AHC: Reverse Romania and Bulgaria

https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=130f5303b04629e3c7871c8661002743&oe=57F30AB7

Challenge: Make this map accurate! In other words, reverse Romania and Bulgaria. (The map is of Europe in 1942, but obviously the reversal would have had to happen far earlier. "The First Bulgarian Empire ruled over most of the territory of present-day Romania from the 7th century to the early 11th century." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Romania So I can see having a "Bulgaria" in what is now Romania. Having a "Romania" in what is now Bulgaria seems harder, yet the Romans did after all occupy the area... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bulgaria So if you had the Thraco-Roman presence more lasting in the south and the Bulgars confining themselves to the north...)
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keep the Bulgars out of Moesia. Moesia and Thrace would still probably get many Slavs settling it but it might still stick with a Romance language. They would probably call themselves Romans. Keeping the Bulgars in Dacia might make Romania the new Bulgaria
 
How about an alternate challenge based on the map. Keep Turkey out of Europe, make the country name still be Russia and for bonus points have OTL England and Wales (and more if you want) referred to simply as England.
 
The Byzantines hold the line much better against the Bulgars and other slavs, thus retaining OTL Bulgaria as part of Thrace. The Bulgars settle what is OTL Romania.

Sadly, they still don't do too well against the Crusaders or the Turks - though a Byzantine rump state still hangs on in Thrace through the centuries.
 
The Byzantines hold the line much better against the Bulgars and other slavs, thus retaining OTL Bulgaria as part of Thrace. The Bulgars settle what is OTL Romania.

Sadly, they still don't do too well against the Crusaders or the Turks - though a Byzantine rump state still hangs on in Thrace through the centuries.
Alternatively, Romania is a surviving Latin Empire, and Greece fought for and won its independence from it some time down the line.
 
Well, the Romans called themselves Rhomanion (Romania) so really just have the Bulgars crush the Magyars and control both Pannonia and *Wallachia, while the Romans control everything south of the Danube.
 
The best way I see it would be to prevent the advance of the Ottoman Empire on Europe - so no Gallipoli. the way I see this happening is for OTL Romanians to be a very restive population, perhaps because of a common identity shared with the Byzantines as 'Romans' - forcing the Hungarian, Bulgarian and Polish Kings to force them to leave, after a bloody struggle, there is an agreement on the behalf of the Roman Empire to accept the Romanians (after all, they both consider themselves Roman at this point), to provide a larger population base to form armies from - one of the Roman Empires problems as this point. There would probably be some issues with Bulgaria as this is a huge forced migration, but Romanians now is better than Romanians later as far as the Kings are concerned.

The now very dense population base in the 1350s (this is where I think there would need to be changes), allows the Romans to reconquer territory from the Serbians, restoring most of Greece, and later a war is waged against the Bulgarians justified by reclaiming imperial territory, and also vengeance, forcing the Bulgarians in 1/2/3 wars over the Danube, with the population being forced to flee by the Romanians.

This leads to an interesting Roman Empire where there is a distinct Northern Latin and Southern Greek Empire - but with the Romanians becoming more prominent over time, eventually forming the majority in Constantinople - instead the Roman Empire takes the role of the Ottomans, moving ever closer to Italy and Austria, conquering the "Slavic Provinces" - the rest is largely a butterfly net until the 1900s. This may or may not involve a reconquest of Turkey/Anatolia.

Whatever triggers a WWII style scenario, with a united Germany running roughshod over eastern Europe. The Roman Government (Imperial, Democratic, Theocratic, whatever) is forced out of the city, perhaps holding out in S.Greece, Crete, or as a Government In Exile in an allied country, this could be made easier by the Nazis supporting a Turkish Nationalist Rebellion that succeeds, allying with the Germans. This would leave the Romans reeling. To make administration easier there is a Vichy-Romania government and a Vichy-Greek government (staffed by Greek Nationalists who don't identify as Roman). The Slavic Provinces are reorganised as 'Yugoslavia' by the Germans as well.

Admittedly there is a butterfly net around this - hell, this might be a Democratic Germany invading a largely Imperialist Europe - (in fact that would be an interesting twist) - but other than the WWII details, I think that this would form the basis of a timeline that could lead to that map.
 
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