Power which conquered constantinople in 1453

When the bishops returned to the Byzantine Empire, however, they found themselves under attack by their congregations. Their agreement to join the Catholic Church was exceedingly unpopular. The Rise of the Ottoman Empire.

By this stage, Constantinople was underpopulated and dilapidated. The population of the city had collapsed so severely that it was now little more than a cluster of villages separated by fields.

Despite a desperate last-ditch defense of the city by the massively outnumbered Christian forces 7, men, 2, of whom were sent by Rome , Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans after a two-month siege on May 29, The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was last seen casting off his imperial regalia and throwing himself into hand-to-hand combat after the walls of the city were taken.

On the third day of the conquest, Mehmed II ordered all looting to stop and sent his troops back outside the city walls. The capture of Constantinople and two other Byzantine splinter territories soon thereafter marked the end of the Roman Empire, an imperial state that had lasted for nearly 1, years.

The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople also dealt a massive blow to Christendom, as the Islamic Ottoman armies thereafter were left unchecked to advance into Europe without an adversary to their rear. Constantinople was transformed into an Islamic city: the Hagia Sophia became a mosque, and the city eventually became known as Istanbul.

The conquest of the city of Constantinople, and the end of the Byzantine Empire, was a key event in the Late Middle Ages, which also marks, for some historians, the end of the Middle Ages.

The Walls of Constantinople. Yet in , they fell to the Ottoman Turks. Israel stands at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa. Geographically, it belongs to the Asian continent and is part of the Middle East region. In the west, Israel is bound by the Mediterranean Sea. The Byzantines responded by throwing Turkish prisoners to their deaths from the ramparts.

After long weeks of siege, after the relentless pounding of the cannon that had been set up and directed by the Hungarian professional Orban, the walls at last broke.

The city was about to be taken. Through it all, Emperor Constantine refused to surrender and rallied both local inhabitants of the city and Latin Christians from Venice and Genoa, who were merchants who had worked in the city, all fighting together in defense of the beleaguered metropolis.

When the walls were breached, Emperor Constantine did something dramatic. With that, he tore off the emblems of his imperial rank, which marked him as the emperor, and like an ordinary soldier rushed into the thickest part of the fighting, and he was never seen alive again.

The city of Constantinople fell on May 29, The Sultan Mehmet entered Hagia Sophia, what had been a church, and now turned it into a mosque. Geometric designs were painted over the famous mosaics of Hagia Sophia, and verses of the Koran were placed where earlier holy icons had been hung.

Henceforth, the victor of this siege would acquire a new nickname. In the rest of Europe, the news of the fall of the city took some time to spread given what communications were like, how slow they were in those days. In fact, given the confusing situation of war, news of the capture of Constantinople only reached Rome and Italy more than a month after it had happened.

When the news did spread in the West, it was met with shock, disbelief, and a growing sense of horror. Some contemporaries simply refused to believe it, as if the news must be wrong. Others accepted it but were certain that this must be reversed; it must be changed. In fact, fascinating rumors circulated that sort of reinforced the strength of this conviction. Such rumors are worth considering because they tell us deep truths about what people at the time were feeling, fearing, or wishing.

Let me offer two examples. As mentioned before, Emperor Constantine had rushed into battle without insignia, his body was never identified after the fighting. As a result, legends circulated that Emperor Constantine did not die, but had miraculously been saved, and had fallen into a mystical sleep. The rumors continued; even now, Emperor Constantine is sleeping in a secret underground chamber under the city gates of Constantinople, waiting for the chance to reclaim his empire.

Another legend referred to the church of Hagia Sophia. So, cannonballs weighing kg 1, The first attack was carried out on April 18, , but it failed causing losses to the Ottoman army. Moreover, defenders of the city received military assistance from three Genoese and one Byzantine ship, which broke the Ottoman blockade in the Bosphorus on April Aksemseddin, a famous scientist of the era who supported the Sultan in those difficult days, wrote a letter to the Sultan saying the siege must go on.

This is the only document of the incident which has been preserved to this day. A second plan was put in place. Some 60 ships were moved toward the Golden Horn on a road through a small cove with the help of men and oxens. The ships reached the Golden Horn on April 22 shocking the Byzantine army which was hopeful of assistance from Genoese ships.

On May 6, the Ottoman army shifted its focus on the city walls between Topkapi and Edirnekapi, which had been weakened due to cannonballs.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian ambassador came to the Ottoman army and threatened that a Crusader army would set sail if the siege was not called off.