The History

History is in just a bunch of names, dates, and facts.

It's the collection of all the stories throughout human history that explain how and

why we got here.

Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast, where we look at the forgotten, neglected, strange,

and even counterfactual stories that made our world what it is.

I'm your host, Scott Rank.

The Conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 was the most shocking event in Europe.

Probably since the Black Death, the century earlier, which killed a third of the people on the continent,

maybe as surprising as the Crusades, a holy war launched at 1095 that against all reasonable expectation,

led to the successful conquest of Jerusalem, in 1453 may have been as important as the crowning of Charlemagne,

which marks the creation of modern Europe.

1453 is called the year the Middle Ages ended.

That's because the Ottoman Empire, an upstart empire, less than two centuries away from being a semi-nomadic

cheap-danship and a vassal state of the Mongols, managed to conquer Constantinople.

The capital of the Byzantine Empire for over a thousand years, and considered the crown jewel of Eastern

Christendom.

When it happened, Europe was horrified.

Many thought the apocalypse was coming, but others responded in a cooler way.

Popeias II had a plan to reach out to the Sultan, Mehmet, and conquer him instead.

And this conquest would require no money, no armies, and no hostility.

All it would take is an invitation.

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