Byzantine Gunpowder
Edit
At around the year 1000AD, a trader from China travelled up the silk road, carrying with him, gunpowder. He reached the Byzantine Empire, and traded the gunpowder in Constantinople.The Byzantine Empire had lost much of it's land to Arabs, and with their new weapons, they seized the oppurtunity to take back their stolen lands and create a new Roman Empire.
The Byzantine's beat the Seljuk Turks out of Asia Minor by 1070, completely preventing the loss of Constantinople in 1453.
With the Mongol invasion of Russia, a fellow Orthodox country, in 1223 was halted by the Byzantines, who went on to take much of the Baltic for their own empire.
The Byzantine's gave the knowledge of gunpowder to their Russian allies, and they formed a powerful alliance, bringing much of Europe under their rule.
But the Mongols aquired gunpowder from the Chinese, but, because of their fear for the Byzantine-Rus alliance, they concentrated on taking over Asia, rather than Europe.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west in search of alternatives to trade routes blocked by the Byzantines, discovering the Americas. The Byzantines followed suite, and became a colonial power, well into the 1700's.
Gunpowder)
| Location | Bulgaria, The Byzantine Empire |
| Date | 1200 AD |
| Attacking Army | Kievan Rus (Unknown) with about 10,000 men, including 2,000 cavalry. |
| Defending Army | The Byzantine Empire (Bardas Skleros) with about 30,000 men, including 6,000 cavalry. |
| Result | Major victory for the Kievan Rus. The Byzantine Empire stops expanding northwards and begin to focus on its Eastern provinces, leading to the defeat of the enroaching Seljuk Turks. |
| Casualties | Byzantines Several Thousands , Rus Minimum |
The Battle of Arcadiopolis, fought in 1200 AD, was the turning point in Russian history that put a stop to any future Greek attempt to expand into Northern Europe. A Byzantine army had been proceeding through Bulgaria towards Russia (With the ultimate goal of conquering Kiev) when it was met by the Rus. The numerically inferior Russian army, feigning retreat, drew off a large Greek contingent into a prepared ambush, routing it. After the rout of this detachment, the remainder of the Byzantine army also panicked and suffered heavy casualties from the pursuing Rus.
Prelude to WarEdit
In 1199, a Byzantine embassy visited the Rus in Kiev to receive the annual tribute that had forced upon the Kievans by renewed Byzantine aggression following the Greek utilization of gunpowder as a weapon. The Rus, confident of themselves, responded by killing the emissaries and threatening Byzantine frontier outposts in Bulgaria, recently annexed by the Greeks. The Byzantines, eager for swift retaliation, then raised a large army of over 30,000 troops in Constantinople to combat the new threat, arming the infantrymen and cavalry with muskets.The large Byzantine force marched through Bulgaria with the intention of attacking Kiev to force the Rus to submission. Upon hearing the news, Kiev dispatched spies to the Byzantine camp as the army wintered in Bulgaria until the early months of 1200. The Byzantines then made their move and advanced north, meeting a small Kievan force on its way to divert Byzantium from attacking Kiev.
It is clear however that the Kievan Rus were considerably outnumbered, and that the Byzantine force waiting to attack them at Arcadiopolis included significant numbers of friendly Bulgarians, as well as allied contingents of German and English mercenaries.
The BattleEdit
The Rus quickly assembled a force of Bulgarian conscripts and set out to meet the imperial army. The two armies met near Arcadiopolis in northern Bulgaria, named after a city in Thrace and almost directly southwest of Kiev. The Byzantines attacked, but the Rus quietly retreated after some minor skirmishing with Byzantine foot gunners. The Greeks quickly became convinced that the Russian army was too afraid to face them; consequently they roamed about the countryside plundering, neglected their camp defenses and spent their nights in heedless revelry.The Rus had soon exploited the Byzantine folly by laying in ambush along the wooded road leading to the imperial camp. They quickly came into contact with Byzantine horse gunners, on their way for plundering a nearby town across the Bulgarian border. The Byzantine horsemen quickly realized they had stumbled into a trap and managed to fire off one volley with their handguns, which devastated the advancing Rus. Thirsting for revenge, however, the Russian horsemen quickly fell upon the horse gunners before they could reload, defeating them with their swords and forcing them to flee back down towards their camp. The attacking Rus soon clashed with Byzantine infantrymen led by the Greek commander himself, Bardos Sklaros. Sklaros tried in vain to rally his retreating horse gunners but they disregarded him, since the slaughter had been too great. The Byzantine soldiers were forced to engage the Rus with their swords, sparking bloody hand-to-hand combat. But the Rus overran the Byzantine troops through sheer numbers and succeeded in breaking their lines. General Sklaros was killed in the fighting, and his demoralized men were quickly routed. This threw the entire Byzantine camp into confusion as the enemy suddenly appeared in their midst. Most of the Western mercenaries fled, leaving the Byzantines alone on the field.
The Greeks began to fall back in a disorderly retreat, and the Rus massacred them on the road. Some of the Byzantine foot musketeers were finally able to break the Russian assault through massed volleys, but they were soon overwhelmed and driven back to a nearby hill. The Russians hunted them down with cavalry, and the Byzantines, unable to use their guns at such close range, were destroyed. The surviving gunners reformed their ranks and made a heroic but doomed effort to stem the tide of the Rus advance, but were soon overwhelmed as they had run out of ammunition. The Russian horse archers had fired on the gunmen, but the Byzantines were heavily armored to protect them as they paused to load their weapons, and the arrows had little effect. The horse archers then broke ranks and launched a gallant charge with their lances, cutting down the Byzantine gunners.
Panic also spread to the Bulgarian troops in the Byzantine service, and their Greek officers attempted to force them into an orderly retreat, but, in their haste to escape the Rus, they were quickly routed and many were struck down by Russian spearmen, resulting in heavy losses. By dusk the Byzantines had completely fled the field, but the bloodied and exhausted Rus were too weakened themselves by the battle to pursue.
AftermathEdit
The Rus were unable to exploit this victory or pursue the remnants of the Byzantine army, since they were recalled to Kiev to put down a Slav revolt in the northern Black Sea. However, they had now tasted the full wrath of Byzantine firepower, and were pressed to bargain for peace. The Rus met with the Byzantine emperor in 1201, and agreed to convert to Christianity and be absorbed into Eastern Orthodox religion. They also sent the emperor 60,000 of specially trained mercenary gunmen, which was to become an elite gunpowder force in the Byzantine army, the “Varangian Guard”, who were later to play a key role in repelling Norman Crusaders attacking Constantinople in 1204. In return, the Byzantines proposed a military alliance, which would later lead to the defeat of the invading Mongol Khan in Russia in 1223.Empire of Trebizond (Byzantine Gunpowder)
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| Capital: | Trebizond | ||||
| Language: | Greek, Latin, local dialects. | ||||
| Religion: | Christianity: Eastern Orthodox Church. | ||||
| Emperor: | Alexios IX | ||||
| Population: | 11,000,000 | ||||
| Currency: | Solidus | ||||
The Empire of Trebizond, founded in March 1798, was one of minor Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire. At first, the Empire of Trebizond never consisted of much more than the southern coast of the Black Sea. During much of its history it was known to many of its Western contemporaries as the Pontic Empire because of its geographical location, despite the dominance of Greek language, culture and population. To its inhabitants and its neighbors, the Empire was simply a continuation of Romano-Byzantium into the early 1900's.
