Ottoman Empire Growth

During the first ten years after the conquest of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II focused his attention almost exclusively on the Balkans. His first major campaign after 1453 was against Serbia. The conquest of Serbia and its final incorporation into the empire took five years. In parallel with this, in 1455, the Ottomans captured the Genoese colonies on the Aegean: Old and New Fokay on the coast of Asia Minor, Enos at the mouth of Maritsa in Thrace. In 1458, the Morean despotate was conquered. In 1459, the sultan returned to Istanbul, and then went by land to conquer the Genoese colony Amastris on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor. In 1460, he again personally led the army, which by the end of the year conquered the entire Peloponnese, with the exception of several Venetian colonies.

In the east of Asia Minor, meanwhile, the state of Ak Koyunlu was gaining strength. Its ruler Uzun-Hasan considered the Trebizond Empire to be his sphere of influence, and at the end of 1460 sent his nephew to the Sultan Mehmed as a messenger, notifying that he considered the empire his prey, and warning the Sultan not to try to deprive the Komnin dynasty of his right to own. Mehmed ignored the warning, and with the support of the armies of his Islamic vassals, Isfendiyarullary Kastamonu and Karamanidov moved east next year against Trebizond. Uzun-Hasan sent troops to stop his advance, but this could not be done, and Trebizond fell. As a result, Mehmed completed the unification under the Ottoman rule of territories that were ruled by Byzantium from Constantinople until the IV Crusade of 1204.

The inability of the Ottoman vassal state of Wallachia to send an annual tribute to Istanbul, and the subsequent provocative actions of Vlad Dracula prompted Mehmed in 1462 to send the great vizier Mehmed Mahmoud Pasha across the Danube ahead of the Sultan's troops to restore order. The campaign was successful, and his more accommodating brother Radul, who was held hostage in Istanbul, was put in place of Vlad.

In 1463, the Ottomans captured the Bosnian kingdom , and soon a war broke out with the Republic of Venice , on the side of which Hungary stood. At the same time, between the Ottoman Macedonia and the Venetian fortresses on the Adriatic coast lay an island of independent Albania Skanderbeg. The beginning of the Venetian-Ottoman war gave him a chance to free himself from Ottoman dependence, and he offered his services to Venice. After two years of local hostilities, Mehmed launched a full-scale campaign against Skanderbeg, and in 1466–1467 all of Albania (with the exception of several Venetian outposts) came under the domination of the Ottomans.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the Ottomans' employment in Europe, Uzun-Hasan expanded his possessions in Asia, and in a June 1469 message to the Sultan of the Mamelukes, Wahid Bey voiced his demands that he be the only legitimate ruler of Muslims. During these years, the state of Karamanids became the bone of contention between the Ottoman Empire and Ak-Koyunlu, where after the death in 1464 of the ruler Ibrahim Bey, a succession crisis erupted. The Ottoman Empire and Ak-Koyunlu supported various pretenders to the throne, but the candidate Ak-Koyunlu soon died, depriving Uzun-Hasan of the pretext for the invasion. In 1468, the ruler of Karaman, Pir Ahmet, did not provide assistance to the Sultan Mehmed for the campaign against Mameluk Syria, and Mehmed moved an army against Karaman, successfully taking control of the territory north of the Taurus mountain range. In 1471, despite the fact that Uzun-Hasan helped Karaman, the Ottoman troops took passes in the Taurus Mountains, and the Ottoman fleet occupied an enclave subordinate to the Karamanids around the port of Alanya. In 1472, the Ottoman troops advanced further east, but then they were struck in the rear by the new allies of Ak-Koyunlu - the Venetians. The Ak-Koyunlu army tried to strike through Asia Minor on Bursa, but the Ottoman army repelled the attack. The invasion of Uzun-Hasan into Mamluk Syria in 1472 led Sultan Mehmed to the idea that it was time to launch a full-scale campaign against Ak-Koyunlu. In 1473, the battle of Otlukbeli took place , after which the authority of Uzun-Hasan fell greatly. The disappearance of Uzun-Hasan from the stage gave the Ottomans the opportunity once and for all to attach the eternally disturbing Karaman, which happened in 1474.

In 1475, troops under the command of the great vizier Gedik Ahmed Pasha went to the Crimea and occupied Kafa and other Genoese possessions, as well as the Venetian port in Thane. After establishing its presence in the Crimea, a small Ottoman fleet sailed to the north-eastern part of the Black Sea, and captured the fortress of Cuba at the exit to the Sea of ​​Azov, and Anapa . In 1478, the Crimean Khanate recognized Ottoman suzerainty.

