The Fall Of Constantinople History Essay

“One who predominantly rises must feebly fall, at one point must rot.” – Ibn Battuta Constantinople, before the Turks arrived, was a dominion in its most flourishing times. This previously wealthy and esteemed medieval city developed weak foundations based in religious society because of constant religious powers changing. The Turkish with militaristic technologies and Islam weakened the economics, alliance structures, and created territorial loss and military shortcomings. Although Constantinople was a very robust dominion for a lengthy era, obstacles such as territorial loss and military shortcomings caused the eventual fall of Constantinople.

While the Arabs did not play a major role in the actual siege of Constantinople, the played a very major and key role in the weakening of the Constantinople’s surrounding territories. The territorial loss created by the Arabs directly correlate with the eventual fall of Constantinople. Territorial loss to Arabs had a detrimental impact on the government tax revenue, causing shortages in military spending, in turn making Constantinople more prone to attack due to the shortage of military spending. [1] Due to the shortage of the tax revenue, the Byzantine devised a new system of taxation where all of the districts of the Byzantine land had to pay taxes separately instead of a whole. With this system, each district had its own concerns, resulting in disunification and civil war between the districts, devastating the protective land around Constantinople. These Arab conquerors were taking over territories in the eastern Anatolia and Levant regions. These areas were crucially important for the agriculture productivity of the Byzantium and Constantinople and the taking over of these lands by the Arabs left the people with a scarce supply of resources. [2] The reduction of Agricultural productivity caused a steep downturn in trade and economics that used to prosper in Constantinople. Also, the Latin army attacks of 1412 CE caused many parts of Constantinople’s triple wall system on the East side of the city to be damaged and caused their fortification to suffer as a result. [3] The Eastern portion of the Theodosian walls of Constantinople are crucial due to the fact the East side protected from invading forces by land. Thus, the territorial loss by the Arabs and the Latin Army caused a dent in Constantinople, leading to their own fall.

One of the other key aspects that factored into the fall of Constantinople was the fact that Constantinople was militaristically deficient compared to the Turkish military, which drastically damaged Constantinople’s defense capabilities. The Turkish had military technologies and capabilities that completely out scaled the Constantinople’s military. Ottoman and Christian military forces joined hands instead of fighting each other and launched attacks on Constantinople, crippling their administrative capabilities and Orthodox underpinnings. [4] The Ottoman and Christian army which were both feuding with each other formed alliances to take Constantinople over, both wishing to dispute the territory. The Theodosian walls surrounding and protecting the city and boundaries were a series of three concentric, terraced, and fortified. [5] These walls however, did not stand up to the cannons, catapults, and rams of the Turks and Christian armies. Whether they were the rams or the cannons, the defiant Ottoman weapons technology out matched the Byzantines, causing the fall of the military of Constantinople.

Repetitive religious power shifts occurring through the empire from Eastern Orthodox to Catholic and back caused many discrepancies and instabilities in Constantinople, in return making the confused civilians of Constantinople more prone to conversion by Islam. [6] While disputes between religions were occurring in Constantinople, many Islamic conversionists saw this as a chance to convert the feuding Christians to Muslims. [7] Many people of the civilian population who were confused and tired of the constant feuds going on within Christianity chose Islam as a way out of these constant disputes. [8] The simplistic and fundamental teachings of Islam and its five pillars was appealing to this confused crowd of Christians because of the straightforwardness of the teachings, where many interpretations of the Christian teachings existed. The message that the pheasants should be treated equally with officials requisitioned to the everyday civilians of Constantinople. Due to the fact that the Turkish brought Islam to many of these converts in Constantinople, they accepted the Turkish as rulers for the city. Also, the fact that the Quran was available to read for the common people appealed to the Christians who had to listen to a church of priest interpretation of the Bible. Church disputes and appealing Islamic messages allowed Turks to take over the religious aspect of the area, eventually allowing them to completely take over the rule of Constantinople.

Constantinople, before the Turks arrived, was a dominion in its most flourishing times. This previously wealthy and esteemed medieval city developed weak foundations based in religious society because of constant religious powers changing. The Turkish, Latins, and Eastern Christians with militaristic technologies and Islam weakened the economics, alliance structures, and created territorial loss and military shortcomings. Thus, many changes such as territorial loss, religious shifts, and military weakness damaged Constantinople enough to make it fall.