Istanbul in the news, and in history

The events involving the murder of the Post journalist reminded me to look back, to the years prior to the First World War, and back centuries.  For over 1000 years, Constantinople, the original name of Istanbul, was the greatest city in the Western world. 

The city was founded by the Roman emperor Constantine in the 300s, and the seat of the Roman empire was moved east.  By the 500s Constantinople was a city of at least 750,000, surrounded by a wall that withstood invaders' attacks until 1453, when the city fell to the Turks.  It was the center of culture and economic engine of the empire, later called the Byzantine Empire (after the town of Byzantium, the site of the founding of Constantinople).

The Roman emperor Justinian built the great Hagia Sophia, created one of the great law codes of history, and reconquered the western Roman empire during his reign.  For a brief time, the empire once again stretched from the Persian border to Italy.  Justinian's great general Belisarius should be ranked among the top commanders in all of history.

Then the empire went into slow decline.  A series of wars with the powerful Persian Empire weakened the Byzantines and Persians.  And Constantinople was devastated by a great plague which killed perhaps a third of its population.  The Arab armies arose out of the desert and took parts of the empire to the south.  In 1071 the Seljuk Turks routed a Byzantine army at Manzikert 500 miles to the east.  The Crusades were begun in part to bring western ("Frankish") support to the empire.  After initial success, the Crusaders were driven back by Saladin.

Then in 1204 the fourth Crusade armies broke in to Constantinople and raided the Treasury.  Muslim pressure continued all around the city until in 1453, the Turks battered down a large section of the wall with a giant cannon and took the city.

For the next 450 years, the Turks controlled the city.  When the Turks were defeated in WWI, their empire, was reduced to borders of modern Turkey.  Constantinople was renamed Istanbul.  The city remains a great metropolis, with vivid reminders of its grand past.

The First Week in December, 1941

It was a gloomy time.  Germany dominated Western Europe and was rolling up vast Russian armies.  Nazi forces were also driving toward Egypt and the oil fields of the Middle East.  Japan had subjugated China and had launched an invasion force toward the Phillipines and the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia).

Still the U.S. was not yet involved in WWII.  But of the ten Japanese aircraft carriers that December week, intelligence had lost track of 4.  Where were they?  We now know they were sailing toward Pearl Harbor to deliver the surprise attack that vaulted the US into war.

Did Roosevelt know ahead of time?  Why were the US carriers not at Pearl?  The British surely wanted the US to enter the war.  Did Churchill know via Ultra and persuade FDR to move the carriers but leave the battleships?  After all most assumed that Pearl was too shallow for torpedoes, so how much damage could the Jap planes really do?  Even if they did disable US heavy ships, the British had big ships to spare - Germany's Bismarck and Sharnhorst were sunk, Tirpitz was bottled up in Norway, Italian Navy neutralized, no other Axis challengers to mighty Royal Navy guns.

But an attack of any kind by Japan on the US - successful or otherwise - would bring America into the war, not only in the Pacific but against the Germans in Europe and Africa.

We will never know but recently scholars have speculated that this scenario is plausible.  After all, Germany was winning the war, Britain was fighting alone, Russia was "sure to fall".  Only the US could swing the odds in the Allies favor against the Axis.

What do you think?

Crusades

We have all heard about the Crusades, fought between the states of Christian Europe and the powerful Muslim states.  Historians disagree on the number but most date the 7 major Crusades from 1096 to 1290.  In each case the Pope called on Christians to gather their forces and retake the Holy Land from Muslims.

Jerusalem had been captured in 638 by Muslim leaders who defeated the armies of the Byzantine (eastern Roman) Empire.  As the Byzantine Empire continued to lose ground the Muslim hold over Jerusalem and the lands around it solidified.  Several barbarian invasions and the extensive Viking raids throughout Europe disrupted the Christian states.

But in 1054, the western and eastern Churches split the "one true Church" over differences in religious doctrine.  Then in 1071 the Seljuk Turk army soundly defeated the Byzantine armies at Manzikert, putting the great city of Constantinople at risk.  Pope Urban II, seeking to hold the Turks at bay, and to heal the break between eastern and western Churches, appealed for the First Crusade.

The Crusaders were successful at retaking Jerusalem and the Holy Land.  They set up small kingdoms over which Christian princes ruled.  But, in 1187, the great Muslim Sultan Saladin conquered the Holy Land and captured Jerusalem.  His clemency toward the defenders of the city was famous.

Richard the Lionheart led the Third Crusade and earned some success against Saladin, but was unable to recapture Jerusalem.  The Fourth Crusade in 1204 is most famous for its detour to Constantinople which had promised to pay for the Crusader fleet.  The Crusaders broke into the city and took their payment from the city treasury.

It is worth noting that Jerusalem was under peaceful Muslim rule from time of Saladin's conquest into the 20th century

Wisdom from philosopher

History makes one aware that there is no finality in human affairs; there is not a static perfection and an unimprovable wisdom to be achieved – B. Russell