The Fall of Constantinople. The Death of the Byzantine Empire Under the Onslaught of the Ottomans

British historian of the medieval period and Byzantinist Stephen Runciman in his work narrates what brought Byzantium to the brink of destruction, and the Turks to triumph, why Europe preferred not to notice the difficult situation in which the Byzantines found themselves, and the assistance they received was so insignificant. The book details the course of military actions, the reasons that led to the fall of Constantinople after a relatively short siege, and the consequences of all this, which became a terrible shock for the Christian peoples. For the Turks, the victory allowed not only to establish a new capital but also to secure strong positions in Europe for further conquests. For the Greeks, however, the defeat meant the death of Byzantine civilization and the retreat of Greek culture into hiding, and, moreover, it led to the exodus of Byzantine intellectuals to the West, which played a significant role in the European Renaissance.