Tema 2. El Imperio bizantino

Welcome, friends of Posca, from Historia for the second episode of Esso Tema 2. My name is Juan Jesús Plegueso, I'm a history professor at Distituto, and I present you this series of audio, which covers the whole topic of this course. Before I leave you with today's topic, two very important reminders. This audio is extracted from my main Posca, Historia con el Movio, so if you like it, you can check out that other audio. And also, if you want to get the best notes of this course, if you want to get the best performance of your time of study, you can buy my book "Los días hábitos" from the famous student, where I show you how to get it. I leave you the link in the notes of the program. Without further delay, I leave you with today's topic, and I hope you enjoy it. Well, well, well, let's start with the program, look at the history of Turkey, the reverse of the history of Spain. Very interesting, look, in the Middle Ages, while in Spain the Christians were taking territory from the Muslims, in the current Turkey, the Muslims were taking territory from the Christians. And while at the end of the Middle Ages, in the Iberian Peninsula, the Muslims were cornered in the Kingdom of Granada, in the current Turkey, the Christians were cornered in the city of Constantinople. And while in Spain the Muslims were asking for help from their brothers from the East, in Turkey the Christians from Constantinople were asking for help from their brothers from the West, and both the Muslims from Spain were abandoned by their Turkish brothers from the East, and the Christians from the East were abandoned by their Catholic brothers from Rome. Interesting, and today in Spain we have jewels like the Alhambra, and in Turkey there are jewels like Santa Sofía de Constantinople, which I will visit soon. If we talk about the Byzantine Empire, we have to talk first about the Roman Empire, because the Byzantine Empire is coming to be a second part of the Roman Empire. In this program we could call the Roman Empire a second part, or we could also say the Roman Empire against the attack. Let's talk about the Roman Empire. You already know that the Roman Empire covered the entire Mediterranean basin, covered from the British island, Central Europe, Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc. All of that was the Roman Empire. What happens in the last century? Because the Roman Empire begins to collapse, it begins to see first signs of weakness, it begins to see corruption, the Roman Empire reached the limit of its expansion, and also the barbarian people arrive, who begin to host the border, they begin to attack the border, and things begin to see signs of weakness in the empire. So there is an emperor who with good criteria, called Giooclesian, decides to divide the empire, he decides that the empire is very large, that it cannot cover everything, and that it is better for it to have two empires. I mean, that there is an empire but divided into two. So what does it do with the Roman Empire? It divides it into two halves. The Roman Empire of the West and the Roman Empire of the East. In the Roman Empire of the West, the current Italy, Spain, France, Morocco would be left. In the Roman Empire of the East, the current Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Jordan, etc. would be left. And it's curious, but that division of the Roman Empire is affecting even our day. Today we have two Europe, and the Western Europe is different from the Eastern Europe, both in culture, as in religion, as in politics, as in the language, everything. And that division begins now in 293. But it's the day Giooclesian decides the following, we divide the empire into two, and each empire is going to lead it to August, but each empire is going to be divided into two parts. So, in each empire there will be an August and a Caesar. That is, the empire is divided into two, and each part of the empire is divided into two parts. In other words, in short, the Roman Empire is divided into four parts and begins what is called the tetrarchia. Well, one of those Giooclesian successors, Constantinus, who was August of the West, has passed history for several reasons. For example, Constantinus, in the Edict of Milan of the year 313, proclaims the religious tolerance, which means the legalization of Christianity. Constantinus is a very important figure in the history of Christianity, although it must be said that Constantinus did not understand the values ​​of the Gospel very well. If I read it, I do not know what Jesus Christ wanted to say, because this man, as a character, left much to be desired. He killed his wife, killed his son, killed his father-in-law. He was a kind of ascetic, but even so he passed history because he was the one who legalized Christianity. In addition, his mother, Elena, traveled to the Holy Land and was the one who, according to ... Well, in short, this story is part of a program. His mother discovered the holy places, the Golgotha, the Holy Cross, the Holy Relics. Her mother, Elena, described them. But it is so important, Constantinus, for the history of Christianity. Well, well, because Constantinus, who was August of the West, wants to unify the empire and enters war with the August of the East, the one who wins. So, Constantinus unifies the empire again. But he no longer wants to have the capital in Rome. He decides that the capital wants to take it to the other end of the empire and chooses the end of Europe and the beginning of