Weirdest plausible European migrations?

Old Airman

Banned
Also, Slavs taking over Scandinavia and Iceland would be interesting.
Theoretically, it is possible (Western Slavs lived next door to Danes in pretty much the same climate, so they can live in Scandinavia without a lot of adaptation), but unlikely. Scandinavia had as much population as it could support from before Slavs came around. So, some charismatic Western Slavic knyaz can unite Polabians and others and lead them North circa 800-900, wiping out Norse men and impregnating enslaved Norse women with Slavic offspring, but what's the point of doing it? There're much better lands to the South and West, and any tribal union capable of eliminating Norse would deal with southern sissies without breaking a sweat. Heck, even eastbound trek looks more promising, wiping out proto-Poles and settling there (in this case where would not be a "slave" in English, but a "pole").
 
Before 900 the Poles either didn't exist or were just insiginificant small tribe. Archeological excavation show steady growth of their political organization the in first half of tenth century (then they became known in historical sources but even then not by their name initially). They could be enslaved or wiped out in IX or X century and nobody would know about them. The Polish slaves would be known just as Slavs or Sclavi as in OTL.

I thought of Slavic migration to Scandinavia but the trigger would be Kanute's the Great effort to subjugate Swedish kingdoms. Kanute used to use Slavic mercenaries in his armies in OTL. What if he used them to conquer and then settle Sweden? If Bolesław The Brave didn't lose Pomerania as a side effect of his unnecessary showdown with Henry II he would rent some of his levies to his nephew or even actively aid him in scandinavian raids with his fleet. North of Denmark Slavic colonies would grow...
 
2) They must be concentrated, and form an independent nation-state at some point. Can be an independent state from the beginning like France, sporadically independent like Slovakia or Poland, or independent only in the modern era
like...I don't know, Slovenia? Minorities split off from the nation-state, like the
Hungarians in Romania, are fine.

I remembered Lipka Tatars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipka_Tatars
Though in OTL they did not form a nation-state. But in ATL you might have much more of them, more organized, more successful Lipka Rebellion maybe...
 

Old Airman

Banned
Before 900 the Poles either didn't exist or were just insiginificant small tribe.
OK, forget about Poles, how about Slavic England??? The starting point would be the same as for "Slavic Scandinavia". Some guy with a teraton of charisma (another Samo) unites Western Slavs around 7th century and is looking around for opportunities? He sees Danes (who, no doubts, were unable to restrain themselves from little raiding and plundering their southern neighbours, amassing a lot of bad karma), invades and conquers their land (even partial conquest would work), therefore opening North Sea access for Slavs. They start to ride Britain (Slavs aren't as nautically capable as Norse, but crossing North Sea isn't a rocket science), for plundering and slave-catching first, then start to settle there, creating "Pravdaland" instead of OTL Danelaw.
Long story short, Western Slavs pull anglo-saxon on Anglo-Saxons, settling in Britain in sufficient numbers to give it their rule, name and language and to assimilate locals. They can do it, they have numerical strength of Slavic hinterland of Polabia, Piasts and Moravians/Slovaks.
But what happened to the Norse? They're sill out there, they're as good warriors and sailors ITTL as they're IOTL. Well, they're riding Slavic Albion, but are unable to create a permanent base there (Slavs are numerous enough to create a semi-working coastal defense, and they're not shy about using Anglo-Saxons for that too). So, out of sheer necessity, they're turning their attention a bit north, to OTL Scotland. With full strength of Norse settlement drive now concentrated North of Hadrian Wall, instead of being spread across the whole Eastern shore as per OTL, they're settling there in numbers sufficient to create Norse Caledonia.
 
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