[Achilleus66]

The walls of Constantinople were very thick. In 1397 the Turkish Army had all but defeated the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire. At this point all that was left was what was behind the very high walls of the cities. The Turks had not yet perfected the art of artillery, something they did in 1453. It was the cannon which finally did pierce the high walls of the Queen of Cities. It's really too bad the Byzantines didn't come up with a successful defense.

[The_Reader_David]

We ought to remember that Constantinople fell in part because of Western treachery: the Fourth Crusade had weakened the Empire, allowing the Turkish conquest of all of the remaining provinces, and the canon was not a Turkish canon but a Hungarian one. American cannot afford treachery from within, and should stand in solidarity with the Christian East.

[Styria]

A well-deserved bump and I'll trade you some Byzantines for some Crimean Goths, who managed to keep their East Germanic language going until finally being fully assimilated in the 1800s. =)

Where does your interest in Turkey and Byzantium come from?