Asia. A settlement called Byzantium, which was a Greek settlement of 600 A.C., which had founded a legendary character called Vizas. And there is where he decides to founded the new capital of the Roman Empire, which is going to be called Constantinople, the city of Constantinus, or New Rome. We also have to say the following about Constantinus. Once he has transferred the capital to Constantinople, once he has legalized Christianity, Constantinus summons the First Communical Council of Christianity. That is, he summons all the currents of Christianity in Nicea and tries to unify all the doctrines that were then in Christianity, about whether Jesus and the Lord were the same person, about whether they were made of the same material, or whether the Holy Spirit came from one side or from the other, it was the same thing. They start discussions that have no end. They start a discussion, a tradition of theological discussions that is going to perpetuate all the Middle Ages in Byzantium. That is why, from the topic of Byzantine discussions, when we talk about Byzantine discussions, we talk about a discussion that is lost in arguments that cannot be demonstrated. Well, then, Constantinus, Constantinus dies, and what does the son of Constantinus do? Well, nothing, the tradition of facing one another continues, they start killing each other, the Empire is divided again, and at the end of the 4th century, Theodosius, in 379, unifies the Empire, unifies the Empire again, proclaims in 380 the edict of Thessalonica in which Christianity makes the official religion of the Empire, and when he dies, in 395, again divides the Empire, again divides the Empire, and his son, Norio, leaves him to the West, and his son, Arcadius, leaves him to the East. And well, we are already in the 5th century, we have talked before about the barbarian villages that continue to be there, that continue to be present, that continue to enter the Roman Empire, and continue to attack the Roman Empire, and well, what happens is that in the Roman Empire of the East they are more ready, and they tell the barbarians, "No, no, keep going, keep going, and attack the Roman Empire of the West, they are richer, you, there you will get what you want, and you will shoot forward, you will shoot forward." So the Roman Empire of the East was able to desbiage the barbarian invasions, and the barbarians were always West, and there in the West, they were penetrating little by little, the gaudos, the Visibaudos, the other gaudos, etc., etc., the Alans, the Vandals, they were penetrating little by little in Spain, in France, in Italy, until they were dissolving the Roman Empire of the West, the Roman Empire of the West is reduced to the minimum expressiveness, until in 476, a barbarian called Odoacro, puts the last emperor of Rome, who is called Rómulo Augustus, and what this barbarian does is send the imperial insignia, he sends it to the Emperor of the East, in Constantinople, so from now on, the Roman Empire of the West disappears, and continues to continue the Roman Empire of the East, watch out, an empire, an empire that survives a thousand years in Rome, a very rich Roman Empire of the East, much richer than the West, remember that in the East there were the ancient civilizations, and therefore the East was much more developed than the West, an Roman Empire of the East, based on Christianity, an absolutely Christian Roman Empire, one of the most Christian empires in history, with a capital, Constantinople, which is in the center of all the trade routes between Europe and Asia, and between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Well, that's the Roman Empire of the East, I repeat, it survives a thousand years more than the fall of Rome, and if we have to talk about an emperor, which is called Justinian, Justinian comes to the throne in 527, and reignates at 565, and Justinian always proposes the following, to recover the Roman Empire of the West, he wants to unify all the territories that another was made up of, the great Roman Empire, we have to say that next to Justinian there was a wife named Theodora, and Theodora had been a dancer, it was said that she prostitutes, and it was Theodora who, let's say, helps Justinian in that mission of recomposing the Western Roman Empire, What does Justinian do? Well, Justinian goes up the taxes, and the town starts to be quite unhappy, so on an occasion in the hippodrome there was a revolt, at that time, because, well, the great aficionate was the Guerrillas de Cuadriga, the aficionados were divided between blue and green, and both groups joined to start protesting for the discontent they were in, and then there was a revolt that spread throughout the city, it began to be disturbed, and there is when Justinian says "I leave here, I leave here, they come for me and Theodora says "No, no, you don't go, I didn't get here to leave, you stay and face this revolt." And what does Justinian do? He tells the rebels to charge his generals, well, the following, "Come on, let's go to the rebels in the hippodrome, let's tell them that we are going to have a party, that we are going to have a quadriga, so he tells them "Come on, let's go to the hippodrome, let's go to the hippodrome, we are going to have a party, seeing the quadrigas, you will see how fun this is going to be, and what does he do, what does he do, because they put all the rebels in the hippodrome, deceiving them obviously, they close the hippodrome, they put the army in the hippodrome