AH Challenge - Byzantine Restoration C. 1453

archaeogeek

Banned
I often see this repeated, but I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. 50k (and that's not counting significant numbers of people who left before the siege) is still a big city by medieval european standards.

50k is a minor city in 1453. Especially by middle eastern standards, but even by french, italian and german standards.
 
It's certainly not impossible, however it's going to involve incredible bad luck for the Ottomans and incredible good luck for the Byzantines. In which case the story isn't that entertaining.

Well....there was that short period when the Ottomans were divided into various warring states in Anatolia and the Balkans after Timur came in though that made whoever won the entire empire even stronger.
 
Well....there was that short period when the Ottomans were divided into various warring states in Anatolia and the Balkans after Timur came in though that made whoever won the entire empire even stronger.

You could try to have a POD tha prevents the rise of a strong Muslim state/empire in Anatolia.
 
may the ottomans are converted to christianity early on?


ASB. The only one who came close to that was Jahja and we knew how bad that turned out for him. :p

Maybe if the Ottomans remained a small vassal state in the edges of the Byzantine Empire, that would be possible. You would have to give an incentive for them or any Turkish warlord to convert to Christianity that would equalize the fact that they would be ostracized by the population and their men. Someone had a TL that had something like this, with a revived Roman Empire under Dusan but sadly he never continued. :(
 
It's certainly not impossible to have a Byzantine restoration post 1320, however it's going to require incredible bad and good luck for the Ottomans and Byzantines respectively. Which means that the story isn't going to be that entertaining...[/QU

OTE]

or you can have no Byzantine civil war. In otl Nikephoros II Paleologai managed to retake the Despotste of Epirus. This mean Byzantines still control Macedonia, Yannina, and Morea. Then have John paleologai die so no civil war breaks our and nikephoros remains in power. Then with the stability and no major war which decimates the Byzantines I can see the byzantines as a strong regional power but doubt they can become a major power. The civil war racked the Byzantines badly and in the process the Turks siezed most of Greece and Morea was devastated by the war. With thus the Byzzies lose valuable manpower reserves. So IMO In Nikephoros time most of the Greek cities such as Thessaly, Morea, Macedonia were all under Byzzi control:)
 
Someone had a TL that had something like this, with a revived Roman Empire under Dusan but sadly he never continued. :(
This one :)

or you can have no Byzantine civil war. In otl Nikephoros II Paleologai managed to retake the Despotste of Epirus. This mean Byzantines still control Macedonia, Yannina, and Morea. Then have John paleologai die so no civil war breaks our and nikephoros remains in power. Then with the stability and no major war which decimates the Byzantines I can see the byzantines as a strong regional power but doubt they can become a major power. The civil war racked the Byzantines badly and in the process the Turks siezed most of Greece and Morea was devastated by the war. With thus the Byzzies lose valuable manpower reserves. So IMO In Nikephoros time most of the Greek cities such as Thessaly, Morea, Macedonia were all under Byzzi control:)
Nikephoros II was an Emperor of the Macedonian Dynasty from 963-969. You must be talking about Andronikos III Palaiologos (1328-1341)?
 
This one :)

Nikephoros II was an Emperor of the Macedonian Dynasty from 963-969. You must be talking about Andronikos III Palaiologos (1328-1341)?[/QUOTE


Yeah he is the guy I was talking about:) So couldn't he manage to keep Byzantium alive, all you need is for John Kantakouzenos thus butterfling away the civil war and Ottomans rise to supremacy with John taking the throne he could keep a strong regional power, and have Byzantium remain a modest power in the Balkans.
 
Last edited:
I think that in 1453 the Byzantine Empire could be salved by a league of catholic states who had all the interest to halt the Ottomans, as Hungary, Venice and Genova... but maybe if they saved Constantinople, they probably took the occasion to reinstate the Latin Empire instead to maintain a weak Palailogos dynasty. Otherwise, a more successful Council of Florence could convince the Byzantines to convert in exchange of military help... But certainly an eventual broke of the siege was surely more a victory for the catholic powers, and maybe they and not the Ottomans decided to end howewer the western empire...
 
Happen more than several times. The Ottoturks whipped them.

Agreed the latest Pod you can hope for a survivng Byzantium is before the civil war beetween John V and Katenzouka( Srry for Mispelling) after that the Byzies will be taken over they have no hope, the only thing we wonder afterwords is when do they get beatean:)
 
Top