Pax Byzantia
As the power of the Venetian Empire temporarily crumbles, the Byzantines emerge as the leading power in the world...
1024 - Already hailed by his Byzantine contemporaries as the greatest Roman Emperor since Augustus, Basil V dies satisfied, having achieved the goal of reunifying, at least nominally, the entire Roman Empire under Constantinople. The succession, however, presents a problem. Basil has three daughters and a son, however, the particular circumstances of his son's birth present a difficulty - Demetrios Stylitzes is illegitimate, and thus would normally be debarred from the throne. Not only that, but the husband of one of Basil's daughters, a prominent general named Alexius Branas, makes his bid for the throne as well. Demetrios attempts to find allies in the most unlikely of all places, and finally succeeds where no one would have guessed - in Venice. Even though the Venetian Emperor Victor is technically subordinate to the one in Constantinople, his support and that of Italian leaders would make the Byzantines agree on Demetrios, especially since no one wants to see the comeback of the Great War. The price is high, with Victor demanding that Venice is represented in the Imperial Senate, and that much of the restrictions and penalties placed on them by late Basil V be lifted. After all, he argued, are the people of Italy not Roman citizens? They should then be treated as such, and not as a conquered, wounded enemy. Demetrios is quick to agree, realizing that the only way he could beat Alexius Branas to the throne is by gaining support in both East and West. Branas is captured, and forced to enter the monastery, where he remains for the rest of his long life, writing a somewhat boring history that appears to be a major source of information about the time.
1026 - The city of Zara on the Dalmatian coast has long been the place where the Greeks, Italians, and Slavs mixed, giving birth to a unique blend of all three cultures. It is there that a former Venetian soldier turned small-time politician by the name of Antonio Trappani becomes increasingly bitter after he is ejected from the city council due to no longer meeting the property requirements. Trappani, despite his very humble origins, is a master orator, and takes up on the causes of soldiers, workers, and those of generally lower classes. Because of location, and of the mixing of Greeks and Italians, his message is heeded by the people of both origins. He advocates better worker protection rights, something that had been looked at in Venice with some interest, but previously rejected outright in Byzantium; reduced work hours; lower taxation for the lower income citizens; and representation for the poor in the government. To this effect, he proposes to reinstitute the ancient office of the Tribune of the People, whose duty would be to represent the interests of the plebeians and proletarians in the grand Imperial Senate, with veto and a range of other powers. As Trappani starts to publish a newspaper called "The Voice Of The Republic", his ideas gain more ground not only in the coastal cities of Dalmatia and Illyria, but throughout the entirety of the Roman Empire, Byzantine and Venetian.
1028 - By now, Antonio Trappani has created enough of a stir that an arrest warrant is issued, and, thanks to the relative efficiency of the Byzantine secret police, he is quickly brought to Constantinople. Riots break out throughout the many cities of the East and the West, many of the rioters themselves former soldiers, who start to organize themselves, heeding the message of Trappani. Realizing that the situation is fundamentally more difficult than he had anticipated, Emperor Demetrios calls for calm, and promises to hear Trappani's grievances and to give him a fair trial, with the Emperor himself presiding.
1029 - The trial of Antonio Trappani amasses huge crowds in Constantinople, with the rioting subdued only temporarily. As Trappani is led into the improvised courtroom in Hagia Sophia (the place was chosen as to give religious flavor and additional weight to the Emperor's decision), thousands begun to whisper that this one man may be the one to bring prosperity to their war-torn empire again. The opening arguments are heard, Trappani refusing to use the lawyer, and insisting to speak in his own defence. At this time, there is an unmistakable chant coming from the outside of the great church - "Trappani". His name on the lips of the citizens of wealthiest, most opulent city in the world, and on the lips of citizens of every other major city of his empire, his army heeding the ideas of this strange little Italian, Demetrios has little choice but to have Trappani cleared of his charges, and appointed to the very position he advocated - the Tribune of the People.
