Căderea Constantinopolului

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The 1453 Siege of Constantinople (painted 1499)

Căderea Constantinopolului este numele sub care e cunoscută cucerirea capitalei Imperiului Bizantin de forţele Imperiului Otoman, sub comanda sultanului Mehmed al II-lea. Evenimentul a avut loc în ziua de marţi, 29 mai 1453. Căderea Constantinopolului a însemnat nu numai sfârşitul Imperiului Roman de Răsărit şi moartea ultimului împărat bizantin,Constantin al XI-lea, dar şi o victorie strategică de o importanţă crucială pentru cucerirea estului mediteranean şi al Balcanilor de către otomani.

State of the Eastern Roman Empire

În cei aproximativ 1.000 de ani de existenţă a Imperiului Bizantin, Constantinopolul a fost asediat de mai multe ori; a fost cucerit doar de două ori, prima dată în timpul Cruciadei a patra din 1204, iar a doua oară când a fost recuperat de bizantini, câteva decenii mai târziu, în 1261. În următoarele două secole, Imperiul a fost măcinat şi cucerit de un nou inamic, Imperiul Otoman. În 1453 "imperiul" era format doar din oraşul în sine şi o porţiune a Peloponezului din jurul cetăţii Mystras; Imperiul Trebizondei, un stat succesor complet independent, format ca urmare a celei de-a patra Cruciade, a supravieţuit pe coasta Mării Negre.

Preparations

Mehmed, al cărui străbunic Baiazid construise o fortăreaţă pe malul asiatic al Bosforului, numită Anadolu Hisarı, a construit încă o cetate nu departe de zidurile Constantinopolului, pe malul european, care a crescut influenţa turcă asupra strâmtorii. Un aspect foarte important al fortăreţei a fost faptul că împiedica ajutorul coloniilor genoveze de pe coasta Mării Negre, să ajungă la oraş. Această fortăreaţă se numea Rumeli Hisarı; Rumelia (Rumeli) şi Anatolia (Anadolu) fiind numele porţiunilor europene şi asiatice ale Imperiului Otoman, respectiv. Noua fortăreaţă este cunoscută şi sub denumirea Boğazkesen, ceea ce în limba turcă are o dublă semnificaţie: "blocarea strâmtorii" şi "tăierea gâtului", subliniindu-i poziţia strategică. Numele grecesc, Laimokopia, are acelaşi sens dublu.Meanwhile, Constantine XI tried to buy him off with gifts. The closing of the small mosques within Constantinople by Constantine XI and the pressures on Greek Muslims to convert back to Christianity formed the pretext for Mehmet to declare war.

Împăratul Constantin a cerut ajutorul ţărilor din vestul Europei, dar apelurile sale nu au primit atenţia cuvenită.Papa Nicolae V nu a dorit sa il ajute. După Marea Schismă dintre Biserica Ortodoxă şi Biserica Romano-Catolică din 1054, vestul Romano-Catolic a încercat să reintegreze estul; s-a încercat o uniune la al doilea Consiliu din Lyon în 1274, după care unii împăraţi Paleologi au fost acceptaţi în Biserica Latină. Împăratul Ioan al VIII-lea Palaeologul a încercat să negocieze o uniune cu Papa Eugen al IV-lea, iar Consiliul din Basel din 1439 a avut ca rezultat proclamaţia unei "Bule Papale de Uniune" la Florenţa.

the West now used this as a negotiating tactic, promising to send help if the Byzantines brought their church back into communion with Rome.  Attempts had been made to do this after the Council of Florence and the Council of Basel, but the Orthodox population refused to support it. Pope Nicholas and many other western leaders made the decision not to support the Empire, although some troops did arrive from the city states of northern Italy.

The Byzantine army itself totalled about 7000 men, 2000 of whom were foreign mercenaries. The city also had fourteen miles of walls, probably the strongest set of fortified walls in existence at the time. The Ottomans, on the other hand, had a much larger force, numbering around 100,000, including 20,000 Janissaries. Mehmet also built a fleet to besiege the city from the sea.

The Ottomans employed a Hungarian engineer called Urban who was a specialist in the construction of cannons, which were still relatively new weapons. He built an enormous cannon, nearly twenty-seven feet (more than 8 m) in length and 2.5 feet (about 75 cm) in diameter, which could fire a 1200 lb (544 kg) ball as far as one mile. It was dubbed "the Basilic". Although the Byzantines also had cannons, they were much smaller and their recoil tended to damage their own walls. Urban's cannon had several drawbacks, however. It could hardly hit anything, not even as large as Constantinople; it took three hours to reload; the cannon balls were in very short supply; and the cannon collapsed under its own recoil after six weeks.

