The Byzantine Empire, which lasted from the fall of Rome to 1453, benefitted from a key geographic location that allowed it to dominate both the Mediterranean and Black Seas through most of its history. It was the major geographic gateway between western Europe and Asia, and it acted as a porous cultural boundary between both areas.
Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, had one of the most enviable geographic locations in the world: it was on the Bosporus, a narrow strait of water sitting on the dividing line between Europe and Asia, a major waterway ships traveling from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea had to pass through. For centuries, this geographic advantage made it a wealthy and powerful commercial center that rivaled Venice.
Western Europe, by the high Middle Ages, had worked out lucrative deals with the Byzantine Empire, paying reasonable tariffs and tolls to cross through Byzantine...
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territories and having reasonable security in return that the empire would keep the seas safe from pirates. The huge trade flowing through this gateway kept money pouring into Byzantine coffers—truly a fortunate benefit of geography—and also one that allowed European merchants to grow rich on trade with India and China.
Finally, however, geography was the empire's undoing: as it weakened and the Muslim Ottoman Empire strengthened, it became too tempting a target and was finally defeated by the Ottomans in 1453. Because of the stranglehold the Ottomans put on travel through the area, raising tariffs and tolls very high and not adequately protecting the seas from piracy, the Europeans were forced to innovate, which lead to explorations that culminated in the discovery of North and South America. It is interesting the think how much longer an entire continent might have been kept "hidden" had Constantinople not fallen.
Geography plays a critical role in shaping the overall course of history, and the Byzantine Empire is no exception.
The first thing you should be aware of, however, is that the Byzantine Empire itself actually arose out of the collapse of the western half of the Roman Empire. Thus, if we are to discuss Byzantine geography from a more long term perspective, this must entail a discussion of that Roman geography and history (as well as the history of the Greek speaking world).
The Roman Empire was ultimately built around the Mediterranean (and the Mediterranean Sea could be understood as the primary highway for communications tying that empire together). Starting from a single city state, Roman power would gradually expand across centuries, initially across Italy, and later, further across Western Europe and the Mediterranean. In so doing, it also expanded into the Greek speaking world (where you must also take into account the history of Classical Greece, as well as the history of the Hellenistic world, shaped from the conquests of Alexander the Great). In this sense, there evolved two distinct halves of the Roman Empire, with the eastern half (the half that would become the Byzantine Empire) heavily shaped by this still deeper Greek legacy, which had already been present in these places before they become part of the Empire.
The center of the Byzantine Empire was the city of Constantinople, located on the Bosphorus. This location made it one of the key trading centers of its time. Its location was also easily defensible and heavily fortified. Even as the Empire itself disintegrated, Constantinople itself endured for centuries under Byzantine rule, until the Ottoman conquest of 1453.