will byzantine rise again?

The Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, was a division of the Roman Empire that existed during the Middle Ages. Constantinople was the capital of Turkey.

Byzantium was a multi-ethnic Christian state that had an important cultural, economic and political influence in the world at that time.

The Byzantines called themselves Romans because they were heirs to the Roman Empire. It was different from the Western Roman Empire due to its political, cultural and religious characteristics.

The Byzantine Empire was in existence from AD 285 to 1403. During the Middle Ages, it was a barrier against the advance of Islam. The history of Byzantium is seen as a symbol of the gulf between Western and Eastern cultures in world history.

Also, see Byzantine civilization.

The current territories of Turkey and Greece were where the Byzantine Empire was established. The eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, part of Egypt and some regions of Italy were included in its extension.

The emperor was defined by the Greek term basileus. The position was defined by means of a selection procedure in which the Senate, the army and representatives of the people were involved.

The procedure began to have religious features and the figure of the basileus became a divine character.

The Byzantine government was autocratic, and the basileus had power over all matters of the life of its citizens. He stood at the head of the administration and the army, created the laws, and was the supreme judge.

The basileus had a group of officials who were organized into a bureaucracy.

The Byzantine economy was based on trade and tax.

The majority of the people were peasants. The main agricultural products in Byzantium were wheat, legumes, honey, wine, and dried fruits.

Byzantium was able to develop long-distance trade with different regions. Constantinople became the center of great networks.

The main products imported were wheat and silk, which were used as food and luxury items in the cities.

The majority of the population paid taxes to the Byzantine state. The tax collection was put into the army.

Historians estimate that the Empire had 34 million inhabitants at its peak.

The majority of the population was peasants and there were inequalities in land ownership. Some people had small plots of land that allowed them to pay state taxes. Others worked in other people's fields in exchange for a paycheck. Over time, there were plots of impoverished peasants that were incorporated by large landowners.

The majority of people in the population were Christian.

Christianity in Byzantium was different from Western Christianity, which was the center of power.

There was a dispute between different interpretations of the religion in Byzantium.

The churches were decorated with pictures of Christ, the Virgin and the saints. At the beginning of the VIII century.

The iconoclasts began to oppose the representation of religious images because of their pagan beliefs.

Between 720 and 843 AD. The Byzantine emperors replaced religious representations with crosses. The use of religious representations was once again imposed in the 9th century.

The Eastern and Western Churches remained separate during the 11th century because of the "Great Schism" within the Christian Church. The Byzantines thought that the Orthodox Church followed Christian doctrine more faithfully than Western Christians. The reasons for the separation of the two churches were political and not based on questions of doctrine.

The Byzantine Empire went through many important moments.

The origin of the Empire.

The Empire was divided into two parts at the end of the 3rd century because of the political and economic crises.

Augustus and Caesar ruled each moiety. This system is called a tetrarchy.

This model remained alive until the death of Diocletian and then produced a series of internal wars that Emperor Constantine I put an end to, unifying both halves of the Empire and declaring Byzantium the new capital (“New Rome” it was called, but it was popularly known as Constantinopolis, the city of Constantine). The Empire was divided again after Theodosius I died. The Western Empire was ruled by Flavio Honorio, and the Eastern Empire was ruled by Arcadius.

The Western Roman Empire was conquered by the Germanic tribes in 476 AD C. The history of the Eastern Roman Empire lasted for almost a thousand more years before it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453.

The reign of Justinian.

During the reign of Justinian I, the Byzantine Empire experienced a heyday. The victory against the Persians on the eastern border of the Empire allowed Byzantium to begin a campaign to recover the territories of the old Roman Empire which were now divided among various Germanic kingdoms. The Byzantine Empire conquered the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, Italy and southern Spain.

The best example of a cultural splendor is the temple of Santa Sofia, built in Byzantium as a symbol of imperial rebirth.

The Empire was plunged into an economic crisis and plague that wiped out a third of Constantinople's population after the war.

border instability

The VI and VII centuries AD. C. are times of crisis for the Eastern Roman Empire, besieged on multiple frontiers by various enemies: the Persians resumed their fight in the east, the Bulgarians and Slavs did the same in the north, and Islam conquered the Middle East in the richest territories of the Empire: Syria, Palestine and Egypt.

