The Fall of Constantinople: Summary

The fall of Constantinople marked the end of the last vestige of the Eastern Roman Empire or also known as the Byzantine Empire. After the taking of the city in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks it gave rise to the beginning of a new era, the Modern Age. Next in this lesson from a TEACHER we will see what said event consisted of in a summarized way so that you can understand what happened in this historical stage. Keep reading and you will discover a summary of the fall of Constantinople.

We could say that along with the decadent period of the Byzantine Empire, a new empire was being forged in Asia Minor, the Empire of the Turks. This was ruled by sultans who had a terrible army of Janissaries, soldiers who from a very young age had been prepared to go to war.

The fact of the name of Ottomans is given because at first the Turks were related to some tribes of Turkestan but in the year 1256 they separated, leaving the Turks under the command of Sultan Otman, hence this empire is also known as the Ottoman Empire.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we will discover the differences between the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.

Before entering fully into the summary of the fall of Constantinople It is important that we know the process prior to said fall, that is, when the empire was strong and in perfect condition.

Among the most important early sultans we have to point out is a Murad I (1359-1383) for the conquest of the city of Adrianople, which ended up becoming the new capital of the emerging Turkish Empire. The successor to this was Bayezid the Lightning who was the one who at the head of the army began the first advances in the direction of Constantinople, taking place a great convulsion among the Christian peoples since they saw their religion in danger and culture.

Byzantine Emperor Manuel II at that time summoned all the Christian peoples of Europe to come together to organize a crusade in against the Turks and there were more than 8,000 men who moved to the Balkans to face the invaders, giving rise to the Battle of Nícopolis (1396).

What Bayezid did was divide his army into three parts, hiding one of them behind the hill, the defending army of the Christian people launched the attack without complying the orders of the leaders of him overwhelming two parts of the Tuco army, a moment that Bayezid took advantage of to take out his third body of soldiers and finally finish them off victoriously advancing little by little to the city of Constantinople, however he did not count on the presence of the powerful army of Tamerlane.

Tamerlane was the sovereign of the Mongolian tribes, an enemy also of the Christians that it was arranged to advance on the European territory to invade it little by little. Both armies of Bayezid and Tamerlane had the same objective which was to invade the city of Constantinople and as great enemies that they were, they were the protagonists of a new battle, the Battle of Ancira (1402), in which the Turkish army was dismantled because while it had the presence of 150 thousand soldiers, that of Tamerlane had more than 8000 thousand men.

Coming out victorious from the battle he prepared to advance with his army towards Constantinople but before undertaking said conquest He wanted to solve a campaign against the Chinese in the East, in that journey he died and his army ended up dismantled quickly.

We continue this summary of the fall of Constantinople speaking of why this situation of decline was reached. During the two decades following the disintegration of the Tamerlane army, Constantinople was freed from oppression, however the differences between the Roman and Orthodox Church they were still in force and it was the emperor John VIII who held a council to resolve those most accentuated differences between the two churches.

After his death, his brother acceded to the throne Constantine XI, considered the predecessor of his brother as far as the reconciliation of the eastern and western church is concerned. Faced with the distrust of this proposal, Sultan Mehmed II, in order to conquer Constantinople, tried to spare the lives of the Christians as long as Constantine gave him the city.

That same year Constantine demanded pay an annual rent to its citizens for holding the sultan hostage in the city, a fact that infuriated Mehmed so much that he ordered preparations to besiege the entire Byzantine city.

The fall of Constantinople took place due to the assault on the city that occurred in the early morning of May 29, 1453 after consulting the astrologers who had prophesied that this would be a disastrous day for the infidels.

Mehmed launched a full offensive to the ramparts made up of mercenaries and prisoners who gathered in the Lico Valley. For more than two hours, the Turkish army attacked without defeating the Byzantine resistance under the command of the Genoese soldier Giovanni Giustiniani Longo.

Faced with this situation, they gave way to the great cannon that opened a great breach in the wall, where the Turks concentrated the attack, since Constantine sent a whole human chain to repair the breach, while on the other hand Mehmed made use of the Janissaries to climb the wall with ladders. The failure of the Byzantines to leave one of the gates in the open wall It was the key for the Janissary army to enter the city.

Both Constantine XI and Guistiniani died on the battlefield. Soon after, Mehmed entered the city to order that the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Constantinople be consecrated as a mosque. For three days in a row the sacking of the city took place and he offered all the Byzantines to stay in the city under the command of the theologian Genadius II in order to ensure that there were no more revolts.

Constantinople has since been called Islambul (current Istanbul) becoming the new capital of the Ottoman Empire.