Many historians consider May 29, 1453 to be the end date of the Middle Ages. It was on this day that Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Empire after a siege of almost two months. With the fall of the capital, the Byzantine Empire also ended. After the fall, Byzantine scholars left Constantinople, and Greek culture began to be studied outside the territory of the old empire. There was a revival of learning based on classical Greek sources, and this helped usher in the Renaissance.
The Middle Ages began in Europe with the fall of Rome in 476 AD. Some historians date the beginning of the Renaissance to the 14th century, but it was caused by the fall of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople, so May 29, 1453 is also seen as the dividing point between the two eras. During the Renaissance, the art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome were celebrated by writers, artists and thinkers. They looked at the time after the fall of Rome as the "Middle" or "Dark" Age because they thought it was a time without scientific advances, great art, or great leaders. They thought that people were not using their full potential during this time.
The most powerful institution in the Middle Ages was the Catholic Church, not kings or queens. Great cathedrals were built in the Romanesque style and then in the Gothic style, and monasteries were also built. The Islamic world also grew during this time, and cultural and intellectual life flourished in cities such as Cairo, Baghdad and Damascus. Thousands of books were written here, and important texts from the past were translated into Arabic.
Towards the end of the eleventh century, the Catholic Church began to allow military expeditions: the Crusades began in 1095 and were an attempt to expel Muslim "infidels" from the Holy Land. They continued periodically until the end of the fifteenth century, and many on both sides died. During this time, religious enthusiasm grew, and the literature, science and technology of the Muslim world influenced European life. Trade routes also expanded due to the Crusades, and Europe gained access to imported goods such as wine, olive oil, and textiles.
One of the defining moments of the Middle Ages was the bubonic plague. Also known as the Black Death, it killed about 20 million people - 30 percent of Europe's population - between 1347 and 1350. It was the most terrible disease in cities, where it was easily transmitted from one person to another.
In the Middle Ages, feudalism dominated the countryside. Kings granted nobles and bishops large tracts of land called fiefs, and landless peasants called serfs did most of the work on the fiefs. Serfs could live on the land and were guaranteed protection. Agriculture became more productive and efficient in the eleventh century due to innovation, so fewer workers were needed to produce food. This resulted in population growth and more people moving into cities. Later, port cities began to prosper due to trade, and they experienced a "renaissance", being at the forefront of the Renaissance.
The fall of Constantinople occurred on May 29, 1453. In the twelfth century the city had about 400,000 inhabitants. Due to many sieges, its population was reduced to 40,000-50,000 inhabitants by the 1450s. Byzantine power also declined at this time following clashes with the Catholic Church and its Balkan neighbors.
By the second half of the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks controlled most of the Balkans and Anatolia. In 1452, the Ottoman leader Sultan Mehmed II Fatih concluded peace treaties with Hungary and Venice and began building a fortress on the Bosporus, a strait in Turkey on the Black and Marmara seas, to limit passage between the Black and Mediterranean seas. Mehmed then asked Urban for guns. They were taken to Edirne, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which was located near Constantinople, in March 1853. The following month, after the capture of Byzantine settlements on the coast of the Black and Marmara seas, the cannons were moved outside the city. Ottoman regiments arrived from Rumelia and Anatolia, and their fleet arrived from Gallipoli and landed at Diplokionion. At the same time, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaeoges asked for help. Although some he asked refused, support came from Venice and Genoa.
Surrounded by both land and sea, Constantinople was under siege for more than 50 days, and the city walls were subject to constant onslaught of cannon fire. The walls were a double line of ramparts with a moat on the outside. The tallest wall was 40 feet high with a base 16 feet wide. There was also a 20-foot-high sea wall that ran across the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara, designed to prevent attack from the sea. There were only 6,000-7,000 trained soldiers in Constantinople, although 30-35 thousand civilians were also armed. They also had a small fleet of ships in the Golden Horn. In contrast, the Ottomans had between 60,000 and 80,000 ground troops and 69 cannons. They also had 31 large and medium warships and 100 smaller boats at Diplokionion.
On April 6, artillery firing began. As a result, the city was surrounded. Over the next weeks, cannons breached the walls in places, but the gaps were not wide enough to allow troops through, and the Byzantines continued to repair them at night. Early in the morning of May 29, the Ottomans began an artillery, infantry and naval assault on the city. They attempted to break through the St. Romanus Gate and the walls in the Blachernae sector - two areas that had been damaged in previous barrages - but encountered resistance and were forced to retreat. After another attack on the gate, its inner wall was taken.
The warriors who arrived from Genoa and Venice to help the Byzantines retreated to ships in the Golden Horn area. After capturing the city, Mehmed rode through it to Hagia Sophia, the largest cathedral in Christendom, and converted it into a mosque: Ayasofya. After this, Mehmed II moved his capital to the city from Edirne, and the city became home to people of different backgrounds and religions. The Greeks left for Italy, which, according to many historians, marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. Thus, we consider May 29th as the Day of the End of the Middle Ages.