The emperors succeeded each other on the throne without reestablishing imperial strength, and had to defend Constantinople from the siege of the Avars and Slavs in AD 626.

The religious sphere was linked to different internal conflicts.

The Byzantine Empire suffered many setbacks and losses of territory during its long history. The empire remained a major military and economic power in Europe, the Near East, and the eastern Mediterranean for most of the Middle Ages, despite its influence in North Africa and the Near East waning. The fall of Constantinople and the conquest of the remaining Byzantine territories by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century was the culmination of a long decline that began after the final recovery of the Komnenian dynasty in the 12th century.

The Empire was a bastion of Christianity and prevented Islam from entering Western Europe.

It was one of the main commercial centers in the world and it had a stable gold currency that spread throughout the Mediterranean area. His influence on the laws, political systems and customs of Europe and the Middle East was great, and many of the literary and scientific works of the classical world were preserved and transmitted.

As the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire, its transformation into a cultural entity distinct from the West can be seen as a long process that began when Emperor Constantine I the Great moved the imperial capital to Constantinople in 330, continued with the The final division of the Empire after the death of Theodosius I in 395 and the subsequent fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and reached its culmination during the seventh century, under Emperor Heraclius I, with whose reforms the Empire acquired a character markedly different from that of the Roman Empire. of the old Roman Empire.

Some academics, such as Theodor Mommsen, have affirmed that even Heraclius can properly speak of the Eastern Roman Empire, since he replaced the old imperial title of "Augustus" by that of basileus (Greek word meaning "king" or "emperor"). and replaced Latin by Greek as the administrative language in 620, after which the Empire had a markedly Hellenic character.

In any case, the term Byzantine Empire was created by Enlightenment scholarship in the 17th and 18th centuries and was never used by the inhabitants of this empire, who preferred to always call it the Roman Empire (Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων, Basilía Roméon or Ῥωμανία, Romania ) throughout its existence.

The expression "Byzantine Empire" (from Byzantium, the old name of Constantinople) was the brainchild of the German historian Hieronymus Wolf, who in 1557 —a century after the fall of Constantinople— used it in his work Corpus Historiae Byzantinae to designate this period of history in contrast to the Greek and Roman cultures of classical antiquity. Montesquieu popularized the term in the 18th century.

The success of the term may be related to the historical refusal of the West to recognize the Eastern Roman Empire as a legitimate continuation of Rome, at least since, in the 9th century, Charlemagne and his successors brandished the apocryphal document known as the "Donation of Constantine» to proclaim themselves, with the connivance of the papacy, Roman emperors. From this time, in the western lands the title Imperator Romanorum ('Emperor of the Romans') was reserved for the sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire, while the Emperor of Constantinople was called, somewhat derogatorily, Imperator Graecorum (' Emperor of the Greeks'), and his domains, Imperium Graecorum ('Greek Empire'), or even Imperium Constantinopolitanus ('Empire of Constantinople'). The emperors in Constantinople did not accept these names. The Islamic world did not have this distinction either.

The Byzantine Empire was known by the Turks as روم (Rûm, 'land of the Romans') and its inhabitants as Rumis, a term that by extension ended up being applied to Christians in general, and especially to those who remained faithful to their faith. in the territories conquered by Islam.

The adjective "Byzantine" later acquired a derogatory meaning, as a synonym for "decadent", due to the work of historians such as Edward Gibbon, William Lecky or Arnold J. Toynbee himself, who, comparing the Byzantine civilization with classical Antiquity, saw the history of the Byzantine Empire as a prolonged period of decline. The point of view of the Western European kingdoms that visited the Empire at the end of the 11th century influenced this appreciation.

The Italian expression " Byzantine discussion" refers to any passionate dispute over an inconsequential issue, which is based on the endless theological controversies waged by Byzantine intellectuals.

Byzantium was a multi-ethnic empire that emerged as a Christian state and ended its more than 1,000-year history as a Greek Orthodox state in 1453.

