5213 AM · 1453 CE · world history
The Fall of Constantinople
The Ottomans take the Byzantine capital, and a thousand-year empire ends.
Mehmed II brings enormous cannon cast for the siege and drags ships overland into the Golden Horn. After six weeks the city falls and the last emperor dies fighting. Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque. Greek scholars flee to Italy with manuscripts, and Europe begins looking for a sea route east.
Sources
Documents of the period
- Byzantine and Ottoman chronicles (Doukas, Kritoboulos) — the siege and the storming of 29 May 1453 as seen by Byzantines and Ottomans
Scholarship
- studies in Byzantine history — Urban’s cannon, the ships hauled into the Golden Horn, the death of Constantine XI
Basis: documents and evidence.