Byzantine Ukraine

  • Thread starter Deleted member 67076
  • Start date

Deleted member 67076

Any way for the Byzantines to get control of the area that constitutes modern day Ukraine? If so, what effects would that have in the empire?
 
Any way for the Byzantines to get control of the area that constitutes modern day Ukraine? If so, what effects would that have in the empire?

Unless it's a very small scale of control (along the lines of a vassal state centered on Kiev) it's probably going to be a longterm drain on the empire. The Ukraine is in the middle of one of the largest dumping grounds of nomadic invasions in the world and unlike the Crimea it is pretty difficult to defend.
 

katchen

Banned
The Byzantine Empire will have to survive well into the Early Modern Period (17th Century). If that happens, you can have Byzantine cossacks and Byzantine control of the coastal Ukraine just as you have Ottoman control of coastal Ukraine. Probably a lot more durable ITTL and probably result in coastal Ukraine speaking Greek.
 
There are definitely ways to do it, but they will either require a PoD from before the rise of Islam that leaves the empire strong enough to avoid falling into a siege mentality, or a PoD that simply allows the empire to live long enough for the area to become more urbanized and civilized. In the latter case, personal union would be the easiest and most likely, though I could see a conquest in a Russian alt time of troubles.
 

Deleted member 67076

What about a stable Byzantium after Basil II that gets gunpowder fairly early? Could that be used to expand northward while minimizing the nomad threat?
 
Top