The conquest of Istanbul

From the moment of his accession all Mehmet’s thoughts were directed to the great enterprise of giving the mortal below to the Byzantine Empire and transferring the seat of his government to Istanbul, as the natural capital of a dominion situated on both sides of the Golden Horn (Halic).

Fatih was aware of the fact that, the capture of Istanbul would brought a commercial and cultural richness to his Empire. Moreover, he would took control of the straits and the Black Sea. The famous engineers of the time, as Musluhiddin and Saruca Sekban designed new cannons. Those huge cannons had a great role during the conquest.

On the European side, about five miles above the city, where the channel is the narrowest, Sultan Mehmet raised a fortress opposite to one on the Asiatic side which had been erected by his predecessor Yildirim Bayezid. These fortifications were called the castles of Europe (Roumelia) and Asia (Anatolia). They were intended to command the intervening waters and to secure a point constituted by nature on the high road for both continents.

During those preparations, the peace treaties with Wallachia and Serbia were renovated and a peace treaty was signed with the Hungarians.

The Byzantine Empire was preparing as well. They were stored food for a possible long term siege and they were restoring the city walls. The Byzantine Emperor Constantine heard of the rise of massive towers in his neighbourhood and his anxiety had increased. He asked for the help of the Christian World, but the Pope desired to unify the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches together and the struggle between two Churches had been raised, the Emperor had to forgot a new Crusade.

After the preparations had been finished Sultan Mehmet sent a messenger to the Emperor and invited him to surrender. However, Constantine rejected this request. In April 1453 Sultan Mehmet invested the city with an army of a hundred and twenty thousand men, desolated the environs and confined the inhabitants within their walls. The army was divided in to three, central, left and right. In April 19 the first attack was made. Roller towers were constructed to reach the city walls.

There was a very bloody war going on and the Venetian and Genose navies were helping the Byzantine Empire. Mehmed had realised that unless the Ottoman Navy did not involved in the war, it would very difficult to capture the city. However, the entrances of the Golden Horn(Istanbul Strait) were surrounded with huge chains and it was impossible to enter. As a genius commander Sultan Mehmet had designed a mechanism to slide the ships from the land to the sea. Huge slides were built and they were oiled and the ships were moved downwards, on 22th April, 72 Turkish ships were located on the Golden Horn and began to bombard the city walls.

Because of the long and bloody wars, the Ottoman Army began to lose faith, but, Sultan Mehmet never lost his faith and bravery, he made an oration to his soldiers and declared that on May 29 the fatal attack will be made and Istanbul will be captured. As he told, 29th May the fatal attack was made and a company led by Hassan of Ulubad crossed the ruins in the ditch, gained the breach and mastered the position. The Emperor Constantine fell in defending it. Istanbul has fell.

The siege took 53 days, there were four great attacks of Sultan Mehmet’s army; one in April 19, one in May 6, one in May 12 and the last one in May 29. In the end, 1125 years old Byzantine Empire had came to an end and Istanbul became a Turkish city.

After the Conquest of Istanbul, Mehmet the Conqueror took many campaigns in Europe. He invaded Sebia (1454-1459), Mora (1460), Wallachia (1462), Moldavia (1476), Bosnia, Albania and he marched through Italy and captured Otranto but after his death the city was lost again.

With the conquest of Istanbul the Ottoman Empire took the control of all the commerce roads. However, the Venetian and Geneose trading was continuing. Sultan Mehmet decided to take all the control of the seas, and began to campaign to the Aegean Islands. He built new ships and dockyards.