In 330 C.E., Roman emperor Constantine I declared Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek colony in early antiquity that later became Constantinople, and then Istanbul. The Greek term Byzantium continued to be used as a name of Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire, even though it only referred to the empire's capital. Byzantium was c…
The Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453) Because Constantinople was at the center of two continents, it became a center of commerce, culture, and diplomacy and grew considerably. In 532, though, the antigovernment Nika Revolt broke out among the city’s population and destroyed it.
Due to its significant geographic location at the crux of Europe and Asia, surrounded by both land and sea, Constantinople was well-positioned as not only a center of cultural and religious activity, but also as a commercial center.
During this time, the Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, undertook the rebuilding of the entire city. His goal was to make it stand out and give the city monuments similar to those found in Rome. In 330, Constantine declared the city as the capital of the entire Roman Empire and renamed it Constantinople.
He convened the First Council of Constantinople in 381, which supported the Council of Nicaea of 325, and declared the city patriarch as second in power only to Rome’s. Constantinople became a center of the iconoclast controversy after Leo III in 730 outlawed the worshipping of religious icons.
Constantine embraced Christianity legalizing the religion and making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. This legalization helped Christianity to spread and become the dominate religion of both Western and Eastern Europe.
Changes: The Byzantine Empire shifted its capital from Rome to Constantinople, changed the official religion to Christianity, and changed the official language from Latin to Greek.
Constantinople Trade Constantinople sat on the Silk Road and was a meeting point for commerce between Europe and Asia. Because it was easy to defend, the city became a frequent destination for traders, and thus the city and the empire accumulated vast amounts of wealth.
What two decisions did Constantine make that changed European history? First gave the Christians a legal stance in the empire. Second, Constantine moved the imperial capital from Rome to Byzantium.
The Fall of Constantinople directly affected the start of the Renaissance. Many Greek scholars fled Constantinople before and after the fall of the City due to the Ottoman menace They went to Italy, where they were welcomed. They took with them many books and manuscripts written in Greek.
First settled in the seventh century B.C., Constantinople developed into a thriving port thanks to its prime geographic location between Europe and Asia and its natural harbor. In 330 A.D., it became the site of Roman Emperor Constantine's “New Rome,” a Christian city of immense wealth and magnificent architecture.
The bigger cities had thriving cosmopolitan markets, and Constantinople became one of the largest trading hubs in the world where shoppers could stroll down covered streets and pick up anything from Bulgarian linen to Arabian perfumes.
The idea that Constantinople should be the center of the world originated with the emperor Constantine the Great. Basing himself on a dream he had, he decided that his new capital should be situated at the point where the east-west and north-south axes of the earth intersect.
Constantinople was located on the Bosphorus Strait which made it an ideal location for trade.
Emperor Constantine (ca A.D. 280– 337) reigned over a major transition in the Roman Empire—and much more. His acceptance of Christianity and his establishment of an eastern capital city, which would later bear his name, mark his rule as a significant pivot point between ancient history and the Middle Ages.
The city was located on the Bosporus Strait between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Constantinople lay at the crossroads of important trade routes linking Europe and Asia. As a result, Constantinople was the most important city for trade for hundreds of years. The city and its people became very wealthy.
Constantinople is almost surrounded by water, except on its side facing Europe where walls were built. The city was built on a promontory projecting into the Bosphorus (Bosporus), which is the strait between the Sea of Marmara (Propontis) and the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus).
Way back in the time before the common era (C.E.), Constantinople was the ancient capital of the Byzantine empire, though it was known at the time as Byzantium. Byzas the Megarian gave the region its name in 700 B.C.E., and a small settlement of Greeks lived there until 300 B.C.E.
The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul remains Turkey's top attraction for its beautiful architecture and its historic function as both a mosque and church. More than 31 million individuals reportedly visited The Hagia Sophia between 2007 and 2019.
In 330 A.D., Constantine established the city that would make its mark in the ancient world as Constantinople, but also would become known by other names, including the Queen of Cities, Istinpolin, Stamboul and Istanbul.
He convened the First Council of Constantinople in 381, which supported the Council of Nicaea of 325, and declared the city patriarch as second in power only to Rome’s.
While the early decades of an Ottoman Empire-ruled Constantinople were marked by the transformation of churches into mosques, Mehmed II spared the church of the Holy Apostles and allowed a diverse population to remain.
The Hagia Sophia marked a triumph of architectural design. Built on the site of former imperial churches by Justinian I, it was completed in less than six years by a workforce of 10,000 laborers.
Famed for its immense wealth, Constantinople endured at least a dozen sieges over its 1,000-plus years as the Byzantine capital. These included attempts by Arab armies in the seventh and eighth centuries, as well as the Bulgarians and the Rus (early Russians) in the ninth and 10th centuries.
Constantinople endured for more than 1,100 years as the Byzantine capital in large part due to the protective wall completed under Theodosius II in 413. Expanding the city perimeter west from Constantine’s wall by approximately a mile, the new one stretched 3-1/2 miles from the Sea of Marmara to the Golden Horn.
