Constantinopla 1453

Constantinople 1453: The Last Great Siege of the Middle Ages. Constantinople, straddling Asia and Europe, was one of the world's most legendary cities. Founded by Constantine the Great and capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and later its heir, the Byzantine Empire, it managed to halt the momentum of the Arab conquests at the dawn of Islam and from then on became an obsession for Muslims. In the 15th century, a new wave of Islamic invaders struck at its gates. They were the Ottomans, led by the young Sultan Mehmed II, a man who aspired to turn the Ottoman Empire into a global empire. To this end, he prepared a formidable army to besiege the walls of Constantinople, employing for the first time a new and devastating weapon in a major siege: artillery. Facing him, Constantine XI will lead the city's defenders, a heterogeneous and multinational group, in a heroic resistance against an enemy overwhelmingly superior in number and technical means. From the author of Empires of the Sea, Venice: City of Fortune, and The Endless Sea.