AHC: Crusader Merchant Republic

Generally speaking, the Italian Merchant Republics were some of the most eager to maintain peaceful relations with the Islamic states of the Middle East, mainly because peace was more profitable than war. The Kingdom of Jerusalem also tended towards a similar policy often, though that tended to get hijacked by local nobles or foreign crusaders.

So, the challenge I propose is for a Merchant Republic to be established in the Levant by the Latin Christians. Conditions:
- Must have a republican form of government centered around some trading city.
- Must be established by the Latin Christians, but a certain degree of 'nativization' is allowed, so long as it remains Christian.
- Should last as an independent polity as long as the Crusades themselves, bonus points if it outlasts them.

Go for it.
 
Generally speaking, the Italian Merchant Republics were some of the most eager to maintain peaceful relations with the Islamic states of the Middle East, mainly because peace was more profitable than war. The Kingdom of Jerusalem also tended towards a similar policy often, though that tended to get hijacked by local nobles or foreign crusaders.

So, the challenge I propose is for a Merchant Republic to be established in the Levant by the Latin Christians. Conditions:
- Must have a republican form of government centered around some trading city.
- Must be established by the Latin Christians, but a certain degree of 'nativization' is allowed, so long as it remains Christian.
- Should last as an independent polity as long as the Crusades themselves, bonus points if it outlasts them.

Go for it.

Well merchant republics are usually in defensible places, so Lebanon and Cilicia (if that is counted as the Levant) come to mind as good locations. As for the republican form of government, I think that the Knightly Orders like the Teutonic Knights usually elected their Grand Masters, and because of the profitable trade through the Levant towards Europe, you could see this republic taking a more mercantile turn as time goes on. Maybe the Knights Templar would work well for this; they were already quite mercantile with their proto-banks.
 
The best way would be having a lasting Mongol presence in Middle-East. OTL remnants of Crusader states were basically italian protectorates, and several of them were ruled by informal councils of nobles as Acre or Tyre.

For exemple, if Embarici manage to get the upper hand in Antioch, or if Genoese win the War of Saint Sabas early enough, it could turn the maritime remnants of Jerusalem and Antioch into genoese protectorates.

Really, I could see that happening only in the IOTL later Crusader period. Before, the ideal feodal order mixed with native administration made dynastical legitimacy too much important and too tied up with milites to be really plausible.

A political takeover of maritime latin cities, on the other hand, and especially if they get covered by Mongols thanks to formal submission could last. Genoese could gain enough political hegemony to either puppetize counts (especially if they minorize their Templars foes enough) or even create a consul as in OTL Genoese Caffa.

I don't see it last, being too much threatened by any continental middle-eastern power, but I think it's still the more plausible possibility given the OP.
 
Really, I could see that happening only in the IOTL later Crusader period. Before, the ideal feodal order mixed with native administration made dynastical legitimacy too much important and too tied up with milites to be really plausible.

I agree with this part wholeheartedly. The dynastic legitimacy of the K of Jerusalem really seemed to be inversely proportional to how keen the Latins were with mercantile interest (not implying cause/effect, just a correlation).

Anyway, I should clarify that I'm not looking for colonies of the Italian republics, but a local republic itself. Obviously, it could start off as a colony or protectorate or what have you, but I'd like one that is setting its own policy.

Though, of course, submission to the Mongols will get a pass.
 
Anyway, I should clarify that I'm not looking for colonies of the Italian republics, but a local republic itself. Obviously, it could start off as a colony or protectorate or what have you, but I'd like one that is setting its own policy.

Problem is that poulain society (strictly speaking) was either wholly noble, clerical and rural; with urban middle-class and upper-middle class being either native (most generally Eastern Christian) or italian (and that since the very beggining of the Latin States).

As a eastern Christian republic would be not only not acceptable but quite foreign to native tradition, it let only with italian merchants. At this point anyway, maritime cities trade were hugely dominated by italians.
A non-Italian dominated (at the very least by a protectorate) merchant crusader republic doesn't seem possible.
 
Top