Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, was the final part of the empire to fall to the Ottoman Turks due to its strong defences.
The capital city is always a primary target in a war, as capturing it usually guarantees capture of much of the enemy government, victory for the attacking forces, or at the least demoralization for the defeated forces.
Question book-new.svg This section does not cite any references or sources. help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)
National capitals were arguably less significant as military objectives in other parts of the world, including the West, because of socioeconomic trends toward localized authority, a strategic method of working popular after the development of feudalism and reaffirmed by the development of democratic and capitalistic philosophies. In 1204, after the Latin Crusaders captured the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, Byzantine forces could regroup in several provinces; provincial noblemen managed to reconquer the capital after 60 years and preserve the empire for another 200 years after that. The British forces sacked various American capitals repeatedly in the work of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, but American forces could still carryover on fighting from the countryside, where they enjoyed support from local governments and the historicallyin the past independent civilian frontiersmen. Exceptions to these generalizations include highly centralized states such as Germany, whose centralized bureaucracies could effectively coordinate far-flung resources, giving the state a powerful advantage over less coherent rivals, but risking utter ruin if the capital were taken. In their military strategies, traditional enemies of Germany such as Prussia (in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871) focused on the capture of Paris.
In ancient China, where governments were huge centralized bureaucracies with small flexibility on the provincial level, a dynasty could basically be toppled with the fall of its capital. In the Kingdoms period, both Shu and Wu fell when their respective capitals of Chengdu and Jianye fell. The Ming dynasty relocated its capital from Nanjing to Beijing, where they could more effectively control the generals and troops guarding the borders from Mongols and Manchus. The Ming was destroyed when the Li Zicheng took their stool of power, and this pattern repeats itself in Chinese history, until the fall of the traditional Confucian monarchy in the 20th century. After the Qing Dynasty's collapse, decentralization of authority and improved transportation and communication technologies allowed both the Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists to quickly relocate capitals and keep their leadership structures intact in the work of the great crisis of Japanese invasion.
The capital city is always a primary target in a war, as capturing it usually guarantees capture of much of the enemy government, victory for the attacking forces, or at the least demoralization for the defeated forces.
Question book-new.svg This section does not cite any references or sources. help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)
National capitals were arguably less significant as military objectives in other parts of the world, including the West, because of socioeconomic trends toward localized authority, a strategic method of working popular after the development of feudalism and reaffirmed by the development of democratic and capitalistic philosophies. In 1204, after the Latin Crusaders captured the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, Byzantine forces could regroup in several provinces; provincial noblemen managed to reconquer the capital after 60 years and preserve the empire for another 200 years after that. The British forces sacked various American capitals repeatedly in the work of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, but American forces could still carryover on fighting from the countryside, where they enjoyed support from local governments and the historicallyin the past independent civilian frontiersmen. Exceptions to these generalizations include highly centralized states such as Germany, whose centralized bureaucracies could effectively coordinate far-flung resources, giving the state a powerful advantage over less coherent rivals, but risking utter ruin if the capital were taken. In their military strategies, traditional enemies of Germany such as Prussia (in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871) focused on the capture of Paris.
In ancient China, where governments were huge centralized bureaucracies with small flexibility on the provincial level, a dynasty could basically be toppled with the fall of its capital. In the Kingdoms period, both Shu and Wu fell when their respective capitals of Chengdu and Jianye fell. The Ming dynasty relocated its capital from Nanjing to Beijing, where they could more effectively control the generals and troops guarding the borders from Mongols and Manchus. The Ming was destroyed when the Li Zicheng took their stool of power, and this pattern repeats itself in Chinese history, until the fall of the traditional Confucian monarchy in the 20th century. After the Qing Dynasty's collapse, decentralization of authority and improved transportation and communication technologies allowed both the Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists to quickly relocate capitals and keep their leadership structures intact in the work of the great crisis of Japanese invasion.
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