1.
Venetian language
–
It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia Giulia, Istria, and some towns of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Brazil, Mexico, and Romania. Although referred to as an Italian dialect even by its speakers and its precise place within the Romance language family is controversial, see below. Like all Italian dialects in the Romance language family, Venetian is descended from Vulgar Latin, Venetian is attested as a written language in the 13th century. There are also influences and parallelisms with Greek and Albanian in words such as pirón, inpiràr, caréga, the language enjoyed substantial prestige in the days of the Venetian Republic, when it attained the status of a lingua franca in the Mediterranean. Notable Venetian-language authors include the playwrights Ruzante, Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi, following the old Italian theatre tradition, they used Venetian in their comedies as the speech of the common folk. They are ranked among the foremost Italian theatrical authors of all time, other notable works in Venetian are the translations of the Iliad by Casanova and Francesco Boaretti, and the poems of Biagio Marin. However, as a literary language Venetian was overshadowed by Dantes Tuscan dialect and languages of France like Occitan, virtually all modern Venetian speakers are diglossic with Italian. The present situation raises questions about the medium term survival. Despite recent steps to recognize it, Venetian remains far below the threshold of inter-generational transfer with younger generations preferring standard Italian in many situations, the dilemma is further complicated by the ongoing large-scale arrival of immigrants, who only speak or learn standard Italian. In the past, however, Venetian spread to other continents as a result of migration from the Veneto region between 1870 and 1905 and 1945 and 1960. Tens of thousands of peasants and craftsmen were thrown off their lands or out of their workshops, Venetian migrants created large Venetian-speaking communities in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, where the language is still spoken today. Internal migrations under the Fascist regime also sent many Venetian speakers to other regions of Italy, currently, some firms have chosen to use the Venetian language in advertising as a famous beer did some years ago. Venetian is spoken mainly in the Italian regions of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, smaller communities are found in Lombardy, Trentino, Emilia-Romagna, Sardinia, Lazio, and formerly in Romania. It is also spoken in North and South America by the descendants of Italian immigrants, in Mexico, the Chipilo Venetian dialect is spoken in the state of Puebla and the town of Chipilo. The town was settled by immigrants from the Veneto region, people from Chipilo have gone on to make satellite colonies in Mexico, especially in the states of Guanajuato, Querétaro, and State of Mexico. Venetian has also survived in the state of Veracruz, where other Italian migrants have settled from the late 1800s, the people of Chipilo preserve their dialect and call it chipileño and it has been preserved as a variant since the 19th century. The variant of the Venetan language spoken by the Cipiłàn is northern Trevisàn-Feltrìn-Belumàt, in 2009, the Brazilian city of Serafina Corrêa, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, gave Talian a joint official status alongside Portuguese. Until the middle of the 20th century, Venetian was also spoken on the Greek Island of Corfu, which had long been under the rule of the Republic of Venice
Venetian language
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A sign in Venetian reading "Here we also speak Venetian".
Venetian language
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Venetian
Venetian language
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A street sign in Venice using the Venetian calle, as opposed to the Italian via.
Venetian language
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"Lasa pur dir" (Let them speak), an inscription on the Venetian House in
Piran, southwestern Slovenia
2.
Republic of Venice
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It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice. It was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages, the Venetian city state was founded as a safe haven for people escaping persecution in mainland Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. In its early years, it prospered on the salt trade, in subsequent centuries, the city state established a thalassocracy. It dominated trade on the Mediterranean Sea, including commerce between Asia, Europe and North Africa, the Venetian navy was used in the Crusades. Venice achieved territorial conquests along the Adriatic Sea, the city became home to an extremely wealthy merchant class, who patronized renowned art and architecture along the citys lagoons. Venetian merchants were influential financiers in Europe, the city was also the birthplace of great European explorers, including Marco Polo, as well as the classical music composer Vivaldi. The republic was ruled by the Doge, who was elected by members of the Great Council of Venice, the ruling class was an oligarchy of merchants and aristocrats. Venice and other Italian maritime republics played a key role in fostering capitalism, Venetian citizens generally supported the system of governance. The city-state enforced strict laws and employed ruthless tactics in its prisons, the opening of new trade routes to the Americas and the East Indies via the Atlantic Ocean marked the beginning of Venices decline as a maritime republic. The city state suffered defeats from the navy of the Ottoman Empire, in 1797, the country was colonized by Austria and France, following an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte. Venice became a part of a unified Italy in the 19th century and it was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in reference to its title as one of the Most Serene Republics. He was the first historical Doge of Venice, whichever the case, the first doges had their power base in Heraclea. Ursuss successor, Deusdedit, moved his seat from Heraclea to Malamocco in the 740s and he was the son of Ursus and represented the attempt of his father to establish a dynasty. Such attempts were more commonplace among the doges of the first few centuries of Venetian history. They desired to remain well-connected to the Empire, another faction, republican in nature, believed in continuing along a course towards practical independence. The other main faction was pro-Frankish, supported mostly by clergy, they looked towards the new Carolingian king of the Franks, Pepin the Short, as the best provider of defence against the Lombards. A minor, pro-Lombard faction was opposed to close ties with any of these further-off powers, the successors of Obelerio inherited a united Venice. By the Pax Nicephori, the two emperors had recognised that Venice belonged to the Byzantine sphere of influence, many centuries later, the Venetians claimed that the treaty had recognised Venetian de facto independence, but the truth of this claim is doubted by modern scholars
Republic of Venice
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Sack of Constantinople
Republic of Venice
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Flag
Republic of Venice
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Voyage of
Marco Polo into the Far East during the
Pax Mongolica
Republic of Venice
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The
Piraeus Lion in
Venice - a spoil from Constantinople
3.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
Byzantine Empire
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Tremissis with the image of
Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) (see
Byzantine insignia)
Byzantine Empire
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Byzantine
lamellar armour klivanium (Κλιβάνιον) - a predecessor of Ottoman krug
mirror armour
Byzantine Empire
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The Baptism of Constantine painted by
Raphael 's pupils (1520–1524,
fresco, Vatican City,
Apostolic Palace);
Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as
was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving
baptism until shortly before his death
Byzantine Empire
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Restored section of the Theodosian Walls.
4.
Eyalet of the Archipelago
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The Eyalet of the Archipelago was a first-level province of the Ottoman Empire. From its inception until the Tanzimat reforms of the century, it was under the personal control of the Kapudan Pasha. His province also included the isolated kazas of Galata and Izmit, in 1533/4, the corsair captain Hayreddin Barbarossa, who had taken over Algeria, submitted to the authority of Sultan Suleyman I. As a token of this, the title of the local sub-provincial governors was not sanjak-bey but derya-bey, although the Kapudan Pashas resided in the Imperial Arsenal, Gallipoli remained the official capital until the 18th century. After Hayreddins death in 1546, the sanjak of Rodos also became part of the Eyalet of the Archipelago, Algeria became de facto independent of Ottoman control after 1642, and in ca.1670 Cyprus was added to the eyalet. It was detached in 1703 as the fief of the Grand Vizier. Under Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, the sanjaks of Mezistre and Karli-eli were detached and incorporated in the new Eyalet of the Morea. Alone among the major Aegean islands, Crete, although conquered from the Republic of Venice in 1645–69, was never subordinated to the Eyalet of the Archipelago. By the early 19th century, the eyalet was reduced to the sanjaks of Biga, Rodos, Sakız, Midilli, Limni and Cyprus. As part of the Tanzimat reforms, its ties to the Kapudan Pasha were severed in 1849, the island of Samos, which was an autonomous principality since 1832, continued to be counted as a sanjak of the eyalet until 1867. Including Crete, its area in the 19th century was 9,829 square miles. The eyalets most common English names are the Province of the Islands or of the Archipelago, because it was commanded by the Kapudan Pasha, the head of the Ottoman navy, it was also known as the Province of the Kapudan Pasha. Other names include the Province of Djezayrs or Dschesair, the Province of the Islands of the Archipelago, the Province of the Islands of the White Sea, and the Eyalet of the Mediterranean Islands. List of Kapudan Pashas List of Ottoman admirals The Eyalet of the Western Archipelago, also held by the Kapudan Pashas The Byzantine naval themes, Cibyrrhaeot, Aegean Sea, and Samos
Eyalet of the Archipelago
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Flag
5.
Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen
Habsburg Monarchy
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Growth of the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
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Flag
Habsburg Monarchy
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Europa regina, symbolizing a Habsburg-dominated Europe.
Habsburg Monarchy
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Soldiers of the
Military Frontier against the incursions of the Ottoman Turks, 1756
6.
First French Republic
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In the history of France, the First Republic, officially the French Republic, was founded on 21 September 1792 during the French Revolution. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First Empire in 1804 under Napoleon, under the Legislative Assembly, which was in power before the proclamation of the First Republic, France was engaged in war with Prussia and Austria. The foreign threat exacerbated Frances political turmoil amid the French Revolution and deepened the passion, in the violence of 10 August 1792, citizens stormed the Tuileries Palace, killing six hundred of the Kings Swiss guards and insisting on the removal of the king. A renewed fear of action prompted further violence, and in the first week of September 1792, mobs of Parisians broke into the citys prisons. This included nobles, clergymen, and political prisoners, but also numerous common criminals, such as prostitutes and petty thieves, many murdered in their cells—raped, stabbed and this became known as the September Massacres. The resulting Convention was founded with the purpose of abolishing the monarchy. The Conventions first act, on 10 August 1792, was to establish the French First Republic, the King, by then a private citizen bearing his family name of Capet, was subsequently put on trial for crimes of high treason starting in December 1792. On 16 January 1793 he was convicted, and on 21 January, throughout the winter of 1792 and spring of 1793, Paris was plagued by food riots and mass hunger. The new Convention did little to remedy the problem until late spring of 1793, despite growing discontent with the National Convention as a ruling body, in June the Convention drafted the Constitution of 1793, which was ratified by popular vote in early August. The Committees laws and policies took the revolution to unprecedented heights, after the arrest and execution of Robespierre in July 1794, the Jacobin club was closed, and the surviving Girondins were reinstated. A year later, the National Convention adopted the Constitution of the Year III and they reestablished freedom of worship, began releasing large numbers of prisoners, and most importantly, initiated elections for a new legislative body. On 3 November 1795, the Directory was established, the period known as the French Consulate began with the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799. Members of the Directory itself planned the coup, indicating clearly the failing power of the Directory, Napoleon Bonaparte was a co-conspirator in the coup, and became head of the government as the First Consul. He would later proclaim himself Emperor of the French, ending the First French Republic and ushering in the French First Empire
First French Republic
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Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power during the Coup of 18 Brumaire
First French Republic
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Flag
7.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
Middle Ages
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The
Cross of Mathilde, a
crux gemmata made for
Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the
enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in
Cologne or
Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques:
cast figurative sculpture,
filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical
cameos and
engraved gems.
Middle Ages
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A late Roman statue
depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in
Venice
Middle Ages
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Coin of
Theodoric
Middle Ages
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Mosaic showing
Justinian with
the bishop of
Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers
8.
Basil II
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Basil II was a Byzantine Emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025. He was known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his supposed ancestor, the early years of his long reign were dominated by civil war against powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy. For this he was nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer, by which he is popularly known and his reign is therefore often seen as the medieval apogee of the Empire. She originated from the Peloponnese, possibly from the city of Sparta, Basils paternal ancestry is of uncertain origins, his putative ancestor Basil I, the founder of the dynasty, being variously ascribed Armenian, Slavic, or Greek origins. Indeed the biological father of Leo VI the Wise was possibly not Basil I, the family of Michael III were Anatolian Greeks from Phrygia, though originally of the Melchisedechian heretical faith. In 960, Basil was associated on the throne by his father, who died in 963. Nikephoros was murdered in 969 by his nephew John I Tzimisces, when Tzimisces died on 10 January 976, Basil II finally took the throne as senior emperor. Basil was a soldier and a superb horseman, and he would prove himself as an able general. Basil waited and watched without interfering, devoting himself to learning the details of administrative business, even though Nikephoros II Phokas and John I Tzimiskes were brilliant military commanders, both had proven to be lax administrators. Skleros was allowed to live, but he ended his days blind, perhaps through disease and these rebellions had a profound effect on Basils outlook and methods of governance. The historian Psellus describes the defeated Bardas Skleros giving Basil the following advice, let no generals on campaign have too many resources. Exhaust them with unjust exactions, to keep them busied with their own affairs, admit no woman to the imperial councils. Share with few your most intimate plans, Basil, it would appear, took this advice to heart. In order to defeat these dangerous revolts, Basil formed an alliance with Prince Vladimir I of Kiev, who in 988 had captured Chersonesos, Vladimir offered to evacuate Chersonesos and to supply 6,000 of his soldiers as reinforcements to Basil. In exchange he demanded to be married to Basils younger sister Anna, the Byzantines viewed all the nations of Northern Europe, be they Franks or Slavs, as barbarians. Anna herself objected to marrying a barbarian ruler, as such a marriage would have no precedence in imperial annals, Vladimir had conducted long-running research into different religions, including sending delegates to various countries. Marriage was not his primary reason for choosing the Orthodox religion, when Vladimir promised to baptize himself and to convert his people to Christianity, Basil finally agreed. Vladimir and Anna were married in the Crimea in 989, the Rus recruitments were instrumental in ending the rebellion, and they were later organized into the Varangian Guard
Basil II
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Basil II (Βασίλειος Β' ο Βουλγαροκτόνος)
Basil II
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Basil II and
Constantine VIII, holding cross.
Nomisma histamenon.
Basil II
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Basil II and his step-father, Emperor Nikephoros II
Basil II
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Triumph of Basil II through the
Forum of Constantine, from the
Madrid Skylitzes
9.
Fourth Crusade
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The Fourth Crusade was a Western European armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III, originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, a sequence of events culminated in the Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the intention of the crusaders was then to continue to the Holy Land with promised Byzantine financial and military assistance. On 23 June 1203 the main fleet reached Constantinople. In August 1203, following clashes outside Constantinople, Alexios Angelos was crowned co-Emperor with crusader support, however, in January 1204, he was deposed by a popular uprising in Constantinople. In April 1204, they captured and brutally sacked the city, Byzantine resistance based in unconquered sections of the empire such as Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus ultimately recovered Constantinople in 1261. Ayyubid Sultan Saladin had conquered most of the Frankish, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the ancient city itself, the Kingdom had been established 88 years before, after the capture and sack of Jerusalem in the First Crusade. The city was sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews, Saladin led a Muslim dynasty, and his incorporation of Jerusalem into his domains shocked and dismayed the Catholic countries of Western Europe. Legend has it that Pope Urban III literally died of the shock, the crusader states had been reduced to three cities along the sea coast, Tyre, Tripoli, and Antioch. The Third Crusade reclaimed an extensive amount of territory for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the key towns of Acre and Jaffa, but had failed to retake Jerusalem. The crusade had also marked by a significant escalation in long standing tensions between the feudal states of western Europe and the Byzantine Empire, centred in Constantinople. The experiences of the first two crusades had thrown into relief the vast cultural differences between the two Christian civilisations. For their part, the educated and wealthy Byzantines maintained a sense of cultural, organizational. Constantinople had been in existence for 874 years at the time of the Fourth Crusade and was the largest and most sophisticated city in Christendom. Almost alone amongst major medieval urban centres, it had retained the civic structures, public baths, forums, monuments, at its height, the city held an estimated population of about half a million people behind thirteen miles of triple walls. As a result, it was both a rival and a target for the aggressive new states of the west, notably the Republic of Venice. Crusaders also seized the breakaway Byzantine province of Cyprus, rather than return it to the Empire, barbarossa died on crusade, and his army quickly disintegrated, leaving the English and French, who had come by sea, to fight Saladin. There they captured Sidon and Beirut, but at the news of Henrys death in Messina along the way, many of the nobles, deserted by much of their leadership, the rank and file crusaders panicked before an Egyptian army and fled to their ships in Tyre. Also in 1195, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos was deposed in favour of his brother by a palace coup, ascending as Alexios III Angelos, the new emperor had his brother blinded and exiled
Fourth Crusade
–
Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204
Fourth Crusade
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The Crusader attack on Constantinople, from a Venetian manuscript of Geoffreoy de Villehardouin's history, ca. 1330
Fourth Crusade
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Capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204
Fourth Crusade
–
The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople (
Eugène Delacroix, 1840). The most infamous action of the Fourth Crusade was the sack of the Orthodox Christian city of
Constantinople
10.
