At the dawn of the 13th century, relations between Westerners and Byzantines were going through a crisis. The Massacre of the Latins in 1182 in Constantinople had had a negative effect, while the situation worsened further with the presence of the Crusaders and the Venetians in the City in 1203. This siege would be followed by riots, which broke out from August to November 1203. , between the Greek residents, who were against the Crusaders, and the Latins, who were in favor.
The already unregulated situation would worsen further on January 25, 1204, with the death of the co-emperor Isaac II. The people deposed Alexios IV who, when he had ascended the throne on August 1, 1203, had negotiated with the Crusaders, turning much of the world against him. He would eventually be imprisoned by the imperial chamberlain, Alexios Doukas, who on February 5 proclaimed himself emperor and executed Alexios IV three days later.
The new emperor, Alexios V, tried to renegotiate with the Crusaders with the aim of getting them to withdraw from Byzantine territory without receiving the money promised to them by Alexios IV. The effort did not yield the desired results. On the contrary, in March 1204, the Crusaders decided to conquer Constantinople with the aim of settling their debts and dividing the empire.
By the end of March, the entire Crusader army was besieging the City, while Alexios V tried to strengthen its defenses. During the first week of April, the siege became increasingly suffocating. On April 9, the Crusaders launched their attack on the Horned Bay forts. A few days later, on April 12, the second attack was decided. The Crusaders would manage to break through the walls, initially occupying the Blachernae section. With this as a base, they would then proceed with a general attack, putting Alexius V to flight within the same night. On April 13, 1204, the first fall of Constantinople was now a fact.
The Crusaders looted and vandalized the Byzantine capital. Many of the works of art were destroyed, while others were confiscated. A typical example is the case of the bronze horses from the Hippodrome, which were sent to Venice, where they still decorate the facade of St. Mark’s Basilica. Churches and monasteries were also looted, while it is estimated that about 2,000 of the civilian population of Constantinople were killed.
The result of the Fall was the division of the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire of Constantinople was founded with Baldwin of Flanders as its first emperor, who was crowned in Hagia Sophia as Baldwin I of Constantinople. The Kingdom of Thessaloniki was also founded, a vassal state of the new Latin Empire, while the Venetians also founded their own state, which was the beginning of the Venetian rule in the Greek area.
Under these new conditions, the majority of the Byzantine aristocracy would leave Constantinople, with its most powerful members establishing their own successor states, such as the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus.
Although a short time later, the City would again pass into Byzantine hands, in 1261, with Michael VIII Palaiologos, the conquest of 1204 by the Crusaders affected the balance in the wider region and at the same time significantly weakened the Byzantine Empire.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis