Kingdom of New Zion (provisional history)

[BattleofthePyramids]

Well, here is a first draft of a history of New Zion.  (All dates are provisional, and CE, of course).

1.  800? - Kingdom of the Khazars converts en masse to Judaism to avoid being caught between Christian and Muslim conflicts.

2.  1250 - Khazars become vassals of Mongols.  Internal independence but must pay tribute.  Many Jewish refugees from crusades immigrate.

3.  1375 - Khazars become independent again, take in Jewish refugees from Russia after Ivan III issues edict of expulsion.

4.  1440 - Khazars decimarted by Tamerlane the Destroyer. (literally)

5.  1492-5 - Spain and Portugal expell their Jewish Populations, they go to Khazars instead of Ottomans.  Khazar formally changes name to Kingdom of New Zion.

6.  1500 - Schools of Torah, medicine, algebra and astronomy established.

7.  1530 - Parthia and Georgia conquered by Suliman the Magnificent.  Raids by Ottoman ships begin.  Coastal towns New Zion decimated, many children taken as slaves.

8.  1550 - Ottoman invasion begins.

9.  1580 - New Zion defeated, becomes Ottoman vassal state, forced to pay annual tribute in the form of fish, wheat, oil, gold, - and slaves. Blond and red-headed children especially valued.

10.  1650 - With help from Austria, Spain, Russia and Venice, New Zion begins war of liberation.  Slave raids (Janissaries) continue.

11.  1660 - Ottomans defeated.  New Zion becomes independent again.  Payment of tribute stopped.  In revenge, the Sultan orders the torture and execution of 5,000 child slaves in front of the assembled population before withdrawing his forces.

12.  1661 - Ottoman ships begin slave raids.  New Zion begins to build navy with ships purchased from Austria and Spain.

13.  1663- Ottoman slave raids continue.  New Zion navy badly defeated in first major battle.

14.  1665 - New coastal forts and artillery blunt some slave raids.

15. 1670 - New Zion agrees to pay tribute in exchange for stopping the slave raids.

16.  1700 - Centers of learning established in 20 cities.  Capital renamed New Jerusalem. 

17.  1800 - Industrial revolution begins establishement of glass, weaving, other factories.  Military and Naval academies established.  Schools begun for the teaching of navigation, gunnery, and other skills. 

18.  1850 - steam navy built with  steam frigates.

19.  1870 - ironclad monitors and frigates built.

20.  1885 - New Zion announces end of tribute.  Ottomans prepare for war.

21. 1886 - Battle of Caspian sea.  Ottomans defeated.


22.  1888 - Treaty of Moscow.  Britain, France, Austria and Russia force end to war.   Independence of Parthia and Georgia guranteed. 

23. 1900 - New Zion begins to construct modern fleet.  The cruelty of the Ottomans has not been forgiven or forgotten...


Well, what do you think?

[maddox]

If Alikchi agrees, I see  New Zion viable.

[Borys]

Ahoj!
Hmm, if Khazaria is where it SHOULD be, I could live with it.

ADDED LATER:
Assuming no changes to geography, would these be acceptable borders?
- OTL Russian border with Ottomans and Persia
- North Caucasus, maybe without Kerch Peninsula (Russian)
- along the Don, or some distance from it, up to lattitude of Tsarytsyn
- Western Turkiestan (i.e. Central Asia)

Borys

[BattleofthePyramids]

Sounds reasonable.  Given my location, I would like some river transport, (Don sounds right) and in that area rivers are probably the easiest boundary line to recognize as well as being defensible.

What do the all powerful moderators say?

[Borys]

Ahoj!
I am 1/4th or 1/3rd of those worthies :)

My take on the situation, and answering your question from the Maps thread:
- The Khazar Kaganat has always traded and warred with Russia. At present the northwest runs like this:
- the peninsula to the east of the Kerch Strait is currently in Russian hands.
- the border then runs along the Don to Kalach na Donu, where it veers eastwards to Tsarytsyn.

There is channel between the two rivers (50 years earlier than in OTL)). As Russian Volga-Don-Rostov barge traffic is important, just as Khazar Volga-Don-Rostov traffic is, neither side has much interest in blocking the route.

ADDED LATER:

At the point where the Don and Volga "almost" come together, the Don is some 40 meteres above sea level, and the Volga is very close to sea level. The watershed is some 90 meters above sea level.

I will come up with Khazar population over the weekend.

Borys

[P3D]

Borys, you should at least check the world map, it has only a close resemblance to Earth but it is more or less approved by all.

[Ithekro]

You might a trouble with the "Britian" and "London" part of your history as that depends greatly on if such places exist.  "Russia" might also be problematic depending on how that comes out.

[Borys]

Ahoj!
Muscovy in some form will exist.
London can be replaced with Albufeira - a nice village in Portugal.