and they make a carnival, gentlemen, 30,000 executions, 30,000 dead in that hippodrome, that is how Justinian ends with this revolt, when he ends this revolt, Justinian wants you to start from scratch, and what he does is build that wonderful jewel, the church that is called Santa Sofia, or the Santas Eduría, which was the biggest church in Christianity, until the construction of San Pedro el Vaticano. Well, we have to say that Justinian continues with his commitment to rebuild the European Empire, and he is doing well, he occupies North Africa, he occupies Italy, he occupies the south of Spain, that is, for the first time in several centuries, again the Mediterranean is Roman and it is unified. Another thing for which I have remembered Justinian is that he elaborates a code where he compiles all the laws of the empire that were released around there, and makes a code of laws that is common throughout the empire, so it comes as if today we talk about a constitution, because it is the code of Justinians, and we have to say that when Justinian dies, in the year 565, he leaves an empire in crisis, in ruin, made in ruin, and from then on he will not be the same Byzantine empire again. And when he dies, in Italy, the Lombards begin to recover the north of Italy, the territories that the Byzantines had occupied, for the Lombards they begin to recover it. In the east the Persians begin to become the great enemy of the Byzantine Empire, and they begin to occupy territories. The successor of Justinian, because he leaves Justinian, the twinkle is lifted, and he becomes crazy, as it sounds, and he begins to leave here for internal rebellions, a long tradition of internal rebellions begins, an emperor arrives called Mauritius, who gets peace with the Persians in the 590s, but Mauritius is deposed by foes, and foes are deposed by another emperor who is called, by another general called Heraclius, and the generals begin to depose each other. His great emperor is Heraclius, who goes through the history of Byzantium, for he is the emperor who leaves in a definitive way in Latin, and adopts Greek as an official language. In addition, he is the one who faces the Persians. The Persians, or all the great arch enemies of the Byzantine Empire, supported the capital Constantinople in 626, with the help of the Avaros and the Slavs, the great arch enemies of Constantinople. Heraclius manages to resist the Persian siege thanks to the big walls that Constantinople had, he manages to repel the siege, and the Persians say, "We can't take any more Constantinople, but if we take Jerusalem," and also, attention, the emperor of Persia, Cosroy II, takes the relic of the Holy Cross, and takes it to Persia. Heraclius manages to reorganize his army, goes to attack the Persians, manages to defeat the Persians, and manages to return the relic of the Holy Cross and returns it to Jerusalem. But well, having already defeated the Persians, another great arch enemy of the Byzantines is born, which was the Islán. The Islán begins to expand quickly outside the Arab peninsula, and in the Battle of Yarmouk, the Arabs defeat the Byzantines. And in 638, and then they take Jerusalem, they take Damascus, they take Alexandria, that is, they occupy the provinces of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, provinces that are incorporated into the Islán, and that Byzantium will never be able to recover. The Arabs, of course, defeat the Persians in the Battle of Tesifonte, and the Arabs go everywhere, so they are going to siege the capital of Constantinople, the Battle of the Mastiles, but the Byzantines get to repel the Arabs, return in 663, again siege the city, the Byzantines again get to repel the siege of Arabia thanks to the Byzantine fire, a secret weapon, that was fire, but they kept the composition of this weapon in secret. Return in 715, in this case, the Byzantines get to repel the Arabs thanks to the help of the Slavs, who are then super enemies, because now the Slavs help the Byzantines to fight against the Arabs. Well, if the Byzantines have problems with the Arabs, they create them at home with the Kireya and the Oclasta. It is common in several religions, the fact of preventing the representation of images. Why? Because if you adore an image, it falls into the danger of idolatry. It is supposed to be that you adore God, and not the image of that God. And sometimes a believer can forget that that image is an image, and it is not God. So idolatry falls. This is in Islam, this is in Judaism, and there is a current that we have, that has also been prohibited throughout history, the representation of images. In the year 726, there is an emperor, or when I say emperor, the Greek name for the Byzantines, we should say a basileo. There is a basileo, a third one, that prohibits the representation of images and begins to persecute all the Ilesia and religious congregations that represent images. And attention, here begins a revolt, a kind of civil war begins, persecutions begin between the iconoclasts, those who want to prohibit the representation of images, and the iconoclasts, those who want to worship images. And this is supposed to be a big problem, a civil confrontation in the throne of the Byzantine Empire. Who ends this struggle, this confrontation? Irene, the Empress. Irene, when it comes to power, ends in the year 787. This confrontation comes to legalize the adoration of images, and the iconodule is absolutely legal. We have to say several things about this woman. When