9: Constantanople has ALWAYS been on the West Coat of Arcadia, and they created the Roman Empire as a puppet state to try and control Christendom. They built a replica city in Thrace in order to trick people. But now the good people know and so their foul tricks no longer work on us. The foul Papists likely also have the real Rome somewhere in Arcadia as well. And the Jews have the real Jerusalem hidden as well. And Mecca as for the foul Muslim. And Behind all of it, The Pharaoh plots to enslave us all!
Still the early days of protestantism. Give it time.
These ones at least get credit for including the Pharaoh into their truth.
The reality however is that the pickings got slim after the Ptolemys and with the collapse of both the Maya and Mound Builders. The Pharoah has his hand busy with Romans and Now Spanish invaders. Worse, he is pratically forced to make a momument to expand his city due to being in a lake.
Not all who joined Demetrios on his journey to Tzintzuntzan did so entirely out of loyalty to their Prince. Some did so for families they had begun in the distant land. Some felt they were no longer welcome at home, for one reason or another. There were some that genuinely enjoyed life in Mesoarcadia over Elysium. All of these were valid reasons for the Romans who followed Demetrios. However, there was another subset of these men. Men who came not out of loyalty to anyone, or out of love for their new home, or even for new families. These were men who came for a much baser reason, familiar to rulers from the first men in caves.
Greed.
These were men who came to Tzintzuntzan because they saw the riches they could gain. Selling their service to the Cazonci in exchange for gold and glory. Or, perhaps in the hopes of yet more earthly goods, setting out into the wilderness towards the distant and undefined enemies of the Aztec. The Purépecha had plenty of Romans, even without those who genuinely followed Demetrios. Yet these others...perhaps they would find more use in Roman advisors? Needs that they would pay handsomely for? The more greedy and adventurous types saw the potential. As well as the chance to live in the frontier, free from any commitments or rules tying them down.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, many of these men would perish. By Aztec blade or by the unfamiliar jungle. And yet, defying the odds, a few would survive. Prosper. These men would continue to turn up in the strangest places, for many years to come...
--The Roman 'Conquistador', Published 1873
"You want to know my story?"
In the halls of Tepeticpac sat the strangest gathering to ever enter it. Native Tlaxcalans staring at white men in burnished steel armor. Spaniards staring at the natives and their 'advisor'. The 'advisor' staring at both, cocking an eyebrow over his own very well-worn armor. He was not a young man, wrinkles lining his tanned visage and grey streaking into his dark brown hair. He was, at the very least, older than Cortés himself. His rugged face twisted into a sardonic smile, as he spread his arms and directed his attention more fully to the Spanish. Or, at least, the one Spaniard who spoke Greek.
"I suppose you would, wouldn't you? You didn't expect to see me any more than I expected to see you. Guess we weren't put that far from home, after all." Snorting softly, the Roman gave a magnificent shrug of his broad shoulders. "Sit down, then, because this is going to be a long story. Take some of the drink...you haven't lived until you've had cacahuatl [1], believe me."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, few of the Spanish took him up on the offer. Most continued to stare in clear confusion. Cortés neither sat nor touched the drinks. His eyes remained firmly locked on the Roman...and on the golden necklace dangling from the Roman's neck. Cortés dismissively waved a hand at the hapless Greek-speaking Spaniard, his intention clear.
The older soldier sighed, and complied with the unspoken question. "Why do you call yourself 'Roman'? Where did you come from and how did you find gold?"
"I call myself Roman because I am Roman, you daft fool." The tanned man rolled his eyes, his hand fingering the necklace. "And you'd be surprised just how much gold there is around here, if you know where to look. To answer your question, though, I'm not from around here. I was born in Constantinople, a long way from here and a long time ago. It would be a journey of many months to see my birthplace once again."
Old eyes, older than their years, stared at the Spanish. "There are times, rare as they are, where I miss home. There is nothing quite like it in this world, and you can't believe it without seeing it. But then..."
Taking a long drink from his own mug of cacahuatl, the man grunted softly. And, when the mug fell from his lips, gave a thin smile.
"...the rest of the time, I remember that I would have been a carpenter back home. Here, I'm a great lord. A noble friend and ally who has whatever I want, in exchange for helping fight the devil worshippers. I can't say I would give that up for anything."
