The Great Expansion of Ottoman Empire

The rise of the Ottoman Empire begun when a Turkish tribal leader named Osman Gazi led one of the Anatolian Beyliks in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire. By conquering the Byzantine towns by the Sakarya River, Osman was able to extend the control of his territories.

After the death of Osman, Orhan Gazi the son of Osman conquered the Antatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and made it the capital of the Ottoman state, reducing the Byzantine power over the northwest of Anatolia. The Venetian’s city of Thessaloniki was then captured in 1387. The way for Ottoman expansion in Europe was opened when it gained victory in Kosovo in 1389, marking the end of Serbian power in the region. On the 29th of May 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror conquered Constantinople by reorganizing the state and military. Mehmed allowed the Orthodox Church to keep its land and autonomy in exchange of its acceptance of Ottoman authority. Guided by the fact that there were bad relations between the states of western Europe and the Byzantine empire, most of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman authority over Venetian rule.

The Ottoman Empire reached the height of its reign in the 15th to 16th century under the rule of several committed and efficient sultans such as Suleiman the Magnificent. It became a multinational and multilingual empire that had control over most of  Southeast Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. The Ottoman Empire had numerous provinces and vassal states which were later on added into the empire and some were granted independence. Because of its strong control over the major trade routes between Europe and Asia, its economy was able to flourish as well as it was the centre of interaction between the Western and Eastern world for 6 centuries. It also established a strong society and military throughout the 17th and 18th century.

In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. He also established Turkish rule in the territory of Hungary and other Central European territories after his victory in the Battle of Mohács in 1526. However he failed to take the city of Vienna in 1529 and 1532. Despite that, the city of Transylvania, Wallachia and, Moldavia became tributary territories of the Ottoman Empire. In 1535, the Ottoman Turks took Baghdad from the Persians, gaining control over Mesopotamia. After that, Western Armenia Georgia fell into Ottoman’s hands by the partitioning of the Caucasus as signed in the Peace of Amasya.