In the years after the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Manzikert (1071), the Byzantine Empire seemed to be breaking down at the seams. The Turks were invading Anatolia and raided all the way to the western coast, the Normans were raiding Epirus and Greece, and the Pechenegs were raiding the regions near the Danube.
The empire's overall integrity was saved by a competent emperor named Alexios Komnenos, who took the throne in 1078 and went on to win several crucial battles against the invading forces. In the 1090's, it was he who invited a coalition of western European armies intent on defeating the Muslims, kickstarting the First Crusade. Within a few decades, the empire was restored to a significant part of its pre-Manzikert borders, minus central and eastern Anatolia.
But what if Alexios had died early? Perhaps during a climatic clash with the Normans. Suppose that the emperor who succeeds him is mostly weak or incompetent.
What are the effects on the empire as a whole?
Will the Normans manage to chip away some Byzantine provinces in the Balkans? Will the Pechenegs conquer portions of Bulgaria? Do the Serbs have an opportunity here, too?
What about Chaka Bey, a Christian Turkic warlord seated in Smyrna who commanded a considerable fleet and had aspirations to the purple? And what about the Anatolian Turks as a whole?
The empire's overall integrity was saved by a competent emperor named Alexios Komnenos, who took the throne in 1078 and went on to win several crucial battles against the invading forces. In the 1090's, it was he who invited a coalition of western European armies intent on defeating the Muslims, kickstarting the First Crusade. Within a few decades, the empire was restored to a significant part of its pre-Manzikert borders, minus central and eastern Anatolia.
But what if Alexios had died early? Perhaps during a climatic clash with the Normans. Suppose that the emperor who succeeds him is mostly weak or incompetent.
What are the effects on the empire as a whole?
Will the Normans manage to chip away some Byzantine provinces in the Balkans? Will the Pechenegs conquer portions of Bulgaria? Do the Serbs have an opportunity here, too?
What about Chaka Bey, a Christian Turkic warlord seated in Smyrna who commanded a considerable fleet and had aspirations to the purple? And what about the Anatolian Turks as a whole?
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