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HistoryEdit
Collapse of the Byzantine EmpireEdit
By the 1790's, the Byzantine Empire was starting to crumble due to the political instability. Although still the most advanced nation on Earth, the empire had been in decline since the 1600's upon its loss of its colonies in Greek America. However, the world was starting to want a piece of weakening Byzantium. The Mongols had soon overrun their Baltic territories, and major revolts took place in Egypt and Arabia. The Byzantines fought a drawn out war to suppress both rebellions, but by 1760 had lost both the war and their African and Arabian territories. The remaining parts of the now-smallish Byzantium covered too diverse a territory in culture and geography to survive in the modern world.The last Byzantine emperor, Theodosius XII, spent his entire reign suppressing rebellions in Asia Minor and the Balkans. Upon his death, the Byzantine Empire degenerated into a number of minor, insignificant, kingdoms, including the Duchy of Athens, the Kingdom of Sparta, the Syrian Confederation, and the Empire of Trebizond. Having seen his chance to seize his own portion of the dying Byzantium, a military officer in Sinope, Alexios IX, took Trebizond, Sinope, and the surrounding portion of land as the newly dubbed Empire of Trebizond. His reign would not last long, however.
Rise of TrebizondEdit
In 1800, the Empire of Trebizond and the Syrian Confederation were both defeated by the Duchy of Athens and ruled in a loosely associated union by an elected council of Greek nobles. In the course of the Second Armenian War (1801-1804), the Treaty of Tarsus and the Treaty of Jerusalem granted Manuel III, son of the Alexios IX, sovereignty in the Empire of Trebizond. Thus, Manuel was able to style himself Emperor of Trebizond in 1805.In 1820, Emperor Basilios XII came to the throne. Using the pretext of the Treaty of Jerusalem (by which parts of northern Cilicia were to pass to Trebizond after the extinction of its ruling Armenian dynasty, Basilios invaded southern Armenian lands, thereby beginning the Third Armenian War. After rapidly occupying Cilicia (with the exception of a few coastal outposts), the emperor offered to protect the senate of the Syrian Confederation if their provinces were turned over to him. The offer was rejected, but the confederation faced several other opponents to the south, and Emperor Basilios was eventually able to gain formal cession with the Treaty of Antioch in 1825.
In 1830, Trebizond was responsible for using their technological advancements to create the first repeating rifle. Using this new weapon, they attacked the Duchy of Athens (Which still controlled western Asia Minor) and defeated them. The Athenian and Trapezuntine armies met at the Battle of Ancyra, and the western Greeks were hopelessly outgunned by the repeating rifles of the soldiers from Trebizond. After a day of fighting, the Athenians ran out of ammunition for their muskets and surrendered. The emperor Constantine II of Trebizond then exacted a heavy tribute but proposed a ceasefire and alliance with the Duchy of Athens. Seeing no other choice, the Athenian duke agreed.
Around the same time, the Empire of Trebizond also became the first Greek state to grant citizenship to Jews, due to their Eastern location and culture, as well as dependence on Jewish merchants on the Black Sea. The same year, the Trapezuntine forces joined their Russian allies in crushing an ill-fated Polish rebellion. The armies of Trebizond had beaten the Poles easily with their new guns, forcing them to remain under Russian control.
By 1870, Trebizond had destroyed invading Egyptian and Ottoman Turkish armies from the East. (The Ottomans had seized power and overthrown the previous Seljuk dynasty in the 1500's) The Turks retreated, and the Trapezuntine emperor reminded them of how the Greeks had previously deflected a Mongol assault on Baghdad and how they had sold muskets to the Turkish army. A formal agreement to peace was signed in 1888.
Decline and FallEdit
By 1900, the Empire of Trebizond had lost its western possessions to rival Greek kingdoms and much of its southern lands to the Egyptians. It remained one of the richest nations, however, having marketed and introduced its repeating rifle invention to other nations in the world. At the Battle of Ancyra, however, the Greek League (produced through the merging of Athens, Sparta, and the Kingdom of Thessalonica) defeated the outnumbered Trapezuntine army with improved rifles. Western Europe soon took the initiative and built on the original Trebizond design, becoming the leaders in arms improvement while the Empire of Trebizond began to fall slightly behind.In 1901, the Trapezuntine Empire succumbed to invading Russian, Greek, and Turkish forces and, after putting up only nominal resistance for a period of three weeks, finally fell a kingdom divided among its conquerors.
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