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| Metalhead33 | Sep 16 2015, 12:58 PM Post #1 |
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This was originally posted on 03-30-2013, 04:22 PM, at The Ark: Counter-Factual.Net, which is going to be shut down the end of 2015. What you will see below is the original, unedited, unabridged version of the post. Obviously, this is more or less ASB. I'm basically giving the Cholas steroids, so they can achieve their Medieval Empire as early as 150 BC. Very ASB. I: The Beginning 1.1: The Dravidian Kingdom - From Vassals to Conquerors The Chola Kingdom began her existence as a vassal of the Maurya Empire. This large Aryan beast was the first and last pan-Indian Empire to ever come into existence. ![]() The Chola state came into existence due to the genius efforts of the legendary Nakkan Aran Jozhan, who unified the various Tamil-speaking tribes into one unified state. While we can't know for certain if Nakkan Aran Jozhan was a real person or not, we do know, that around 300 BC, the Chola state emerged. As said before, it was initially a tribunary, a vassal of the much-greater Maurya Empire. However, who said that vassals can't expand their own into unvassalized territory? The very first Chola conquest was Sri Lanka. Next, was hitting the wilderness, Indian chronicles at the time mention that an ethnic Tamil adventurer, a Chola prince known as Elara, invaded the what is now Indonesia and Malaysia around 190 BC. This was 5 years before the demise of the Maurya Empire, allowing the Cholas to also expand in India itself too. ![]() Next, the Chola Empire expanded in the most unlikely direction: West, Overseas. Under the next 50 years, Yemen, Somalia and Ethiopia were slowly and gradually conquered. By 140 BC, the Cholas established a firm hold on Yemen and the coastline of Somalia and Ethiopia. Not all of Somalia was controlled, just like not all of Ethiopia. Out of Ethiopia, the only portions the Cholas controlled - at least for now - were what became the Aksum Empire OTL They controlled much of the Somalian coastline, but not all of the Somalian people: there were still many independent Somali clans, especially in Ogaden[/url] - the Cholas were content with simply making them vassals and tribunaries (paying taxes in exchange for protection) of the Chola Empire, rather than subjugating them to direct Chola rule. The territory encompassing the OTL modern state of Yemen was nearly completely under Chola rule. It is still unknown what was the exact motivation for expansion into East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, they gained a lot on the long run. Arabian horses, African slaves, and control over the Red Sea trade. Now Indian merchants could deal directly with Europeans through the Red Sea, without having to employ the Arabs and Ethiopians as middlemen. The Cholas imported wine, dry fruits, precious stones and glassware from Europe. They also imported raw silk and porcelain from China. The Cholas became the richest state in India. The Cholas would leave a lasting legacy. Their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in the building of temples would result in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture in the future. The Chola kings would become avid builders and would envision the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship but also as centres of economic activity. At the time, the Cholas were really pioneering a centralised form of government and establishing a disciplined bureaucracy. 1.2: A Mercantile State - the Indian Venice The Cholas became the richest state in India. But this came at a cost, something Tamil nationalists would surely resent today: Multiculturalism. The capital city of the Chola Empire, Uraiyur, was filled with immigrants not only from Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia, Malaysia and Indonesia, but also from China, Europe, and also African slaves. The rich state became a magnet for immigrants not just from the conquered territories, but also from distant China, Europe and Africa too. The Chola Empire was a multinational Empire. Indians, Arabs, Ethiopians. Well, to be more specific: Tamils (Indians), Yemenis (Arabs), Ethiopians and Somalians. And let us not forget about the black slaves imported from the south of Tanzania. The Chola Empire never claimed Tanzania - or anything South of it - as part of her Empire, and never even conquered it, but still conducted occasional raids to capture slaves. Gradually, violent slave-abduction was replaced by buying the slaves from the tribal leaders themselves, just like OTL Trans-Atlantic slave trade (fact: OTL, the African tribal rulers SOLD their own people into slavery by selling them to the Europeans.) The Somalians also played a large role in this: they had a long tradition of conducting raids southwards to capture slaves. In fact, the Somalians also had a long history of mixing with the slaves. (OTL Somalian males are genetically 5% black, while females are 11%) Slavery became a big business in the Chola Empire. Greedy Chola merchants would travel large distances to capture or buy the largest possible quantities of slaves. Some of the slaves were brought to India and Sri Lanka. Others were sold to the Europeans, in exchange for the various goods imported from Europe (wine, dry fruits, precious stones and glassware). Off course, the Indians brought spices to Europe and China too. The Indians weren't really interested in European gold or silver - they already had gold mines in India, and Chinese silver was flowing steadily into India due to trade. In the multicultural Chola Empire, a system that was seemingly similiar to the Apartheid was born. Indian immigrants held high positions in the conquered territories. New cities were built, often restricted to the Indians only. There was segregation in the military too. The Cholas manipulated multiculturalism, to sustain their Empire. They knew, that if they recruited natives from the conquered lands, they would desert, and if the natives rebelled, the soldiers would join the rebels. To avoid that, they came up with a system also used by Romans and later Habsburgs: put all your soldiers in the opposing corner. They recruited Arab, Ethiopian-Somalian and African soldiers, and put them into the garrisons in Malaysia and Indonesia. They recruited Malay and Indonesian soldiers, and put them into the garrisons in Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia. North Indian Aryan mercenaries were present in the garrisons too. Instead of segregating the native civilian population from the non-native military garrisons, the Cholas encouraged mixing. They encouraged the non-native soldiers to marry native women. They also encouraged Tamil Indian men to take local native Indonesian, Malaysian, Arabian, Ethiopian and Somalian wives. This resulted in a very complicated ethnic picture, and also the diffusion of Indic genes into the conquered areas. While the Cholas encouraged mixing, they also tried to Indianize the conquered peoples, which was a huge success. At the time, Ethiopian, Somalian and Arabian cities started to look more and more like South Indian cities, in architecture and culture alike. Off course, that is not to say that the Cholas forced their culture on others, without borrowing anything. Somalian cuisine and Ethiopian cuisine had a huge influence on South Indian gastronomy. A lot of later words the Tamil-speaking Cholas used were borrowed from the Old South Arabian language of the Yemenis. It is true, that Native Malaysian and Native Indonesian cultures did not influence the Chola culture a lot, but it did became a melting pot of Indian, Arabian, Ethiopian and Somalian cultural imports, which mixed together and returned to India. Being said, mixing and intermarriage was extremely common, which resulted in the mixed populations of Southern India, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Malaysia and Indonesia we have today (in this timeline, not OTL). The Cholas were also responsible for spreading Hinduism. As avid temple-builders, they left a LOT of temples, not only in India, but also in the conquered territories. Their zeal and determination to spread Hinduism resulted in the accelerated Indianization of Malaysia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen. Hinduism and Indian culture was also spread outside the Chola Empire's direct borders - the Arabian peninsula overall became increasingly Indianized in culture, the Somali clans who were vassals of the Chola also accepted Indian culture and Hinduism, and the various Ethiopian states outside the direct grasp of the Cholas did the same too, gradually. Tamil was the language of civil and military administration alike, and also of business and trade. Being able to understand and speak Tamil was considered a