Morean War
–
The Morean War is the better-known name for the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War. The war was fought between 1684–1699, as part of the conflict known as the Great Turkish War, between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Military operations ranged from Dalmatia to the Aegean Sea, but the major campaign was the Venetian conquest of the Morea peninsula in southern Greece. As such, the Morean War holds the distinction of being the only Ottoman–Venetian conflict from which Venice emerged victorious, venices expansionist revival would be short-lived however, as its gains were reversed by the Ottomans in 1715. However, with the rise of the Ottomans, during the 16th and early 17th centuries, they lost most of these, such as Cyprus and Euboea to the Turks. Between 1645 and 1669, the Venetians and the Ottomans fought a long and costly war over the last major Venetian possession in the Aegean, Crete. During this war, the Venetian commander, Francesco Morosini, came into contact with the rebellious Maniots, in 1659, Morosini landed in the Morea, and together with the Maniots, he took Kalamata. However, he was soon forced to return to Crete. In 1683, a new war broke out between Austria and the Ottomans, with a large Ottoman army advancing towards Vienna, the Ottoman siege was broken in the Battle of Vienna by the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski. As a result, an anti-Ottoman Holy League was formed at Linz on 5 March 1684 between Emperor Leopold I, Sobieski, and the Doge of Venice, Marcantonio Guistinian. Over the next few years, the Austrians recovered Hungary from Ottoman control, however the Austrians were now overextended, as well as being embroiled in the Nine Years War against France. The Ottomans, under another Köprülü Grand Vizier, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, regained the initiative and pushed the Austrians back, recovering Niš and Vidin in 1690 and launching raids across the Danube. After 1696, however, the tide turned again, with the capture of Azov by the Russians in 1696 followed by a defeat at the hands of Eugene of Savoy at the battle of Zenta in September 1697. In its aftermath, negotiations began between the parties, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. On the Venetian side, the debate in the Senate about joining the war was heated and they were complemented by a numerous and well-equipped militia, but the latter could not be used outside Italy. Revenue was also scarce, at more than two million sequins a year. At the same time, the Ottoman navy is described by Chandos as being in a sore state, scarcely able to outfit ten men-of-war for operations. This left the Venetians with an uncontested supremacy at sea, while the Ottomans resorted to using light and fast galleys to evade the Venetian fleet and resupply their fortresses along the coasts
Morean War
–
Map of south-eastern Europe ca. 1670.
Morean War
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Nafplion, or Napoli di Romagna, in the mid-16th century.
Morean War
–
Engraving depicting the Venetian siege of the
Acropolis of Athens, September 1687. The trajectory of the shell that hit the Parthenon, causing its explosion, is marked.
Morean War
–
Venetian medal of 1688, struck in honour of Morosini's conquest of the Morea and his election as Doge of Venice
11.
Treaty of Campo Formio
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The Treaty of Campo Formio was signed on 18 October 1797 by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The treaty followed the armistice of Leoben, which had forced on the Habsburgs by Napoleons victorious campaign in Italy. It definitively ended the War of the First Coalition and left Great Britain fighting alone against revolutionary France, the treaty, in its public articles, only concerned France and Austria. It called for a Congress of Rastatt to be held to negotiate a peace for the Holy Roman Empire. In its secret articles, Austria, as the state of the Emperor. The congress failed to achieve a peace by early 1799 and on 12 March France declared war on Austria again and this new war, the War of the Second Coalition, ended with the Peace of Lunéville, a peace for the whole Empire, in 1801. Beyond the usual clauses of firm and inviolable peace, the treaty transferred a number of Austrian territories into French hands, lands ceded included the Austrian Netherlands and certain islands in the Mediterranean, including Corfu and other Venetian islands in the Adriatic Sea. Venice and its territories were divided between the two states, Venice, Istria and Dalmatia were turned over to the Austrian emperor, Austria recognized the Cisalpine Republic and the newly created Ligurian Republic, formed of Genovese territories, as independent powers. In addition, the states of the Regnum Italicum formally ceased to owe fealty to the Holy Roman Emperor, free French navigation was guaranteed on the Rhine, the Meuse and the Moselle. The French Republic had been expanded into areas that had never before been under French control, the treaty was composed and signed after five months of negotiations. It was basically what had been agreed earlier at the Peace of Leoben in April 1797, during the negotiating period the French had to crush a royalist coup in September. That was used as a cause for the arrest and deportation of royalist, one consequence was the Peasants War, which erupted in the Southern Netherlands in 1798 following the French introduction of conscription. As a result of the treaty, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, by passing Venetian possessions in Greece, such as the Ionian Islands, to French rule, the treaty had an effect on later Greek history neither intended nor expected at the time. Campo Formio, now called Campoformido, is a village west of Udine in north-eastern Italy, the French commander resided at Villa Manin – the country mansion of Ludovico Manin, the last Doge of Venice – near Codroipo. The treaty was signed in an old house in the square of the village, property of Bertrando Del Torre. The following 18 January 1798, Austrian troops entered Venice, and on the 21st, they held a reception at the Doges Palace. Civiltà di Venezia, Volume 3, l’età moderna, the French Revolution, Volume II From 1793–1799. The Great Nation, France from Louis XV to Napoleon 1715–99, the Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848
Treaty of Campo Formio
–
The treaty,
French National Archives.
12.
Istria
–
Istria, formerly Histria, is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Kvarner Gulf and it is shared by three countries, Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. Istria lies in three countries, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy, by far the largest portion lies in Croatia. Croatian Istria is divided into two counties, the larger being Istria County in western Croatia, important towns in Istria County include Pula/Pola, Poreč/Parenzo, Rovinj//Rovigno, Pazin//Pisino, Labin/Albona, Umag/Umago, Motovun//Montona, Buzet/Pinguente, and Buje/Buie. Smaller towns in Istria County include Višnjan, Roč, and Hum, northwards of Slovenian Istria, there is a tiny portion of the peninsula that lies in Italy. This smallest portion of Istria consists of the comunes of Muggia and San Dorligo della Valle, central Istria has a Continental climate. North-Slovenian coast of Istria has a Sub-Mediterranean climate, west and south coast has a Mediterranean climate. East coast has a Sub-Mediterranean climate with Oceanic climate influences, the warmest places are Pula, Rovinj, while the coldest is Pazin. Precipitation is moderate, with between 640 and 1,020 mm falling in the areas, and up to 1,500 mm in the hills. The name is derived from the Histri tribes, which Strabo refers to as living in the region, the Histri are classified in some sources as a Venetic Illyrian tribe, with certain linguistic differences from other Illyrians. The Romans described the Histri as a tribe of pirates. It took two military campaigns for the Romans to finally subdue them in 177 BC, the region was then called together with the Venetian part the X. Roman Region of Venetia et Histria, the ancient definition of the northeastern border of Italy. Dante Alighieri refers to it as well, the border of Italy per ancient definition is the river Arsia. The eastern side of river was settled by people whose culture was different than Histrians. Earlier influence of the Iapodes was attested there, while at some time between the 4th and 1st century BC, the Liburnians extended their territory and it became a part of Liburnia, on the northern side, Histria went much further north and included the Italian city of Trieste. Some scholars speculate that the names Histri and Istria are related to the Latin name Hister, ancient folktales reported — inaccurately — that the Danube split in two or bifurcated and came to the sea near Trieste as well as at the Black Sea. The story of the Bifurcation of the Danube is part of the Argonaut legend, there is also a suspected link to the commune of Istria in Constanţa, Romania. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was pillaged by the Goths, the Eastern Roman Empire, and it was subsequently annexed to the Lombard Kingdom in 751, and then annexed to the Frankish kingdom by Pepin of Italy in 789
Istria
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The
Sečovlje Saltworks in the Northern Istria were probably started in Antiquity and were first mentioned in 804 in the report on Placitum of Riziano.
