The Fall of Constantinople and the End of the Byzantine Empire
On May 29, 1453, the Byzantine Empire, which was the eastern half of the Roman Empire, officially ended when Sultan Mehmed II’s Ottoman troops captured Constantinople after a 53-day siege. By the 15th century, this once-mighty empire had shrunk to just a city-state, having survived nearly a thousand years since the western empire fell in AD 476. The siege began on April 2, featuring powerful Ottoman cannons capable of hurling 1,500-pound stones over a mile at the Theodosian Walls. Despite the defenders, reinforced by about 1,500 Venetian and Genoese soldiers, holding out for six weeks, a final assault broke through after the death of Genoese leader Giovanni Giustiniani. Emperor Constantine XI refused to flee, declaring he wouldn’t live without his empire, and he died in the battle, signaling the end of Roman emperors. Following this, the Ottomans made Constantinople their capital and converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
Key facts
- The Byzantine Empire ended on May 29, 1453, with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.
- Sultan Mehmed II led the Ottoman siege, which began on April 2, 1453.
- The Ottomans used 69 cannons, including a gigantic siege gun that fired 1,500-pound stone cannonballs over a mile.
- Emperor Constantine XI died in the final assault, his body never found, ending the Roman imperial line.
- About 1,500 soldiers from Venice and Genoa, plus a few hundred others, aided the defense.
- The city's population had fallen from nearly 500,000 at its height to less than 40,000 by 1453.
- The Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the conquest.
- The fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Roman Empire, which began with Augustus in 27 BC.
Entities
Artists
- Thomas Cole
- Bertoldo di Giovanni
- Anna Comnena
- Constantine XI
- Mehmed II
- Giovanni Giustiniani
- Augustus
- Trajan
- Diocletian
- Theodosius I
- Arcadius
- Honorius
- Odoacer
- Romulus Augustulus
- Justinian I
- Belisarius
- Marcus Licinius Crassus
- John Skylitzes
- Osman I
- Orban
- Nicolo Barbaro
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan
- Gentile Bellini
- Carole Raddato
- Jean Valjean
Institutions
- TheCollector
- Wikimedia Commons
- Coin Cabinet of the National Museums in Berlin
- Basilica of St. Vitale
- Opera di Religione della Diocesi di Ravenna
- British Museum
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Madrid National Library
- Republic of Venice
- Genoa
- Ottoman Empire
- Seljuk Turks
- Latin Empire of Constantinople
- Nicaean Empire
- Janissaries
- Hagia Sophia
- Byzantine Empire
- Roman Empire
- Eastern Orthodox Church
- Ecumenical Patriarchate
- Turkish Republic
- National Gallery, London
- The Collector
- Atlas Obscura
- World History Encyclopedia
- Unsplash
- Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
Locations
- Rome
- Italy
- Constantinople
- Turkey
- Bosporus
- Dardanelles
- Anatolia
- Balkans
- North Africa
- Carthage
- Iberian Peninsula
- Sicily
- Levant
- Arabian Peninsula
- Bulgaria
- Kyivan Rus'
- Greece
- Peloponnese
- Black Sea
- Adriatic
- Venice
- Genoa
- Tiber River
- Gate of St. Romanus
- Kirkoporta
- Theodosian Walls
- Istanbul
- Adrianople
- Edirne
- Bosphorus
- Golden Horn Bay
- Galata
- Crimean Peninsula
- Moldovita
- Romania
- Europe
- West Asia
- Babylon