Constantinople was surrounded on all sides by a defensive wall and was well supplied, making it resistant to sieges. The Ottomans were only able to capture the city due to one of the city gates being left slightly ajar, allowing them to quickly bypass the wall and overrun the defenders.
The reason is quite simple, this allowed them to monopolize the production and trade of silk and its trade. Because they were able to monopolize its production they could charge whatever price they wanted since they had no competition that would offer lower prices. This made them a lot of money and as they started developing the Silk Road they not only traded silk but several other products and even slaves between Asia and Europe.
the us military was deployed in europe
