Originally posted by Bicnarok
People are bound to answer this question depending on their upbringing, birthplace and education, hence such silly comments like " New York ". It maybe a favorite city but not important.
I am a native New Yorker from NYC and while it is far from the most important city in history, from your statement above you seem to ignore the past 70 or so years (and yes, even events as recent as yesterday constitute history). NYC dominates the world financially, only London comes close. The worst financial crisis ever lived through by most of the global population began with the collapse of 1 firm headquartered here in NYC, draw here because of it's importance as a huge pillar in the global economy. That is importance personified.
Originally posted by Ushgarak
Jerusalem is a good pick actually; among the focal points of three major religions and a major player in world politics, spanning two cultural divides, for several millennia.If you define 'importance' as 'significance', it has a very strong case.
I agree. I had this same discussion on another board, and if you define historical importance in the frame of political, military, and cultural influence, then the candidates for most important city become much smaller. That being said, Jerusalem is disqualified for wielding extremely small military influence...however it's religious significance more than makes up for that.
I am surprised that it took so long for anyone to mention Constantinople and I completely agree with you that it outstrips Rome in almost every category.
So for people who've mentioned Rome as their choice for most important city, consider this:
Rome started gaining prominence by the 3rd century B.C. around the start of the Punic Wars with Carthage.
By the 3rd century A.D., Rome was imperial capital in titular and ceremonial function only. This goes to show how less and less important the city was a center of governance and military capability. Of course, psychologically it still held great sway, so we can't discount that.
All in all that's about 600 years of significance. Now everyone knows about the military conquests of Rome, engineering and political advancements, etc.
Constantinople was founded in 330 as capital of the Roman Empire. When Rome was sacked in 476, Constantinople was the sole center of Roman imperial power, and in fact would remain so for more than 1000 years afterward, until 1453. History and posterity have named this political entity the Byzantine Empire. Here in the West, we are taught far, far less about the Byzantine Empire than we should know.
Now people can go do their research online, go to their libraries and buy some books, but basically, these are the main, huge biggies which few cities, if any, can claim comparable feats/accomplishments/influence
- The founder of the city, Roman emperor Constantine the Great, was the first Christian Roman Emperor. This man legalized the practice of Christianity in the entire Roman Empire, and in so doing put the full might of the imperial throne behind the Church, allowing it not only to thrive, but to grow prosperous. You can trace today's current immense wealth and influence of the Papacy back to emperor Constantine.
-To effect a new, thoroughly Christian center of government and authority, in contrast to Rome, which was founded as a pagan city, as well as a need for a new imperial capital with ready access to all the frontiers under siege from barbarians, Constantine founded Constantinople.
-One of the next few emperors after Constantine, Theodosius the Great, made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Eventually, paganism was banned and forbidden. This edict was made, proclaimed, and enforced by imperial power from Constantinople. We do not need to wonder what immense historical significance there is in having the world's most powerful empire at the time adopt Christianity as its main and official religion. And this came from the ruler of Constantinople.
-Roman law and many classical texts were preserved, and eventually passed on to Western Europe, due to the strength and cultural sophistication that Constantinople afforded the overall Byzantine Empire.
-In the Dark Ages, when all the largest cities in Western Europe combined had a collective population lower than Constantinople's alone, the city acted as a bulwark against incursions by Islam. The common person believes that the first great conflicts between Islam and Christianity happened in the Crusades...this is false. The Byzantine-Arab wars, which lasted for hundreds of years was a prolonged period where (from the byzantine perspective) the Emperors were constantly under attack and fought back countless Arab incursions. Imagine if Constantinople were not founded by Constantine, and Roman military knowledge, power, and training were not put to use against the armies of Islam...what any one state in western europe, or group of states, could counter them?
Many people claim that the Battle of Tours saved Europe from eventual dominance by Islam. Others disagree. I am one of those that disagree. The Muslim army at the battle of Tours was at most 80,000. Contrast this with the huge muslim armies that were hurled at Constantinople, with the express purpose of capturing the city for the Sons of Muhammed, which numbered 150,000 on the first attempt (around 675) and more than 200,000 in the second attempt (around 717). Both these battles were before Tours.
History lesson aside, we also do not need to wonder what would have happened to a europe in the throws of the Dark Ages, had muslim armies captured Constantinople in those sieges. During the Dark Ages, there was no european state capable of fielding huge armies as the Muslims were, except for the Byzantines. Nevermind the wide gap in military tactics, engineering, etc. If the Arabs had captured Constantinople in one of the two battles, there is a very, very, very, very high probability that we would be communicating with each other in Arabic instead of English. Instead, Western Europe was given more than 700 years to get its act together, and when the Ottomans came, those 7 centuries of bought time succeeded in driving them back. That time was bought by Constantinople.
-Other influences: The niece of last Byzantine Emperor gave the imperial emblem to the prince of Russia, whom she married. From that time forward, the Russian rulers would adapt the title of Tzar (Russian word for "Caeser"😉, as they saw themselves as the direct imperial continuation of the now expired byzantine empire. Tzars continued to rule russia until the revolution.
orthodox christianity, the second largest sect in christianity after Catholicism, is based in modern-day Istanbul. It has been that way, ever since christianity split into two sects, almost a thousand years ago.
-the law code of justinian, one of the precursors of modern western law, was created by emperor justinian, in constantinople.
-the effectiveness of gunpowder as a siege weaponm and the corresponding irrelevance of city walls, was clearly confirmed after the ottoman siege of constantinople, altering military tactics and strategy for all time
-Because of the conquest of Constantinople had been a high Muslim objective for hundreds of years, as capture of the city meant access to the European continent, the Ottoman Turks made it their highest priority. With the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the destruction of the Byzantine Empire and subsequent supremacy of the Ottoman Empire, Europe's access to the silk road was obstructed (Constantinople was Europe's main access point to the silk road...one of the reasons why the city became immensely rich). Christopher Columbus set out on his voyage to find an alternate route that did not have to go through the domains of Islam. For this reason, he decided to sail West, instead of East.