alternatehistory.com
10
I'm really trying to avoid wanking any one country and or side, and hopefully the upcoming wars and shifts in power will display that. I mean there are many, many openings in this period for rapid growth in power for any one side (see the Ottomans' and their massive growth during the time of Murad) so there is an argument to be made, but I highly doubt it'll come to that. The circumstances are somewhat different and the diplomatic situation already works against that (treaties with Bulgaria, attempting economic warfare and soft power, etc)
An attempt at reconquering Anatolia is inevitable, its too valuable to just abandon. How successful, is up for grabs.
The Domestic situation (cities, church, the Zealots of Thessalonica, etc) is up next next and then we move on the Third Venetian-Genoese trade war.
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Military
Ah, the Imperial Military. The remnant and successor to an ancient tradition of war nearly 2000 years old. From the founding of the ancient city of Rome, the state has needed men to both protect and grow her holdings. Here, in the aftermath of a brutal civil war, this fundamental fact remains. But the details of how that army is to be managed, and how it shall be developed, are of course debatable.
Fittingly enough with the reformist doctrine now espoused by Eastern Rome, the army, traditionally being the most attended to organ of the Roman state, was no longer the major focus of the state’s energies and attention. That honor now went to the navy, and to a lesser extent the state bureacracy. Instead the army was mostly left alone, to replenish itself with no real major reforms following aside from a change in the army's composition. This may seem odd but we when we must look at this from the state’s perspective: The army’s been tamed and is loyal the establishment, the state’s credible enemies of Bulgaria and Serbia are in the case of the former allied, and the latter simply not in the mood for future wars, still digesting its gains in Bosnia and fortifying as much as it can. The young king Louis of Hungary has been making some overtures about ‘reclaiming what is rightfully his’, and with the news of his victory against the myriad of forces against him, it was not unreasonable to assume his army must have been large, experienced and well disciplined- something the Serbs would fear. Thus, consolidation and fortification is the agenda. At the same time, the peace ensured with the Latin states and the isolation of the duchy of Athens gives some much needed breathing room, while the navy of course is what’s needed to defend against Genoa and Venice. Thanks to all of the above, the government decided the military wasn’t in any need to change.
When one does look towards the development of the military in this period of the late 1340s-early 1350s, one sees a change in the composition of the army, and there’s a very good reason as to why. From the time since the ascension of Michael VIII, the Roman armed forces had had a preference of recruiting from the nobility and other classes. This was not unreasonable; the nobility usually had the money and resources needed to make sure that the individual soldier was reasonably well equipped, had a horse, and could have afforded to buy military manuals and receive tutelage in the arts of war to some degree or another.
But as we’ve noticed, the trade off was immense: the nobility often stuck its nose in political affairs of the state, were less fierce in their resistance to invading forces due to having more land to return to in the end, demanded higher pay, etc, etc. Due to all of the above, Apokaukos desire to micromanage (therefore necessitating people who are less likely to mess around), and frankly, a shortage of nobles, the army began to be staffed from the lower classes. This began during the civil war and accelerated in the years after. There were simply too many benefits to not allow peasants to staff the army including but not limited to getting a larger amount of willing recruits, being willing to work for cheaper pay (allowing the government to slash prices on army pay on regular soldiers with minimal complaints), re-installation of the pronoia contracts with government land confiscated from the vast noble estates during the war (this one was actually a late term decision due to Constantinople realizing it was quickly running out of small plots of land; it had been giving them out like candy in an attempt to increase patronage; but thankfully the Black Death robbed many would be inheritors and started another round of land parcelling, this time under more careful watch) and of course not having to pay ransoms. This rapid change in composition was something that mostly applied to infantry however, as the remnant nobility, having access to the funds needed to buy and pay for the upkeep in horses, were too valuable to be purposefully disposed of.
