The Byzantine Empire Chapter 9 Section 1

The Byzantine Empire Chapter 9 Section 1

1. Byzantine Christianity

   • the church splits
     • when a byzantine empire outlawed the use of these icons, the church split into the Greek orthodox church and the roman catholic chrch, branches of the church that still remain today
     • the ban of the use of icons set of many fights across the empire
     • the ban was eventually lifted to stop the fighting, but the bitterness remained
     • the chruches grew apart and guarded themselves from the other, growing bitter in their dispute
   • effect of Christianity in the empire
     • Christianity was a very influential religion in the empire
     • many people within the empire practiced Christianity and it was a large part of their daily lives
     • the practices differed between regions however and this led to discrepencies
     • the differences started out to be very minor but they eventually grew to cause frictions between locations
   • church discrepencies
     • the church argued over many things causing it to split
     • the use of icons (pictures of the holy mother, Jesus, and other figures, was frowned on by the byzantines
     • using these figures of items of worship was viewed as idolatry and worshiping something that "isn't the real thing"
     • the western church continued to use these items of worship and that caused tensions to rise
   • east and west differ
     • greek was the language of the byzantine church
     • the chief holy day of the byzantine church was Easter, celebrated as the day Jesus rose from the dead
     • byzantine clergy were still able to marry
     • Christmas wasn't emphasized as Easter unlike the western Christians

2. Constantine creates a"New Rome"

   • blending of cultures
     • hippodrome was created which drew in charioteers and spectators from all across europe
     • this city blended Greek, Roman, and Christian influences with the rest of the traditions of the Mediterranian
     • it didnt fall until 1000 years aftewer the roman empire
     • the city declined from ruling over most of southern europe to only controlling a small amout of land around the city itself
   • creation of Constantinople
     • from this new city, many trade routes and roads to different places were created
     • he then made the city the capital of the empire
     • created by roman emperor Constantine shifting to the eastern Mediterranian due to the push of the Germans
     • he rebuilt a city named byzantinium and named after himself
   • trade routes
     • china went to this city to trade silks
     • gems from india
     • wheat from egypt
     • spices from southeast Asia
     • furs from the vikings
   • Constantinople grows
     • many people lived there because it was a vital center of trade that always had a lot of various goods that were often rare
     • the location of the city made it fantastic for trade which caused it to expand rapidly and become Europe's busiest market place
     • because it was built on water it made it difficult to attack the city so it was easy to grow stronger without the threat of attack
     • because it was built on a straight it was able to control it, easily making the prime canadite to be the capital of the empire

3. empire collapses & heritige

   • the crusades lead to plunder
     • when the byzantine emperor blocked the pilgrimage routes to the holy land, he triggered the first crusade
     • later on after the first crusade rivalry sparked between the empire and venice, and venice convinces crusaders to attack conctantinople
     • the crusaders on the fourth crusade plundered the city causing it to fall to its knees
     • Venetian merchants took control of the trade center, causing the city to become even weaker
   • Constantinople falls to the Turks
     • the forces under ottoman entered the city victoriously and claimed it as their own
     • ottoman forces surround the city and attacked, but with the assistance of the Turks the city lost conrtol and was lost to the turks
     • the byzantine emperor was given safe passage but chose to die fighting instead of living within the city he lost under his control
     • the greatest of the byzantine works were tuned to the favor of the Turks (ex. the Hagia Sophia became an Sslamic place of worship)
   • unique contributions to the Arts
     • these works even influenced later works of the western people that made paintings from the middle ages to present day
     • arcitecture even flourished during this era, with the formation of the dome to be placed in buildings. their style of arcitecture blended many different backgrounds into one style
     • the mosaics also developed during this time were very intricate and are still marveled at today
     • byzantine made many advancements in the arts such as famous paintings of holy men ans women
   • the world of learning
     • the empire preserved the ancient teachings of early rome and greece and taught them to the people of the day and published them in books
     • byzantine historians were focused on writing on their own times much like ancient philosophers were
     • these manuscripts of ancient teachings left when the Greek philosophers moved to Italy when the empire was teetering on defeat; they took their works with them in attempt to preserve them
     • scholars of the time were well versed in politics and they often voiced their own opinions of leaders

4. Byzantinium flourishes under Justinian

   • economic and military change
     • greek fire also aided the army; a form of liquid fire that would ignite on contact with the enemy
     • industry flourished and the creation of the byzantine coin occured
     • the military was made up of soldiers, ships and sailors fit to attack any opposing force in order to keep their empire safe
     • the economy was strict so that peasants often became soldiers and paid taxes to support the other classes
   • the great city is rebuilt
     • creation of the Hagia Sophia to restore the glory of the Church
     • many attacks and a fire destroyed the city
     • this Church drew in more people to the city
     • arcitectural advances are made through the creation of this massive church (dome)
   • Justinian's code and governing system
     • Justinian's code was used as a foundation for many laws in the Byzantine empire and is used to create modern law documents
     • wife Theodora was also very educated in law and greatly influenced the code
     • ruled as an autocrat so that he had complete authority over the entire empire in order to unify it
     • his ruling was looked up to because altough the city was very structured, everyone lived in a happy manner. he was even called "Christ's co-ruler"
   • change in fourtune
     • after Justinian, the empire was attacked by many different groups
     • persians, slavs vikings, huns, and turks all attacked the empire successfully causing it to stumble
     • Arab armies eventually took control over much of the Mediterranean world but constantinople withstood its attacks and lived of
     • the empire prevented the spread of the Muslim conquest to reach the western part of europe