Historically, which factions greatly increased their territory?

[squeehunter]

I liked playing as Rome in RTW (EB actually because it's the best) because historically they expanded their territory very far within the given time frame. What are some factions (if any) that did the same in the Early Campaign? I'm fine with playing "alternate history" but I'd like to start with something more realistic.

[sixwings]

I'm interested in this too. I'm not a huge history buff, but it really seems like besides the Mongols, there wasn't really a huge dominating nation?

Charlemagne did some expansion for the franks, but that was in the 750s-800s.

[stevietheconquer]

surly ottomans,and maybe mamluks?

[InsaneAbacus]

Lithuania expanded into the Ukraine and Russia, and was later part of the Union Lublin which also added polish terretories.

[Nzg]

Well... Polish-Lithuania commonwealth did expand a lot, but it was in the late medieval/after medieval times.

Edit: And btw. I can't agree that Lublin Union "added" Polish territories to Lithuana.

[InsaneAbacus]

Well... Polish-Lithuania commonwealth did expand a lot, but it was in the late medieval/after medieval times.

Edit: And btw. I can't agree that Lublin Union "added" Polish territories to Lithuana.

I were in a rush and haven't the time to well nuance my post.

Well, in the comon defintion the period between the 5th and 15th century was the Middle Age, other views count even the following centuries still to the Middle Age...

Fact is the great duchy of lithuania anexied multiple former Rus terretories.

Here is a map



Even in the general defintion, Lithuania hold a big area in medieval ages.

1386 Lithuania and Poland created the Union von Krewo, which was a dynastic union between Poland and Lithuania.

For example, Jogalia was King of Poland from 1386–1434, and grandduke of Lithuania from 1377–1434.

I know technically there was no ONE kingdom or something alike...But on the other hand there are multiple other examples of states/kingdomes/principalities with more or less solid terretories, which are general also more or less accepted as one simple reign/kingdom. For example the HRE or the Rus. It's difficult.

[Nzg]

Well, yeah. Lithuana was one of the largest(counting territory) factions in medieval Europe, that I can't deny. I just felt bad by the word "added" since it was a merger.

The history of Polish-Lithuana is well known to me so no problem

Actualy after Lublin Union, I'd call it one country since it merged territories and Poland after that was more concerned about it's eastern politic. On the other had the diversity was high and both Lithuana and Polish nobles weren't the same and had more influence in their separate countries.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

I can't tell you this is 100% correct but one of the professors as a interesting fact(with him we are actually studying ancient history) mentioned that most of the lands acquired by Algridas and Vytautas on a rus'(I think) map from around the time when Lithuania was in control of them are marked as just swamp or uninhibited/sparsely inhabited, so the land they controlled had little real value.

[Nzg]

That's why I mentioned it as territorialy largest Eastern Europe was mostly composed of spacious empty terrains.

[Duck of Death]

Yea, aside from the Mongols in the east, there werent any european factions that took over a lot of foreign lands in the middle ages.
The English took much of northern France during the 100 years war, but quickly lost it. If you jump to the 1700-1800s, the British had a pretty sizable Empire around the world.
France had Italy, Spain and most of western Europe for a breif time under Napolean and Germany expanded alot to the south and west during WWII.

But, the Romans were the first/last "world" dominating Empire.

[+Marius+]

surly ottomans,and maybe mamluks?

The Ottomans can count here but their conquest was rather slow, actually extremely slow when you look at their European conquests(for example it took them 130 years to conquer the area of present day Bosnia).
Still, most of the territories they took was valuable and populated, while on the other side, 30-40% of mamluk conquests were desserts and unpopulated coastal areas of the Levant.

Actually, what most people tend to miss out is that when looking at the map of the Mongolian empire, you can clearly see that about 70% of their empire was a huge wasteland that they just strolled through and claimed, not actually fighting anyone because noone was there

I can't tell you this is 100% correct but one of the professors as a interesting fact(with him we are actually studying ancient history) mentioned that most of the lands acquired by Algridas and Vytautas on a rus'(I think) map from around the time when Lithuania was in control of them are marked as just swamp or uninhibited/sparsely inhabited, so the land they controlled had little real value.