1032 - The collapse of the Chimu Empire in South America begins, partially initiated by the Byzantine influence. When a new king ascends the throne of the Chimu, he attempts to forge closer ties with his neighbours, however, invariably in this kind of situation one neighbour is given preference over the others. That one neighbour just happened to be Maya Vandalor. The Byzantines engineer a coup, placing a Byzantium-friendly puppet on the throne, but a counter-revolution sponsored by the Vandals has the new king run for his life, escaping to Byzantine colonies. With Byzantine financing, the new king is able to raise an army, which results in Chimu plunging into an ongoing decade-long civil war. Despite this conflict, the Byzantine-Vandal relations are largely unchanged - that is, the state of mutual distrust continues.
1033 - In the four years since his appointment as a Tribune, Antonio Trappani made many enemies, but at the same time, his star is rising fast to where he is the second most powerful man in the Empire - that is, second only to the Emperor Demetrius himself, who tends to heed Trappani's advice in times of crisis. Long a proponent of the Venetian system, where the monarch's power is curbed by the Senate, Trappani proposes to create a system of checks and balances that would separate the executive, legislative, judicial, and religious power, and ensure that no matter who is on the throne, the stability and development of the Empire would be ensured by the balance. Demetrius is lukewarm to the idea, however, faced with the opposition from the Venetian and Byzantine aristocrats and churchmen, decides that this is a small price to pay for an undisturbed reign not only for himself, but for his son, and, God willing, his son after him. Thus, Demetrius commissioned a large congregation of leading men of the day, jurists, churchmen, generals, industrialists, to write a new Roman Constitution, all under the watchful eye of the Emperor and his Italian advisor. The work on the document took two years, however, upon its completion, it was hailed as being the most progressive concept of its time, and a noble detour from the old ways of privilege and tyranny.
1034 - A great Vandal king Otto comes to the throne, resolved to curb the power of the feudal aristocrats that he believes to damage the essential unity of Maya Vandalor, and to prevent its rise to the status of a true global superpower. His policies are occasionally heavy-handed, and cause a number of small rebellions, but within a decade, the Maya Vandals not only emerge as a much more centralized state, but expand their North American dominions all the way to the Vinnland frontier. At the same time, the Vandal and Mayan engineers are working hard to maintain the technological advantage that allowed them to establish their country as a major power. The first fruit of their efforts is the internal combustion engine, which is then used to power increasingly more advanced versions of airships, tanquettes, submarines, and surface ships. The engine will be eventually copied by the other powers, however, the Vandal models will be considered superior to their European and Chinese duplicates for a long time to come.
1035 - The Roman Constitution is finished, and given approval from both the Emperor Demetrius, the Imperial Senate, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Tribute Trappani. The Constitution divides supreme power into five branches - the Emperor responsible for the executive branch, enforcing the laws, and being the commander-in-chief of the army; the Senate being responsible for creating new laws; the new office of Sebastocrator being essentially a chief justice, with a staff of ten lesser judges being appointed to serve as the supreme judicial authority of the Empire, responsible for the interpretation of the laws. The two branches that constitute a major difference between the Byzantine Constitution and that of OTL USA are the religious branch, headed by the Synod of Six Patriarchs (Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Gaul, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, all of which send their representatives), and responsible for being the ultimate authority on religious doctrinal issues - however, the Emperor is given the power to intervene should the Synod come to a deadlock (an important distinction is that even though Gaul and Alexandria are not technically a part of the Empire, the Emperor still considers himself to be God's Vice-Regent on Earth, and thus participation of the Patriarchs is a pronouncement of his spiritual authority over all other temporal rulers); and, finally, the Tribunary branch, headed by the Tribune of the People, being in charge of the employment laws, worker compensation (as in minimum wages and so on), and ensuring no abuses of power by the other branches of the government. There is a cause for much rejoicing in the East and in the West, as finally a compromise is reached that satisfies both the Venetians and the Byzantines. Of course, not everyone is happy, and as such Demetrius is obliged to put down a serious rebellion of Greek industrialist aristocracy who see him as being too pro-Venetian, but the reinstitution of the constitutional monarchy not only for Venice, but also for its Byzantine counterpart, does much to recreate an amount of goodwill between the two scions of ancient Rome, reminding their people that they are still a part of one common ancestry, and that despite their differences, they are still Romans above and beyond everything else.
