Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merritt and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at the background to the crusades, and we're focusing on the Byzantine Empire.

And by the end of the day's lesson we'll be able to describe the position of Byzantium in the 11th century and the problems that it faced.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms.

And our key terms for today are empire, idolatry, iconoclasm, and Eastern Orthodox.

An empire is a group of territories ruled over by one person or a group of people.

Idolatry is the worship of images.

Iconoclasm is the destruction of holy images.

And Eastern Orthodox Christianity was the form of Christianity practiced in the Byzantine Empire.

Today's lesson will consist of three different learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is "What was the Byzantine Empire?

" So let's get started.

So first of all, a quick question to get us started.

What do the cities of Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul all have in common?

Well, the answer is that they are all the same city.

Istanbul is the modern name, but the city was originally a Greek colony, an important trading post founded Byzas 667 BCE and it was called Byzantium, after Byzas.

After the Greek world was taken over by the Romans, the city continued to thrive.

And in 330 CE the Roman Emperor Constantine renamed the city Constantinople after himself.

And he wanted to increase its glory so that it became a new Rome, Nova Roma, as he called it.

Constantine had converted to Christianity in 312 CE and Constantine emphasized this religion when he was rebuilding the city.

And although the Roman empire was facing decline, the people of Constantinople proudly thought of themselves as Roman and Christian.

And this continued even when the Roman empire collapsed and the main language switched from Latin to Greek.

Right, let's have a quick check for understanding, first of all.

So true or false, emperor Constantine founded the city that is known today as Istanbul.

Decide if that's true or false.

Alright, if you chose false, then congratulations.

It is indeed a false statement.

But let's figure out why it's false.

Let's justify that.

So is it false because the city was founded in 330 CE by Romans in honor of Constantine, or is it false because the city was founded by Byzas in 667 BCE, and was originally called Byzantium?

So choose your justification now.

All right, if you chose B, then congratulations.

That is indeed correct.

Now in 395 CE the Roman Empire split permanently into the Western Empire.

And on the screen that's that kind of orangey, peachy color, and its capital was Rome and the Eastern Empire, which is that green color there.

And that capital was Constantinople.

However, less than a hundred years later in 476 CE the Western empire collapsed due to repeated invasions from Germanic tribes.

And this is often now seen as marking the end of the Roman Empire.

As historians when we look back, we say, this is it.

This is the cutoff point, and this is when the Roman empire ended.

Having said that, for the people of the time, that was not the case at all.

From their perspective, the Roman Empire continued.

476 was was a devastating year, but it wasn't the end of the Roman Empire.

And the reason being is that although it had lost one of its capitals, Rome had now fallen, the other capital, Constantinople was still thriving, so therefore the Roman empire itself although battered, was not ended.

So what historians refer to as the Byzantine Empire, and that's what we're focusing on today, that's not what it's inhabitants at the time called it.

They continue to refer to it as the Roman Empire because for them it still was.

Right, let's have a quick check for understanding now it's a discussion question, why did the Byzantine Empire see itself as a continuation of the Roman Empire?

So pause the video now whilst you discuss that and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, hopefully you got on fine with that question.

Let's think about what you could have said.

So you could have said that Constantinople was a second capital city of the Roman Empire after Rome.

You could have said that Constantinople was named after a great Roman emperor, the emperor Constantine.

You could have said that it had been part of Rome's Christian empire and you could have said it was part of the Roman Empire that had not been invaded and defeated.

There's other things you could have said as well, but there's are four good points there, is what you may well have said.

Right, let's go for our first task for today.

So I've got a series of events on the screen in front of you, and what I'd like to do is place them into chronological order.

So in the order in which they happened on the timeline, which is on the next slide, and I'll show that in just a moment.

But the events are that the Western Roman Empire collapsed.

The city was renamed Constantinople, Constantine converts to Christianity.

The Roman Empire splits into east and west, and the city is founded as a Greek colony.

So here is the timeline, the dates are all there for you as well.

So place those events into the correct area on the timeline.

The correct area is that when they're moving in chronological order, in the order in which they happened.

So pause the video now whilst you do that, and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on fine with that task.

So here is the correct answer and hopefully this is what you've got as well.

So in 667 BCE, the city was founded as a Greek colony in 312 CE Constantine converted to Christianity in 330 CE he renamed Byzantium Constantinople in 395 CE the Roman Empire split into east and west and then in 476 CE the Western Roman Empire collapsed.

So hopefully you've got all of those events in the correct chronological order as well.

Right, so let's move on to our second learning cycle for today, which is looking at problems from within the Byzantine Empire.

