Neo Byzantine Empire

The phoenix of an ancient regime rises from the inferno once more, as the Neo Byzantine Empire roars to life. Born out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, the fractured states of southeastern Europe found unity in a new endeavor. While this camaraderie has allowed for the Empire to flourish, it has also spawned many detractors, especially as the Byzantines seek vengeance on their former overlords. Their flames were extinguished once before, and they refuse to be snuffed out again. 

The Balkan Wars, 1824-1833

 For centuries, the Ottoman Empire had been the dominant power in the Balkan peninsula, but by the 1820s Ottoman rule was a shadow of its former power. The yet to be liberated nations of the Balkans were only loosely controlled by dwindling peacekeeping forces and ineffectual Pashas. Calls for autonomy within the Empire were reluctantly granted in 1821, establishing Bulgarian, Serbian, Wallachian, and Albanian provincial Eyalets. Jubilant at the prospect of self-rule, each government established universities to promote national cultures. Three years later in January 1824, Ottoman Caliph Mahmud II ordered the closing of each of these universities on the grounds that they were advocating sedition. Each provincial government declared its independence in response, having prepared their rebellion in advance with members of the Greek underground resistance, and receiving promises of material support from the Hapsburg Empire. The Ottoman military immediately smashed organized resistance in most rebel-controlled cities, but the resistance groups continued to wage a brutal guerilla war, receiving supplies and volunteers from throughout Europe and abroad. This 8-year phase of the war was marked by heavy-handed Ottoman suppression efforts and the employment of terror tactics by the rebel groups. Many members of the European and American Intelligentsia, such as Alfred Tennyson served in volunteer resistance groups.

By April 1832, the constant stream of refugees and tales of human rights abuses became too much, and the Holy Roman Empire declared war on the Ottoman Empire in support of the Greco-Balkan rebels. Making quick work on the outdated Ottoman military with the use of steam-powered self-propelled artillery pieces, Mahmud II signed an armistice by the end of the year, granting independence to all territories in the Balkans, as well as returning Istanbul to Greece. It was only a matter of time before the city was renamed to Constantinople

 The military of the HRE then oversaw elections in Bosnia and Serbia that granted their entry into an Imperial customs union. Their garrisons never left however, outraging their French supporters as they had only become involved in the war to bring freedom to the Balkans, not set up puppet states. The remaining Balkan states, including a resurgent Greece dealing with a significant Turkish minority within their new borders, have since pursued a policy of permanent neutrality to non-Balkan affairs. Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and Wallachia would be party to the Constantinople Protocols of 1847, promising a permanent collective defense pact and not to engage in any alliances with non-Balkan powers.

The Phoenix Reborn

The Greek people rejoiced after gaining their independence for the first time in centuries. The Balkan Wars had gone better than anyone in Greece had dared to hope, with the Ottomans repelled from all of Europe, and the great city of Istanbul, quickly rechristened to Constantinople, was in Greek hands for the first time since 1453. This acquisition marked the beginnings of internal instability that would wrack the nation for the following decade. Internal disputes over governance divided the victorious revolutionary Greek forces, with the distinguished Count Ioannis Kapodistrias leading a faction supporting the institution of free elections and the creation of a parliament on the British model under the rule of an Imperial nobleman, Lord Otto Wittlesbach of Bavaria. However, following the annexation of Serbia and Bosnia by the Holy Roman Empire, in what was seen in Greece as a blatant land grab and dangerous precedent, the power of this faction subsided in the face of the Greek nationalist bloc. This faction was led by Petros Mavromichalis, a revolutionary hero whose family distinguished themselves in the early years of the war. With Imperial popular support in Greece declining, Otto was convinced by his father, Ludwig I, to withdraw his claim to the Greek throne for fear of his own safety. These fears were legitimized in 1835, when members of the Mavromichalis family attempted to assassinate Count Ioannis  while on his way home from church services. However, the bomb thrown by one of his would-be assassins bounced off his vehicle and exploded in the busy street, killing a dozen innocents. In the wake of the attack, the Mavromichalis family faced disgrace and arrest. 

