AH Challenge: Surviving Greek Sicily/Italy

Your challenge, should you accept it, is to come up with a TL where Sicily or Southern Italy remain predominately Greek-speaking areas until the present day.

Bonus points if they are also Greek Orthodox

Double bonus points if a Greek state in Sicily/S. Italy participates in the colonization of the Americas.
 
If the normans don't invade because thay are much weaker or much more busy than in OTL, Sicily would remain under Arab/Muslim rule but the people would also remain Greek/Orthodox Christian, since no assimiliation had taken place before the norman invasion, it's likely that there wouldn't be one later either.

They remain under the muslim rulers for as long as possible, into the 19th centuary when a revolution creates a republic

Sicily remains a poor backwater country, probably more so than in OTL without tax money from north Italy...
 
If the normans don't invade because thay are much weaker or much more busy than in OTL, Sicily would remain under Arab/Muslim rule but the people would also remain Greek/Orthodox Christian, since no assimiliation had taken place before the norman invasion, it's likely that there wouldn't be one later either.

They remain under the muslim rulers for as long as possible, into the 19th centuary when a revolution creates a republic

Sicily remains a poor backwater country, probably more so than in OTL without tax money from north Italy...

But Italian speakers from Central Italy might still migrate and coexist with the greek speakers...
 
Basil II survives a couple more years, and Sicily is reconquered by 1030 and restored to the Empire. The Normans never arrive in Sicily, instead they take service with the Roman army in Anatolia.

The Turks still defeat a rundown and demoralised Imperial army in the 1070s. An Alexios Komnenos equivalent siezes the throne, and begins to evacuate Christians from Anatolia to Sicily. The Empire is restored for a while, but in the late 12th century, the wheels start to come off as in OTL, when the Crusaders become more anti-Roman. In 1208, Constantinople is sacked, and splits into five major succesor states. One of these is based in Italy/Sicily. The main Empire eventually falls to the Turks, but the Sicilian state (still calling itself "Roman" of course) is able to easily repel Turks, Spaniards and Venetians. In the 19th century, as the Turks decline, it establishes colonies in Greece and North Africa.

How's that? :D
 
Basil II survives a couple more years, and Sicily is reconquered by 1030 and restored to the Empire. The Normans never arrive in Sicily, instead they take service with the Roman army in Anatolia.

The Turks still defeat a rundown and demoralised Imperial army in the 1070s. An Alexios Komnenos equivalent siezes the throne, and begins to evacuate Christians from Anatolia to Sicily. The Empire is restored for a while, but in the late 12th century, the wheels start to come off as in OTL, when the Crusaders become more anti-Roman. In 1208, Constantinople is sacked, and splits into five major succesor states. One of these is based in Italy/Sicily. The main Empire eventually falls to the Turks, but the Sicilian state (still calling itself "Roman" of course) is able to easily repel Turks, Spaniards and Venetians. In the 19th century, as the Turks decline, it establishes colonies in Greece and North Africa.

How's that? :D

Thanks! Though I don't know about the evacuation of Christians from Anatolia-it seems like a long distance to move people, especially for the time, and wasn't Sicily/southern Italy largely Greek speaking until the Norman conquest anyway?

Wonder what the effects of a "Roman" successor state so close to the actual city of Rome would be.

EDIT: OK, did some research-Southern Italy was latinized during the Roman era, except for its extreme southern tip. For Sicily, I think my point still stands.
 
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