What if the Turks failed to establish a lasting presence in Anatolia? Will Anatolia remain hellenized, or will other people (like the Arabs) try to take it?
AHC/WI: No Turkic migration to Anatolia
- Thread starter Sextus Munatius Piso
- Start date
If they go elsewhere, they will still cause problems, but it buys the Byzantines some time and probably butterflies the Ottoman Empire away.
Really depends on where they would go, or if they never left the Steppe at all.
Really depends on where they would go, or if they never left the Steppe at all.
The Arabs made their attempts OTL and ended up falling short each time. The Nature of the Turkic invasion/migrations/settlements is entirely different from that of the Arabs. In this case, Anatolia is very likely to remain Hellenic, at least the most of it (you know, possible new comers, the Armenians, so on so on).
Fertile? yes, but fit for any real sort of nomadic semi-nomadic life? perhaps not so much. The Turks are steppe horse people, urbanized river valleys surrounded by desert probably won't seem quite so tempting, especially those coming in as essentially at the time of invasion fully fledged steppe nomads.
Deleted member 67076
The Byzantine Empire remains a major power and its heartland remains secure for the time being. Yes, Anatolia would remain mostly Greek (with major Armenian minorities in the east).
The Turks would probably migrate somewhere else, where they would either set up a new homeland or become a new minority in Mesopotamia like many other groups before them.
The Turks would probably migrate somewhere else, where they would either set up a new homeland or become a new minority in Mesopotamia like many other groups before them.
Evilprodigy
Donor
The Turks that went to Anatolia only really did so because the Seljuks didn't want them causing trouble in Persia. After the initial migration that established the Sltanate more Turks from Central Asia heard of the success and travelled to Persia in search of glory, riches, and new lands but when they got there they found that they were unwelcomed by their cousins who had already arrived since they had taken most of the pastoral land for themselves as well as the military section of the government.
Since the Byzantines had been weakened due to Manzikert the Seljuks gently pushed them in that direction to get them out of their hair and it worked pretty damn well as unemployed, armed, horse-backed, and organized groups travelled out of the country and set up shop in Anatolia.
It would not be too hard for the Seljuks to repeat this process in another direction instead. You just need a sufficiently weakened neighbour and that can be found in the Levantine Coast or the Steppes of Eastern Ukraine/Southern Russia/Northern Caucasus. Perhaps just directing effort away from the Byzantines and towards any of those places would yield the necessary PoD for this AHC to work.
Since the Byzantines had been weakened due to Manzikert the Seljuks gently pushed them in that direction to get them out of their hair and it worked pretty damn well as unemployed, armed, horse-backed, and organized groups travelled out of the country and set up shop in Anatolia.
It would not be too hard for the Seljuks to repeat this process in another direction instead. You just need a sufficiently weakened neighbour and that can be found in the Levantine Coast or the Steppes of Eastern Ukraine/Southern Russia/Northern Caucasus. Perhaps just directing effort away from the Byzantines and towards any of those places would yield the necessary PoD for this AHC to work.