It’s Istanbul not Constantinople

      I am going to tell you about why the song goes: “It’s Istanbul not Constantinople.”

     Istanbul was first the Greek colony of Byzantion.  Byzantion was founded in 667 BC because Byzas, a Greek colonist, left Athens and Megara to start a new, less crowded colony.  In 64 BC Byzantion became part of the Roman Empire and was renamed Byzantium. 

     In 324, Constantine became emperor of Rome and moved the capital of Rome, from Rome to Byzantium.  Constantine named Byzantium “New Rome” but people referred to it as Constantinople, so the name stuck. In 476 the Western empire (of Rome) fell to barbaric tribes leaving only the East Empire and Constantinople. Justinian, a Byzantine emperor of the 6th century, recovered most of the land lost by the Western Empire of Rome a century before, he also conquered places like Asia, Greece, and Egypt, just to name a few.  

     In 1391 the Ottomans, a group of people fighting for Muslim faith, started their attack on Constantinople.  Finally, on May 29 1453, the Ottoman emperor succeeded his attack on Constantinople.  He then rebuilt the city and named it Istanbul.  In the 19th and 20th century the Ottomans lost land to many neighboring countries and then fought in World War I.  Mustafa Kemal Pasa was a military hero that became known as Ataturk, or “father of the Turks”. He also led the Turkish war of independence to take land lost to the Allied Forces.  After the war, Ataturk changed Turkey’s economy greatly, and after the changes, Istanbul thrived into a beautiful modern city.      

We are finishing up 4 days in Istanbul. Read about our experience in one of the next posts!