By 1453 Constantinople was isolated in a sea of Islamic controlled territory. Knowing no help was coming from the West, or anywhere else, the 7,000 soldiers of Christ prepared to meet the 80,000 Turks of Allah. The Ottomans were able to capture the city by attacking from land and sea simultaneously, and by pounding the walls down with a massive cannon throwing stones (cannonballs) weighing 1500 pounds. The defenders of the city were few during 1453, but they held out for nearly two months providing yet another testament to the strength of the triple walls that protected the city for so many centuries. Even after the walls were opened up by the huge stone cannonballs, assault after assault was thrown back. The Ottoman Turks used their powerful cannon to batter the city again before their final assault, punching additional large openings in the walls and demoralizing the defenders. The last emperor, Constantine XI, refused to become a vassal of the Muslims, preferring to die in battle. He positioned himself at the weakest point of the wall, and as the enemy swarm stormed through the breach he charged forward. His body was never found. Cannons had overcome the old static defenses that turned back so many previous invaders. After the fall of the mighty city, and an immense slaughter of its citizens where the streets became slick with blood, Islam moved on by invading Eastern Europe and continuing their string of conquests. Byzantium was gone and Constantinople became the capitol of the Ottoman Turks. They renamed it Istanbul. It never regained its former glory or wealth. Rome was at last a distant memory.
As Constantinople was falling its citizens were leaving. They went west to Italy and France, bringing with them the classics of Greek and Roman literature. In addition, they brought the learning of the East where, for example, Arabic numerals (they were actually Hindu) and the concept of zero as a mathematical place holder proved far better than Roman numerals in calculations. The West had long been held back by the inability of the Roman numeral system to make complex calculations. Many other concepts in medicine and philosophy entered Europe from Constantinople. Thus, the fall of Constantinople was a kind of boon to Europe, and kick started the era we call the Renaissance.
The Crusades
1095 to 1291
As we know from the above commentary, in 1095 Pope Urban II set off a religious war to regain the Holy Land of Palestine, and the city of Jerusalem, then under Islamic control. This was a natural response to the slaughter of Christians throughout the conquered area, and there was the threat to Christian Constantinople that had requested aid from the west. As European knights formed armies for the liberation of Jerusalem and Palestine, the name Crusaders attached itself to the men and the venture. Even though the Crusaders managed to retake Jerusalem in 1099 (the First Crusade), the Muslims counterattacked and re-conquered the city in a few years. In spite of four more Crusades the forces of Christianity failed to defeat Islam. The number of crusades is hard to count because a lot depends on what one defines as a crusade, however, most historians count five.
The Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople and never attacked Muslim forces in the Holy Land; nevertheless, they did manage to destroy the last best bastion against Islamic invasion of eastern Europe. The final Crusade was the Fifth (1217 to 1221), and it also managed to accomplish nothing. Four Crusader states were established in Islamic territory during the Crusades, but these were small embattled kingdoms that failed to spread the Christian faith or expand their conquests. The forces of Islam destroyed all these Crusader states; however, Muslim armies lost so many men in battles at the Islands of Rhodes and Malta that it damaged Islam’s ability to continue attacking Europe. Even though unsuccessful in holding the Holy Land, the Crusades did turn the tide of conquest against Islam.[83] The constant wars with the European Crusaders and the Mongols attacking from the east eventually wore down the Muslims reducing the wars between the Europeans and Islam. The Muslim advance into eastern Europe stopped at the gates of Vienna, and the advance into Western Europe had failed at Tours in 732; nonetheless, the conquests of Islam were vast, and they represent a continuing challenge to the West and Christianity.
Figure 27 Islamic Caliphate to 750 AD
The Crusades influenced Europe far more than Islam. To Islam they brought only hate, but through their contact with the Muslims, Europeans brought back knowledge of the classical Roman and Greek world that started the European Renaissance.
Most of this section relies on the book Lost to the West, the Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization, Brownworth, Lars, 2009, Crown Publishers.
Let Us Learn
From this complex era in the Middle East, and the political, social, and religious clashes of the Crusades we learn not to bite off more than we can chew. Islam over extended itself, then broke up into factions over details thus sacrificing unity. Moreover, their treatment of other religions led to a backlash out of Europe, the Crusades, that punished everyone involved including the Europeans. The Crusades taught us to plan well before any significant undertaking, and if you cannot get everyone on the same page before the project starts then start over or abandoned the project. In essence the pope said, Go get ‘em without any plan, and the segmented nature of the response displayed a disunity of ideals, goals, and actions on a broad scale. In addition, no one thought about the end game. Even if Jerusalem was taken, what then? How many people wanted to go there and stay? Not many. Failure to think through significant undertakings, especially the end game, can turn worthwhile projects into disasters.