Now the Byzantines became known for their beautiful religious artwork.

And there are a couple of examples on the screen there in front of you.

The Byzantines were centuries ahead of their time in relation to their artwork.

If you compare the Byzantine artwork to let's say, medieval artwork from Europe it is no comparison at all.

Byzantine artwork is just far more realistic.

It's just far more beautiful, obviously art is is subjective, it's all in the eye of the beholder, but it really is incredible pieces of art.

Now, some of these works of art were so beautiful that it was feared that people were worshiping the works of art instead of what they represented.

So as you can see here on the screen, we got there a mosaic of Madonna, which is the Virgin Mary and child which in that thought case is Jesus.

And we've got a ceiling mosaic of Jesus there as well.

So some Byzantine people felt that people were worshiping these works of art as opposed to using them as a vehicle to think about the people they represent.

So Jesus, Mary, and God.

And this is known as idolatry.

So when you worship things instead of God, then that is known as idolatry and it's forbidden by the Bible.

And so to combat this, the Byzantine Empire saw regular occurrences of something called iconoclasm, which is the destruction of religious artwork in order to prevent idolatry.

And you see an example of that here on the screen in front of you as well.

So, now waves of iconoclasm swept through the Byzantine Empire for hundreds of years, but it didn't stop religious artwork from being produced.

And the reason being is that they had periods of creating this beautiful artwork, worries that people were then worshiping that, and then destruction of that artwork.

And then that would cease and then we'll go back to create this beautiful artwork.

And the whole cycle would effectively repeat itself as well.

And that happened several times over the course of the Byzantine Empire's history.

So let's have a quick check for understanding now then.

So what I would like to do is to connect the keyword to its correct definition.

So the keyword is on the one side of the screen, the definitions in the middle, and then I'd like you to connect it to its example afterwards.

And the examples are the pictures there.

So pause the video if you need to whilst you're doing this, and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, let's see how we got on then.

So idolatry is the worship of images.

An example there is that person bowing down to that sacred bull.

And therefore iconoclasm is the destruction of holy images.

So hopefully you understand those key terms and you understand examples that you can see in them as well.

So throughout its history, the Byzantine Empire regularly suffered violent upheaval as one ruling family was replaced by another, and some emperors and empresses were better than others.

So for example, Justinian I, he became an emperor in 527 CE and he was known as the emperor who never sleeps.

And the reason for that is that he had just an incredible work ethic.

The guy just never stopped.

And during Justinian's reign a legal code known as the Code of Justinian was written.

And this is important because actually Justinian's legal code still forms the basis of the laws used by many countries around the world today.

So about 1500 or so years later, we still have Justinian to thank for many of the laws in place in many countries around the world.

Justinian also created the first silk farm in Europe, which dramatically reduced the cost of this luxury material, which previously could only be imported from China.

The Chinese were understandably very strict about the trade in their silk.

They made it very clear that they would not export any silk worms, it's silk worms that make silk, from their country because they wanted to effectively keep hold of the monopoly on this incredible luxury good.

But some monks managed to smuggle some silk worms out of China.

They came to the Byzantine Empire and they created the first silk farm.

So because of that we don't have to travel all the way to China and back to gain silk, so therefore it becomes significantly cheaper to buy silk.

So Justinian also built the Hagia Sophia, which is on the screen there in front of you, which is just an extraordinarily beautiful holy building, which is still in use today, it was originally built as a church, as a cathedral.

Nowadays it's used as a mosque.

Regardless of what religion lays claim to it.

It is just an incredible piece of artwork, incredible piece of architecture.

Now, despite all of these things, Justinian himself almost certainly would've argued that his most important achievement was recapturing much of the Western Roman empire from the Germanic tribes.

So Justinian had this dream, this vision that he would recreate the Roman Empire, both east and west.

And he came fairly close to achieving that goal.

Now, despite the many, many positive aspects of Justinian's reign, there were problems too.

So for example, the Nika riots, which were linked to tensions over religions and rulers, caused the destruction of much of Constantinople and the deaths of 30,000 people.

Just to kind of put this into context, the Nika riots were started by two rival supporters of chariot racing.

Think of them as supporters from from two football teams at this point in time, who joined together to effectively just riot and pillage and destroy their own city.

So to use a modern equivalent.

This would be, I don't know, it would be the as just like Liverpool and Alfreton fans joining together to destroy Liverpool.

That's kind of the modern equivalent of what is going on here.

Justinian himself felt that his life was in danger.

He considered fleeing the city, but instead the army was brought in to bring an end to the riots.

