Challenge: Influence the course of human history from the Middle Ages

With no responses to my first post (admittedly this is probably my own fault for posing questions with too broad a scope and in the wrong section of the forum) I thought I’d try a different tack.

I recently read and enjoyed the comic Pax Romana, a bit of light AH reading.

If you could travel back to any time or place in the Middle Ages (for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll define the period as the 5th-15th centuries) with the aim of influencing the course of human history (perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse, it’s up to you) where would you choose to go and why? Let us assume that you have some means of fluent communication with the people in question and that you’re able to get yourself into a position where you’ll be at least listened to (as opposed to say, killed outright) if not outright able to exert direct influence.

What would you do and what key butterflies and events do you think would occur in the timeline that followed?

Thanks for your time and consideration.
 
Something something drug theory, something something Justinian, something more stringent standards for merchant ships and the quarantine of suspected and subpar ships. My hope would be to make the East better prepared for a hard plague and perhaps advance medicine to a degree.

Plus I'd tell him to quit while he was ahead with Carthage and hold off on the Italian invasion, save your troops and your coin enjoy the prize of African grain and unharassed shipping and focus more on the Balkans instead of Italy. You need the Balkans, you don't need Italy and the Ostrogoths already recognize you nominally as the overlord. It doesn't mean much but the other Barbarian kingdoms aren't bowing to you, count your blessings and ready for the hell that will come later with the plague.

I may be a romanophile, but really, the only place is Europe worth investing time and effort into during that period in history is always Rome, no question.

Plus I think this thread goes in ASB, I'm not sure because the way you word it is more like what would want to do with this particular point in time and less what would you do if you were in this particular point in time; hell both ways it's probably ASB.
 

jahenders

Banned
Two very different ideas come to mind:

1) Convince the Eastern Roman Empire that they need to keep substantial forces near the Arabian Pennisula and watch out for the rise of Islam. They need to either subvert it from the start or at least whack it down so it's confined there and doesn't ever really spread. It was save (for at least a few hundred years) the Eastern Roman Empire

2) Convince the vikings to settle farther down in North America.
 
I know it's most unoriginal, but my first thought was have something happens to William the Bastard before he reaches England. Better still, see that Robert ad Herleva never get together in the first place.
 
I'm delighted to see replies - thank you all for your responses.

It's interesting to see three of the four responses revolve around the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantines (who I have a soft spot for myself).

I may be a romanophile, but really, the only place is Europe worth investing time and effort into during that period in history is always Rome, no question.

I don't disagree with you, but what makes you say this? Certainly they have an intellectual, administrative and imperial legacy which will make the job easier. I definitely agree that advancing medicine is one way of really making a major positive change, for example the early invention of inoculation in Turtledove's Agent of Byzantium.

As we're talking about time travel being involved, it's almost definitely ASB, making me 0/2 for putting my threads in the correct categories - sincere apologies to the forum moderators.

jahenders - interesting: could you elaborate a little further on the idea of Viking settlement further south, and what you'd like to see come of this?

chr92 - Interesting choice; why William the Conqueror, and in an ideal timeline how would you see the butterflies resulting from this change developing?
 
chr92 - Interesting choice; why William the Conqueror, and in an ideal timeline how would you see the butterflies resulting from this change developing?

To pull out a couple of points from the threads about this. A milder form of serfdom, and while there'd almost certainly be some Continental entanglements, at least no Hundred Years War. My own favourite is no Harrying of the North, which means all England is more prosperous for quite a while.

I don't know how Ireland's fate would be changed, but it seems so unlikely to be worse.
 
I'm delighted to see replies - thank you all for your responses.

It's interesting to see three of the four responses revolve around the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantines (who I have a soft spot for myself).



I don't disagree with you, but what makes you say this? Certainly they have an intellectual, administrative and imperial legacy which will make the job easier. I definitely agree that advancing medicine is one way of really making a major positive change, for example the early invention of inoculation in Turtledove's Agent of Byzantium.


Well I should say, one of few places and of those few the Eastern Empire is the only one I can see holding onto the knowledge and foresight long enough to do anything. The Visigoths are good place but for whatever reason I don't see much of what I would do lasting more than a few kings, and even if it did continue on for some time the proliferation of that knowledge would be far slower. Far too slow to do much about anything, an Empire with a bureaucracy and an urbanized population is going to be quicker and far more sensitive to these sorts of ideas.
 
