Lessons from History: The Great Siege
Why I am writing this?
History has always fascinated me in a way, like nothing else. The very idea of reading a fellow human’s story who lived in a time different than me, in a completely different corner of the earth, but yet to be able to see a reflection of his life story in my own life, gives me goosebumps. History enables me to see how the lives of all humans are intertwined and the story of one is not possible without the story of us all.
One of the big reasons for the success of Homo Sapiens as a species is our ability to pass information from one generation to another and to build upon this knowledge. And I think there’s a lot one can learn from history. Whatever mistake that we can possibly make is in some way already committed by people who walked this earth before us. So, why not learn from them?
In this part, I am going to talk about a major turning point in the establishment of a great empire and the end of another greater empire. (Drumrolls Please!)
1. The Untested King
Our story begins in 1451, a young charismatic prince named Mehmed has ascended to the throne of the great Ottoman Empire(today’s Turkey) for the second time. His first reign(when he was 12) lasted for only two years and was full of problems. At 19, he is the Sultan again. Though he is ruthless, a tactical military genius, a skilled warrior, but there are many in his court who don’t have faith in his capabilities. His Grand Vizier(Prime Minister)Halil Pasha, is especially sceptical of his rule. He must prove the world and most importantly himself that he deserves the throne. For that he plans to do the impossible, he plans to win Constantinople.
2. Basileuousa -Queen of Cities
Established in 330 AD by the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine I, the city of Constantinople was the wealthiest city in the whole of Europe between 4th & 13th century. It was designed to match the opulence and power of Rome and was therefore also called Nova Roma (New Rome). It was situated at a very important strategic location and for centuries the city commanded a great reputation and authority in the region.
In the image above you can see that the city connected two seas- Aegean (Mediterranean) and black and two continents- Europe and Asia. It was because of this strategic location that it became the epicentre of world trade, at the cross points of major trade routes.
City’s complex fortifications were considered impregnable. Before Mehmed, 22 attempts were made by different kings to capture Constantinople, but none were truly successful. Mehmed’s father Murad also laid siege to the city but failed. The city was an ideal for the Islamic world as it finds a mention in the Quran. Prophet Muhammad’s well know Hadith symbolizes this ideal-
“Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will he be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!”
Mehmed wanted to become this great leader who will bring Islam to Constantinople, he wanted to become the Gazi.
3. The WAR
3.1 The Number Game
The initial conflicts between the Ottoman Turks and the Byzantine were more like passive-aggressive. Mehmed began constructing new forts and repaired the older ones in the strait near the city. The full-blown war began in April 1453 when Mehmed arrived with his troops and set camps just outside the city walls. The Turkish Army had somewhere between 50,000–80,000 troops, some 70 sea vessels and a strong heavy artillery division.
On the other hand, the Byzantinians had between (5000–10000) troops and around 26 sea vessels(including ships from their allies- the Genoese). They were pretty confident that their 20 Km long wall(which was recently repaired) can save them from attacks of all sizes. Not wanting to take a chance, the Byzantine King Constantine XI turned towards Venice to ask for help.
He requested for provisions, soldiers and ships from Pope Nicholas V. The help that arrived was too little and rather too late to do any good. An accomplished soldier from Genoa, Giovanni Giustiniani, arrived in January 1453 with 400 men and he was given the overall command for defending the walls.
3.2 Initial Strategies
In the initial days of the war, the Turkish would bomb the land walls continuously day and night and would send their troops in small waves. The initial waves consisted of poorly trained and equipped Azaps, when they would get exhausted they would send their much finer janissaries, in this way the janissaries suffered fewer deaths and had to fight rather tired enemy soldiers. But this technique wasn’t working very well, because of Giustiniani- and his 400 Genoese soldiers He played an instrumental role in keeping the morale of his soldiers up and successfully repelled many such waves.
Although his artillery guns were one of the latest pieces of military tech at that time, they had a serious problem, it took 3 hrs to reload the canon in it and in that time the Byzantine would repair the wall back. So Mehmed thought of another strategy, to attack the much weaker sea walls facing the golden horn.
