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Bayezid’s sons fought over the inheritance of their father for the following ten years until Mehmed I emerged as the new leader. He almost immediately went on the warpath, retaking most of the lands that Tamerlane had won from his father while his son, Murad II, successfully defeated an alliance of Europeans sent to meet him after he invaded Serbia in 1439.
It was Murad’s son, Mehmed II, who finally brought an end to what was left of the Eastern Roman Empire48 with a 54 day siege of Constantinople. The relatively new weapon, the canon, finally helped break the walls that had defended Constantinople for centuries. One of Mehmed’s first actions was to go to the Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral of Orthodox Christianity built under Justinian and, after a quick prayer of thanks, order it to be turned into a mosque.
By the end of the 14th century the Byzantine Empire had long lost its influence and no longer posed a military threat, consisting as it did of only the city of Constantinople and some surrounding land. The city itself had never really regained its grandeur following the crusader occupation of 1204-1261. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to imagine the sensation that the fall of Constantinople – one of the greatest cities in the world for over 800 years – would have caused in the West. It was, after all, still the capital of the Roman Empire, no matter how run down, and its fall only increased fears that the Turks were about to overrun the entire continent, a fear that even led to Pope Pius II offering to make Mehmed Emperor if he converted to Christianity.
At this point in time the Ottoman Sultan ruled over all of Muslim Asia, claiming all lands to the Euphrates River in the east and superiority over all other Islamic rulers.49 Constantinople became the new imperial capital and gradually acquired the name of Istanbul.
In the west, the war continued on both land and sea. Serbia capitulated shortly after the fall of Constantinople and most of the Balkans followed thereafter. The Ottomans then took over the southernmost part of Greece, defeated Venice, and landed on the heel of Italy. It was only the death of Mehmed II in 1481 that stopped the Ottoman troops from invading Europe any further, the troops having been ordered home to help the new Sultan defeat his brother in a leadership battle. Yet again, Europe was saved at the last minute.