In any case, all of above factors were essential in being able to grow the military to a small yet sizable level of around 10,000 infantry troops, a noticeable increase from the pre-war level of c. 6,000 men. Conversely, cavalry suffered and declined from around c. 3,000 men to c. 2,000 (at best) men. With this in mind the imperial government did what it could to make sure its troops could defend themselves all while staying under budget. And that means making sure the equipment was in good quality, good condition and well stocked. To do this the state began buying large amounts of iron and other ores from their neighbors and abroad- Bulgaria and the Marinid Sultanate primarily. While there were certainly sources closer to home (Venice, Genoa and the Greek Crusader states come to mind), some of these conflicted with imperial policy of denying as much income as possible to enemies and thus weren’t considered.
On the logistical side of things, not much had changed except for greater investment in that section. As part of the policy towards promoting commerce, roads and other forms of infrastructure were rebuilt, repaired and expanded in order to make sure merchants and other people could move throughout the empire and sell their wares without much trouble. The military potential of this was not lost, and in fact one of the largest supporters of improving infrastructure were the military elites. This was because it played into the standard military doctrine of the time, emphasizing rapid deployment of troops in order to make sure whatever militia or contingent in the needed region would receive the necessary backup. As we know, Roman forces in this time period were small and stretched thin, thus every man counted. It was imperative to make sure the numbers were even to make the odds better.
And speaking of evening the odds, the Roman government, whenever possible did take steps to increase the defensiveness of its frontiers. Fortifications were built in Thessaly, Macedonia and the straights. It did not confiscate the arms given to the peasantry during the civil war, and made steps to move much of the unemployed urban poor back out into the frontier as militia troops with land grants and military contracts. And these settlers themselves took steps to ensure their livelihoods, organizing into militia groups and in some cases communes (many of the relocated poor were from Thessalonica, where the Zealot Theology had taken root), and with the improvements in roads, large purchases in weapons.
Thanks.
I'm really trying to avoid wanking any one country and or side, and hopefully the upcoming wars and shifts in power will display that. I mean there are many, many openings in this period for rapid growth in power for any one side (see the Ottomans' and their massive growth during the time of Murad) so there is an argument to be made, but I highly doubt it'll come to that. The circumstances are somewhat different and the diplomatic situation already works against that (treaties with Bulgaria, attempting economic warfare and soft power, etc)
I plead the fifth.
Well, better than OTL is a very small bar to pass.
An attempt at reconquering Anatolia is inevitable, its too valuable to just abandon. How successful, is up for grabs. They're already on the set course for that looking at OTL. Prior to Chioggia there were lots of diplomatic failures in Venice which allowed Genoa to get in the upper hand and lots of allies during that war. There's no reason that'll be different with a Byzantine empire that doesn't undergo its rapid decline.
The Domestic situation (cities, church, the Zealots of Thessalonica, etc) is up next next and then we move on the Third Venetian-Genoese trade war.
----------
Military
Ah, the Imperial Military. The remnant and successor to an ancient tradition of war nearly 2000 years old. From the founding of the ancient city of Rome, the state has needed men to both protect and grow her holdings. Here, in the aftermath of a brutal civil war, this fundamental fact remains. But the details of how that army is to be managed, and how it shall be developed, are of course debatable.
Fittingly enough with the reformist doctrine now espoused by Eastern Rome, the army, traditionally being the most attended to organ of the Roman state, was no longer the major focus of the state’s energies and attention. That honor now went to the navy, and to a lesser extent the state bureacracy. Instead the army was mostly left alone, to replenish itself with no real major reforms following aside from a change in the army's composition. This may seem odd but we when we must look at this from the state’s perspective: The army’s been tamed and is loyal the establishment, the state’s credible enemies of Bulgaria and Serbia are in the case of the former allied, and the latter simply not in the mood for future wars, still digesting its gains in Bosnia and fortifying as much as it can. The young king Louis of Hungary has been making some overtures about ‘reclaiming what is rightfully his’, and with the news of his victory against the myriad of forces against him, it was not unreasonable to assume his army must have been large, experienced and well disciplined- something the Serbs would fear. Thus, consolidation and fortification is the agenda. At the same time, the peace ensured with the Latin states and the isolation of the duchy of Athens gives some much needed breathing room, while the navy of course is what’s needed to defend against Genoa and Venice. Thanks to all of the above, the government decided the military wasn’t in any need to change.