Istria
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The Istrian peninsula
Istria
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Austrian Littoral in 1897
Istria
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A leaflet from the period of
Fascist Italianization, prohibiting the public use of the "
Slav language" on the streets of
Vodnjan in south-western Istria.
13.
Dalmatia
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Dalmatia is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea. The hinterland ranges in width from fifty kilometres in the north, to just a few kilometres in the south,79 islands run parallel to the coast, the largest being Brač, Pag and Hvar. The largest city is Split, followed by Zadar, Dubrovnik, the name of the region stems from an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae, who lived in the area in classical antiquity. Later it became a Roman province, and as result a Romance culture emerged, along with the now-extinct Dalmatian language, later largely replaced with related Venetian. With the arrival of Croats to the area in the 8th century, who occupied most of the hinterland, Croatian and Romance elements began to intermix in language and the culture. During the Middle Ages, its cities were conquered by, or switched allegiance to. The longest-lasting rule was the one of the Republic of Venice, between 1815 and 1918, it was as a province of Austrian Empire known as the Kingdom of Dalmatia. It was the Romans who first gave Dalmatia its name, inspired by the Illyrian word “delmat”, meaning a proud and its Latin form Dalmatia gave rise to its current English name. In the Venetian language, once dominant in the area, it is spelled Dalmàssia, the modern Croatian spelling is Dalmacija, pronounced. Dalmatia is referenced in the New Testament at 2 Timothy 4,10 so its name has been translated in many of the worlds languages. In antiquity the Roman province of Dalmatia was much larger than the present-day Split-Dalmatia County, Dalmatia is today a historical region only, not formally instituted in Croatian law. Its exact extent is uncertain and subject to public perception. According to Lena Mirošević and Josip Faričić of the University of Zadar, simultaneously, the southern part of Lika and upper Pounje, which were not a part of Austrian Dalmatia, became a part of Zadar County. From the present-day administrative and territorial point of view, Dalmatia comprises the four Croatian littoral counties with seats in Zadar, Šibenik, Split, Dalmatia is therefore generally perceived to extend approximately to the borders of the Austrian Kingdom of Dalmatia. The Encyclopædia Britannica defines Dalmatia as extending to the narrows of Kotor, other sources, however, such as the Treccani encyclopedia and the Rough Guide to Croatia still include the Bay as being part of the region. This definition does not include the Bay of Kotor, nor the islands of Rab, Sveti Grgur and it also excludes the northern part of the island of Pag, which is part of the Lika-Senj County. However, it includes the Gračac Municipality in Zadar County, which was not a part of the Kingdom of Dalmatia and is not traditionally associated with the region, the inhabitants of Dalmatia are culturally subdivided into two or three groups
Dalmatia
–
The ancient core of the city of
Split, the largest city in Dalmatia, built in and around the
Palace of the Emperor Diocletian.
Dalmatia
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Flag
Dalmatia
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The historic core of the city of
Dubrovnik, in southern Dalmatia.
Dalmatia
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Independent Dalmatia - Extent of Marcellinus' Control (454-468) and Julius Nepos' Control (468-480).
14.
Venetian Dalmatia
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Venetian Dalmatia refers to parts of Dalmatia under the rule of the Republic of Venice, mainly from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The first possessions were acquired around 1000, but Venetian Dalmatia was fully consolidated from 1420, the Republic of Venice had possessions in the Balkans and in the eastern Mediterranean sea, like the Venetian Albania in the Adriatic Sea and the Venetian Ionian Islands in western Greece. Starting from Doge Pietro II Orseolo, who ruled Venice from 991 AD, inner strife was pacified, and trade with the Byzantine Empire boosted by the favourable treaty with Emperor Basil II. The imperial edict granted Venetian traders freedom from taxation paid by other foreigners, in the year 1000 AD an expedition of Venetian ships in coastal Istria and Dalmatia secured the Venetian suzerainty in the area, and the Narentines, Croat pirates, were suppressed permanently. In the occasion Doge Orseolo named himself Duke of Dalmatia, starting the colonial Empire of Venice and he was also responsible of the establishment of the famous Marriage of the Sea ceremony. At this time Venice had a control over the Adriatic Sea. The more centralized merchant republic took control of the cities by the year 1420 AD, the southernmost area of Dalmatia was called Venetian Albania during that time. The economy of the Venetian cities in Dalmatia, severely impacted by the Turkish occupation of the hinterland in the war, recovered. The Dalmatian front was a theater of operations, which was involved in the early phase of the war. In addition, and again unlike Crete, the Venetians enjoyed the support of much of the local population, the Turks were now able to threaten the two main Venetian strongholds in Dalmatia, Zadar and Split. During the next few years, military operations stalled because of an outbreak of famine and plague amongst the Venetians at Zadar, as other fronts took priority for the Ottomans, no further operations occurred in the Dalmatian theater. Peace in 1669 found the Republic of Venice with significant gains in Dalmatia, its territory tripled, in the Morean War, the Republic of Venice besieged Sinj in October 1684 and then again March and April 1685, but both times without success. In the 1685 attempt, the Venetian armies were aided by the militia of the Republic of Poljica. In an effort to retaliate to Poljica, in June 1685, the Ottomans attacked Zadvarje, and in July 1686 Dolac and Srijane, but were pushed back, and suffered major casualties. With the help of the population of Poljica as well as the Morlachs. On 1 September 1687 the siege of Herceg Novi started, knin was taken after a twelve-day siege on 11 September 1688. The Ottomans would besiege Sinj again in the Second Morean War, on 26 November 1690, Venice took Vrgorac, which opened the route towards Imotski and Mostar. In 1694 they managed to take areas north of the Republic of Ragusa, namely Čitluk, Gabela, Zažablje, Trebinje, Popovo, Klobuk and Metković
Venetian Dalmatia
–
During the Candian War, the Venetians in Dalmatia with the support of the local population managed to compel the Ottoman garrison of
Klis Fortress to surrender.
Venetian Dalmatia
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Dalmatia as a Venetian possession in 1560
Venetian Dalmatia
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Old Zadar city gates.
Venetian Dalmatia
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Kamerlengo Castle
15.
