Fall of Constantinople
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Sides
Ottoman Empire and Serbian Despotate (cavalry its ruler was forced to send as an Ottoman vassal)
Ancient Rome, Genoese soldiers under Giovanni Giustiniani, Venetians in the city, Ships and men sent by the Pope and by Alfonso of Aragon, and Ottoman prince Orhan Çelebi and his Turkish followers, who fought on the Byzantine side
Greece
Italy
Serbia
Spain
TürkiyeWhat happened
In the spring of 1453 the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II besieged Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. His army was many times larger than the city's roughly 7,000 defenders, about 2,000 of them foreigners, many from Genoa and Venice. From 6 April Ottoman cannon, the largest cast by the founder Orban, battered the fifth-century land walls. A chain across the Golden Horn kept the Ottoman fleet out of the harbour until 22 April, when Mehmed had ships dragged overland behind Galata into the inlet. On 29 May Ottoman troops broke through the walls; the Genoese commander Giovanni Giustiniani was wounded, and Emperor Constantine XI was killed in the fighting. Soldiers plundered the city and enslaved much of its population, and Mehmed turned Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Constantinople became the Ottoman capital. The historian David Nicolle puts the Greek civilians who died in the siege at about 4,000; the dead among the soldiers on either side are not known.
Outcome: The Ottoman Empire took Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and made it its capital; the Byzantine Empire ended with the death of Constantine XI.
Key events
Leaders
- Mehmed II · Ottoman sultan; commanded the siege · The Ottoman Empire
- Zagan Pasha · Ottoman commander at the siege · The Ottoman Empire
- Çandarlı Halil Pasha · Grand vizier · The Ottoman Empire
- Constantine XI Palaiologos · Last Byzantine emperor; killed in the final assault · The Byzantine Empire and its allies
- Giovanni Giustiniani · Genoese commander on the land walls; wounded on 29 May · The Byzantine Empire and its allies
- Loukas Notaras · Byzantine grand duke and commander · The Byzantine Empire and its allies
Deaths
Death tolls are estimates and often contested. Each is a range from its sources; a figure one party gives is marked as theirs.
Civilian deaths · Greek civilians
- 4,000according to historian David Nicolle
Greek civilians who died in the siege, according to Nicolle. World History Encyclopedia gives its own figure for the sack, perhaps 4,000 killed outright. Tens of thousands more were enslaved: about 30,000 according to the historian Roger Crowley, over 50,000 according to World History Encyclopedia.
Cultures it ended or changed
Meanwhile, elsewhere in
- Maya civilization
Mesoamerica · Oldest hereThe Maya Long Count calendar tracks days in an unbroken count from a mythical starting point in 3114 BCE.
- Ming dynasty明
China · The brick-faced Great Wall that most visitors photograph near Beijing is largely a Ming creation, built two thousand years after the wall of the first Qin emperor and along a different line.
- MuiscaMuysca
South America · A small gold raft found near Bogotá, showing figures around a chief, is thought to depict the Guatavita gold-dust ceremony.
- Holy Roman EmpireHeiliges Römisches Reich
Europe · - Mixtec civilizationÑuu Dzahui Mesoamerica ·
- Chimú culture
South America · The Chimú honoured the Moon above the Sun, unlike the Inca who later conquered them.
Sources
- Cartwright, Mark. "1453: The Fall of Constantinople." World History Encyclopedia (2018).
- Wikipedia (English). "Fall of Constantinople."
- Wikipedia (español). "Caída de Constantinopla."
- Pemptousia. "An Ottoman Volunteer Defends Besieged Constantinople (1453)" (2018), archived copy.
- Wikipedia (中文). "君士坦丁堡陷落."