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?
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?