The fall of Constantinople

The last Emperor

Jan 6, 1449

After the death of Juan VII his Costantino brother takes power being this the last Byzantine emperor

The new Sultan

Feb 18, 1451

Sultan Mehmed II comes to power as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

The first steps

1452

In 1452 Mehmed launched his old plan to besiege and take Constantinople. He built a fortress in the summer of 1452 on the banks of the Bosporus, called Rumeli Hisarı. With this new fortress it would isolate and completely prevent the entry of supplies into the city of Constantinople

Hope dies last

1453

The Byzantines, now with the sympathy of the western nations, sent messengers to those nations asking for reinforcements and getting promises.The Venetians sent in mid-1453 a reinforcement of eight hundred soldiers and fifteen ships with supplies. The Byzantine capital also received reinforcements from the citizens of Pera and the renegade Genoese.

Giustiniani

Jan 31, 1453

In Constantinople, the Genoese military Giovanni Giustiniani presents himself to the command of 700 men to assist in the defense of the city

At the edge of the razor

Apr 6, 1453

The Ottomans, in turn, started the encirclement by quickly building a wall 10 kilometers north of Constantinople, Mehmed II knew that the previous sieges had failed because the city received supplies through the sea and so he tried to block the two entrances, the Black Sea, with a fortress armed with three cannons called bambardas at the narrowest point on the bank of the Bosporus, and with at least one hundred and twenty-five ships occupying the Dardanelles, the Sea of ​​Marmara, .

All terrain

Apr 22, 1453

The sultan dealt a strategic blow to the Byzantine defenses with the help of the maneuver devised by his general Zaganos Pasha. Unable to cross the chain that closed the Golden Horn, the sultan ordered the construction of a taxiway north of Pera, where his ships could be pushed by land, avoiding the barrier.

Bad omens

May 24, 1453

Constantinople's resistance began to wane when discouragement caused by a series of bad omens spread. On the night of May 24 there was a lunar eclipse, reminding the Byzantines of an ancient prophecy that the city would only endure as long as the Moon shone in the sky. The next day, during a procession, one of the icons of the Virgin Mary fell to the ground.

The beginning of the end

May 29, 1453

During that morning of May, 1453, the Sultan Mehmed launched a total attack on the walls, composed mainly of mercenaries and prisoners, concentrating the assault on the Lico Valley. For two hours, the main contingent of European mercenaries was repelled by Byzantine soldiers under the command of Commander Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, provided with better weapons and armor and protected by the walls. But with the tired troops, they would now have to face the regular army of 80,000 Turks.

Without head

May 29, 1453

Without leadership, the Roman soldiers fought wildly against the Turks. The death of Constantine is one of the most famous legends of, since the emperor fought to the death on the walls as he had promised Mehmed II when he offered the government of Mistra in exchange for surrender. Decapitated, his head was captured by the Turks, while his body was buried with honors. Giustiniani would also later die from the wounds on the Greek island where the promised Venetian squadron was anchored.

There is no victory without sacrifice

May 30, 1453

Mehmed II entered the city in the afternoon, together with his generals Zağanos Pasha and Mahmud Pasha, and ordered that the cathedral (Hagia Sophia) be converted into a mosque. Byzantines were authorized to reside in the city under the authority of a new patriarch
Constantinople became the capital of the Ottoman Empire and Mehmed II declared himself Roman emperor

The new capital

1454

After the defeat of the Byzantine Empire, it gave rise to the capital
(current istanbul) of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which in its maximum splendor conquered lands of Europe, Asia and also Africa, existing from 1299 to 1923.