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Like the Mongols, the Turks were nomads who took over Asia Minor in the fourteenth century. In 1450 , the Ottomans took control of large parts of Greece , Bosnia , Albania and Bulgaria and tried to conquer Hungary . All that remained of the Byzantine Empire was Constantinople , the last bastion of the ancient Roman Empire. In 1453 , the Turks, led by Sultan Muhammad II, who dreamed from 13 years of conquering Constantinople and forming a new Islamic empire, launched the final assault on the city. Taking over Constantinople, Mehmed would hold the key to the trade routes between east and west, with Constantinople importing spices from India. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI the Palaeologus , had 10,000 soldiers, Mehmed had 150,000 soldiers and janissaries with whom he transported 70 ships on land, bypassing the sea fortifications of Constantinople, to attack by surprise. Defended by solid walls 4 kilometers long and 100 meters high, the Byzantines lasted 54 days until finally.
With the help of heavy cannons and artillery, the walls were torn down, and Mehmed's troops occupied the city, dismantling the Byzantine Empire. The conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed II the "Conqueror" marked the beginning of the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, and the former Byzantine capital was renamed Istanbul. With the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire, the Roman civilization ends after an existence of about 2200 years. The conquest of Constantinople will also lead to the end of the era of medieval castles and cities surrounded by walls and the mass use of firearms and gunpowder. The occupation of the eastern Mediterranean basin and the takeover of routes and the commercial center between East and West will force Europeans to look for new alternative routes.
The fall of Constantinople [74] led to the discovery of the New World , the formation of new European colonial empi
