Changes

In the approximately 1000 years of the existence of the Empire, Constantinople had been besieged many times; it had been captured only once, during the [[Fourth Crusade]] in 1204. The crusaders, however, had not originally set out to conquer the Empire but once they saw the Queen of Cities in all its glory, they could not help themselves but loot it and put it to sword. However, the Byzantines re-established themselves in the city in 1261. In the following two centuries, the much-weakened empire retreated, step was gradually taken piece by piece by step, before a new and unstoppable invaderthreat, the Ottomans. This transfer of skills also played a part in the final downfall of the empire. '''Greek-Ottoman interaction'''Empire. In the process, many interactions took place with the advancing Ottomans - it was not a period dominated exclusively by fighting; the newcomers had plenty of time to absorb many key aspects of the Constantinopolitan way of administration, while the Greeks managed to impress the invaders and were eventually granted supremacy over the Christian populations of the forthcoming Ottoman Empire. Also, Greek shipbuilders were active in the construction of the Ottoman naval force (hence many Greek terms survive to this day in the Turkish navy).  By 1453 the "empire" consisted of little more than the city of Constantinople itself and a portion of the Peloponnese (centred around centered on the fortress of Mystras). The ; the Empire of Trebizond, a completely independent successor state formed in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade also survived on the coast of the Black Sea.