The Sack of Constantinople or Siege of Constantinople occurred in 1204 and marked the end of the Fourth Crusade. Mutinous Crusader armies captured, looted, and destroyed parts of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. After the capture, the Latin Empire was created and Baldwin of Flanders was crowned Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia. After the city's sacking, a number of territories of the Empire went under the control of the Crusaders. Others formed independent states under Byzantine aristocracy, one of them being the Empire of Nicaea, which recaptured the city in 1261 proclaiming the reinstatement of the Empire. However, the weakened state would never return to its former territorial or economic status, and would eventually see all its territories in Anatolia and Southeastern Europe conquered by a rising Ottoman Sultanate, who carried out the 1453 Siege of Constantinople. For this reason, the events of 1204 are sometimes seen as marking the final stage of the Byzantine Empire's decline.
Causalties
Unknown
Combatant
Byzantine Empire
22px|borderCrusaders
Republic of Venice
Commander
http://didactalia.net/items/Monarch_ccd19a27-3e67-4e00-9059-c502d34ee705_c7175b63-fc9d-4f1a-904d-294741bfa324
http://didactalia.net/items/Monarch_46250427-9c8e-4cbe-ba92-f98d05c2d074_71b0d893-1d62-4a40-9dfa-ac82dad97276
http://didactalia.net/items/Person_a7a79ae8-c1ef-4db0-87f9-786fa5f44303_65029634-be96-473e-bd35-2ddf9e1e2803
http://didactalia.net/items/OfficeHolder_9598dcd0-6639-4067-a1c8-ff96764ad077_c26bf69c-848a-41ca-97a4-63bdd364b5e3
Date
1204-04-13
Result
Decisive Crusader victory
Strength
Crusaders: 10,000 men
*Venetians: 210 ships
Venetians: 10,000 men
*Byzantines: 20 ships
Byzantines: 15,000 men,
Comment
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