yr12_induction_newman_j

The Siege Begins
Constantinople was the capitol of the once powerful Byzantine Empire. It fell to the Turks on May 29, 1453 after 54 days of being under siege. The Turks had began to lay siege to the city on April 2nd on the orders of Turkish Sultan Mehmed II. The city's Christian defenders, numbering around 7,000 (2,000 of whom were actually mercenaries), were massively outnumbered by the 80,000 Turkish troops. "The size of the army was awe-inspiring. ... In probability, to judge from Turkish sources, the regular troops numbered some eighty thousand, excluding the irregulars, the Bashi-bazouks, who may have added another twenty thousand, and the non-combatant camp-followers, of whom there must have been several thousand. The pride of place was held by the Janissary regiments. " From mid May to the 25th, Ottoman troops attempted to dig tunnels under the wall of the city to get in. The Byzantines were able to find the tunnels due to the aid of an engineer, and many of the tunnels were dicovered and destroyed. The capture of two Turkish officers allowed the Byzantines to discover where all of the tunnels were, which they then destroyed.

New Technology
The Ottomans had brung with them many extremely powerful cannons, one of which was called “The Great Turkish Bombard” and which was meant to blow apart the city’s thick walls."Mehmet then ordered him to make a cannon twice the size of the first. It was cast at Adrianople and completed in January. The length of its barrel was estimated to be forty spans, that is, twenty-six feet and eight inches.... When the fuse was lit and the first ball fired, the reverberation was heard for a hundred stadia, and the ball hurtled through the air for a mile, then buried itself six feet deep in the earth. Mehmet was delighted.... and in March the cannon set out on its journey, drawn by sixty oxen, with two hundred men marching beside it, to keep the gun-carriage steady." It took over 400 men and 60 oxen to carry into position. 200 of the men were assigned to just clear a path for the gun to pulled through. The cannon was able to fire over the distance of a mile but was innacurate. Also, it took three hours to reload. So, while the Ottomans were busy reloading the bombard, the citys defenders were able to repair most of the walls that had been hit. It eventually collapsed after several weeks due to its own weight.

Omens of defeat
On May 22, 1453, the moon, the symbol of Constantinople, had an eclipse, apparently fulfilling a prophecy on the city's fall. On May 26th, the city was covered in a thick fog, which was unknown in the city in May. When the fog lifted later that evening, a strange light was seen around the dome of the Hagia Sophia, the city's cathedral. Some thought that the light around the dome was the Holy Spirit departing from the Cathedral, and many of the citys defenders became demoralized.From the city walls lights were seen in the countryside to the west, far behind the Turkish camp. Some thought that the lights behind the Ottoman camp were those of reinforcements for the citys defenders.

The Fall of the city
On May 28th, preparations were made for the final assault on the city, and the Byzantine emperor held a final mass at the city’s cathedral. "Constantine told his hearers that the great assault was about to begin. ... He spoke of the perfidy of the infidel Sultan who had provoked the war in order to destroy the True Faith and to put his false prophet in the seat of Christ. He urged them to remember that they were the descendants of the heroes of ancient Greece and Rome and to be worthy of their ancestors." Shortly after midnight, the Ottomans rushed the walls. The first wave was made up of poorly trained and equipped recruits, who were meant to kill as many of the Christian defenders as they could. They were repulsed and the Ottomans sent in a second wave to attack some walls that had been damaged by the great bombard. The fight there was fierce, but the defenders were able to repulse the Ottomans here also. The final wave of elite Ottoman troops, the Janissaries, were held off for a short time before they managed to wound the general defending that part of the walls. The general had to be taken off the walls, which led to his men, who thought the general had been killed, to panic and rout. The Byzantine Emperor and his soldiers were holding off the Turks at another point in the walls, but other defending soldiers were slowly being beaten back. When one of the gates to the city, the Kerkoporta gate, was opened, the Ottomans rushed in and raised the Turkish flag. The site of the flag demoralized the defenders and many began to rout. The defense line collapsed and the Ottomans swarmed in, killing many of the Byzantine soldiers in hard hand-to-hand street fighting. The emperor was killed while leading a final desperate charge against the Ottomans.

Causes of the fall of the city
1. Ottoman expansion into the Balkans gave them more money and possible recruits for their army.. 2. The Byzantine Empire was severely weakened due to infighting and at the time of its fall just consisted of Constantinople and a small part of Greece. 3. Invasion by other Greek citys and the Crusader States set up in the Middle East had weakend the city and led to depopulation, which meant that there were less people left to defend the city.

The effects:
The city became the new capitol of the Ottoman Empire and was renamed Istanbul. The city's cathedral, the Hagia Sofia, was changed into a mosque. Many of the city's inhabitants had fled the city before the siege had begun and brought with them knowledge and writings to Italy and the rest of Europe, which helped to start the Renaissance. The capture of the city by the Ottomans ensured their hold on the Balkans and allowed them to capture most of the Balkans.

Quotes

 * All quotes from: THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE 1453, by Steven Runciman, Cambridge University Press, 1965.**

Links
http://www.bibleprophecyrevealed.us/2004/constantinople.html http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5972/Constantinople.html http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/empires/ottoman/const.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople