ISTANBUL

History:

Colonialists coming from the city of Megara in central Greece and from the Aegean city of Miletos in 7 B.C. started the history of Byzantion.  Built on a peninsula, Byzantion was blessed with food from the sea, had a safe harbour at the entrance of the Golden Horn and an acropolis that was easily defensible. Its location on the sea trade routes and the fertile lands available for agriculture caused it to flourish within a short period.

By 200 B.C., it had become difficult for the imperial capital Rome to rule over the vast area that made up the Roman Empire, reaching from Spain to Mesopotamia. A new administrative centre was needed, especially in order to get a firm hold on the eastern part of the empire.

Originally founded by Greek colonists as Byzantium, it was made the eastern capital of the Roman Empire in AD 324 by the Emperor Constantine; Byzantium was renamed Nova Roma (New Rome) but this name failed to impress and the city soon became known as Constantinople, the City of Constantine.

With the fall of Rome and the western empire Constantinople became the sole capital of what historians now call the Byzantine Empire. This empire was distinctly Greek in culture and the centre of Greek Orthodox Christianity and was adorned with many impressive churches including the once world's largest cathedral: Hagia Sophia.

In the year 1453, the army of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II (Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror) conquered the city. First of all, the oldest buildings and the formerly magnificent but dilapidated city walls were restored. On the ruins of the Byzantine foundations, the buildings of the basic institutions of the Ottomans were built. The great water system with its huge cisterns was repaired and returned to use. The city had developed its  Ottoman identity, resembling its present character.

With the addition of the buildings of the famous architect (mimar) Sinan, the city had again become the capital of a great empire. Together with the remaining population after the conquest, people coming from all over the empire, from all kinds of ethnic origins and religions, created a colorful mixture. In Istanbul - the new Constantinopolis - the cultural variety brought in by the immigrants enriched the cultural texture of the city.

Huge markets were built, further supporting  trade. During the period of the height of Ottoman imperial power,  the city was covered all over with tulips, in what is known as the"Tulip Era." In the 19th century, efforts modernisation were undertaken.  Istanbul entered  the 20th century worn out and burdened by its history as the capital city of three great empires. At that time, the Ottomans were just about to end their imperial period of 630 years.

After World War I, resistance movements became active during the Allied occupation of Istanbul, an occupation that lasted for nearly five years. When the resistance movement in Anatolia finally gained success, the last of the foreign soldiers left the city on October 5, 1923. On October 6, the Turkish army entered the city heralding   the message of a new government led by Mustafa Kemal  Ataturk,  the leader of the Turkish independence war, and his colleagues had made a decision in the new National Assembly that Istanbul would  turn over its function as capital of the new nation to Ankara.

Under republican rule, much new construction activity took place in Istanbul, starting with the building of family houses in the 1930s.

In 1950s, more than 7300 buildings were torn down and the road system reorganized.  This caused historic changes in the fabric of the city. When the ferry boats became insufficient to serve the increasing flow of traffic across the Bosphorus between the Asian and the European sides of the city in the 1970's, the first suspension bridge was built.  Istanbul had assumed an eminent role in the nation's cultural lifeas well as the economy.  

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