The Fall of Constantinople

On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmed II's armies take Constantinople after several weeks of siege. The Byzantine capital had resisted major invasions for more than a thousand years. Its fall permanently transforms the political, commercial, and cultural balance between Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Ottoman world.

By the mid-15th century, the Byzantine Empire controls only a very reduced territory around Constantinople. The city nevertheless retains immense symbolic, religious, and strategic importance inherited from the Eastern Roman Empire.

Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II methodically prepares the siege of 1453. The Ottomans notably use gigantic cannons capable of damaging the Theodosian Walls considered for centuries as nearly impregnable. The Byzantine defenders, vastly outnumbered, attempt to protect the ramparts with the help of a few Western contingents. A massive chain also blocks maritime access to the Golden Horn to prevent the entry of the Ottoman fleet.

Mehmed circumvents this obstacle, however, by having several ships transported on greased logs across the hills overlooking the harbor. This spectacular maneuver contributes greatly to the final encirclement of the city.

After the capture of Constantinople, the Ottomans progressively transform the city into an imperial capital. The event symbolically marks the end of the Byzantine Empire and durably reinforces Ottoman power in the Mediterranean and European world.