The Decline of Constantinople
Trace the gradual decline of Constantinople — from the Fourth Crusade's sack in 1204 to the pressures that foreshadowed the Ottoman conquest of 1453.
The decline of Constantinople is a story of slow erosion punctuated by catastrophic betrayals. For centuries, the city had been the richest and most fortified in the Mediterranean — its Theodosian Walls legendary, its wealth unmatched. But by the 15th century, the once-mighty Byzantine capital was a shadow of its former self, surrounded by Ottoman territory and home to fewer than 50,000 people.
The decisive blow came not from Muslim enemies but from fellow Christians. The Fourth Crusade of 1204, diverted from its intended target by Venetian commercial interests and Byzantine political intrigue, sacked Constantinople with a savagery that shocked even medieval observers. Crusaders looted churches, destroyed libraries, and carried off treasures — including the bronze horses now atop St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. The restored Byzantine state after 1261 never recovered its former strength.
The 14th and 15th centuries brought cascading disasters: the Black Death, Ottoman expansion, civil wars, and the loss of nearly all remaining territory. When Mehmed II finally breached the walls in 1453, Constantinople had been dying for two and a half centuries. Yet the city's fall sent shockwaves across Christendom and is traditionally marked as the end of the Middle Ages, a symbolic moment that underscored how completely the medieval world order had changed.