Document 7
…Their [Ottoman] aim was not merely political and military. For centuries Constantinople was
the largest metropolis in the known world, the impregnable [unconquerable] core of a great
[Byzantine] empire, served by a deep-water port that gave access to the sea. Known as New
Rome and the Queen City, it had been built to impress, its magnificent public monuments,
decorated with statuary set in an elegant classical urban landscape. Its apparent invincibility and
famous reputation made it a great prize. The city was also reputed to be hugely wealthy. While
the [Ottoman] Turks had no interest in its famous collection of Christian relics, the fact that
many were made of solid gold and silver, decorated with huge gems and ancient cameos, was of
importance. Their existence added weight to the rumour that Constantinople contained vast
stores of gold, a claim which cannot have been true by 1453. By the early fifteenth century the
city had lost all its provinces to Turkish occupation and was totally isolated. The surviving Greek
territories of Trebizond and the Morea were similarly surrounded and made no effort to assist
the ancient capital.…
Source: Judith Herrin, “The Fall of Constantinople,” History Today, June 2003
According to Judith Herrin, what was one reason the Ottoman were interested in conquering the Byzantine
capital of Constantinople?
