Alternate Asia Minor Campaign- The revival of Byzantium

floppy_seal99

floppy_seal99


This is a TL detailing an alternate ending to the Greco-Turkish war after WWI. The Greeks manage to capture Ankara and most of Western/Southern Anatolia. The general population proclaims a revival of Byzantium.:)

The next post should detail 1919 AD-1931 AD. No flashbacks. :D:D
 
floppy_seal99

floppy_seal99


Chapter 1: World War I to 1930​

NOTE: All further posts will be in Garamond font. Please, to avoid confusion for those just scrolling to find updates, post in ANY OTHER FONT but Garamond. I don't care which.

1919 AD:

After WWI, Greeks, with Allied assistance, overrun western half of Turkey, and are finally stopped at Sinope from fatigue and loss of combat momentum. The southern coast, to about 75 miles inland, including all land surrounding Alexandretta + Antioch captured by Greeks. Reproclamation of Byzantine Empire.

1920:

Constantine XII crowned emperor, constitutional monarchy established as form of government. Senate reintroduced on the American model.

1921:
Conference held by Allies in Versailles on what to do with defeated Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, etc.) All Yugoslavian/ Serbian/ Bulgarian land south of the Danube given to Byzantines. First regain of Danube frontier since 11th century. Another surprising turn of events is the liberation of Korea from Japan, a move supported by Italy, Byzantium (eager to establish a trading partner separate from the allies in the Pacific), and the USA. Japan becomes royally pissed off, and quits the conference. The treaty of Versailles is finalized several days later. Germany's military power and political power has been greatly reduced.

May 29, 1923:
Greeks recommence hostilities, quickly capturing Erzinkan, Batman, and extending Byzantine power to the Halys. Turks sue for peace, giving all conquests and everthing up to Lake Van and Turkish Kurdistan to Byzantium. Greeks now control all of Turkey, Kurdistan, and parts of Georgia and Armenia. The borders coincide roughly with those of the empire ~1070 AD prior to Manzikert.

1924:
Kurds rebel. Senate in Constantinople doesn't give a shit. Kurds regain independence, on the condition that all of Greater Armenia and Georgia not already Kurdish is to become Byzantine. Forming a government similar to a sultanate, Kurdistan is given the title "Autonomous Despotate of Ayyub", recalling the greatness of the Kurd Saladin. Despotates are equivalent to autonomous republics/other govts that some other nations control or countries in the Commonwealth, just kept under better control.

1925: Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, declare war on Byzantium. All of Syria north of Damascus is taken by Greek armies. Ceasefire called. Many Jews begin migrating to a more tolerant Syrian theme. (Themes have been reorganized to resemble an American state. The conspicuous lack of the State's Rights/Theme's Rights argument is present, seeing as the emperor introduces a clause to the law legalizing themes that claims the entire empire as Constantinople's personal demesne) The local laws of the themes have been pronounced subordinate to anything passed or proposed in Constantinople. Anything vetoed or outlawed in the capital is illegal or defunct in every theme.

1926: Major Byzantine Military reforms. Themes and feudalism rejected. Battalions are 200 each, with 2 centuries of 100 infantry apiece. The legion stabilizes at ~5000 infantrymen, further divided into 1000 man cohorts, equivalent to other army's regiments. Tagmata becomes more of a unit size ~10000 standing infantrymen rather than a term to separate professional infantry class. Pronoia, a Komnenid land grant became an infantry unit equalling ~30000 men. The empire maintains 3 permanent pronoia at this point to test them out. Reforms do not More will follow.
The cavalry arm of old Byzantium was resurrected by the interest in tanks and armored cars. The empire immediately buys 900 vehicles, divided into 3 divisions, usually to work and fight in tandem with a pronoia each. This strategy is adopted by the French, who distribute the tanks out more evenly, around 3:500 vehicle to foot ratio.

1927:
The above measures are instrumental to expanding the empire's territory to Van, and all down the Tigris to Mosul, with the frontier swinging south back to the Golan Heights and north of Beirut back to Latakia. The Lebanese take all of the open coastline not occupied by Byzantine Limitanei (soldiers equivalent to a more heavily militarized border patrol).

1928:
Russian Communist government does not end resistance to Bolshevik rule quickly enough. Belarus, also known as White Russia, remains independent, while an important swath of the Ukraine, including Kiev, the Crimea, and Chernobyl are held by rebels loyal to the Czars. Constantine, claiming his Paleologus descent gives him the right to the Ukraine's czarship by way of Zoë Paleologus, invades the Crimea. The Ukraine immediately surrenders, ALL OF IT, and Byzantine armies roll into Kiev in July. No General Winter for the Greeks.

1929:
The Copts rebel against Egypt and give Alexandria, Memphis, Damietta, and practically the whole Nile Delta to Byzantium. This new province extends south to Banha, east to the Suez Canal and west to El Alamein. Cairo stages an ineffective counter strike. It fails spectacularly due to a lack of logistics and further Copt demonstrations. Byzantines realize a lack of land connection from Antioch to Egypt will badly stretch the limitanei, and form the Provincial Despotate of Egypt and Cyrenacia.

