4. A Potted history of the Ottoman Empire upto 1481
Originating from the Sogut beylik in Anatolia, which was becoming increasingly independent from the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the 13th century, Osman I established the Ottoman dynasty and became the first Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1299.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Osman_Gazi.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Osman_I_area_map.PNG
For the next 150 years there was intermittent warfare between the Ottomans and the Byzantines that culminated in the capture of Constantinople and the complete collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.
Osman’s son, Orhan I expanded Ottoman territory by conquering Nicaea and Nicomedia during the 1330s and he began annexing territory in Europe after 1346 through his military successes in Thrace. He was also responsible for establishing a strong governmental system and army for the empire as well as a stable currency.
The next Sultan, Murad I, defeated the Byzantines at Adrianople in 1365 and moved the capital of his empire from Anatolia to Edirne (formerly Adrianople) in Thrace, signalling that the Ottomans intended further conquests in Europe. In subsequent decades, political instability in the Balkans allowed the Ottomans to make further territorial gains, reducing the Bulgarians and Byzantines to vassal status, and finally defeating the Serbs at Kosovo Field in 1389.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Murat_I_Balcans.JPG
Murad’s son, Bayazid I, then defeated a Crusader army, led by King Sigismund of Hungary, at Nicopolis in 1396 and Albania was conquered shortly afterwards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nicop ... e_1398.jpg
Ottoman forces also raided into Hungary, Bosnia and Wallachia at this time but they suffered a very serious reverse in 1402 at the Battle of Ankara when they were decisively defeated by Tamerlane’s army. Bayazid was captured and died in captivity and the Ottomans were reduced to being vassals of Tamerlane for a short period until civil war broke out among the Timurids after their leader’s death in 1405.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chleb ... iewoli.jpg
Mehmed I re-united the Ottomans by 1413 after nearly a decade of civil war (known as the Ottoman Interregnum) but his successor Murad II (Sultan from 1421) was initially unable to recover much ground in the Balkans. He was even forced to abdicate for a short period but he soon returned to defeat a Polish-Hungarian army at Varna in 1444 and a Hungarian-Wallachian army at Kosovo again in 1448. Having secured Bulgaria and Wallachia with these two victories, Murad II moved into Anatolia and defeated Tamerlane’s son Shah Rokh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chelebowski_varna.jpg
This is what TGM looks like . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Murat_II.jpg
Mehmed II became Sultan in 1451 and he quickly annexed the Karamanlid emirate in Anatolia before turning his attentions to the capture of Constantinople which he succeeded in doing in 1453 bringing the Byzantine Empire to its final defeat . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Siege ... fr2691.jpg
In 1462 Mehmed II moved his capital to Constantinople and described himself as a “Roman Caesar” and by the time of his death in 1481 the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans was almost completed.