1037 - A Russian explorer travels through what would be OTL Argentina, and claims this land for the Tsardom of Rus. The Russians are quick to send most of their available colonists to South America, creating a colony named Serebrenitsa, after finding much silver there (from Russian Serebro[/] - "Silver").
1039 - The Byzantine Empire by now is widely considered the strongest power in the known world, quickly reincorporating Venetian territories back into the fold, and creating in a process a new Roman Empire, that is an amalgam of what was best about pre-split Byzantium and Venice. In the East Asia, however, another power is not content with playing a second fiddle to anyone. Secretly, the Mongol Emperor of China commissions research into further military applications, while forming an under-the-counter alliance with the Maya Vandals, who realize that there is more to gain from allying with China than from an unspoken enmity between the two that has been prevalent ever since the Chinese-Vandal war years ago.
1040 - A Byzantine engineer that has long been fascinated with the rocket gliders has just realized that despite the common wisdom of the time, a heavier-than-air aircraft design is, indeed, possible. Armed with a moderately powerful internal combustion engine, he theorizes that upon reaching sufficient speed, a device of proper shape could not only achieve flight, but also achieve speeds previously believed unthinkable. His first device does not lift off the ground, however, he is not discouraged, and decides to continue until one day in 1041, the first heavier-than-air propeller-driven aircraft lifts off, and stays in the air for the whole of seventeen seconds. These seventeen seconds begin a new era of aviation, that will result in massive airships being relegated into the background, with only few still being used as carriers of faster fighter planes (albeit due to weight restrictions, the number of planes they could carry, it was observed, was not nearly as efficient as a navy ship outfitted for this purpose - thus the air-based carriers would only be deployed in the areas with no water access).
1042 - Norway, Denmark, Eire, and Angleland, despite the history of mutual enmity going back centuries, realize that left alone, they are simply waiting for one of the greater powers to swallow them up. As a result, after years of talks, the four countries decide to form the Northern Confederation, part treaty of military alliance, part economic union. The important part of the agreement is that each of the four countries agrees to keep its sovereignty, with the leadership of the Confederation passing to each of the countries in turn for one year.
1043 - The state of Gaul quickly regresses into feudalism as rival barons set up their own little fiefs with only nominal loyalty to the king in Paris. Demetrius views this development with much dissatisfaction, as not only it is much more difficult to deal with hundreds of Barons, the eventual supremacy of Rome is at stake. Afraid that should the things get too out of hand, Gaul will need a full-scale reconquest to be reintegrated into the Empire as opposed to its current status as a vassal state, he issues an ultimatum to the Franks to accept the Roman governors or to face a full-scale invasion.
1044 - The Franks are not too excited about the idea of fighting the Romans, yet they also do not want to give up their independence. As such, they apply for the membership in the Northern Confederation, reasoning that such a move would stop the Romans from going to war that they would not want in first place. To Demetrius I, this could only mean treason, and he petitions the Senate for an invasion force, which he gets. The resulting war is quick, and is more decided by the Byzantine assassins than by the force of arms - with most leaders of the rebellion taken out, the Frankish forces become a disorganized mess that is quickly neutralized by few lightning-fast Byzantine maneuvers.
1045 - The last vestiges of conflict in Gaul die out, as the country is completely retaken by the Byzantines. Some accused the Byzantines of hypocrisy, being that they were the primary champions of Gaulish independence after the Great War - chief among them the Russians, who are by now getting increasingly restless, perceiving that their gains from the war were not even remotely proportional to the sacrifices they made. Disillusioned, the Russians still visibly maintain the formally amiable stance, but secretly enter into a treaty with China and the Vandals, setting their eyes upon the Khazar lands.
