The Eastern Roman Empire Decline Research Paper

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Introduction

In historical importance, the Great Roman Empire was one of the very important chapters. The Roman Empire was built in 27 BC. One of the very important aspects of the empire was an autocratic form of Government. The empire was stretched in Europe and also had holdings around the Mediterranean Sea. There are two major parts of the Roman Empire historically. They are:

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  1. The Western Roman Empire: The West part of the Roman Empire.
  2. The Eastern Roman Empire: The other half of the Roman Empire was called the Eastern Roman Empire or as popularly called the Byzantine Empire. It was the Roman Empire that existed in the Middle Ages, and its capital was Constantinople.

If we look at the historical theories, the researchers will provide us with some theories about the fall of the Roman Empire, which is very relevant in this discussion. The general causes of the fall of the Roman Empire are as follows:

  • Overexpansion of the Empire and the subsequent inflation
  • Vegetius claimed that the breaking of the military and the inclusion of Germanic mercenaries in high ranks is one of the most important causes.
  • There was also the cause of deforestation.

History of the Eastern Roman Empire

The Empire survived for over 1000 years and during that time it was one of the most powerful socio-economical powers of the continent. The Empire controlled places like the “Balkans, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and also some parts of Libya too”. Though the empire had to be involved in constant war with feuding nations or civil wars and the boundaries of the Empire would always change, overall it was one of the biggest empires of the World.

The Decline

The Empire suffered huge setbacks due to wars like the Roman Persian war, better known as Byzantine-Sassanid Wars, which went on for more than a hundred years, to be very precise from AD 502 to AD 628, and The Byzantine Arab wars, which continued for more than 400 years( AD 634-AD 1180). In the second war, the Arab people gained lands and the Eastern Roman Empire suffered heavy blows. Later in the year 1071, the Empire lost a major part of Asia Minor. Another very important setback suffered by the Empire was during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 when the realm was divided into Greek and Latin parts. Though it gained some strength, the Byzantine- Ottoman Wars, which continued from AD 1265 to AD 1453was finally responsible for the destruction of the Empire and the subsequent fall of Constantinople.

Now in the following part of the discussion, we will concentrate on the conflicts and the subsequent causes that caused the empire to fall ultimately.

The Golden Days of the Empire were stretched from Armenia to the southern part of Italy and in this area, most of the places were conquered in battles. The army was one of the most powerful armies in the World. They had defeated many barbaric races and the Kong also wanted to occupy Sicily to prevent the Arabs to set foot there.

During the religious complexities that started in the Catholic Church in the eleventh century, and also the increasing power of the Islamic race, Byzantium Empire was soon faced with some really difficult problems. The first of the problems was that their military was getting weaker due to some wrong decisions taken by the kings. Kings like Basil II and Tzimiskes changed the former and very powerful military division. The Eastern Roman Army was a rapid action force, which also can be used as a primary defensive army in cases. The numbers of mercenaries were less in the army. But they changed it into a professional –campaigning army that had more mercenaries than ever. This called for a lot of money and this was responsible for the destruction of the crux of the force too. Large arsenals, garrisons, and forts were made to provide the army with weapons and lodging. The cost of the military was rising monumentally and the country was facing inflation. Also, the later kings of the empire lacked the military talent that was needed to survive the threats coming from both inside and outside of the empire. Finally, the army changed from a weapon to an empire to a political threat and unnecessary burden over the common people.

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In the time of unrest, the Empire faced Normans in Southern Italy, who slowly but at a steady pace started their advance to the heart of the Empire. Another big problem was lurking in Asia Minor, where the Turks were constantly troubling the Eastern Roman Empire and they were uncontrollable.

At this point, another very important chapter of history opened. The First Crusade started in the Eleventh Century. From the First Crusade, the Eastern Roman empire was involved in the Holy War.

In the process, the Eastern Roman Empire was involved in all the four Holy Crusades which almost went on for five decades. This had a heavy effect on the Empire that was continuously falling apart. The first two causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, which are inflation and over-expansion, along with the continuous and indirect weakening of the army (because of the inclusion of the German mercenaries) were making the empire tremble from the very base.

The fall of the Eastern Roman Empire can be divided into some steps and in the final part of the discussion, we will discuss that.

