1 - The rise of the Ottoman empire

Summary

Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror

Imperial expansion

Two independent sources report that Mehmed II made the following points at the meeting which decided to proceed with the conquest of Constantinople: ‘The ghazā is our basic duty, as it was in the case of our fathers. Constantinople, situated as it is in the middle of our dominions, protects the enemies of our state and incites them against us. The conquest of this city is, therefore, essential to the future and the safety of the Ottoman state’. These words reaffirmed the policy of conquest pursued by Bāyezīd. They drew attention to cases when the Byzantine empire had given refuge to claimants to the Ottoman throne, thus causing frequent civil wars. They also showed that it was the Byzantine empire which had been the main instigator of crusades. It was also within the bounds of possibility that Constantinople could be surrendered to Western Catholics, as Salonica had been. This would have meant that the Ottoman empire would never be fully integrated. In brief, the conquest of Constantinople was a matter of vital concern to the Ottomans.

The siege of Constantinople lasted for fifty-four days (25 Rabī‘ I-20 Jumādā I 857/6 April-29 May 1453). In the Turkish camp Chandarli continued to draw attention to the great danger of provoking the Western Christian world, and to advocate a compromise. Zaganuz Pasha argued against this that the Ottomans' adversaries could never unite, and that even if an army were sent from the West, Ottoman forces would prove superior, but that, more probably, the city could be captured before the arrival of assistance from Italy.