Next update - probably tomorrow, or maybe later on today
As the power of the Venetian Empire temporarily crumbles, the Byzantines emerge as the leading power in the world...
1024 - Already hailed by his Byzantine contemporaries as the greatest Roman Emperor since Augustus, Basil V dies satisfied, having achieved the goal of reunifying, at least nominally, the entire Roman Empire under Constantinople. The succession, however, presents a problem. Basil has three daughters and a son, however, the particular circumstances of his son's birth present a difficulty - Demetrios Stylitzes is illegitimate, and thus would normally be debarred from the throne. Not only that, but the husband of one of Basil's daughters, a prominent general named Alexius Branas, makes his bid for the throne as well. Demetrios attempts to find allies in the most unlikely of all places, and finally succeeds where no one would have guessed - in Venice. Even though the Venetian Emperor Victor is technically subordinate to the one in Constantinople, his support and that of Italian leaders would make the Byzantines agree on Demetrios, especially since no one wants to see the comeback of the Great War. The price is high, with Victor demanding that Venice is represented in the Imperial Senate, and that much of the restrictions and penalties placed on them by late Basil V be lifted. After all, he argued, are the people of Italy not Roman citizens? They should then be treated as such, and not as a conquered, wounded enemy. Demetrios is quick to agree, realizing that the only way he could beat Alexius Branas to the throne is by gaining support in both East and West. Branas is captured, and forced to enter the monastery, where he remains for the rest of his long life, writing a somewhat boring history that appears to be a major source of information about the time.
1026 - The city of Zara on the Dalmatian coast has long been the place where the Greeks, Italians, and Slavs mixed, giving birth to a unique blend of all three cultures. It is there that a former Venetian soldier turned small-time politician by the name of Antonio Trappani becomes increasingly bitter after he is ejected from the city council due to no longer meeting the property requirements. Trappani, despite his very humble origins, is a master orator, and takes up on the causes of soldiers, workers, and those of generally lower classes. Because of location, and of the mixing of Greeks and Italians, his message is heeded by the people of both origins. He advocates better worker protection rights, something that had been looked at in Venice with some interest, but previously rejected outright in Byzantium; reduced work hours; lower taxation for the lower income citizens; and representation for the poor in the government. To this effect, he proposes to reinstitute the ancient office of the Tribune of the People, whose duty would be to represent the interests of the plebeians and proletarians in the grand Imperial Senate, with veto and a range of other powers. As Trappani starts to publish a newspaper called "The Voice Of The Republic", his ideas gain more ground not only in the coastal cities of Dalmatia and Illyria, but throughout the entirety of the Roman Empire, Byzantine and Venetian.
1028 - By now, Antonio Trappani has created enough of a stir that an arrest warrant is issued, and, thanks to the relative efficiency of the Byzantine secret police, he is quickly brought to Constantinople. Riots break out throughout the many cities of the East and the West, many of the rioters themselves former soldiers, who start to organize themselves, heeding the message of Trappani. Realizing that the situation is fundamentally more difficult than he had anticipated, Emperor Demetrios calls for calm, and promises to hear Trappani's grievances and to give him a fair trial, with the Emperor himself presiding.
1029 - The trial of Antonio Trappani amasses huge crowds in Constantinople, with the rioting subdued only temporarily. As Trappani is led into the improvised courtroom in Hagia Sophia (the place was chosen as to give religious flavor and additional weight to the Emperor's decision), thousands begun to whisper that this one man may be the one to bring prosperity to their war-torn empire again. The opening arguments are heard, Trappani refusing to use the lawyer, and insisting to speak in his own defence. At this time, there is an unmistakable chant coming from the outside of the great church - "Trappani". His name on the lips of the citizens of wealthiest, most opulent city in the world, and on the lips of citizens of every other major city of his empire, his army heeding the ideas of this strange little Italian, Demetrios has little choice but to have Trappani cleared of his charges, and appointed to the very position he advocated - the Tribune of the People.