The destruction of organized opposition against the Kapodistrias family allowed Count Ioannis a nearly free hand in the drafting of the new constitution, one in which all citizens of Greece were granted the right to vote in electing the lower house of the new Senate, while the upper house was to consist only of appointments from the head of state, who would be styled after the monarchs of old. However, the Greek throne remained vacant until 1845 despite numerous foreign applicants from every major power. In the end, all were refused in favor of a native Greek monarch, and the younger brother of the aged Count Ioannis was appointed Basileus Augustinos Kapodistrias I. The coronation of the first Basileus since the death of Kōnstantinos Palaiologos XI in the 15th century marks the beginning of the New Byzantine period, as Basileus Augustinos I's first official act was to officially abolish the Hellenic Republic, and adopt the moniker of ‘Byzantium’ with the full support of both houses of the Senate. The name itself may have been partially fabricated by historians and other agenda-seeking academics, but it suited an empire that desired a connection to their heritage that did not require describing themselves as “Roman.” Augustinos then turned his attention to the lingering devastation and ethnic tension in his young-yet-old Byzantine Empire.

The victorious Greek war for independence had considerably grown its state's borders by reconquering all Ottoman territory west of the Bosphorus. However, this meant that while exceedingly proud to have reclaimed Constantinople and Thrace, the large Turkish population in these regions came dangerously close to making Greek citizens a minority inside their own country. Though large numbers of Turks fled to Anatolia following the end of the war, leaving Constantinople with nearly half its pre-war population, the Byzantines still felt outnumbered. To preserve their control of the government, Turkish civilians were not granted the right to vote in the Byzantine Constitution. 

Following a decade of unlawful crackdowns against the Turkish population and oppression by paramilitary groups nominally loyal to Augustinos, international pressure forced the Basileus to reassert control. Over the course of the rest of his reign, he subordinated these paramilitary groups. They received nominal authority over their local regions as militia, so long as they accepted the Emperor's and his agents' leadership. Meanwhile, in an attempt to assimilate the Empire’s enormous Turkish population as soon as possible, the right to vote was extended to any civilian who would either convert to Orthodox Christianity and swear an oath that they had done so before a Greek magistrate, or serve a voluntary 15-year term of service as a military auxiliary. While decried by the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I, combined with the widespread immigration of Turkish civilians away from Byzantium, these programs proved successful over the following decades.

Unfinished Business

Only one year after the coronation of Augustinos and the declaration of the new Byzantine Empire, tensions on the Bosphorus flared again. Sultan Andulmejid had strongly objected to the treatment of the Turkish populations in Europe. However, having been forced to accept the loss of the territory by Holy Roman Imperial intervention, politically isolated, and ruling from the “temporary” Ottoman capital at Bursa, Andulmejid was in no position to openly oppose Greek domestic policy. In late January 1846, an Ottoman special forces team was discovered operating inside the city limits of Constantinople, having set up their headquarters in a bombed-out mosque on the city’s outskirts. The team was discovered during a routine patrol conducted  by a Greek paramilitary group, and a brutal 3-day siege ensued, which was finally broken when the Byzantine government leveled the mosque with heavy siege artillery. Following a private examination by a senatorial committee, Basileus Augustinos announced via radio broadcast that the Ottoman forces had been plotting to assassinate him. Sultan Andulmejid issued a response denying the allegation and claiming that the forces were only there to provide transportation to Anatolia for any Turkish citizen wishing to escape Greek oppression. What followed was a month-long arbitration led by American President James. K. Polk, which broke down when the Greek delegation refused to accept the right of Muslim Turks to live as citizens in Constantinople. The failed negotiations led to a brutal and sudden war, as the Greek navy, consisting primarily of ships donated by the HRE, France, and Britain for use during the independence war, opened fire on Bursa and several other Ottoman cities on or near the Aegean coast. This effort was led by Admiral Konstantinos Kanaris, who swiftly dismantled any remaining Ottoman defensive capabilities along the coast with a combination of massive bombardment and sabotage by Greek partisan groups operating in cities with large Greek populations, such as Smyrna.

