Fall of Constantinople
By 350 A.D., Constantinople was one of the world's greatest capitals. The city was located between Asia and Europe, making it a very diverse and strategic place. The many bodies of water surrounding the peninsula gave Constantinople many trade routes as well as protection. The famous walls were also built to further strengthen security. Constantinople eventually rose to a beautiful city of strength and wealth. Its Greek heritage separated itself from the West with their religion of Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite the power of Constantinople, unending attacks and problems would eventually weaken the city. The first major catastrophe took place in 542, when a plague struck and killed massive amounts of people. The recovery was very slow, and it allowed for countless attacks. For Constantinople, however, it was just the beginning.
Justinian ruled the Byzantine Empire during its height. His military faced strength from the East that greatly endangered his people. The Sassanian Empire of Persia was one threat that Byzantines needed to conquer. The Persians endangered eastern lands, so Justinian's military prevented any conquest. The Sassanians were defeated and security was briefly gained. After his success, Justinian wanted to regain lands the Roman Empire once lost to invaders. Byzantine armies began a reconquest of Spain, Italy, and North Africa. Battles against various Germanic groups took place, and western lands were conquered by the Byzantines. The wars were expensive, and resources were low. Defense became weak and territories were lost increasingly after Justinian's death.
During the early 700s, the Byzantine Empire was in turmoil and chaos. As Leo III took power, Constantinople was being attacked by Avars, Bulgarians, and Arabs. The Arabs from the Middle East were a main concern for Leo III because of their large conquests in the Asia Minor. The Arabs advanced to spread their faith of Islam and control resources. The Arabs slowly acquired land until their siege on Constantinople itself. Leo III made brilliant defense moves to stop the invaders. His military forces attacked the Arabs from the rear successfully while naval forces were repelled with Greek Fire. Greek Fire was the empire's secret weapon that may have saved them from the Arab siege. Arab ships would burst into flames from contact with the "liquid fire." Fighting continued for a year until the Arabs retreated. Constantinople was defended successfully, but the empire suffered heavy losses and continued to loose land.
The era from about 1025 to 1453 witnessed the Byzantine Empire in its ultimate destruction.
The Byzantine empire was under attack from the Seljuk Turks and Alexius Comnenus, the emperor of the Byzantine empire, required help from Western Europe. Knights were sent for support, but during the Fourth Crusade, defending the Byzantine empire was not made an important priority, and the Crusaders therefore pillaged Constantinople for their own benefit. Pope Innocent the Third was outraged to hear that the Crusaders destroyed Constantinople, saying in the reprimand of papal legate, “It was your duty to attend to the business of your legation and to give careful consideration, not to the capture of the Empire of Constantinople, but rather to the defense of what is left of the Holy Land…”. Through the quote, it is proved that defending the Holy Land was a higher priority than attacking the Byzantine empire. Furthermore, Pope Innocent the Third did not mention that defending the Byzantine empire was the Crusaders’ ‘business of their legation’ and therefore means that the cause is very trivial, or it has been neglected. Although defending the Byzantine empire was a cause of the Crusades, it did not last long and did not contribute much to the creation of the other
Did Justinian impact life as we know it because he is such a great ruler, or is he just a follower who keeps trying to hold on to the loose threads of a fallen empire? Some might say that without Justinian, humanity is a step further back. Others may argue evermore that Justinian is a two-faced liar who you cannot trust (Doc. 2). Contrary to many beliefs, Justinian creates a new Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome that is influential to many different cultures, more advanced and educated than Rome, and more economically thriving than the Roman Empire.
The Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg has said, “ There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times.” The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in the history of mankind, consisting of the genocide of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, mentally handicapped and many others during World War II. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, and his army of Nazis and SS troops carried out the terrible proceedings of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps, and suffers a relentless “night” of terror and torture in which humans were treated as animals. Wiesel discovers the “Kingdom of Night” (118), in which the history of the Jewish people is altered. This is Wiesel’s “dark time of life” and through his journey into night he can’t see the “light” at the end of the tunnel, only continuous dread and darkness. Night is a memoir that is written in the style of a bildungsroman, a loss of innocence and a sad coming of age. This memoir reveals how Eliezer (Elie Wiesel) gradually loses his faith and his relationships with both his father (dad), and his Father (God). Sickened by the torment he must endure, Wiesel questions if God really exists, “Why, but why should I bless him? Because he in his great might, had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? (67). Throughout the Holocaust, Wiesel’s faith is not permanently shattered. Although after his father dies, his faith in god and religion is shaken to the core, and arguably gone. Wiesel, along with most prisoners, lose their faith in God. Wiesel’s loss of religion becomes the loss of identity, humanity, selfishness, and decency.
Within the first couple of chapters alone, Huxley describes the conditioning process and the abilities to manipulate the thinking, feeling, acting, and genetic makeup of all processed children within the World State, as well as expresses the ironic nature behind the World State’s motto: “Community, Identity, Stability” (Huxley 3). The emphasis behind the motto connects to the overarching idea of the importance of the group and the unimportance of the individuals; furthermore, the motto screams the inference of freedom, but contrasts due to the lack of community as a whole, lack of individuality, and lack of stability in one’s self. The continuity within the perpetual “lacks of” grasps hold of not just the World State, but America. Government holds restrictions on what classes students can take in schools, what lunches they are served, etc., connecting to the control within the World State as it determines the thought processes and education given to every child. The conditioning of the children and the lack of choice in present day society within education systems creates a lack of understanding within the idea of freedom and what it truly means to be
No one understands such a dreadful experience as the Holocaust without shifting in the way you were before. In Night, a memoir by Elie Wiesel, the author defines his suffering at the hands of Nazis. Taken with his family in 1944, they were directed to Auschwitz to come before the dishonorable selection. There, Elie parted from his mom and sister leaving him with his father who was too busy to spend any time with his son before the camp. Being under the Nazis' control, Elie and his father moved to several camps. The Nazi command “deprived Elie...of the desire to live..., which murdered his God and soul and turned my dreams to dust” (32).