1032 - The collapse of the Chimu Empire in South America begins, partially initiated by the Byzantine influence. When a new king ascends the throne of the Chimu, he attempts to forge closer ties with his neighbours, however, invariably in this kind of situation one neighbour is given preference over the others. That one neighbour just happened to be Maya Vandalor. The Byzantines engineer a coup, placing a Byzantium-friendly puppet on the throne, but a counter-revolution sponsored by the Vandals has the new king run for his life, escaping to Byzantine colonies. With Byzantine financing, the new king is able to raise an army, which results in Chimu plunging into an ongoing decade-long civil war. Despite this conflict, the Byzantine-Vandal relations are largely unchanged - that is, the state of mutual distrust continues.
1033 - In the four years since his appointment as a Tribune, Antonio Trappani made many enemies, but at the same time, his star is rising fast to where he is the second most powerful man in the Empire - that is, second only to the Emperor Demetrius himself, who tends to heed Trappani's advice in times of crisis. Long a proponent of the Venetian system, where the monarch's power is curbed by the Senate, Trappani proposes to create a system of checks and balances that would separate the executive, legislative, judicial, and religious power, and ensure that no matter who is on the throne, the stability and development of the Empire would be ensured by the balance. Demetrius is lukewarm to the idea, however, faced with the opposition from the Venetian and Byzantine aristocrats and churchmen, decides that this is a small price to pay for an undisturbed reign not only for himself, but for his son, and, God willing, his son after him. Thus, Demetrius commissioned a large congregation of leading men of the day, jurists, churchmen, generals, industrialists, to write a new Roman Constitution, all under the watchful eye of the Emperor and his Italian advisor. The work on the document took two years, however, upon its completion, it was hailed as being the most progressive concept of its time, and a noble detour from the old ways of privilege and tyranny.
1034 - A great Vandal king Otto comes to the throne, resolved to curb the power of the feudal aristocrats that he believes to damage the essential unity of Maya Vandalor, and to prevent its rise to the status of a true global superpower. His policies are occasionally heavy-handed, and cause a number of small rebellions, but within a decade, the Maya Vandals not only emerge as a much more centralized state, but expand their North American dominions all the way to the Vinnland frontier. At the same time, the Vandal and Mayan engineers are working hard to maintain the technological advantage that allowed them to establish their country as a major power. The first fruit of their efforts is the internal combustion engine, which is then used to power increasingly more advanced versions of airships, tanquettes, submarines, and surface ships. The engine will be eventually copied by the other powers, however, the Vandal models will be considered superior to their European and Chinese duplicates for a long time to come.
1035 - The Roman Constitution is finished, and given approval from both the Emperor Demetrius, the Imperial Senate, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Tribute Trappani. The Constitution divides supreme power into five branches - the Emperor responsible for the executive branch, enforcing the laws, and being the commander-in-chief of the army; the Senate being responsible for creating new laws; the new office of Sebastocrator being essentially a chief justice, with a staff of ten lesser judges being appointed to serve as the supreme judicial authority of the Empire, responsible for the interpretation of the laws. The two branches that constitute a major difference between the Byzantine Constitution and that of OTL USA are the religious branch, headed by the Synod of Six Patriarchs (Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Gaul, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, all of which send their representatives), and responsible for being the ultimate authority on religious doctrinal issues - however, the Emperor is given the power to intervene should the Synod come to a deadlock (an important distinction is that even though Gaul and Alexandria are not technically a part of the Empire, the Emperor still considers himself to be God's Vice-Regent on Earth, and thus participation of the Patriarchs is a pronouncement of his spiritual authority over all other temporal rulers); and, finally, the Tribunary branch, headed by the Tribune of the People, being in charge of the employment laws, worker compensation (as in minimum wages and so on), and ensuring no abuses of power by the other branches of the government. There is a cause for much rejoicing in the East and in the West, as finally a compromise is reached that satisfies both the Venetians and the Byzantines. Of course, not everyone is happy, and as such Demetrius is obliged to put down a serious rebellion of Greek industrialist aristocracy who see him as being too pro-Venetian, but the reinstitution of the constitutional monarchy not only for Venice, but also for its Byzantine counterpart, does much to recreate an amount of goodwill between the two scions of ancient Rome, reminding their people that they are still a part of one common ancestry, and that despite their differences, they are still Romans above and beyond everything else.