To pull out a couple of points from the threads about this. A milder form of serfdom, and while there'd almost certainly be some Continental entanglements, at least no Hundred Years War. My own favourite is no Harrying of the North, which means all England is more prosperous for quite a while.

I don't know how Ireland's fate would be changed, but it seems so unlikely to be worse.
Alternatively, you can make Louis XI the Lion attain total control of England, simply by healing John Lackland and see he survives long enough for Louis to be crowned while ensuring his descent is uprooted.
 

jahenders

Banned
They settled in Iceland, Greenland, and apparently Newfoundland. Some of those settlements were little more than fishing camps and most folded -- a pretty harsh climate and VERY far from home.

However, if one could convince a strong Viking leader (perhaps one already in Iceland or Ireland) that there is HUGE and very fertile land somewhat farther south, they might have established a colony or two that could make it -- perhaps in ME, MA, CN, or NY. With a lot of luck, those colonies could potentially have been a basis for more growth and some people who never want to go back East.

You'd have earlier interactions with Native Americans, perhaps friendlier, and the knowledge (and potentially disease resistance) might filter to other NAs to some degree.

If nothing else, Europe hears about the Americas 3-500 years sooner and the early/Northern settlement is done by Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, etc.

jahenders - interesting: could you elaborate a little further on the idea of Viking settlement further south, and what you'd like to see come of this?
 
I'd get the HRE to enshrine something like the Statute of Kalisz within its borders so that a) people are slightly less dickish to us Jews and b) we have somewhere to flee that isn't Eastern Europe.
 
It's a shame there's no way to make a speedy escape, otherwise I'd smother Ghengis Khan in his cot.
 
I'd go to Mali and give Abu Bakr a map and/or better ship building technology so they can start colonising the new world first.
 
Thanks for your responses everyone, lots of ideas here.

I know this very concept is implausible, but suspending disbelief for a moment, how plausible a choice would influencing the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II be, provided one could speak Latin (one of the languages he was fluent in)? He seems to have both the power and the mindset to make things happen, if one could get into a position of influence or convince him to become a patron.

As an aside, what would happen from a immunology standpoint if a modern human were to travel back in time to this period? I know very little about medicine but my guess would be a bit like a small-scale version of the European's arrival in the New World, with the modern human taking the Conquistadors' role in bringing new germs/disease to the people of the time. If that were the case, it'd certainly make it harder to forge lasting friendships/relationships. :)
 
Thanks for your responses everyone, lots of ideas here.

I know this very concept is implausible, but suspending disbelief for a moment, how plausible a choice would influencing the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II be, provided one could speak Latin (one of the languages he was fluent in)? He seems to have both the power and the mindset to make things happen, if one could get into a position of influence or convince him to become a patron.

I'm not an expert on the person, but from what I've read Frederick II was dangerously impolitic and made way too many enemies for any of his achievements to be long-lasting. It does take a special kind of person to be able to recover Jerusalem and still have the Pope excommunicate him (yes I know he and the Pope were warring neighbors, but still).

As an aside, what would happen from a immunology standpoint if a modern human were to travel back in time to this period? I know very little about medicine but my guess would be a bit like a small-scale version of the European's arrival in the New World, with the modern human taking the Conquistadors' role in bringing new germs/disease to the people of the time. If that were the case, it'd certainly make it harder to forge lasting friendships/relationships. :)

The modern human would probably die first before any of his medieval compatriots. There's the issue of medieval hygiene, and also the fact that medieval illnesses were probably more virulent than their modern counterparts (as hypothesized by evolutionary theory). Not to mention the much greater prevalence of smallpox and plague.

For me, I'd probably go back to the Song Dynasty and be an advisor to either Song Taizong or Song Zhenzong, and hopefully work out a less-dysfunctional method of governing China that allows for a more stable exchanges of power between factions. Imho industrialized China was never really going to work in the OTL Song Dynasty and neither would it have done so if they became wildly successful; but at least with a more effective political structure the Song could have weathered the Jin/Mongol storms, and prevented the insular turn that occurred during the Ming Dynasty.
 
Convince Maurice to not winter in enemy territory for his soldiers were on the verge of mutiny, and to return home and maybe give them a nice donative for their loyalty. This hopefully avoids his overthrow and prevents the disastrous war with Persia and civil war that so thoroughly weakened both empires on the eve of the Arab invasions.
 
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