Their power was immense. Their walls were up to 40 feet high, and their armies were feared. With the help of key allies like Venice and the Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantines were able to accumulate wealth at an astonishing rate. The Byzantines were a gateway to the Middle East and India. They served as a blockage for the Turks and Egypt. The Byzantines were able to do more and be more because they had knowledge that most of Europe did not have. The Byzantines went through many rules, each better than the last. The Byzantines didn’t allow armies to march onto their cities until the eventual sack of Constantinople. The Byzantines are a rule that will be remembered for
Mr. Wiesel had intended this book to describe a period of time in his life that had been dark and sorrowful. This novel is based on a survivor of the greatest Holocaust in history, Eliezer Wiesel and his journey of being a Jew in 1944. The journey had started in Sighet, Transylvania, where Elie spent his childhood. During the Second World War, Germans came to Elie and his family’s home town. They brought with them unnecessary evil and despair to mankind. Shortly after young Elie and thousands of other Jews were forced from their habitats and torn from their rights of being human. They were sent to different concentration camps. Elie and his family were sent to Auschwitz, a concentration and extermination camp. It would be the last time Elie sees his mother and little sister, Tzipora. The first sights of Auschwitz were terrifying. There were big flames coming from the burning of bodies and the crematoriums. The Jews had no idea of what to expect. They were not told what was about to happen to them. During the concentration camp, there was endless death and torture. The Jews were starved and were treated worse than cattle. The prisoners began to question their faith in God, wondering why God himself would
Western Medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire were originally part of the Roman Empire. It was not until the Middle Ages, they started to become very different even though they shared several common traits. The Byzantine Empire had surpassed much of Western Europe by the 300's, not only in trade and economics, but also in politics even while both argued over religion.
The concepts of the Utopian society placed in Aldous Huxley’s novel, A Brave New World, reflect the fearful thoughts of the future of our society and mirror certain components of the present. Certain concepts of the great society in the novel are severe and do not apply to our society, but components of these ideas are increasingly being dispersively observed throughout our present society. The warnings developed by Huxley are reflected in the present through the intellectual castes of the workforce, the concept of sex being less based on marriage, and the mind being enslaved by conditioning.
The characters in Things Fall Apart are not black and white: they are flawed, redeemed, frustrated, assertive, violent, reasonable, and genuine. These traits are determined by perspective, and the a...
Much of past civilizations have endured many failures and triumphs throughout their existence. In the third century, there were many civilizations that started to flourish. One of these civilizations that started to expand was the Byzantine civilization. The Byzantine civilization, also regarded as Byzantium, was part of the Roman Empire which was divided in 395 AD. Byzantium had shared the same attitude, as the Roman Empire, toward exercising its authority over its citizens and throughout its empire. The Islamic civilization had started thrive in the fifth century. The Islamic civilization was unified together as unison by Islam and it has expanded its civilization throughout parts of Europe through jihad. Because of their expansions throughout parts of Europe, they shared various similarities which include their political system, social structure, and economy.
...mpletely disappeared. The eastern half of the empire became the Byzantine Empire and it survived and flourished greatly. The Byzantine Empire retained the roman culture for another 1000 years. This empire continued to exist until 1453 when it fell to the Turks. Even though the political dynasty of the Roman Empire fell, the ideas and customs of the romans still influence the development of the western civilization until now.
Through his use of irony, contrast, and unrealistic descriptions Wiesel crafts a memory that we both shy away from and feel the deepest attraction towards. He skillfully creates a sense of confusion in us as he moves between two poles when describing his experiences and emphasizes the irrationality of the concentration camps with a tone of irony. Through all the suffering Eliezer faces, however, he tries to shine through the ugliness with beauty both through his memories and his writing style. Wiesel writes a masterful memoir that will leave a deep and profound impression on anyone.
The rational choice theory comes from the classical theory which is based off of personal choice towards criminal behavior. Criminal behavior under the rational choice theory has been due to the free thinking of society and has always been because of a specific thought process of personal vendettas. For example, a jealous person may feel the need to do something physically illegal like punching another person in the face because the benefit of gratitude is worth the risk of consequence. The example above is part of the rational choice theory and the reason is because that particular person weighed the costs and benefits of their illegal action. Rational choice theory is a vision where crime is a functionality of the decision-making process of the criminal in which they weigh the costs and benefits of an illegal act in society (Siegel, 2011).
Criminology is a very broad and complex speciality, which can be easily involved in various areas, it can simply say that this area of study has been studied for over a thousand years since Plato and Aristotle had demonstrated how to define the standard of crime and punishment (Criminology: Intellectual History, 2017: no page number). Despite their theories had been justified after a few centuries. To say it another way, Newburn noted that criminology is a study of wrongdoing, how are the criminals be trailed or judged and find out who will normally be breaking the law (Newburn, 2017: 6). It is also a branch of sociology. To figure out why people commit crime are the core issue in criminology. Many scholars have developed several theories to explain why people would like to take the risk. And in this essay, it will mainly focus on studies of people to break the law and commit a crime, why people are encouraged to commit a crime, and how should offenders be punished to prevent crime.