DBWI Successful Arab Conquest of North africa

The arab world has attacked north africa several times in its history but these attempted islamic invasions always failed, but what if they had won what would the world look like with an islamic north africa.

A world where the christian world doesn't control both sides of the med.

Would the world be richer? Poorer more or less educated?


Your opinions.
 
Romania would have probably collapsed if Egypt went down 640s, that would have been a blow to the economy it could not have sustained at that time, especially after losing the Levant post Yarmouk. Egypt gave the Empire breathing room for a while, and allowed it to slowly gain the upper hand against the Caliphate in the early 8th Century, and regain Antioch with parts of North Syria before the North-South split happened.

Without that, the Arabs could have probably smashed the Romans in the seas, and might have even been able to take Constantinople. It was already a close run thing in this timeline, with the Chalcedonian Syrian Kallinikos arming the Caliphate with liquid fire just because the Empire gave in to some Miaphysite Egyptian demands. Because of that thing alone, Roman control over the Med got seriously disrupted despite their strength over supposed desert dwellers.

One can argue that an early fall of Egypt would prevent those concessions and Kallinikos would aid the Empire instead. However, I doubt it would be the case. I predict that Arab fire ships would have sailed up the Golden Horn within a decade of Egypt falling, and Christendom itself would have been finished in the Mediterranean. Some holdouts in Sicily and Carthage might fight on for a while, but they will collapse soon enough. The Caliphate would march into Rome by mid eighth century by the latest. Slavs would probably go Muslim post the the fall of Constantinople, and Christianity would be confined to the Northwest of Europe, maybe just Brittania and Hibernia (assuming it survives at all).

Overall though, I think that world would be a richer and more educated one. Islam would then unify Europe, and considering how early it was-would probably get extensively Hellenized to a point where it would virtually become an odd Christian sect for practical purposes. So basically it would be a "Roman restoration" in all but name, what Justinian failed to achieve. That large centralized wealthy state could have promoted learning, and led to a more stable environment. Central Asia might not be conquered then, or even the Persian Plateau. I'd be surprised if Hellenic Islam was any more radical than some current "Christian" sects.

It could not have been any worse than the clusterfuck of OTL, between the Byzantine and Alexandrine Empires continuously fighting each other after Romania divorced itself, while the Exarchates of Carthage and Ravenna jump sides and the Persians and Arabs play spoiler. Yeah, the Med would be spared the horrifyingly destabilizing wars of Christendom, and actually get it's act together. Maybe it could actually lead to a world where China was not the global hegemon for 500+ years.
 
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But on one hand it was the fighting between the alexandrine and Byzantine empire that disrupted the silk road, which prompted Hispania to sail east to look for spices, which lead to the discovery of north and south atlantis, and with out the atlantis exchange....

No potatoes, no chocolate, no united states of atlantis which means half of the posters on this site would not exist.
 
But on one hand it was the fighting between the alexandrine and Byzantine empire that disrupted the silk road, which prompted Hispania to sail east to look for spices, which lead to the discovery of north and south atlantis, and with out the atlantis exchange....

No potatoes, no chocolate, no united states of atlantis which means half of the posters on this site would not exist.

Eh, I think China would have found it sooner or later, on its own sans assistance from Spaniards. There is a tendency in this board to discount the possibility of China finding the New World on it's own, which I think is kinda unjustified. Sure, it was being severely defeated in the battle of Talas and the subsequent Tang collapse (which I think was the real disruption to the road) that led to the rise of the Sea faring Ming dynasty in the ninth century, which led to massive hegemony over SE Asia, South India, and later Atlantis: when Julian of Septum decided to invite them in to settle a Spaniard dispute (without seeing basically everything would get conquered).

Even if the Arabs don't move into Central Asia as they are busy with Europe, I think a similar dynasty could have arisen soon enough as the Tang would break from overextension in Central Asia, and expand into the Seas. In turn, they could land on Atlantis and OTL would repeat itself. United States of Atlantis is already overwhelmingly Chinese demographically, courtesy Chinese presence in the New World since Julian. There is a tendency to ascribe a lot of the differences between them and old China to Gothic influence, which I think is just med-centric BS. The conditions of Atlantis itself guaranteed an unique form of Chinese civilization as we see there, as opposed to the one in Asia. Not denying some Mediterranean influence is there, but it is vanishingly small.

So yeah, methinks we will not have to mourn chocolate :p

I think everyone could at-least agree that Arab conquest of N Africa would have meant the end of Romania within the next three centuries or so. While folks can argue that the North-South Split was the end of an unified Empire in OTL too, current events are suggesting that what was long divided must unite. Polls for the Alexandrine referendum is consistently showing a 60-40 split in favor of enosis. Even the opposition is not acting extremely, and has accepted to obey the will of the people. Guess that dam did a number on them, to a point where they are willing to play a subordinate role to Byzantium in the new Basileia, and are even willing to give up their Emperor (although the last dynastic marriage helped compromise that, I guess). Eyes will probably be on Carthage soon enough, to see if they are willing to join what their rightwing parties denounce as the "Greek Union". Ravenna at least has no choice: Megale Hellas had left it majority Greek at this point, and enosis is a popular idea. The Megali Idea can become true in our lifetimes!
 
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