The Fall of Constantinople

Constantinople

[ Constantinople is a city of 3000 years. In the first one thousand years of its existence, ( 600 BC – 400AD) it was the capital of the Byzantine Empire and was known as the Byzantium. In its second thousand years ( 400 AD to 1400 AD) it remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Founded by Constantine the great, it was a great Christian citadel. Since 1450s, it is under the Islam rule and is now known as Istanbul. This is the story of fall of Constantinople and rise of Istanbul in its place. ]

It was 29 May, 1453.

Constantinople straddles the strategic Bosphorus strait which separates Asia from Europe. In the ancient times, on the asian side of this strait there was an ancient town known as Chalcedon of Persia. ( The city of Blind ) The Greek city of Byzantium was immediately opposite to the city of blind on the other side of the strait. In between, lied the narrow Bosphorus strait. Boos & phorus are two greek words which say that the water body is so narrow that a cattle ( boos) can cross ( phorus) it.

That is why when Zeus converted his illegal lady love Io into a heifer, ( white cow) she could cross this strait and leave Greece into Asia Minor to escape the wrath of Hera.

Istanbul today combines both Byzantium and Chalcedon thus completely straddling the narrow but the strategic Bosphorus strait, Strategic because it is the gate way of Black Sea. Thus when a ship comes from Russia and Ukraine from the ports on Black Sea it must cross this narrow strait. The passengers are enamored by two contrasting culture on either side, Asia minor on one and the Europe on the other. ( Pic)

On 11th May of 330 AD, Constantine the Great founded a great city here and adopted a great religion: Modern Christianity. He would call it the New Rome and made it the capital of his Roman Empire. For the next thousand years ( till 29 May of 1453) it remained as the capital of the Roman Empire and was called Constantinople.

Thus it was at the junction of two great empires : The Ottomans and the Romans. It was also at the eye of the thousand years Crusade between Christians and Islam and remained symbol of Christianity.

The Hadith had prophecies that soon it will be taken over by a great Islamic leader. Accordingly, the Ottomans had tried 23 times to take over the city. But the Great Wall of the Constantinople had always remained as an invincible wall between the christian citadel and ottoman Dreams. They had sieged the Constantinople six times. Each time the soldiers of Constantinople would thwart their attempts from the top of the Great walls of the city.

Mediavel Warfare.

Wars have always been won by the side that adapted the newest technology. Hand to hand combat had been outdated when the horses of the Steppes had come. The Huns and Mongols on the back of Central Asian horses had overwhelmed the empires of Europe, Asia and India. City walls have always played a greater role in countering horse borne attackers. The Great Wall of China still stands to tell these stories. Since then every city state had to have its own fortifications, moats, towers and great walls. It was easier to shoot down an army from the safety and heights of walls while the invaders would try to choke the forts by cutting down its supplies. Constantinople was no exception.

It had a 14 mile wall which surrounded its granaries and wheat fields within it. It was 100 feet high and two hundred feet wide and 5 layered. 

It was built in the 400 AD by Theodosius and had remained proudly intact for 1000 years. Successive Ottomans could not breach it.

When the 21 year old Mehmed took over the reigns in 1451, he would often come, stand and look at the magnificent wall of Constantinople from the Ottoman side, standing 200 feet tall and invincible. He had stood there several times as a kid and looked in awe at those walls as his father would try several unsuccessful attempt to conquer those walls.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Einstein

Mehmed knew he had to adopt different ideas to take the city. The walls of the Constantinople had to fall. But how?

-2-

Istanbul is a city that joins two continents, two cultures, two seas, two empires, two trade roots and a lot of contradictory couplets.]

Jan 1453, Adrianopol:

The Hungarian was ill at ease as the Sultan surveyed him from his throne.

He was a Christian and an excellent Cannon founder. He specialised in one of the most prized skills of the age: ability to cast large Bronze cannons. Gun powder in the form of salt Peter and charcoal were in use. Canons were popular in medieval warfare. But the Hungarian had the blue print of the biggest cannon that had yet to be built. It would be a huge cannon with 8 inches of solid bronze and 30 inches diameter. Thes cannon would be able to throw half a ton payload across one mile. 10 such firings would decimate a quarter mile of the invincible wall of Constantinople. The Sultan knew. Then his army could enter and slaughter the defenders inside. The war would be over.

“Why didn’t you sale these cannons to Constantine ? Both of you are Christians ?” Natural question.

“He couldn’t afford it. The emperor is impoverished. Sultan is not. We are here to earn money.”

The Sultan remembered a childhood memory of an invincible wall. As an eight year old he and his father had to retreat so many times.

“I will pay you four times that if you can build them in a quarter of year.”

The deal was made. It was 1452.

Basilic

During the autumn of 1452, Orban, the Hungarian set to cast the biggest Cannon ever built in the history of world, while the Sultan stockpiled all the raw materials that would be needed for an artillery war for one month.

Melted bronze was poured into moulds that would cast a cannon mouth of 30 inch diameter with 8 inch solid bronze wall. What finally emerged from Orban’s foundry was an extraordinary monster 27 feet long that could shot half a ton size cannon balls over a mile distance. 60 oxens and 300 men would pull this monster over 140 miles to place it strategically at 500 yards from the great walls of Constantinople. The monitor could move two and half a mile a day. It took them 6 weeks to cross numerous rivers, orchards on the way. The Sultan’s super gun was surrounded with 69 smaller cannons to form the “Bear with cubs.”

On April 12th of 1453, Mehmed’s  Super guns were ignited. Projected with incredible force and power, the 69 cannons and the Super cannon demolished 4 miles of the great walls into smithereens.

[ On April 12, 1453, the world’s first concerted artillery barrage exploded into life. In the history of warfare till that date, never had so much of awe and raw brute power had been displayed. This obliterated the hand to hand combats and established the superiority of artillery fire power over horse and sword fights, Knights in armour. ]

The walls of Theodosius, that had protected this great city for 2000 years crumbled. By 28th of May the Guns had been firing for 47 days.

At 1.30 am in the morning of May 29, 1953 the Ottoman army rolled forward along the whole four-mile breach.

Mehmed had succeeded where  23 ottoman attempts of   over 150 years had failed.

The fall of Constantine that day had changed the history of world once again. The Ottomans took over the Christian city of Constantinople on one side of the Bosporous strait, joined the ancient Chalcedon on the opposite side of the strait and renamed it as Istanbul ( the pride of Islam.)  It continues to remain under them for the next thousand years. The Christian Cathedral Hagia Sophia was converted to a Mosque.

Today, as the Ukraine war has suddenly increased the strategic importance of Black Sea, Istanbul still controls the movement of grains and fuels from the ports of Black Sea for the western world.