Fall of Constantinople

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On May 29, 1453, after 49 days of consecutive cannon fire, the proud walls of the city of Constantinople were breached (Nardo 43; Corrick 98). Lead by Mehmed II, the Ottoman Turks of the Ottoman Empire poured into the city and claimed it as theirs (Corrick 98). The siege of Constantinople not only drastically affected the city itself, but also the group that took over the city. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 lead to political, religious, social, and economical changes within the city that would greatly benefit the Ottoman Empire.
The fall of Constantinople, although seen as the fall of an entire empire, would initiate the rise in power of a new group, the Ottomans. Constantinople was once the capital of the Byzantine Empire (Corrick 8-9). The Byzantine Empire at first did not considered themselves as Byzantines, instead they thought themselves as Romans of the Roman Empire (Nardo 7). During the decline of Rome in 476 AD, the Roman capital’s power and wealth shifted from the Roman Empire’s western half to its eastern half, the city of Constantinople (Beck 175). Constantinople of the Byzantine Empire now stood as the capital and center of the entire Eastern Roman Empire (Corrick 8-9). However when the Ottomans seized Constantinople in 1453, not only did they take over a city, they ended an empire. By conquering Constantinople, the Ottomans had conquered the last bits of the Byzantine Empire, thus when Constantinople fell, it was the end of the Byzantine Empire and also the Eastern Roman Empire (The Fall of Constantinople). With their newly conquered city, the Ottoman Empire established their new capital, Constantinople (Sizgorich) Since the city was the center of the Ottoman Empire, it allowed for easy trade and communication ...

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