The Empire went to exile

The Latin Crusaders sacked Constantinople in the year 1204, and they established two successive states. The states were named as Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus. After some time a third state called the Empire of Trebizond was created. The three states were competitors in the race to rule the Byzantine Empire. The center of the empire was lost and it was now a shadow of the former glory. In between this, the Mongol invaders were gaining power and the small kings surrounding the empire were preparing for a large scale of the assault. The Empire was breaking into fragments.

As a big problem, the Eastern Roman Empire always had problems of settlers and invaders in the history of the nation, but the empire suffered not much problem as the military was strong. But at the fag end of the empire, the military failed to control the invaders.

The Conquest of Constantinople

The Nicaea Empire captured Constantinople in the year 1261 from the marauding Latin army. This was historically termed as the “short-lived revival of Byzantine”. Michael VIII ruled Byzantine at that time. But sadly, his empire was not very much equipped and it was surrounded by much stronger enemies. To prevent the recently defeated Latin army, Michael VIII withdrew his army from Asia Minor, which was one of the biggest military errors of that time. Asia Minor was the home for a lot of warriors who were eyeing the piece of land. He again made another mistake. He put the burden of unnecessary taxes on the peasants of the area. It made the peasants grudge against the King. All the money earned by the taxes was used to reconstruct the heavy damages to the forts from the Fourth Crusade. He did not take any efforts to relieve the tax burden on the farmers in areas like Asia Minor. Then, Asia Minor was suffering from sudden and regular attacks from the Ghazi tribe.

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Another mistake of the King was the decision to expand his kingdom. Rather than solidifying his status as a king, and concentrating on removing the threats in Asia Minor, he wanted his empire to expand. Later his son and grandson also attempted to return the glory that once was the crown jewel of the kingdom only in vain. The use of mercenaries in the army seriously failed at that time. The Catalan Company, which was enlisted as a company of army in their armed forces once seriously, ravaged the countryside. This made the common people stand against the king and the government.

After the death of Andronikos III, the situation went to be worse than ever. In the time a six-year-long civil war (1341-47), between the supporters of John VI Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos, made matters much worse. In the meantime, a devastating earthquake devastated the fort in Gallipoli. In the meantime, the Ottomans who were fighting for John VI Kantakouzenos in the civil war established themselves as a parallel force. And at the time when the civil war ended, they had already defeated the Serbians and in the Battle of Kosovo, they regained a part of the Balkans.

At that time the Emperor wanted help from the Pope, and some Western forces came to the help of Constantinople, but it was not enough, basically, most of the Western World. Still recovering from the aftermath of the Crusade, were busy protecting their homeland from the marauding barbarians. Constantinople was reducing in size too. The population had reached rock bottom. And at that time, the army of Sultan Mehmed (80000 men along with a large number of irregular men) attacked and outnumbered the Christian forces who only had 7000 men. They siege the city for two months and finally, the city fell on 29th May 1453. In the last empire, Constantine XI died in direct combat with the invaders.

Conclusion

The fall of The Eastern Roman Empire is an intriguing chapter in the history of the Middle Ages. It was the last fragment of the great Roman Empire. As with all the Empires in history, it had the rise, the glory, and ultimately the fall. The empire was one of the biggest empires in the Middle Ages. The cultural and other important effects of the empire are still topics of research.

Bibliography

  1. Baynes, Norman H. “The Restoration of the Cross at Jerusalem”. The English Historical Review 27 (1962): 287–299.
  2. Bury, John B. A history of the Eastern Roman Empire. London: Russell & Russell, 1965.
  3. Frye, David. “A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief”. Historian 70 (2008): 381-382.
  4. Haldon, John. The Byzantine Wars: Battles and Campaigns of the Byzantine Era. Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2001.
  5. Runciman, Steven. The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his Reign. Cambridge: University Press, 1990.
  6. Runciman, Steven. Byzantine Civilisation. NY: Edward Arnold, 1989.
  7. Sarris, Leo. “Geological and geophysical investigations in the Roman cemetery”. Archaeological Prospection 14 (2007): 1-23.
  8. Toynbee, Arnold J. Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.
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IvyPanda. "The Eastern Roman Empire Decline." December 26, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-eastern-roman-empire-decline/.

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