Fall Of The Byzantine Empire Essay

The Fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453 A.D.)- The Byzantine Empire, for centuries, had been in a state of free-falling decline since the end of the Fourth Crusade. While the empire was eventually able to revive itself after the devastating loss that the Fourth Crusade put Byzantium in 1261 A.D. with the rise of the Palaiologoi Dynasty, the empire had already endured far too much destruction to be saved from the crippling effects of war. In 1453, the Ottoman Empire, which had taken much of the Byzantine territories in Europe prior to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, had conquered Constantinople, it’s final Christian ruler dieing in battle, ending the main Palaiologoi line. A state for Greeks would not exist for another three centuries.

Ottoman Greece/The Tourkokratia (1453-1832 A.D.)-

From 1453 to 1832 A.D., the Ottoman Empire owned a large amount of the territory we call Greece today- a total of 379 years. Within the early part of this time period, many Greeks looked to Western Europe, many migrating to get away from Ottoman rule. These migrations would also influence the Renaissance, mainly due to the migrants’ contribution to literature, architecture, and culture in the places
The people had been drowned in massive taxes. Along with this, the area, which was formerly heavily urbanized, became more and more rural, with some Greeks being forced into subsistence farming from poverty. Even more suffering occurred after 1600, when the Ottomans increased military rule in Greece. This just further destroyed the already crippled and feeble economy in Greece along with faster population decline. As if things couldn’t get worse, the Ottoman nobles’ fiefs became hereditary. These new types of Ottoman nobles reduced the already poor Greek farmers to essentially slavery by serfdom. However, despite all the suffering the Ottomans put the people of Greece through, they did have some