Assuming the Byzantine Empire manages to pull together, while avoiding having that situation with the Crusaders in 1204, how wealthy would a surviving Byzantine Empire be compared to China or Western Europe?
That largely depends on which lands it manages to hold on to. If it is the size of Turkey, not very. If manages to expand on its holdings it is very much a country to be reckoned with.
Let's assume they manage to keep most of Western Anatolia and Trebizond, along with Greece sans Corfu, Crete, and a few of the Aegean islands FPotS.
So a bigger Greece ? Little different than OTL Greece I'd think.
there is lots of lygnite coal in anatolia and balkans and hard coal deposits in Armeniakon.Did it have good and easily accessible deposits of iron and coal on it's territory? That's going to be important once the *Industrial Revolution rolls around. Also, if it survives it's going to need a fairly formidable military to keep the Muslims (Turks? Persians? Neo-Mongols? Mega Kurdistan?) at bay, which is going to be pricey: hopefully once the era of Wars of Religion, if they take place, ends it will be able to get along OK with the Hungarians at least. It should be able to maintain a fair energetic intellectual and commercial contact with western Europe once the modern era rolls around, judging from the case of the Russians OTL, which should help in Keeping up With the Joneses (and the Karls, Louises, etc.)
Comparison with OTL Greece seems a bit dubious: Greece, after all, was under Turkish rule for half a millennium. Perhaps Italy, another Mediterranean country with an Imperial past?![]()
Perhaps Italy, another Mediterranean country with an Imperial past?![]()
For mulims all it needs is to descivly win at Manzikert perhaps have Andornikos not betray Romanus? Oh and kill Alp rslan and Malik Shah too and cause the Seiljuks to collapse. Without a strong unified persian state the Byzzies continue their advance into Levant held by a collapsing and weak Fatamids and push into Egypt. Crusades are butterflied away as well at least against mideast I think.
The two things a surviving Byz would need is an agricultural revolution like the British of the 1700s and others later and an Industrial revolution. That these things didn't occur IOTL isn't an indication that they can't occur.
true theyre are still 800 years but I think the byzzies can adapt and at the very least halt the invaders. Mongols though probably will get hit hard or might not depends on whether the emperor at time is willing to pay tribute.7
I don't think a Byzantine reconquest of Egypt is very likely before the 18th century, assuming Europe progresses relatively to the Islamic world at a comparable rate to OTL. But they might grab the Straits of Gibraltar and get some Atlantic access: relations with a Catholic Spain are likely to be shaky at best.