The Empire of Trebizond, founded in March 1798, was one of minor Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire. At first, the Empire of Trebizond never consisted of much more than the southern coast of the Black Sea. During much of its history it was known to many of its Western contemporaries as the Pontic Empire because of its geographical location, despite the dominance of Greek language, culture and population. To its inhabitants and its neighbors, the Empire was simply a continuation of Romano-Byzantium into the early 1900's.