"Devil worshippers?" The Greek-speaking soldier frowned, honestly confused by that.
Cortés, however, was more focused on the other parts of what he had heard. "Constantinople. The City of World's Desire? You lie. The bastard Turks destroyed the city decades ago, before I was even born! Nothing is there now, but their own bastardized attempt at creating a replacement![2]" Cortés waved a hand dismissively, shaking his head at the Roman. "No man would believe that Constantinople is in the New World. It would take an act of God!"
When the words were translated back at him, the Roman grinned widely at Cortés, his teeth glinting in the dull firelight. "An act of God, you say? That is exactly what happened, you know. Saint Constantine prayed and we were saved. But that's a story for another time. You wanted to know how I got here, after all."
"That story begins, as many do, with a choice to leave home..."
Born the son of a carpenter in the dockside districts of Constantinople, Yiorgos was not the kind of man destined for greatness. In fact, one could say he was the kind of man who was destined for being forgotten. One of the nameless masses who, even in this grand new world, would never be remembered. A man like that, for better or worse, would rarely rise above his station. That was how it had been for centuries, and how it would continue to be for centuries to come. Some men simply never moved beyond their home and never gained any recognition for the tireless work they performed.
That would not be the case for Yiorgos the Roman.
Defying the wishes of his parents, he had found his way into the Roman army. At first, continuing as a carpenter, as few indeed were the Romans expected to see real combat. It was, indeed, entirely possible he would have continued as nothing more than that. Likely, even, since there were no enemies to fight. However, Yiorgos had proven himself to be an excellent swordsman. It was this skill, in addition to his father owning an old set of armor, that had catapulted him into the interest of Prince Demetrios. Rather, into the interest of Demetrios' recruiters, looking for men to serve against devil worshippers far to the South. Yiorgos is said to have not cared who he was fighting, simply that he was fighting. And that it got him out of Constantinople.
As such, he had been one of the initial Five Hundred[3] sent as part of the Demetrian Allagia. One of the very youngest men in that group, due almost entirely to his sword skills and the need for competent workmen to maintain equipment. Both of those facts were just enough to give him the way out that he had desired.
The fighting in the wilds of Mesoarcadia hardly mattered, in that regard, since it was simply one final test to him. A test he would pass, as he survived where more than a few had failed. His survival and, indeed, his thriving had put him in a position of power the likes of which he had never expected. While a low-ranking member of Demetrios force, Yiorgos was leaps and bounds ahead of the later-arriving Romans who would begin to trickle in after relations between Constantinople and Tzintzuntzan truly opened up. He had fought the Aztec, he had served alongside Demetrios, and that meant something. He could have had anything he wanted in the lands of the Purépecha.
And yet, for all of that, it wasn't enough. Yiorgos had felt the taste of power and gold, and it had hooked him. As had the adventure of fighting in battle. Staying in a fort on the border or wasting his time away in Tzintzuntzan had little more appeal, now, than staying in Constantinople had held. It would be wrong to say that Yiorgos was the only Roman to feel this way, of course. Many had similar feelings and it was little surprise when many of them left Purépecha territory. To fight the Aztec. To explore the wilderness in search of riches. Some left just because they wanted to strike out on their own, as many had done in Elysium.
Yiorgos was one of the first group. He travelled the wilderness with a few others, oftentimes joining with Purépecha warriors, to fight the Aztec. Even with the end of the war, border skirmishes and the like continued. It was the kind of environment that men who craved battle would, and did, love. For the thrill of it, for revenge for lost friends, or even for religious reasons.
This period of Yiorgos' life would see him ranging far and wide. Through plains and forests and mountains. In some ways, he would prove more travelled than some of the great explorers of Elysium.[4] His initial group would grow and shrink, as men joined, retired, and died. His heirloom armor became well-worn and his body scarred from many battles. Through these travels, the son of the carpenter became a warrior much-hated by the Aztec. While it would be wrong to say a traditional bounty was placed on his head, it would also be inaccurate to state that the Aztec did not put extra effort into capturing him. Out of revenge for the losses taken and a desire to sacrifice such a hated enemy.
They never did manage to capture him.