The Byzantines used to call themselves Romans, and continued to use the term after Hellenes became synonymous with it. Christian Greek people with Roman citizenship preferred to call themselves, in Greek, Romioi, while developing a national consciousness.

In Digenis Acritas, a poem about border populations who pride themselves on defending their country against invaders, patriotism was reflected in literature. patriotism became local because it no longer depended on the protection of imperial armies

The Byzantines took pride in their heritage even if the ancient Greeks were not Christians. The reduction of the Empire to the Balkans and Asia Minor after the Arab and Lombard conquests of the seventh century continued this multi-ethnic character.

The process of identification with ancient Greek culture became more acute after the 9th century.

As the Middle Ages progressed they went from referring to themselves as romioi ('Romans') to helenoi (which had pagan connotations as much as romios) or graekos ('Greek'), a term that was used frequently by the Byzantines, for their ethnic self-identification, especially in the last years of the Empire. The dissolution of the Byzantine state did not cause a decline in Byzantine society.

During the Ottoman occupation, Greeks continued to identify themselves as Romioi and Hellenes, an identification that still exists in modern Greece.

The inheritance left by Alexander the Great in the form of the demographic and geographical partition of the Eastern Empire has a lot to do with that.

The empire was divided into Greece, Anatolia, Media, and Egypt after his death. The heirs had confrontations for over 100 years. The kingdoms were weakened by the constant bidding and eventually invaded by the two parties in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. Alexander the Great took twelve years, Rome took 150 years, and the exception of Persia and Eastern Media was a Roman province. The multi-ethnic origin, religious plurality, and great diversity of languages of the regions were characteristic.

Alexandria, the center of proliferation of knowledge and science, stood out the most. Rome left everything as it was, but imported economic resources, engineers, scientists, and thinkers to help her empire.

To ensure control of the Roman Empire and make its administration more efficient, Emperor Diocletian, at the end of the 3rd century, instituted the government regime known as Tetrarchy, consisting of the division of the Empire into two parts, governed by two august emperors, each one of which was associated with a "vice-emperor" and future Caesar heir.

After the abdication of Diocletian, the system lost its validity and a period of civil wars began that did not end until after I Constantine unified both parts of the Empire.

The city of Byzantium was rebuilt by Constantine in 330. He called it New Rome, but it became known as Constantinople or The City of Constantine. The center of the new administration was located at the junction of the most important trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean.

Christianity was declared an official religion by Emperor Theodosius I in AD 380 and Constantine was the first emperor to adopt it. The Edict of Thessalonica led to a long series of religious conflicts. Under an imperial regime that allowed religious freedom and cultural practices specific to each ethnic group, the sub regions were now under a long list of new prohibitions.

The Empire was divided on the death of Emperor Theodosius I in 395, with his youngest son, Flavio Honorius, taking the West and his oldest son, Arcadius, taking the East.

The history of the Byzantine Empire begins for most of the authors at this point. The history of the Western Roman Empire ended in 476 when the young Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the German.

The Byzantine Empire's history continued for a long time.

Theodosius' successors were able to ward off invasions of barbarian peoples that threatened the Eastern Empire. The emperor diverted the Visigoths to the west.

His successor, Theodosius II (408-450) reinforced the walls of Constantinople, making it an impregnable city (in fact, it would not be conquered by foreign troops until 1204), and he managed to prevent the invasion of the Huns by paying tribute until that they disintegrated and ended up representing a danger after the death of Attila, in 453. Theodoric the Great was prevented from invading Italy by Zeno.

The heresies in the eastern half of the Empire threatened religious unity and highlighted the differences between the four main eastern sees. The Council of Nicaea condemned the practice of apostasy, which denied the divinity of Christ.

The Council of Ephesus declared that Nestorianism was heretical. The Monophysite heresy claimed that Christ had only one nature, the divine, and caused the most lasting crisis. Although it was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon, it gained many followers, especially in Egypt and Syria, and all the emperors failed in their attempts to restore religious unity.

The first emperor to be crowned by the Constantinople patriarchy was Leo I, who was crowned in 480.

