Editing Constantinople (section)

=== 1261–1453: Palaiologan Era and the Fall of Constantinople ===
{{See also|Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty|Fall of Constantinople}}
[[File:Zonaro GatesofConst.jpg|thumb|[[Mehmed the Conqueror]] enters Constantinople, painting by [[Fausto Zonaro]].]]
Although Constantinople was retaken by [[Michael VIII Palaiologos]], the Empire had lost many of its key economic resources, and struggled to survive. The [[palace of Blachernae]] in the north-west of the city became the main Imperial residence, with the old Great Palace on the shores of the [[Bosporus]] going into decline. When Michael VIII captured the city, its population was 35,000 people, but, by the end of his reign, he had succeeded in increasing the population to about 70,000 people.<ref name="popu2">T. Madden, ''Crusades: The Illustrated History'', 113.</ref> The Emperor achieved this by summoning former residents who had fled the city when the crusaders captured it, and by relocating Greeks from the recently reconquered [[Peloponnese]] to the capital.<ref name="repopu">{{Cite book |last=Norwich |first=John Julius |title=Byzantium: The Decline and Fall |date=1996 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9780140114492 |page=217}}</ref> Military defeats, civil wars, earthquakes and natural disasters were joined by the [[Black Death]], which in 1347 spread to Constantinople, exacerbated the people's sense that they were doomed by God.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tsiamis1 |first1=Costas |last2=Poulakou-Rebelakou |first2=Effie |last3=Tsakris |first3=Athanassios |last4=Petridou |first4=Eleni |title=Epidemic waves of the Black Death in the Byzantine Empire (1347–1453 AD) |url=https://www.infezmed.it/media/journal/Vol_19_3_2011_10.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Le Infezioni in Medicina |issue=3 |pages=193–201 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019170744/https://www.infezmed.it/media/journal/Vol_19_3_2011_10.pdf |archive-date=2020-10-19 |access-date=2020-10-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Black Death |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/a-b/blackdeath.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625094232/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/a-b/blackdeath.html |archive-date=2008-06-25 |access-date=2008-11-03}}, Channel 4 – History.</ref>

Castilian traveler and writer [[Ruy González de Clavijo]], who saw Constantinople in 1403, wrote that the area within the city walls included small neighborhoods separated by orchards and fields. The ruins of palaces and churches could be seen everywhere. The aqueducts and the most densely inhabited neighborhoods were along the coast of the Marmara Sea and Golden Horn. Only the coastal areas, in particular the commercial areas facing the Golden Horn, had a dense population. Although the Genoese colony in Galata was small, it was overcrowded and had magnificent mansions.<ref name="History of Istanbul">{{cite web |title=History of Istanbul |url=https://istanbultarihi.ist/460-the-population-of-constantinople-in-the-byzantine-period |website=istanbultarihi.ist |access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref>

By May 1453, the city no longer possessed the treasure troves of Aladdin that the Ottoman troops longingly imagined as they stared up at the walls. [[Gennadios Scholarios]], Patriarch of Constantinople from 1454 to 1464, was saying that the capital of the Empire, that was once the "city of wisdom", became "the city of ruins".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crowley |first1=Roger |title=Constantinople |date=18 April 2013 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-29820-4 |pages=187–203 |edition=Main |url=https://archive.org/details/constantinople-the-last-great-siege-1453-roger-crowley/page/n25/mode/2up |access-date=29 November 2023 |language=English}}</ref>

When the [[Ottoman Turks]] [[Fall of Constantinople|captured the city]] (1453) it contained approximately 50,000 people.<ref name="popu3">{{Cite book |last=Nicolle |first=David |title=Constantinople 1453: The end of Byzantium |date=2005 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=9780275988562 |page=32}}</ref> Tedaldi of Florence estimated the population at 30,000 to 36,000, while in Chronica Vicentina, the Italian Andrei di Arnaldo estimated it at 50,000. The plague epidemic of 1435 must have caused the population to drop.<ref name="History of Istanbul"/>

The population decline also had a huge impact upon the Constantinople's defense capabilities. At  the  end  of  March 1453, emperor Constantine XI ordered  a  census  of  districts to  record how  many  able-bodied  men  were in the city  and whatever  weapons  each possessed  for  defense. George Sphrantzes, the faithful  chancellor of the last emperor, recorded that "in  spite  of  the  great size  of  our  city,  our  defenders amounted  to  4,773  Greeks,  as well  as  just  200  foreigners". In  addition  there  were  volunteers from outside,  the "Genoese,  Venetians  and those  who  came  secretly  from Galata  to  help  the  defense", who  numbered "hardly  as many  as  three  thousand", amounting  to  something under  8,000  men  in  total  to defend  a  perimeter  wall  of twelve  miles.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crowley |first1=Roger |title=Constantinople |date=18 April 2013 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-29820-4 |pages=95–110 |edition=Main |url=https://archive.org/details/constantinople-the-last-great-siege-1453-roger-crowley/page/n25/mode/2up |access-date=29 November 2023 |language=English}}</ref>

Constantinople was conquered by the [[Ottoman Empire]] on 29 May 1453.<ref>{{Cite web |title=fall of Constantinople &#124; Facts, Summary, & Significance |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819143934/https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453 |archive-date=2020-08-19 |access-date=2018-10-15 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> Mehmed II intended to complete his father's mission and conquer Constantinople for the Ottomans. In 1452 he reached peace treaties with Hungary and Venice. He also began the construction of the Boğazkesen (later called the Rumelihisarı), a fortress at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus Strait, in order to restrict passage between the Black and Mediterranean seas. Mehmed then tasked the Hungarian gunsmith Urban with both arming Rumelihisarı and building cannon powerful enough to bring down the walls of Constantinople. By March 1453 Urban's cannon had been transported from the Ottoman capital of Edirne to the outskirts of Constantinople. In April, having quickly seized Byzantine coastal settlements along the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara, Ottoman troops in Rumelia and Anatolia assembled outside the Byzantine capital. Their fleet moved from Gallipoli to nearby Diplokionion, and the sultan himself set out to meet his army.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/ |title=Encyclopedia Britannica &#124; Britannica |website=www.britannica.com |accessdate=4 April 2023 |archive-date=9 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180909130055/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Willis-Scripps |url-status=live }}</ref>
The Ottomans were commanded by 21-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. The conquest of Constantinople followed a seven-week siege which had begun on 6 April 1453. The Empire fell on 29 May 1453.

The number of people captured by the Ottomans after the fall of the city was around 33,000. The small number of people left in the city indicates that there could not have been many residents there. The primary concern of Mehmed II in the early years of his reign was the construction and settlement of the city. However, since an insufficient number of Muslims accepted his invitation, the settlement of 30 abandoned neighborhoods with the inhabitants of formerly conquered areas became necessary.<ref name="History of Istanbul"/>