Hippodrome. Hagia Sophia. Christian and Muslim Rule. Fall of Constantinople. Ottoman Rule. Istanbul. Sources. Constantinople is an ancient city in modern-day Turkey that’s now known as Istanbul. First settled in the seventh century B.C., Constantinople developed into a thriving port thanks to its prime geographic location between Europe ...
Constantinople remained a major political and cultural center during the reign of Justinian, becoming the first great Christian city. It went through a number of political and military upheavals, becoming the capital of the Ottoman Empire and, later, the capital of modern Turkey (under the new name Istanbul).
Constantine chose the city of Byzantium for his Nova Roma. It was located near the center of the reunited Empire, was surrounded by water, and had a good harbor. This meant it was easy to reach, fortify, and defend. Constantine put a great deal of money and effort into turning his new capital into a great city.
Constantinople is located on the Bosporus River, meaning that it lies on the boundary between Asia and Europe. Surrounded by water, it was easily accessible to other parts of the Roman Empire via the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Danube River, and Dnieper River. Constantinople was also accessible via land routes to Turkestan, India, Antioch, the Silk Road, and Alexandria. Like Rome, the city claims 7 hills, a rocky terrain that had limited earlier utilization of a site so important for sea trade.
Constantinople was also accessible via land routes to Turkestan, India, Antioch, the Silk Road, and Alexandria. Like Rome, the city claims 7 hills, a rocky terrain that had limited earlier utilization of a site so important for sea trade.
Hundreds of years later, the Roman emperor Constantine renamed it Nova Roma (New Rome). The city later became Constantinople, in honor of its Roman founder; it was renamed Istanbul by the Turks during the 20th century.
The other side of the city had natural defenses. Constantine then inaugurated the city as his capital in 330. Constantinople is almost surrounded by water, except on its side facing Europe where walls were built. The city was built on a promontory projecting into the Bosphorus (Bosporus), which is the strait between the Sea of Marmara (Propontis) ...
Natural and Man-Made Fortifications. Constantine, the early fourth-century emperor known for encouraging Christianity in the Roman Empire, enlarged the earlier city of Byzantium, in CE 328. He put up a defensive wall (1-1/2 miles east of where the Theodosian walls would be), along the westward limits of the city.
Because Constantinople was at the center of two continents, it became a center of commerce, culture, and diplomacy and grew considerably. In 532, though, the antigovernment Nika Revolt broke out among the city’s population and destroyed it.
In 1261, in the midst of this turmoil, the Empire of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople, and it was returned to the Byzantine Empire. Around the same time, the Ottoman Turks began conquering the cities surrounding Constantinople, effectively cutting it off from many of its neighboring cities.
The Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire ( 395–1204 and 1261–1453) After the death of the emperor Theodosius I in 395, however, enormous upheaval took place in the empire as his sons permanently divided it. Following the division, Constantinople became the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the 400s. As part of the Byzantine Empire, ...
In addition, because of its status as a world rising power, its history, and its importance to culture in both Europe and the world, Istanbul was designated the European Capital of Culture for 2010 by the European Union .
The city of Istanbul is important to geography because it has a long history that spans the rise and fall of the world's most famous empires. Due to its participation in these empires, Istanbul has also undergone various name changes.
For a time it was even controlled by members of the Fourth Crusade after the city was desecrated in 1204. Subsequently, Constantinople became the center of the Catholic Latin Empire.
Afterward, many of its most outstanding monuments, one of which was the Hagia Sophia, were constructed during the city's rebuilding, and Constantinople became the center of the Greek Orthodox Church.
The dwindling 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 ...
Learn More in these related Britannica articles: However, on May 29, 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. Sultan Mehmed II transformed Hagia Sophia into an mosque, and the few partisans of the union fled to Italy.…. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 provided humanism with a major boost, for many eastern scholars fled to Italy, ...
He stopped to pray and then demanded that all further looting cease immediately.
An Ottoman attack on a Venetian ship in the Bosporus prompted the Venetian Senate to send 800 troops and 15 galleys to the Byzantine capital, and many Venetians presently in Constantinople also chose to support the war effort, but the bulk of the Venetian forces were delayed for too long to be of any help.
Mehmed II and his army were remarkably restrained in their handling of affairs after the fall of Constantinople. They largely refrained from slaughtering commoners and nobility, instead choosing to ransom them to their home states and primarily executing only those who fought after the surrender. Mehmed repopulated the city with people from a multitude of backgrounds and faiths and relocated his capital from Edirne to Constantinople, ensuring a multicultural seat of power for a multicultural empire. He also began to view himself as Kayser-i Rûm (“Caesar of Rome”), the inheritor of the Roman Empire and all its historical lands. He asserted this claim with a series of campaigns that thoroughly subjugated both the Balkans and Greece by the late 15th century.
In 1452 he reached peace treaties with Hungary and Venice. He also began the construction of the Boğazkesen (later called the Rumelihisarı ), a fortress at the narrowest point of the Bosporus, in order to restrict passage between the Black and Mediterranean seas.
Sultan Murad II laid siege to Constantinople in 1422, but he was forced to lift it in order to suppress a rebellion elsewhere in the empire. In 1444 he lost an important battle to a Christian alliance in the Balkans and abdicated the throne to his son, Mehmed II.