Volgastan

Tackling the whole of civilization along the Volga is too big a project for the moment. My idea for Volgastan is based on a PoD where Greek settlers go further up the Don and cross over to the Volga. In the Volgan Delta, a Greco-Scytherian civilization develops. What would the cities be called?

What I want to do is explore this civilization as its conquered by nomads some time after the fall of Rome. More than enough Nomads to storm the place. First, the Huns. They would be enough to drive anybody on to islands.
 
I'll start with the backstory.

1) Origins of Volgastan

The origins of Volgastan date back to the 5th Century BC, when Greek traders and colonists penetrated the Don River and crossed over to the Volga. Several colonies were established with the soul purpose of trading with the Scythians. By the 1st Century BC, the Scythians had absorbed the Greeks. Many of the semi-nomadic people were attracted to the cities and by Greek living. By the 1st Century AD, a Greco-Scythian civilization thrived on the banks of the Volga. Of the cities lining the Volga and the Don, the city of Hyrcanopolis was the grandest.

The actual name of the city has been lost to history. Being built on islands of the Volga River Delta, historians have christened the city Hyrcanopolis, after the Hyrcanian Ocean, which the Ancient Greeks believed existed with the Caspian Sea as its southern most reach. Sailors from Hyrcanopolis traded across the sea, and when they stumbled upon the norther boundaries of the Persian Empire, quickly learned the Hyrcanian Ocean was no ocean at all. Though the knowledge did reach the West, many Greek and Roman maps still displayed the Caspian as a giant gulf.

Hyrcanopolis grew into an important northern terminal on the Silk Road. As well as bringing in goods from the Far East and the Steppe, the Volga River and Caspian Sea produced their own exports. Among these were sturgeon, Caspian Seals, and other exotic goods. Furs as well as silks flowed out of the city and into the Roman Empire. The Greco-Scythians had contact with two mightiest cities of their day; Rome and Chang’an. In the 2nd Century, a Chinese expedition reached the north shores of the Black Sea, establishing contact with early Volgastan.

Greco-Scythian civilization faced a down fall between the 2nd and 5th Centuries, with first the Goths invading their lands. These northern barbarians were bad enough, but by the 4th Century, they were being driven out by the Huns. The Hunic hordes pillaged and burned cities along the Volga and Don Rivers, leaving nothing but ash in their wake. Greco-Scythians retreated southward, taking refuge in the Volgan Delta, as well as taking flight on the Caspian Sea. The art of war learned from the Greeks did little against nomadic cavalry. Once the Huns passed, civilization spread north again, slowly reclaiming lost territory. This was put to an abrupt end by a new invasion of nomads, which included Alans, Khazars and most importantly, the Bulgars.
 
Are we talking full-on colony in the style of Syracuse with Corinth? Or something closer to a trading post which the natives took residence at?
 
Except that they couldn't rely on Mediterranean agricultural techniques. If they are on the rivers, they will have water and arable land, but they are surrounded by [true] steppes. I think these colonies would depend on their relations with the neighboring pastoralists, and could easily fall when bad weather, etc. disrupts the usual herding patterns and leads to raiding or wars among the pastoralists.

P.S. You might want to read up on archaeological work on Olbia and Tyras. That would be far to the west, and would have far better communication with the Med., but could give some sense of what might happen. And although the Goths had some influence on Olbia and Tyras, possibly absorbing the towns, they were mostly forest-steppe people and Chernyakhov-Culture settlements never came near the lower Don or the Volga.
 
The problem with that particular location is simply this: It's the favored highway of all those migrating peoples from further into Asia on into the riches of Europe. If it happens to survive one group, it'll go the way of Rome sooner or later and to a much greater degree. Likewise, I don't see it having anything along the lines of a solid, entrenched history upon which later peoples' will say "Hey, remember those guys? Let's make a Holy Volgan Empire..."

Could be wrong, though...
 
The Nomad Express; yeah, cities do get burned down rather often here.

Khazaria managed for a couple of centuries, why could the Bulgars not do the same? Bulgaria on the Volga. It'd be nice, at least until the Vikings showed up. And then the Mongols; only way to survive them is to submit. That would not work so well with the Russians, assuming there would be much of a Russia.

I wonder what religion the Bulgars would use to unite. Would they be Jewish like the Khazars, or would they be Muslims or Catholics? Or rather Orthodox since Constantinople was so much more impressive than Rome at the time.
 
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2) Coming of the Bulgars

In the 6th Century, a nomadic people known as the Khazars arrived along the Volga, conquering the isolated city of Hyrcanopolis. Their reign over the lower Volga lasted less than a century. In the early 7th Century, the Bulgar rode down the River to do battle with the Khazars, driving them from the delta and further west. The Khazars re-established their Empire in the lands of the Don, stretching down the Crimea. Khazaria and Bulgaria would wage war over the next two centuries over control of the steppe between the Black and Caspian Seas.

Upon conquering the delta, the Bulgar rebuilt the city of Hyrcanopolis as their new capital, Bolghar, in the year 631. Bulgar consolidated their control over the river by expanding their new civilization northward, establishing Pliska in 648, and Onoguria in 691. By the 8th Century, the Bulgar extended their control towards the headwaters of the Volga, in the forests to the far north. Their control over the river blocked the flow of nomads westward. Though the Bulgar were growing rich off trade between East and West, and spoiled off the luxuries of civilization, the Bulgar retained their nomadic nature.

Bulgar cavalry fought well against land-based threats, repelling invasions by other Turkic tribes, they came into trouble in the 9th Century when the Vikings sailed down the river to pillage the wealth accumulated by Bulgaria. Onoguria was captured by the Vikings in 887. From here, they moved down the Volga into the Caspian Sea, as well as over into the Don and other rivers of the steppe to raid across the Black Sea.. When loot became scarce, the Vikings began to settle along these rivers, attempting to etch out a living as farmers.