Venetian Albania
–
Venetian Albania was the name for the possessions of the Republic of Venice on the Southeastern Adriatic coast that existed from 1420 to 1797. It consisted of the Bay of Kotor, although initially it covered the area of what is now Montenegro and northern Albania. The term Venetian Albania was used by the Republic for their initial possessions that stretched from the borders of the Republic of Ragusa to Durazzo in coastal Albania. The Venetian territories usually reached only 20 km from the Adriatic Sea, between 1478 and 1571 the territories in what is today Albania were lost. After 1573 the southern limit was moved to the village of Kufin near Budva, because of the Ottoman conquests of Antivari, Dulcigno, Scutari, and Durazzo. The Venetian territory was centered on the area of the Bay of Kotor, and included the towns of Kotor, Risan, Perast, Tivat, Herceg Novi, Budva. After 1797, the territory of Venetian Albania began stretching after the Republic of Ragusa, including the enclaves of Cattaro, the Venetians periodically controlled the small southern Dalmatian villages around the 10th century, but did not permanently assume control until 1420. The Venetians assimilated the Dalmatian language into the Venetian dialect quickly, the Venetian territories around Kotor lasted from 1420 to 1797 and were called Venetian Albania, a province of the Venetian Republic. In those years Venetian Albania was relatively rich and the area around the city of Cattaro enjoyed a huge cultural, when the Ottoman Empire started to conquer the Balkans in the 15th century, the population of Christian Slavs in Dalmatia increased greatly. As a consequence of this, by the end of the 17th century the Romance-speaking population of the historical Venetian Albania was a minority, in 1814 it was again included in the Austrian Empire. Kotor Perast, once part of Venetian Albania, was at its peak in the 18th century, when it had as many as four active shipyards, a fleet of around a hundred ships. At that time a number of significant buildings were constructed in this fortified town. Many ornate baroque palaces and houses were decorated the town of Perast, citizens of Perast enjoyed privileges from the Venetian Republic. They were allowed to trade with large ships and to sell goods without tax on the Venetian market, Budva In Agents of Empire, Noel Malcolm traces the lives of Albanian noble families in the end of 16th century. In addition to being the language of institutions, for Albanian inhabitants Italian was the language of culture, there have been notable Italian-language writers in the 15th to the 18th century who originated from Venetian Albania, notably Giovanni Bona Boliris, Cristoforo Ivanovich and Ludovico Pasquali. Zur Stellung Albaniens in den Handelsbeziehungen zwischen der Balkan- und der Appenninenhalbinsel, in, Münchner Zeitschrift für Balkankunde 4 1-10. Der venezianische Türkenkrieg im Jahre 1690 nach den Briefen des päpstlichen Offiziers Guido Bonaventura, intorno agli stabilimenti politici della repubblica veneta nellAlbania. In, Atti del Regio Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, memorie politico-economiche della citta e territorio di Trieste, della penisola d’Istria, della Dalmazia fu Veneta, di Ragusi e dell’Albania, ora congiunti all’Austriaco Impero
Venetian Albania
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The standard-bearers of
Perast were a militia unit, 8 were killed in the
Battle of Lepanto.
Venetian Albania
–
Venetian Albania in purple
Venetian Albania
–
Budva in a 1900 postcard
16.
Lordship of Negroponte
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The Triarchy of Negroponte was a crusader state established on the island of Euboea after the partition of the Byzantine Empire following the Fourth Crusade. Partitioned into three baronies run by a few interrelated Lombard families, the island fell under the influence of the Republic of Venice. From circa 1390, the became a regular Venetian colony as the Kingdom of Negroponte. According to the division of Byzantine territory, Euboea was awarded to Boniface of Montferrat, Boniface in turn ceded the island as a fief to the Flemish noble Jacques II of Avesnes, who fortified the capital Chalkis. After his death in mid-1205 however, the island was ceded to three Veronese barons, Ravano dalle Carceri, Giberto dalle Carceri and Pecoraro da Mercanuovo. They divided the island into three triarchies, the northern, based at Oreos, the southern, ruled from Karystos and the central portion, ruled from Chalkis. The city of Chalkis or Negroponte however was not under the latters control, by 1209 however, Ravano had established himself as sole master of Euboea, styling himself as dominus insulae Nigropontis. Having allied himself with an unsuccessful Lombard rebellion against the Latin Emperor, Henry of Flanders, thus, in March 1209, he signed an alliance with Venice, which recognized Venetian overlordship and gave the Venetians significant commercial privileges. In May, however, in an act of political balancing, however, already after the death of Ravano in 1216, his heirs disagreed over the succession, allowing the Venetian bailo to intervene as a mediator. He partitioned the three baronies in two, creating thus six hexarchies, provisions were also made that in the case someone among the sestieri died, his inheritor would be the other sestiere of the respective triarchy, and not his children. In fact, most sestieri were succeeded by their brothers, sons or nephews, William claimed for himself his wifes inheritance, while the Lombard barons were unwilling to concede it. On 14 June 1256, Guglielmo of Verona and Narzotto dalle Carceri, William responded by capturing Chalkis, which the Venetians retook in early 1258. The war ended in the battle of Karydi in May/June 1258, where William defeated the Duke of Athens, Guy I de la Roche, who had allied himself with the rebellious triarchs. Finally, in August 1259, Doge Reniero Zeno negotiated a peace, followed by a treaty in 1262, which recognized Williams suzerainty over the island, but not his possession of the triarchy of Oreoi. By that time, however, the Empire of Nicaea had established itself as the foremost power in the area of the former Byzantine Empire, to this end, he accepted the services of Licario, an Italian renegade, who had his base near Karystos. Under Licarios command, Byzantine troops soon conquered most of Euboea, after the departure of Licario sometime after 1280 however, with Venetian aid, the island gradually returned to Latin control. By 1296, Bonifazio da Verona had completely expelled the Byzantines from Euboea, in 1317 however, Karystos fell to the Catalan Company of Don Alfonso Fadrique, royal vicar-general of the duchy of Athens and illegitimate son of Frederick III of Sicily. In 1319, a treaty was signed between Venice and Don Alfonso, whereby he retained Karystos, which the Venetians acquired in 1365
Lordship of Negroponte
–
Negroponte (brown) and the other Greek and Latin states of southern Greece, ca. 1214
Lordship of Negroponte
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Depiction of the city of Negroponte (Chalkis) by the Venetian cartographer Giacomo Franco (1597)
17.
Morea
–
The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman Empire for the Morea Eyalet, there is some uncertainty over the origin of the medieval name Morea, which is first recorded only in the 10th century in the Byzantine chronicles. The British Byzantinist Steven Runciman suggested that the name comes from the likeness of its shape to that of a mulberry leaf, after the conquest of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade, two groups of Franks undertook the occupation of the Morea. They created the Principality of Achaea, a largely Greek-inhabited statelet ruled by a Latin autocrat, in referring to the Peloponnese, they followed local practice and used the name Morea. The most important prince in the Morea was Guillaume II de Villehardouin, an initial Byzantine drive to reconquer the entire peninsula failed in the battles of Prinitza and Makryplagi, and the Byzantines and Franks settled to an uneasy coexistence. In the mid-14th century, the later Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos reorganized Morea into the Despotate of the Morea, sons of the emperor with the rank of despotes were usually sent to rule the province as an appanage. By 1430, the Byzantines eventually recovered the remainder of the Frankish part of the Morea, in July 1461 the last holdout, Salmeniko Castle, was taken. The peninsula was captured for the Republic of Venice by Francesco Morosini during the Morean War of 1684–99, venetian rule proved unpopular, and the Ottomans recaptured the Morea in a lightning campaign in 1714. Under renewed Ottoman rule, centered at Tripolitsa, the region enjoyed relative prosperity, the latter 18th century was marked by renewed dissatisfaction. Armed bands of the klephts emerged, undeterred by the repression of the Orlov Revolt. They waged guerrilla war against the Turks, aided both by the decay of Ottoman power and the emergence of Greek national consciousness, ultimately, the Morea and its inhabitants provided the cradle and backbone of the Greek Revolution. The anonymous 14th century Chronicle of the Morea relates events of the Franks establishment of feudalism in mainland Greece following the Fourth Crusade, despite its unreliability about historical events, the Chronicle is famous for its lively portrayal of life in the feudal community. The language in Greek versions is notable as it reflects the transition from Medieval to Modern Greek. The original language of the Chronicle is disputed, but recent scholarship prefers the Greek version in MS Havniensis 57, other manuscripts include the Ms Parisinus graecus 2898. The difference of one century in the texts shows a considerable number of linguistic differences due to the rapid evolution of the Greek language. List of traditional Greek place names Bon, Antoine, recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaïe. M. J. Jeffreys, The Chronicle of Morea, Priority of the Greek Version, teresa Shawcross, The Chronicle of Morea, Historiography in Crusader Greece
Morea
–
The Morea ca. 1265 in its international context: the
Byzantine Empire and the
Frankish states of Greece. Map from William R. Shepherd's Historical Atlas (1911)
Morea
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Map of the medieval Peloponnese with its principal localities
18.
