page_title: Byzantine–Ottoman wars
section_title: Ottoman victory 1424–1453
hierarchical_section_title: Byzantine–Ottoman wars / Ottoman victory 1424–1453
caption_attribution_description: English: A depiction of the Ottoman Empire and its dependencies in 1451 Русский: Изображение Османской империи и ее вассалов в 1451 году Українська: Зображення Османської імперії і її васалів у 1451 році
context_page_description: The Byzantine–Ottoman wars were a series of decisive conflicts between the Ottoman Turks and Byzantines that led to the final destruction of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of the Ottoman Empire. In 1204 the Byzantine capital of Constantinople was sacked and occupied by the Fourth Crusaders, an important moment of the Christian East–West Schism. The Byzantine Empire, already weakened by misrule, was left divided and in chaos.
  Taking advantage of the situation, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum began seizing territory in Western Anatolia, until the Nicaean Empire was able to repulse the Seljuk Turks from the remaining territories still under Roman rule. Eventually Constantinople was re-taken from the Latin Empire in 1261 by the Nicaean Empire. The position of the Byzantine Empire in Europe remained uncertain due to the presence of the rival kingdoms of the Despotate of Epirus, Serbia and the Second Bulgarian Empire. This, combined with the reduced power of the Sultanate of Rum led to the removal of troops from Anatolia to maintain Byzantium's grip on Thrace.
context_section_description: The Ottomans faced numerous opponents between 1424 and 1453. Tied down by the siege of Thessalonika, the Ottomans had to contend with the Serbs under George Brankovic, the Hungarians under John Hunyadi and the Albanians under George Kastrioti Skanderbeg. This resistance culminated into the Crusade of Varna of 1444, which, despite much local support and deception – a peace treaty was unilaterally revoked by the Hungarians – was defeated.
  In 1448 and 1451, there was a change in the Byzantine and Ottoman leaderships, respectively. Murad II died and was succeeded by Mehmed the Conqueror whilst Constantine XI Palaiologos succeeded John VIII. Constantine XI and Mehmed did not get along well; the former's successful conquests of Crusader territory in the Peloponnese alarmed the latter, who had since subjugated as vassals the crusaders in the region, and Mehmed had around 40,000 soldiers sent to nullify these gains. Constantine XI threatened to rebel against Mehmed unless certain conditions were met by the Sultan regarding the status quo. Mehmed responded to these threats by building fortifications in the Bosporus and thus closed Constantinople from outside naval assistance. The Ottomans already controlled the land around Constantinople and so they began an assault on the city on 6 April 1453. Despite a union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, the Byzantines received no official aid from the Pope or Western Europe, with the exception of a few soldiers from Venice and Genoa.
  England and France were in the concluding stages of the Hundred Years War. The French did not wish to lose their advantage in the fight by sending knights and the English were in no position to do so. Spain was in the final stages of the Reconquista. The Holy Roman Empire, never centralized enough behind the Hohenstaufen to unite the principalities, had exhausted what could be spared at Varna. Further fighting among the German princes and the Hussite wars seriously reduced the willingness of most to perform a crusade. Poland and Hungary were key participants at Varna and the defeat there along with the Polish–Teutonic Wars kept them busy and unwilling for further commitments.
  Other than these major European powers, the only others were the Italian city-states. Genoa and Venice were both enemies of the Ottomans, but also of each other. The Venetians considered sending their fleet up to attack the fortifications guarding the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, thereby relieving the city but the force was too small and arrived too late. The Ottomans would have overpowered any military assistance provided by one city, even one as large and powerful as the Venetian Republic. In any case some 2,000 mercenaries, mostly Italian under Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, arrived to assist in the defence of the city. The city's entire defence fell to these mercenaries and 5,000 militia soldiers raised from a city whose population had been seriously eroded by heavy taxation, plague and civil conflict. Though poorly trained, the defenders were well armed with many weapons, except for any cannons to match the Ottoman's own artillery.
  The city's fall was not a result of the Ottoman artillery nor their naval supremacy (many Italian ships were able to aid and then escape the city). The Fall came about due to the combined weight of overwhelming odds stacked against the city — outnumbered by more than 10 to 1, the defenders were overcome by sheer attrition as well as the skill of the Ottoman Janissaries. As the Ottomans continued their seemingly unsuccessful and costly assaults, many in their camp began to doubt the success of the siege; history had shown the city to be invincible to Ottoman siege. In an effort to raise morale, the Sultan then made a speech reminding his troops of the vast wealth and pillaging of the city to come. An all-out assault captured the city on May 29, 1453. As the Ottomans fanned out to sack the city, their naval discipline began to collapse and many Genoans and Venetians escaped in vessels from the city, including Niccolò Barbaro, a Venetian surgeon present at
caption: The Ottoman Empire in 1451. By this point all of Byzantium's major cities had fallen to the Ottomans who occupied almost half of Anatolia and most of the Balkans
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