Decline of the Byzantine Empire Presented By:
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Introduction Byzantine Empire survived, centuries after the fall of
Rome.
It also grew to become the largest/powerful European
State at that time.
Byzantines found it hard to contain people from the West
at that time.
This is because they found pleasure in fighting and were
good in trade.
Byzantine Empire thus developed a diplomatic system.
Measures Taken By The Empire System The system allowed signing of agreements with towns
Venice.
This was highly favored for allowing traders from
different friendly cities in the region.
This made the Italians spread expansively. Italians hardly accepted that Byzantines belonged to a
different religion.
This was because at that time of Crusades, the Greek
Orthodox Church would easily become a target for attacks.
This also had significant leadership influence. Local rulers spread the Byzantine traditions,
under the western rule.
This largely contributed to the decline of
Byzantine Empire.
It continued to lose it territories & Ottoman
Empire overpowered Constantinople.
Following these developments, Trapezus
surrendered after eight years.
Why Byzantine Empire Fell They faced a wide range of external enemies. Its poor internal organization largely contributed to
its decline and collapse.
The empire registered political and economical
stability by 1000AD.
The stability led to the emergence of joint feedback
cycles.
These destroyed the empire, taking away its
success and glory.
Poor Investment Farming Constant battles and invasion led to poor investment in
farming.
Land was less productive. With the return of political stability, many nobles went
for farmlands.
This led to endless battles between the nobles and
peasants.
Peasants were not ready to part with their lands. Basil II helped the peasants though he could not
overcome the powerful noble.
Arising Leaders protecting peasantry This also led to the decline of the Empire. Leaders were interested in protecting peasantry. This was evident after the death of Basil II. He had the interest of farmers at heart. Due to the stability, many people did not see the
essence of having a strong military.
This saw weak rulers succeed Basil.
They had no military experience. Consequently, greedy nobles took the advantage. They always attacked peasants during hard times like
famine.
Because of this, free peasantry declined. This weighed heavily on the size of the army, since it was
supported by peasant taxes.
Byzantine Empire resorted to employing the services of
foreign mercenaries.
The resulted to a weakened economy, which could not
even support the military, resulting into its collapse.
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