The danger posed by barbarian invasions seemed to have been averted during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I. The Germanic peoples were too busy with their own consolidation to be interested in Byzantium.

The Empire reached its peak of power during the reign of Justinian I. The emperor set out to restore the borders of the old Roman Empire, for which, once the security of the eastern border was restored after the victory of General Belisarius against the Persian expansionism of Chosroes I in the battle of Dara (530), he undertook a series of of wars of conquest in the West:

The Vandal kingdom, located in the former Roman province of Africa and the Western Mediterranean islands, was conquered between 533 and 534 by the army of Belisarius. The territory was governed by a person called the magister militum. Dalmatia was occupied in 535 by Mundus. After occupying southern Italy, Belisarius advanced towards Italy, arriving in 536 as far as Rome.

The Ostrogoths, led by Narses, annexed Italy again after a brief recovery from the Ostrogoths. In 552, the Byzantines took control of the south of the Iberian Peninsula and called it the Province of Spania. The Byzantine presence in Hispania ended in the year 600.

The time was noted for its successes.

Under his reign, Byzantium experienced a period of cultural splendor, despite the closure of the Academy of Athens, highlighting, among many others, the figures of the poets Nono de Panópolis and Pablo Silenciario, the historian Procopio, and the philosopher Juan Filopón . The transmission of one of the most important legacies of the ancient world, Roman Law, was made possible by a commission appointed by the emperor between 528 and 533.

The Digest was published in 533. The church of Hagia Sophia, built during the reign of Antemio de Tralles and Isidoro de Mileto, is one of the most famous architectural works in the history of art, and it was built during the reign of Justinian.

The power of the circus parties was broken in the capital where chariot races became a popular entertainment.

They were used politically to express the color of each team religious divergences. The relationship with Rome was restored after the Church recognized the lord of Constantinople.

The new Church of Divine Wisdom is a sign of magnificent and majestic splendor.

The Empire was plunged into a crisis situation due to the cost of the campaigns in the West and the effects on the treasury. The finance minister, John of Cappadocia, was able to impose higher taxes on the citizens of Byzantium because of the need for more funding. The emperor was avoided by Theodora because of the revolt that was about to cause him to flee.

Either a beautiful shroud or a good shroud. Theodora's words are reproduced in Procopius' Secret History.

The Empire was hit by a disaster in the year 543 AD.

The Plague of Justinian was the cause. It is thought to be caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis. The Empire was already suffering from a serious economic crisis, and it was definitely a key element that contributed to it.

It is thought that a third of Constantinople's population died from it.

The history of Byzantium is a kind of "Dark Age" about which there is very little information. It is a period of crisis, with tremendous external difficulties (the harassment of Islam that conquered the richest regions, the continuous attacks by Bulgarians and Slavs from the north and the resumption of the fight against the Persians in the east) and internal (the between iconoclasts and iconodules, a symbol of the internal confrontations between temporal and religious power). The Empire was transformed and strengthened despite this.

Under the weight of managing an Empire threatened from several fronts, Justin II succumbed to his very mind.

Tiberius II allowed Italy to fall under the control of the Lombards and barbarians and withdrew to Africa after abandoning his military policy. Mauricio came to make a favorable treaty with Persia, but the Army refused to endure the inclemencies of the campaign, and Mauricio lost his life with the throne.

The Empire was about to be destroyed by the invasions of the Persians and the internal fights. The revolution in some provinces saved it.

Heraclius set sail from Africa to save the Roman Empire.

This trip was important to him and his interest was paramount throughout his reign. The seventh century began with the crisis caused by the offensive of the Persian monarch Chosroes II who, with his conquests in Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, came to threaten the very existence of the Empire. The situation was taken advantage of by the enemies of Byzantium, such as the Slavs and the Avars.

After a long and exhausting war, the Emperor Heraclius was able to defeat the Persians in 628. Heraclius was able to drive the Persians back to the center of their homeland and weaken them to the point that they were unable to survive the Arab attacks. He had the support of the Church in his mission to save the Empire.

