Fall of the Constantinopole

Constantinopole was the capital city of the Eastern Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires
and it was founded in 330 and named by its founder Constantine the Great. By XII century
Constantinopole was the greatest and richest European city and an important event was in 1204
when it was robbed and captured by the Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade. During the 15
th

century the state of the Empire wasn`t so healthy and it`s territory was reduced only in a small
area around the city. 1453 meant not only the fall of the Constantinopole but actually changing
of the whole Europe and it had a lot of consequences.
The preparations for the conquest meant that Sultan Mehmed II built an ottoman fortress on
the Bossfor shore, named Rumeli Hisan, to control the sea traffic and especially to prevent help
from the north from Genoese colonies on the Black Sea coast. Even so the relationship between
byzantine emperor and the Romano-Catholic Church was cold and thats why the Pope wasn`t
really decided whether to send help or not, at the end the Constantinopole was left alone .The
army defending Constantinople was relatively small, it totaled about 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom
were foreigners. At the onset of the siege probably 50,000 people were living within the walls,
including the refugees from the surrounding area. The Ottomans, on the other hand, had a larger
force.about 50,000-80, soldiers, including including an elite infantry corps, and thousands of
Christian tropes.
Mehmed plan was to build a fleet and siege the town and to week it before the final attack.
The weakest part of the city was Theodosius walls and the ottomans should attack the city from
the west, the only part of the city which was not surrounded by water. The Turks camped near
the city on the 2
nd
of April 1453.On the other side , the Byzantines were hopeful because they
had a numerous fleet and Theodosius one of the strongest sets of fortified walls in existence at
the time, and also the city was recently reinforced. For several weeks the Ottomans led a direct
attack with cannons aiming the walls, but with no significant damage and the Byzantines were
able to recover after every hit and the Ottomans suffered big losses.
On the morning of May 29 the final attack began. The first wave of attackers consisted of
auxiliary troops and were meant only to kill as many defenders as possible. The second wave ,
consisting largely of Anatolians , focused on a section of wall in the north- west , which had been
partially damaged by the cannon . This section of the walls had been built recently in the
eleventh century, and was much weaker; crusaders in 1204 had broken through the walls there.
Ottomans finally managed to break through, but were repulsed after a short time the Byzantine
defenders . The Byzantines faced the third wave of attackers, and the Ottomans invaded the city.
Constantine XI himself led the last defense of the city , dying in battle in the streets of his city
with his soldiers .
Although Mehmed II allowed his troops to plunder the city, after the manner of all the
armies of the time, he changed his mind seeing the devastation caused by majestic buildings and
local activities stopped after about a day; Unfortunately by then a large part of the inhabitants
had been raped, robbed or enslaved. The estimated population at 50,000 residents of the city at
the time, about half were still free when Mehmed ordered the cessation of hostilities.
It is widely believed that the city was renamed to "Istanbul" in the aftermath of the conquest.
In actuality, the Ottomans used the Arabic transliteration of the city's name, "Kostantiniyye," as
can be seen in numerous Ottoman documents. Only in 1930 would Istanbul become the official
name of the city by the revised Turkish Postal Law as part of Ataturk`s reforms.
On 29
th
of May 1453 the Byzantine dream shattered to pieces, and a new capital will rise
over the old Constantinopole, the capital of a new dominating force in Europe the Ottoman
Empire.