The Fall of Constantinople (1453)
The Fall of Constantinople occurred on 29 May 1453, when the Ottoman army under Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The conquest ended the Byzantine Empire after more than a thousand years of existence and established the Ottoman Empire as the dominant power in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. The event is one of the most significant turning points in medieval history. Background Constantinople had been founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 330 CE on the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium. ...