The Empire was exhausted by the war against Persia, the provinces of Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and the Muslim expansion wrested it from them a few years later. The Empire of Heraclius lost most of its Romanness but still survived the Arab attacks, while the Persians were completely conquered.

The borders were stable in the 7th century. The Byzantine Empire was spared from destruction because of their naval superiority and their monopoly on "Greek fire", a chemical that can burn in water.

The creation of the independent kingdom of Bulgaria within the borders of the Empire was forced to take place at the time of Constantine IV. The Balkans and the Peloponnese were home to people from the Slavic region.

The invasion of the Lombards made Byzantine rule over Italy more precarious.

The Byzantine Empire was torn apart by internal struggles between the iconoclasts in favor of the prohibition of religious images, contrary to the prohibition. The first iconoclastic period lasted from 726 to , when the cult of images was suppressed by the II Council of Nicaea. The second iconoclastic stage took place between 814 and 833.

orthodoxy was restored in this year.

It was not a simple theological debate between iconoclasts and iconodules, but an internal confrontation between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and Emperor Leo III, who wanted to end the power of the powerful monasteries and their supporters.

(You can imagine its importance by looking at how Mount Athos, founded more than a century later, in 963, has survived to the present day. According to some authors, the iconoclastic conflict also reflects the division between state power—the emperors, the majority supporters of iconoclasm—, and the ecclesiastical —the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in general iconodule—; It has also been pointed out that while in Asia Minor the iconoclasts constituted the majority, in the European part of the Empire the iconodules were more predominant.

The recovery of imperial authority and the greater stability of the following centuries also brought with it a process of Hellenization, that is, the recovery of the Greek identity in the face of the official Roman entity of the institutions, something more possible then, given the limitation and geographical homogenization produced by the loss of the provinces, and which allowed a militarized and more easily manageable territorial organization: the themes (themata) with the ascription to the land of the military established in them, which produced forms similar to western feudalism.

The Empire underwent several important changes by the early 9th century.

The provinces of Egypt, Syria and Palestine were lost to Muslim rule.

The end of the iconoclastic struggles marks an important recovery of the Empire, visible from the reign of Michael III (842-867), the last emperor of the Amorian dynasty, and, above all, during the almost two centuries (867-1056) in which Byzantium was ruled by the Macedonian Dynasty. The "Macedonian Renaissance" is what historians call this period.

The Islamic offensive was weakened by the crisis in which the Abbasid Caliphate was the main enemy. The new Muslim states that emerged as a result of the dissolution of the caliphate fought hard against the Byzantines for supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean. Sicily was seized from the Empire by Muslims in the 9th century.

The Arabs had conquered Crete in 825. The 10th century was a time of important offensives against Islam, which made it possible to recover territories lost many centuries before: Nikephoros II Phocas (963-969) reconquered northern Syria, including Antioch ( 969), as well as Crete (961) and Cyprus (965).

The Empire was defeated by the state of Bulgaria. The peak of Bulgaria was reached under the rule of the Ottomans in the ninth century.

The Empire was obliged to pay tribute to Bulgaria from 891 to 891, and in 891 the capital was about to be attacked. Macedonia and Thrace were included in the kingdom at the death of the monarch.

The power of Bulgaria was, however, declining during the 10th century, and, at the beginning of the following century, Basil II (976-1025), called Bulgaróctonos ('Bulgar Slayer') invaded Bulgaria and annexed it to the Empire, dividing it into 4 themes.

One of the most important events of this period was the introduction of the Slavic peoples into the cultural and religious circles of Byzantium.

In the second half of the 9th century, the monks of Thessaloniki Cyril and Methodius were sent to evangelize Moravia at the request of their monarch, Ratislav I. To carry out their task they created, based on the Slavic dialect spoken in Thessaloniki, a literary language, the Old Church Slavonic or liturgical, as well as a new alphabet to write it down, the Glagolitic alphabet (later replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet). The conversion of Kievan Rus left a state larger and more extensive than the Empire itself.

Relations with the West were strained from the reign of Charlemagne to the title of Roman emperors and the dominance of Italy.

Despite the loss of Sicily, the Empire continued to have a large influence in southern Italy. The marriage of Byzantine princess Theophano to Otto II resolved the tensions between Otto I and the Byzantines.

