1453 Who controlled Turkey before the fall of Constantinople?

Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire.

The Byzantine Empire or the Eastern Roman Empire is the eastern half of the Roman Empire that still exists after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire is generally believed to have started in 395 AD until 1453 (actually it started in the eighth century). During its 1000 years of existence, it was generally referred to as the "Roman Empire".

Although the culture and language of Byzantium are mostly Greek, Byzantium regards itself as a Roman, which is not contradictory to the Romans in East Rome. Their language is Greek, and their culture has been Greek for many centuries, but by the 7th century, their official language was Latin. The countries around them (Persian Empire and Arab Empire in the East, European countries in the West and Russia in the North) all call them Romans. If someone calls them "Greeks", it is an insult to them, because "Greeks" means "primitive people". This empire was not called Byzantine Empire until17th century. Since17th century, western historians have introduced the name Byzantine Empire in order to distinguish (actually quite different) the ancient Roman Empire from the medieval Roman Empire. This title comes from the predecessor of its capital Constantinople: the ancient Greek colony Byzantium.

The origin of Byzantium

The name of Byzantium comes from an ancient Greek immigrant city near the sea. In 330 AD, the Roman emperor Constantine I built a city here as the capital of the Roman Empire and renamed it Constantinople. Constantinople, located in the Bosporus Strait, is a strategic waterway connecting the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea, and its geographical position is very advantageous. In 395 AD, the huge Roman Empire was invaded by barbarians from all walks of life. For the convenience of jurisdiction, the empire was divided into two parts. The Eastern Roman Empire took Constantinople as its capital, so it was also called the Byzantine Empire.

In 476 AD, under the repeated attacks of Xiongnu and many Germanic tribes, the Western Roman Empire finally swallowed its last breath, and Byzantium became the only Roman Empire-in fact, they always claimed to be of pure Roman descent.

War and weakness

In 527 AD, Byzantium welcomed its first powerful emperor, Justinian I. He immediately appointed Belisariau as a marshal and declared war on his old enemy, the Persian Empire. In 528 AD, the Persian army general Zakisis led 30,000 troops, and the following year he defeated Belisarius with overwhelming strength in Nyabis. In the second year, the two armies fought again in the city of Della in the two river basins. The troops of Belisarian were pitiful ... but the Persian army made a stupid mistake. They support the city array. The terrible thing is that this is not their own city, so it is natural that the well-equipped Persian army, which is several times their opponent, was defeated (or strange) ... and then the Persian army lost. Then the ambitious Justinian went to war with the Darwan people, and Belizea went to Africa. The poor total number of Byzantine expeditionary cavalry is only 20 thousand even counting horses. What's more, it also includes most barbarian mercenaries, who are rude and undisciplined. Belisarian sailed out to sea through the Peloponnesian Peninsula, stumbled all the way through Sicily, and did not set foot on African land until early September. Not only did he not know whether his opponent's strength was 1000 or 1000, but he didn't even have a detailed map. Fortunately, quite a few locals are willing to be tour guides and earn tips. In mid-September, Belizean finally met the army of Darwan people in Carthage. Some people say that a strong dragon can't crush a local strongman, but Belisarian dares to play a maze at the door of a local strongman. A complicated detour made Darwan's army lose its favorable terrain, dispersed several parts, lost contact, and suffered the same fate as the Persian army. Since then, the Darwan people, who were hollow, have never organized any decent counterattack, and finally surrendered in March 534, and the Kingdom of Darwan perished. Justinian's campaign in Africa enabled the Byzantine Empire to control the vast animal husbandry base in Africa.

The powerful monarch was obviously not keen on peace. Justinian quickly resumed the war with Persia, and then the Goths became a thorn in his side! After decades of continuous war, most of the territory of the original Roman Empire has now been incorporated into Byzantium. The territory of the Byzantine Empire has been expanded unprecedentedly after years of war, and Justinian has great potential to restore the glory of Rome. But apart from the crazy expansion of conquered territories, the number of Byzantine troops is obviously far from large enough to control so much land, so those nominally conquered areas are actually very dangerous, and the victory of the empire is actually the prosperity of the central area of the empire with the weakness of the vast conquered land. However, it must be admitted that Justinian the Great was quite successful. He made the Byzantine Empire enter the era of comprehensive legal system, changed the previous tactics that the army mainly advanced by infantry array, and established an unparalleled armored cavalry regiment, which was the main pillar of Byzantine expansion war. Justinian was an extraordinary monarch, a pearl given to the Romans by God-at least for the Romans.

