Social Studies Blog - Michelle Flores

  The Byzantine Empire   came to an end when the Ottomans   breached   Constantinople’s ancient land wall after besieging the city for 55 days. Mehmed surrounded Constantinople from land and sea while employing   cannon   to maintain a constant   barrage   of the city’s   formidable   walls. The fall of the city removed what was once a powerful defense for Christian Europe against   Muslim   invasion, allowing for uninterrupted Ottoman expansion into eastern   Europe .

  The Byzantine Empire influenced many cultures, primarily due to its role in shaping Christian Orthodoxy. The modern-day Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian church in the world. Orthodoxy is central to the history and societies of Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia, and other countries. Byzantine architecture, particularly in religious buildings, can be found in diverse regions from Egypt to Russia. During the Byzantine Renaissance—from 867 to 1056—art and literature flourished. Artists adopted a naturalistic style and complex techniques from ancient Greek and Roman art and mixed them with Christian themes. Byzantine art from this period had a strong influence on the later painters of the Italian Renaissance. In the period following the sacking of Constantinople in 1204 and the fall of Constantinople in 1453, people migrated out of Constantinople. Among these emigrants were many Byzantine scholars and artists, including grammarians, poets, writers, musi...

  the Byzantines being a civilized and educated people have made several scientific discoveries in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, astronomy, geography, and even philosophy that have been a basis for modern science and have made quite crazy but very practical inventions. With the preservation of ancient Greek and Roman science, the Byzantines had studied them in order to improve them and make new discoveries, which later influenced Islamic science in the Middle Ages and Western European science in the Renaissance.   inventions of the Byzantines: Flamethrowers     portable sundials  water cisterns ship mills   Fork  However, other than inventions, the Byzantines have already made some crazy but true scientific discoveries before the Renaissance including the theory of the earth being a sphere, time zones, and the basis for the Gregorian Calendar we use today.  

   The government of the Byzantine Empire was headed and dominated by the emperor, but there were many other important officials who assisted in operating the finances, judiciary, military. and bureaucracy of a huge territory. Without elections, the ministers, senators, and councilors who governed the people largely acquired their position through imperial patronage or because of their status as large landowners. The government was multi-leveled based on the geographical division of the empire’s population and although corruption, rebellions, and invasions threatened the functioning of the system, and even caused its reduction in scale, the system nevertheless survived for centuries to become one of the most sophisticated apparatus of government seen in any empire in history. Key ministers who reported to the emperor but had some autonomy of authority included the following: chief legal officer and head of the judiciary the magister officiorum who looked after the general admi...

   Economy and Social Policies   The empire’s economy had prospered in a spotty fashion. Certain provinces, or parts of provinces such as northern Italy, flourished commercially as well as agriculturally. Constantinople, in particular, influenced urban growth and the exploitation of agricultural frontiers.    Balkan (Europe's  three great southern peninsulas)  towns along the roads leading to the great city prospered, while others not so favoured languished and even disappeared. Untilled land in the hilly regions of northern Syria fell under the plow to supply foodstuffs for the masses of Constantinople.   As the 4th century progressed, not only did Constantine’s  solidus  remain indeed solid gold, but evidence drawn from a wide range of sources suggests that gold in any form was far more abundant than it had been for at least two centuries. It may be that new sources of supply for the  precious  metal had been discovered ...

   The Eastern Roman Empire was left with serious problems: too much territory to protect far from Constantinople, an empty treasury, a decline in population after a plague, and renewed threats to its frontiers. In the first half of the seventh century, the empire was faced with attacks from the Persians to the east and the Slavs to the north. The empire survived, only to face new threats.   Roman Empire VS The Persians The most serious challenge to the Eastern Roman Empire came from the rise of Islam, which unified the Arab tribes and created a powerful new force that swept through the east. The defeat of an eastern Roman army at Yarmuk in 636 meant the loss of the provinces of Syria and Palestine. By the beginning of the eighth century, the Eastern Roman Empire was a much smaller state, consisting only of the eastern Balkans and Asia Minor, but these external challenges had produced important internal changes. By the eighth century, this smaller Eastern Roman Empire had...

 The  Byzantine Empire , often called the  Eastern Roman Empire  or simply  Byzantium , existed from 330 to 1453. With its capital founded at  Constantinople  by  Constanti ne I  (r. 306-337), the  Empire  varied in size over the centuries, at one time or another, possessing territories located in  Italy ,  Greece , the Balkans,  Levant ,  Asia Minor , and North  Africa . Territories of the Byzantine Empire  Byzantium was a Christian state with  Greek  as the official language, the Byzantines developed their own political systems, religious practices, art and  architecture , which, although significantly influenced by the Greco- Roman  cultural tradition, were distinct and not merely a continuation of ancient  Rome . Government       The Byzantine government followed the patterns established in imperial Rome. The emperor was all-powerful but was still expected to ...