On this day in 1453, the great city of Constantinople falls to the Ottomans marking the end of the thousand-year Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

17 comments

  1. The Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Turks. The city fell on 29 May 1453, the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun on 6 April.

    The attacking Ottoman Army, which significantly outnumbered Constantinople’s defenders, was commanded by the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II (later called “Mehmed the Conqueror”), while the Byzantine army was led by Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor.

    After conquering the city, Mehmed II made Constantinople the new Ottoman capital, replacing Edirne (Adrianople).

    The conquest of Constantinople and the fall of the Byzantine Empire was a watershed of the Late Middle Ages and is considered the end of the medieval period.

  3. Even though Byzantium was already weakened by the Latins and the Arabs, and the Ottomans snatched the land easily as it was already down, this day remains, symbolically speaking, one of the saddest days in European history.

    It marks the beggining of darkness falling over big parts of Europe. Jizya taxes and being second class citizens. Devshirme practices in which Ottomans kidnapped kids from Christian families and after forced convertions had them fight their own kin. Europeans being sold into slavery in the East. The Balkans not experiencing the cultivation of liberal values until the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

    Thankfully that Empire is long gone. Everyone rebelled against it. Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Arabs, Romanians. May this day serve as a reminder of the Europe we need to defend collectively.

  4. May this day serve as a reminder of the consequences for political divisions and lack of unity. Had the Roman Empire not split into Western and Eastern things would have been different. Had the Church not split into Western and Eastern, things might have been different.

  6. Thanks to Hungairan Orban, Serbian sappers and military information provided by Genovese. Also an Ottoman prince was fighting for Byzans.

  7. Important day to remember all those people who fought against the horrors of the Ottoman Empire. Palaiologos, Ypsilantis, Skanderbeg, Karadjordje, Giustiniani etc.

    Never again. Europe shall remain united.

  11. Istanbul was Constantinople.
    Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople.
    Been a long time gone, oh Constantinople.
    Why did Constantinople get the works?
    That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.

  13. The city of Rome was traditionally founded in 753, and the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire happened in 1453… there is symmetry in the darkest of places. 2205 years, never forgotten!

  16. Constantinople 1453 is one of my favorite historical events.
    Not because of the victory of the ottomans nor because of the end of the last true heir of the Roman Empire, but because with the fall of the second Rome many Greek refugees fled to the west, and many of them were scholars bringing with them books and scripts which helped the blossom of the renaissance.
    Furthermore with the path to the east, towards the silk road, closed by the Ottomans, the Europeans were forced to discover new commerce routes: the Americas.
    This obviously led to the age of colonization and the European world domination and exploitation. So basically I see the fall of the Byzantines as a victory in the “short” term for the ottomans, but also as a suicide for the entire middle east (see it now: borders drawn by Europeans with the ruler, that led to the various conflicts and misery that we are seeing today).
    So thank you Mehmed II, for giving us Reinassance, Colonization and consequently so many advantages in so many fields like technology and democracy. And thank you again “The Conqueror” if now I live in the westernized world, free to do what I want, like: drinking alcohol and eating pork, while I sit at Starbucks looking at my brand new Mac, at the expense of the rest of the world. While you now have Erdogan.

  17. 569 years in Turkish hands and its shine wears off more and more it seems, certainly since the boring life haters of Erdogan’s party have been ruling the land.

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