Answer:
Anatolian territory (Correspond this to the given options for answers)
Why did the Byzantines eventually lose to the Ottomans?
They lost to the Ottomans because the Ottomans were the first to try and get the city with big enough numbers as their own.
The fall of the city on 1204 from its “allies” and subsequent fragmentation of the empire to rich western lords that weren’t liked too much was a really serious reason for the end of the Empire.
The black death, I find it strange that nobody wondered about this; on the west it started from Crimea, hit Constantinople and the whole Roman empire hard, and years later it went to the western Europe.
Unrest and civil wars, among the western established states and the “local” Roman people that wanted the power, as well as the empire that was claiming that land, combined with corruption.
Empty treasuries;
Constantinople was pretty much as rich as the rest of the world. And still, it’s not just about money. Unique pieces of art, religious artifacts, archaeological treasures of extreme value, the top of the top universities (dark age wasn’t that dark), as it had huge libraries with plenty of ancient Greek, Roman and Eastern manuscripts, it was the top world destination and if something couldn’t be found there, you wouldn’t find it anywhere else in the known world. That’s how the people of the rest of the then world was seeing it, and that was the value of Constantinople
…And then it got sacked. And that would be one thing, but destroying most of everything like pieces of art like Heracles’ statue made for Alexander the great, to collect the bronze it was made out of, or the bronze horses that left hippodrome to decorate Venice, that was not cool! Not cool! In the past prestigious years, even Charlemagne married a high class, relative of the Emperor to secure his place. Even a trace of the empire’s fame had such immense value. But I’m getting off topic.
Anyway, the state of the Empire was really bad, the capital included, enemies were all around, and the fact that these were the last days of that once glorious almost 1500 years old empire was a fact, and there was nothing to save them after a siege from a big enough force.
There was a chance for the city to be saved from the most famous siege of the city, 1453 with western mercenaries, or even a crusade, but then again, it did look like a hopeless cause in the way it was, and the Romans hated the idea of a Western intervention, since they were the ones responsible for their bad luck in the first place.
We can speculate as much as we want but what happened happened.
Thanks,
Eddie