29 May 1453: The Vasilevousa has fallen - Mehmet conquers Constantinople

By the 15th century, the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to Constantinople and a small surrounding area. Once a thriving city of hundreds of thousands, Constantinople’s population had fallen dramatically after centuries of wars, economic decline, and repeated sieges. At the same time, relations with Western Europe had weakened because of the long-standing split between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.

Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire had expanded across most of the Balkans and Anatolia. After becoming sultan again in 1451, Mehmed II prepared carefully for the conquest. He signed peace agreements with Hungary and Venice, built the Rumeli Fortress on the Bosporus to cut off aid to the city, and commissioned massive cannons capable of breaking Constantinople’s walls.

Despite appeals from Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI, help from Europe was limited. Venice and Genoa sent only small forces, while internal religious disputes weakened support for the Byzantines. Constantinople’s defenders numbered only around 7,000 trained soldiers against an Ottoman army of roughly 60,000–80,000 men supported by artillery and a large fleet.

The siege began in April 1453. Although the city’s famous walls resisted repeated attacks, the constant cannon fire gradually created breaches. Mehmed also managed to bypass the defensive chain protecting the Golden Horn by transporting ships over land into the harbor, tightening the blockade.

Throughout the centuries, though, echoes the answer Constantine XI Palaiologos’ gave to Mehmed when the Ottoman Sultan demanded from the Byzantine Emperor to surrender Constantinople:

“Surrendering the city to you is neither my decision alone nor that of any other of its inhabitants; for all of us, collectively and of our own free will, shall die and shall not spare our lives”

On May 29, after weeks of bombardment, the Ottomans launched a final massive assault. During the fighting, the Genoese commander Giovanni Giustiniani was severely wounded, causing panic among the defenders. Ottoman Janissaries eventually broke through near the Gate of St. Romanus, and the city collapsed. Emperor Constantine XI is believed to have died fighting during the final defense.

After the conquest, Mehmed entered Constantinople and converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Although some looting occurred, Mehmed quickly restored order and later rebuilt the city as the new Ottoman capital. He viewed himself as the successor of the Roman emperors and expanded Ottoman power further into the Balkans and Greece.

The fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Byzantine Empire and significantly changed European history. It strengthened Ottoman dominance in the eastern Mediterranean and is often considered one of the events that marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. In a sense the flight of Greek secular and ecclesiastical scholars to Europe, especially the Italian city states, along with their treasure troves of books and manuscripts, allowed the expansion of scholarship in Europe.