AHC: Medieval Pan-Baltic State

Georgie777

Banned
So, your mission, should you decide to accept it is this:

Have a state that comprises the different Baltic peoples arise in the Middle Ages and survive to the present day.

Requirements: The state must be 'lead' by a Baltic people (i.e. No having Poland conquer everything and say "mission accomplished!")

The state need not be Christian - though this will probably help its survival, I would assume.

Follow up question: how would the culture and economies of the OTL Baltic region be different if it was united by a single state from an early era.

(on a personal note; I'm creating this AHC rather blind, as I don't know a ton about the region during this era. Should anyone want to suggest a good book on the Medieval Baltic peoples, I would be very much appreciate it!)

Give the Teutonic Order and the Livonian Order a wank, unite the two officially and centralise, let Protestant reformation take its course, reform to monarchy under a Latvian King. Riga becomes a much more important city.

Now we just need to figure out how the hell this happens. Maybe have the battle of Grunwald turn out disastrous for the Polish and start from there.

EDIT: oh neat, someone has done our work for us.
 
Last edited:
Mindaugas of Lithuania is arguably the "Philip of Macedon" figure you mention, judging from what he managed to do in OTL.

Agricultural advancements would be useful (the Balts still operated on slash-and-burn at the time), but I don't know how effective would that be in the short term, as the Baltics are pretty poor land.


Tried in OTL. Didn't work.

I think we've discussed Truso before, but I've seen no information as to why it didn't work, besides being eclipsed by Gdansk.

Perhaps there is a PoD, with the fall of Gdansk, perhaps to a Viking raid that accidentally burns the city to the ground, Truso makes a move before anyone else, and sets up a stronghold there, which becomes a major city like OTL, but a centre for Balts (perhaps because they can see the rising power of Poland, and need to combat that threat), eventually outshining Truso. With trade and immigration from the rest of the Balts, it becomes a strong city state at the southern point of the Baltic Sea - founding/dominating the other coastal cities, surviving via diplomacy and a prudent conversion to Christianity. Teutonic Order still does its thing, but instead of conquering it like OTL - they instead assist Gdansk in bringing the Balts to Christendom - in the same way the Order of Santiago was involved in the reconquista.

(Not easy, but it is more trying to envision a different way, besides the aforementioned Lithuanian approach).
 
Top