The fall of Constantinople
Ottoman cannon breach walls that had held for a thousand years.
- When
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Mehmed II takes Constantinople on 29 May 1453 after a seven-week siege, using enormous bombards including one firing stone balls half a tonne in weight — artillery had made the Theodosian walls obsolete. The last Roman emperor dies in the fighting. Greek scholars fleeing west carry manuscripts that feed the Renaissance, and the closure of overland routes sharpens European interest in reaching Asia by sea.