Title: FC48: The rise of the Seljuk & Ottoman Turks (c.1000-1565) - The Flow of History
Headings: The Flow of History
The Flow of History
The Seljuk Turks
Rise of the Ottoman Turks

Content: The siege of Constantinople was the last heroic stand of the Byzantine Empire in one of the most desperate and hard fought struggles in history. It saw the destructive power of the newly  emerging gunpowder technology being used alongside old style siege towers, galleys, and crossbows. In the end, the defenders were overwhelmed, and the Byzantine (and Roman) Empire passed  into history. For Europe, the fall of Constantinople meant that the old trade routes to the Far East were shut off by the Turks and new ones had to be found. This helped spur Portuguese exploration  around Africa and Columbus' famous voyage to America. The fall of Constantinople also caused a number of Greek scholars to flee to Italy where they helped to stimulate the Italian  Renaissance, one of the great cultural periods in history. In that way the Byzantines still lived on. For Islam, the victory meant that the Ottoman Turks had arrived as a major  power. For the next century and a half, their very name would terrorize the Christian world. The century from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the death of Suleiman the Magnificent in 15