Differences between the Eastern and Western Roman Empire

In order to facilitate the administration of the extensive Roman Empire, the Emperor Theodosius after his death in 395 divided the empire into East and West. The Western empire with capital in Rome It was made up of the regions of the Maghreb, the Island of Great Britain, Hispania, the coasts of Libya, Italy and Gaul. Regarding the Eastern Empire whose capital was Constantinople It was made up of Anatolia, Egypt, the Middle East, and the Balkan Peninsula.

Next in this lesson from a TEACHER we will see what those were differences between the Eastern and Western Roman EmpireWhile the Western Roman Empire lasted 80 years, the Byzantine Empire had a long history of almost 10 centuries until 1453 when they fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

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Index

1. Political organization in the Eastern and Western Roman Empire
2. The economy of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire
3. Religion in the Eastern and Western Roman Empire

The Byzantine Empire was a theocratic state, that is, the emperor or basileus As a political leader he governed and directed the administration and the army but he was also considered the representative of God on Earth so that he could intervene in Church affairs. For the territorial administration it had a well-organized court headed by political or military chiefs. The army, which had a large cavalry, consisted of 150,000 professional mercenaries with a military organization complex and sophisticated with strong defense capabilities against invasion attempts very important for the survival of the empire.

On the other hand the Western Roman Empire the emperor was only in charge of the political and military issue, leaving the religious power in the hands of the pope. The problem with maintaining this empire was that the political situation was very unstable, since there were several internal conflicts that occurred causing civil wars in which the military fought among themselves for power, in this way and gradually in short periods of time, many military men were they self-crowned.

In addition, the barbarian peoples were continually attacking on their borders, the same ones that sometimes came to form political alliances with those soldiers in civil war and that once within the borders of the empire broke those signed alliances, carrying out the looting of the cities. Added to all this, little by little the situation of political imbalance increased.

The army of the Western Roman Empire, was made up of Roman soldiers and on many occasions the largest number was barbarian origin, that resulted in a loss of effectiveness in the army being one of the main factors of the collapse of the empire, since they came from tribes that had been Previously enemies of Rome, they had no true loyalty to the empire and often betrayed its interests, helping barbarian tribes. invasive.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we discover a short summary of the Byzantine Empire.

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We continue with the differences between the Eastern and Western Roman Empire focusing on the economic field. On the one hand, the territory of Byzantine Empire it was made up of fertile lands and that made agriculture the base of the economy. Trade progressed successfully since due to their geographical location they could control movements between Europe and Asia, that is, exchanges with the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

Among its routes we can highlight the Silk Road, in which silk and spices were mainly traded. The very fact of trading in silk made it stand out in the manufacture of fabrics.

In the 5th century the provinces of Western Roman Empire given the weakness of the administration for the taxes demanded for the maintenance of the army and the bureaucracy became impoverished, also because of the civil war and the invasions of the Germanic peoples who they came to sack Rome twice, thus diminishing the coffers of the state.

With regard to the commercial exchange with the Mediterranean, it was often stopped by the invasions of the peoples barbarians so the Romans lost control of the sea and their main grain reserve, that of northern Africa.

All these economic and political factors had an impact on the decline of the Western Roman Empire and the prosperity of the Eastern Roman Empire, much better administered and with greater rent per capita, for in the same way the Eastern Empire suffered equally border threats from the Goths and the Persians by conquer Anatolia and Egypt its most fertile lands and those that gave it a greater income but they knew how to make it front.

In a PROFESSOR we discover the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire so you have a summary of what happened.

Regarding the religious issue, there were no great differences between the two empires because official religion was Christianity, only that the Roman Empire of the West when coinciding with more regions of Latin language and culture, had as its only apostolic headquarters, Rome, However, in the Eastern Roman Empire of Greek, Syrian and Coptic culture they had several apostolic sees, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem.

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