her son got mad and wanted to reign, Irene takes her eyes out. That's how it sounds. What would happen in the West? In the West you see that in the East, the Empress says, "If a woman is the Empress, that's not valid." So what did the Pope name Emperor Carlos Magno? Well, this fight against the iconoclasts was reactivated in the following centuries, between 813 and 842. Notice how things get destroyed by the Byzantines. While the Arabs, and then the Turks, and then the Slavs are attacking them everywhere. What do they do? Do they fight, in case they have to represent the Virgin Mary, or do they have to represent her? So that you can see. We have to say that between the Middle Ages, the Byzantines Christianize and evangelize the people of the Slavs. We have to highlight two missionaries, which are called Methods and the most important. Cyril. These two monks evangelize the people of the Slavs. That's why today the people of the Slavs are Orthodox. After having overcome the iconoclasts and this absurd confrontation about whether to represent or not, a brief Macedonian rebirth begins. It comes from a very strong emperor, Basilius II. And he is able to charge and kill a great enemy, the Bulgarians. At the front of the empire a great kingdom was born, the great Bulgaria, who had not stopped stinking and taking territory from the Byzantines. Basilius II, in a battle, managed to defeat the Bulgarians 14,000 prisoners. At the front of the missionaries, a 99-year-old leaves blind and a 1-year-old leaves a tortoise. Why did he leave a tortoise so that the tortoise could guide the other 99 blind people back home? When King Bulgarus sees what has happened to him, he gives him such a patatus that the next day he dies. And what does Basilius II do? He occupies all Bulgaria and conquests all Bulgaria. Let's talk about the religious fism. The official headquarters of Christianity was in Rome. The Pope was the spiritual leader, the official leader of Christianity. But, of course, who really had the power in Christianity or Constantinople? If there was a strong power inside Christianity, without a doubt, it was Constantinople. However, the leader of Christianity was in Rome, and the Pope was on top of it. He was stupid and he was in demand. So he begins to see frictions between the eastern and western Christians. Until the year 1054 where there was a mutual communion between the Pope and the western patriarch. Attention! Everything begins by a philic class. It's a philic class. They start to fight because the West said that the Holy Spirit was the son of the Lord and Jesus Christ. The East said that the Holy Spirit was only the son of the Lord. I mean, it was a joke! It was a nonsense! In the year 1054 and the separation lasts until today. That's why almost all the churches that you find in the East are Orthodox tradition. Whether you go to Greece, Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Middle East, all those Christians, most of them are Orthodox tradition, or belong to an Orthodox Church. And now, to finish, we're going to talk about the long agony of the Byzantine Empire, which did not win for disgust. It is that a new enemy appears, like the Turkish Empire. The Turkish Empire occupies everything that was the Arab Empire. The Turks become the island and they are gaining territory to the Byzantines, already in the Anatolian Peninsula. Both in the Battle of Manzinkero, in the Battle of Miniocephalus, the Byzantines. But for the most part, in the Western countries, they also get into and take out the poor Byzantines. Look, the Crusades were in the east to conquer the holy places, but there was a Crusade that was led, in principle, to help a Byzantine emperor to Isaac II. So the 4th Crusade was the first Constantinople to restore the throne and direct it to Palestine and fight against the Turks, against the Muslims. Well, what do these Crusaders do when they arrive in Constantinople and have managed to restore the throne to the Emperor of Pueces? Well, they don't give him the payment they had promised and what do these Crusaders do? They stay in Constantinople and take them out. They take them out, and the Crusaders divide what was left of the Byzantine Empire, the few territories left to the Byzantine Empire. The Crusaders, and the legitimate Byzantines fled to the Empire of Denicea and, from Denicea in 1261, those Byzantines, who were the legitimate heir of the Byzantines, deposed by the Crusaders, began to recover what was left of the Byzantine Empire. But still, from 1261 and they were unified by the Byzantine territories, civil wars began and, well, the Turks were taking more and more land. The Byzantines began to ask for help from the West to fight against the Turks. The Westerners, in principle, gave it to them. But when they see that they don't have enough help, until May 29, 1453 after a long siege, the Turks took Constantinople. And here is the end of the Byzantine Empire. And here it is said that the Turkish Empire that supplied the Byzantine Empire, almost occupied the same territories that the Byzantine Empire had occupied. It is said, then, that the Byzantine Empire had been the successor of the Byzantine Empire. So far, friends and friends, the program of today. I hope you found it interesting. I remind you that this program has a second part in my travels, in my social networks. If you want to see what I'm going to see in my visit to Istanbul, I send you a big hug, I wish you the best and I wait for you in the next program.