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"Build opposite the blind." So the Delphic Oracle said to Byzantias, the founder of the city that would become Constantinople. (It’s good Diplomacy advice as well). On the Asian side of the Bosphorus, across from Byzantias’s settlement, was a Greek colony. The European side, with its vast sheltered harbor and defensible peninsula, was so superior that the earlier settlers had to have been blind to have missed it. Byzantium grew and prospered, and in the 300s AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine made it his eastern capital, it was one of the leading cities of the Empire. As the capital of the wealthier half of the Empire, it grew immensely with public works. The Hagia Sophia cathedral in Constantinople was so beautiful that a Russian prince visiting it in the 900s declared, “I did not know whether I was in Heaven or on Earth,” and immediately converted to Christianity. The great triple walls of the city and the vast sheltered Golden Horn harbor made the city one of the most secure cities of the ancient world (As it is in Diplomacy—control of both the Aegean and Black seas is often required to capture the city). When the Western Roman Empire fell in 410-476, the East kept going without missing a beat. The fall of the Byzantine Empire (634-1453) is the perfect example of a power destroyed by the vicious cycle of losing outlying SCs, being forced to disband key units, and losing more SCs, until nothing is left. The story begins in 634, with the Empire standing at, let’s say, 12 SCs. From 570-620 AD, the Byzantine and Sassanid empires fought over the neutral SCs of modern-day Iraq. Neither could hold them against the other. In 634, Muslim Arab armies from the Arabian Peninsula attacked both powers, destroying the Sassanid Empire and seizing Egypt, Syria, and Palestine from the Byzantines. The effect of the loss of Egypt can be shown by the following: In 630, Constantinople was home to a quarter of a million people; in 640, one tenth that number. The grain of Egypt could sustain an entire Empire which was now gone. Down to 9 SCs, the Byzantine Empire did not despair. Instead, they built the best army the world had seen or would see until the Mongols. Byzantine soldiers were trained in both mounted and unmounted combat, with lances, swords, and bows. They were versatile enough to defend Anatolia, Thrace, and Illyria from barbarian and Muslim armies for centuries. Under pressure of constant war and political turmoil (during one 88-year span, there were 29 Emperors), the quality of the troops declined, however, and by 1071 the Byzantine army was a shadow of its former self. In 1071, Seljuq turks who had crossed Persia invaded Anatolia and defeated the Byzantines at Manzikert, killing more than half of the entire Byzantine army and conquering all of Anatolia. This battle prompted the Byzantine Emperor to appeal to the Pope for aid, which became known as the First Crusade. The 6-center Byzantine Empire held on for several more centuries. In 1204, crusaders of the Fourth Crusade sacked the city while staying there en route to the Holy Land, and set up the Latin Kingdom of Constantinople, which lasted until 1261 when the remnant of the Byzantine Empire threw them out, just in time to face the enemy that would eventually overwhelm them. The Ottoman Empire began in 1280 as a Sufi religious order of a type known as Ghazis. They swiftly amassed a power base in western Anatolia and then crossed the Bosphorus into Thrace. By the 1400s, they held all of the Byzantine Empire’s SCs except for Constantinople. The city was so defensible, however, that it held out for half a century after it was completely isolated. In 1453, however, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II found innovative ways to defeat the city. The Ottoman army that besieged Constantinople in 1453 was eight times the size of the defending force. Using siege cannons, they broke through the triple walls, but were thrown back by Genoese mercenaries. With the defenders fully engaged on the landward side, the Ottomans built a system of ropes and rails to transport their navy across the Golden Horn and into the harbor (Portage variant?). Faced with the attack on the new front, the defence collapsed and the city fell. It was not until the Ottoman Empire itself had collapsed that the Turks under Kemal Ataturk renamed Constantinople Istanbul. What lessons can we learn from the collapse of the empire centered around Constantinople? First, a 12-SC power takes absolutely forever to reduce to 1 SC. Second, if you’re locked in a death struggle with another power, pay attention to your other neighbors—you’re likely to be exposed somewhere. Third, be very careful when you have to disband—holding onto units not crucial for defense in the hopes that you may be rescued by dissent among your enemies is a highly dangerous tactic. Fourth, the key to victory is having as few enemies as possible. The Byzantines fought practically everyone else, and were worn out by it. Fifth, a defensible spot on the board can be held against seemingly overwhelming opposition. This last is most directly applicable to Constantinople, for a rump Turkey, reduced to its original SCs, can hold out for a very long time. In the game 'Marie' on USTX, which is just entering Fall 1902, Turkey has already been reduced to a precarious position. The units in the region are as follows:
Bulgaria is doomed in this case, so long as Austria is willing to allow Russia into Rumania, however temporarily. However, if the Turkish fleet were in the Black Sea, Austria, even with its overwhelming forces, could not pry Bulgaria from its Turkish overlords. Even if Austria took Bulgaria in this case (A Rum-Bul, F Gre and A Ser supporting), Constantinople would still be impregnable as long as Austria was out of the Aegean and Armenia was safe. This is a special case in that the Russian fleet was disbanded earlier, but even with a Russian fleet in Sevastopol instead of an army, it would take a year, and a third Russian unit to cover Sevastopol while the fleet moved to Armenia, before the Black Sea could even be taken, without which Constantinople can’t be captured. The Aegean and Black Seas, therefore, are crucial to Turkish fortunes and, once taken by the yellow pieces, hard to take back. (The Lepanto opening of Italy was created to deal with this defensible position) Furthermore, Turkey is not fighting in a vacuum. If Italy is not Lepantoing and Germany is not focused solely on the west or in trouble itself, either can fairly easily relieve the pressure on Turkey.
Conclusion:As it was in history, Constantinople is among the most impregnable sites on the board. A Turk with even one well-placed ally can foil attacks across the Bosphorus for years, so long as he holds the adjacent seas.
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