Kingdom of the Morea
–
As a result, it was lost again to the Ottomans in a brief campaign in June–September 1715. These they held even after the remainder of the peninsula was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1460, in successive conflicts, the Ottomans pried away the other remaining Venetian overseas possessions, including Cyprus and Crete, the latter after a prolonged struggle that ended in 1669. In 1684, following the Ottoman defeat at the second Siege of Vienna, Venice joined the Holy League, in the next year, Morosini landed on the Peloponnese, and within two years, aided by the local Greek population, took control of the peninsula and its fortresses. A subsequent Venetian campaign into eastern Continental Greece succeeded in capturing Athens, already in 1688, with their control of the country practically complete, the Venetians appointed Giacomo Corner as the governor-general of the Morea to administer their new territory. Apart from the region of Corinthia and the autonomous Mani Peninsula, under Corners oversight, a committee of three senators was sent to the Morea to reorganize the provincial administration, revive local authorities, compile a cadaster and settle land disputes. To the Kingdom of the Morea was also joined the administration of the islands of Kythera and Antikythera, off the southeastern coast of the Peloponnese,2,000 Cretans, and also Catholic Chians, Venetian citizens from the Ionian Islands and even some Bulgarians answered this call. In addition, mention is made of 1,317 Muslim families that remained behind, converted to Christianity and were given lands or enterprises as concessions. As a result of policies, the population recovered rapidly, apart from Mani. Due to the privileges granted the urban population, the period was also marked by an influx of the agrarian population to the cities. The Venetians engaged in an effort to revive and improve the countrys agriculture. As a result, the revenue from the province rose steadily, from 61,681 reales in 1684/85 to 274,207 in 1691 and 500,501 in 1710. By way of comparison, the tax revenue due to the Ottoman government from the province before 1684 is estimated at 1,699,000 reales. Due to the influx of migrants, the Venetian period was marked by intense social mobility. They were welcomed by the Ottoman authorities, while the Venetian authorities were forced to institute military patrols to stop them, the depredations and turmoil of the war and its aftermath also brought about a rise in banditry across the country. To combat it, the Venetian authorities raised a provincial gendarmerie, the meidani, among the most notable events was the foundation of a Mechitarist Armenian monastery in Modon in 1708, which after 1715 was transferred to San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice. The centre of the Catholic Church in the Morea was the Latin Archbishopric of Corinth, the Republic was well aware of the Ottoman intentions, and from the beginning of its rule in the Morea, its officials toured the fortresses to ascertain their state and their capacity to resist. Although a detailed survey in 1698 found serious deficiencies in all the fortresses of the Morea, in the event, however, the defences of the city held out only for a few days against the determined Ottoman attacks in 1715. Following their victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1710–1711, and citing various Venetian transgressions against Ottoman shipping as an excuse, the Ottomans declared war on 9 December 1714
Kingdom of the Morea
–
Venetian
Lion of Saint Mark and halberds from the time of the "Kingdom of the Morea" in the
National Historical Museum, Athens.
Kingdom of the Morea
–
The administrative division of the "Kingdom of the Morea"
19.
Aegean Sea
–
The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas, i. e. between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles, the Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea was known as Archipelago, but in English this words meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally. In ancient times, there were various explanations for the name Aegean, a possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word αἶγες – aiges = waves, hence wavy sea, cf. also αἰγιαλός, hence meaning sea-shore. The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name Archipelago, in some South Slavic languages the Aegean is often called White Sea. The Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres in area, the seas maximum depth is 3,543 metres, east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos, many of the Aegean Islands, or chains of islands, are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows, On the South. In the Dardanelles. A line joining Kum Kale and Cape Helles, the dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of 23–30 metres, then flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of 5–15 cm/s. The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea, Aegean Sea Intermediate Water – Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40–50 m to 200–300 metres with temperatures ranging from 11–18 °C. Aegean Sea Bottom Water – occurring at depths below 500–1000 m with a uniform temperature. The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC, before that time, at the peak of the last ice age sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, and there were large well-watered coastal plains instead of much of the northern Aegean. When they were first occupied, the islands including Milos with its important obsidian production were probably still connected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangement appeared c.7000 BC, with post-ice age sea levels continuing to rise for another 3,000 years after that, the subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term Aegean civilization. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations – the Minoans of Crete and the Mycenean Civilization of the Peloponnese, later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta among many others that constituted the Athenian Empire and Hellenic Civilization. Plato described the Greeks living round the Aegean like frogs around a pond, the Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire. The Aegean was the site of the democracies, and its seaways were the means of contact among several diverse civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours and bays, in ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland
Aegean Sea
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Map of the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
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Topographical and
bathymetric map
Aegean Sea
–
Panoramic view of the
Santorini caldera, taken from Oia.
20.
Duchy of the Archipelago
–
In 1537 it became a tributary of the Ottoman Empire, and was annexed by the Ottomans in 1579, however, Christian rule survived in islands such as Siphnos and Tinos. The Italian city states, especially the Republic of Genoa, Pisa, there were Italian trading colonies in Constantinople and Italian pirates frequently attacked settlements in the Aegean in the 12th century. After the collapse and partitioning of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, in which the Venetians played a major role and this was an independent venture, without the consent of the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders. Sanudo was accompanied by Marino Dandolo and Andrea and Geremia Ghisi and he arranged for the loan of eight galleys from the Venetian Arsenal, set anchor in the harbor of Potamides, and largely captured the island. The Naxiotes continued to resist, however, and established a base inland, around the fortress of Apalyros/Apalire, the latter fell to Sanudo after a five or six weeks siege, despite the assistance rendered to the Greeks by the Genoese, Venices main competitors. The conqueror himself ruled for twenty years and he held in his personal possession Paros, Antiparos, Milos, Sifnos, Kythnos, Ios, Amorgos, Kimolos, Sikinos, Syros, and Pholegandros. Sanudos fellow crusaders conquered lordships of their own, sometimes as vassals of Sanudo like Dandolo for Andros. Although they are considered to have become Sanudos vassals as well, the Ghisi brothers, who held Tinos, Mykonos. Instead, like him they were vassals of the Latin Emperors. Some families thought earlier to have settled at this time in the islands were in fact established in the 14th century, further south, Kythera, held by Marco Venier, and Antikythera, held by Jacopo Viaro chose to become vassals of Venice. The institution of European feudalism caused little disruption to the islanders who were familiar with the rights of a landowner class under the Byzantine system of the pronoia. The significant legal distinctions between the Byzantine pronoia and feudalism were of immediate consequence to those who farmed the land or fished the waters in question. In most cases, the population submitted relatively peacefully to the authority of their new Venetian lords. Sanudo and his successors followed a conciliatory course with their Byzantine subjects, granting even fiefs to certain among them. The Venetians brought the Catholic Church with them, but, as they were a minority of habitually absentee landowners, Marco Sanudo himself established a Latin archbishopric on Naxos, but in contrast to his successors, did not attempt to forcibly convert the Greek Orthodox majority. These moves consisted primarily in imposing restrictions on Orthodox clergy and the exclusion of Orthodox Christians from positions of authority, certain Latin feudal rights survived in the island of Naxos and elsewhere until they were abrogated in 1720 by the Ottomans. The Annals of the Latin Archipelago center on the histories of Sanudo and Dandolo, Ghisi, Crispo and Sommaripa, Venier and Quirini, Barozzi. In 1248, the Duchy was nominally granted to William of Villehardouin, Marco II Sanudo lost many of the islands, except Naxos and Paros, to the forces of the renewed Byzantine Empire under the admiral Licario in the late 13th century
Duchy of the Archipelago
–
The Duchy of
Naxos and states in the
Morea, carved from the
Byzantine Empire, as they were in 1265 (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911)
Duchy of the Archipelago
–
Duchy of Naxos, 1450, highlighted within the
Aegean Sea
Duchy of the Archipelago
–
Sanudo Tower, Chora of
Naxos
21.
