Sigh. Thank you for this lovely education of all. I often think how lovely the world would be should Byzantium have survived.
The Empire of Byzantium was the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, which was divided in 395 A.D. Its capital of Constantinople, located on a peninsula, was naturally secure from invasion on three sides, and its fourth side was fortified with a network of three walls that withstood direct attack for over a thousand years. Its stable economy provided a strong military and, together with an abundant food supply and advanced civil engineering, a high standard of living. Christianity was firmly entrenched in Byzantium, and literacy was more widespread than in any other nation in the middle ages. Although the predominant language was Greek, Latin was also fairly common, and at one point all seventy-two of the world's known languages were represented in Constantinople. Intellectual and artistic endeavors thrived.
...Its rich historiographical tradition (strongly influenced by the church) preserved ancient knowledge upon which splendid art, architecture, literature and technological achievements were built. It is not an altogether unfounded assumption that the Renaissance could not have flourished were it not for the groundwork laid in Byzantium.
Actually the Versailles Peace Conference After WWI, in addition to creating a number of new countries, such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and restarting others, such as Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, and Armenia, also was considering the recreation of the Byzantine Empire in eastern Thrace, with Constantinople as its capital. Istanbul was often referred to, legally, as Constantinople until nearly WWII. They finally decided not to do this.