The City of Constantinople, now Istanbul, was originally named Byzantium. It was built as a Roman City, similar to Rome in that it was founded around seven hills. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (what we know of as the Roman Empire), the City became the Capital of the Byzantium Empire (although the inhabitants referred to themselves as Roman and belonging to the Eastern Roman Empire).   The City’s name was now changed to Constantinople to honour its founder as a capital, Constantine. It would be the capital of the Empire for a further thousand years until the Ottoman Empire finally broke the City and founded the new Ottoman Empire.

By the time of the seige, the city was virtually all that remained of the Empire. This was not the first attempt by the Ottomans to take the City and the Citizens believed that, like before, their patron, The Virgin Mother of God, would protect them this time. The main defence of the city was its huge walls and triple system. There was the inner city surrounded by a wall and towers, which itself was surrounded by a moat and another wall; all these needed to be conquered before the city would fall. In previous sieges the Ottoman's use of cannon had failed to penetrade these defences. However, by 1453 they had learnt new tactics and had a new upgraded cannon built by the Hungarians. This cannon is reported to have taken 60 oxen and 2000 men on either side to transport it to Constantinople. Upon arrival it began to hammer the city walls (at a rate of only 7 cannon balls a day, which was its maximum speed) and would eventually break through. The Ottomans also used a fleet of about 150 ships, siege towers, an army of labourers and engineers and a fighting force of as many as 60,000. In contrast Constantinople had a force of around 7,000 and a fleet of 30. Constantinople, seen as a rival to Rome and its Church, failed to receive much help from western Christians, after refusing to accept the authority of St. Paul, this meant the number of fighters arriving to help Constantinople from Western Europe was small. However, one such person was the Genoese Giustinian and he brought 700 men at his own expense. He positioned himself on the battlements right were the cannon was firing to show his loyalty and was appointed Head of Defence by the Emperor. With both forces tiring, a final and decisive attack by the Ottomans was not unexpected and when launched on the morning of May 29th was no surprise. The Emperor also making one last stand placed his men between the moat and outer wall (broken in parts by the cannon) and the inner city wall (broken in places but repaired with fairly effected soil mounds). The city held well, for around five hours, before the Emperor allowed the gates to be opened to allow the now injured Giustinian to be taken into the city. Upon the opening of the gates, everybody panicked and surged, the city forces became surrounded and were slaughtered. The city fell.

The fall of Constantinople saw the further expansion of the Ottoman empire, which would remain until 1922. It also showed that the Roman Catholic Church would not help or protect other Christians not accepting its authority or beliefs. The city also demonstrated that nations who failed to develop new warfare and remain on a par with other countries, would become a target to powerful nations and would struggle to remain independent. This would be seen through the developing empires of countries, such as Britain, France and Spain, but also through the arms race preceding the First World War. Finally, the fall of Constantinople saw the end of the iconic age of the Romans, who had ruled over millions of people across the world for thousands of years.