Crete
–
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
Crete
–
NASA photograph of Crete
Crete
–
Lefka Ori
Crete
–
Port of Heraklion
Crete
–
Lefka Ori (White mountains).
22.
Kingdom of Candia
–
The island was at the time and up to the early modern era commonly known as Candia after its capital, Candia or Chandax. In modern Greek historiography, the period is known as the Venetocracy, the island of Crete had formed part of the Byzantine Empire until 1204, when the Fourth Crusade dissolved the empire and divided its territories amongst the crusader leaders. Crete was initially allotted to Boniface of Montferrat, but, unable to enforce his control over the island, Venetian troops first occupied the island in 1205, but it took until 1212 for it to be secured, especially against the opposition of Venices rival Genoa. The islands of Tinos and Cythera, also under Venetian control, in the early 14th century, this division was replaced by four provinces, almost identical to the four modern prefectures. During the first two centuries of Venetian rule, revolts by the native Orthodox Greek population against the Roman Catholic Venetians were frequent, thereafter, and despite occasional revolts and Turkish raids, the island largely prospered, and Venetian rule opened up a window into the ongoing Italian Renaissance. After the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571, Crete was Venices last major overseas possession, only the three island fortresses of Souda, Gramvousa and Spinalonga remained in Venetian hands. Attempts to recover Candia during the Morean War failed, and these last Venetian outposts were taken by the Turks in 1715. Finally, on 12 August 1204, the Venetians preempted their traditional rivals, Venices gains were formalized in the Partitio Romaniae a few weeks later. To enforce their claim, the Venetians landed a force in Spinalonga. A first Venetian attack in summer 1207 was driven off, Pescatore even appealed to the Pope, and attempted to have himself confirmed as the islands king. It took the Venetians another five years of warfare to force him to surrender. Giacomo Tiepolo became the first governor of the new colony, with the title of duke of Crete, the duke usually held office for two years, assisted by two deputies and two councils. Venetians used Crete as a center for their profitable eastern trade, furthermore, they established a feudal state and administered a strict capitalist system for exploiting the islands agricultural produce. Exported products consisted primarily of wheat and sweet wine, and to a lesser extend of timber, Venetian rule over Crete proved troubled from the beginning, as it encountered the hostility of the local populace. In the words of the medievalist Kenneth Setton, it required an unceasing vigilance, already in 1212, the Hagiostephanitai brothers rose in revolt, which was only suppressed through the intervention of Marco I Sanudo, the Duke of Naxos. Sanudo then attempted to conquer the island for himself, relying on local support and he seized Candia, while Tiepolo escaped to the nearby fortress of Temenos disguised as a woman. Subsequently, the Cretans looked to the Greek Empire of Nicaea for aid in 1229, a Nicaean fleet arrived on the island, and in the 1230s the Nicaeans were able to challenge Venetian control over much of Crete and maintain troops there. It was only with the aid of the Greek lord of Rhodes, Leo Gabalas, Venetian rule over Crete was finally and formally recognised by the restored Byzantine Empire in treaties concluded in 1268 and 1277
Kingdom of Candia
Kingdom of Candia
–
Flag of the Republic of Venice
Kingdom of Candia
–
Venetian
Fortress Rocca al Mare in
Heraklion
23.
Cyprus
–
Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
Cyprus
–
A copper mine on Cyprus. In antiquity, Cyprus was a major source of copper.
Cyprus
–
Flag
Cyprus
–
Archeologic site of Choirokoitia with early remains of human habitation during Aceramic Neolithic period (reconstruction)
Cyprus
–
Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates,
Kourion
24.
Dogado
–
The Dogado or Duchy of Venice was the homeland of the Republic of Venice, headed by the Doge. In lieu of the tribunes and gastalds, during the Republic each district was led by a patrician with the title of podestà, with the exception of Grado. It was one of the three subdivisions of the Republics possessions, the two being the Stato da Màr and the Domini di Terraferma. Dogado was the equivalent of Ducato, the Italian city states that had a duke as head of state. Da Mosto, Andrea, LArchivio di Stato di Venezia, Biblioteca dArte editrice, mutinelli, Fabio, Lessico Veneto, tipografia Giambattista Andreola, Venezia,1852
Dogado
–
The
Venetian Lagoon, with
Mestre marked on the mainland, then (north to south)
Murano, Venice and the
Lido in the lagoon
25.
Domini di Terraferma
–
The Domini di Terraferma was the name given to the hinterland territories of the Republic of Venice beyond the Adriatic coast in Northeast Italy. They were one of the three subdivisions of the Republics possessions, the two being the original Dogado and the Stato da Màr oversea territories. In the south the lower Po River formed the border with the Papal States, the Terraferma comprised the western and central parts of the historic Friuli region, except for the easternmost part along the Isonzo River, which was held by the Imperial Counts of Görz. In the north, the Carnic and Julian Alps marked the border with the Inner Austrian duchies of Carinthia, Venice had conquered the Mestre mainland from the Scaliger rulers at Verona in 1337, followed by Treviso and Bassano del Grappa in 1339. His successors Tommaso Mocenigo and Francesco Foscari enlarged the possessions to the not only of the Scaligeri, but also of the Carraresi at Padua. In 1420 Venice annexed the Friulian territories of the Imperial Patriarchate of Aquileia from the Adriatic coast up to Pontebba in the Julian Alps, Emperor Sigismund had to acknowledge the acquisition in 1433, four years later he officially ceded the territory to Venice as an Imperial fief. In 1523 Emperor Charles V finally renounced all titles as feudal lord
Domini di Terraferma
–
Venice's Mediterranean possessions, Terraferma in pink
26.
Partitio Romaniae
–
The Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae was a treaty signed amongst the crusaders after the sack of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The Latin Empire itself, consisting of the area surrounding Constantinople, Thrace, Latin rule became most firmly established and lasted longest in southern Greece, as well as the Aegean islands, which came largely under the control of Venice. 1203, as well as the areas controlled by the Byzantine central government at the time. Alexander Kazhdan, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
Partitio Romaniae
–
The actual partition of the
Byzantine Empire after the
Fourth Crusade
27.
Despot of Epirus
–
The Despotate of Epirus was one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire established in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 by a branch of the Angelos dynasty. It claimed to be the successor of the Byzantine Empire, along the Empire of Nicaea. The term Despotate of Epirus is, like Byzantine Empire itself, the Despotate was centred on the region of Epirus, encompassing also Albania and the western portion of Greek Macedonia and also included Thessaly and western Greece as far south as Nafpaktos. After that, the Epirote state contracted to its core in Epirus and Thessaly and it nevertheless managed to retain its autonomy until conquered by the restored Palaiologan Byzantine Empire in ca. His successor Theodore Komnenos Doukas did not use it either, earlier historians assumed that Michael I was indeed named Despot by the deposed emperor Alexios III Angelos after ransoming him from Latin captivity, this has been disproven by more modern research. Consequently, it was borne by the princes sent to govern semi-autonomous appanages. The term Despotate of Epirus is thus replaced by State of Epirus in more recent historiography. The Epirote realm itself did not have an official name, the Epirote state was founded in 1205 by Michael Komnenos Doukas, a cousin of the Byzantine emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos. Epirus soon became the new home of refugees from Constantinople, Thessaly, and the Peloponnese. Henry of Flanders demanded that Michael submit to the Latin Empire, Michael did not honour this alliance, assuming that mountainous Epirus would be mostly impenetrable by any Latins with whom he made and broke alliances. Meanwhile, Bonifaces relatives from Montferrat made claims to Epirus as well, Michael was excessively cruel to his prisoners, in some cases crucifying Latin priests. Pope Innocent III excommunicated him in response, henry forced Michael into a renewed nominal alliance later that year. Michael turned his attention to capturing other strategically important Latin-held towns, including Larissa and he also took control of the ports on the Gulf of Corinth. In 1214 he captured Corcyra from Venice, but he was assassinated later that year and was succeeded by his half-brother Theodore, Theodore Komnenos Doukas immediately set out to attack Thessalonica, and he fought with the Bulgarians along the way. Henry of Flanders died on the way to counterattack, and in 1217 Theodore captured his successor Peter of Courtenay, the Latin Empire, however, became distracted by the growing power of Nicaea and could not stop Theodore from capturing Thessalonica in 1224. Theodore now challenged Nicaea for the title and crowned himself emperor. In 1225, after John III Doukas Vatatzes of Nicaea had taken Adrianople, Theodore arrived, Theodore also allied with the Bulgarians and drove the Latins out of Thrace. In 1227 Theodore crowned himself Byzantine emperor, although this was not recognized by most Greeks, in 1230 Theodore broke the truce with Bulgaria, hoping to remove Ivan Asen II, who had held him back from attacking Constantinople
Despot of Epirus
–
The
Paregoretissa Church, the new cathedral of the Despotate's capital,
Arta, built in the 13th century during the reign of
Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas.