sign of being educated, among the non-Indian conquered peoples (Ethiopians, Somalians, Yemenis, Malays, Indonesians, etc.) Sanskrit was the language of religion, the sacred language of Hinduism. Despite being an Aryan language, it had a high prestige in the Dravidian, Tamil-speaking Chola kingdom, due to the fact that they were Hindu. Being said, it also gained some prestige among the conquered peoples. The cultural Indianization and conversion to Hinduism coincided with the increased usage Tamil and Sanskrit alike. But they never replaced Ge'ez (Ethiopia), Somali (Somalia), Old South Arabian (Yemen), Malay (Malaysia) or Indonesian (Indonesia) as the main spoken languages. Yes, those languages did end up borrowing a lot of loanwords from Tamil and Sanskrit alike, but they never died out. The rural population continued to cling to their own languages, despite being Indianized and converted to Hinduism. Only the urban population became truly Tamil-speaking, and only in limited "variatons". In many ways, the Chola Empire was the Indian Venice. They traded. They were very good at it. They had lots of good to export, and lots of goods to import. However, as the Cholas became richer and richer, they became more and more reliant on foreign mercenaries. By 50 AD, much of the Empire's budget was to pay the wages of the mercenaries, to defend the borders of the Chola Empire from outside invaders and to finance the raids in Sub-Sharan Africa to capture slaves. By the way, we skipped over one important detail: the Romans. For the Romans, nearly everything went unchanhed from OTL. The Cholas enjoyed warm relations with the Romans. Thanks to the presence of Cholas in the Red Sea region, Roman and Greek writers had the opportunity to know Hinduism better, and document it. Christianity found her way to spread into the Arabian Peninsula, then to Ethiopia and Somalia, and finally to India, along with Malaysia and Indonesia. 1.3: The Indo-Ethiopian Kingdom In 68 AD, an Aryan general named Abhavasimha - commanding a mixed army of Aryan mercenaries, Malay and Indonesian levies - attempted a coup against the Chola dynasty. After failing to besiege the capital city of Urayur, Abhavasimha took his loyal troops to Yemen. The local garrison was stronger than his force, so he fled to Oman, where he ravaged the borderlands, looting, pillaging, plundering and raping his way into the Omani heartland. There, Abhavasimha found himself dealing with Bedouin tribes fighting among themselves. By this time, the Chola government put a bounty on Abhavasimha's head, but he wasn't purseud by the army anymore. The Chola military leadership decided to play the waiting game, and surprise Abhavasimha. Abhavasimha however was prepared. After making order in the land of Bedouin tribes, he found his army nearly trippled in size, thanks to the Bedouin tribes who joined his command. Coming back to Yemen, his forces managed to overwhelm the local garrison, and he soon became the governor of Yemen. However, there was another man, an Ethiopian, who was at thetime plotting too. Here, OTL Zoskales is called Chandrakant Durai, due to the cultural Indianization in Ethiopia. Durai, instead of being an Ethiopian prince like OTL, Durai was a pro-Chola Ethiopian colonial military officer. He was loyal to the Chola dynasty and government. However, after Abhavasimha's defection, Durai started harboring his own ambitions too. He, however wanted more than wages. He wasn't content with just ruling Yemen, or any other province. He wanted the full empire for himself. At first, Durai decided that it would be wiser to play along by the government's rules, and wait for the perfect moment to stab the government in the back. Durai ordered petty ambushes on Yemen to provoke Abhavasimha to attack Ethiopia. Then, after Abhavasimha really set sail to Ethiopia, Durai evacuated the coastline, and fled to the hinterland of Ogaden. Durai further continued skirmihing and harassing Abhavasimha's main army, carefully flanking him. Then, after Abhavasimha was already deep in Ogaden, Durai - whose army swelled, due to Somali recruits - carefully flanked Abhavasimha's army, and attacked him from the behind. Abhavasimha's army found itself surrounded, with all routes to escape cut off. Durai won the day, and personally took Abhavasimha's head. The next step was, to restore order. After eradicating the pro-Abhavasimha garrisons in Ethiopia and Somalia, Durai sailed to Yemen, and restored the order. Next, he launched a punitive campaign against the Omani tribes who supported Abhavasimha with troops. As a result, India became richer with thousands of Arab slaves. Much to Durai's luck, there was no need to backstab the government. The government in India was already in disarray. The last Chola king, Karikaalan II Peruvalaththaan had no sons, only a daughter. He promised the throne to Satakarni, ruler of the Satavahana Empire to the North. After Karikaalan died in 72 AD, the Satavahana invaded. Chandrakant Durai, sailed back to India with his army just in time. He had just enough time to mobilize more troops and defend. After the initial Satavahana onslaught, Durai gradually advanced northwards, repelling Satavahana forces, and eventually restoring the pre-war borders, and making peace. Next, he subjugated the warlords in Malaysia and Indonesia. After all of that, in 76 AD, his rule in the Chola Empire became complete. The Durai dynasty would rule this multinational empire for much longer. Chandrakant's son, Kalaivendan Durai would become the first person in the Old World to conduct movement to the New World. Chandrakant realized that mercenaries and levies alike are unreliable. Mercenaries fought for money and had the habit of betraying their master. Levies had very low morale and fled easily. Chandrakant came up with a replacement: a standing army, similiar to Rome's legionaries. Chandrakant created the Imperial Chola Army, which was modelled on the Roman legionaries - he sent envoys to Rome, to invite military adivosrs to India, to build an effective new military. Also, crossbows were made widespread in the Chola Empire, encouraged by the ruler. Unheard of in OTL India, they revolutionized the Chola army here. Chandrakant also relocated the capital from Urayur to Thanjavur. Despite being an ethnic Ethiopian, he set up his government in India, in Thanjavur. He ruled like any other Chola ruler. He spoke Tamil and Sanskrit, not Ge'ez. His descendants would also identify as Tamil, rather than Ethiopian. II: Colonization and Canonization 2.1: First Sight In addition to restoring order in India, Chandrakant was also responsible for some expansion. The Philippines became part of the Chola Empire during his reign. Dureing the reign of Chandrakant's son, Kalaivendan, Indian sailors discovered the shores of Peru. Soon, a full expedition was sent, and soon Peru found itself colonized by mixed Indian-Middle Eastern-East African-South East Asian forces. The technologically superior Chola forces advanced rapidly, and soon conquered Mexico as well. The Mayan city-states fell one by one to Indian rule. Among all the imports and exports between the Old World and the New World, I'll name only a few important. Corn and potato became important staple foods in India, Africa and the Middle East too. Especially potato. Tobacco soon became essential part of (South) Indian culture, also spreading to all the other parts of the Chola Empire. Cocao and vanilla gave the Chola upper class a sweet tooth - the greedy nobles pushed for further colonization of Tanzania and Madagascar, in order to plant more cocoa and vanilla. Vanilla yield: Goats, sheep, wheat, barley and rice made a huge impact on the New World. As it spread, the population swelled. Horses, iron, bronze and other technology transmitted from the Old World also made a huge impact, as they suddenly transformed Stone Age Native American tribes into Iron Age Organized Kingdoms. Kalaivendan's heir, Shyam Ganesh further expanded the Chola Empire, into the Caribbean, and eventually Brazil too. At first, tolerant policies were used on the Native Americans and their religion. But after witnessing their human sacrifices, the Chola administration cracked down on the native religions, and enforced Hinduism. This too, coincided with the Indianization of the natives. Plagues devestated the Native American land, so Indian, Arabian, Ethiopian, Malaysian, Somalian and Indonesian settlers were brought in, in addition to African slaves. The majority of the population was formed of these immigrants by the end of the century. 