In 1478, Uzun-Hasan died. Having lost an ally, Venice in 1479 signed a peace treaty . The Ottomans had their hands untied, and in 1480 they landed in Italy and began the siege of Rhodes , but the death of Mehmed II crossed out these plans.

After the death of Mehmed II, a power struggle broke out between his sons Bayazid and Jem . The Janissaries occupied the capital and supported Bayazid, while Jem had strong support in Asia Minor. However, Bayezid ousted Jem from Ottoman territory, and he fled first to the territory of Ramazanogullara (vassal of the Mamluks), then lived for a month with the Knights-Hospitallers on the island of Rhodes, and then left for Europe. Having at hand the European monarchs with a legitimate pretender to the throne of the Ottoman Empire forced Bayazid II to conduct a very cautious European policy until the death of Jem in 1495.

Meanwhile, the situation in Asia Minor remained difficult. The pretenders to the throne of Karaman tried to restore the independence of this state absorbed by the empire, the independent emirates of the Dulkadiroglu and Ramazanoglu dynasties continued to exist. In 1485, the first Ottoman-Mameluke war broke out , which lasted six years, without bringing a tangible advantage to either side. After the death of Jem, Bayazid was finally able to move his troops west, and took the Peloponnese coast from Venice .

The last years of Bayazid’s reign were overshadowed by the appearance on the eastern border of the Islamic sect of Kyzylbash , which created the Safavid state. Bayezid sought to avoid conflicts with his new neighbor, and Sheikh Ismail , who later proclaimed himself a Shah, also was careful about the Ottomans. However, the son of Bayazid Selim , the former ruler of Trabzon, considered Kyzylbash a threat to the Ottoman authorities, and fought against them against the will of his father. As a result of the outbreak of civil war and the uprising of Shahkul, Sultan Bayazid II was ousted from the throne and a month later died on the way to exile. The throne was occupied by his son Selim.

After Selim overthrew his father, his brother Ahmed proclaimed himself a sultan in Asia Minor. Selim, leaving his son Suleiman as regent in Istanbul, moved with his army to Asia Minor, and Ahmed, afraid of meeting his brother in an open battle, fled to Dulkadir. In 1513, the brothers finally met in a battle near Yenishehir, where Ahmed, after falling from a horse, was captured and strangled. To protect the throne, Selim executed most of the male relatives (sons and grandsons of Bayazid).

Having rid himself of rivals within the country, the Sultan Selim began to prepare to challenge the Shah Ismail himself. In 1514, the first of the Ottoman-Safavid wars began . As a result of the Battle of Chaldyran, the Persian army, which, unlike the Ottomans, did not have firearms, was defeated. In 1516, the army of Selim I again came east from Istanbul. Ismail believed that the offensive was directed against him, but the Ottomans unexpectedly turned on the Mamluks and completely destroyed their state , making Syria and Egypt the provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

On the night of September 21-22, 1520, Sultan Selim died, leaving only one son - Suleiman - who, therefore, ascended the throne without a fight. Before his death, Selim ordered the chief clergymen of the country to extend the validity of the conclusion authorizing the war against Ismail.

Since Suleiman’s ascension to the throne, his father’s aggressive policy in the East has replaced the policy of refusing military intervention in the affairs of the region: Suleiman tried to restrain Persia, but not to conquer it. The new sultan turned his eyes to the West, where the European monarchs, busy with other affairs, were not ready for the fact that after so many years of peace, the Ottoman Empire would suddenly change its policy.

The first target of the Ottomans was the Hungarian Belgrade - a fortress that neither Murad II nor Mehmed II could take. After a two-month siege, Belgrade fell, becoming a powerful forward base for further incursions deep into Hungary.

The next target was the island of Rhodes . Suleiman personally commanded the army, and after a five-month siege, the stronghold of the Knights of the Johannites capitulated. The knights were allowed to leave the island, and instead migrants from the Balkan provinces and Asia Minor arrived there.