As he moved further and further from Purépecha land, Yiorgos would eventually split entirely from his roving band. He wanted to continue on further than even the native scouts, and so he did. He might well have vanished from history at that point, had he not stumbled upon a Tlaxcalan scouting group. His long travels had taught Yiorgos the language of the Aztec, and that availed him well here. He was able to converse with the Tlaxcalans with little effort.
It was here that he learned of the long conflict that Tlaxcala had been waging against the Aztec. A conflict that had only flared up in recent years, as the leadership of many Aztec vassals saw their hated enemy or overlord in a state of weakness. The strongest of these vassals were, of course, the Tlaxcalans themselves. They had learned that the Aztec were weakened by strange white men in even stranger armor, by virtue of prisoners taken in their skirmishes. It was this fact that had lead them to not kill Yiorgos upon meeting him, realizing he was one of the fabled Rhōmaîoi they had learned of. Just one, but even one was something precious.
A weapon against the Aztec. And when Yiorgos explained how he had come to their land- leading raids against the Aztec -they were all too eager to bring him home with them. He would be welcomed into Tepeticpac as an honored guest.
It was here that the wanderer Yiorgos, who had left Constantinople and never once settled down since, would finally find his home. He became an advisor and leader of the Tlaxcala rebellion, fighting on the front and advising from the rear. For many years to come, he would continue to serve as their Roman. A thorn in the side of the Aztec with his extensive experience in raids, and in training in different tactics. He would continue to do much the same as he had for most of his life, only now, he did it as a trusted friend instead of a cog in a machine. If Demetrios had found his place among the Purépecha, then Yiorgos did it among the Tlaxcala.
As an advisor, a lord, of the Tlaxcala...Yiorgos would eventually find himself among the first to meet the new strange white men. Men who had landed on the opposite shore from the Romans, who stumbled around with no clear idea of where they were nor what they were doing. These men, in spite of their armor and weapons, were clearly not Romans. It was for this reason, as much as anything else, that they were brought before Yiorgos. The aging man was the only expert the Tlaxcala had.
It was safe to say, though, that even he wasn't prepared for meeting the Spaniards.
"...and now you know how I found my way here." Yiorgos lowered his mug, as the Greek-speaking Spaniard finished translating. The light had grown ever dimmer as the sun set, now barely shining any rays into the hall. He found a dark amusement in the varying looks, from confusion to skepticism. "I've lived here for over a decade, you know. I've thought I saw everything there was to see. Then you show up. I've never seen Europe, and none of you speak Italian or Turkish. Where are you from?"
"Aragon," the Greek-speaker answered immediately, before looking over at his scowling leader. He winced, and corrected himself. "...rather, we are from Spain. We came here from the colony of Cuba, across the Caribbean."
Yiorgos snorted softly, "None of those words mean anything to me. I would assume that you're talking about the ocean to the East, at least. Hmm. We've never explored there, though perhaps we should have..." Shaking his head, Yiorgos shrugged and looked at the Spanish. "Why are you here?"
Before the translator could answer, Cortés leaned forward. His eyes focused entirely on Yiorgos, forcing the Roman to focus entirely on him. Both of the men stared each other down. The arrogant Conquistador. The well-traveled Roman. Neither gave an inch, very aware that doing so would be ceding control to the other. They couldn't show weakness in this situation. The Tlaxcala were watching them just as closely, after all.
"You don't seem to be insane or a liar." Cortés finally spoke, leaning back with a huff. He crossed his arms over his armor, and directed a glare at his counterpart. "If I am to believe you about Constantinople, then you must bring us there. I must see this city with my own eyes."
"Why? So you can claim it for this 'crown of Spain'?" Yiorgos didn't need to be a mind-reader to get that impression. Just note how Cortés narrowed his eyes. "You wouldn't find that easy. My people may not have fought a proper war in decades, but we've not been idle. I still remember my father helping to fortify the Walls and build more ships for the Navy. At any rate, as you don't trust me, I do not trust you."
Cortés snorted at that, "If you won't take me to your City, then you must at least bring me to your Prince. I will not believe you until I have seen the proof with my own eyes." A hint of greed came upon the Spaniard's face. "Or, for that matter, you could help me claim these...Aztec...lands. I would reward you handsomely for your assistance."
