At around the year 1000AD, a trader from China travelled up the silk road, carrying with him, gunpowder. He reached the Byzantine Empire, and traded the gunpowder in Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire had lost much of its land to Arabs, and with their new weapons, they seized the opportunity to take back their stolen lands and create a new Roman Empire. The Byzantine's beat the Seljuk Turks out of Asia Minor by 1070, completely preventing the loss of Constantinople in 1453.