The lands of the Mamluks conquered by Selim I were included in the empire and transformed into provinces, and people who went to work with the Ottomans were appointed their governors. Shortly after the death of Selim, the governor of Damascus Janbardi al-Ghazali led a rebellion against his new masters, declared himself ruler and tried to get support from the knights from Rhodes (which was another of the incentives for the conquest of Rhodes by Suleiman). To suppress the rebellion, the Sultan sent an entire army, and eventually Janbardi was killed. In 1524, the governor of Egypt, Ahmed Pasha, tried to restore the Mamluk sultanate and become its ruler; To restore order in the province of Suleiman, he sent his favorite, the great vizier and son-in-law, Ibrahim Pasha, to Egypt.

After Ibrahim Pasha created a solid foundation in Egypt for Ottoman rule, it became possible to undertake more vigorous efforts to protect the trade and territorial interests of the empire in the Arabian and Red Seas, as well as the Persian Gulf. In the years 1531-1532, the construction of a canal between the Red Sea and the Nile began, to provide an alternative route for the spice trade, which is beyond the reach of the Portuguese; this project was never completed.

In 1526, the Ottomans defeated the Hungarians in the Battle of Mojac , in which the Hungarian King Lajos II died . This led to a rapprochement between the possessions of the Ottoman dynasty and the possessions of the Habsburg dynasty and the beginning of the Ottoman-Habsburg wars . Having gained victory under Mohache, Suleiman believed that he, as a conqueror, had the right to dispose of the Hungarian crown, and promised it to Janos Zapolyai , with whom he entered into a military alliance in 1528. However, part of the Hungarian magnates in Presburg proclaimed Ferdinand of Habsburg king of Hungary. Ferdinand had few resources and people both in the Austrian possessions of the Habsburgs and in Hungary itself, so in the spring of 1528 he sent envoys to Istanbul who were supposed to negotiate peace, but they returned empty-handed. On May 10, 1529, Suleiman set out with his army on a campaign to Vienna. As a result of the ensuing siege, the Ottomans were unable to take the Austrian capital. In 1532, Suleiman made another trip to Vienna, but again could not take it. As a result, Ferdinand refused claims for the Hungarian crown, retaining only the part of Hungary actually controlled by the Habsburgs (the so-called “ royal Hungary ”), for which he undertook to pay an annual tribute of 30,000 ducats.

Elected in 1519 by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V , who belonged to the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, was a zealous Catholic and really tried to build a pan-European empire, so he took the Turkish threat seriously. However, French king Francis I opposed his universalist plans, resulting in the outbreak of war in 1521. In order to weaken the rival, in 1528 Francis I took an unheard-of step: concluded an agreement with the Sultan Suleiman on an alliance against the Habsburgs; thus the Franco-Turkish Alliance was founded. In 1533, Khair ad Din Barbarossa was appointed commander of the Turkish fleet , and captured Tunisia in 1534, but a year later Tunisia was recaptured by Charles V.

After ceasefire negotiations with Ferdinand, Suleiman sent Ibrahim Pasha east. Ibrahim Pasha spent the winter in Aleppo, and in the summer of 1534 took the Safavid capital of the city of Tabriz . Since the Persian Shah avoided military confrontation, Suleiman personally arriving at the army decided to proceed with the persecution. The Ottoman army approached Baghdad , and the city capitulated; Ottomans formed the province of Baghdad.

Returning to Europe, Suleiman invited the Venetian Republic to join the Franco-Turkish alliance. Since Venice feared the Habsburgs more than the Turks, it refused, and therefore a new Ottoman-Venetian war began , which ended in the defeat of Venice and the loss of the remaining fortresses on the Peloponnese.

At the same time, the Governor of Egypt, Hadim Suleiman Pasha sailed with his squadron to the Arabian Sea to assist the Sultan of Gujarat Bahadur Shah against the Portuguese. While he was sailing, the Portuguese executed Bahadur Shah, and their fortress could withstand the Turkish shelling. The news that the Portuguese squadron was hurrying to help the fortress forced Hadim Suleiman to lift the siege and go home. Despite the failure of the military expedition, it demonstrated that the Ottoman fleet was able to cross the Arabian Sea. On the way to Gujarat, Hadim Suleiman took the port of Aden, and a strategically important province of Yemen was created in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. Shortly after the end of the 1538 campaign, the Ottoman Empire and Portugal exchanged envoys and agreed on areas of commercial interest.

The Vassal of the Ottoman Empire, the Moldavian governor Petr Rareš was suspected of conspiring with the Habsburgs, and in 1538 the army of the Sultan took the Moldavian capital Suceava and temporarily ousted Raresh. The southern Bessarabia (Budzhak) was also annexed and the northern coast of the Black Sea from the Dniester to the Bug was occupied.