The disjointed Ottoman government, obsolete military, and unpopularity of the current Sultan caused what came to be known as the ‘Ottoman Collapse.’ By the end of June 1846, the Byzantine military and its partisan supporters were in de-facto control of hundreds of miles of Western Anatolia. As the Sultanate disintegrated and the Ottoman Empire became politically defunct for the next several years, no formal peace treaty was ever signed between the warring powers. Byzantium continued to occupy these lands with only token objections from the world powers. Admiral Kanaris was rewarded for his skillful execution of the offensive by being granted the freshly reinstated rank of Archistrategos. Arch Strategos Kanaris was given a position as primary military advisor to the Basileus and head of the Byzantine military. While Kanaris himself died in his sleep several years later, the office persisted, always going to the most respected, or influential, senior military officer. 

The Empire remained at peace for the next 13 years, during which time the remaining territories of the Ottoman Empire consolidated themselves and emerged as the First Turkish Republic. When the Byzantine government, under then Basileus Konstantinos XII Kapodistrias refused to return Western Anatolia to the Turkish Republic, tensions flared again. Busy with the war in Italy, France and the Holy Roman Empire were keen to gain the support of the Turkish government in the hopes that they would be a more subservient and less isolationist ally in the region. Sensing an opportunity while the great powers were distracted with their mutual war, the expansionist Basileus Konstantinos XII launched a surprise invasion of the small neighboring Islamic state of Albania. This invasion provoked outrage from all Great Powers, as well as objections from across the Islamic world, but the Albanian military stood no chance without significant military and economic assistance, which was not forthcoming due to the war in Central Europe. The Byzantines swiftly annexed Albania in June 1859, and instituted the same cultural and religious controls imposed on the territories formerly captured from the Turks, even renaming the province ‘Byzantine Illyria.’ 

Thoroughly isolated from the international community and having limited access to international markets, the next 30 years in Byzantium’s history are marked by slow demographic progress due to its assimilation, Hellenization programs, and economic stagnation. An opportunity presented itself following the opening of the Russian Jump Gate Nikolovsk in 1879. This development launched a period of economic activity in the Russian Empire, capitalized on by then Basileus Konstantinos XIII, who received Russian Tsar Paul II in Constantinople to discuss the opening of trade connections. The meeting marked the first time a foreign head of state had visited the Byzantine Empire since 1846, and the two monarchs signed a deal allowing for the free exchange of goods between the empires with minimal tariffs in exchange for the Byzantines' consent to the creation of a large Russian naval base at Galata in Constantinople. However, in order to conclude the deal without losing access to the few remaining markets available to Byzantium, namely Bulgaria and Wallachia, Konstantinos XIII required the consent of their governments due to the fear that they would invoke the Constantinople Protocols of 1847 and object to the housing of Russian soldiers in Byzantine territory. To appease these nations and maintain their nominal alliance, Konstantinos agreed to form a unitary customs union between Byzantium, Bulgaria, and Wallachia in which the national borders were to be opened up to free movement and tariff-free trade. The union persisted in this early form for the next 15 years, during which time the economic situation in all three countries improved greatly due to the benefits of free trade, the introduction of new technology, and access to the Russian market. 

Basileus Konstantinos XIII passed away in 1894, and was succeeded by his young son Yiorgos, who chose the name Konstantinos XIV. Prior to his death, the late Emperor indicated that the Wallachian and Bulgarian economies had grown prosperous on the favorable trade terms offered by Byzantium, and if they wished to continue their relationship following his death, they should prepare to deal with his son and heir. Konstantinos XIV made good on his father's threats in 1900, when he demanded that oaths of loyalty should be sworn to him by members of the Bulgarian and Wallachian senates. Unwilling to consider association with the troubled Russian Empire and fearful of working with the Holy Roman Empire after witnessing firsthand the fates of neighboring Serbia and Bosnia, both nations agreed, becoming de facto client states of the Byzantine Empire. Emboldened by the success of this gamble and finally free of the requirement to gain consent from the remaining Balkan powers for external deals, the young Basileus turned his attention eastward.