Despot of Epirus
–
The
Latin Empire,
Empire of Nicaea,
Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus, c. 1204
28.
Empire of Nicaea
–
Founded by the Laskaris family, it lasted from 1204 to 1261, when the Nicaeans restored the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople. In 1204, Byzantine emperor Alexios V Ducas Murtzouphlos fled Constantinople after crusaders invaded the city. Theodore I Lascaris, the son-in-law of Emperor Alexios III Angelos, was proclaimed emperor but he too, realizing the situation in Constantinople was hopeless, fled to the city of Nicaea in Bithynia. The Latin Empire, established by the Crusaders in Constantinople, had control over former Byzantine territory, and Byzantine successor states sprang up in Epirus, Trebizond. Trebizond had broken away as an independent state a few weeks before the fall of Constantinople, Nicaea, however, was the closest to the Latin Empire and was in the best position to attempt to re-establish the Byzantine Empire. Theodore also defeated an army from Trebizond, as well as minor rivals. In 1206, Theodore proclaimed himself emperor at Nicaea, numerous truces and alliances were formed and broken over the next few years, as the Byzantine successor states, the Latin Empire, the Bulgarians, and the Seljuks of Iconium fought each other. In 1211, at Antioch on the Meander, Theodore defeated an invasion by the Seljuks. The Nicaeans were compensated for this loss when, in 1212. Theodore consolidated his claim to the throne by naming a new Patriarch of Constantinople in Nicaea. In 1219, he married the daughter of Latin Empress Yolanda of Flanders, the accession of Vatatzes was initially challenged by the Laskarids, with the sebastokratores Isaac and Alexios, brothers of Theodore I, seeking the aid of the Latin Empire. Vatatzes prevailed over their forces, however, in the Battle of Poimanenon, securing his throne. It proved short-lived, as it came under Bulgarian control after the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230, with Trebizond lacking any real power, Nicaea was the only Byzantine state left, and John III expanded his territory across the Aegean Sea. In 1235, he allied with Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria, allowing him to extend his influence over Thessalonica and Epirus. In 1242, the Mongols invaded Seljuk territory to the east of Nicaea, in 1245, John allied with the Holy Roman Empire by marrying Constance II of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Frederick II. In 1246, John attacked Bulgaria and recovered most of Thrace and Macedonia, by 1248, John had defeated the Bulgarians and surrounded the Latin Empire. He continued to land from the Latins until his death in 1254. Theodore II Lascaris, John IIIs son, faced invasions from the Bulgarians in Thrace, a conflict between Nicaea and Epirus broke out in 1257
Empire of Nicaea
–
Nicaea city wall, Lefke gate;
Iznik,
Turkey
Empire of Nicaea
–
The
Latin Empire, Empire of Nicaea,
Empire of Trebizond, and the
Despotate of Epirus. The borders are very uncertain.
Empire of Nicaea
–
Coin issued by
Michael VIII Palaeologus to celebrate the liberation of Constantinople from the Latin army, and the restoration of the Roman/Byzantine Empire.
29.
Empire of Trebizond
–
The Empire of Trebizond or the Trapezuntine Empire was a monarchy that flourished during the 13th through 15th centuries, consisting of the far northeastern corner of Anatolia and the southern Crimea. The Emperors of Trebizond pressed their claim on the Imperial throne for decades after the Nicaean reconquest of Constantinople in 1261, the Trapezuntine monarchy survived the longest of the Byzantine successor states. The Despotate of Epirus was slowly decimated, and briefly occupied by the restored Byzantine Empire c. 1340, thereafter becoming a Serbian dependency and later inherited by Italians, ultimately falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1479, having long ceased to contest the Byzantine throne. While the Empire of Nicaea had become the resurrected Byzantine Empire, the Empire of Trebizond continued until 1461 when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered it after a month-long siege and took its ruler and his family into captivity. The Crimean Principality of Theodoro, an offshoot of Trebizond, lasted another 14 years and its demographic legacy endured for several centuries after the Ottoman conquest in 1461 and the region retained a substantial number of Greek Orthodox inhabitants until 1923. These are usually referred to as Pontic Greeks and their displacement was formalized, and the few still remaining were required to leave, in 1923 with the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Many were resettled in Greek Macedonia and those living in the Crimea and the Russian province of Kars Oblast, much of which lies in modern Georgia, stayed longer, with some Greek speaking villages remaining in both locations today. Anthony Bryer has argued that six of the seven banda of the Byzantine theme of Chaldia were maintained in working order by the rulers of Trebizond until the end of the empire, helped by geography. This territory corresponds to an area comprising all or parts of the modern Turkish provinces of Sinop, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Rize, and Artvin. In the 13th century, some believe the empire controlled the Gazarian Perateia. However, after Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople in 1261, in 1282, John II Komnenos stripped off his imperial regalia before the walls of Constantinople before entering to marry Michaels daughter and accept his legal title of despot. However, his successors used a version of his title, Emperor and Autocrat of the entire East, of the Iberians, rulers of Trebizond were also known as Prince of Lazes. Its wealth and exotic location endowed a lingering fame on the polity, cervantes described the eponymous hero of his Don Quixote as imagining himself for the valour of his arm already crowned at least Emperor of Trebizond. Rabelais had his character Picrochole, the ruler of Piedmont, declare, other allusions and works set in Trebizond continue into the 20th century. The city of Trebizond was the capital of the theme of Chaldia, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos confirmed him as governor of Chaldia, but kept his son at Constantinople as a hostage for his good conduct. Nevertheless, Gabras proved himself a worthy guardian by repelling a Georgian attack on Trebizond, one of his successors, Gregory Taronites also rebelled with the aid of the Sultan of Cappadocia, but he was defeated and imprisoned, only to be made governor once more. Another successor to Theodore was Constantine Gabras, whom Niketas describes as ruling Trebizond as a tyrant, although that effort came to nothing, this was the last rebel governor known to recorded history prior to the events of 1204. Henceforth, the links between Trebizond and Georgia remained close, but their nature and extent have been disputed, both men were the grandsons of the last Komnenian Byzantine emperor, Andronikos I Komnenos, by his son Manuel Komnenos and Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia
Empire of Trebizond
–
Alexios III, from the
chrysobull he granted to the
Dionysiou monastery on
Mount Athos.
Empire of Trebizond
–
Empire of Trebizond (violet) and surrounding states in 1300
Empire of Trebizond
–
A 14th-century miniature Greek manuscript depicting
Byzantine Greek soldiers from the Empire of Trebizond.
Empire of Trebizond
–
Manuel I Megas Komnenos, "The Great Captain", "The Most Fortunate"
30.
Constantinople
–
Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
Constantinople
–
Constantinople in the Byzantine era
Constantinople
–
Map of Byzantine Constantinople
Constantinople
–
Emperor
Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic.
Hagia Sophia, c. 1000
Constantinople
–
Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople
