Rise of Empires: Ottoman

Your city is ours!

Constantinople.

Either I conquer you...

or you conquer me.

Come... my son.

Father?

Constantinople.

Why didn't you believe in me?

- They betrayed you. - My son.

...believe in me?

- This is madness! - No!

- Constantinople... - Mehmed!

Am I to take Constantinople?

No!

Constantinople.

Every empire has a beginning

forged of blood, steel, fortune and conquest.

In 1453, Roman Emperor Constantine XI

and Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II

wage an epic battle for Constantinople.

Twenty-three armies have tried to take the legendary city.

All have failed.

Out of the carnage, one ruler will emerge victorious

and change the course of history for the next 300 years.

For one empire to rise, another must fall.

Constantinople is a city...

just destined to be the center of the world.

It's the hinge: Asia, Europe,

Black Sea, the Mediterranean,

the Balkan world, Italian city-states...

It's like there's a butterfly,

and Constantinople is the body of the butterfly.

Constantinople is a concept.

It's more than just a strategic place.

It represents layers of empire,

it represents layers of civilizations

that have been embedded in it.

In the Mediterranean,

the largest city has always been Constantinople.

This was always cited as the Promised Land.

Whoever holds Constantinople, he will be the ruler of the world.

In 1451,

Constantinople's protector and ruler is Emperor Constantine XI.

There were few people more autocratic

and absolutist than Eastern Roman emperors.

They literally stood halfway to heaven, between God and man,

they were God's sword-arm on Earth.

Constantine XI, he's very brave,

and the principle for which he will sacrifice literally everything else

is the preservation of Constantinople.

Twenty-three enemy armies

have tried to take the legendary walled city and failed.

The biggest threat to the Romans' 1100-year reign

are their longtime foes, the Ottomans.

Former Anatolian warlords and nomads

who've built a burgeoning empire

reaching all the way to Eastern Europe...

The death of Ottoman Sultan Murad II in 1451

unleashes a chain of events

that will soon bring the Ottomans and Romans

to the brink of war.

Two hundred miles away, Sultan Murad's son, Mehmed II,

has been serving as governor of Manisa

in the Aegean Province.

The Crown Prince has been living in semi-exile for several years

after a falling out with his father's court.

Prince!

I'm rotting out here in the provinces.

My prince...

By the time Alexander the Great was my age, he'd conquered all of this land.

My prince.

Yes, Zaganos Pasha. What is it?

Your father.

There are some whispers

that the grand vizier and the others in the sultan's court

are discussing plans for a successor.

Of course they are.

Deceitful scum.

They'd want nothing more than for me to disappear.

Ready the horses.

We must leave for the capital.

Mehmed sets out for Adrianople

to claim the throne,

uncertain whether he'll be named Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

or have to take the throne by force.

In the Ottoman throne, any member of the dynasty

has an equal right to the throne.

There is no established line of succession.

They had to fight it out,

or be the one who could establish leadership.

It was survival of the fittest.

Mehmed is met by his father's grand vizier,

Candarli Halil Pasha,

the sultan's right hand.

The grand vizier is the prime minister of the empire.

When there is a new sultan inheriting his father's grand vizier,

there's always a clash,

and that grand vizier has to be controlled.

If you lose that game, you become a puppet sultan.

Halil Pasha...

it's been a couple years since I last saw you.

I wish...

it was under better circumstances.

Grand Vizier.

My sultan.

After living in his father's shadow for years,

expectations for the 19-year-old ruler are crushing.

You have grown since I last saw you.

Father?

I've asked too much of you.

The throne will be yours, my son, when you are ready.

Don't test me, boy!

He's a very young guy.

People didn't know was he up to the job?

Maybe he wasn't gonna be able to follow his father,

who was a good warrior.

I promised you your time would come.

Mother Mara.

Mehmed's stepmother, Mara Brankovic,

is among his closest allies

in a capital anxious to see how the young sultan will rule.

Do you know what Alexander the Great said when he took the throne?

"In the end, when it's over...

all that matters is what you have done."

It's yours.

When he does come to the throne,

he realizes that he's got a signal

that he's everything that his father wished him to be.

So, what would this kid do?

He says, "I need a crowning achievement..."

...and what will that be?

Take Constantinople.

The dream of everybody!

They will try and shame you as the boy they remembered, Sultan.

Yes, they will try.

Mehmed's court is divided

between the young advisors he brings from Manisa,

led by Zaganos Pasha,

and his father's older viziers who harbor doubts about his leadership.

Those doubts extend beyond the capital to the Ottoman's many enemies.

A rival Turkish warlord tests the 19-year-old sultan,

raiding Ottoman lands in Anatolia.

Mehmed and his army crush the rebellion.

The gravest threat to Mehmed's rule comes in late 1451

from the Ottoman's old enemy, the Romans.

Hasan Pasha,

what news from Constantinople?

What do our spies say?

The Romans have...

sent a request.

What sort of request?

They've threatened to release your Uncle Orhan

if we don't triple our payments

for his continued safety and upkeep.

Prince Orhan represents this long Byzantine tradition of diplomacy.

Prince Orhan has a claim to Mehmed's throne,

but the Romans keep him safely tucked away inside Constantinople

in exchange for a yearly payment from the Ottomans.

Prince Orhan is an interesting case.

He was kept a prisoner.

The Romans wanted to use him against the Ottomans.

When Mehmed comes to the throne,

he's only 19 years old,

no one really knows, uh... what kind of a ruler he would be,

so Constantine tries to...

uh, tries to threaten him.

It was always a threat that

"If you do something aggressive, we can send Orhan back

with a little money, a little support,

and maybe overthrow your throne."

The Romans offset

their weakness in terms of military strength,

land, and power,

in their ability to stir up civil war

within the Ottoman Empire.

The question becomes:

"What do you do in a situation like this?"

This is one of the rare moments

where Constantine badly miscalculates.

This turns out to be a pretty bad mistake.

I will build my fort right here.

Sultan, this is not diplomacy.

It's an act of war.

We will control the Bosphorus and every ship that travels through it.

In response to the Roman threat,

Mehmed reveals his plan for Rumeli Hisari,

literally translated:

"Fortress in the land of the Romans."

Strategically located on the European side of the Bosphorus Strait,

the fort cuts off all supplies and military aid

from Roman allies in the Black Sea.

The fortress is ominously nicknamed "The Throat Cutter."

Sultan, I urge you to reconsider.

Building a fort on the Roman side will provoke them...

Anything inside the walls of Constantinople

belongs to the Romans.

Anything outside those walls

belongs to me.

Candarli didn't like the idea

because he said, "Look, Your Majesty,"