Here's a WIP that goes back
seven years. I doubt it will ever become a finished scenario. But I was looking over some of the maps this weekend and decided I should share it.
It came from a Flag Challenge by
@The Professor in 2012: "
After 3 centuries the mighty Latin Empire has fallen; the Bulgarians have taken Constantinople and the succession is disputed." Pretty fantastic, right? Three centuries would take the Latin Empire to around the year 1500.
My flag didn't win, but the scenario stayed in my mind. I'll start by copying the country that I made up as part of the Challenge: the Republic of Smyrna
Smyrna developed into a powerful maritime republic with a mixed population: the ruling class were a mix of Venetians, Genoese, Franco-Cypriot emigree nobles, and Hospitallers largely from France and Germany; while The People were a mix of Turks, Greeks, Jews, and a few Armenians.
The Kingdom of Cilicia had expelled the Latins within its borders in the 15th century, then conquered Cyprus and did the same. This was a major factor behind Smyrna's rise. Most of the exiled aristocrats, with their wealth and connections, ended up in Smyrna and helped make it the main commercial center of western Anatolia. The merchant-aristocrats were given wide autonomy by the Latin Empire, and they were well poised to continue as a republic when the empire fell apart.
Fifty years after the fall of the Latin Empire, Smyrna was the most powerful Latin remnant. Chios, Lesbos, and the Dodecanese were Smyrnan vassal states from the beginning, and the larger duchies of Naxos and Candia (Crete), plus the city of Monemvasia, were added in the following years.
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I returned to the Republic of Smyrna in 2014, making three more not very pretty maps. They show Smyrna going through a period of growth in the next couple of decades. It fully came into the role of a Western maritime republic in the Aegean and expanded its regional footprint. Venice naturally became Smyrna's arch-rival. Cilicia was becoming a firm ally. Medieval Cilicia had tried to purge itself of Western influence, but in the sixteenth century, Smyrniot families gained more and more influence in the kingdom's economy and politics. Some even married into the royal family. In between was the Bulgarian empire, which tried to work with both Venice and Smyrna and play them against each other.
By the time of the third map, Smyrna has become more deeply involved in the politics of the Anatolian Turkish states. It gave its support to a new sultanate declared in 1568 at Eskishehir, and helped supply it as it conquered most of the interior in subsequent years. At the same time, Smyrna took over the Greek splinter state of Pergamon as well as the last independent Latin remnant, the Kingdom of Achaea. During this era an ever-smaller circle of families came to dominate Smyrniot politics. Their wealth and power came not just through trade, but also growing landholdings in Greece and Anatolia and dynastic connections in Cilicia.
Now, in the last few days I decided to take Smyrna and just wank the hell out of it. Smyrna's age of greatness began when Paul Gozone, head of one of the great Smyrniot families, seized control of the crown of Cilicia in the second half of the 17th century. On the basis of this great amassing of power, he became head of the republic as well. Venice and the Akshehir Sultanate attacked Smyrna in response, but the republic rallied and captured not only all of Venice's eastern possessions, but most of Asia Minor as well. Campaigns in the next few decades saw Smyrna conquer Bulgaria itself, including Constantinople, making it the unmistakably greatest power in the eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, Smyrna expanded its holdings in Cyrenaica, ultimately colonizing the entire region.
Smyrniot strategy in the eighteenth century was to expand its African holdings to the west and cement its control of the Black Sea. The former brought it into conflict with powers in Spain, France, and Italy, while the latter resulted in clashes with Russia and a productive alliance with Iran. Throughout the century Smyrna involved itself in both European and Middle Eastern affairs. It invaded Italy several times but was never able to keep its gains there; the closest it came was to exchange occupied land in Sicily and Calabria for the island of Sardinia. Smyrna's crowning moment came at the turn of the nineteenth century when the sultan of Egypt became its vassal.
Rather than a lot of intervening historical maps, I went right for the big climax by making an ethnic map of the Smyrniote empire at its height. It shows some interesting things about the empire. The ruling group is the Latins. By this time they have become the largest group living around the city of Smyrna itself, but you can see how small their numbers are compared to the vastness of the empire. This was less extreme up to about 1650, before its age of rapid expansion. In those days, the republic's territory was small and its people consisted mostly of Latins, Greeks, and Armenians, with the boundaries between those groups being rather fluid. With the conquest of vast territories, the rulers have struggled to find supporters in the subject regions. The Smyrniot Latins are firmly Catholic. Their language is a dialect of Italian with heavy influence from Greek. Sardinia was a welcome addition because its people were also "Latins" despite speaking a different language. Many Sardinians were given incentives to migrate to other parts of the empire such as Crimea, in order to increase the Catholic presence there.
The base map is the MBAM. It's far from perfect and it probably is going to stay that way, which is why it's going in this thread. "Syrians" and "Circassians" are filler names for areas that have very diverse sets of languages and religions.
