The Fourth Crusades: The Fall Of Constantinople

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The Fall of Constantinople had an economic impact on Europe as well. Constantinople is placed strategically at the Bosphorus Strait, a crossroads not only between Europe and the Middle East, and by extension Asia, but also the only sea route in and out of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. For centuries, the Byzantines used their own capital as their main trading hub, with near universal access to all of the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and Europe. European traders used Constantinople as a means of trading with the Orient (Asia) to get rare and expensive spices, salt, silk, and other exotic products from Asia. This was in fact partly why the Fourth Crusade had gone so awry; the Venetians wanted better trading rights to get easier …show more content…

No, the country in question was actually Russia. Russia, from the time it was only known as Rus, had close ties with the Byzantines, even though the Russians had tried invasion once before in 941 A.D.. Russia converted to Greek Orthodoxy only through the efforts of Byzantine missionaries spreading the faith in the north. Russian royalty and nobility frequently intermarried with Byzantine dynasties as well, giving them some claim on the Byzantine throne by blood. When the city had fallen and the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, had perished, “the Russians were eager to assume the mantle of authority that rested with the Byzantine Emperors in Constantinople.” (Thackeray and Findling 134). To take this torch the Byzantines were supposedly to the Russians, the rulers started calling themselves “Czars/Tsars”, or “Caesars”, and even “New Constantines”. To the Russians, if Rome was the first and Constantinople was the second, Moscow was the Third Rome. This feeling of importance and prestige of being the supposed “heirs” of the Byzantine and therefore Roman Empire allowed the Russians to more easily dominate Eastern Europe and the various ethnic groups that resided within their boundaries. Surprisingly enough, at the time, “...many Greeks were favorably disposed to this, since the Idea of having a powerful monarchy somewhere in Europe which could function as a protector and patron of the Orthodox faith appealed to them” (Thackeray and Findling 134). The Collapse of Constantinople allowed the Russians to gain the prestige and self-confidence they needed to later become the dominant power within Eastern

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