It was tempting for Yiorgos to dismiss that offer out of hand. To ignore the man who had no idea what he was getting into, who had done nothing but insult him. On the other hand, though...he could use this. He was getting old. The thrill of battle was, finally, leaving him. Despite all his efforts and those of his new people, the Tlaxcala and their allies had not been able to truly defeat the Aztec. Not even if he had managed to get in contact with his Prince, and he had never once tried that.
But he remembered.
He remembered standing in the shield wall at the Fields. Remembered hacking his way to where Demetrios stood over the fallen Aztec warriors. Fighting with a proper army again was something that could, maybe, defeat the Aztec. And if Cortés and his men were far from what he had fought with before, they could be forged into something that was. If nothing else...if they refused to listen to his advice or attempted to betray him? Well. Yiorgos would not have gotten as far as he had without brutal pragmatism. If these Spaniards could be used against the Aztec, he would shed few tears if they died in place of his people.
"Very well, then." Yiorgos climbed to his feet, only the barest hint of a wince serving to acknowledge his aging body. "If you want my aid against the Aztec, I will give it. You and your men may rest here, while we prepare. I assure you..." The old Roman gave a grim smile, one that was replicated by every Tlaxcalan in the room who understood his words. "Fighting the devil worshippers is not as easy as you may believe it is."
1. More commonly known in later years as chocolate. A popular confection in Aztec lands that, through spread into Purépecha and Spanish lands, would eventually cross the world. Though the more bitter flavor favored by the Aztec and others would be supplanted once it was found that mixing with sugar created a treat that few could resist.
2. It should come as little surprise that the Ottoman Empire would want to build a replacement for the vanished Queen of Cities. Their city was a pale shadow of what had once been. War and conflict had drained the treasury and the Empire was never quite able to build something on the same scale as Constantinople. This should, also, come as little surprise when one considered how the Carthage Myth impacted the Ottoman Empire's image abroad...
3. The Five Hundred Romans are almost as famous, in modern times, as the Three Hundred Spartans. Where their forebears are known for their glorious last stand, the Five Hundred are known for their glorious victories. If they did not break the Aztecs, they did create the conditions that lead to the Aztec Empire becoming supplanted by the Purépecha. As well as for their descendants continuing to serve in both the Roman and Purépecha armies for many, many years to come. Some of the most famous names in either nation are descended from the original Five Hundred.
4. Yiorgos explored in harder and more hostile land than the greats in Elysium. However, the explorers of the Roman heartland often explored without native guides, whereas Yiorgos- until his final wandering days -often had native assistance. Regardless, both groups can claim to have vastly expanded Roman knowledge, once that knowledge returned to Constantinople.
AN: Not sure how well this one turned out in the long run, but there we go. As I said, this little mini-arc with the Spanish will be about three or four chapters in the long-run. At the end of it, once proper contact is made between Demetrios and the Spanish (ie, once there is proper proof of the story) I will cover what is going on in Europe. That should be...fun.
Hopefully this works well enough. Maybe, one of these days, I'll do an omake of our friend's adventures. Maybe.
That was a very satisfying update, Sky. Between Yiorgos' interesting tale, the hint of what was going on in the Old World, and the inevitable Spanish memes (I count three - gold, claiming land for Spain, and no one expecting the Spanish inquisition), I am very happy.
Oh ho ho Cortés has no fucking clue what he is getting himself into.
Hell he didn't have any fucking clue what he was getting himself into in OTL, but through a combination of sheer coincidence, plague, appealing to European greed and lust for gold and Aztec inexperience with Europeans, he managed to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.
He ain't gonna have most of those advantages this time round.
Cortés might not be remembered as a conquer in this story, but as a man with the devil's luck? I can see that happening since Cortés is not stupid, he's just foolhardy. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Romans keep asking themselves "How are you still alive?" the first few times Cortés gets himself in and out of a bind. For all the craziness that happens to Cortés, the man certainly knew how to find his way out of the tight spot. Even if he ended up with less than he started out with. Here's a video detailing the parts which are straight-up luck and others were he genuinely gets cleaver. He's a right bastard for sure, but he won't go down as a footnote. At least I think he won't. Also ironically Cortés translates to "polite/courteous." Couldn't have had a better name than that i say.
