[THREAD]

What led to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453?
It wasn’t the Ottoman muslim turks. The Byzantine Empire
was rotting within for centuries due to its false sense of
security and a series of miscalculations. We’ll explore how
it went from roses to rot.

(1/51)

In 324 CE, Rome was in decay. Emperor Constantine I decided to move the capital of the Roman Empire to the ancient city of Byzantium to revive Europe into a Christian
Empire. He rebuilt and beautified the capital, which was renamed Constantinople.

(2/51)

The strategic location of Constantinople facilitated trade with the west & the resource-rich Asia minor. The presence of hills along with the waterfront was perfect for irrigation and was an added layer of defense. Its accessibility also made it vulnerable to invasions.

(3/51)

The fortification of the new Roman capital was comprised 5-m thick inner wall standing 12-m and a 2-m thick outer wall. There was a 20-m wide 10-m deep moat, which stored and conveyed water into the city. Advanced masonry technique made the walls earthquake-resistant.

(4/51)

The tall rigid walls made with carefully-cut limestone bricks complemented by the 96 high watch towers (only 62 stand today) resisted scores of raids over the centuries and that included invasions from the arabs, turks, and mongols.

(5/51)

Given the common occurrences of wars and disputes, maps and borders of territories fluctuated. The Roman empire of 555 AD, with its capital being Constantinople, reached its height of expansion as shown…

(6/51)

Constantinople had a booming agricultural-based economy that produced ample food for trade & self-sustenance. There were farms within and beyond the walls; a lot of them owned & operated by churches. The Golden Horn provided ample supply of fish for the seafood trade.

(7/51)

The beautiful Christian capital was filled with so many visual delights that provided a heavenly ambiance. Visitors often gazed in awe of the many captivating monasteries, palaces, displays of ancient and religious relics, gardens, and colonnaded streets.

(8/51)

Constantinople was full of life as it facilitated districts filled with shops on marbled streets and staircases leading to different levels of the city accompanied by roofs. Women were the driving force in running these shops and free to sell many artistic goods.

(9/51)

In 532 AD, Emperor Justinian decided to reach new architectural achievement to pay tribute to God and ordered the construction of what will be considered one of the most beautiful churches the world has ever seen.

(10/51)

The Hagia Sophia was built in less than 6 years. Its external magnificence is attributed to a beautiful towering 105-foot dome. The inside was even more impressive with acres of beautiful gold mosaic and wealth of colored marbles.

(11/51)

“It seems not to rest upon solid masonry but to cover the space beneath as though suspended from heaven.” – Procopius, a prominent Byzantine Greek scholar

(12/51)

“We knew not whether we were in Heaven or earth. For on earth there is no such splendor and beauty, and we are at a loss to describe it. We only know that there God dwells among men.”
– an ambassador from Kiev

(13/51)

Hagia Sophia wasn’t the only beautiful expression of their devotion to God. There were at least 48 churches and monasteries built in Constantinople. Those include the Chora Monastery, Zoodochos Pege, and Pantokrator, just to name a few.

(14/51)

In Constantinople, Christianity was not only a religion, it was a way of life with its daily prayers and nightly vigils.

(15/51)

Churches were often decorated with tapestries of saints, artifacts, crosses, and many other relics. One church had the actual crown of thorns and nails secretly stored and occasionally had it on display.

(16/51)

Roses were a common delight as one walks through the streets of Constantinople. Gardens and hedges with roses were part of the beautiful aesthetics of churches, which owned a lot of land. Extracts from roses provided fragrances and refreshments with rose sugar.

(17/51)

People within and beyond the city took the aesthetics of God’s house seriously. A nun challenged the order of an Iconoclastic emperor to remove relics from a Church, and was executed. Theodosia was martyred as a Saint and had a beautiful monastery named after her.

(18/51)

In 905 CE, Leo VI hosted muslim ambassadors to discuss exchange of prisoners. He took them inside in the Hagia Sophia and showed them relics that were considered highly sacred. Leo VI received a huge public backlash. No emperor was above the sanctity of the Church.

(19/51)

However, the East’s practice of faith became less practical and too philosophical. Instead of learning from mistakes and the lessons from the Bible, they tend to attribute everything to God including the failures of many emperors and the lack of duty among the people.

(20/51)

Christian Europe was united once but differences in customs (use of unleavened bread) resulted in a bitter power struggle. In 1054, the Latin Western Church split
with the Greek Orthodox Church. The disunity would have serious repercussions in centuries to come.

(21/51)

With wealth came envy and covetousness. From the Persians to the Arabs, and then the Turks, sieges became a way of life. The strong fortified walls, which people grew
to depend on, kept invaders at bay. The Byzantines made sure that the walls were well maintained.

(22/51)

With strong walls came the growing weakness of the people in Constantinople and its leaders, who became too complacent. They were negligent in keeping other sources of defense, such as their military, up to the necessary condition to fight a new enemy.

(23/51)

Emerging was a growing enemy, the Turks, with razor sharp instinct for warfare due to hostile environments from invading tribes. Their combat superiority stemmed
from their tactical ability to use a bow and arrow with deadly precision while swiftly riding a horse.

(24/51)

One of the biggest events that not only demoralized but permanently weakened the Byzantine Empire was the defeat of Manzikert by the Seljuk Turks (few centuries
before the Ottoman Empire). Thus began the decline of the Byzantine. So what led to this game-changing defeat?

(25/51)

Romanos IV became the Emperor in 1067 under circumstances disputed by those with imperial lineage and thus had political enemies. He inherited a poorly trained
military & had to hire undisciplined mercenaries. His biggest blunder was underestimating the skilled Turks.

(26/51)

The treasury of the Byzantine didn’t help Romanos as there were high expenditures. French mercenaries protested disciplinary rules and pay delays so they looted countryside Anatolia. This allowed the Turks to take over more territory from the Byzantine empire.