And that's when so many people were killed.

The rioters had to be subdued by the army in an incredibly aggressive way for the riots to end.

Justinian was also the emperor when the first wave of the bubonic plague swept through Europe in 542 CE.

This is the first time that Europe had ever seen anything like this before.

It's known as Justinian's Plague.

It's almost certainly the first example of Bubonic Plague in Europe as well.

It was horrendous, genuinely horrendous.

Half of the city's population died, Justinian himself contracted the disease.

Fortunately for him though, he managed to survive it, but it never went away after this.

It continually cropped up again in waves just every so often as well.

So that's something that Justinian in the Byzantine Empire just had to contend with from that point on.

Now, furthermore, the territory that Justinian had conquered was enormous.

It was a decent portion of the Roman Empire at its height.

Unfortunately though, Justinian didn't have all of the resources that the old Roman Empire actually had.

And as a result, his army was stretched too thinly to adequately defend it.

And therefore, much of what Justinian had conquered was lost soon after his death in 565 CE.

Now the Roman Empire or the Byzantine Empire, however you want to describe it, it never reached these heights again.

From this point on, the empire fell into a decline.

There were periods where it kind of bounced back a little bit.

There's other great emperors and empresses that really pushed the boundaries of what could be constituting the Byzantine Empire.

But the reality is it never reached the heights as it did under Justinian I.

Right, let's have a quick check for understanding then.

So what nickname was given to Emperor Justinian I?

Was that the child emperor, the emperor who never sleeps, or the emperor of the sun?

Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose B, the emperor who never sleeps, then very well done, that is indeed correct.

Let's have another check for understanding.

Which two of the following weakened the Byzantine Empire from within?

Was it conflicts over religion, invasions by Germanic tribes, violent changes of rulers, or the loss of territory in wars?

So choose two of those on the screen now.

All right, if you chose A and C then very well done.

That is indeed correct.

Right let's go for our next task then.

So what I'd like to do is I'd like to think which of these features that I've got on the table in front of you were positive or negative for Justinian I's reign?

So I'd like you to sort them into two columns.

So one Heading "Positive" one heading "Negative" just rewrite them into the correct column.

Pause the video now once you do this, and I'll see you once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you've got on fine with that task.

So let's see what your answer should have looked like.

So in terms of positive aspects of Justinian I reign.

There was the fact that he created the first silk farm in Europe.

He recaptured much of the Western Roman empire.

He survived, personally, survived the bubonic plague, he built the Hagia Sophia, and he created the code of Justinian, that law code, which still exists today in many, many countries around the world.

In terms of the negative aspects of his reign, you could have said that 30,000 people were killed during the Nika riots, as well as the Nika riots destroying a great deal of the city.

You could have said that the bubonic plague killed half of Constantinople.

It's difficult to blame Justinian for that one, but we can't escape the fact that it did happen during his reign.

And also a lot of the territory that he captured was lost after his death as well.

So he created a situation where it was unsustainable for his successors to control that territory.

Right.

The next thing I'd like us to do for this task is I'd like to explain why the following would cause problems for the Byzantine Empire.

So why would the destruction of much of Constantinople during the Nika riots cause a problem?

Why does that constituted a problem?

And why is the loss of territory at Justinian I's death can be considered a problem as well?

So pause the video whilst you complete this task and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully got fine with that task.

Let's think about what you could have written then.

So you could have said the destruction of much of Constantinople during the Nika riots would cause problems with the Byzantine Empire because it would cost a lot of money to rebuild the city.

Another little factor of that actually, this is actually the reason why the I Sophia was built, actually the original church that was in its location was destroyed.

So Justinian used the opportunity to build this unbelievably impressive piece of architecture instead.

But regardless, it cost an extraordinary amount of money to rebuild the city.

The second point, you could have said the loss of territory after Justinian I's death would cause problems for the Byzantine Empire because it suggested that the empire was in decline.

It also will be difficult to regain this territory as the army was spread too thinly.

So hopefully you've got answers somewhat similar to what I've got in the screen there in front of you.

Right, let's move on now then to our third and final learning cycle for today, which is looking at problems from outside of the Byzantine Empire.

So the Byzantine Empire slowly declined after the reign of Justinian losing much of its territory to Germanic and Slavic tribes in the West and Arabic Muslims in the east.

As I said, there were periods where the Byzantine Empire kind of bounced back.

It took over a lot more territory, but it was only ever temporary, it declined again shortly after that.

And it never reached the territory expansion that it did under Justinian I.

