Jul 30, 2007 · On April 12, 1453, lighted tapers were put to the touchholes of the sultan’s guns along a four-mile sector of the front line, and the world’s first concerted artillery barrage exploded to life.

At the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans employed several cannons, anywhere from 12 to 62. They were built at foundries that employed Turkish cannon founders and technicians, most notably Saruca, in addition to at least one foreign cannon founder, Orban.

Gunpowder artillery in the Middle Ages primarily consisted of the introduction of the cannon, large tubular firearms designed to fire a heavy projectile over a long distance. Guns, bombs, rockets and cannons were first invented in China during the Han and Song dynasties and then later spread to Europe and the Middle East during the period.

Apr 4, 2015 · The Dardanelles gun is a super cannon designed as a bombard for use in siege warfare. The gun weighs 16.8 tons and measures 17 feet in length with a diameter of just under 3.5 feet and it fired a massive marble shot at a range of one-and-a-half miles.

May 30, 2023 · Seeing how cannons had successfully fended off invaders, the Ottoman Turks began to construct their own massive guns, which were used to break the eight-year-long siege of Thessalonica in 1430. In 1451, Mehmed II succeeded his father as Sultan of the Ottomans.

From 1337 to 1453 England repeatedly invaded France on the pretext that her kings had a right to the French throne. Though it was a small, poor country, England for most of those “hundred years” won the battles, sacked the towns and castles, and dominated the war.

Jul 5, 2023 · Yet, in the year 1453, these seemingly unbreakable barriers met their match in one of the largest caliber weapons ever forged – the Ottoman Empire’s Basilic Cannon. In the 15th Century, the development of the cannon marked a groundbreaking advancement in artillery.

The paper examines the role of gunpowder firearms in Ottoman military successes from the Siege of Constantinople in 1453 to the Battle of Mohács in 1526. It highlights both the effectiveness and limitations of gunpowder weapons in various sieges and battles, while also contextualizing these events within broader geopolitical shifts.

Jun 27, 2016 · The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) saw the first appearances of gunpowder artillery in English and French warfare. These fearsome weapons, which had been largely unused in the conflicts of Western Europe, were deployed in sieges and on battlefields by both sides.

I am sure that all who are reading this know that it was the fall of Constantinople in 1453 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks that Edward Gibbon, in his magisterial The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, dates as the final blow to the Roman …