The Byzantine Empire and the

Rise of Europe

The Early Byzantine Empire

Capital: Byzantium
On the Bosporus

Golden Horn

Commercial, strategic value of location

Constantine names capital after himself
(Constantinople), moves capital there after 330
C.E.
1453, falls to Turks, renamed Istanbul

Successor States to the Roman Empire,

ca. 600 C.E.

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Caesaropapism

Power centralized in figure of emperor

Christian leader cannot claim divinity, rather
divine authority
Political rule
Involved in religious rule as well
Authority absolute

Justinian (527-565 C.E.)

The sleepless emperor

Wife Theodora as advisor

Ambitious construction programs

Background: circus performer

The church of Hagia Sophia

Justinians code: codification of Roman law

Byzantine Conquests

Effort to reconquer much of western Roman

empire from Germanic people
Unable to consolidate control of territories
Abandon Rome

Muslim Conquests

Seventh century, Arab Muslim expansion

Besieged Byzantium 674-678, 717-718
Defense made possible through use of Greek
fire

Theme System

Themes (provinces) under control of generals

Military administration
Control from central imperial government
Soldiers from peasant class, rewarded with land
grants

The Germanic Successor States

Last Roman emperor deposed by Germanic

Odoacer, 476 C.E.
Administrative apparatus still in place, but cities
lose population
Germanic successor states:

Visigoths
Ostrogoths
Lombards
Franks

The Late Byzantine Empire

Eleventh century, wealthy landowners undermine

the theme system

Free peasants become dependent agricultural laborers

Diminished tax receipts

Challenges from the West

Western European economic development

Normans from Scandinavia press on Byzantine
territories
Crusades of twelfth and thirteenth centuries
rampage through Byzantine territory

Constantinople sacked, 1204

Challenges from the East

Muslim Saljuqs invade Anatolia

Threatens grain supply

Defeat of Byzantine army in 1071 creates civil

conflict
Period of steady decline until Ottoman Turks
capture Constantinople in 1453

Renamed Istanbul

Successor States to the Roman Empire,

ca. 600 C.E.

2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Franks

Heavy influence on European development, fifth

to ninth centuries
Conversion to Christianity gains popular support
Firm alliance with western Christian church

Charlemagne (r. 768-814)

Grandson of Charles Martel

Centralized imperial rule
Functional illiterate, but sponsored extensive
scholarship
Major military achievements

Charlemagnes Administration

Capital at Aachen, Germany

Yet constant travel throughout empire
Imperial officials: missi dominici (envoys of the
lord ruler)

Continued yearly circuit travel

Charlemagne as Emperor

Hesitated to challenge Byzantines by taking title

emperor

Yet ruled in fact

Pope Leo III crowns him as emperor in 800

Planned in advance?
Challenge to Byzantium

The Carolingian Empire, 814 C.E.

2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Vikings

From village of Vik, Norway (hence Viking)

Boats with shallow drafts, capable of river travel
as well as on open seas
Attacked villages, cities, monasteries from ninth
century

Constantinople sacked three times

Carolingians had no navy, dependent on local

defenses

The Dissolution of the Carolingian Empire

(843 C.E.) and the Invasions of Early Medieval
Europe in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries

2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pope Gregory I (590-604 C.E.)

Gregory the Great

Asserted papal primacy
Prominent theologian

Sacrament of penance

The Holy Roman Empire

Otto I of Saxony takes advantage of decline of

Carolingian empire to establish kingdom in north
Germany, mid-tenth century C.E.
Military forays into eastern Europe
Twice enters Italy to aid Roman Catholic church
Pope John XII names Otto emperor of Holy
Roman Empire, 962 C.E.

Tensions between Emperors and the

Church

Investiture Contest, late eleventh to early twelfth

century
Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) attempts to end
practice of lay investiture
Excommunicates Emperor Henry IV (1056-1106)
German peoples take opportunity to rebel

Quashed with difficulty

Frederick Barbarossa
(r. 1152-1190 C.E.)

Frederick I, red beard

Attempt to absorb Lombardy (northern Italy)
Popes did not want him to gain that much power,
enlisted aid from other states
Frederick forced to back down

Regional Monarchies:
France and England

Capetian France

Hugh Capet succeeds last Carolingian Emperor, 987

C.E.
Slowly expands authority out from Paris

Normans in England

Invade England in 1066 under William the Conqueror

Dominate Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic groups

Iberian Peninsula

Muslims control Iberian peninsula, eighth to

twelfth century
From eleventh century on, Christian conquest of
Spanish Muslim territories
Late thirteenth century, Muslims remain only in
Granada

European Population Growth,

800-1300 C.E.

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Crusading Orders

Religious Christians form military-religious

orders

Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights

Religious vows of opposition to Islam, paganism

Founded churches and monasteries

The Reconquest of Sicily and Spain

Sicily taken by Muslims in ninth century,

reconquered by Normans in eleventh century

Slow displacement of Islam

Opportunity for cross-cultural fertilization

Two small Christian states survive Muslim

conquest
Become nucleus of reconquest, 1060s-1492
Rapid, forceful assertions of Christian authority

The Beginning of the Crusades

Pope Urban II calls for liberation of Jerusalem

from Muslim control, 1095

Council of Clermont

Deus vult God wills it!

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30

The First Crusade

1096-1099, more organized expedition

Captures Jerusalem, largely due to poor Muslim
organization
Salah al-Din (Saladin) recaptures Jerusalem in
1187

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31

The Regional States of Medieval Europe,

1000-1300 C.E.

2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.