The Rise and Collapse of Byzantine Empire Research (Essay Sample)

The Rise and Collapse of Byzantine Empire
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
The Rise and Collapse of Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Kingdom was the heir of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantine Roman Empire fell 1,000 years following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (Plaster, 2012). People of Byzantine Empire considered themselves Romans instead of Byzantines and tracked their past back to the creation of the Roman Kingdom. This empire was named differently and considered distinct from the former Roman Kingdom because its people spoke mostly Greek rather than Latin and were Christians (Plaster, 2012).
The Byzantine Empire, begun back in the 330 A.D., when the Roman kingdom Constantine 1 devoted a “new Rome” upon the ancient Greek Byzantium colony site (Finlay, 1856). The empire rose to existence from the foundation of Constantinople city in 324 AD (Snajdar, 2011). Constantine 1 took responsibility and created a Byzantine culture different from that of the past Roman Empire. Constantine legalized the previously persecuted Christianity and sponsored the Christian church in addition to converting into Christianity (Plaster, 2012; Snajdar, 2011). Secondly, Constantine moved the Roman Empire’s Capital city to Byzantium, which he restored as Constantinople city, also the “new Rome” (Plaster, 2012). Constantine shifted the empire’s center of gravity to the East by moving its capital city to this province right on the division between the minor Asia and Europe (Finlay, 1856).
Constantinople represented both the ending of the Roman kingdom and the commencement of the Byzantine Kingdom (Finlay, 1856). Meanwhile, Rome established a new identity gradually as the chair of the Christian Holy Father. The now renewed Byzantium as Constantinople sat firmly between the vulnerable regions of the empire (Snajdar, 2011). Constantine shaped and expanded the empire rapidly by building much building including clerical and administrative buildings, palace, monuments to declare Byzantium a Christian city and churches before the end of his life (Plaster, 2012; Snajdar, 2011).
After Constantine’s death in AD 337, few kings ruled the whole Roman Empire because it was too big and attacked from many directions. The empire was split amongst his three sons Constantius II, Constantine II, and Constans who inherited the sections of the empire (Snajdar, 2011). Constantius II ruled Constantinople, Greece, and the whole eastern empire while Constantine II ruled Gaul, Britain and Spain; and Constans controlled Italy and Spain (Plaster, 2012). The Eastern Kingdom thrived as the Western state was infested by Germanic barbarians during Theodosius’s emperor, and Constantinople city became the largest and the main commercial center in the empire. The Western empire collapsed in 1476 AD after its emperor became deposed and the Eastern Empire survived, becoming the Byzantine kingdom (Plaster, 2012).
The Emperor Justinian began in 526, who succeeded to reconnect the Eastern and Western regions of the Empire over a short time. Justinian Emperor remarkable codified the Roman law, Corpus iuris civilis, building of churches, and consolidation of the monetary economy via the golden money coinage (Finlay, 1856; Snajdar, 2011). The Hagia Sofia was also built. Byzantines lost Northern Italy to Lombard invaders in 568. Heraclius became emperor in a midst of the chaos in 610 during which Palestine, Egypt, and Syria were eventually lost to Muslims (Plaster, 2012). In 690, North Africa was also lost to Muslims and Muslims attacked Constantinople from 693 to 721 AD when they controlled the Asia Minor (Finlay, 1856).
<...