reconquestia: Part I
The period from the middle of the 9th century to the middle of the 11th is often called the ‘Age of Conquest’ since it was the second and last serious attempt on the part of the Byzantine Emperors in Constantinople to achieve control by military means over...
The Madhi Invasion: Part III
By 935 the Fatimid hold over the Guadalquivir Valley was secure. Further expansion, however, proved a problem. The Portuguese al-Majus, who had initially given aid to the Fatimids, withdrew their support after the death of their Emir Abd Al-Aziz in 936. This...
The Madhi Invasion: Part II
In the 10th century, the health of Andalusia was failing. Conditions were such that only a military leader with the support of the army could exercise any effective control. But the native soldiers were demoralized and the army was now no more than a band of brigands...
To return to the original question/challenge: you could have the Byzantines lose the Battle of Cyzicus and with it Constantinople (not terribly original I grant you). No Constantinople would mean that Christianity had a very difficult run indeed. I was thinking of writing a TL on this thread...
No Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantium) in the 650s would mean that the Lombardi take Rome perhaps in the early 8th century. The result could be a papacy that is subordinated to the Lombardi King in Rome. Now, a Lombardi conquest of Rome could see a Frankish intervention to upheld the sovereignty...
The Madhi Invasion: Part I: Flavour
“The armourers of Al-Andalus were famous throughout Europe, and their skill and ingenuity provide the substantive advances in military technology were soon adopted by their Christian competitors. Improvements included the stirrup, which allowed the horseman...