1453- The capture of Constantinople (Part 2)

 

1453- The capture of Constantinople (Part 2)

 

April 6, 1453- The artillery guns of Sultan Mehmet II began to fire their first shots on the walls of Constantinople.

May 14, 1453- Even after the Ottomans fired “210 stone balls” on them, the city walls, though weak, were still standing.

                             

                                   Walls of Constantinople- Source-                         https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Walls_of_Constantinople.JPG/250px-Walls_of_Constantinople.JPG

 

 Even before Mehmet’s army, Constantinople had remained strong for a previous 23 sieges. Mehmet’s father himself had tried and failed to take the city. The reason for the city still standing strong lay in its geography as well as its ancient defense systems.

                                  Defenses of the city 

a. The Theodosian Walls.

Emperor Constantine I had built his famous Constantine wall circa 324 AD as a form of fortification to protect Constantinople. Soon after however, with improved weapons and technology, the walls failed to serve its utility. Under Emperor Theodosius II (402 -450 AD), the Theodosian walls were created, a massive and superbly built round of fortifications that would protect Constantinople for years to come.

 

The structure of the walls.

                                     The Theodosian Walls- https://www.byzantium1200.com/images/sur_a.jpg

      

The walls broadly consisted of three layers.

The inner most walls had a height of 36 feet and had 90 towers which could easily fire upon the enemy. There was a wide strip of land (to be used as a kill zone) between the innermost walls and the second layer of walls.

The second layer of walls were 26 feet in height. The main reason for the decreasing height was an unobstructed line of sight for the guards in the first layer of walls.  Again a wide strip of land was present between the second and the third layer of walls.

The third layer of walls (the outermost) were the shortest , had watchtowers and a 20 feet moat after the walls ended.

Thus, these walls had effectively prevented the city from falling ever since their construction. There were 13 gates in the outermost wall for citizens to enter and exit the city.  

                             

 

b. The Golden Horn

                                       The Golden Horn- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/IstanbulGoldenHorn1-01.png/1200px-IstanbulGoldenHorn1-01.png

 

The Golden Horn is a part of Constantinople’s geographical advantage.  It is a narrow channel of water, not unlike the Suez Canal. With Constantinople on one side and Galata on the other, it appears to be in the shape of a horn, hence the name.   Since the water body is so narrow and between two pieces of land, it was possible to control the ships passing through the Golden Horn.

A cast iron chain was placed between the two pieces of land. It was lowered when a friendly ship was passing and was raised for enemy ships. Thus, the enemy navy would almost form a bottleneck and it would be virtually impossible to pass through and enter the Golden Horn.

Perhaps as the Golden Horn provided a natural protection, the sea walls which protected Constantinople, facing the Golden Horn were not as elaborate as the land walls.

 

              Mehmet's genius and the breaking of the defenses. 

These were the two biggest advantages that Constantinople had when it came to its defenses, and the very two that Mehmet would break to take the city.

Mehmet’s army fired canons day and night on the outer walls. Yet, though weak, they were still standing.

Ultimately, Mehmet’s own genius broke this stalemate.  His large fleet of boats were useless if they couldn’t enter the Golden Horn. The cast iron chain was the biggest obstruction to the navy. Mehmet’s solution was simple- to go around it.

 Mehmet asked for the creation of an overland land route for the ships to go through Galata and into the Golden Horn without encountering the formidable chain at all.

                                            

          A rough sketch of the overland route used by Mehmet. 

Constantine’s army, already stretched thin, was stretched even further with the war now on two fronts. Meanwhile, the land walls were getting weaker due to constant firing and without many guards to defend the walls, they were bypassed on 29^th May 1453.

Constantinople fell, an act which would not only impact the Ottoman Sultanate but the world at large.

The connector between Asia and Europe now in the hands of the Turks, the Europeans were forced to look for sea routes to travel to Asia for the purpose of trade. Mehmet II made it difficult for them to pass through Constantinople without paying heavy duties. Thus began the Age of Exploration in Europe, leading to the arrival of the Europeans and later of course the British in India via  the sea.

 

Sources:

1. Crowley, Roger. 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West. New York: Hyperion, 2005. Print.

2. https://www.historynet.com/ancient-history-walls-of-constantinople.htm.  Accessed on 20th May, 2021.

3. https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453 . Accessed on 20th May, 2021.