Bulgar unity grew shaky after the passing of the Vikings. So much so, that the Bulgar Khan sought a means to strengthen the bond amongst his people. He could not unify his own people and conquered subject by language, and thus decided to follow the Khazar’s example. Khazaria converted the Judaism as a means of unity. The Bulgar refused to pick the same religion as their biggest rivals. The Khan sent envoys to Mecca, Constantinople and Rome. The Bulgars were not impressed with the ruined Italian city. The power of the Arabs impressed the Khan, but the dietary laws of Islam put off the nomads. The splendor of Constantinople convinced the Khan to adopt Orthodoxy for his empire.
 
Very interesting update.

When loot became scarce, the Vikings began to settle along these rivers, attempting to etch out a living as farmers.

would they get assimilated or become a type of Varangian guard for the Bulgarian Khans??
 
would they get assimilated or become a type of Varangian guard for the Bulgarian Khans??


Personal guards for the Khan? Nah. If anything, they should be used as naval units. Horsemen don't make the best of sailors, as the Mongols proved when they tried to invade Japan during typhoon season.
 
Thank you for your valuable input. I shall take it into consideration and get back to you. I'll let you know one way or another.

So essentially you want to ignore criticism and create an implausible hunk of garbage? I gave you 'valuable input' in the previous thread, and it seems you have ignored that. The blasted Volga delta is just too cold, too unstable of an an area, and too unstable politically. The Khazars survived because of a general calming of migrations after the Slavs had been spent; they were destroyed by the Rus and Pechengs. The Bulgars have no point to stay there when there's greener pastures further west.
 
Delayed by a bit of move, and back by unpopular demand.

3) The First Bulgarian Empire

During the reign of Boris I, the Bulgars exacted their vengeance upon the Vikings who plagued their rivers decades previous. The Rus-Bulgar War lasted between 1003 and 1017, resulting in the sacking of Kiev and the subjugation of the Rus. As a subject nation of the Bulgars, the Rus paid a naval levee allowing the Bulgars to spread their own influence and secure trade along the rivers of the steppes, as well as the Caspian Sea. They were not alone in their relationship with the growing power of the Bulgarian Empire.

Michael I waged his own war against Khazaria to the west between 1021 to 1034. The war was more of a continuation of the rivalry between the two steppe people, starting with the Khazar displacement from the Volga with the arrival of the Bulgars. The Khazarian Empire had their own subject nations. In 1031, the Magyars shifted their allegiance to the Bulgars in exchange for prime Khazar lands. Khazar cities fared better than the Viking city of Kiev, and rebuilt quickly after the sieges, and the Empire as a whole became a reduced vassal state. By 1035, the Bulgarian Empire stretched from the Crimea to the Ural River.

An attempt between 1039 and 1051 to bring Alania into the Bulgar fold ultimately failed. Further campaigns into the Caucasus went without success, as did two attempted crusades across the Caspian, one in 1098-99 and another in 1113-17. In the lands under Bulgar control, missionaries cleansed the land of ancient paganism, occasionally by the sword. Despite being technically an independent vassal, the Khazar Jewish state suffered under Bulgar missions. Half of the time, these missions were a mere excuse to plunder, with little in the way of conversion. Much of the loot was used to pay for the construction of the Cathedral of St. Basil in Bolghar, a building that took forty years to complete.

Wars in the east against the Tartars drained Bulgarian resources. Unlike the conquests in the west, the Tartars had no great cities to capture. If anything, they did more plundering than the Bulgars. The Tartars were limited as to how far they could raid by Bulgarian cavalry. They also had a great deal of trouble crossing any river when the Bulgarian Navy sailed upon them. Throughout the 12th Century, the Bulgars waged a victorious war against the Tartars. Much of the Tartar’s previous energy was consumed by an enemy to the east. The Mongol Horde swept across Tartarstan and made their first contact with Bulgaria in 1220.
 

pike

Banned
The sheer amount of pillaging and conqest you fit into each post is very impressive.

Thanks for the update.
 
4) The Mongol Horde

The Bulgarian Empire suffered its first of many defeats against the Mongol Horde. In 1221, the Mongols crossed the Ural River into Bulgaria. The Tartars, with their own grievances against the Bulgars, joined the Mongols as one of their many vassals. They also fought with savage glee against the Bulgars. Bulgaria attempted to resist the Mongols, same as every other nomadic nations that crossed their lands. In the Summer of 1221, the Bulgarian Army, along with its Khazar auxiliaries was decisively defeated between the Ural and Volga River. The site of this battle has been lost to history, and is still cause for debate.

The first of the Bulgar cities to encounter the Horde was the northern city of Onoguria. In 1222, a months long siege ended with the Mongols storming the city walls and slaughtering the inhabitants. It was said that the Mongols left behind a mountain of skulls. Pliska fell later the year, with a loss of nearly all of its forty thousand inhabitants. Nearly fifty thousand Bulgars escaped the Mongol Horde, and fled west, eventually making it as far as the Danubian Plains, with the establishment of the short-lived state, Danube Bulgaria.

The city of Bolghar, siting on islands in the Volgan Delta, surrendered without a fight to the Mongols. The city, with its ancient buildings and monumental cathedrals, was spared the destruction that fell to cities that resisted the Mongol Khan. Emperor Boris III, along with much of his court, was captured by the Mongols, betrayed by Rus auxiliaries that were suppose to be ferrying them to the west bank of the Volga. The Mongols executed the Emperor as well as all the royal family that fell into its hands. By 1223, a Mongol Governor was appointed over the conquered lands, and Bulgaria became another of the Khan’s many vassals.
 
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