Whelp, most of the landmass of planet Earth was either a forest, swamp or any other type of uninhabitable zone until the hard work of the nameless mass of peasants plowed through them to make fields for agriculture.

On the point of that land area at that time;

Since about 1220 because of the Ostsiedlung ,existing towns adopted the German town law (Lübeck law, Magdeburg law and Kulm law), and new ones are established with these laws, woods and swamps are cleared and settled, existing villages are expanded and reorganized, new villages are founded.

We can safely assume that the same was done in those areas considering that we are talking about conquests that happened centuries later when those areas were heavily influenced by the presence of the Teutonic Order that was the poster child of the Ostsiedlung.

On topic;

Maybe not that much of an expansion, but consider this; its not how much you take that matters, its what you take( erg; taking a single 15th century European city is more important than taking the entire Siberian wasteland);

Hungary in just a single decade of conquest;
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...1458-1490).png

[RandyRhoads]

Check this out http://geacron.com/home-en/. Add the desired date and get a fairly accurate political map of the known world.

[Nzg]

Good one Thanks I'd rep but I used the limit in "who am I". Maps are quite accurate, and it's interesting to see factions expand or loose territories compared world-wide

[Steward Denethor II]

I would say the Ottomans and Spain but the Spanish expansion was primarily in the New World though they got the Netherlands and Parts of Italy as well I believe. Additionally these were relatively late in the games time period.

[Melooo182]

Habsburg Empire (Spain+HRE) by mid 16th century was quite a big empire.

IMO Castilla & Leon's was one of the kingdoms that expanded a lot through the middle ages and renaissance, from its origins as the small kingdom of Leon going through la Reconquista and later its union with Aragon to the XVIc habsburg empire under Karl V/Carlos I.

Karl V later split his domains between his son and brother, Spain retained most of the territories, all the american colonies, sicily, naples, milan, sardinia, burgundy and flandes...although this is no longer in the scope of M2TW.

[ThaDoews]

That COULD be Denmark, though until around year 1100 (early campaign), Denmark had Normandy, Southern Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, England and Schleswig-Holstein. At that time Denmark had three seperate kings. First in 1157 we(i am danish) had one king - due to a civil war - and Valdemar The Great made Roskilde (not Aarhus) his capital. Also, Sicily was ruled by a danish line of kings.

Around year 1200 we had territories in the eastern part of Baltic sea and later on, we actually had all of Scandinavia with Finland

Look it up

[MWY]

That COULD be Denmark, though until around year 1100 (early campaign), Denmark had Normandy, Southern Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, England and Schleswig-Holstein. At that time Denmark had three seperate kings. First in 1157 we(i am danish) had one king - due to a civil war - and Valdemar The Great made Roskilde (not Aarhus) his capital. Also, Sicily was ruled by a danish line of kings.

Around year 1200 we had territories in the eastern part of Baltic sea and later on, we actually had all of Scandinavia with Finland

Look it up

That is a very strange way to see things. I don't think the actual danish king could command the norman territories. It's not like it was a united empire. Ingame-wise, this would be a generel rebelling and taking territories on his own..

Expanding factions in the early campaign:

France, since they actually controlled a very small area in the region in the early campaign. Their expansion throughout modern france started here.

Aragon, definitely expanded very fast. Taking territories of the moors aswell as sicily later on.

Rum seljuks also became pretty powerful and expanded pretty fast. Until the Mongols happened. Same with the kievan rus.

Zengids, combined with fatimids under the ayyubid dynasty also became very powerful at this time.


Lithuania's time began later (150 years after the early campaign start) as well as most of the other factions named here.

[Nzg]

There are some sources saying that early kings of Poland had their "roots" in Scandinavia(probably Denmark). It's hard to proove it undoubtfully tho.

[Melooo182]

I think Venice is also another that had a scattered but non the less considerable territorial expansion, more of a maritime empire if you will...but by the date the campaign ends they were heavily constested by the ottomans IIRC.