Storm the walls or besiege Constantinople?
In 1453 Mehmed II stood before the age's strongest walls. Two options: a long siege draining food and money and risking Western relief, or a full assault with the new cannon on walls unbreached for a thousand years? The decision: time or blood?
The positions
the assault party
the great guns were cast for this day; the walls will break
The evidence
he ranged the artillery for weeks until the breaches opened
Sources: exhibit/pathway-g12-chy4u-ottomans-gunpowder-empiresplace/istanbul
the siege party
a starving city yields without a battle; siege saves blood
The evidence
they counted the years of wars that broke on these walls
Sources: place/istanbul
You decide
Which plan would you have drawn as the engineer? Write your reason.
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