I admittedly have this amusing image of the Spanish arresting army, a Aztec army or other native army and a roman expeditionary force all managing to arrive at the same time to deal with Cortés only for him to somehow escape in the confusion before everyone could get on the same page.
I admittedly have this amusing image of the Spanish arresting army, a Aztec army or other native army and a roman expeditionary force all managing to arrive at the same time to deal with Cortés only for him to somehow escape in the confusion before everyone could get on the same page.
Something occurs to me, do they have to deal with earthquakes often in Constantinople and Tzintzuntzan? I would think they would, considering this is California and the Pacific coast. The Inca's architecture was specifically designed to resist earthquakes too.
Constantinople deals with earthquakes (though, fairly obviously, before the 18th Century or so we don't know how big of quakes or when they hit, so...*wiggles hand*), yes. The city is already built for, designed for, and used to the things, though. The Bosporus had- and continues to have -its fair share of big quakes. They're not going into this blind.
Cortés would probably have done extremely well as a pirate\privateer in the Age of Sail, right up there alongside major names like Blackbeard and Cheng I Sao.
I'd say he would also have had a solid chance of 'retiring successfully' like Cheng I Sao; the man did manage to convince the army sent after his head to turn coat and join him after all, so he was clearly a competent manipulator.
Oh ho ho Cortés has no fucking clue what he is getting himself into.
Hell he didn't have any fucking clue what he was getting himself into in OTL, but through a combination of sheer coincidence, plague, appealing to European greed and lust for gold and Aztec inexperience with Europeans, he managed to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.
He ain't gonna have most of those advantages this time round.
On the other hand, Cortés is now going to have access to even more factions that he can try to play off against each other and shift blame. The man was brilliant at making it up as he goes, I'm curious to see what on Earth he pulls off this time with an even messier situation. No idea where it's going to end up, but I'll be watching this story with interest.
On the other hand, Cortés is now going to have access to even more factions that he can try to play off against each other and shift blame. The man was brilliant at making it up as he goes, I'm curious to see what on Earth he pulls off this time with an even messier situation. No idea where it's going to end up, but I'll be watching this story with interest.
We know from the foreword of Chapter 16 that he is going to crash and burn, and we know from the simple nature of the man himself that if he is going to crash and burn, he is going to crash and burn in a most spectacular manner.
Because Hernan Cortés just isn't the kind of person to do anything that isn't spectacular in some way, shape or form.
Say whatever else you will about him; the man knew how to dream big.
Constantinople deals with earthquakes (though, fairly obviously, before the 18th Century or so we don't know how big of quakes or when they hit, so...*wiggles hand*), yes. The city is already built for, designed for, and used to the things, though. The Bosporus had- and continues to have -its fair share of big quakes. They're not going into this blind.
Given the highest is around a 5.0 in greece. And California has above 6 to 7 on a very constant basis...Well given what happened to sanfransico alone i expect Constantinople to get hit by a big one. Funfact, an earth quake in Japan was so massive, that the resulting wave traveled the entire length of the Pacific sea and drowned the entire western seaboard of Amrican from the bottom of Bajja to all the way up to even Alaska. The Pacific is only passive for so long before it decides it wants to kill someone. So while a massive Tsunami isnt on the list thankfuly at this point and time, a point 6 or above is totally in the cards, god forbid a 7.5 or higher.
Hmm I think the worse earthquake to directly hit Constantinople at least before the whole transportation to California was the earthquake of 577 which was a estimated 6.4 which almost completely razed the city to the ground, severely damaged the city walls it allowing the Huns to waltz into the city in early 559 and so badly damaged the dome of the Hagia Sophia it would eventually collapse in early 558.
Though as far as Greece goes the worst Greek earthquakes I am aware of happening there there was the 365 A.D Crete quake which was a 8.6 earthquake that caused destruction as far away as Spain, it also lifted coral 33 feet lifting it out of the water and also kicked off a massive Tsunami that also devastated the eastern and southern Med hurling ships as far as two miles inland in some areas and the 464 BC Sparta quake which was estimated to be a 7.2 quake.
There was also the 1856 Heraklion earthquake which was estimated to be between 7.6 - 8.3 which like the 365 earthquake also devastated vast regions like the 365 A.D. quake collapsing buildings as far away as Malta and Egypt.
