1. What does this map show?
2. What do the red and purple lines represent?
3. The lists of items in black?
4. Where do many of the trade routes seem to intersect?
5. What does this tell us about Constantinople?

The Byzantine Empire and Trade

SPICET notes

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EDPuzzle

Describe causes and/or effects of the rise of the Byzantine Empire.

What is the Byzantine Empire and how did it impact Christianity?

N/A

Independent Work

Learning Target

Focus Question

News & Updates

Homework

• What does this map show?
• What do the red and purple lines represent?
• The lists of items in black?
• Where do many of the trade routes seem to intersect?
• What does this tell us about Constantinople?

The Byzantine Empire and Trade

Why did Rome fall?

• Political problems were one factor.
• Rome never developed a reliable system for choosing its leaders. By the 200s C.E., most Roman emperors were generals who seized power by force. (SAT Word: Usurp Power)
• They depended on their soldiers for support, and few stayed in power for long.
• Twenty-six emperors ruled Rome in the last half of the third century.
• All but one was killed or committed suicide.

Why did Rome fall?

• Other problems were economic and social in nature.
• To support the empire and its defense, Rome raised taxes to levels that were too high for most poor farmers to bear.
• Many left their farms and fled to the cities.
• There were not enough jobs to support these migrants.
• Poverty and social problems increased.
• Diseases also swept across the empire, killing as much as one fourth of the population.
• Farming and trade suffered, and tax revenues plummeted.
• The price of food and other goods shot up.
• This inflation fueled anger and social unrest.

Why did Rome fall?

• The Roman Empire's enormous size had always made it difficult to govern.
• To solve this problem, the emperor Diocletian split the empire into eastern and western halves.
• In 324, Emperor Constantine transferred the capital to the eastern city of Byzantium, which became Constantinople.

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Why did Rome fall?

• In the meantime, Germanic tribes continued to attack the western empire.
• Invaders entered Rome and sacked the city twice, once in 410 and again in 455.
• Rome was teetering on the brink of collapse.
• In 476, a Germanic leader overthrew the last western emperor.
• The eastern empire, later known as the Byzantine Empire, survived for another thousand years.
• It never regained the strength or glory of the Roman Empire at its height.

Why did Rome fall?

Why is ancient Rome so important to world history?

• Administration of a vast empire
• Christianity
• Architecture
• Engineering
• Historians
• Jewish Diaspora
• Literature
• Roman law
• Romance languages (Latin based)
• Transmission of Greek (Hellenistic) culture

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The Byzantine Empire

Period 1: 1200 CE – 1450 CE

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© Morgan AP Teaching

• Due to administrative and territorial issues, The Eastern Empire split from Rome after 330 CE, and continued under Greek rule (although they continue to refer to themselves as Romans) from the capital of Constantinople

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• While the West fell in 485 CE, the East continued and was a dominant force in economics, politics, trade, and culture until 1453

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• Throughout the Post-Classical Era, the Byzantine Empire would connect the the Mediterranean to the East via trade through the Silk Road in Antioch

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• At its height, Justinian (527-565) and Theodora re-conquered the West

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• However, plagues, like the Black Death (14^th century), rebellions (Basil the Copperhand), and invasions by Arabs and Turks from the 8^th to 15^th centuries would lead to its decline in 1453

Byzantine Empire (330 CE – 1453 CE)

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Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 C.E. As the religion spread across Europe, however, conflicts arose over differences of opinion about Christian beliefs.

The Great Schism of 1054 One such conflict occurred between church leaders in eastern and western Europe. Church leaders in western Europe insisted that the Christian church had one leader—the pope. The pope lived in Rome. But he claimed authority over Christians everywhere.

Church leaders in eastern Europe rejected this claim by the pope. Their leaders were called the patriarchs. The patriarch of Constantinople claimed authority over all Christians in eastern Europe.

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In 1054, a quarrel between these leaders split the church into two separate branches. The western branch became the Roman Catholic Church. The eastern branch became the Eastern Orthodox Church. This division of the Christian church is remembered as the Great Schism of 1054.

Roman Catholic

Eastern Orthodox

Split in Christianity

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• United with the pope in Rome, religious differences caused the Great Schism In 1054, starting the Eastern Orthodox Church in Constantinople

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• This split in Christendom established the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church separately, and as enemies

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• However, the Patriarch of Constantinople was setup as the equivalent of the pope in Rome and gave legitimacy to the emperor by anointing him and constructed the Hagia Sophia as its primary church

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• Religious hierarchy was similar to the Church in Rome, with bishops and priests heading churches and convents throughout

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• From here, missionaries (Cyril and Methodius) spread throughout eastern Europe, and converted the Kievan Rus and other Slavic peoples

Eastern Orthodox Church – 1054 CE to Present

© Morgan AP Teaching