When one does look towards the development of the military in this period of the late 1340s-early 1350s, one sees a change in the composition of the army, and there’s a very good reason as to why. From the time since the ascension of Michael VIII, the Roman armed forces had had a preference of recruiting from the nobility and other classes. This was not unreasonable; the nobility usually had the money and resources needed to make sure that the individual soldier was reasonably well equipped, had a horse, and could have afforded to buy military manuals and receive tutelage in the arts of war to some degree or another.
But as we’ve noticed, the trade off was immense: the nobility often stuck its nose in political affairs of the state, were less fierce in their resistance to invading forces due to having more land to return to in the end, demanded higher pay, etc, etc. Due to all of the above, Apokaukos desire to micromanage (therefore necessitating people who are less likely to mess around), and frankly, a shortage of nobles, the army began to be staffed from the lower classes. This began during the civil war and accelerated in the years after. There were simply too many benefits to not allow peasants to staff the army including but not limited to getting a larger amount of willing recruits, being willing to work for cheaper pay (allowing the government to slash prices on army pay on regular soldiers with minimal complaints), re-installation of the pronoia contracts with government land confiscated from the vast noble estates during the war (this one was actually a late term decision due to Constantinople realizing it was quickly running out of small plots of land; it had been giving them out like candy in an attempt to increase patronage; but thankfully the Black Death robbed many would be inheritors and started another round of land parcelling, this time under more careful watch) and of course not having to pay ransoms. This rapid change in composition was something that mostly applied to infantry however, as the remnant nobility, having access to the funds needed to buy and pay for the upkeep in horses, were too valuable to be purposefully disposed of.
In any case, all of above factors were essential in being able to grow the military to a small yet sizable level of around 10,000 infantry troops, a noticeable increase from the pre-war level of c. 6,000 men. Conversely, cavalry suffered and declined from around c. 3,000 men to c. 2,000 (at best) men. With this in mind the imperial government did what it could to make sure its troops could defend themselves all while staying under budget. And that means making sure the equipment was in good quality, good condition and well stocked. To do this the state began buying large amounts of iron and other ores from their neighbors and abroad- Bulgaria and the Marinid Sultanate primarily. While there were certainly sources closer to home (Venice, Genoa and the Greek Crusader states come to mind), some of these conflicted with imperial policy of denying as much income as possible to enemies and thus weren’t considered.
On the logistical side of things, not much had changed except for greater investment in that section. As part of the policy towards promoting commerce, roads and other forms of infrastructure were rebuilt, repaired and expanded in order to make sure merchants and other people could move throughout the empire and sell their wares without much trouble. The military potential of this was not lost, and in fact one of the largest supporters of improving infrastructure were the military elites. This was because it played into the standard military doctrine of the time, emphasizing rapid deployment of troops in order to make sure whatever militia or contingent in the needed region would receive the necessary backup. As we know, Roman forces in this time period were small and stretched thin, thus every man counted. It was imperative to make sure the numbers were even to make the odds better.
And speaking of evening the odds, the Roman government, whenever possible did take steps to increase the defensiveness of its frontiers. Fortifications were built in Thessaly, Macedonia and the straights. It did not confiscate the arms given to the peasantry during the civil war, and made steps to move much of the unemployed urban poor back out into the frontier as militia troops with land grants and military contracts. And these settlers themselves took steps to ensure their livelihoods, organizing into militia groups and in some cases communes (many of the relocated poor were from Thessalonica, where the Zealot Theology had taken root), and with the improvements in roads, large purchases in weapons.