Eastern Roman Empire without Mongol Influence

@Soverihn , good to know.

@B-29_Bomber , interesting points. How would the interactions between the Constantinople and the Latins/Papacy work out with the Laskarids?

How does the rest of the Middle East and North Africa work out in this scenario? If the Byzantines stay mostly in Anatolia, the Balkans and the west does another power conquer the rest of the Middle East? Does the Abbasid Caliphate just coast through in its militarily weakened state?
 
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If the Byzantines can be early adopters of industrialization (at least earlier than their middle eastern neighbors) then the extent of their expansion could be massively increased. Look at the size of some of the OTL European empires. Does raise an interesting question though. Why didn't any nations in the middle east industrialize in the 1800's?

Egypt started a program of industrialization in 1819 OTL but stopped. If industrialization brought greater profits and self reliance it is certainly strange that they'd stop. An industrialized nation would also be significantly more powerful.
 
If the POD is in August-October 1211, then it could also mean a different Battle of the Rhyndacus River, which IOTL prevented Theodore I Laskaris from retaking Constantinople. The two battles weren't too far apart chronologically.
 
@ByzantineLover , that could definitely help.

OTL the Ottoman Empire played a huge role in European politics, even allying with France against the Holy Roman Empire. How would the Byzantine Empire entering the equation affect European politics? Perhaps they might not be influential enough or willing to make any significant difference. If so how does the struggle between the HRE and the French work out without the Ottoman's actions against the HRE?
 
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If you have no Russia and no Ottoman Empire then you're going to see Austria and the Balkans play a much larger role. With the ERE present the Orthodox block would be a more cohesive block. Even if the ERE itself doesn't contribute much the addition of the Balkans to the equation and removal of the Ottomans might tilt things in favor of Sweden's enemies.

The loss of the French Ottoman alliance would seem to tilt things in favor of the HRE.
 
How powerful could a Portuguese-Byzantine alliance be?

If colonization in the Americas is vastly reduced could we see Portugal and the Byzantium from the above scenario (Byzantine neighbors are roughly as strong as you would expect) casting a large shadow over European politics? Portugal and Spain would be the entry point of European sea trade. Byzantium at the Nicean maximum extent might become the entry point of European land trade. Together they might be able to choke off trade to the rest of Europe and start causing real problems. They'd need to either add Spain to their alliance or deal with Spain. If they can somehow pull off a capture of the South West Spanish coastline and the Strait of Gibraltar then the two would be in a pretty strategically good position.

If Spain starts fighting the alliance and pulling France in as an ally we might see France too distracted to deal with the HRE, who might become much stronger than OTL. Perhaps a Spanish-Byzantine alliance might be a better option?
 
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