WI Gediminid Prussia

Is it possible for the Gediminids to annex Prussia and Christianize Lithuania at the same time and make peace with the Teutonic Knights, plus points if it unites with Germany like the OTL Hohenzollerns did.
 
Is it possible for the Gediminids to annex Prussia and Christianize Lithuania at the same time and make peace with the Teutonic Knights, plus points if it unites with Germany like the OTL Hohenzollerns did.
Under the Second Peace of Thorn Gediminids had annexed one part of Prussia and vassalized the rest and made peace with Teutonic knights. Lithuania was Christianized before.
 
Well, one way to put it would be either:

1) Have the Teutonic Knights blend in with the native Prussian population in the area, and at the same time align Prussian culture with Baltic culture.

2) Mindaugas conquers Prussia just after Lithuania is unified. I'm not sure how this would help.
 
Originally posted by Sibirskaya
Have the Teutonic Knights blend in with the native Prussian population in the area, and at the same time align Prussian culture with Baltic culture.

Highly improbable. The Teutonic Knights were not a nation, but a religious order. They fought the pagan Prussians because of their religion. And being technically monks they could not marry Prussian women, which would have made the process of "blending" much easier. Not to mention the fact that the Teutonic Knights believed themselves to be members of much more advanced civilization, from technological, cultural and moral point of view. The Old Prussians were for them an inferior race; there was a reason why the Order invited German (and Polish) settlers to Prussia.

Originally posted by kasumigenx
Is it possible for the Gediminids to annex Prussia and Christianize Lithuania at the same time and make peace with the Teutonic Knights, plus points if it unites with Germany like the OTL Hohenzollerns did.

In times of Gediminas Prussia already was conquered by the Teutonic Knights, so to annex Prussia Lithuanians would have had to drive the Order out of Prussia. IMHO it was pretty much impossible - the Order was to strong. It was Gediminas who was affraid of the Order, not the other way around (remember that the Order had also a powerful Livonian branch).
 
Still: there were IMHO too many internal conflicts between Lithuanian dukes - which ended with Mindaugas death, BTW. But had he survived the assassination attempt and eliminated his most powerful enemies then perhaps...
The Order was in trouble at the time: the Great Prussin Uprising was a very real threat to the very existence of the Order State; had Mindaugas been alive (he supported the uprising) and had he managed to somehow unify all Prussian tribes under his or Herkus Monte's banner Prussian success might be more permanent. Problem is one the Prussians were rather averse towards Christianity (they knew it mostly as the religion of their foes and the religion forced on them) so I think we can forget about christianization of Lithuania.
 
Still: there were IMHO too many internal conflicts between Lithuanian dukes - which ended with Mindaugas death, BTW. But had he survived the assassination attempt and eliminated his most powerful enemies then perhaps...
The Order was in trouble at the time: the Great Prussin Uprising was a very real threat to the very existence of the Order State; had Mindaugas been alive (he supported the uprising) and had he managed to somehow unify all Prussian tribes under his or Herkus Monte's banner Prussian success might be more permanent. Problem is one the Prussians were rather averse towards Christianity (they knew it mostly as the religion of their foes and the religion forced on them) so I think we can forget about christianization of Lithuania.
There are not clear how Mindaugas was related to Gediminids. Mindaugas not be killed may meen that Gediminids never come to power.
 
Still: there were IMHO too many internal conflicts between Lithuanian dukes - which ended with Mindaugas death, BTW. But had he survived the assassination attempt and eliminated his most powerful enemies then perhaps...
The Order was in trouble at the time: the Great Prussin Uprising was a very real threat to the very existence of the Order State; had Mindaugas been alive (he supported the uprising) and had he managed to somehow unify all Prussian tribes under his or Herkus Monte's banner Prussian success might be more permanent. Problem is one the Prussians were rather averse towards Christianity (they knew it mostly as the religion of their foes and the religion forced on them) so I think we can forget about christianization of Lithuania.

So Lithuania remains a pagan empire then. OTL Lithuania had Orthodox Christians but had a pagan ruler. Basically Mindaugas could say he wants to remain pagan in order to appease the Prussian tribes.
 
Lithuanian as a pagan empire might make it a favourite target of pretty much every Christian ruler in Center-Eastern Europe: German, Polish and Bohemian knights might fight hand in hand against pagans as crusaders (as they did IOTL under the banner of the Teutonic Order). The mobilisation would have been bigger, IMHO, since pagan threat would have been much closer.
 
Originally posted by Sibirskaya
Would Kievan Rus' even target Lithuania as well, given that they're (Kievan Rus) also Christian?

IIRC Alexander Nevsky, the Grand Prince of Vladimir, was at odds with the Mindaugas, when he (Mindaugas) was assassinated. There was some Russian-Lithuanian anti-Mindaugas coalition, not very successful, I think. More successful (and alive in first place) Mindaugas would have been considered by Alexander Nevski more dangerous. Not to mention Lithuania would have been pagan, but ruling over Christian (Orthodox) lands. So I think Alexander might have tried to stab Mindaugas in the back.
 
But by that point Aleksander Nevsky had accepted Mongol suzerainty. So would Nevsky's involvement in a pagan Lithuania bring in the Golden Horde indirectly?
 
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