Summary
Highlights
In 1453, Sultan Mehmed II led an Ottoman army of 70,000 to lay siege to Constantinople. Capturing this city was a long-held ambition for Mehmed, aiming to control essential trade routes—specifically the lucrative spice trade—between East and West.
Constantinople was protected by formidable defensive walls that had never been breached. Mehmed overcame this through revolutionary artillery bombardment, marking a significant turning point in the history of warfare where cannons became the dominant force on the battlefield.
After 53 days of relentless bombardment, the walls fell. The conquest transformed the Christian capital into the Islamic city of Istanbul and shifted the world's power dynamics, forcing European nations to seek new routes to the East, ultimately leading to the discovery of new continents.