Fragmentation: Byzantium

Within 100 years of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the East had reconquered many of those lands, which it lost over the next 167 years.

Regaining and Losing the West

Byzantium is the common name for the Eastern Roman Empire, The original division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western portions appears to match the linguistic division, between areas in the west where Latin was the common language of government, and those in the east, where Greek was the language.1 This was reinforced over time, as Byzantium lost more and more territory, especially under Heraclius:

There is an interesting pattern to the Byzantine losses in the mid-seventh century. The places that held firm were precisely those where Greek was the majority language, spoken by the people at large and not just the elites.2

Post Crusades History

"Spurred by the religions division between the Latins and Greeks, the heavy presence of westerners, considered invasive and domineering, encouraged feelings of xenophobia in the native population of Constantinople, which strongly influenced the internal politics of the empire in the last decades of the [12th] century, resulting in bloody anti-Latin uprisings."3 On the brief-lived Crusader Empire based in Constantinople. "While the nascent Latin Empire showed grave signs of weakness, there survived small Greek settlements which nurtured claims to the Byzantine Empire."4