Thought Experiment: Nordic Empire

Okay, first of all, sorry for the three threads I've posted in the last few minutes. I've had these ideas for about a week or so now, but haven't had the chance to really write them up and submit them to you.

Now, with that out of the way:

Imagine a world where the Norse become united under a single ruling dynasty in the 9th century. They go on a conquering spree and manage to overrun much of the region they had a major influence on in OTL. To clarify: the Norse Empire controls Scandinavia, Iceland, Germany, northern France, Britain, the Baltic and Finland. They may also be working on conquering into Russia. A pretty expansive realm.

Furthermore, these Norse have managed to pull a CKII and reformed the Germanic faith. Just go with me here.

Since this is a thought experiment, I'm really not that interested in HOW this happened, nor the feasibility of it. I would ask everyone to please not try to drag discussion in that direction. Thank you.

What I AM interested in, is this:

1) How would this hypothetical empire be governed? Unlike the Caliphate in the Middle East, the Norse aren't going to have a well established bureaucracy to inherit and base the administration of their Empire off of. The closest they are going to have would be the model created by Charlemagne.

Because of this, I'm suspecting the Empire is going to be fairly decentralized with regional leaders having a lot of autonomy from the 'Emperor' and capital (Which, for some reason, I'm imagining being in Cologne. I'm unsure why.)

2) What would the economy look like? This would obviously be very focused on the North Sea and Baltic. Of course, trade in this region isn't as developed as it would become a few centuries later. Would having an Empire like this be able to jump start the North Sea trade?

3) I'm having an image of the rivers becoming the main highways of the new Empire - Longships were pretty adept at handling rivers and putting resources into the river system makes more sense than building an extensive road system ala the Romans. Is this feasible?

4) What would relations between this Nordic Empire be like with the Byzantines, Spain and the Muslim world. On a side note, Christianity losing northern France, Britain and Germany would have MASSIVE impacts on Catholicism - any chance it may be drawn back into the eastern sphere of influence?
 

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1) How would this hypothetical empire be governed? Unlike the Caliphate in the Middle East, the Norse aren't going to have a well established bureaucracy to inherit and base the administration of their Empire off of. The closest they are going to have would be the model created by Charlemagne.
All the pre-Christianization Viking states like the Danelaw and Kievan Rus' were pretty decentralized, so this is tough.

I think an interesting possibility would be to borrow the system of a Khaganate from the Khazars, much as the Norse did when they founded the Rus' Khaganate (in fact, the Frankish chronicle Annales Bertiniani mentions that an envoy from Sweden, the Rhos were led by a certain Chacanus or Khagan). We could prevent the transition of the early Rus' Khaganate into Kievan Rus'.

According to the archaeological record, Rurik was not the first Varangian in Russia and was preceded by about a century of previous Norse settlement and presence. Perhaps the Varangians who settled in the Rus' Khaganate return to Sweden with newfound wealth and influence, taking control of chiefdoms back in Sweden, and vying for power which escalates into a series of unification wars, which ends up being won by the Rus' Khagan.

In addition to the aspects of a Khaganate, which may be diarchic based on the Khazar model, the resulting Norse state could also adopt elements from the Carolingian Empire and its proto-feudal loyalties based on gift economy; and the organization of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England.

The reformation of Germanic polytheism into an organizing state religion could play its own role into creating the government of the Scandinavian Empire. We could see the king/khagan, or a co-king/junior king trying to secure his own power, giving new offices and privileges to the goði "priest-chieftains". Using his new supporters he takes quasi-absolute control of the state as far as is possible in an early medieval context. However, the new powers given to the priests create a priesthood class tied into the bureaucracy of the state. This also assists in the codification of the religion, although that would probably happen later on.

2) What would the economy look like? This would obviously be very focused on the North Sea and Baltic. Of course, trade in this region isn't as developed as it would become a few centuries later. Would having an Empire like this be able to jump start the North Sea trade?
If the trade routes that existed in the Viking Age survive, then the Norse Empire would use the river systems of Russia to trade across the Black Sea and the Caspian. If Scandinavia were powerful enough to form a united empire, there would almost certainly have been direct trade with the Islamic world.

The Baltic Sea would be Norse Empire's "Mare Nostrum" and would be as important for the Norse as it was for the later Hanseatic League. Major trading ports of said Norse Empire would probably continue directly from the early medieval "Emporia" trade system, which were a focus of a North Sea focused trade that was directly connected with Eurasian trade routes.

3) I'm having an image of the rivers becoming the main highways of the new Empire - Longships were pretty adept at handling rivers and putting resources into the river system makes more sense than building an extensive road system ala the Romans. Is this feasible?
Primarily river-based transport sounds feasible for the most part, and canals and portages (such as the Don-Volga portage that existed during the Viking Age) would be a major feature of this empire. Coastal transport would of course be significant as well.
 
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1) How would this hypothetical empire be governed? Unlike the Caliphate in the Middle East, the Norse aren't going to have a well established bureaucracy to inherit and base the administration of their Empire off of. The closest they are going to have would be the model created by Charlemagne.

Because of this, I'm suspecting the Empire is going to be fairly decentralized with regional leaders having a lot of autonomy from the 'Emperor' and capital (Which, for some reason, I'm imagining being in Cologne. I'm unsure why.)
I can see a whole variety of hereditary subkings (probably tied to former tribal designations) and semi-hereditary Jarls interspersed with appointed custodians of imperial districts (what were palatines and patricians OTL).
An organised church tied to the imperial office will be needed even there are non religious bureaucrats so as to avoid churches backing the emperor's enemies. I'd recommend a council of high priests unless you go for the Caliph style Emperor-Pope, especially if it's more pantheon than trinity in nature.
The whole thing will look fairly HRE like with irregular local parliaments, secular and religious hierarchies that occasionally overlap (prince-bishops), and perhaps the odd conflict where rank doesn't match actual power held.
 
I can see a whole variety of hereditary subkings (probably tied to former tribal designations) and semi-hereditary Jarls interspersed with appointed custodians of imperial districts (what were palatines and patricians OTL).
An organised church tied to the imperial office will be needed even there are non religious bureaucrats so as to avoid churches backing the emperor's enemies. I'd recommend a council of high priests unless you go for the Caliph style Emperor-Pope, especially if it's more pantheon than trinity in nature.
The whole thing will look fairly HRE like with irregular local parliaments, secular and religious hierarchies that occasionally overlap (prince-bishops), and perhaps the odd conflict where rank doesn't match actual power held.

So, basically, it would be a largely non-uniform political entity which a great deal of local control, likely held together by bonds of personal loyalty/gift-giving relationships. I ... really, really, like this idea actually!
 
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