Comparing Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire.doc

Comparing Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire. Despite the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe still stood, separating into two different areas, governed two different ways. The Western half became Western Europe with popes, and princes ruling. The Eastern half became The Byzantine Empire, ruled by one ruler. Western Europe was Christian and relied mainly on the teachings of both priests and nuns. The Byzantine Empire relied mainly on its emperor and priests, since they did not believe nuns were not needed in their Christian teachings. Although Western Europe relied on a feudal system for military help, The Byzantine Empire used a system of family-based militaries closely in common to a feudal system. Several emperors of The Byzantine Empire called for laws and edicts to be made for the empire, and doing so, Western Europe adopted some of these laws and edicts as well. Western Europe and The Byzantine Empire were different because of the way they ruled, and they had some military and governmental similarities. While being similar in a few ways, the two halves of Europe were more different than each other. For example, Western Europe relied mainly on princes and the Pope, to lead the government and religious practices. In contrast, The Byzantine Empire relied on a single emperor to rule their government and religion. Western Europe triumphed from their princes and the Pope ruling since they soon overcame The Byzantine Empire. This was because having more than one ruler can hold together an empire or countries better than one ruler. The princes had control of the government in their areas, and the Pope had control of the entire religion in Western Europe. Having the Pope and the princes dealing with separate issues is better than having just one emperor deal with all of their issues. Another difference of the two halves of Europe was the monasteries and nunneries. Western Europe believed that they should have both priests and nuns teaching and preaching to other