1930:
Hold over Anatolian Muslims, Ukrainians, Syrian Muslims, and Slavs strengthened and consolidated. At this time, Constantine seeks no more reconquests of the Empire's ancient lost territories. Toleration of Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and Copts speed up this process greatly. More and more money and modern industry flows into Constantinople's coffers. Antioch, Smyrna, Athens, Ankara, and Sinop become rich wealthy, cosmopolitan cities much in the vein of NYC, London, Paris, Rome, and Los Angeles. Lack of corruption and reliance on the stock market greatly lessens the economic blow brought by the American Great Depression.

1931: Rumania and all other Balkan nations north of the Danube are now bordered by Byzantines to their north and south. Slavs especially have accepted "Hellenization" and are considered full citizens of the Empire as a whole. Former ruling families are given (somewhat minor) government positions and fancy houses in Constantinople. Almost the same deal for the House of Osman, but without the possibility of political power the Slavs, Jews and Copts can receive.
 
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Some Bloke

Although Greek would probably be the lingua franca,
with laws passed to that effect as a sop to Greek ethnic
nationalist. With all this tolerance lark they'll have toss
the bigots alone sooner or later.
 

Deckhand


1921:
Conference held by Allies in Versailles on what to do with defeated Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, etc.) All Yugoslavian/ Serbian/ Bulgarian land south of the Danube given to Byzantines. First regain of Danube frontier since 11th century. Another surprising turn of events is the liberation of Korea from Japan, a move supported by Italy, Byzantium (eager to establish a trading partner separate from the allies in the Pacific), and the USA. Japan becomes royally pissed off, and quits the conference. The treatey of Versailles is finalized several days later. Germany's military power and political power has been greatly reduced.
Click to expand...

Yeah this is never going to happen. No one can enforce it.
 
floppy_seal99

floppy_seal99

The ethnic situation will kind of be like USA- but with Greek, not English Lingua Franca, significant Turkish/Slavic/Russian/Tatar populations, and as soon as WWII begins, I plan to introduce a massive two pronged assault on the Byzantine Balkans-- a major Slavic Revolt, and the German attack on Greece and Crete. The actual conflict details are not completely clear yet for me. Ideas as to how that will go?:confused::confused:
 
floppy_seal99

floppy_seal99

Oh, BTW, here's a map of the situation so far.

AMC1919-1935.png

Note: Israel is an internationally-managed zone, Austro-Hungary is still somewhat coherent, but wracked by political infighting, Byzantine-controlled Slavic territory is a little unstable, and OTL Bosnia-Herz., Slovakia, and Croatia are Yugoslavia. Assume all stray white patches are possessions of the nearest country. Fuck filling in all the Aegean islands. Algeria is French, Libya is British, Central Asia is USSR, Iran is still Persia, the only Byzantine controlled parts of Egypt are on the map, Iraq/Saudi Arabia/Kuwait/UAE are a new "Caliphate", Yemen/Oman are independent nations. Everything else in Africa besides Liberia, Morocco and Ethiopia are colonized.

AMC1919-1935.png
 

Seleucus

I like how completely randomly, there's suddenly a "Great Kalmar" AND a Poland-Lithuania (about as plausible as a France-Germany...)
 
Arkocento

Arkocento

Donor
floppy_seal99 said:
The ethnic situation will kind of be like USA- but with Greek, not English Lingua Franca, significant Turkish/Slavic/Russian/Tatar populations, and as soon as WWII begins, I plan to introduce a massive two pronged assault on the Byzantine Balkans-- a major Slavic Revolt, and the German attack on Greece and Crete. The actual conflict details are not completely clear yet for me. Ideas as to how that will go?:confused::confused:
Click to expand...

Probably constantinople stalingrad stops germany pushed back union between Byzantium and Italy remakes Roman Empire :OOO
 
floppy_seal99

floppy_seal99

CHAPTER 2: The Build Up to WWII​

1932:
A general consensus judges the American, British, French, Byzantine, and, reluctantly by the West, the Japanese militaries the best in the world. The Germans are running a close second, but only due to their discipline and skill, not by numbers, alliances, or industrial support. The Americans have enthusiasm, numbers, economic superiority, and a willing, large pool of those who can be drafted. The British and French have alliances, equipment, numbers, and some economic ability. The Japanese attribute their successes to Bushido, discipline, and pure superiority in many aspects (nationalism in Japan has recently experienced a strong surge of popularity). As such, troops begin massing for a third attempt at Korea’s annexation. A small ring of Byzantine spies in Tokyo spot the buildup. A pronoia is immediately sent across the Pacific, by way of air travel, hopping by friendly airports located in strategic European colonies. The soldiers are sent to reinforce the enthusiastic, large, defensively capable, but inexperience Korean army, which currently only possesses a core of ~4000 hardened ex-guerillas as elite troops. The peninsula’s monarchy is torn between the king’s abdication towards communism or democracy, or the official reinstitution of a monarchy.