I've clarified a few times that the butterfly net is mostly oriented to having the Spanish show up on schedule and for there to be a Reformation. Beyond that, I've very deliberately not clarified
(though maybe I've said that more on AH.com than here)
Since Cortes is going to fail, I've got to wonder if that means the Spanish colonial empire gets off to a more rough start. If they fail to take Mesoamerica, then I'm not sure if they can take Peru. And no Peru means no mountain of silver. Part of me thinks that could be a good thing for Spain, as they don't end up massively devaluing silver. Then again, without all of that silver and loot, they're not going to be as powerful. I kind of hope this leads to Spain deciding to focus entirely on Europe, maybe leaving the Spanish Habsburg Empire intact. Now that'd be an interesting history scenario.
Since Cortes is going to fail, I've got to wonder if that means the Spanish colonial empire gets off to a more rough start. If they fail to take Mesoamerica, then I'm not sure if they can take Peru. And no Peru means no mountain of silver. Part of me thinks that could be a good thing for Spain, as they don't end up massively devaluing silver. Then again, without all of that silver and loot, they're not going to be as powerful. I kind of hope this leads to Spain deciding to focus entirely on Europe, maybe leaving the Spanish Habsburg Empire intact. Now that'd be an interesting history scenario.
With no, or significantly less, silver bullion in the European economies, that means China's trade imbalance with Europe is even harder on them, right? Because China would only trade for Bullion, if I remember correctly.
The reduction in silver coming out of the New World will indeed cause the British to have measurably greater difficulty funding their tea addiction, which could have all sorts of knock-on consequences beyond the obvious 'start the Opium Wars early'.
The reduction in silver coming out of the New World will indeed cause the British to have measurably greater difficulty funding their tea addiction, which could have all sorts of knock-on consequences beyond the obvious 'start the Opium Wars early'.
Which would go poorly for the British if it happened in 17th centery. Since China wouldn't be as inept, that and they wouldn't have as many holdings in India or china being crippled by a severe opium addiction. So yeah China would win an early "Opuim War" or more likely named the War for Tea.
Which would go poorly for the British if it happened in 17th centery. Since China wouldn't be as inept, that and they wouldn't have as many holdings in India or china being crippled by a severe opium addiction. So yeah China would win an early "Opuim War" or more likely named the War for Tea.
The British would also be lacking their steamships, which would mean no rolling all over the Chinese navy and no Gunboat Diplomacy.
Yeah, without the massive influx of stupidly cheap silver from the New World, the European economies don't get propped up when they start imploding because of the demand for Chinese luxury goods that can only be paid for in silver, which merchants take out of the European economies. The Spanish Empire in particular will be in deep shit, as the 150,000+ tons of silver mined out of Mexico and Peru from ~1500 to ~1800 (approximately 80% of the entire world's available supply of silver) was the primary linchpin of the Spanish economy.
This will have consequences for China as well; the Chinese were using paper money for quite some time, but they had an ongoing problem with finding some commodity to back their paper money, as China is quite poor in precious metals. The Spanish finding ludicrous amounts of silver and throwing it at the Chinese in exchange for tea, porcelain and silk (approximately 30% of the world's available supply of silver ended up in China by 1800) allowed the Chinese to use silver to back their paper money, which helped them deal with the runaway inflation issue that the Ming Dynasty discovered themselves to have thanks to the earlier Song Dynasty's clever idea to pay their bills by printing more money. (It was not a clever idea.)
The Ming attempted to switch to copper coins, but the aforementioned scarcity of metals meant that production was inconsistent, and the supply of cheap silver from the New World made a lot of European and Japanese merchants very rich while simultaneously repairing the economic damage caused by inflation, as silver coins were a valid currency that could be processed abroad, unlike paper notes which were only valid inside China itself.
Without that (mostly Spanish) silver, the Chinese will be forced to rely on importing silver from Japan; which is a tricky proposition. While the Japanese did have some very good silver mines, especially one in particular, that added up in total to an annual production of around 200 tons of silver (approximately 30% of the global production). The Chinese could not trade directly with Japan for said silver due to political tensions, instead having European entities such as the Dutch and Portuguese act as middle-men to trade Chinese silk and gold to Japan in exchange for Japanese silver to China, making themselves a tidy profit in the process.
