History of Byzantine Empire in 6 minutes on Map Description | Past to Future

History of Byzantine Empire in 6 minutes on Map Description | Past to Future

This video presents the brief history of the Byzantine empire, one of the vast and powerful civilizations which survived for around 1000 years.

Chapter:
00:00 Introduction
00:30 Early History
02:01 Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty
03:00 First and Second Arab sieges of Constantinople
04:05 The Crusades
05:09 The Fall of Constantinople
06:00 Conclusion

By the 3rd century A.D., the Roman Empire was ruling all across the Mediterranean region and coastal areas in southwestern Europe and North Africa.

By 286, Emperor Diocletian divided the empire into two sections: the East and the West, leading to a century of crisis within the empire.

This paved way for the emergence of the Byzantine Empire in 330 when the Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman Empire to the city of ‘New Rome’ in the ancient Greek city Byzantion. The city was endowed with the name Constantinople, serving as a transit between Asia Minor and Europe.

In 395, Theodosius I again divided the imperial administration into Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire between his sons. Under his reign, Christianity became the empire's official state religion.

In 476, the Western Roman Empire collapsed after its last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic barbarian chief Odoacer. Meanwhile, the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium, was able to survive for centuries after the fall of Rome.

The golden age of the Byzantine Empire is characterized as the period of the Justinian dynasty. In 527, his nephew Justinian I took power, becoming the first great ruler of the Byzantine Empire.

Under his reign, the Byzantine Empire’s territory was expanded to its greatest extent.

As Heraclius rose to power in 610, the Sassanids strengthened their control over Damascus and Jerusalem, beginning the period of Arab-Byzantine wars.

For the decades to come, the wars continued between Byzantine Empire and Arabs as the Umayyads were succeeded by the Abbasids, setting the foundation for the wars in the name of religion.

The end of the 11th century witnessed the beginning of the Crusades, a series of holy wars between Christians and Muslims over control of the Holy Land.

In 1097, the Crusaders and Byzantine forces recaptured Nicea, the Seljuk capital in Anatolia. Alexius and his army retreated, drawing accusations of betrayal from the Crusaders.

Soon, the subsequent Crusades turned into a war between Byzantium and the West, culminating in the crusader sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

The reconquest of Constantinople took place in 1261 under the Palaiologos dynasty ruling the Empire of Nicaea, resulting in the re-establishment of the Byzantine Empire.

The external wars, civil wars, and consequent loss of land had largely weakened the Byzantine Empire by the early 15th century.

In 1453, the Ottoman Empire laid siege to Constantinople and attained total control of the city, resulting in the fall of Constantinople in May 1453 and the end of the Byzantine Empire.

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[SirAdamantine]

You've managed to mispronounce just about everything. I guess that's an accomplishment.

[monicajoseph]

Wonderful series and brilliant channel! However, there are several emperors of the East who could be contenders for the greatest. Off my head: Herakleios, the Komnenoi, Basil I, Basil II, and Constantine I! Would love to see a video on any of them!

[thanlan]

Thank you, I was waiting for this video :)

[georgios_]

Correction, Heraclius rose to power after Persia had taken the Middle East from Byzantium. He reclaimed the lost provinces and made peace with the Persians, but as the war had devastated and exhausted both empires, the Arabs rose to power, quickly overtaking Persia and undoing the byzantine progress

[hieunt]

It's interesting that when you nowadays ask Greeks about what they associate with their land's tradition everyone will immediately answer "ancient Greece!" but they seem to have forgotten the byzantine part of history, which is so important and rich in details!

[cosmindumitrescu]

6:26 Istanbul the largest city in European Union? Bruh

[goodbanter]

Not to be that guy, but you *really* need to pay attention to your pronunciation of names...

[Zdawd]

The mispronunciation was killing me lol. It’s like he got dared on how many he could mispronounce in one video

[HieuNguyen-opud]

This video is very useful! Thank you 🙏

[TheIronChancellor]

For me this is the greatest empire humanity has ever made

[Eazy-ERyder]

0:45 I was like Emperor WHO? You're pronunciation from DIOCLETIAN on could use some work, but other than that, nice little concise video

[tashaanne]

You should check your pronunciation of most of these names. It's a little silly to say " Dol-la- CLE-ton" for DI- o-clete-shun! That's just one of many mispronounced words

[tincan]

I've never laughed so hard even on historical meme videos

[thihuonggiangnguyen]

"A Christian state with Greek as the official language, the Byzantines developed their own political systems, religious practices, art, and architecture, which, although significantly influenced by the Greco-Roman cultural tradition, were distinct and not merely a continuation of ancient Rome."
"The discussion of dates also highlights the differences in the ethnic and cultural mix between the two halves of the Roman world and the distinctness of the medieval state from its earlier Roman heritage. The Byzantines called themselves 'Romans', their emperor was Basildon ton Rhomaion or 'Emperor of the Romans' and their capital was 'New Rome'. However, the most common language was Greek, and it is fair to say that for the vast majority of its history, the Byzantine Empire WAS MUCH MORE GREEK THAN ROMAN in cultural terms."
Byzantine Empire: Definition by Mark Cartwright

