The Cusp of a New World (1402–1461)

Abstract

Abstract This chapter looks into the siege and fall of Constantinople. It elaborates on the Ottoman civil war after Timur shattered the Ottoman empire. Constantinople had been on the cusp of surrender to Bayezid, but Ioannes VII suddenly found himself in a position of strength vis-à-vis the sultan’s heirs. Moreover, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople paradoxically restored the City’s centrality as an imperial capital. Meanwhile, Ioannes VIII Palaiologos was preoccupied with a push for Union with Rome in the hope that it would result in a crusade against the Turks, but such crusades only achieved minimal success. The chapter tackles the reign of Konstantinos Palaiologos, Manuel Kantakouzenos, and Theodoros I Palaiologos.