Religious Influence On Byzantium

Heraclius was an Eastern Roman emperor who reigned from 610 to 641. He was born in 575 in eastern Anatolia. During this time most of the people were farmers. The soldiers were mercenaries. The social structure of the Byzantine Greeks was supported by a rural, agricultural base that consisted of the peasants. They lived in villages, hamlets, and on estates. His father, was governor of the Roman province of Africa when an appeal came from Constantinople to save the Eastern Roman Empire from the terror and incompetence of the emperor Phocas. The empire was in a civil war. The Governor equipped a military force, with his son, Heraclius as commander. In October 610, Heraclius entered Constantinople, toppled Phocas, and was crowned emperor

The development of Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire were different due to government, economies and religion. The Byzantine Empire was ruled by an Emperor instead of a King, while Western Europe was separated into different countries by the language spoken. Western Europe had social systems of feudalism in place to serve the people. Christianity played a major role in both of the developments of Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire was influenced by Romans, but Western Europe considered the Pope to be of high influence and guidance. Both empires’ economies were very different. The Byzantine became one of the wealthiest empires ever, while the Western economy was an agricultural based with little trading with

This research paper is all about the two empires in Turkey: the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire. The Byzantine Empire was in the site of Byzantium, where it was a small town but it was a very important place during this time because this site used to be where the Byzantium Empire laid, the area was highly fertile, also stood as the guard over the only entrance into the Black Sea, and it laid by a deep bay which was the golden horn- meaning this city could only be attacked by the west.

“Constantinople was a city where people of every religion lived next to one another, living in their own quarters and social structures.” Paragraph 18, Macedonian Dynasty

The people of Byzantium were mostly catholic. Justinian and his wife, Theodora, were also Christian. Justinian was a saint as well. Religion was important because

The Muslims in the East had more success in building a more efficient society because they placed emphasis on expansion to promote economic stability. In 1453, Constantinople fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire (Doc 4), thus allowing the Ottoman Empire to control the Bosporus Strait. The Bosporus Strait connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, permitting the Ottomans to tax merchants going through the strait as a shortcut to Africa and Europe (OI). The advantageous geographic location of Constantinople enabled Constantinople to not only become the cultural center for Islamic beliefs but also allowed Constantinople to flourish and gain much wealth, positively impacting the Ottoman Empire’s economy. In addition to promoting trade,

Allen Cutler’s journal article delves in to the concept of military conflict and conversion to Christianity during the First Crusade. The author states that it was the intent of Pope Urban II who inherited his interest in crusading against Muslims from Pope Gregory VII, to Christianize Muslims, by words and example. There have been those who have argued Urban II had no interest in conversion, but Allen, counters their assumptions by presenting three document sources that imply that during Urban’s speech at Clermont he broached the subject of conversion, by referring to the Turks as “a race utterly alienated from God.” Allen surmises that Urban the implication is they were not “converted to Christianity” and therefore conversion was foremost on Pope Urban’s mind. The Pope also wanted to reinstall papal

Religion and its various ideologies played a key role in advancing the authority of the Ottoman and Catholic Europe; it also influenced the way they confronted outside powers and people from other religions.

Some primary reasons to study the Byzantines are because they protected the differentiating religions in the world, was the base of our law today, and preserved important information from further in history. In Document A, it states, “Had the [Arabs] captured Constantinople in the seventh century… all Europe - and America - might be Muslim today.” Additionally, in Document C, it explains how the Christian Orthodox Church that the Byzantines practiced is a lasting cultures still practice all over the world: 75% of Russia is Christian Orthodox. This shows that the Byzantine empire was part of the development of the different religions in our world today. With so much of our population practicing and believing in the religion that the Byzantines

The First Crusade was a very dark and scary time in history, the first of many crusades to finally catch the “Holy Lands” that were called upon by Pope Urban II. The crusades were fought against many different religions including the Franks, the Byzantine Empire, the Seljuk Turks, and the RCC crusaders to name only a few. This crusade was fought for many reasons including religion, political power, political defense, and political greed. These four factors played a huge part in the crusades, however the factor that started the crusades and motivated many, not all, but many to fight in the crusades was religion. Many different religions were present at the time and all of them wanted to conquer the “Holy Land” of Jerusalem, throughout battles,

medieval life was religion. Almost every community had a building for church, unless it was a larger town or city, in that case, it would have a cathedral. The church would be located in the center of the community, for easy access. Church bells were a signal that warned people of danger and called them to worship (Frey 3). Services were held at the church multiple times throughout each day. The churches also held town meetings, plays, and concerts. Not only did the churches hold events, but they would also help the poor and sick (Frey 3). When things began to get crazy, people used religion to help them overcome obstacles. Due to this, the Church was able to become powerful and wealthy (Richardson). As a result of the fact that churches were an important aspect of medieval life, they were able to manipulate

To start with, Orthodox Christianity serves as one of the major religions in the Balkans.

Islam and Christianity both originally came from the Middle East, and both have many differences and similarities. I believe that Christianity was the first to come about in the 5th or 6th century, then Islam came about in the 7th century, it is hard to tell what information is correct and what is not because much of the information is conflicting. I do believe from all the information that I read that this piece of information was correct, the Islam people believed that if you do something wrong you pay, and the Christians were more passive and believed in forgiveness.

After an expansionist policy in Europe that started in the 1300s and lasted for over one century, the Ottoman Empire finally conquered the Byzantine kingdom in 1453 (Eva 491). The Ottoman colony composed of mainly Islamic invaders who originated from modern day Turkey. When the Christian capital Constantinople fell to the foreign military, Sultan Mehmed II established a new reign. Geographically, the city lay in between the Black Sea, Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. This position, consequently, placed it at the center of thriving trade routes that connected Asia and Europe. Initially, Constantinople had a robust culture characterized by religious diversity with a predominantly

Religion anchors believers to the Iron Age. The Iron Age was a time of rampant superstition, ignorance, inequality, racism, misogyny, hate, violence and slavery. Women were treated not only badly but considered inferior to men who are in possession of women. Warlords were constantly engaged in warfare. People sacrificed living animals, agricultural products and enemy soldiers as burnt offerings intended to appease gods. Holy books like Bible, Torah, Koran and others preserve and protect the Iron Age cultures and practices by the name of god or goddesses. Religious believers find excuses for demonstrating the sense of superiority, bigotry, wars and many other destructive pursuits that all these are written text revealed by God. While moral consciousness by virtue of humanity is emerging that is the Golden Rule, religious believers are reluctant to move away from orthodox believe rather they are anchored to the Iron Age .