The traumatized and disjointed Turkish State had struggled through decades of political isolation and economic ruin since their last encounter with Byzantium. Overwhelmed by Turkish refugees from the lost territories and increasingly isolated by rising British influence in the Middle East, the Turkish rump state appeared to be the logical place to expand to Konstantinos XIV. However, unlike the previous war with the Turks, which had been fought under the cover of a large war in Europe distracting the great powers, the political situation in 1900 was comparatively calm. The government took several steps to ensure the success of what Greek newspapers began calling “the inevitable struggle.” Firstly, Byzantine diplomats began making overtures to the dispossessed Christian populations of Eastern Anatolia and Caucasia. Following a series of secret treaty negotiations with a British delegation headed by Cecil Rhodes himself, Konstantinos XIV received the permission and support of the British Empire to conclude the destruction of the Turkish Republic, so long as the official goal was the liberation of their remaining Christian subjects such as the Armenians and Georgians. In exchange, the British were promised long leases on several island bases throughout the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, such as Rhodes and the Ionian Islands, as well as a promise not to renew the Russian lease on Galata that was set to expire in 1904. Over the following year, Byzantine agitators infiltrated the Turkish State and secretly armed separatist bands in Armenia and Georgia on the condition that they swore oaths of allegiance to Konstantinos before taking possession of the supplies. This culminated in an open rebellion against Turkish rule in the eastern city of Erzurum. Not all of these rebel groups upheld their oaths to Konstantinos, but those who refused to make good on their promises quickly found themselves without material support and easy prey for the Turkish military. 

Meanwhile, Byzantine forces launched a coordinated push on the western Turkish border, but decades of military buildup and dense fortifications in the Anatolian highlands ground the advance to a standstill. The unexpected resistance turned what was supposed to be a 3-day fait accompli into a months-long grind. This additional time allowed the Turkish Republic to again submit their issue for international arbitration, but unwilling to agree on an arbitrator, these talks went nowhere. In a rare show of unity, both the French and Holy Roman Imperial governments issued condemnation of the Byzantine aggressors and their British facilitators. However, even they did not object too strongly to the Armenian and Georgian attempts at liberty, and so issued an ultimatum: Byzantine troops were to withdraw to their pre-war borders and, at the insistence of the French diplomat, referendums were to be held in each territory in Asia Minor, including those taken from the Ottoman Empire more than half a decade ago. The residents of each province were to be allowed to choose which state they would like to be incorporated into, and while the Byzantine Empire was outraged at the very idea, their secret British allies made it abundantly clear that they would not be willing to go to war with the HRE and France at the same time over the issue. 

The Great Referendum of 1901 followed, and outside observers felt that, at long last, an end to the violence in the region was in sight. The policy went ahead as planned, but the international peacekeeping forces present at many of the polling places were British, who were reported to have looked the other way as Byzantine patriot groups intimidated voters. When the votes had all been cast, counted, and recounted by three independent observers, Anatolian borders were redrawn again. Not only had all previously captured Byzantine territory chosen to remain with the Empire, but large portions of non-contiguous territory in Eastern Anatolia and Caucasia had seemingly voted to join the Empire, leaving a Byzantine eastern borderland that stretched all the way to the Caspian Sea. The Byzantine government was quick to declare a formal alliance with the British Empire after the referendum, causing further outrage in Europe over the claim of British impartiality as observers. When 1904 came and the Russian lease over Galata was not renewed, the Russian government was outraged but could do little aside from a formal protest due to their preoccupation with the Russo-Polish-Japanese War and the rising threat of Bolshevism. 

Shifting Power

Almost two decades later, during the Great Famine of 1920, the Byzantine Empire emerged on better footing than most. The disjointed and rural nature of much of the Empire and its reliance on domestic agricultural products insulated it from rising food prices. During the Famine, the Byzantine Empire became a net exporter of agricultural products, forcing their relations with many of the Great Powers to normalize, but in many ways the Byzantines remain a global pariah.