In 1540, John of Zapolye died, and Ferdinand of Habsburg, in a hurry to take advantage of this situation, besieged the city of Buda. Suleiman intervened, and as a result, central Hungary came under the direct control of the Ottoman Empire (" Ottoman Hungary "). Ferdinand retained the western and northern parts of the former Hungarian kingdom, and John Sigismund (the son of John of Zapolye, born two weeks before the death of his father) with Bishop George Martinuzzi was transferred as regent to Transylvania, to whom he was to rule as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. In 1542, Ferdinand of Habsburg launched an attack on Pest, but it was repulsed by local Turkish forces, and the following year Suleiman again marched west and took several strategically important fortresses. The successes of the Ottoman army forced Ferdinand to ask for peace, and in 1547 the great vizier Rustem Pasha concluded a five-year truce with the Austrians.

The truce, however, did not last long. Thanks to the intrigues of Bishop Martinutstsi, Transylvania was transferred to Ferdinand Habsburg, and in response, the governor of Rumelia, Sokoll Mehmed Pasha, entered Transylvania with his troops. In 1552, the Transylvanian capital Timisoara fell, and the new Ottoman province of Temesvar was formed. In the same year, the Turks took a number of fortresses, and Ottoman Hungary became a compact territorial formation, protected by a continuous chain of fortresses.

After signing a truce with the Austrians in 1547, Suleiman launched a new military campaign against the Persians. In 1548 he reached Tabriz, but returned home with nothing. Taking advantage of the Turks' reluctance to fight in inhospitable borderlands, Shah Tahmasp set out on a campaign to recover the recently lost territories. In response, in 1554 Suleiman personally led the army and led it east, taking Yerevan and Nakhichevan . In 1555, the first official peace treaty was signed between the Turks and Persians, according to which the Ottoman Empire remained the territories of Iraq previously conquered by it.

Meanwhile, fighting continued in the western Mediterranean. In 1551, the Ottoman fleet and the Berber corsairs as a result of a joint operation captured Tripoli , and in 1560 - the island of Djerba . In 1565, the Ottoman army and navy tried to capture Malta , but were repelled.

In 1552, Piri Reis sailed from Suez , receiving instructions to take the Portuguese Hormuz and Bahrain. He captured the city of Hormuz, but due to the loss of a ship with equipment, he was left without the funds necessary to take the fortress, so he interrupted the expedition and, having plundered the nearby island of Keshm, sailed to Basra . Failure to complete the assignment ended with the execution of Piri Reis. Shortly afterwards, the province of Lahsa was founded on the south coast of the Persian Gulf, which was to become a ground base to support naval operations against the Portuguese. In 1559, a combined operation of the land forces leaving Lahsa and the naval forces sailing from Basra was undertaken, as a result of which Bahrain was to be taken. The Hormuz Portuguese port squadron repelled the Ottomans' attack on Manama, however, an agreement was concluded, according to which both sides moved to a strategic retreat, and since 1562 they began to exchange envoys. The Portuguese continued to control the sea passage through the Persian Gulf, and the Ottomans - the land caravan route, which ended in Aleppo.

In 1555, in response to the advancement of the African Sultanate of Funge in the north, the Ottoman policy on the west coast of the Red Sea was changed. Assistant Governor of Yemen, Yozdemir Pasha, was appointed governor of the yet unexisting province of Habesh, but failed to conquer the territory designated for it, since the troops who came from Cairo refused to go up the Nile beyond the First threshold. Two years later, the army was transported from Suez by sea to Suakin, and from there even further south to Mitsiva. As a result, the Ottoman Empire gained control over the entrance to the Red Sea.

One of the most significant allies of the Ottoman Empire in the Indian Ocean was the Aceh Sultanate on the island of Sumatra, who fought against the Portuguese. In 1537 and 1547, Turkish troops were sent there, and in 1566, Aceh formally requested protection from the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman expedition to Aceh led to the start of production of its own artillery in Aceh. The establishment of ties between the Ottoman Empire and the Aceh Sultanate did not allow the Portuguese to establish a monopoly on trade in the Indian Ocean.

In 1566, a new war broke out between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs. Suleiman again personally led the army, but died on September 7 during the siege of Sigetwara. Due to the fact that the only surviving of the sons of the Sultan - Selim II - was far away in Asia Minor, the great vizier Sokolu Mehmed Pasha , fearing a power vacuum, hid the death of the Sultan before Selim arrived in the capital of the empire.

