The Fall of Constantinople 1453

Download or read book The Fall of Constantinople 1453 written by Steven Runciman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-26 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic account shows how the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, after a siege of several weeks, came as a bitter shock to Western Christendom. The city's plight had been neglected, and negligible help was sent in this crisis. To the Turks, victory not only brought a new imperial capital, but guaranteed that their empire would last. To the Greeks, the conquest meant the end of the civilisation of Byzantium, and led to the exodus of scholars stimulating the tremendous expansion of Greek studies in the European Renaissance.