While the famine itself was well-handled by the Empire, the Bengal Flu was not. Strict control of borders was an easy remedy for limiting infection, but not everyone was blocked from mobility. The pandemic managed to find its way into the country through incredulous means, effecting the upper strata first before spreading amongst the common folk. Regardless of the ongoing outbreak and subsequent restrictions, the 1924 World Olympics, hosted every four years in Constantinople, were still held in spite of health risks. The Basileus insisted on the games to maintain public spirits, especially as the nation felt more isolated than ever. Unfortunately, while attending the festivities, the Imperial household was infected with the Bengal Flu, no doubt from one of their guests they personally greeted. While many recovered, Basileus Konstantinos XIV did not. The emperor succumbed to his illness on October 28th, only weeks before a vaccine for the condition was uncovered. This left the Byzantine Empire in the hands of Konstantinos XIV’s  nine year old son, Andronikos V, who was certainly not prepared for the task of Basileus.

The ensuing power vacuum left the internal workings of the state in disarray, though the public was kept unaware. Konstantinos XIV was a steady hand, even if he was not exactly popular. The Byzantine Parliament, which had for a long time held only moderate power, wished to make the Basileus’ regency a communal effort, led by a committee of politicians. Distant relatives insisted on taking charge of the boy-emperor as well, even when many were exiled or ostracized for various familial dramas. Yet the one who would win out in 1925 was the current holder of the office of Arch Strategos, the ‘greatest among equals’ within the military hierarchy, Stavros Angelopoulos (often simply called “Vlachos”). The Arch Strategos is a calculating but assertive man, a career soldier with ambitions for the state. Rather than a steady hand, he hopes to serve as the accusatory finger, pointing at the next enemy of the Empire that needed to be removed from play. In his role as regent, he has molded Andronikos V into an assertive, yet frighteningly dependent ruler, speaking his mind openly and often to his advisors, but unwilling to act without the approval of his most trusted “Uncle Vlachos.”

The Byzantine Empire, 1938 and Onward

Today, the Byzantine Empire controls vast but non-connected territories stretching from the Adriatic to the Caspian Seas, and the Carpathians to the Caucasus Mountains. Officially, political power is consolidated in the office of the Basileus, currently occupied by Andronikos V Kapodistrias. In actuality, the power is held by the Arch Strategos, whose influence over the military gives him special privileges. The Basileus is additionally advised by the upper chamber of the legislature, known as the Senate, but the Senate is composed only of those appointed directly by the Basileus, and its lower chamber only has the power to offer suggestions to the Basileus. This means that so long as Arch Strategos Vlachos keeps a guiding hand on the shoulder of the Emperor, he theoretically has full control over both foreign and domestic affairs. Byzantium maintains a formal alliance only with the British Empire and remains diplomatically isolated due to widespread condemnation over their occupation practices and duplicity. Through their British connection, they are also blessed with access to Japanese industry, which fuels the ever-evolving Byzantine war machine. In spite of its difficulties and enemies, Byzantium has emerged as a reasonably powerful, economically solvent, and fiercely ideological power. Throughout most of Europe, the consensus is not if the Byzantines will attempt to annex the Turkish State again, but when. For their part, the Turkish government has heavily militarized and is determined to give them a fight, even if they are surrounded on all sides. The Christian Byzantine lands in Caucasia and Eastern Anatolia are fiercely protective of their autonomy, but many do look to the regime as having saved them from bondage. Time will tell where their ultimate loyalties lie. 

The military of Byzantium is known to consistently punch above its weight class, using fear and fervor to chip away at their enemy’s will to fight. Terror is a potent weapon, and that weapon’s visage is fire. Fire does not simply kill, it destroys. As the empire marches against the Turks, it destroys life and livelihood in equal measure, leaving them no reason to return. The flame is the purest expression of Byzantium's goals, natural in its form and evocative of a time when the old Byzantium ruled the waves of the Mediterranean with ships spewing ‘Greek fire.’ For enemies who potentially outmatch them, such as the HRE or Russia, the Strategoi of Byzantium instill a sense of higher purpose, expanding the resolve of one man to be part of a faceless cause. This is reflected in the design of their uniforms, evocative of a heroic past that transcends them, adorned by a mask that hides all signs of individuality and liability. In Victory, the Man lives to serve the Empire; In Defeat, the Man is Undying…