2.2: The Word of Christ Christianity found her ways to spread into the Chola Empire already by the late 1th century. Between 100 AD and 300 AD, the two centuries were rather uneventful for the Chola Empire. Nothing really noteworthy. Christianity was spreading first among slaves, then the lower class generally, regardless of ethnicity. Just like the Black Death OTL, the religion of Christianity spread by the trade routes. This allowed the religion to reach all corners of the Chola Empire, and even outside the Empire - Christian missionaries could reach Japan early as 200 AD, 1350 years earlier than OTL. I'm not going to go into detail what happens in China and Japan, whether they turn Christian or not. If someone wants to do it, I allow anyone to make sub-plots based on this timeline. But I myself won't write. In 325, the Chola Emperor Chezhiyan converted to Christianity. The type of Christianity which was spread in the Chola Empire was very similiar to Egyptian Coptic Christianity. Chezhiyan ordered the translation of the full Christian Bible to Sanskrit and Tamil, and to spread the word. The Chola Empire turned on her head - after centuries of zealously building Hindu temples, the Emperor turned to Christianity, and spread it by all means possible. In 382, Emperor Janakar III outlawed every other religion, including Hinduism. Most readers would expect a huge civil war or rebellion to follow, but that is not what happened. During the Hindu period, the greedy and hedonistic noble and merchant class oppressed the average population like slaves. Christianity became very appealing to the masses, and mass conversions happened. Despite attempts to suppress it, the religion spread to all borders of the Empire. By 600 AD, the traditional polytheistic Hindu, Arabic, Somali, Ethiopian, Malaysian, Indonesian and Native American practices were all but gone, almost completely replaced by Christianity. Despite being converted to Christianity, Sanskrit was still preserved as a sacred language however. The Bible was translated to Sanskrit, and Sanskrit was preserved as the sacred language of this Indianized Christianity, or "Hindu Christianity". Bilingual bibles became very popular - Each sentence was written first in Sanskrit, then in the local language (Tamil, South Arabian, Somali, Amhara, Malay, Indonesian, Mayan, Nahuatl, Quechua, etc.). However, the Hindu-era temples did not disappear either - they were converted to Christian churches. Holding fellow Christians as slaves was forbidden. But pagans were free to be enslaved, so African slavery continued. III: Decline 3.1: Islam In 630, Yemen was conquered by Muslim forces. They did not meet much resistance from the local garrisons. The defenders were mainly Indians, Somalis, Malays and Indonesians, people who did not consider Yemen their home. The Native Yemenis supported the Arab conquerors. At the time, the Empire was already in decline. After Rome's fall, Western European was overran by barbarians, which meant that the Cholas lost a traditional trade partner. The Byzantine-Sassanid wars obscured trade on the Red Sea, completely cutting off the Cholas from Europe. China was in disarray too. With no real trade partners, the Chola economy declined. The army was cut in size, taxes were increased, there were no more slaves, etc. As the economy declined, so did secessionist forces grow stronger. Worsening economy encouraged the emergence of self-reliant economies within various parts of the empire, which in turn encouraged the growth of secessionist movements, as those lands were no longer reliant on the Chola government economically or militarily. Such examples were the Philippines, Madagascar and the New World. In the New World, smaller states were created. After losing Yemen, the Empire lost Ethiopia, Somalia and all her other African colonies to the Arab conquerors and Islam. Islam conquered Indonesia and Malaysia peacefully, through missionaries. The Islamized Malays and Indonesians eventually revolted against the Chola rulers, and seceded. Simultaneously with this, the Cholas also gradually lost their grip on India itself, being forced more and more Southwards. In the end - by 700 AD - the Cholas were reduced to small portions of South-Eastern India. By 800 AD, the Cholas were all but gone, replaced by another dynasty - the Pandyas. And what happened to the Americas? I won't go into detail now. Maybe next time. Or maybe someone else will. THE END Edited by Metalhead33, Sep 16 2015, 01:03 PM.
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| Metalhead33 | Sep 16 2015, 01:05 PM Post #2 |
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This was originally posted on 05-06-2013, 02:50 PM, at The Ark: Counter-Factual.Net, which is going to be shut down the end of 2015. What you will see below is the original, unedited, unabridged version of the post. Chapter 0: With Iron and Blood "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood." - Otto von Bismarck And that was one-hundred percent true. In 1848, the population of the Kingdom of Hungary was only 40% Hungarian. In 1910, the population of the Kingdom of Hungary 55% Hungarian. Many areas in what was meant to become Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia in the future had Hungarian popualation, such as Southern Slovakia, Székelyland in Transylvania, and many more. But no one was asked. There was no referendum. All of the territorial partition was part of the imperialistic goals of the Western powers to dismantle a rival power (Austria-Hungary) and replace it with 2 loyal states: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The war went rather badly for the Central Powers, and it was soon lost. As the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed in 1918, an independent Hungarian Democratic Republic was formed after the Aster Revolution. Official proclamation of the republic was on 16 November 1918 and its president became Mihály Károlyi. Károlyi struggled to establish the government's authority and to control the country. At the same time, Hungary was left vulnerable to foreign invasion. Soon, Romania invaded Transylvania, the newly formed Czech Republic took Upper Hungary (Slovakia + Transcarpathia), the newly formed Yugoslavia took Southern Hungary (Vojvodina) It seemed all was lost. The government, unable to do anything gave power to the Communist on the 20th of March. ![]() ![]() The Communists came to power as the only group with an organised fighting force, promising Hungary would be able defend its territory without conscription. Kun promised the military help of the Soviet Red Army against Romanian, Czechoslovak and Yugoslav forces. ![]() And so it happened. After a glorious campaign to liberate Northern Hungary, the Soviet Red Army entered Hungary. We will never know what was Lenin's true motivation to help Hungary, but he did change history. ![]() Hungarian soldiers occupying Léva / Levice, Western Slovakia ![]() Hungarian soldiers occupying Kassa / Košice, Eastern Slovakia The Hungarians - with the support of local Slovak communists - single-handedly liberated Slovakia, without the need for Soviet help. The Soviet Republic of Slovakia got organized by 16 June.of 1919. The French promised that if he pulls his troops out of Slovakia, the Romanians will pull back too. Béla Kun did not believe that, and immediately alerted his Soviet Russian allies, as well as ordered the setting up of militias to hold back the Romanians until Soviet help arrives. With Soviet aid, the Hungarians could go even further. The Romanians were forced out of Transylvania by the 2th of July (which led to the creation of the Transylvanian Soviet Republic), and after brutal border-fights, the joint French-Yugoslav forces were forced to admit shameful defeat by 30th of July (foundation of the Banater Soviet Republic). ![]() Armed Workers' Militia. These armed workers were meant to hold the Romanian and Yugoslav forces back until Soviet reinforcements arrived. The Hungarians were exhausted. Fighting couldn't continue forever. Peace had to be concluded. However, the Communist leaders of Hungary rejected the Treaty of Trianon, and proposed a new peace treaty: Tansylvania, Upper Hungary, Vojdodina, Banat and Burgenland would remain parts of Hungary. The Allies, although disappointed, agreed, believing that they had enough fighting in the Balkans, as the Yugoslav, Romanian and Czech forces were exhausted too. Another thing that just came up was the Turkish War of Independence, which diverted the attention of the Western Allies from Hungary to Anatolia. Following the conclusion of peace, the Hungarian Communist leadership organized the United Soviets of Danubia. ![]() The new Communist state was a Federal state, similiar in structure to the United States of America, with the difference that it was the union of four communist dictatorships, rather than fifty capitalist democracies. The (SSRH) Soviet Socialist Republic of Hungary, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Slovakia (SSRS), the Soviet Socialist Republic of Transylvania (SSRT) and the Soviet Socialist Republic of Banat (SSRB) formed together the United Soviet Socialist Republics of the Danube (USSRD), also known as the United Soviets of Danube (USOD) However, there was much work to do. Chapter I: Consolidation of Power After the victory in the war, there was much to do. ![]() Portrait of Sándor Garbai, First Head of Government of Communist Hungary The Hungarian government consisted of a Socialist-Communist coalition, but with the exception of Kun, all commissars were former Social Democrats. The government was led by Sándor Garbai, but Kun, as Commissar of Foreign Affairs, held the real power. ![]() Béla Kun, First Head of State of Communist Hungary, agitating workers Under Béla Kun, the Communist government, which had adopted in full the program of the Soviet Communists, decreed the abolition of aristocratic titles and privileges, separation of church and state, and codified freedom of speech and assembly, free education, language and cultural rights to minorities (the last of which, at least, was not implemented in practice). The Communist government also planned the nationalization of industrial and commercial enterprises, and socialization of housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions, and all landholdings of more than 40 hectares. However, due to the high degree of infiltration of fake communists - much of whom were crypto-nationalists - many of these policies were impleneted only to a limited degree. For example, many aristocrats escaped land confiscations by "becoming communists" and volunteering to become "collectors" - people who were entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing collectivization. The Communist Party's leaders were naive enough to accept these "born-again Communists" into their ranks. These Communist Aristocrats were very corrupt. When they collected the grain from the peasants, they kept parts of it for themselves, as a way to substitute for the loss of income they had as real aristocrats before Communism. They usually accounted the lack of profit for fake problems, which forced the government to spend on improving agriculture, as well as moderate the industrialization. However, Hungary's Red Aristocracy also showed examples of lenience sometimes, allowing the peasants to keep part of their profit, in order to prevent food shortages which Collectivization would have ensured. However, this made economic advance slower. However, the Red Aristocracy was only delaying the inevitable. By the 1930's, Hungarian agriculture was throughoutly collectivized and Hungary got transformed from an agrarian country to an Industrial one. ![]() Portrait of Antonín Janoušek, First Head of State of Communist Slovakia Hungary was the strongest, largest and richest of all the members of the USOD. The leaders of Hungary held all others as puppets. Antonín Janoušek of Slovakia was no different. While he was the Head of State of Slovakia, he barely had any real power. Real power was held by Béla Kun, who was the Head of Government of Hungary. Officially, on paper, all four members of the USOD were equal, and even succeeding was allowed. In reality, it was quite the contrary: the Soviet Socialist Republic of Slovakia (SSRS), the Soviet Socialist Republic of Transylvania (SSRT) and the Soviet Socialist Republic of Banat (SSRB) were all subordinates of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Hungary (SSRH). The SSRS, SSRT and SSRB had only Heads of State, but no Heads of Government. The SSRH had both a Head of State, and a Head of Government. Basically, the Head of the Government of SSRH equalled being the Head of State of the USOD. Being said, Slovakia under Janoušek implemented - or was forced to implement - similiar - if not the same - policies as Hungary did. Collectivization, socialization, nationalization. However, Slovakia did not end up having a Red Aristocracy like Hungary. Due to the smaller size of the country, administration was easier, which made ruthless enforcement of Communist policies even easier and more tragic. The result was a food shortage, which forced Slovakia to rely on food supplies from Hungary until the new, communist agriculture could get back on its feet. Slovakia was not a very nice place to be, so criminal groups arose: their main enterprise were waging guerrilla war on the government, leading an underground economy, as well as helping people to flee to Poland and the Czech Republic. To compensate for the lack of agricultural strength, Antonín Janoušek encouraged an industrial-buildup, producing industrial products for Hungary in exchange for food supplies, until Slovakia can build up her agriculture and Hungary can build up her industry (1930's). ![]() Portrait of Dr Jenő Rozvány, First Head of State of Communist Transylvania Transylvania was hit the worst by war, so reconstruction was costly. Just like Hungary, we see the rise of a Red Aristocracy, however, in case of Transylvania, we do not see it hindering economics that much. In fact, quote the contrary. The Hungarian and Székely enforcers harass the Romanian peasants ruthlessly, and enforce what the state wishes. They collectivize. However, the Romanians aren't very happy. In fact, they are angry. They are starving, and they are being scammed out of their last pennies. In 1925, the Romanian peasants of Transylvania launch an armed rebellion. Their rebellion is crushed in a very violent matter. After that, the Transylvanian government organizes an artificial famine. Before 1925, Transylvania's total population was 5 208 345 people, 57.3% Romanian, which meant 2 984 381 Romanians. Between 1925 and 1927, 10% of them starved to death, leaving 310 375 dead. In addition that, around 10 000 people were killed during the suppression of their rebellion. This means 320 000 Romanians dead, which meant the 10,6% of their population at the time. This reduced the Romanian population of Transylvania to 2 674 000, and the overall population of Transylvania from 5 208 345 in 1920 to 4 897 969 in 1927. Transylvania was only 54,59% Romanian in 1927, down from the 57.3% in 1920.This population loss in Transylvania was compensated by bringing in more Hungarians, Slovaks and even Serbs and Croats. The will of the Transylvanian Romanians was temporally broken. However, this famine-genocide was not something they would forget soon. The total population of Transylvania would increase from 4 897 969 in 1927 to 8 522 466 by 1940. An astaunding 73% rise in population overall. The Hungarian population of Transylvania would rise from 1 328 127 in 1920 to 2 324 222 in 1940. Their percentage remained roughly 27% in both 1927 and 1940. The German population of Transylvania would rise from 552 084 in 1920 to 960 627 by 1940. Their percentage remained roughly 11.2% in both 1927 and 1940. The Slovak population of Transylvania from around 52 083 in 1920 to 227 411 by 1940. Which was a rise from 0.1% in 1927 to 2.66% in 1940. The Serb population of Transylvania would rise from next to zero in 1920 to 25 151 by 1940, counting for 0.0295% of the population in 1940. The Croat population of Transylvania would rise from next to zero in 1920 to 34 351 by 1940., counting for 0.04% of the population 1940. In 1940 Romanians counted for 3 405 140 people, which meant they formed only 39,95% of the population in 1940, down from 54,59% in 1927 and 57.3% in 1920! The Romanians were no longer majority by 1940. ![]() Portrait of Dr Otto Roth, First Head of State of Banat Banat was the odd one out of the 4 Soviet Socialist Republics. Otto Roth was not a true Communist, but a Social Democrat. However, just like Jenő Rozvány of Transylvania and Antonín Janoušek of Slovakia, Otto Roth of Banat was a puppet of Béla Kun. But let's go back to the state's birth first. On October 31, 1918, military councils were established by the ethnic groups living in the Banat region: Romanian, Hungarian, German, Jewish and Serb. At a meeting, Dr. Otto Roth, a member of the Social Democratic Party, proposed the creation of an autonomous Banat People's Council, with representatives from each ethnic group, but Romanian officers distanced themselves from this objective as long as there was no resolution on the matter from the Romanian National Council. The leading members of the Social Democratic Party decided however to proclaim the republic the day after, and on November 1, 1918, Roth proclaimed the Republic of Banat from the balcony of the Timișoara local council. The civil leader of the Republic was Dr Roth, while the military commander was the Hungarian Albert Bartha (who would also serve as Minister of Defense of the Hungarian Democratic Republic starting with November 9, 1918). The government of Hungary recognized the independence of the Banat Republic. The same day, the founding meeting of the Banat People's Council took place, with 20 members drawn from the city council, 60 