1933:
Germany begins a recovery of its economy and military. This is slow at first, until the election of Adolf Hitler to the office of German Chancellor. This man leads his nation’s Nationalist Party. He, for some reason, is the one of the few, if not the only major politician on the Continent who actively tries to push through Anti-Semitism legislation. This is opposed by large sections of the government, but Hitler finds support in the popular arena, which needs a scapegoat for the losses of the last World War. The Jewish begin a migration to other more tolerant nations. Britain and its colonies welcome them, as do the United States (as had been done for a century or more) and Byzantium. The Nationalist party begins to gain a stranglehold on German politics. Demonstrations of support for the Nationalist party begin to rise throughout the streets of Berlin. Hitler withdraws from the League of Nations, bans trade unions, socialists, Communist Party,

1934:
The German economy and military speeds up its recovery. The army, navy, and air force expand, train, undergo many drills, and recruit engineers to become the most disciplined military and one of the finest (for its small size) in Europe. Volkswagen is founded by Hitler’s regime as a civilian car producer (the vehicles it does make for public use are high quality, and many in America especially treasure their Volkswagens) to help cover up the mass production of tanks, planes, ships, and batteries. Focus is on new tanks for separate vehicular units free of infantry, ammunition, and ball bearings. Germany is now making a huge amount of money. All of its major cities are filled with productive, hard-working, and patriotic citizens. This alarms much of Eastern and Northern Europe. Two large multi-national unions in those regions are pushed through as a measure against possible future German aggression: a resurrected Union of Kalmar in Scandinavia (Finland, Sweden, and Norway), and a reunified Poland-Lithuania (now a republic, not a weakly-consolidated monarchy abbreviated as PLR) that includes Latvia and Estonia (the latter is divided between PL and Kalmar) . The latter, due to the incomplete readiness of Germany, forces an occupation of East Prussia on Hitler. Hitler fumes, but cannot do anything due to his position in international politics. Hitler bestows upon himself the title of “Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor” and abolishes the office of President. The previous president, Hindenburg, had already abdicated. Byzantine spy rings become increasingly frantic and nervous in their reports to Constantinople.


1935:
White Russia, still a stronghold of czarists and independent of the Bolsheviks in Moscow, officially becomes the Empire of Byelorussia. PLR officially declares war in March, claiming the state’s western third, and mounts three offensives. All of them fail, but neither side takes serious losses. Hitler re-arms Germany with the aim of undoing the Treaty of Versailles and uniting all the German peoples. Military conscription is introduced.

1936:
the Reich takes another step towards remilitarization. The Rhineland, forbidden to all active German military personnel, now plays barracks to thousands of German military personnel. Originally Hitler had planned to remilitarize the Rhineland a year after he did, but moved the process up a year for several reasons, namely: the ratification by the French National Assembly of the Franco-Soviet pact of 1935 allowed him justify the move as a defensive measure against Franco-Soviet "encirclement". Washington, Paris, London, and Rome make no moves against Germany, but express annoyance all the same.

1938:
Neville Chamberlain and other European leaders meet Hitler in Germany. Britain, France and Italy sign the Munich Agreement, which cedes the Sudetenland to Germany. The Sudetenland is a border region of Czechslovakia that possesses a large German population. The German army proceeds to occupy the Sudetenland. In November, 7,500 Jewish shops are destroyed and 400 synagogues are burnt. The attack is said to be a mob reaction to the death of a German diplomat by a Jewish refugee in Paris. The international community accepts this explanation, despite private doubts by a number of individuals. The massacre actually orchestrated by the Nazi party. The Party also kills many Jews and had sent over 20,000 to concentration camps. This is considered to be the beginning of the Holocaust. The mass killing of many Jewish populations in German territories as part of a “Final Solution.”

1939:
Germany invades Poland. The new PLR proves to be a wise measure, as the new German Blitzkrieg fighting tactics, utilizing the tank-only military divisons, is only barely stopped on the suburbs of Warsaw, which capitulates after three more weeks of bloody fighting. The PLR has the numbers, but the German army wins out with discipline and terror. The Russians invade PLR Estonia and occupy it in its entirety, but are eventually stopped from further conquests by over-zealous PLR soldiers.
 

RyuDrago

Despite I'd like to see one day a TL with a Greek victory in the war of 1919-22 which allows Hellenic suzerainty over Istanbul/Constantinople, sadly this is not this one. Too basic historical concepts were ignored, and went far away into ASB. I am not so critic towards a TL generally, but this time I felt the necessity to express a disapproval.

Said that, I don't want to demoralize you. I guess this is your first attempt so mistakes are inevitable after all. I suggest you to curb down the really implausible parts which you developed so far, work over a more small empire in a more OTL scenario, not push immediately in terms of decades, and to seek over the possibilities where this country could effectively expand reasonably, not necessarily in terms of military expansion, but also over economic and cultural ones...
 
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