Transcript 13. The Commonwealth of Byzantium

The Byzantine Empire and the
Rise of Europe
The Early Byzantine Empire
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Capital: Byzantium
On the Bosporus
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Golden Horn
Commercial, strategic value of location
Constantine names capital after himself
(Constantinople), moves capital there after 330
C.E.
1453, falls to Turks, renamed Istanbul
Successor States to the Roman Empire,
ca. 600 C.E.
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Caesaropapism
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Power centralized in figure of emperor
Christian leader cannot claim divinity, rather
divine authority
Political rule
Involved in religious rule as well
Authority absolute
Justinian (527-565 C.E.)
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The “sleepless emperor”
Wife Theodora as advisor
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Ambitious construction programs
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Background: circus performer
The church of Hagia Sophia
Justinian’s code: codification of Roman law
Byzantine Conquests
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Effort to reconquer much of western Roman
empire from Germanic people
Unable to consolidate control of territories
Abandon Rome
Muslim Conquests
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Seventh century, Arab Muslim expansion
Besieged Byzantium 674-678, 717-718
Defense made possible through use of “Greek
fire”
Theme System
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Themes (provinces) under control of generals
Military administration
Control from central imperial government
Soldiers from peasant class, rewarded with land
grants
The Germanic Successor States
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Last Roman emperor deposed by Germanic
Odoacer, 476 C.E.
Administrative apparatus still in place, but cities
lose population
Germanic successor states:
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Visigoths
Ostrogoths
Lombards
Franks
The Late Byzantine Empire
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Eleventh century, wealthy landowners undermine
the theme system
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Free peasants become dependent agricultural laborers
Diminished tax receipts
Challenges from the West
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Western European economic development
Normans from Scandinavia press on Byzantine
territories
Crusades of twelfth and thirteenth centuries
rampage through Byzantine territory
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Constantinople sacked, 1204
Challenges from the East
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Muslim Saljuqs invade Anatolia
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Threatens grain supply
Defeat of Byzantine army in 1071 creates civil
conflict
Period of steady decline until Ottoman Turks
capture Constantinople in 1453
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Renamed Istanbul
Successor States to the Roman Empire,
ca. 600 C.E.
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The Franks
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Heavy influence on European development, fifth
to ninth centuries
Conversion to Christianity gains popular support
Firm alliance with western Christian church
Charlemagne (r. 768-814)
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Grandson of Charles Martel
Centralized imperial rule
Functional illiterate, but sponsored extensive
scholarship
Major military achievements
Charlemagne’s Administration
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Capital at Aachen, Germany
Yet constant travel throughout empire
Imperial officials: missi dominici (“envoys of the
lord ruler”)
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Continued yearly circuit travel
Charlemagne as Emperor
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Hesitated to challenge Byzantines by taking title
“emperor”
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Yet ruled in fact
Pope Leo III crowns him as emperor in 800
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Planned in advance?
Challenge to Byzantium
The Carolingian Empire, 814 C.E.
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The Vikings
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From village of Vik, Norway (hence “Viking”)
Boats with shallow drafts, capable of river travel
as well as on open seas
Attacked villages, cities, monasteries from ninth
century
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Constantinople sacked three times
Carolingians had no navy, dependent on local
defenses
The Dissolution of the Carolingian Empire
(843 C.E.) and the Invasions of Early Medieval
Europe in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries
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Pope Gregory I (590-604 C.E.)
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“Gregory the Great”
Asserted papal primacy
Prominent theologian
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Sacrament of penance
The Holy Roman Empire
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Otto I of Saxony takes advantage of decline of
Carolingian empire to establish kingdom in north
Germany, mid-tenth century C.E.
Military forays into eastern Europe
Twice enters Italy to aid Roman Catholic church
Pope John XII names Otto emperor of Holy
Roman Empire, 962 C.E.
Tensions between Emperors and the
Church
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Investiture Contest, late eleventh to early twelfth
century
Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) attempts to end
practice of lay investiture
Excommunicates Emperor Henry IV (1056-1106)
German peoples take opportunity to rebel
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Quashed with difficulty
Frederick Barbarossa
(r. 1152-1190 C.E.)
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Frederick I, “red beard”
Attempt to absorb Lombardy (northern Italy)
Popes did not want him to gain that much power,
enlisted aid from other states
Frederick forced to back down
Regional Monarchies:
France and England
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Capetian France
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Hugh Capet succeeds last Carolingian Emperor, 987
C.E.
Slowly expands authority out from Paris
Normans in England
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Invade England in 1066 under William the Conqueror
Dominate Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic groups
Iberian Peninsula
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Muslims control Iberian peninsula, eighth to
twelfth century
From eleventh century on, Christian conquest of
Spanish Muslim territories
Late thirteenth century, Muslims remain only in
Granada
European Population Growth,
800-1300 C.E.
80
70
60
50
40
Millions
30
20
10
0
800 CE
1000
1100
1200
1300 CE
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Crusading Orders
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Religious Christians form military-religious
orders
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Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights
Religious vows of opposition to Islam, paganism
Founded churches and monasteries
The Reconquest of Sicily and Spain
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Sicily taken by Muslims in ninth century,
reconquered by Normans in eleventh century
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Slow displacement of Islam
Opportunity for cross-cultural fertilization
Two small Christian states survive Muslim
conquest
Become nucleus of reconquest, 1060s-1492
Rapid, forceful assertions of Christian authority
The Beginning of the Crusades
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Pope Urban II calls for liberation of Jerusalem
from Muslim control, 1095
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Council of Clermont
“Deus vult” – “God wills it!”
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30
The First Crusade
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1096-1099, more organized expedition
Captures Jerusalem, largely due to poor Muslim
organization
Salah al-Din (Saladin) recaptures Jerusalem in
1187
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31
The Regional States of Medieval Europe,
1000-1300 C.E.
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