yr8_Christian

=Mehmed the Conquerer=

Here are a few details about my life. I was born March 30, 1432, Adrianople, Thrace, Ottoman Empire—died May 3, 1481, near Constantinople

I contributed to the Renaissance in the following ways. I planned the siege of Constantinople. When my father, Murad II died, I became the leader of the Ottomans for the second time. My first and biggest ambition was to invade Constantinople, the Roman capital of Eastern Europe. I didn’t support the Christian religion. I devoted myself to strengthening the Ottoman navy. In 1453, I began the attack. I had an army between 80,000 to 200,000 troops, and 320 navy vessels. The siege began on Thursday, 5 April 1453. The harbour of the city was defended by 20 warships and was blocked by a chain. I had the idea of transporting lighter ships overland over a colony opposite Constantinople. 80 ships were transported over a one mile stretch of land using wood. Only a month later, Constantinople fell after a fifty-seven day siege. The Roman Empire no longer existed after the siege. I was a war hero and went on to conquer many other cities around the world.

I think these contributions were particularly important because the fall of Constantinople was were the renaissance began. It was the last city that the Romans had control of. It was the capital of their empire. It contained ideas and inventions that had been invented by the Romans long ago, but which had never been let out of the walls of the city. When my army invaded Constantinople, people there fled for their lives. They took all their ideas with them as well. The ideas spread up from Turkey to Italy, and then up to central and western Europe. If I had not invaded Constantinople, none of these ideas would have reached Europe. There would be no Leonardo’s or Galileo’s in the world. We would still be stuck in the old world. I fuelled the renaissance by doing that.

The picture shown here is of me as I entered he fallen Constantinople, which helps to show that I was a warrior and a war hero.

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