Lord of Moat Cailin Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Why was there never an invasion of the Summer Isles, or Tyrosh, or any of the other free cities Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 - Expense.- No obvious benefit.- The Iron Bank might get tetchy about encroachment on the Free Cities. Dorne is understandable: it shares a land border with the other Kingdoms. But the cost-benefit analysis is pretty bad for anything else. You would almost have a better bet trying to conquer the Wildings, and building fortifications North of the Wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby b's bobby Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Plus if you do manage to make significant gains in Essos in 2 or so generation whoever gets the land there would go for independence most likely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrhex Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Mainly logistics. You need to get a sizable army across the Narrow Sea. That takes a massive fleet of transports. Said transports need a large war fleet to defend them during the crossing. It's a few weeks of travel, and so you also need more ships with supplies, since there are no pitstops along the way, and you are carrying considerably more men for the invasion, not to mention the mounts and pack animals. Once you have made your way across the Narrow Sea you need to make sure that your war fleet takes care of the enemy's navy while you land your army. After that you need to start a siege, unless one of the Freee Cities managed to completely miss an armada coming, not to mention the preparations that are bound to have taken place months earlier at the latest. Now when you have your army laying siege, and your navy securing the sea, you need to worry about the logistics that are left to you - Did the city leave food and supply, or did they bring it all inside and burn the rest? Did they sign an alliance with one of the other cities? Will you need to worry about another army coming to the rescue of the city? Did they pay a Dothraki Horde to come and fight you? You need to start very early on on building a coalition of the Free Cities to avoid such a scenario. Even after the building of an armada, the siege, and setting up the coalition of other cities, what have you got to show for it? The population hates you, does not speak you language, and the garrison is going to be expensive as hell if you want to ensure that the other Free Cities don't just ride on your hard work and take your city from you five minutes after you have returned home. All in all it's a massively expensive operation, with questionable gain and relatively minor benefit. Are you going to keep the local slaves, or free them, as Westerosi laws demand? If you free them, you have just tanked the local economy. If you don't you only piss off your own lords, who are already pissed at the massive military undertaking they went through, only to become lords over slaves. You need to have alot of cash, free time, and energy if you want to pull off an invasion, and make it worth your time and resources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hodorisfaclessman Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 The cost, the constant civil wars in westeros plus theres no guarantee of success ......also what do you gain? who gets to administer control of the new occupied territories ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Universal Sword Donor Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Read any one of the "Could the Dothraki invade Westeros" threads and just flip the sides. Pretty much same outcome. Cost, benefit, logistics, uniting an entire continent against you, et al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brlackenwood Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 - Expense. - No obvious benefit. - The Iron Bank might get tetchy about encroachment on the Free Cities. Dorne is understandable: it shares a land border with the other Kingdoms. But the cost-benefit analysis is pretty bad for anything else. You would almost have a better bet trying to conquer the Wildings, and building fortifications North of the Wall. Speaking of expanding north of the Wall, I just remembered Aerys II had similar ambitions, he wanted to build a new wall a few hundred miles north and claim all the lands between the two walls.. but hey, that's just Aerys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenabot Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 The Free Cities are more advanced, have a huge population, and would quickly form a defensive union. You'd need the full strength of Westeros to stand a chance, and the Lords Paramount would likely never agree to send that many troops overseas. Many ambitious lords would try to take advantage of Westeros while most troops were "distracted" overseas. Aegon the Conqueror was really only able to hold Westeros by conforming to Westerosi culture -- and by tossing away most of his Valyrian traditions. If he had tried to rebuild the Freehold in Westeros, the huge changes would have resulted in discord and unrest. See: Dany trying to impose Westerosi culture on the old Ghiscari cities. Westeros and Essos have such wildly different cultures. You'd need a huuuuuge army to hold them both together long enough to culturally assimilate your new subjects -- or to impose a new, unifying culture on everybody. Rome's success was not only rooted in their military, but in how efficiently and systematically they assimilated other cultures. It's also incredibly difficult to hold overseas territories, since the distance makes you look like some far-off tyrant rather than one of their own. Most oversea colonies in the real world eventually rebelled against their parent nation. Taking the Summer Isles would be easier, but you have to wonder whether it's worth the effort. The Stepstones wouldn't seemingly be a problem on their own, but they're contested territory. The Free Cities have tried to hold them too, so any moves you'd make on the Stepstones might trigger a war with the Free Cities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OmnomnomPomelo Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Coz it'd be a bullshit idea. What would you conquer? Summer Islands? Far away. It"s like sex is their religion, good luck with the septons at home...Skagos? A big rock with cannibals.Tyrosh, Myr or Lys? Or any other free city? Simply no chance. They can make an alliance against you, thus they have more ships, they have more soldiers, they have more money.Ib? An island in a frozen sea with weird people. Nonsense.Sothoryos? Creepy and full with diseases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denam_Pavel Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Blackfyre Rebellions kept the realm busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gustaf Stark Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Would just cost too much and no lord would want to send a large host to another continent, leavings his lands pretty open for conquering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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