The forces of Islam failed to think through what caused the Christian backlash. It turns out that mistreating people, including killing and degrading them over religion, gets folks kind of riled up. In your own life remember the lesson of treatment of others. Treating folks poorly may result in them treating you poorly. Many a politician managed to discover that rule. Smart people give and command respect; however, respect for others comes before getting respect. Learn to admire others and respect their beliefs and accomplishments. Condemnation on a broad scale seldom achieves a necessary objective; rather, it normally ends up impeding the ability to gain any objective. Stay unified, stay respectful, plan well, define objectives closely and clearly, and prepare thoroughly for the task. Finally, think about the end game. What achievement is sought, at what cost, and what are the consequences of failure? Also, think about other ways to gain the same objective. This era taught us all this and more.
Books and Resources:
The New Penguin History of the World, Roberts, J, 2007, Penguin. p. 358 et al fall of Byzantium; p. 342 et al Crusades.
Crusader Castles in the Holy Land 1192-1302, Nicolle, David, 2005, Osprey. Excellent maps and illustrations by Adam Hook.
A History of the Byzantium State and Society, Treadgold, Warren, 1997, Standard University Press.
Lost to the West, the Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization, Brownworth, Lars, 2009, Crown Publishers. The best short book on Byzantium.
Chapter 9
The New World and the Rise of America
Columbus and 1492
The Age of Discovery led to the European discovery of the Americas in 1492 when Columbus ran into the land mass and thought it was Asia (actually he stumbled onto Cuba, but that’s another story).[84] Spain sponsored the voyage, and Queen Isabella herself paid for the undertaking. Columbus returned with Native Americans that he called Indians because he thought he had found India or a set of islands near India. After a bit of additional exploring it was soon determined he had not reached Asia but a new land unknown in Europe. Of course, Spain claimed the new land, but the Spaniards were not so much interested in North America. The gold of Mexico and South America attracted them. Some areas of North America were claimed by Spain (Florida, parts of Southwest America), but Spain’s real efforts went to gathering the South American gold and in turning the Native Americans into slaves . . . err . . . Christians.
Disease decimated the Native Americans. Some estimates say 70 percent of the population was destroyed by 1700, mostly from disease. The empires of the Inca
and Aztecs fell to the Spanish Conquistadores and opened the way for the complete domination of the South American native societies. The Spanish simply placed themselves at the top of the social scale where the old rulers had been causing the population to follow their orders—or else. The new rulers were exploiters and used the natives as virtual slaves to mine the gold or grow the crops that would bring in money. Spain did well and prospered throughout the sixteenth century. England and Holland, plus other upstart nations, spent their time raiding Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and otherwise working to diminish Spanish power. For all the wealth flowing into Spain from the New World little was spent on improving the economy or the daily life of the peasants in Spain. The aristocracy made most of the money and depleted it on projects only benefiting them. Spain spent a lot of wealth on its army and on the wars it had to fight expanding or protecting its empire. Thus, the benefit to Spain for all the gold and wealth that came its way was brief.
After a few failures, the English finally established a North American colony in 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia. This colony, founded 115 years after Columbus’ voyage, just managed to hang on in the face of disease (the colony was in a swamp), starvation, recalcitrant lazy colonists, and some hostile Native Americans. Other colonies placed farther north encountered fewer problems with disease and angry natives—at least at first. In 1664 the English took New Amsterdam from the Dutch and renamed it New York. This was a thriving port in 1664, showing how well the New World was treating people who came for hard work rather than exploitation.
This was the key difference between the colonies of North America and South America. Where Spain came to take and leave, the colonists of the north came to work and stay. The Spaniards looked to Spain as the homeland that they would eventually return to. In the north the colonists wanted to stay because the New World was their home. These men and women would live, work, and die in the new land. Their children would come of age in America while farming and working in the colonies, because for them the future was the New World not England or Holland or Germany where they came from. The Spaniards looked east toward home; the English colonists[85] looked west toward the new land.
Native Americans
The Native Americans were in a conundrum. What were they to do now that the white men had arrived? In South America they were enslaved, and in North America they were driven out. The colonists of the north did not want to enslave them, they wanted them to go away. In the north farming was all important, so the settlers wanted to clear the land used for hunting by the Native Americans and plant crops. The northern colonists cut down the trees and built homes and farms everywhere. Eventually, cities arose on areas once roamed by Native Americans. Frequent wars broke out between the Natives and the colonists. Often the Natives would kill a rather large number of the white men, but the colonists always struck back. With disease killing millions of them the Native Americans could not effectively combat the white settlers. As more ships arrived with ever more Europeans, the Native Americans could only despair. Construction started on massive cities, the likes of which no Native American had ever seen or imagined. White settlers brought guns and technology as well as increasing numbers. All the natives could do was retreat, but they knew there was no end to this surge of people coming to use the land in new ways. The Native Americans had no place in this kind of world.
The Native Americans failed to unite against the white man. Some settled in and bartered with the newcomers trying to fit into the new milieu. Others, usually in piecemeal fashion, warred with the settlers in a losing attempt to change the flow of history. The warriors lost, as did the traders who were trying to fit in. The warriors lost their lives, their villages, and their families. The passive lost their culture and their identity. They became the Indians, or red men; people who were lost in a new age and unwelcome by those who occupied the land. Some Native Americans attended college, received degrees, and otherwise “made good” in the new white settlers’ world; nevertheless, they failed to be accepted as full equal partners in the new society transplanted from Europe. Europeans had many prejudiced ideas, and these did not leave their minds because they crossed an ocean.