This won't become a significant issue until the mid 1600s, when the introduction of certain New World crops like sweet potato lead to a massive population boom in China that just so happened to coincide with most of the Japanese silver mines running dry. OTL that issue was solved because the mid 1600s also just so happened to be when the Spanish started really hitting their peak silver-wise, and OTL China was able to replace Japanese silver with Spanish silver relatively easily.
And of course, as history has proven many a time, the British will go to any lengths necessary to supply their tea addiction. Without a seemingly endless supply of Spanish silver to pay for tea, they're going to start getting desperate in the 1600s instead of the 1800s; especially when the various European governments notice that merchants are taking bullion out of circulation in Europe to purchase Chinese goods and freak out about losing their shiny metals.
Considering that the silver trade was literally the foundation of the modern world economy, if the Spanish don't manage to get a solid hold on Peru and Mexico, or at least one of those two places (ideally Potosi), the knock-on economic effects of not having those literal mountains of cheap silver will be substantial and worldwide.
And the native polities mining and trading the silver won't be the same, because one of the major reasons that the silver was so cheap was because it was mined by verypoorly paidnative workers who were drafted to mine whether they wanted to or not, as Viceroy Francisco de Toledo recognized that without a steady, reliable and inexpensive source of labor, mining would not be able to grow at the speed that the Spanish crown demanded. Native polities will presumably not abuse their own people in the same manner, meaning the silver won't be as cheap nor as plentiful, which leads to the economic problems arriving earlier than the 1800s that they did OTL.
In short; both Europe and China will suffer from the lack of cheap silver, but the Spanish Empire in particular will be especially boned. Without the supply of New World silver, I sincerely doubt that the Spanish Empire will be able to survive until the 1900s as it did OTL.
The fighting over what sources of New World silver (and gold) the Europeans do manage to secure will also be intense, as the Roman butterflies won't be enough to prevent major European powers from conquering chunks of the New World entirely, only make doing so substantially more difficult and expensive. The Europeans will get their hands on something, and whatever they do manage to grab will become that much more valuable in scarcity.
We might well see one or more major Central and South American native civilizations (like the Incas) exploiting these economic realities to 'bootstrap' themselves up to major world power status, as while such civilizations are unlikely to be able to produce silver in the same quantities and low prices as European exploitation, they will still be able to produce quite a lot of shiny metal, which as mentioned previously the Europeans will very much want so that they can trade it to the Chinese who want it even more.
And, of course, the Romans themselves will doubtlessly get involved, because they are now perfectly positioned to dominate the trade with China by going across the Pacific, something the Spanish Crown historically discouraged (but it still happened anyway) and minimized because they had less control of silver going that direction, which the Romans obviously won't give a damn about.
I can definitely see the Spanish silver trade being 'replaced' by a smaller but still extremely lucrative Roman silver trade, with the Romans trading New World silver to the Chinese in exchange for luxury goods, which are then traded to the native civilizations in exchange for silver, who then trade said Chinese luxury goods to Europe in exchange for desired European goods like steel and cannon, or something along those lines.
Because make no mistake; come the Japanese silver mines running dry in the mid 1600s, the Chinese are going to be hangry for silver, and the Europeans will have been hungry for Chinese luxury goods for quite some time, and at some point someone is going to realize just how much silver is lying around waiting for some enterprising people to dig it up out of the ground in the New World, silver that the Chinese very much want to have for themselves and are willing to trade quite a lot of luxury goods for in exchange, luxury goods that the Europeans, if anything, want even more than the Chinese want silver.
Wars will be fought over ownership of those silver mines; 100% guaranteed. And I doubt the Romans will be particularly pleased with the thought of Europeans claiming large chunks of Arcadia and its 'boundless' wealth for themselves. Can you say Roman supplied native insurgencies? Because I can.
So what exactly is the Islamic world going to think about Constantinople once its existence is revealed to the wider world? It's hard to interpret the ISOT as anything other than God explicitly and directly favoring Christianity over Islam in a pivotal moment of human history. That's probably going to lead to a crisis of faith for many, many Muslims.
