So it's pretty well known that Alexius never wanted the crusade to happen and instead wanted a smaller but effective group of soldiers to fight the Turks and take back large parts of anatolia, so what would happen if he had gotten just that?
So it's pretty well known that Alexius never wanted the crusade to happen and instead wanted a smaller but effective group of soldiers to fight the Turks and take back large parts of anatolia, so what would happen if he had gotten just that?
A targeted restoration of the imperial position in Bithynia and the Aegean coasts as OTL, I would suspect. If enough knights are left over, Aleksios might want to push into the Anatolian interior, though whether he'd march on Iconium for its own sake, or merely on the way to Antioch, is debatable. In the slightly longer term, the ERE isn't having to deal with Crusaders which obviously means a 1204-style situation isn't going to happen. Sicily and Hungary are still menacing in the West, though, and will continue to hamper any serious attempt at restoration of the eastern provinces.