Mrs. Hals' Traveling Classroom: Istanbul, (Not Constantinople!) :)

From 19 June 2011...

A little history...

Originally within the Persian Empire, Istanbul began as a bustling crossroads trading town named Byzantion, and later became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and was renamed Constantinople after the newly Christianized Constantine. As the Roman Empire faded away and the last (western) Roman emperor was deposed from a Germanic leader, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to gain prominence and Constantinople became the heart of the rising Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines steadily expanded, establishing a notable empire and Constantinople was truly the heart of trade, eclectically connecting the Mediterranean, Arab trade routes, Viking trade routes, the Black Sea, and the Royal and Silk Roads and ultimately the European, African, and Asian continents. Christianity evolved here, to the point that it could no longer reconcile increasing differences and a great schism occurred in 1054. The Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church parted ways and Constantinople became the heart of the Orthodox Church. During the Crusades, despite aligning with the Catholics in attempt to mend differences, Constantinople was sacked by the Venetians in the early 1200s during the fourth Crusades as a result in a shift in Venetian priorities (it was a power move). The Venetians prowess grew and the Byzantine Empire began to weaken until it ultimately capitulated to the Muslim Ottoman Turks who had steadily broken apart the empire – Constantinople was the final piece of the puzzle and fell in 1453. Constantinople was renamed Istanbul in 1453 and became the heart of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were one of the Muslim “gunpowder nations” who expanded out to the edge of Vienna, nearly won the Mediterranean (if not for Philip II’s win at the Battle of Lepanto in 1572), and continually pushed the edges of the Safavid Empire. The empire gradually embraced industrialization and modernized to keep pace with the rest of the world in the 1800s but weakened as nationalism undermined its ability to dominate its outlaying territories. In the end, internal nationalism pushed for the creation of the nation of Turkey after World War I.

It is a country rich with history…and sooooo many more layers than I just wrote about and the AP World History teacher I am is loving all of the nuanced layers and dreaming up lessons for the future! We have been having a great time exploring the city and have done so many major sites in the past two days it is unreal! I have some albums I hope to finish labeling and post sometime very soon!