How could the Byzantines with their 1450 Territories become a Trading Republic like Genoa and Venice? How would this affect history, if at all?
A Byzantine Trade Republic?
Osman Aga
Banned
They Kick out the Emperor for trying to unite with the Eastern Orthodox Church with Rome. They become a Republic after not finding an Emperor or hope they don't antagonize the Ottomans. They trade with the Middle East and become the Middleman between the Middle East and Eastern Europe through the rivers Dnjepr and the Danube as well as the ports of Kaffa.
I have to say the Byzantine Republic won't survive longer than OTL considering the Ottomans had surrounded it and Mehmed II was committed to take Constantinople. A Republic elsewhere (Morea and Athens?) has better chance, to survive. Or the Ottomans never unite after 1402 and the Byzantine Republic is still established around 1450.