members from the military national councils, 40 representatives from the workers councils, and 70 from the bourgeois parties. An executive committee of 20 members was elected. However, the Romanians, the largest ethnic group, did not want autonomy but rather unification with Romania. The Banat National Council organized military squads and a civil guard on November 4 to establish control over the territory of the Banat. However, on November 15, Serbian troops entered the Banat and put an end to the Republic. The national councils were dismantled by the newly formed Serb-Croat-Slovene administration on February 21, 1919. A few months later, following the Alba-Iulia Resolution and Great People's Assembly in Novi Sad, the Banat region was divided primarily between Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Off course, during the Summer of 1919, the Hungarian Communists invaded Banat too, along with Vojvodina and Transylvania. Dr Otto Roth was thankful, and in the joy of his Banat Republic surviving, he agreed to enter it to the Danubian Union. Off course, we all know that the so called "Danubian Union" was nothing but a scheme to turn the Carpathian Basin red. And it was indeed. Roth was reduced to a figurehead, with real power belonging to Béla Kun, Head of State of Hungary and effective leader of the USOD. Using salami tactics, Béla Kun's communists gradually transformed Banat from a Social Democracy into a full Communist state. Otto Roth resigned from power in 1926, and escaped to Austria, then Germany. He was replaced by Aurél Stromfeld. ![]() General Aurél Stromfeld, Commander-in-Chief of Hungarian Red Army in 1919, Head of State of Banat between 1926 and 1940. Stormfeld completed what his predecessors started, and collectivized and nationalized the economics of Banat. He employed the same cruel methods against the Romanians his comrades used in Transylvania: artificial famine. The Serbs were lucky enough to get away with just deportations, mostly to Transylvania. Stormfeld's program included the industrialization and militarization of Banat. With the help of the German engineers and planners, he transformed Banat. Weapon production was the main enterprise. No longer Hungary would have to face weapon shortage or rely on foreign imports! Chapter II: Steel and Steam After the consolidation of power in the 1920's, it was time to build up in the 1930's. Béla Kun died of illness in 1931, but modern historians claim he was poisoned. Shortly after that - before the question of succession was resolved - his most potential successor, Mátyás Rákosi was found dead in his house, with a bullet in his head, implying that the cause of his death was assassination. The only potential successor left was Imre Nagy. ![]() Imre Nagy however was expelled from the Communist party in 1925, and hasn't returned to politics ever since. However, with this Succession dispute, he thought he'd give politics another try. With the decision of the overhelming majority of Communist politicians (most of which weren't even true Communists anyway, but crypto-nationalists who infiltrated the Communist party), Imre Nagy became the new Head of Government. His policies included the end of persecution of Christians, the formal re-introduction of theology and the Latin language was subjects to be learned at schools (the communists under Kun officially abolished religious education, but lacked the power to turn their proclamation into reality), as well as distribution of land to the peasants. Imre Nagy exposed the Red Aristocrats as nothing but the continuation of the pre-communist aristocracy in communist guise, and confiscated their unofficial "estates", and distributed them among the workers. Much of the so-called Red Aristocrats got arrested and executed on charges of embezzling, treason, illegal activities and efforts to undermine state policies. ![]() Off course, there was a dark side. In Transylvania, the communist government divided all the land between Hungarian and German peasants, but refused to give away a single square-meter to Romanians. The Romanians were practically enslaved, forced into factories like herds of sheep. The result was the industrial growth of Transylvania, which was good for the economics, but at the cost of introducing slavery, something which is clearly a violation of not just the Communist ideology, but everything the Modern World stands for. But then again, that was not the only case Communist Hungary stood against the "Modern World". Isolation from the West resulted in stronger and more accurate preservation of Hungarian folk culture, advertised by the Communist government as "The People's Culture". ![]() Naturally, Hungary's only friends were the Soviet Union and Turkey. Why Turkey? Because Turkey was a friend of the Soviet Union. Hungary was part of the Comintern. Hungarian industrial growth was astounding. Economists around the world wondered about the reason for the "Hungarian Miracle". They did not know about the Dark Side: enslavement of Romanians, coercion, and many more. One thing worthy of mentioning was the natalistic policy of the state: the need for more manpower in the industry meant need to have more babies. ![]() By 1940, the USOD was a major industrial producer state. During the 30's, the economical borders were gradually opened up to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, leading to further economic growth. The neighbouring Czech Republic and Romania, although at horribel diplomatic relations with the USOD, were forced to rely on them economically in many ways. The Czech Republic lacked many raw resources the USOD had, while Romania lacked a competent industry. Chapter III: A New War On the 23th of August, 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was made between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Hungary faced a fork on the road. The choice was either to distance itself from the Soviet Union, even though it would have led to isolation from the rest of the world altogether. Or, rather than reconciling with the fear of the snake, embrace it as your own: re-join Hungary's traditional ally, Germany. By 1939, "Jewish Communism" was all but gone from Hungary, as all Communist politicians were gentiles now, in fact many of them antisemitic. Several politicians - especially leaders of the Army - were of German descent. The military obviously lobbied for an alliance with Germany. Even the civilian leaders were rather fond of the potential opportunities closer co-operation with Germany could bring. But Imre Nagy was staunchly against it. As a response, a coup started against him, and he was quietly removed from power. When he learned of the coup, he committed suicide. ![]() János Kádár, Head of State of Hungary (and the USOD) after Imre Nagy's suicide Kádár embraced the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, and essentially made the USOD an ally of the Axis, just like the USSR. While the Germans and the Russians divided up Poland between themselves, the USOD and Italy were sharing Yugoslavia. The USOD got Bosnia and Croatia without Dalmatia, while the Italians got Dalmatia, Montenegro and Serbia. Bulgaria joined the party too, and it got Eastern Serbia and Macedonia. Romania remained natural for a while, but later, things would change. However, two years later, on the 22th of June, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. At the same time, Hungary became a target too, as a Communist state. Hitler invited Romania to the Axis, which was initially reluctant, but hearing how Transylvania would become part of Romania, it joined. After a eight months of fighting, Hungary fell to Germany by the 13th of February, 1942. What followed, was the setup of a puppet state in Hungary led by Ferenc Szálasi, and Slovakia by Jozef Tiso. In Transylvania and Banat, a German military government was installed, rather than giving it to Romania or making it stay with Hungary. ![]() Ferenc Szálasi, puppet leader of Nazi Hungary Jozef Tiso, puppet leader of Fascist Slovakia Modern historians claim that the Holocaust in Hungary and Slovakia was solely the responsibility of Szálasi and Tiso. This was not true at all. Even before the German occupation, the Communist politicians were responsible for the deportation and murder of Jews. Off course, Soviet and Communist Hungarian historians did all they could to cover that up. The elite of the Communists fled the country, while the lower-ranking ones co-operated with the Nazi invaders. If we ignore the Holocaust, life went on quietly in Hungary and Slovakia until 1945. ![]() In 1945, a blessing came for the Communists. The war turned in favor of the Allies! The Soviets broke the German lines, and went forward, first reclaiming Russia and Ukraine, then Poland, then invading Germany and Hungary. But the Soviets did not stop