History of Istanbul
Neolithic artifacts, uncovered by archeologists at the beginning of the 21st century, indicate that Istanbul's historic peninsula was settled as far back as the 6th millennium BCE.
[1] That early settlement, important in the spread of the Neolithic Revolution from the Near East to Europe, lasted for almost a millennium before being inundated by rising water levels.
[2][3][4] The first human settlement on the Asian side, the Fikirtepe mound, is from the Copper Age period, with artifacts dating from 5500 to 3500 BCE.
Modern authors have linked it to the possible Thracian toponym Lygos,[6] mentioned by Pliny the Elder as an earlier name for the site of Byzantium.
[7] There is evidence suggesting there were settlements around the region dating as far back as 6700 BC, and it is hard to define if there was any settlement on exact spot at city proper established, but earliest records about city proper begins around 660 BC[a][13][14] when Greek settlers from the Attic town of Megara colonized the area and established Byzantium on the European side of the Bosphorus.
During the reign of Justinian I, the city rose to be the largest in the western world, with a population peaking at close to half a million people.
The earliest known settlement dates from 6700 BC, discovered in 2008, during the construction works of the Yenikapı subway station and the Marmaray tunnel at the historic peninsula on the European side.
The first name of the city was Lygos[22] according to Pliny the Elder in his historical accounts and it was possibly founded by Thracian tribes along with the neighboring settlement of Semystra.
[24]: 352ff Ancient Greek legend refers to a legendary king Byzas as the leader of the Megarian colonists and eponymous founder of the city.
After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus the city was besieged by Rome and suffered extensive damage in AD 196.
The location of Byzantium attracted Constantine the Great in 324 after a prophetic dream was said to have identified the location of the city; this prophecy was probably due to Constantine's final victory over Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis (Üsküdar) on the Bosphorus, on 18 September 324, which ended the civil war between the Roman Co-Emperors, and brought an end to the final vestiges of the Tetrarchy system, during which Nicomedia (present-day İzmit, 100 km east of Istanbul) was the most senior capital city of the Roman Empire.
The combination of imperial power and a key location at the crossing point between the continents of Europe and Asia, and later Africa and other regions, played an important role in terms of commerce, culture, diplomacy, and strategy.
From around the 9th to 13th centuries, Constantinople developed complex relationships with an emerging and later the largest and most advanced state of that time in Europe – Kiev Rus.
The crusaders chose Baldwin of Flanders to be the new Latin Emperor of Constantinople; he along with other princes and the Republic of Venice divided the Empire amongst themselves; they never made it to Jerusalem.
[32] This new Latin Empire at Constantinople lasted until 1261 when the Byzantines under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus recaptured the city and some outlying territory.
Rather than a thriving metropolis, Constantinople transformed into a collection of villages, and became a semi-ghost town with, as Ibn Battuta noted, sown fields within the city walls.
In accordance with Shariah (Muslim Holy Law), Mehmed gave the Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos (1449–1453) three chances to surrender the city.
[35] This was not a regular prayer session for religious reasons but rather a scare tactic: the sight of the entire Ottoman army getting on their knees to pray provided an intimidating display of unity to the Byzantine forces designed to overcome their minds before their bodies.
[33] Mehmed issued orders across his empire that Muslims, Christians, and Jews should resettle the city; he demanded that five thousand households needed to be deported to Constantinople by September.
The famous architect Mimar Sinan designed many mosques and other grand buildings in the city, while Ottoman arts of ceramics and calligraphy also flourished.
In the final years of the Byzantine Empire, the population of Constantinople had fallen steadily, throwing the great imperial city into the shadow of its past glory.
According to the Ashikpashazade, a Turkish chronicle, Mehmed then sent officers to all his lands to announce that whoever wished should come and take possession in Constantinople, as freehold, of houses and orchards and gardens ...
On his orders, the great mosque and the college of Fatih were built on the old burial grounds of the Byzantine Emperors at the Church of the Holy Apostles.
Slavs, Greeks, Jews, and Armenians, all of whose diverse skills were needed, were allowed to settle in a city which was to become known as alem penah-refuge of the universe.
[citation needed] The city was modernized from the 1870s onwards with the building of bridges, the creation of a proper water system, the use of electric lights, and the introduction of trams and telephones.
In 1915, after the Ottoman entry into World War I on the side of the Central Powers, the Allies led by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill's Royal Navy attempted an operation to capture Constantinople.
[citation needed] In 1929 Lloyd's agents were informed that telegrams now must be addressed to "Istanbul" or "Stamboul", but The Times stated that mail could still be delivered to "Constantinople".
[51] With the establishment of the new Turkish Republic, built on a wave of nationalism, there was a mass exodus of much of the Greek and Armenian population from Istanbul, which had ceased to be the capital.
Starting from the 1970s, the population of Istanbul began to rapidly increase, as people from Anatolia migrated to the city to find employment in the many new factories that were constructed at the outskirts of the sprawling metropolis.
This sudden sharp rise in the city's population caused a large demand for housing development, and many previously outlying villages and forests became engulfed into the greater metropolitan area of Istanbul.