The religious unity of the Empire was restored following the resolution of the iconoclastic conflict.

He had to face the Paulicians, who spread their doctrine in Asia Minor, as well as the resurgence of their doctrine in Bulgaria, in the 9th century.

The Bulgarias were evangelized. In the 9th century, a crisis broke out between the Pope Nicholas I and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Photius, which resulted in the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches. There were some disagreements between Rome and Constantinople. Relations between East and West returned to normal after the Photian Schism.

The final break with Rome was consummated in 1054, known as the Schism of East and West, due to a new dispute over the text of the Creed, in which the Latin theologians had included the Filioque clause, thus meaning, against tradition of the Eastern churches, that the Holy Spirit proceeded not only from the Father, but also from the Son. There was a lot of disagreement on many other minor issues and the fact that the two ancient capitals of the Empire were at odds.

After the period of splendor that was the Macedonian Renaissance, a period of crisis began in the second half of the 11th century, marked by its weakness in the face of the appearance of two powerful new enemies: the Seljuk Turks and the Christian kingdoms of Western Europe; and by the growing feudalization of the Empire, accentuated when the Komnenian emperors were forced to make territorial cessions (called pronoia) to the aristocracy and members of their own family.

The Seljuk Turks began raiding Asia Minor, where most of the Byzantine soldiers came from, because they were focused on defeating Fatimid Egypt.

The defeat of Romanus IV at the Battle of Manzikert came to an end Byzantine dominance in Asia Minor. The emperors of the Conmena dynasty were able to reconquer some of the lost territories. The Seljuks defeated the Komnenos at Myriocephalus in the 11th century.

The Normans drove the Byzantines out of Italy within a few years and then conquered Dyrrhachium in Illyria, which they intended to fight their way to Constantinople. Roberto Guiscardo's death prevented these plans from being carried out. Pope Urban II was asked to help Alexios I Komnenos recruit an army to help him reconquer Anatolia, because of the Norman absence and the temporary pacification of the Pechenegs in Bulgaria. The start of the Crusades would end up causing the Empire's decline.

The Empire was affected by the intervention.

Despite agreeing to place themselves under Byzantine rule, the crusaders established several independent states. The Holy Roman Germans and Normans from Sicily and southern Italy continued to attack the Empire. Venice and Genoa were targets of anti-Western sentiment because Alexios I granted trading rights in Constantinople. Franks, a group of people who conquered the former territories of the Western Empire, were referred to as a whole of Europeans as "Franks".

The Venetians were greatly affected by these manifestations of the Byzantine people, because their fleet of ships was the basis of the Byzantine navy.

The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa tried to conquer the Empire during the Third Crusade, but it was the Fourth Crusade that had the most devastating effect.

The goal of the Crusade was to conquer Egypt, but they ended up serving as mercenaries for the Republic of Venice, which promised them money in exchange for taking the kingdom of Hungary. The city fell in 1202 after being besieged.

Alexios IV Angelo was involved in a civil war against Alexios III Angelo. Alexios IV promised soldiers and money in exchange for installing him on the throne, even though the treasury was in a bad state. The emperor fled and the citizens freed the ex-emperor, who was restored with his son Alexios IV. The Crusaders returned to attack the city after they were unable to pay them.

Constantinople fell to the Crusaders in 1204. The city had been taken by a foreign army for the first time since it was founded eight hundred years ago, after three days of loot and destruction.

The Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae was signed by the Crusaders and Venetians, and it was the reason why the Empire ceased to exist. The Latin Empire was the most important.

Byzantine power was weakened permanently.

The Serbian Empire was established in 1346 after Stephen Dushan of the Nemanji dynasty took advantage of the collapse of the imperial empire. The Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus were Greek heirs to the Byzantine Empire. The Empire was revived in 1261 when the Palaeologus dynasty regained Constantinople and defeated Epirus, but they paid too much attention to Europe when the Turks entered Asia Minor.

