Bomster
Gone Fishin'
This seems to be one of the potentially most pivotal possible turning points in history. In 716, the Eastern Roman Empire was weakened by the Twenty Year’s Anarchy. The Umayyad Caliph, already overseeing an empire that stretched from Hispania to India, launched an invasion of Asia Minor, and by Summer 717 reached the outskirts of the City of World’s Desire, Constantinople. The Arabs assembled a massive land and naval force to besiege the city, and perhaps they could have done it. However, Roman naval superiority (thanks to Greek Fire), Bulgarian attacks on land, and disease, famine, and defections withered the formidable Arab army, forcing them to retreat by 718. The successful defense of Constantinople would revive the Eastern Roman Empire, and delay further Muslim advances into Christianizing Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
However, what if fortunes were reversed, and the Arabs successfully take Constantinople in the siege? Perhaps Kallinikos, inventor of Greek Fire, is captured by the Arabs decades prior, thus depriving the Romans of their most powerful weapon at sea, maybe even learning the secret of its formula themselves. Perhaps the Bulgarians refuse to help the Romans. I’m not an expert on this period of history, so perhaps there are potentially a multitude of PODs to consider, which I would also like to discuss.
What would have been the consequences of Constantinople’s fall in 718? The Roman Empire would almost surely collapse without its capital after suffering 20 years of discord, perhaps fragmenting into various duchies in Italy and Greece. Even if their hold on Constantinople and Asia Minor is temporary (Bulgaria could recapture the city once the Abbasids show up), the destruction of the Roman state would remove a massive barrier to the expansion of Islam into Europe. While the Arabs are unlikely to expand any further into the Balkans initially, the capture of Constantinople could massively impact the development of Kievan Rus, with the nascent Russian state adopting Islam instead of Orthodox Christianity as its religion. Christian Western Europe would be surrounded on all sides by Vikings and Muslims, perhaps hastening the formation of a HRE-like entity, and perhaps future Muslim advances through both sword and trade could result in the complete Islamization of the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. The possibilities are endless. What are your thoughts?
However, what if fortunes were reversed, and the Arabs successfully take Constantinople in the siege? Perhaps Kallinikos, inventor of Greek Fire, is captured by the Arabs decades prior, thus depriving the Romans of their most powerful weapon at sea, maybe even learning the secret of its formula themselves. Perhaps the Bulgarians refuse to help the Romans. I’m not an expert on this period of history, so perhaps there are potentially a multitude of PODs to consider, which I would also like to discuss.
What would have been the consequences of Constantinople’s fall in 718? The Roman Empire would almost surely collapse without its capital after suffering 20 years of discord, perhaps fragmenting into various duchies in Italy and Greece. Even if their hold on Constantinople and Asia Minor is temporary (Bulgaria could recapture the city once the Abbasids show up), the destruction of the Roman state would remove a massive barrier to the expansion of Islam into Europe. While the Arabs are unlikely to expand any further into the Balkans initially, the capture of Constantinople could massively impact the development of Kievan Rus, with the nascent Russian state adopting Islam instead of Orthodox Christianity as its religion. Christian Western Europe would be surrounded on all sides by Vikings and Muslims, perhaps hastening the formation of a HRE-like entity, and perhaps future Muslim advances through both sword and trade could result in the complete Islamization of the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. The possibilities are endless. What are your thoughts?
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