12th Century (The Three Stories)

The 12th century saw the growth of European kingdoms and the harshest conflicts bettwen Christians and Muslims.

Events

 * 1) After unifiying Nubia Basileios needed to secure the Red Sea coast. So starting in 1101 he began conducting campaigns against the nomadic Beja tribes by the Red Sea coast, known in Western sources as the Blemmyes. The Blemmyes were quickly owerwhelmed and by the begining of 1102 Basileios had a large and extensive Red Sea coast. He immediatley began construction fortifications and new cities in the region, settling them with Nubians and Christianizing the Blemmyes, of whom a large part were still pagans. He also begane to ally with the also Miaphysite Emperor of Ethiopia Kedus Harbe and exchinging letters with the Coptic Pope of Alexandria, the symbollic figurehead of the African Miaphysites. He begane his first raids into the Fatimid territories (wich is his POD, togeather with his conquests of Alodia and the Blemmyes) in 1105. This also marks the beggining of the increase of both Catholic and Byzantine mentions of the Miaphysites at the time.
 * 2) In 1108 Basileios sent a envoy to the King of Jerusalem Baldwin I. In the documents, including letters written to the Jerusalemite Crusaders, Basileios reffers to himself as; Basileios, son of Georgios, King over all of Nubia, Makuria, Alodia, Nobatia, Lord of the Beja and in Dongola, Defender of the Cross. Eventough the first years of communications bettwen the two relams were strained, since the Catholic Church wieved the Miaphysites as heretics, in 1114 Basileios and Baldwin launcheda joint attack on the Fatimids, wich resulted in the Kingdom of Jerusalem conquering the Sinai Peninsula, while the Nubians expanded a bit on the Red Sea coast. This was vital as Nubia and Ethiopia now finnaly had direct, ableight oversea, access to the rest of Christendom in almost 500 years and trade bettwen them and the other Christians, very sparse before, intensified dramatically.
 * 3) Back in Europe King Radovan of Croatia died in 1115 and was succeded by his son Dragoslav. As Croatia did not enter into a union with Hungary as in the OTL, Hungary never became entangled into the affairs of the Mediterranean and South-east Europe, so the Arpads looked to the east to expand their territories. The Hungarian kings Coloman and his son and successor Stephen II launched a series of military expeditions beyond the Carpathians and by 1120 they managed to conquer most of what will later become known as Wallachia and aquire a small strech of the Black Sea coast for Hungary. The mostly Romanian population, Orthodox at the time, became subjected to a campaing of proselytization by Catholic priests. This lead Hungary into a conflict with the Byzantines and the Cumans, wich would shape Hungarian politics for quite some time.
 * 4) In the Caucasus, Bonyak's successor Oraz, who married an unknown Russian princess, managed to solidify Cuman control of the region and subdue to Alans, wich lead to a camaping of Christianization of the Caucasus native ethnicities. Cumans began to increasingly intermarry with the much larger Rus', Greek, Caucasus and Gothic populations wich they ruled over and, coupled with the increasing rate of Cuman Christianization, this lead to a Hungarian model of assimilation, so by the second half of the 12th century most of the population of Cumania racially looked compleatley European, but the Cuman language spread and became dominant in most of the country by the mid-13th century. In 1130 the Autochepalous Patriarchate of Cumania was established, with Gabriel, a Georgian, as it's first Patriarch. By this time the last remnants of nomadism dissapeared from Cumania and the kingdom became compleatley sedetary. Eventough the Cuman language remained official and mother tounge of the ruler, Greek was also used and the Cuman court increasingley copied the Byzantine court in tradition and governance, leading to very close integration of Cumania with the Greeks to the south. A modified Cuman version of the Hellenic script was introduced and the first written documents in Cuman date from this period. The Cuman Greek alphabet reamins Cumania's official script to this day. The Cuman rulers also abandoned the Trukick title of Khagan and begane using a Cumanised version of the Greek title basileios.
 * 5) In 1135 Ivan I, son and successor to Dragoslav, clashed with the Serbs of Dioclea over the wider area of southern Dalmatia up to the Bay of Kotor. The far larger and more powerful Croatia easely defeated the Diocleans and by 1137 Croatian control extended all the way to the city of Ulcinj. The Byzantines, unable to retake their former possesions on the east Adriatic finnaly gave up on their claims on it and the 1140 Treaty of Ragusa confirmed Croatia as the sole master of the eastern Adriatic shores. Dioclea would be conquered by Rasica some decades later and a new, more powerful Serbian state would start to clash with both Croatia and the Greeks.