I am a fan of #Viking history, and learned a couple of years ago that the #Varangian #Rus' presence was not limited to being the #VarangianGuard of the #Byzantine emperor.
Apart from that, in my understanding #Sveinald #Ingvarsson's (Sviatoslav I, aka #Sviatoslav the Brave, Grand Prince of #Kiev*) fascinating...
2/
...conquests had nothing to do with the relations between #Europe and #AsiaMinor (present-day #Türkiye.)
The #Greeks, on the other hand, settled all along #AsiaMinor's coastline, and therefore there is a strong cultural connection b/w the two continents (and let's not forget the empires that the #Macedonian genius, #Alexander the Great, left as an inheritance...)
*https://www.geni.com/people/Sviatoslav-Rurikid/6000000005407291287
That present-day #Ukraine is part of #Europe, historically and culturally, is an indisputable fact, though a slightly different case could be made about #Crimea* and its genesis regarding the #Mongolian #GoldenHorde* (see my other thread, though that came only shortly after the #Varangians.)
*https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/110295373540489077
If you believe the founding history alternative that the #Crimean #Tartars...
(4/4)
......are the descendants of the #Kipchak Turks or #Polovtsians, possibly identical with the #Gaoche (Chinese 高車, Pinyin Gāochē, W.-G. Kao-che; also: #Gaogüy or #Kao***.)
I find the alternative theory more plausible that they are an amalgamate of many different ethnicities.
**
https://mstdn.social/@whencyclopedia/109427585821371436
Batu Khan (l. 1205-1255 CE) was a grandson of Genghis Khan and the founder of the Golden Horde. Batu was a skilled Mongol military commander and won battles from China to Persia, although his most famous exploits involve the grand Mongol campaign into Europe from 1236-1241 CE which resulted in the Mongol horde annihilating the armies of Russia, Poland, and Hungary, among others. Later Batu woul...https://www.worldhistory.org/Batu_Khan/ #BatuKhan #GoldenHorde #MongkeKhan
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