Constantinople

Examples of Constantinople in the following topics:

• The Fall of Constantinople

  • They crossed into Europe and annexed most of the lands around Constantinople.
  • By 1400 CE, the Byzantine Empire was little more than the city-state of Constantinople.
  • Constantinople by this stage was underpopulated and dilapidated.
  • After the conquest, Sultan Mehmed II transferred the capital of the Ottoman Empire from Edirne to Constantinople.
  • Sometimes known as "The Great Wall of Europe", the walls of Constantinople stood strong for centuries.

• The Last Byzantine Dynasty

  • Michael VIII recaptured Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire, giving rise to the last dynasty of the Empire and a brief time of cultural flourishing.
  • In 1261 CE, Michael's forces succeeded in capturing Constantinople while the Latin knights were off fighting elsewhere.
  • This outraged many of his citizens, who blamed the Catholics for the sack of Constantinople.
  • As the Palaiologan emperors attempted to restore the glory of Constantinople, they sponsored art and encouraged philosophy.
  • The Fall of Constantinople was marked by large amounts of Greek refugees escaping Turkic rule into Europe via Italy and thus accelerating the Renaissance.

• The Shift East

  • The city was thus founded in 324, dedicated on 11 May 330 and renamed Constantinopolis ("Constantine's City" or Constantinople in English).
  • The capital would often be compared to the 'old' Rome as Nova Roma Constantinopolitana, the "New Rome of Constantinople."
  • Constantinople was a superb base from which to guard the Danube river, and was reasonably close to the Eastern frontiers.
  • Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople
  • Explain why Constantine moved the capital of the Empire to Constantinople and the consequences that had for the Empire as a whole

• Crisis and Fragmentation

  • Large numbers of Italian merchants settled in Constantinople and put the local merchants out of business.
  • In part sparked by the massacre of the Latins of 1182 CE, and in part motivated by the tempting wealth of Constantinople, the Western European knights sacked Constantinople in what is known as the Fourth Crusade.
  • Constantinople became the capital of a new empire, called the Latin Empire, ruled by Western knights.
  • The Siege of Constantinople in 1204 CE was a turning point in Byzantine history, but it was not the end.
  • It was the Empire of Nicaea, closest to Constantinople, that would be most successful.

• The Great Schism of 1054

  • In response Leo confiscated papal estates and placed them under the governance of Constantinople.
  • It also decisively ended the so-called Byzantine Papacy, under which, since the reign of Justinian I a century before, the popes in Rome had been nominated or confirmed by the Emperor in Constantinople.
  • The Byzantines, however, continued to consider themselves Romans, and looked to the patriarch of Constantinople, not the pope, as the most important religious figure of the church.
  • The differences in practice and worship between the Church of Rome in the West and the Church of Constantinople in the East only increased over time.
  • In 1053, the first step was taken in the process which led to formal schism: the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Michael I Cerularius ordered the closure of all Latin churches in Constantinople, in response to the Greek churches in southern Italy having been forced to either close or conform to Latin practices.

• Byzantium's Legacy

  • Following the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II took the title "Kaysar-i Rûm" (the Ottoman Turkish equivalent of Caesar of Rome), since he was determined to make the Ottoman Empire the heir of the Eastern Roman Empire.
  • Following the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 CE, the Ottomans regarded themselves as the "heirs" of Byzantium and preserved important aspects of its tradition, which in turn facilitated an "Orthodox revival" during the post-communist period of the Eastern European states.
  • When these nations set about forging formal political institutions, they often modeled themselves on Constantinople.
  • The migration waves of Byzantine scholars and émigrés in the period following the sacking of Constantinople and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek and Roman studies that led to the development of the Renaissance humanism and science.
  • An artist restructured photo of what the city of Constantinople looked like during the Byzantine era.

• Naming of the Byzantine Empire

  • The Byzantine Empire, sometimes referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, originally founded as Byzantium).
  • Constantine I (r. 324–337) reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, and legalised Christianity.
  • For example, the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, was adorned with a large number of classical sculptures, although they eventually became an object of some puzzlement for its inhabitants.
  • The term comes from "Byzantium", the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantine's capital.
  • A map of Constantinople, the capital and founding city of the Byzantine Empire, drawn in 1422 CE by Florentine cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti.

• The Eastern Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, and Byzantium

  • The Christian, Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire had its capital at Constantinople, established by first Emperor Constantine the Great.
  • He built a new imperial residence at Byzantium and renamed the city Constantinople after himself (the laudatory epithet of "New Rome" came later, and was never an official title).
  • Usually, there was an emperor of the Western Roman Empire ruling from Italy or Gaul and an emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire ruling from Constantinople.
  • Constantinople became the largest city in the empire and a major commercial center.
  • Byzantine Emperor Constantine the Great presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic.

• The Fourth Crusade

  • On 23 June 1203 the main crusader fleet reached Constantinople.
  • In August 1203, following clashes outside Constantinople, Alexios Angelos was crowned co-Emperor (as Alexios IV Angelos) with crusader support.
  • However, in January 1204, he was deposed by a popular uprising in Constantinople.
  • Byzantine resistance based in unconquered sections of the empire such as Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus ultimately recovered Constantinople in 1261.
  • A Medieval painting of the Conquest Of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204

• The Isaurian Dynasty

  • Leo averted an attack by Maslamah by clever negotiations, in which he promised to recognize the Caliph's suzerainty, but on 25 March 717, he entered Constantinople and deposed Theodosios.
  • The Second Arab siege of Constantinople in 717–718 was a combined land and sea offensive by the Muslim Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate against the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople.
  • This allowed Constantinople to be resupplied by sea, while the Arab army was crippled by famine and disease during the unusually hard winter that followed.
  • The rescue of Constantinople ensured the continued survival of Byzantium, while the Caliphate's strategic outlook was altered: although regular attacks on Byzantine territories continued, the goal of outright conquest was abandoned.
  • Along with the Battle of Tours in 732, the successful defence of Constantinople has been seen as instrumental in stopping Muslim expansion into Europe.