The Ottoman bombards worked terribly and often it was just easier to do the traditional tactics of scaling the walls with ladders and siege towers.
But remember, they still worked and it wasn't just monster cannons. They were still forced to blow holes in the wall then take it by storm. This is against the city in its weakest state. I would not want to be the Mongol leader ordering that siege. If they do take it they'll try to starve the city out.
i still have trouble beilieving hundreds of thousands of people packed into a small 13 square kilometer area inside the city walls. maybe the concept of suburbs simply didn't happen at that time?
anyway, i think the mongols would just raid Byzantium if they fail to take Constantinople.
The Ottoman bombards worked terribly and often it was just easier to do the traditional tactics of scaling the walls with ladders and siege towers.
Even at the cities height, much of the space between the two sets of walls were almost devoid of people.
i see, so they can hold about 2 million people with that insane density with that amount of space.
my question is, would they sustain that in the modern era, or is it too much people in too small of an area?
they did blow holes in the wall and try to enter. they failed with heavy casualties.
in the end, it took a gate which was accidentally unlocked to finally enter the city. i forgot which exact gate it was.
They never held more than 500K. Much of the space referred to above was used for things like farming, and probably held small villages.
It was the Kerkaporta Gate. That helped a lot, as it caused sheer bloody panic among the remaining defenders but the city by this point was on it's way out. Giustiniani’s men were fleeing and the Janissaries were overrunning the walls (albeit with appalling casualties) and no relief was on the way. The Byzantines had however put up a bloody good show, thwarting Ottoman tunneling efforts, explosive breaches etc. while being outnumbered by a 40 to 1 margin. Constantinople at it's height, would have had more defenders, better maintained defenses, the full use of it's very powerful Navy (Out of curiosity did the Mongols have any concept of Naval warfare?) and the Mongols did not have the technological weapons of the Ottomans (ie. The Orban Gun and the like). In short, the city would have been constantly resupplied, and well defended and I think the Mongols would not be able to take the city without a stroke of real luck.
Realistically, I think Khan would have looked at Byzantium and gone "Fuck that noise" and went after Europe, probably agreeing to peace with Constantinople.
Farming only actually returned to the interior of the Walls after the 4th Crusade when Constantinople went into decline.
Farming only actually returned to the interior of the Walls after the 4th Crusade when Constantinople went into decline.
I'm not sure I agree, unless my last reading of treadgold is wrong.