[vanmars]

Talk about the Christian Byzantines: banger pic a Mosque! You had one job

[hieunt]

Fun fact, the Renaissance most likely wouldn't have started without the fall of Constantinople as all scholars that were in the city when it was conquered fled west to Italy and other Western Europe provinces, reintroducing medieval Europe to the Roman arts and kickstarting the Renaissance😄

[LesRealLlama]

Most certified Byzantine moment 👍➡️🇮🇹🫡

[papazataklaattiranimam]

In about 1440 John Argyropoulos wrote of the struggle for the freedom of ' Hellas ' in a letter addressed to John VIII as 'Emperor of Hellas'. We have come a long way from the days when the ambassador Liudprand of Cremona was thought unfit to be received at the Court because his credentials were addressed to the 'Emperor of the Greeks'. But 'Graeci' was never an acceptable term. George Scholarius, the future Patriarch Gennadius, who was to be the link between the old Byzantine world and the world of the Turcocratia, often uses 'Hellene' to mean anyone of Greek blood. But he had doubts about its propriety; he still retained the older view. When he was asked his specific opinion about his race, he wrote in reply: "Though I am a Hellene by birth, yet I would never say that I was a Hellene. For I do not believe as the Hellenes believed. I should like to take my name from my faith and, if anyone asked me what I am, to reply "a Christian". Though my father dwelt in Thessaly, ' he adds, 'I do not call myself a Thessalian, but a Byzantine. For I am of Byzantium.' It is to be remarked that though he repudiates the name of Hellene he calls the Imperial City not New Rome or Constantinople, but by its old Hellenic name.

Runciman, S. (1970). IMPERIAL DECLINE AND HELLENIC REVIVAL. In The Last Byzantine Renaissance (The Wiles Lectures, pp. 1-23). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

In contradistinction to a Julian, an Alexander Severus, a Marcus Aurelius and even a Hadrian, who felt themselves more Greek than Latin, Justinian wished to be a Latin Roman Emperor. He was confirmed in these feelings by his horror of Hellen ism. A Roman Emperor, Justinian was also a Christian Emperor. He considered himself the pillar of the Christian orthodox faith. The Hellenic spirit is profoundly pagan and Justinian abominated it. For him, as for his contem poraries and successors, Hellene was synonymous with pagan and to call anyone by this term was to insult him. The Greek peoples themselves assumed the name Pauaio (Romans). Even to-day Romios is still used by the common people. Hellene is an artificial term revived in the nineteenth century. The capital of the Empire is called Roum by the Arab and Turkish peoples of Asia.

Lot, F., 2013. End of the Ancient World. Routledge.

Many diverse peoples and languages coexisted within the Byzantine empire (Laiou and Maguire (eds.) 1992), and although Greek was the language of government and high culture and the terms 'Hellene' and even 'Greek' were sometimes applied to themselves by educated members of the elite in Constantinople from the Comnenian period onwards (Stouraitis 2014), Byzantium was not a Greek empire and Greek was never the only language spoken. Nevertheless the Byzantines' sense of themselves rested on a shared mythology of universalism and superiority.

Linehan, P., Nelson, J. and Costambeys, M., n.d. The medieval world.

Characteristics of the Byzantine Empire

After its capital was established in the east, the empire became, in scholarly parlance, the Eastern Roman Empire. Furthermore, because Constantine and all of his successors (except Julian the Apostate, 361 63) were Christians, the empire from here on can also be called the Christian Roman Empire. As a consequence of these two changes the Roman Empire had become the Byzantine. However, though used by scholars, none of these three names was used at the time. Though the empire had its center in a Greek cultural and linguistic area, as a result of which there followed a gradual hellenization of its institutions and culture, the emperors recognized no change. The empire remained the Roman Empire and the citizens (even though Greeks came to domi nate it) still called themselves Romans. The term Hellene (Greek) connoted a pagan. The term Byzantine was an invention of Renais sance scholars after the fall of the Byzantine Empire and was never used by its contemporaries. By the middle of the seventh century Greek had become the official language of all spheres of government and the army; nevertheless the empire remained "Roman" and despite divisions of its territory at times it was always seen as a single unit. Essentially the Byzantine Empire was a combination of three major cultural components: (1) Roman in political concepts, administration. law, and military organization. (2) Greek in language and culture, and (3) Christian in religion.

Fine, J., 1991. The early medieval Balkans. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, p.16.

[kaleemahmad]

0:43 Constantine devided Roman Empire into two parts in the 4th Century C.E.

[hongthamvu]

What a short and concise video!!! That's what I like most about your channel. Love you guys