Ottomans · 1453
Conquest of Constantinople
After a 53-day siege, with giant cannon and ships dragged overland into the Golden Horn, the city fell on 29 May 1453. Mehmed II made it his capital, and the Byzantine Empire ended after more than a thousand years.
Key facts
- When
- 1453
- Where
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Sides
- Ottomans vs Byzantine Empire
- Commanders
- Mehmed II vs Constantine XI
- Result
- Ottoman victory
- Type
- Ottomans
- Chapter
- 5. The Ottomans
Who led it
- Mehmed II, the Conqueror1432 to 1481
Took Constantinople at 21 and made it his capital, ending the Byzantine Empire.
The wider picture: Three gunpowder empires
Mehmed II took Constantinople in 1453. Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517 and the caliphate passed to the Ottomans. Suleiman won at Mohacs in 1526, and a second siege of Vienna failed in 1683. Further east, Safavid Iran and the Mughals of India ruled at the same time.
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