The Collapse Of The Byzantine
Thesis statement:
The Byzantine had overused there monetary sources hurting themselves in war and caused internal decay which ultimately lead to their downfall.
Background:
The Byzantine Empire, the survivor of the Roman Empire, lived to be one of the longest lasting empires. This was all possible when Constantine the Great moved his capital from Rome to the city of Byzantium in 330 AD and he named it Constantinople after himself. Constantine also created a monetary system based on the gold solidus. Big land owners dominated agriculture which was very fruitful through the high taxes.
The Crusaders
The causes were several, but the fatal blow came from the Crusaders in 1204. Byzantine was well established and positioned state, but in 11th century the Catholic Europe and Islam changed the balance of power in the region. By year 1000, Byzantine was still the most economically achieved civilization in the world. This money was soon transferring to coming city states of Italy. In the eleventh century, Byzantine engaged on prolonged war with Bulgaria. which were a real nuisance to the Byzantine. The war was very costly of the Byzantine and war came to a close in 1018. The Byzantine had over extended their empire. in the same century Turks migrated into central Anatolia and took over with siege bit by bit. Byzantine was unable to stop these fiends since it had used all of its money in the Bulgarian war. Constantinople didn't allow any outside help. Byzantine suffered several defeats. When Byzantine was loosing control over the area, Crusaders decided it was the perfect time to attack and took over Constantinople in 1204. The crusaders established a puppet government which weakened every aspect of the Byzantine Empire and it had never recovered from this event
Internal Decay Of the Byzantine
The Empire was under constant attack thus buying land was useless because of how simple it could be to get taken over by neighboring regions. But when the empire was stable from warring periods the nobles fought greedily over farmlands owned by the peasant class. The government defended the peasantry because they were a large support in the Empires economy. A big contributor to this take of action was Basil II but he was not able to stop the aristocrats. The military had become a strong asset after Basil II's death which lead to a series of weak rulers. Nobles would still take advantage of the peasants which in turn forced the state to rely on more expensive outside sources for troops. This cycle weakened the economy so much so that the Byzantines could not maintain there own navy.