When in 1567 the news of the death of Suleiman reached the province of Yemen, the rebellion of Imam Mutahhar ibn Sharaf al-Din, the powerful head of the Zaydi clan, rebelled. In 1568, significant expeditionary forces were sent to pacify this province under the command of Lal Mustafa , but the Governor of Egypt Koja Sinan Pasha rejected his request for supplies and made the expedition impossible. The leadership of the campaign passed to Koja Sinan, but difficulties in supplying troops in Yemen forced him to come to an agreement with the Zaydi family. By 1571, Yemen was pacified. Instability in the region has led to the fact that the possibility of building a canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas has again begun to be considered.

In the 1550s, the Russian kingdom annexed the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, and in 1567 the Russians built a fort on the Terek River. In response, the Uzbek and Khiva khans turned to the Ottoman sultan as the patron saint of Muslims with the complaint that, having taken control of Astrakhan, the Russians blocked the south for merchants and pilgrims. In 1569, the governor of the province of Kafa, Kasim Pasha, was ordered to take Astrakhan and also build a canal connecting the Volga and the Don. The campaign was unsuccessful, the troops suffered heavy losses both when moving to Astrakhan and when returning to the Crimea. The Russian Tsar Ivan IV did not want to fight the Turks, and upon the return of the Ottoman expedition to the Crimea he sent an envoy to Istanbul, instructing him to congratulate Selim on his accession to the throne. Although in the subsequent diplomatic correspondence the Ottomans demanded that the Russians leave Kazan and Astrakhan, as a result, these cities remained part of the Russian state.

In 1568, the Ottomans tried to sow discord within the Saadi clan that ruled in Morocco, and the corsair Kılıç Ali Pasha , who was in the service of the Ottoman Empire, sent a small army overland from Algeria, which captured Tunisia from the Hafsids. The Moors rebelled in Spain, and asked the Sultan for help, but the uprising was crushed, and the Spanish Moors began to move to the Ottoman Empire.

In 1570, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Venice and annexed Cyprus. At the battle of Lepanto, the combined European fleets defeated the Ottoman squadron, but did not take advantage of the victory, as a result of which the Ottoman Empire was able to restore the fleet, and Venice was forced to make peace by recognizing the Ottoman conquests. In 1573, Juan of Austria conquered Tunisia with Spanish help, but in 1574 the Ottomans conquered Tunis again . In the same year, Sultan Selim II died.

After ascending the throne in 1574, Murad III continued the aggressive policy of Selim II in North Africa and the Western Mediterranean. With military support from the Ottoman Empire, it was possible to remove the ruler of Morocco from the Saadi dynasty from power and put in his place another member of the family, making him dependent on the empire. Thanks to this victory, the Ottomans gained control over the entire coast of North Africa, which led to rivalry with the Portuguese not only on the eastern, but also on the western borders of the Ottoman Empire. In 1578, the Portuguese invaded Morocco, but King Sebastian was killed at the Battle of Alcazar; although the Moroccan ruler also died, the Ottomans managed to ensure that his brother became the successor. In 1580, a peace treaty was concluded between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs.

Meanwhile, on the eastern borders of the empire in 1578, a new war began with the Persians . As a result of 10 years of hostilities, the Ottoman Empire captured Transcaucasia, which was enshrined in the Istanbul Treaty . Amid the euphoria caused by successes on the eastern border, in 1583 the Ottoman Empire launched another war with Austria , but already in 1595, Sultan Murad III died.

Mehmed III inherited a state in complete disarray. In order to enhance the prestige of the Sultan and the empire, it was decided that the young Sultan should personally lead the army. В 1596 году войска под руководством султана одержали победу над австрийцами в Керестецкой битве , после чего султан решил, что с него достаточно, и, передав командование великому визирю Дамаду Ибрагим-паше, вернулся в Стамбул. На австро-турецком фронте завязалась позиционная борьба, истощающая силы обеих сторон. В 1603 году Мехмед III скончался.

Воспользовавшись смертью Мехмеда III и истощением Османской империи в войне с австрийцами, сефевидская Персия объявила войну и начала наступление в Закавказье. Заключённый в 1606 году Житваторокский мир между Габсбургами и Османской империей ознаменовал остановку турецкой экспансии.

• Finkel Caroline. History of the Ottoman Empire. Vision of Osman. - M .: AST, Midgard, 2010 .-- 848 p. - 3,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-17-043651-4 .