Grand Duchy of Epirus

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Table of Content: 1. History - 1.2. Forming of the Duchy and later history 3. Population 4. Religion 1. History: Epirus is located between central Europe, the mediterranean, the Italian peninsula and the Balkan peninsula giving it an unique and desirable position. Epirus' position has forced the people there to become well aquainted to war since the region has not seen long periods of peace since the beginning of the written word. Epirus was first populated by Greek colonialists sometime durring 2000 BC. It remained an Athenian colony untill it fell to Rome in 350 BC. Alot of Romans started emigrating to Epirus around the year 0 because of its lucrative trade position. Later when the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and the Western Roman Empires Epirus became a part of the Western Empire. After only 50 years under the rule of the Western Empire Epirus fell to Germanic tribes that invaded from the north and created the Kingdom of Epirus. The Kingdom of Epirus waged several wars against the Byzantine (=east Rome) before finaly being crushed after the siege of Venice in 987 AD. It then served as the frontier against various German and Austrian attacks for over 300 years. Around the same time the Italian states had recovered after more or less 800 years of brutal civil war.

Epirus "North Greece" (in white):

Population: 14'000'000 Capital: Venice (Venezia) Language(s): Italian, German, Greek Motto: (gr.)Molon Labe, "Come and take them"

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The Italian peninsula was split into several states which of the strong ones were the Papal States, Sicily, Genoa, Neaple and Sardinia. Genoa, the Papal States and Neaple were all eager to expand and targeted the fragile Byzantine empire. Epirus was split between the three states that soon found themselves in war again after disagreements as to where the borders should be drawn. The Byzantines seized the oppurtunity and tried to take back Epirus, but they failed to annex the whole region. Only the extreme south of Epirus was taken. - 1. 2. Forming of the Duchy and later history: The Italian states and Byzantium then more or less continiously battled for the controll of  Epirus trough the centuries untill finaly after the great Greco-Italian war in 1811 a new Duchy was formed after Habsburg intervention. The Habsburgs in the Austrian empire formed Epirus as a special Grand Duchy to themselves. The First Duke of Epirus was John I of Constantinople, his wife was the second daughter of Giovanni of Italy (Grand Duke of Italy), Maria the Fair.. The Duchy itself would be under Habsburg rule (note: not Austrian but under personal Habsburg family rule) with the promise that it would be ruled with the wisdom of the Reichstag where Greek, Italian and German nobles would have equaly many seats. The Reichstag was however abolished in 1878 by Duke Wilhelm Konstantin von Habsburg with the motivation that there was no point in having a Reichstag when the Greeks and Germans (when I say Germans I refer to Austrians, but in Epirus they are called Germans even though they are Austrians) unified against every Italian suggestion. -- to be continiued! 3. Population: Rougly 4 milion "Germans", 4 milion Italians and 6 milion Greeks, ranked after 1st language speakers. The so called Germans are mostly immigrants from Austria and are hence actually Austrians. The early immigrants came from Bavaria and Northern Germany and since they spoke the same language as the Austrians the name has sticked with them.

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