(27/51)

The political state of the Byzantine government was plagued with corruption. Instead of focusing on the growing threat of the Turks, the Byzantine political establishment wanted to destroy Romanos, who was the only one eager to address the real problem.

(28/51)

At the battle of Manzikert, Romanus stood no chance against the Turks. His treasonous generals plotted to betray him & hired swords mutinied. But he made a
bad situation worse. When offered a favorable truce, Romanos decided to fight. He was captured & then humiliated.

(29/51)

The humiliation didn’t just end there. The Byzantine empire was losing city after city; it lost Edessa, Hieropolis, and Antioch and their weak military couldn’t quell the invasions.

(30/51)

Here, you can see how much territory the Byzantine empire lost from 1045 to 1080. After the loss at Manzikert in 1071, the Byzantine empire was so weakened that it could no longer effectively repel further invasions from the East.

(31/51)

The Byzantine faced another embarrassing loss in the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176. This embarrassment is attributed to the miscalculations of Emperor Manuel I
Komnenos, who was a degenerate unable to control his sexual appetite.

(32/51)

Among Manuel’s many affairs was a relationship with his own niece, Theodora, who often toyed with the emperor. The palace was essentially used to house his concubine. Given Manuel’s lax morals on sex, he sanctioned prostitution and brothels in the Christian city.

(33/51)

Under Emperor Manuel I, Jews had the free reign to openly practice their faith along with money lending. People started to notice a hidden push to remove relics and icons from churches and street, and vehemently despised the Jews for it. Manuel protected the Jews.

(34/51)

Within Manuel’s close inner circle of people was his personal doctor, who was Jewish and had the ear of the emperor. This Jewish doctor was even allowed to ride a horse, a privilege rarely given in the presence of the emperor.

(35/51)

Manuel somehow got the suicidal idea of inviting the Turks, a sworn enemy, to the palace & lavishly hosting them to showcase the empire’s wealth. He gave huge sums of gold for peace & land previously taken by the Turks. He even built a mosque in Constantinople for them.

(36/51)

Emperor Manuel’s inviting the turks and showing off his wealth was the same exact mistake King Hezekiah made in showing the King of Babylon, who was an enemy, all
the gold & silver in Jerusalem. See Isaiah 39.

Constantinople was sacked & stripped of its wealth in 1204.

(37/51)

The Turks happily took all the gold foolishly given by Manuel I and did not honor the agreement. Manuel went to battle for the dishonor and ran a sloppy military offensive in which his army suffered. He was defeated and humiliated at Myriokephalon. He never recovered.

(38/51)

The Byzantines found itself in need of the West to keep the Turks from gaining further territory. Pope Urban II saw this an opportunity for the Latin Church to expand east, & declared a Crusade. Differences in expectations results in further disaster for the Byzantines.

(39/51)

The Crusades helped the Byzantines take back territory; yet there was no unity between the East & the Latin West. Differences in customs were so magnified that they viewed each other as aliens. The presence of a mosque in Constantinople totally disgusted the Crusaders.

(40/51)

For receiving help from the West, the Byzantines gave in to trade concessions. Venetian merchants set up quarters in Constantinople and monopolized maritime commerce. The Byzantines grew resentful towards the Italians (Venetians) as they were suffering economically.

(41/51)

Resentment towards the Italians living in Constantinople turned into violence. From 1182 to 1183, Italians were killed in mob attacks in the Latin quarters. Some were able to flee while others were sold in slavery. The Byzantines and the West were now enemies.

(42/51)

The West took their revenge on the Byzantines for the 1183 Latin Massacre. In 1204, The Crusaders sacked Constantinople and stripped the city of all its wealth. When the Byzantines took back Constantinople after 60 years in exile, it was almost as if nothing was left.

(43/51)

The amount of wealth stripped from the Byzantines in 1204: the Crusaders took the bronze horses of the Hippodrome, all religious artifacts & relics (see 16/51), gold accumulated throughout the history of the empire, and architectural items of aesthetic value.

(44/51)

The 1204 sacking of Constantinople left the Byzantine emperor in a crippled state as it lost all its wealth and was rendered so weak that it couldn’t manage to protect its provinces in Anatolia. But this loss will be felt by Europe and the entire West forever.

(45/51)

The Turks under a leader named Osman, father of the Ottoman Empire, went on a series of conquests capturing territory from the Byzantine: Bursa in 1326; Pelekanos in 1329; Nicaea in 1331; Nicomedia & Pergamon in 1337; Scutari in 1338; and Thrace & Gallipoli in 1353.

(46/51)

In 1439, there was a short-lived truce to quash centuries of bitterness and differences between the Byzantines and the West. The East didn’t want to face the reality of their weak position, and refused to submit to the Pope. This arrogant decision sealed their fate.

(47/51)

By 1359, the Ottomans laid their 1st siege of Constantinople but failed. With no aid from the West, the Byzantines’ only defense was their strong fortified wall which repelled two other sieges in 1402 & 1422. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman muslims.

(48/51)

Of course, there was a certain small element within the walls of Constantinople that betrayed its host by leaving a gate unlocked for the Ottoman muslims to enter and breach the wall. But that is an entire separate thread that will be coming soon.

(49/51)

Truth is pride killed the Byzantines. They relied too heavily on their wall and neglected their military for centuries. They accepted every result of their actions as being God’s wrath, but failed to learn from mistakes or even the practical word of the Holy Bible.

(50/51)

The Byzantines could’ve saved Constantinople by uniting with an old enemy, their Christian brothers in the West, but refused to let go of their bitterness. Perhaps, this is why Jesus said “Love your enemy” for God may send a far worse enemy for failing to do so.

(51/51)