there. The went further, to the Balkans. With a weaker Germany (Transylvania and Banat took German troops to be garrisoned) and more powerful Communist side (Hungarian-Slovak volunteers, for example), the Soviets could push even further. As a result, Germany and Denmark were put under complete Soviet occupation, while Norway was occupied by the Americans. After the war, the USOD was restored, and Croatia and Slovenia were given to it. Bosnia got partitioned between Serbia and Croatia, the earlier forming Yugoslavia with Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania, the latter joining the USOD. ![]() Chapter IV: Rebirth The USOD was reborn after the war. János Kádár retained his post as the Head of the Government, and his country was now bigger and stronger than ever. His policies were rebuilding his state, as well as consolidating his new holdings. After the Cold War began, Kádár - following the example of Yugoslavia - cut his ties with Russia, and took free hand in everything. First was Goulash Communism. With elements of free market economics, as well as an improved human rights record, it represented a quiet unique reform and deviation from what it meant to be a Communist decades ago. In the 1960's, another Hungarian economic miracle followed. And it was not just economics. Education, science, tourism, military and many other areas, Hungary excelled at them. Hungarian universities became known worldwide for the high quality education they provide, so they became popular destination for foreign students. The Hungarian army was among the most powerful in Central-Eastern Europe, even though it could not cope with the Western ones. With the inclusion of Croatia, the drive was on to create a navy too, which gave jobs and opportunities to many. Three nuclear power plants were built in the USOD in the late 70's. Television, radio, telephones and vinyl record players became widespread, and the majority of the population started to own them. ![]() Hungary's openness to the West led to the introduction of Rock music to Hungary, and it's popularization by bands like P-Mobil Chapter V: Demise Hungary was a rather nice place to be. But at a cost: foreign debt. The aging János Kádár. By the 80's, all the economical advance stopped. The living standards began to detoriate, and the government took more and more debt in a desperate attempt to maintain the living standards. It failed, and unrest grew. In 1987, János Kádár died. In 1988, the government - for the first time - allowed opposition parties to exist legally, putting an end to the 69 years of single-party rule. In 1989, FIDESZ (Fiatal Demokraták Szövetsége - Alliance of Young Democrats) took power, ending 70 years of communist rule. However, those Liberals inherited a country on verge of Civil War. In addition to that, they took power only in Hungary. Transylvania and Banat were still led by Communists. Slovakia was in anarchy, with armed clashes between anti-communists and pro-communists. While Croatia itself was doing "alright", Western Bosnia became a battlefield between the newly-independent Serbia (after the break-up of Yugoslavia) and it's Hungarian-Croatian holders. The new leadership's first job was to organize a proper military to supress all attempts at separationism. First, the Hungarian military went into Slovakia, just like they did in 1919. But this time, it was anti-communist military. The next targets were Transylvania and Banat, which became targets of siege, which finally ended in 1991. Simultaniously, the military entered West Bosnia, and drove the Serbs off. Unfortunately, a disaster happened after that. Something neither the Croats, Hungarians, nor the Serbs would have expected: the Bosniaks had enough of Serbian, Croatian and Hungarian rule, and revolted. This caught both sides by surprise. The Bosnian war turned into a bloodbath which lasted until 1993. Finally, an agreement was made, and Bosnia became an independent state. After this, all former communist politicians were arrested, many of them executed. What followed was the restoration of Monarchy in 1994, with the Hungarian-Croatian crown given to Otto von Habsburg. The United Soviets of Danubia is a thing of the past. It's replaced by the United Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia. What will the future bring? Only time will tell THE END Edited by Metalhead33, Sep 16 2015, 01:06 PM.
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| Metalhead33 | Sep 16 2015, 01:08 PM Post #3 |
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not kljackson
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This was originally posted on 06-02-2013, 09:11 PM, at The Ark: Counter-Factual.Net, which is going to be shut down the end of 2015. What you will see below is the original, unedited, unabridged version of the post. A Magyar Byzantine Emperor will be a good scenario.;) WARNING! I will treat this alternate timeline as an alternate reality. This means that I won't mention OTL. Treat this like a documentary or history book from the alternate timeline. This is my style of writing a TL. Chapter 0: All roads lead into a besieged city The Great City of Constantinapole "Mark my words, in two months, I will sit upon the throne of your precious Konstantinoupolis" -Álmos, future Grand Prince of Hungarians (and later Byzantine Emperor too) to Leon VI, then Byzantine Emperor Levedi - whose Greek name would be Lebedios, as a young man was introduced to Byzantium early. He was a hostage. His father, the leader of the Magyar tribes, whose name was not recorded, handed his son, Levedi as a hostage to his new allies, Byzantium as a way to cement the alliance. The Magyars at the time were the vassals of the Khazars, allied to Byzantium, which further brought them closer to the Greeks. Levedi would learn about Greek culture, Byzantine traditions, Byzantine technology, military tactics and Greek language in Constantinople. At the time, Byzantium was ruled by Basileios I, also known as Basil the Macedonian in the West. Only when Levedi became an adult man he was allowed to leave Constantinople, to return to his tribe. Doing so, he came up with a suprising plan. Rather than settling in the northwestern frontier of what was the Bulgarian Empire at the time, enemy of Byzantium, Levedi proposed to bypass Bulgaria, raiding and pillaging it in the proccess, and go directly to Byzantium. Having freed his tribes from the Khazar vassallage and escaped, he quickly appointed Álmos as his right-hand and future successor. Then, the tribes went moving. ![]() Magyar Tribesmen galloping Levedi's men caught the Bulgarians by surprise. Faster than the Bulgarian government and military leadership could respond, the Magyars started settlements, villages and towns alike, and purposely destroying the infrastucture, in order to prevent the Bulgarians from quickly reoccupying. Basically, it was reverse scorched earth strategy. Rather than the defenders, it was the attackers destroying anything valuable, in order to weaken the ones they were invading. Meanwhile, the raiding tribes were leaking from the borderlands into the center of Bulgaria, carefully avoiding armies they couldn't hope to defeat without significant casualties (The Magyars were Nomadic - if you lost a man, you could never regain that lost manpower. This was a huge weakness of nomadic societies in contrast with settled ones). By the end of the campaign, the Magyars successfully bypassed Bulgaria without noteworthy casualties, bringing with themselves slaves, food and gold. Everything they looted in Bulgaria. Then, Levedi, pretending to be a defeated leader escaping the revenge of the Bulgarians, went to Basileios I in Constantinople, asking him to provide "refugee" for his men - the entire Hungarian population at the time. Basileios I accepted, under several conditions. One was the conversion of the Magyars to Byzantine Orthodox Christianity, along with service of Hungarian men as Imperial Banner Troops, as well as mobile bodyguards, in contrast with the later Varangian infantrymen. The Magyar tribesmen were settled in Thrace and North-Western Anatolia. Levedi enjoyed friendly relations with the Byzantine Emperor. That all changed when Basileios I was succeed by Leon VI. At the time Levedi was already retired or dead, replaced by Álmos as the main leader of the Magyars. Álmos and Leon VI had several disagreements and disputes. One of these was caused by the Magyars looking upon Álmos as their leader, rather than having absolute loyalty to the Emperor. Leon VI, Byzantine Emperor Leon VI was jealous of Álmos, who was gaining more and more political influence and gained more and more popularity in Byzantium. Álmos, being a successful general, having fought victorious battles against the Bulgarians and Arabs, he was a good orator, he was the hero for the Byzantine