Borys

[Borys]

Ahoj!
OTL c.1910 population of the territories dubbed Khazaria on my map was 16M. As the Ottomans have x2,5 of OTL population, you can have 40M as far as I am concerned. Your main naval base would be New Zion (Novorossiysk), while your main commercial port would be Azov. Azov is on one of the mouths of the Don, and Rostov on another. Something like Antwerp and Rotterdam.

As concerns the fantasy map - anything goes, be creative. The sky is the limit

Borys

[Alikchi]

21. 1886 - Sacrifice of the children.  Large Ottoman fleet carries out large scale slave raid.  Ottomans intercepted on way back by New Zion fleet.  Ottomans defeated.  In revenge, the Ottoman Caliph orders the public torture and execution of the remaining 5,000 child slaves.

I think this is a bit extreme - I don't see Sultan Abdulhamid doing this. I also don't believe the Ottomans had slaves this late in history.

How about repeated Jannisary raids in the 15th and 16th century?

Also re: population concerns, I'd be willing to look at population everywhere and bring it to a historical (or at least realistic) level. But only if we keep things fair.

[BattleofthePyramids]

It's not extreme in the least.  Compared to how the Ottomans treated the Armenians in 1915 (over one million killed), for example, its actually rather mild.  Many Muslim countres had legal slavery well after World War II in real life.  Some still have it today, (Sudan) for that matter.  The Ottomans in OTL didn't stop slave raids until European powers had the might to force them.  Ottoman satrapies (Barbary Pirate States) launced slave raids with Ottoman approval until the USA and England forced them to stop and that was in 1815-1816 OTL.

I'll edit the history if the moderators insist, but I don't think this is at all extreme compared to real life.

[Alikchi]

It's not extreme in the least.  Compared to how the Ottomans treated the Armenians in 1915 (over one million killed), for example, its actually rather mild.  Many Muslim countres had legal slavery well after World War II in real life.  Some still have it today, (Sudan) for that matter.  The Ottomans in OTL didn't stop slave raids until European powers had the might to force them.  Ottoman satrapies (Barbary Pirate States) launced slave raids with Ottoman approval until the USA and England forced them to stop and that was in 1815-1816 OTL.

I'll edit the history if the moderators insist, but I don't think this is at all extreme compared to real life.

Firstly, the Barbary Pirates were effectively independent by that point in time - the pashas in Istanbul had relatively little control over their actions. Tacit approval is quite different from active conduction of slave raids. Secondly, 1816 is a rather different period from 1886. Thirdly, the Armenians were not slaughtered in public, they were relocated out of a war zone, a large number dying of privation in the process. (The impression of Armenian disloyalty was not entirely unearned, since the Armenians of the city of Van revolted, massacred the Muslim population, and turned the city over to the Russian army.) A mistaken impression is created of the Armenians being systematically exterminated ala the Holocaust, when it was really official neglect that was responsible for the vast death toll - and general wartime conditions, which claimed a vast number of Muslim lives too. Nobody accuses the Ottomans of genocide against the Muslim population of the same region, yet they fled the area and died in the same proportion as the Armenians.

So, yes, it is extreme, and unrealistic.

[Borys]

Ahoj!
The 80M you got is not your fault.
88M seems to had been the standard figure for NPC countries - at the very least Persia also got that number.
Briniging population down to historical/realistic levels - I see little hopes for that as IMO Rohan and DKB are prime candidates for downsizing. But they have functioned with those population sizes and resulting economy sizes up to now. So only newcomers have to pass the lithmus test.

Also, although we have data that this area had 16M, on the other, yet this makes them very difficult to play due to lack of people. Under better managment - maybe 24M with 1905 technology?
The Khazars could had industrialized (woolen sweaters, carpets, etc.)  and can buy all the grain they need from their north-western nieghbors.
Borys

[BattleofthePyramids]

Borys:

24M people with 1905 tech and appropriate industrialization seems fine.

Alikchi:

1.  The Sultan in Instanbul got his share of loot from the slave raids, so he knew full well what was going on.  in 1798 or so, he got a whole shipload of US tribute, delivered in a US ship at Barbay insistence!  When he wanted to replace a government in one of the Barbary States, he simply sent a few shiploads of Janissaries and it was done.  Those states were part of his empire and their actions had his approval.

2.  1816 is different from 1886, OK, but in OTL the Ottomans carried out periodic massacres of Greeks, Bulgarians, Jews, etc; throughout the 19th century.

3.  The Armenian population was massacred, not simply ethnically cleansed as you seem to imply. 

However, to keep peace in this sim, I will edit my timeline a little.

[Borys]

Ahoj!
Not that it matters at this point in time, but you most likely are No.1 petroleum producer.

Borys