3.3 Golden Horn
Golden horn is a narrow body of water which acted as a safe harbour for the Byzantine and ally ships to dock. It was guarded by a long chain that stretched from the tower of Galata to the southeastern walls of the city and prevented enemy ships from entering the harbour. Mehmed devised an ingenious plan to bypass this chain and enter the harbour.
He ordered the construction of a road of greased logs across Galata on the north side of the Golden Horn, and dragged his ships over the hill, directly into the Golden Horn bypassing the chain barrier and all this time the Byzantines had no idea.This opened another front for the war and the Byzantines did not have enough soldiers to man their defences. But this strategy also resulted in an inconclusive end, with no side ready to budge.
3.4 The finale
After 52 days of incessant fighting, the Turks were getting impatient and there was growing unrest on their side. They had already lost a major part of their army and with no victory in sight, they were almost ready to pack bags. Zagan Pasha, a commander and a close adviser of Mehmed convinced him to go for a final all-out attack, instead of their earlier strategy of sending soldiers in waves,accompanied by heavy shelling.
After the midnight of 29th May, the all-out offensive began. The troops focused their attack on the North-Western side of the land wall, which had become weak by continuous bombarding and they were finally able to enter the city. Giustiniani was seriously wounded and his evacuation from the ramparts caused a panic in the ranks of the defenders. Turks then overwhelmed the defenders at many points of the city and ultimately the Byzantine Defense collapsed. The legend says that the soldiers could see Virgin Mary leaving the Hagia Sophia- the famous church of Constantinople.
4. The cost of war
There was a tradition in those days to allow the winning army to enjoy the spoils of war. The Ottomans looted, killed and raped the residents of the city for three days. More than 30,000 people were enslaved after the war. Hagia Sophia- the famous church which was the largest building of its time and was considered an engineering marvel was converted into a mosque after the war. Today it is a museum.
This war ended a more than 1000-year-old Byzantine Empire and with it, a much older Roman Empire also ended. Mehmed assumed the title of “Kayser-i-Rum”- Caesar of Rome. It also ended the eastward expansion of Christianity and the Europeans started looking for sea routes to reach east in the subsequent years, which further resulted in the discovery of America and the British occupation of India. (Now you know, how our lives are all connected ;).
The Ottoman Empire flourished with much more prominence in the later years until Turkey was declared a republic in 1923 and Constantinople was renamed to Istanbul. It still remains one of the larger cities in the world.
5. The Lessons
So, what do you learn from this story? I learned-
1. Give your team a greater than life reason to fight for success. Like how Mehmed gave his soldiers a chance to become the greatest army according to the Quran. CEOs today use vision of the company to do the same.
2. You always have options but do you have the eye for it? Like how Mehmed found a way to bypass the chain of the Golden Horn.
3. No matter how old, how powerful, how secure an institute is, it will ultimately be disrupted by someone/something fresh and innovative. Here, the legendary Theodosians walls(old technology) that kept the city safe for a millennia were finally overwhelmed by new technology- the state of the art artillery of Mehmed combined with his military genius. So keep investing in R&D.
Fun Fact- Orban, the chief engineer behind Basilica- the largest cannon in Mehmed’s artillery presented his idea to Byzantine King Constantine XI, but he refused to pay the price that Orban was asking and thereafter he went to Mehmed.
Somehow found this meme really funny. ;)
A show called “Rise of Empires:Ottoman” is available on Netflix and would be a good choice to binge-watch if you are into period dramas. :)
Thanks for reading! I am planning to write a new story in this series at least once each week. To ensure quality, I would be needing feedback from you, so do mention your opinions in the comments.
About the Author
Anmol Agarwal is a senior undergrad at IIT(BHU) Varanasi. He writes what he observes. He loves to talk about user behaviours, actions and motivations and how can they be simplified. He loves to take ownership and responsibility of projects that he is a part of. Contact him anytime for a candid chat on product, technology, history and politics.
Email- anmol.agarwal.che16@iitbhu.ac.in
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