Siege and final assault of the city

Mehmet planned to attack the Theodosian Walls, the intricate series of walls and ditches protecting Constantinople from an attack from the west, the only part of the city not surrounded by water. His army encamped outside the city on Bright Monday, April 2, 1453. For weeks Mehmet's massive cannon fired on the walls, but it was unable to sufficiently penetrate them, and due to its extremely slow rate of reloading the Byzantines were able to repair most of the damage after each shot. Meanwhile, Mehmet's fleet could not enter the Golden Horn due to the large chain the Byzantines had laid across the entrance. To circumvent this he built a road of greased logs across Galata on the north side of the Golden Horn, and rolled his ships across. This succeeded in stopping the flow of supplies from Genoan ships and demoralizing the Byzantine defenders, but did not help in breaching the land walls. Mehmet offered to raise the siege for an astronomical tribute that he knew the city would be unable to pay. When this was declined, Mehmet planned to overpower the walls by sheer force, knowing that the Byzantine defenders would be worn out before he ran out of troops.

On the night of May 22 there was a lunar eclipse, which must have seemed a bad omen to the defenders of the city. On the morning of May 29 the attack began. The first wave of attackers, the bashi-bazouks, were poorly trained and equipped, and were meant only to kill as many Byzantine defenders as possible. The second assault, consisting largely of Anatolians focused on a section of the Blachernae walls in the northwest part of the city, which had been partially damaged by the cannon. This section of the walls had been built much more recently, in the eleventh century, and was much weaker; the crusaders in 1204 had broken through the walls there. The Ottoman attackers also managed to break through, but were just as quickly pushed back out by the Byzantine defenders. The Byzantines also managed to hold off a third attack by the Sultan's elite Janissaries (ironically, most of the Janissaries had been Christian children who were captured by the Ottomans at an early age and trained as warriors), but the Genoan general in charge of the defense, Giovanni Giustiniani, was wounded in the attack, and the Greeks began to panic.

Unfortunately for the Greeks, the Kerkoporta gate in the Blachernae section had been left unlocked, and the Ottomans soon discovered this mistake (there was no question of bribery or deceit by the Ottomans; the gate had simply been overlooked, probably because rubble from a cannon attack had obscured or blocked the door). The Ottomans rushed in. Constantine XI himself led the last defense of the city, dying in the ensuing battle in the streets.

Aftermath

Although Mehmet II initially intended to allow the traditional three-day rape, pillage and looting of the city, as was the custom of all armies during that age, he changed his mind after seeing the great structures of the city being destroyed and stopped the activities after 24 hours. Unfortunately, at that point a large part of the populace was either raped, despoiled, or enslaved. Of the estimated 50,000 persons residing in the city at the time of its capture, approximately half were still free when Mehmet issued his order to cease the pillage of the city. Luckily, however, valuable Christian treasures were later returned to the Church intact, such as the precious Gifts of the Three Magi. After the area was secured, Mehmed entered the city in a ceremonial procession where the local population brought him flowers in congratulations.

In Mehmet's view, he was the successor to the Roman Emperor, but he was nicknamed "the Conqueror", and Constantinople became the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, although the Church of Constantinople remained intact, and Gennadius Scholarius was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople. The Peloponnesian fortress of Mystras held out until 1460, and the autonomous Byzantine state in Trebizond did not fall until 1461.

Many Greeks fled the city and found refuge in Italy, bringing with them many ancient Greek writings that had been lost in the West. These helped contribute to the European Renaissance. Those Greeks who stayed behind were mostly confined to the Phanar and Galata districts. The Phanariots, as they were called, often provided capable advisors to the Ottoman sultans, but were just as often seen as traitors by other Greeks.

Scholars consider the Fall of Constantinople as a key event ending the Middle Ages and starting the Renaissance because of the end of the old religious order in Europe and the use of cannon and gunpowder.

Down to the present day, many Greeks have considered Tuesday (the day of the week that Constantinople fell) to be the unluckiest day of the week.

Further reading

• Steven Runciman: The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. CUP. ISBN 0521398320
• Franz Babinger: Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time Princeton University Press. 1992. ISBN 0691010781