In 57 1 year, Justinian II came to power, and the territorial dispute with Persia broke out again. Persian troops invaded the city of Deraa, and the Byzantines received reparations. Then there was the war, and the two sides repeatedly entangled. Repeating this futile tug-of-war with Persia is obviously a loss of both sides ... but then several rulers on both sides obviously didn't realize this and remained keen on this game. As a result of decades of war, the military strength of the two huge empires is weakening day by day. In the end, there are still many border cities that have no troops at all! Then the Arabs in the Middle East took the opportunity to rise and encroached on the land on the imperial border. In the 7th century, Arabs started a full-scale war against Persia and Byzantium in the name of jihad. Powerful cavalry troops swept the land of a huge empire. Persia and Byzantium have been greatly weakened and unable to resist in the long-term battle. Egypt, Palestine and other places have fallen into the hands of Arabs. The Persian Empire was finally completely annexed in the middle of the 7th century, and the punishment of Byzantium and Persia could finally end forever, but then it would face Arabia alone.

Byzantium remained prosperous, because its area centered on Constantinople was basically unaffected by the war, and its superior geographical position made Byzantium almost the richest country at that time. But now the Arabs have changed the situation, and the wealth of Constantinople makes the Arabs salivate, so they have been trying to invade this rich city for almost several years, step by step. Around 673 AD, the Arabs finally launched a large-scale attack on Constantinople. Tens of thousands of Arab troops besieged Constantinople by land and sea, but the tall walls of Constantinople blocked them in a narrow area where they could not advance or retreat. The Byzantine navy came at once and completely destroyed the Arab navy with a mysterious weapon like a flame thrower. So the Afghan army, which lost maritime reinforcements, was forced to retreat, and the Byzantine army pursued the victory, and the Afghan army was defeated. In this war, the Arab army suffered heavy losses, and hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of warships were wiped out.

Since then, Arabia has been forced to stop the pace of expansion. At this time, although the control scope of Byzantium could not be compared with that of Justinian era, it remained prosperous because of economic prosperity and military reform, and it was easier to manage less territory. It still plays the role of the boss on a large scale. Therefore, we can say that the strong economy has defended the prosperity of Byzantium, and of course we can't do without a small but elite and good-fighting army-it seems that the Byzantine army has a tradition of winning more with less since the time of Justinian.

Crusader invasion

By the 1 1 century, Arabia still controlled Palestine, so the Roman Catholic Church in Europe mobilized the feudal countries in Europe to launch a crusade aimed at retaking the holy city of Jerusalem.

Although the first three Crusades didn't make great progress, and also hit the Arab forces to some extent, the fourth Crusade brought unprecedented disaster to Byzantium. What happened is also quite dramatic:

In A.D. 1202, 20,000 Crusaders mobilized by Pope Innocent III met horses and equipment in Venice. In order to cooperate with the Crusade, the Venetians were busy for almost a whole year, preparing a large number of warships and supplies ... At this time, things were not good! According to the original agreement, the Crusaders had to pay the Venetians for equipment before going out, but the amount of money that the Crusaders could deliver at this time was far from the agreed amount, and the Venetian fleet refused to leave anyway. Seeing that time was running out, the Crusaders were anxious and asked to consult with the Governor of Venice. The governor of Venice Dandoro was very happy, but when they met, the Crusaders saw an old blind man in his eighties ... These generals could hardly believe that the famous governor of Venice would be such a role. The governor readily promised to do things before talking about money, with the proviso that the Crusaders would take him to help Venice recover several ports on the way. Why not? But the Crusaders were fooled, and Governor Dandoro had other plans! In fact, the Crusaders could not control the Venetian crew after marching, because they only listened to the governor's orders. Governor Dandoro randomly deviated from the original route and picked up an exiled Byzantine prince named Alex on the way. That would be even more interesting. The exiled Byzantine prince actually asked the Crusaders to escort him back to Constantinople. "My people will welcome me with open arms, you will get more equipment and support, and then you will recover the holy land! And my country will pay off the money owed to the Venetians for you! " The prince was sober-minded, and the governor echoed him again and again, and the Crusaders were moved by it-I have heard the name of Huang Jincheng in Constantinople, and it is good to take this opportunity to visit some exotic customs ... The prince also has attractive promises on equipment and money. As a result, the Crusaders completely deviated from the scheduled route and the huge fleet sailed for Byzantium.