Now during the 11th century, another threat to the empire arose, and these are Seljuk Turks from Central Asia who invaded the east of the Empire and they easily defeated all efforts to turn them back.

As a result of that, all of Anatolia or Asia Minor, as the Romans would've called it, all of that area just off to the east of Constantinople which used to be part of the Byzantine Empire.

That's now gone, that's now part of this, the Great Seljuk Empire instead.

Now, if the Byzantine were to stand up to this new threat, then undoubtedly help would be needed.

However, the Byzantine Empire had had a major disagreement with its traditional allies, and these are Christians in the former Western Roman Empire.

In 1054 an argument over differences in belief, examples of which might be things like idolatry.

There are other reasons as well, but we've looked at idolatry today and that that was one of the reasons why they disagreed.

And also who should hold more power.

Should it be the West or should it be the East?

Resulted in the great schism, which is a major rift in Christianity.

And this saw Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire break away from Roman Catholicism to form Eastern Orthodoxy, which is its own version of Christianity.

And this still exists today.

The Christian Church has never reunited.

So Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, they are still two separate religions.

The relationship between them is better nowadays, but they've never reunited.

However, going back to the time period in question, if the Byzantine Empire hoped to stand against the invading Seljuks then they are first going to need to fix this rift.

They're gonna need to repair the relationship with the Western European Christians.

Now let's go for a quick check for understanding now.

So which group posed a new major threat to the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century?

Was it Arabic Muslims?

Was it Germanic tribes?

Was it Seljuk Turks or was it Slavic tribes?

Make a choice now.

Okay, if you chose C, Seljuk Turks, then congratulations.

That is indeed correct.

And lets have another check for understanding now.

So true or false, the great schism of 1054 saw Constantinople replace Rome as a center of Christianity in Europe.

Is that true or is that false?

Okay, if you chose false, then very well done.

That is indeed correct.

But let's justify our answer now then.

Why is it false?

Is it false because Constantinople became the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which was separate from Roman Catholicism?

Or is it false because it led to Eastern Orthodox Christianity replacing Roman Catholicism with Rome still the center of Christianity?

So choose your justification now.

Okay, if you chose A then very well done.

That is indeed correct.

Right, let's go on then to our next task.

So have a table in front of you here.

What I would like to do is I'd like you to think, what was a greater threat to the Byzantine Empire?

Was it internal or external problems?

And I got the table on the screen here just to give you a reminder about what these internal and external problems are.

So internal problems consisted of the things like on iconoclasm.

So the Byzantines could not agree on their religious beliefs.

The fact that there were violent changes of rulers, not every time, but quite frequently the change in rulers, the change in rule of families in the Byzantine Empire was quite violent.

And also, quite frankly, their army was not good enough.

Initially, the empire was too large for the Army to defend.

And then coming down towards the 11th century, the army just wasn't good enough to defend against some of the invading tribes.

Some of the external problems you could say is that the loss of territory in Europe, there were invasions from Germanic and Slavic tribes, so they were being pushed back in the West.

There's also the loss of territory in Asia.

So there were invasions from Arabic Muslims and Seljuk Turks.

So they were being pushed back in the east.

And as well as that, there's the great schism as well.

So the loss of Christian allies in Europe.

So there's no right or wrong answer here, just in your opinion, was it internal or external problems that were a greater threat to the Byzantine Empire?

So pause the video now, watch your answer that question, and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on fine with that task.

So regardless of what your opinion is, as long as you've explained it, that's the only key thing here as well.

You can't be wrong as long as you've explained your answer.

So as an example, I've written an answer here as well.

Let's, let's read on the screen here.

So I said the biggest threat the Byzantine Empire faced was problems from outside of the empire.

The invasions for Germanic and Slavic tribes in Europe and Arabic Muslims and Celtic Turks in Asia meant the Byzantines were surrounded by enemies.

Additionally, they could not rely on their Christian allies for help because of the great schism.

So I've tried to explain all the reasons why I believe what I believe, and I've actually linked my examples together as well to explain why there are such a great threat.

Right, let's summarize today's lesson.

So after the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the Eastern Roman empire became the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople.

The Byzantines thought of themselves as carrying on the Roman Empire.

Justinian I advanced Byzantine culture and territory in the sixth century.

But after this, the empire went into a general decline.

The Byzantine empire faced internal problems such as differences in how to practice Christianity and violent political changes.

And by the 11th century, the Byzantines faced the threat of invasion from Germanic and Slavic tribes in Europe and Arabic Muslims and Soldier Turks in Asia.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself.

Hopefully you've learned something and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye-bye.