people. This caused the jealousy of the Emperor. What further infuriated the Emperor was the natural poker-face of Álmos. No matter what stupid order he was given, he showed absolute loyalty and obedience to the Emperor. While the Magyars themselves saw Álmos, not Leon, as their leader, Álmos himself was loyal to the Emperor, until one point. In 895 Winter, Leon VI issued orders to arrest and execute all Magyars. Unfortunately for Leon, Álmos was a witness. However, rather than escaping Constantinople, he calmly confronted the Emperor, telling him "Mark my words, in two months, I will sit upon the throne of your precious Konstantinoupolis". And so did he leave Constantinople. The order issued by Leon VI was never put into practice. A two-month siege followed by Álmos and his allied politicians within the Byzantine Empire. Followed two months, the city's gates were opened. Álmos's men stormed the Imperial palace, slain Leon VI and then Álmos - whose Greek name would be Almoutz - became the new Byzantine Emperor - or so do legends tell us. But was it really like how it happened? Recent historical research tells us that the Magyar leaders were conspiring against the Byzantine Empire as early as Levedi's men migrated to Byzantium. Other research tells us that Álmos originally did not intend to be Emperor, but rather appoint a puppet ruler. However, events turned the other way. Other historical records state that the Magyars provoked Emperor Leon VI into acting against them, as they began pillaging for no reason, and some people wanted the Magyars gone. This however contradicts with the well-established fact that Álmos was a hero to the Byzantine people, thanks to his military leadership. Prince Álmos Chapter I: Consolidatio Following the takeover in 895, Álmos found himself facing more and more problems. First off, not every Byzantine really supported him. While he was lucky last time, it seemed only a small fraction actually supported him. Being a foreigner, a Hungarian, the Greeks saw him as a Barbarian ruling a civilized Roman city. Almost immediately, Sicily got occupied by Arabs. Arab incursions into Anatolia followed, coupled with Bulgarians threatening the northern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire. Álmos, feeling hopeless in such a situation, decided to do the best he can, and make an oath. The next day, he appeared in public, making a speech to the people of Constantinople, vowing to defend Byzantium at all costs, and punish the foreigners. Álmos, his Magyar men and Greek allies soon started to go to a "tour" on the Empire, for three purposes: -Recruit more men to serve to defend the borders -Root out traitors who do not recognize Álmos as Byzantine Emperor -Expel the invaders. While faced with dificulties, Álmos and his army managed to expel the Bulgarians from Greece and Arabs from Anatolia. Even more, Byzantium conquered Dyrrhachion (Albania) and Macedonia from Bulgaria. This was coupled with a harrying in inner Anatolia too, where many nobles preferred independence. They were stripped of their lands, replaced by Magyar nobles. Next was Italy. On a rather troublesome campaign, Álmos managed to expel the Arabs from Sicily. However, this cost his own life. In the Battle of Palermo, Álmos was stuck by an arrow, and collapsed. Needless to say, at the time, he was already and old man. This happened in 902. His son, Árpád - whose Greek name was Arpados - succeed him, who was already 62 years old at the time. Árpád was proclaimed Emperor in Constantinople, but not even he could sleep peacefully. Dispossessed formerly rebellious byzantine nobles fleeing to Bulgaria asked the Bulgarian Emperor to once again attack Byzantium. Árpád ralied loyal troops and marched to the northern frontiers. The fact that he didn't just sit on the throne but preferred to personally go into battles made him a popular figure. While Árpád was fighting the Byzantines in the north, the Arabs attacked Sicily once again. Caught by surprise, Byzantium lost Sicily. The Byzantine-Bulgarian war ended in a white peace, and Árpád gave up on Sicily. Árpád died in 907, succeed by his son Zsolt, also known as Zolta or Zoltán (his Greek name would be Zoltan). Zsolt would rule for 40 years, being crowned as Emperor just at the age of 11, then abdicating at the age of 51, just 2 years before his death. The 40 years of his rule were mostly associated with the consolidation of his dynasty's rule in Byzantium, as well as the competition of the Hungarian-language Bible. We could say that Zsolt was a man born 900 years early. In addition to being an emperor and a decent military leader, Zsolt was also a good poet and linguist. He sought to preserve the Magyar identiy and stop the Hellenization of the settled Magyar tribes. Using the already present Byzantine education system as the base, and expanding upon it by borrowings elements from pre-Christian education of Magyar tribes, Zsolt created a special institute for Magyar cultural and linguistic preservation - something which was quite an anomaly during the Early Middle Ages, if not a completely new thing. In Zsolt's schools, children would be taught the Hungarian language, Hungarian traditions, using a bow, riding a horse, and falconing. The teachers were mostly táltos, who were preserving several pre-Christian traditions which were tolerated. After Zsolt's retirement, his successors merged these Magyar schools with Greek schools. The new schools would teach both Hungarian and Ancient Greek languages, both Hungarian traditions and Greek arts, both Magyar and Roman fighting traditions, etc. This ensured that Magyar culture would influence Byzantine culture greatly. However, it stripped the Magyars of their uniqueness. As Magyar clothing became fashionable among the ethnically Greek nobility too, more and more unique Magyar cultural aspects were absorbed into general Greek culture. Hungarian language-usage would be also ritualized. As the Magyars themselves were a minority in Byzantium, they obviously needed to learn and speak Greek. However, Zsolt's actions ensured that nobles -regardless of ethnicity - would have to learn Hungarian. After Zsolt's retirement, the new mixed-schools would teach Hungarian in addition to Classical Greek to all students. While this stripped the ethnic Magyars of yet another unique aspect they had, it gave Hungarian a unique glory, the association of being educated or noble. Also, Horse Archery became popular in Byzantium, the preferred form of fighting. It became fashionable - especially among the nobility - to "be a Magyar". Zsolt was succeed by Fajsz, also known as Fays or Fais in Greek and in the West. His reign lasted from 947 to 955. His 8 years of rule were mostly associated with small punitive campaigns against the Bulgarians and Arabs, small territorial expansion. For example, Antioch, Tyrus (Lebanon) and Dobrogea were conquered. Fajsz's successor, Taksony - whose Greek name was Taxonios - ruled from 955 to 972. His 17 years of rule were about raiding. During the last 60 before Taksony's reign, the Magyars stopped raiding, as they settled in Byzantium and became Byzantine rulers. Taksony reintroduced raiding. He levied Magyars and Greeks alike to start raids on both Western Europe and the Middle East. Part of his reign was the complete conquest of Bulgaria. From Southern Italy, his men threatened Northern Italy and even Germany. In the Middle East, Iraq and the Levant had to suffer under the yoke of these raids. Needless to say, the West became pretty angry on Byzantium, and were planning to take action. Taksony's successor, Gyeücsa - whose Greek name would be Keitzos - was the man who started reconciliation with the West. His reign between 972 and 997 marked a series of arranged marriages, diplomatic arrangements, to satisfy the West. Gyeücsa recognized the Pope as the leader of Christianity, gave up on the entitlement to rule over the Pope (a privilege the Byzantine Emperors had before). Gyeücsa introduced celibacy, recognized Rome as the centre of Christianity, etc. However, he refused to give up on using Greek as the Church language. Nevertheless, Gyeücsa's actions - as well as stopping raids on the West, focusing on the Muslim Middle East - did lead to a Western-Byzantine reconciliation, and prevented the Schism. Chapter II: Danger Gyeücsa's son, István - or Stefanos in Greek - came to power in 997, however his rule was short-lived. István's uncle, Koppány - also known as Kopanion in Greek - challenged his rule. A civil war broke out, and István and his supporters were expelled to Southern Italy, where they could have their own estate. While István managed to hold onto Southern Italy and even reconquer Sicily, Koppány's Byzantium became a victim to the threats posed by the resurgence of Islam. Koppány's grandson, Levedi II would fall in the Battle of Manzikert in 1077. This devestating blow to the Magyar-Byzantine Empire allowed the Turks to occupy much of Anatolia. However, the retreating Byzantines got sly. Using scorched earth strategy, they left behind burned up villages and stockpiles, to starve out the Turks. Seljuq expansion stopped as Ankyra. However, this was enough for the West to realize the threat that Islam posed. 10 years later, a Crusade was organized, to retake the Holy Land. By 1100, the Normans and French managed to carve out Antioch and Jerusalem, while the Byzantines managed to push back the Turks. As a result, Byzantium gained Armenia and Georgia too. The Normans who originally wanted to take Southern Italy went to the serve Byzantium instead. They were settled to the Eastern frontiers. Even today, you can find people in Georgia, Armenia and Kurdistan with French -sounding family names. Chapter III: Guns of Byzantium During the 12th century, Byzantium fought a bloody battle with the Middle East. Allying with the Frankish crusaders, Byzantium fought until exhaustion. While the Turks alone were not strong enough to challenge the strength of the Byzantines, supporting the Crusader States did have a considerable amount of toll on Byzantium. As such, Levedi II looked for other allies during the 1140's. While he did not find allies, envoys from the Far East brought gunpowder to him. Levedi wasn't really fond of this new powder, but his successor, Álmos (named after the leader of the Magyars who first conquered Byzantium) first utilized rockets and hand cannons against the Turks in the 1180's. While there was no noteworthy territorial expansion in the East, Byzantium managed to strengthen her Eastern borders, and secured a firm hold on Georgia, Armenia and Western Kurdistan, driving the Turks back into Iraq and Iran. Things were different in Sicily and Southern Italy though. The "Western Byzantines" of Italy suffered from Moorish raids, as well as Vanetian provocation. Their economical downfal also made them rely more on loans from Jews. The Jews became so hated in "Western Byzantium", that there were constant pogroms against them. András (Andreas, Andrew), Emperor of the Two Sicilies converted to Roman Catholicism, mainly to form a special alliance with the Pope to be no longer troubled by Venice, to gain support against the Moors, and last but not least, to have a good excuse to purge his country of the Jews. While his country turned from Orthodox to Catholic, Greek motifs were still maintained, the majority of the population being ethnically Greek, with a very tiny Magyar minority (including the imperial family), and an increasing amount of "Latin" or "Lombard" (North Italian) immigrants: not just priests and missionaries, but also craftsmen, artisans, farmers and mercenaries. The already colourful ethnic picture was made even more diverse by Jewish converts to Christianity, as well as German and French immigrants later on. Meanwhile, back in Byzantium, the ethnic picture looked like this: ethnic Greek majority in most parts of the Empire, except Bulgaria and Albania, and some parts of Anatolia and Thrace, where Magyars formed plurality in small, isolated pockets of Anatolia and Thrace. Bulgaria was obviously majority-Slavic. Between 1000 and 1200, the Empire gradually extended itself from Greece and Bulgaria into Serbia, and finally Pannonia. In Pannonia, much to their surprise, the Byzantine lords found Magyars and Avars, as well as Slavs. However, none of these welcomed the Byzantine overlords, so they had to be conquered by force. Rather than facing death, the remaining Magyars of Pannonia surrendered to Byzantium. Educated Byzantines being semi-fluent in Hungarian could communicate with the Magyar tribes, having a rather easy job at converting the pagans to Greek Orthodoxy. There was also a settlement of Anatolian Magyars to Pannonia, to dilute the pagan tribal characteristic. There were several Greek colonists being interested in Pannonia too, a good land to settle to and farm at. By 1200, Pannonia's population was most likely 15% or 20% Greek. While Byzantium also managed to impose itself to Wallachia and Southern Moldova, they had trouble with the Cumans in Northern Moldova. However, by the early 13th century, a disaster came... Byzantium in around 900 ![]() Byzantium around 1000 ![]() Byzantium in 1100 ![]() Byzantium in 1200 ![]() Chapter IV: Disaster and Rebuilding In 1240, the Byzantine Emperor István (Stephen) had Mongolian emissaries beheaded. He would be unfortunately enough to live to regret what he did. Almost immediately, Mongol troops attacked his Byzantine Empire from two sides: from Eastern Europe and Anatolia simultaneously, taking them by surprise. In Anatolia, the carnage of destruction was terrifying. Entire towns and cities massacred, burned to the ground, people slaughtered. In the European holdings of the Empire, things weren't so different. The Mongols wrecked Pannonia and Bulgaria, and sacked Serbia. The results were most terrying on Urban Greeks. While Magyars and Slavs lived mostly in villages, Greeks preferred cities. Villagers could easily flee to forests, where they could hide from Mongol raiders, survive on apples and wild animals. Urban people however were trapped within their city walls, becoming prisoners in their own homes, only to be slaughtered by Mongol attackers. When the Mongols besieged Thessaloniki in Greece, many already knew about their advance, and fled to the nearby islands. The City of Constantinople withstood the siege for months. But after several months, the Mongols build ships to prevent Constantinople from importing food. The Great City fell in 1243. The people there expected deaths. And that's what they got. The people of Constantinople and their Emperor fought to their last breath to defend the city from the Mongol invaders. Ultimately, the city fell, and the Emperor was killed in action. However, simultaneously with the Siege of Constantinople, a nobleman named Alexios started guerrilla warfare against the Mongols, organizing peasant militias, expanding his army as he was marching towards Constantinople. His men built boats and crossed from Anatolia to Greece, bypassing the Mongol blockade. Allied nobles started recruiting men from Greece too, then, as their army grew large enough, they approached Constantinople. The siege begun. The Mongol conquerors were trapped in the very city they recently conquered. Soon, the Mongol blockading fleet found itself overwhelmed by Greek fire ships. The crewmen fled where they could, giving the rebels freedom to import food. Then, after contacting underground resistance and organizing a rebellion to overthrow the Mongols, Alexios's men started an assault against the city. Soon, the surviving civilian population turned on the Mongols, aiding Alexios's men. The battle lasted for days, until the whole city was reclaimed. The Mongols made a last stand at Hagia Sophia. There, something strange happened. Fearing for their lives ("very" Mongolian of them...) - they surrendered, and asked to be baptized. This was the only way for them to be spared. Nevertheless, they were still interrogated for information for the whereabouts of the other invaders. Alexios then married Ágnes, the daughter of the now-deceased Emperor István, former member of the Mongol prince Orda's harem (Genghis Khan's grandson). As Genghis Khan was dead at the time, the remaining Mongols withdrew from the Empire. Emperor Alexios's troops went around the Empire, to re-impose Imperial rule after the anarchy left by the Mongols. But not all parts of the Empire could be reclaimed. Crimea was lost to the newly formed Golden Horde, while Armenia and Georgia became independent. In Iraq and Iran, the Ilkhanate was formed, a Mongol fiefdom which ruled over a mixed population of Turks, Armenians, Kurds, Persians, Arabs and Afghans. Alexios had a hard time reclaiming Pannonia, as the Germans were looking to take it as well. The Empire had to deal with several powerful bandits in the Balkans, self-proclaimed "independent rulers", questioning Byzantine authority, using the excuse that the Byzantines were too weak to defend them from the Mongols. While Alexios was ethnically Greek, his wife was a Magyar, and his descendants would return to using Magyar names. Alexios's successor, Ajtony (Aiton in Greek) would rebuild Constantinople into much greater than it was, an even more beautiful city. At this point, I ceased writing the timeline. Since this is an archive, I won't continue it. Anyone else can, though. |
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| Epic History | Sep 16 2015, 05:10 PM Post #4 |
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not kljackson
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This is epic, Josen. |
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10:28 AM Jul 11