At the gate of Constantinople in Byzantium, unexpected guests arrived, and the prince who had been in exile for many years proudly displayed his flag and waited for the "hug" of the people of China with open arms; People in the city also opened their arms, but unfortunately, instead of "hugging", they made faces at him, laughed loudly and threw tomatoes at him! It seems that his exile is not without reason ... but the crusaders are very angry. How did they go around such a big bend and go to so much trouble to wait for such an embarrassing "welcome ceremony"? Soldiers fired at the city wall to vent their anger, and Byzantine troops fired at ships in a rage, injuring several ships on the spot and forcing the fleet to evacuate from the shore. That's great. Not only did the equipment and money mentioned by the prince become castles in the air, but now even Liancheng can't get in. The Crusaders' initial hopes turned into great disappointment, and they flew into a rage. Encouraged by Governor Dandoro's "indignation", the angry Crusaders decided to forcibly enter Constantinople! This is a big adventure plan. You know, this city has survived an enemy siege 10 times stronger than these crusaders! At the beginning of the attack, the navy tried to seize the beach from the seaside, and the Crusader 2000 cavalry landed in the suburbs and attacked by land. Byzantines naturally refused and resisted. The situation here has completely changed. Crusaders who should have fought Muslims in the holy land of Palestine are now fighting the wrong opponents in the wrong place.

The Byzantine army was well defended, the Crusaders suffered heavy casualties, and there was no progress in wave after wave of storms. Governor Dandoro personally commanded the pilot flagship to charge the beachhead position ... I saw that with the help of his entourage, the governor braved the rain of arrows and personally set foot on the beachhead, holding high his sword and shouting loudly. Seeing this scene, the morale of Venetians and Crusaders rose from their hearts and rushed to the beach, madly impacting the fortifications of Byzantine troops. The situation was tragic! After several charges, the Byzantine defensive position finally fell, so ... it was like opening a hole in the bottom of a vat full of water, which could not be stopped any more! Crusaders poured into the city crazily, and successively defeated several groups of Byzantine troops who came to support! How ironic! Constantinople, a fortress of "defending God's dignity" that has never been broken by Muslims for hundreds of years, was finally broken by "the army that shows God's glory". By the way, the idea of the Crusade was originally the idea of the Byzantine Pope.

The Crusaders after the broken city can really be described as chaos. They were amazed at the dazzling treasures, and they plundered them one by one. "There will be no orders outside, and the soldiers outside will not obey!" Soldiers, mainly proletarian peasants, are completely out of control, and the golden statue in the church has become the primary target of their robbery, even fighting for treasure! They smashed the exquisite and gorgeous gold statue, which is an artistic treasure, just for the convenience of carrying-in their eyes, it is only gold, not a handicraft. Venetians and other advanced crusaders took aim at the precious pictures, books and handicrafts in the church, which were light and easy to carry and highly collectible.

This farce lasted for several weeks, and Byzantium was hit hard like never before. The Crusaders deposed the Byzantine emperor, and the exiled prince Alex, who came with the Crusaders, was pushed to the throne ... but the Byzantines didn't buy him, and he soon died. After looting, the Crusaders finally returned home loaded with treasures. Strangely, Governor Dandoro did not return to Venice with the ship. He followed some remaining Crusaders to continue fighting on Byzantine land. A few years later, at the age of 90, he finally gave his life to God. He was buried in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and his tombstone is still there. There are always different opinions about how the governor of Venice, Dandoro, had a deep hatred with Byzantium, and let him drift away with the dust of history. Due to the Byzantine injury, Venice took the opportunity to replace the Byzantine maritime hegemony, so for Venetians, their governor Dandoro was outstanding.