Evening Glow of an Empire

It is one of the most powerful empires in history: The Ottoman sultans, once nomadic princes from Anatolia, rule over an empire that stretches from Hungary to Egypt and from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean for half a millennium. However, in the 19th century, a slow decline begins - and caught between the ambitions of European nations and the desire for freedom of the subjugated peoples, the authority of the dynasty wanes.

Decision at the Bosporus: For centuries, Constantinople, the bastion of Christianity in the East, resists all Muslim conquerors. But in 1453, the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, which emerged around 1300 in western Anatolia, seeks a place in history: Mehmed II builds the most powerful cannon of the age, drags a fleet overland, and sends 100,000 men to storm the city’s walls.