The Conquest of Constantinople

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The Conquest of Constantinople Background: Before 1453, the Byzantine Empire was still on the decline. The Byzantine Empire was the remnant of the once great Roman Empire when it split into the East and West. So, when the West fell in 476, the East was all that was left. For 1000 years it remained as the “Protector of Christendom”. However, wars with the Sassanid Empire, Crusades and Mongol raids had weaken the once dominant Empire. The Ottoman Empire started around 1299 on the Eastern end of Anatolia. These Ottoman Turks began chipping away at what remained of the Roman Empire. This continued until, the only territory the Romans had was the great city of Constantinople. The leader of the Ottoman was Mehmed II. He was 19 years old when he came to the throne after the death of his father Murad II. When Mehmed ascended the throne, he needed an achievement to show his father’s Vizier (ministers), that he was capable of ruling the vast multi ethnic empire. In particular, he needed to quell the opposition he had with his father’s Grand Vizier (Prime Minister), Candarli Halil Pasha. Halil Pasha was meeting with Loukas Notaras who was the Grand Duke (also like a Prime Minister) of the Byzantine Empire, to try and convince Mehmed not to attack Constantinople. Mehmed discovered this traitorous plot. Conquest: Mehmed and his army began preparing for the Battle. Mehmed had a Hungarian cannon maker named Orban. Orban built the largest cannon at that time and called it Basilica. Then Mehmed built a fortress just north of Constantinople called Rumeli Hisar on the Bosphorus Strait which was ominously named the “throat cutter” because it cut off supplies from reaching the Byzantines. So, the Ottoman Army advanced and lay siege to Constantinople. First, Mehmed ordered the cannons to be fired to bring the great walls down. Then wave after wave of Ottoman Janissaries but each were always beat. The Byzantines might have not had as many men, but they had employed a mercenary named Giovanni Giustiniani. With the help of Giustiniani, the Byzantines were able to hold off wave after waves of attack. Naval Brilliance: The Byzantines had a system on the Bosphorus to defend against enemy navies. There was a long chain that stretched across from the Genoese colony of Galata to Constantinople. When a trade or ally ship came the chains would lower and allow the ship to come in. However, Mehmed decided to haul the ships overland behind the Colony of Galata and plant them in the harbor behind the Roman fleet. The Ottoman fleet opened fire on the Italian ships and destroyed the navy. Legacy: Then on May 29th 1453, the Ottomans launched their final attack. They managed to finally break through the defenses of the Byzantines and take the city. After the war, Candarli Halil Pasha was executed because of his treason. This conquest was important because it is seen today by many historians as the actual fall of the Roman Empire because the people in the Byzantine Empire considered themselves to be Romans. For the Ottomans, this conquest made them an economic, political and military powerhouse of the Eastern Mediterranean and it would be one of the longest surviving empire that would eventually die in 1923 after it was crippled by the First World War. .

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