The history of the Byzantine Empire after the recapture of the capital by Michael VIII Palaiologos has been declining for a long time. The Turkish advance on the eastern side reduced to nothing the Asian domain of the Empire, which in some stages became a vassal of the Ottomans, while in the Balkans it had to compete with the Greek and Latin states that had emerged from the conquest of Constantinople.

Constantinople had very few options in the Mediterranean. The Empire was reduced to being one more of the numerous Balkan States during the 14th century and had to face the terrible revolt of the Almogavars of the Crown of Aragon and two devastating civil wars.

The Empire was able to survive because the Seljuks, Mongols, and Safavid Persians were too divided to attack it, but eventually the Ottoman Turks overran all of Byzantine possessions except for a few port cities.

The original nucleus of the future Ottoman Empire came from one of the sultanates of the Seljuk state, headed by a chief named Osman I.

The Empire asked for the help of the West, but the different States demanded the reunification of the Catholic and Orthodox Church. Byzantine rulers occasionally imposed the union of the Churches by decree, but the Orthodox did not accept it.

When the Empire fell, western fighters came to the aid of Byzantium, but they did nothing when the Ottomans conquered the remaining territories.

The walls of Constantinople had been impenetrable until the advent of cannon, but they no longer offer adequate protection against attackers. The fall of Constantinople happened on May 29th, after a two-month siege by Mehmed II. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, engaged the Janissary troops of the Ottomans who outnumbered the Byzantines. The Morea and Trabzon were conquered by Mehmed in 1460 and 1465, respectively.

The last holder of the crown of the Byzantine Empire, who was Constantine XI's nephew, sold his title to the catholic monarchs before he died.

The population of the Byzantine Empire can only be calculated with very little data.

The total population of the Eastern Roman Empire was 25 million at the end of the fourth century, spread over an area of over one million km2. The Empire is believed to have had 13 million people in a territory of 745,000 km2. The Empire lost a lot of territory in the 13th century, so it's unlikely that the basileus ruled over four million people.

The territory of the Empire was quickly reduced until Constantinople fell in 1403. The Aegean coast of Asia Minor was the location of the greatest concentrations of population.

The growth of Constantinople in the fourth and fifth centuries was amazing.

While the capital of the West, Rome, had declined considerably since the second century (it came to have a million and a half inhabitants, which it retained until the 5th century), Constantinople, with only about one hundred thousand - at the time of its foundation, it had barely thirty thousand inhabitants - reached four hundred thousand in the time of Justinian. Constantinople was the only great city in the Empire.

The population of Alexandria has been estimated at three hundred thousand, larger than that of Antioch. Other smaller cities such as Ephesus, Pergamum, Trebizond, Edessa, Nicaea, Thessalonica, Thebes, and Athens were also followed in size.

The sixth century was marked by wars, epidemics, and natural catastrophes, which resulted in a major setback in the growth of the city.

After the loss of Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Carthage, the Empire lost two great cities: the capital and Thessalonica. The population of Constantinople decreased considerably during the 6th and 7th centuries, and only began to recover in the 8th century, due to a number of things. It had 300,000 inhabitants during the Macedonian Renaissance and half a million under the Komnena dynasty.

The cities experienced a decline in the last days of the Empire. The population of the capital was fifty thousand at the time of the conquest by the Turks, and thirty thousand in the second city of the Empire.

In the Middle Ages, the main economic activity was agriculture, which was organized into large estates in the hands of the nobility and clergy. They grew cereals, fruits, vegetables and other food.

State silk workshops, which employed large numbers of workers, were the main industry in textiles. The Empire was dependent on trade with the East for its silk supply until the mid-sixth century, when monks brought silkworm cocoons to Justinian. Until at least the 12th century, the rest of Europe was unaware of the Empire's silk manufacture.

The importance of trade needs to be emphasized.

The Byzantine Empire was an important link between the East and the Mediterranean until the 7th century, when Islam took over the southern provinces of the Empire. The position of the capital was important because it controlled the passage from Europe to Asia and the Black Sea exchanges.

Despite the fact that the people had converted to Zoroastrian orthodoxy and the fires of other branches were put out, heresies still persisted. 11). The exhaustion caused by the war waged between the two empires is added to the religious situation.

11).