The Native Americans did not do much to endear themselves to the Europeans. Several of the tribes were at least part time cannibals. Needless to say, cannibalism enraged the colonist and was, to some, more proof the Indians were worth nothing but extermination. The natives also were fierce in battle. It was common for Iroquois warriors to bite chunks of flesh off the men they were fighting in hand-to-hand combat. So called Indian massacres stories were told and re-told all over the colonies. Europeans feared these warriors who moved like shadows and ambushed parties of white men in the dense forest of the eastern seaboard. Many Europeans came to hate the Native Americans as godless heathens asking for destruction. This is the common result of unremitting warfare such as the kind waged on the colonial frontier. (Or in modern Israel/Palestine)
As the Native Americans endured obliteration new problems arose for the settlers. French colonization of Canada and sections of America triggered a large war. In 1682, France claimed Louisiana and the Mississippi River lands. (All lands drained by the Mississippi River) Then in 1718, the French founded the city of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River, effectively gaining control of the waterway. In fact, all over the world the French and English were having problems with one another, and in 1756 they went to war. (Note the date, 20 years before the American Revolution) The war was termed the Seven Years War in Europe, but in America it was called the French and Indian War because the French took several Indian tribes as allies. This was a world war, with France and England battling over colonies and the seas connecting them. England won a decisive series of victories outside of Europe. In Europe the Seven Years War ended in a draw with England and Prussia fighting France, Austria, and Russia to a standstill. In the New World, England won in Canada and the frontiers of the American colonies. America and Canada became fully English possessions, with France’s last bastion being Louisiana. The war ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris which gave England control of much of the world.
The American colonists were not “American” so much as they were English. At least that was what everyone thought at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763; however, back in England the Parliament believed the American colonists should pay their fair share of the war’s cost. After all, the French and Indian war won the colonists a lot in terms of western land and safety from further French attacks. With the French gone, the Indian problems would abate because no outside force remained to unite them against the colonists. As a result, the English Parliament passed a series of acts taxing the colonists in America for the war. Some New England colonists objected to the taxes and started stirring up problems for the Crown (the English king and Parliament). These rabble-rousers felt America and England were different and the colonies should govern themselves separately. Early on, most people in the colonies did not want a break with England, although they did want respect. Unfortunately for the Crown, Parliament handled the growing crisis dreadfully, and more and more formerly English colonists became Americans by rejecting the idea of English rule.
The American Revolution 1775 to 1782
Background
How did it happen that Englishmen in the colonies became Americans who wanted to rule themselves? This is one of those all important questions that is impossible to answer. How people separate from one government and decide to tie themselves to another is a critical study, but little useful information is around on which to test the theories.
A few items probably played a large role in the changeover. 1) From the start Americans ruled themselves. The home country was far away, and they simply could not wait for decisions from England to govern their lives. From the Mayflower Compact in 1620 to the Articles of Confederation (and later the Constitution), the Americans had written their own rules and had put together institutions to enforce these rules. Once a group of people st
art governing themselves it is hard to put up with someone coming in and overriding local decisions. 2) Another factor might be that the colonists had built their lives around the New World, not the old. By 1776 they had lived in America for generations, and many of those people living in the New World had never seen the home country. England, as a place, meant little to them. 3) Note that many wealthy men in the colonies were self-made, and they balked at being told what to do.[86] The mother country deserved respect, but who gave them the right to order people about like servants? Successful colonists thought Parliament was out to skin them (financially) for a war the colonists did not ask for but fought to a successful conclusion with their own blood and money. Now the Crown wanted more. This aroused the ire of self-made men who wanted to control their own destiny.
Other English colonies such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and many others stayed with England until about 1950. What was the difference? England gave her colonies protection and prosperity through trade with the mother country. Protection is crucial, and without trade the faraway colonies would struggle to survive. The non-rebelling colonies saw England’s protection and trade as more important than self-rule. The Americans seemed to feel these were not critical items. France was a threat to the west of the American colonies, and Canada would be a threat to the north if the rebellion were successful. How could the Americans be sure of protecting themselves and maintaining their trading relationships? In fact, they could not have been certain of maintaining their freedom or their trade, but freedom was more important than potential problems. Perhaps it came down to good propaganda from American radicals who wanted to be free from England. The distinction between the attitude in America and the other colonies is the critical part. Why the attitudes were so different is hard to say.
With extremists in the American colonies making trouble and some moderates joining in, England decided to get tough and suppress these rumblings of discontent. The English Parliament did not do well in deciding how to handle the problem. Soon, the Parliament turned a problem into a crisis and then a crisis into a shooting war. Propaganda turned out by a rather well-to-do group of men in America made each English move a hammer blow against liberty and another insult to the colonists. In 1774, Britain passed the “Intolerable Acts”[87] to punish American colonists for the Boston Tea Party.[88] Soon thereafter British troops occupied Boston. The mood in the American colonies grew incredibly sour, and as the British Army stepped up its efforts to make sure no revolution occurred it accomplished the opposite.[89]
The Super Summary of World History Page 18