Fall of Constantinople

Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II captures Constantinople from the forces of Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos after a 53-day siege, marking the effective end of the Roman Empire. Greek scholars had been going to Italian city-states since 1396, and after the conquest many Greeks fled the city and found refuge in the Latin West, bringing knowledge and documents from the Greco-Roman tradition that further propelled the Renaissance. Many modern historians see the fall of Constantinople as the end of the medieval period and the beginning of the early modern period.