1037 - A Russian explorer travels through what would be OTL Argentina, and claims this land for the Tsardom of Rus. The Russians are quick to send most of their available colonists to South America, creating a colony named Serebrenitsa, after finding much silver there (from Russian Serebro[/] - "Silver").
1039 - The Byzantine Empire by now is widely considered the strongest power in the known world, quickly reincorporating Venetian territories back into the fold, and creating in a process a new Roman Empire, that is an amalgam of what was best about pre-split Byzantium and Venice. In the East Asia, however, another power is not content with playing a second fiddle to anyone. Secretly, the Mongol Emperor of China commissions research into further military applications, while forming an under-the-counter alliance with the Maya Vandals, who realize that there is more to gain from allying with China than from an unspoken enmity between the two that has been prevalent ever since the Chinese-Vandal war years ago.
1040 - A Byzantine engineer that has long been fascinated with the rocket gliders has just realized that despite the common wisdom of the time, a heavier-than-air aircraft design is, indeed, possible. Armed with a moderately powerful internal combustion engine, he theorizes that upon reaching sufficient speed, a device of proper shape could not only achieve flight, but also achieve speeds previously believed unthinkable. His first device does not lift off the ground, however, he is not discouraged, and decides to continue until one day in 1041, the first heavier-than-air propeller-driven aircraft lifts off, and stays in the air for the whole of seventeen seconds. These seventeen seconds begin a new era of aviation, that will result in massive airships being relegated into the background, with only few still being used as carriers of faster fighter planes (albeit due to weight restrictions, the number of planes they could carry, it was observed, was not nearly as efficient as a navy ship outfitted for this purpose - thus the air-based carriers would only be deployed in the areas with no water access).
1042 - Norway, Denmark, Eire, and Angleland, despite the history of mutual enmity going back centuries, realize that left alone, they are simply waiting for one of the greater powers to swallow them up. As a result, after years of talks, the four countries decide to form the Northern Confederation, part treaty of military alliance, part economic union. The important part of the agreement is that each of the four countries agrees to keep its sovereignty, with the leadership of the Confederation passing to each of the countries in turn for one year.
1043 - The state of Gaul quickly regresses into feudalism as rival barons set up their own little fiefs with only nominal loyalty to the king in Paris. Demetrius views this development with much dissatisfaction, as not only it is much more difficult to deal with hundreds of Barons, the eventual supremacy of Rome is at stake. Afraid that should the things get too out of hand, Gaul will need a full-scale reconquest to be reintegrated into the Empire as opposed to its current status as a vassal state, he issues an ultimatum to the Franks to accept the Roman governors or to face a full-scale invasion.
1044 - The Franks are not too excited about the idea of fighting the Romans, yet they also do not want to give up their independence. As such, they apply for the membership in the Northern Confederation, reasoning that such a move would stop the Romans from going to war that they would not want in first place. To Demetrius I, this could only mean treason, and he petitions the Senate for an invasion force, which he gets. The resulting war is quick, and is more decided by the Byzantine assassins than by the force of arms - with most leaders of the rebellion taken out, the Frankish forces become a disorganized mess that is quickly neutralized by few lightning-fast Byzantine maneuvers.
1045 - The last vestiges of conflict in Gaul die out, as the country is completely retaken by the Byzantines. Some accused the Byzantines of hypocrisy, being that they were the primary champions of Gaulish independence after the Great War - chief among them the Russians, who are by now getting increasingly restless, perceiving that their gains from the war were not even remotely proportional to the sacrifices they made. Disillusioned, the Russians still visibly maintain the formally amiable stance, but secretly enter into a treaty with China and the Vandals, setting their eyes upon the Khazar lands.
Next update - probably tomorrow, or maybe later on today