1.
Military of the Ottoman Empire
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The history of military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The earliest form of the Ottoman military was a cavalry force. This was centralized by Osman I from Turkoman tribesmen inhabiting western Anatolia in the late 13th century and these horsemen became an irregular force of raiders used as shock troops, armed with simple weapons like bows and spears. They were given fiefs called timars in the lands, and were later called timariots. In addition they acquired wealth during campaigns, Orhan I organized a standing army paid by salary rather than booty or fiefs. The infantry were called yayas and the cavalry was known as müsellems, the force was made up by foreign mercenaries for the most part, and only a few Turks were content to accept salaries in place of timars. Foreign mercenaries were not required to convert to Islam as long as they obeyed their Ottoman commanders, the Ottomans began using guns sometime at the 15th century. Ottoman Classical Army was the structure established by Mehmed II, during his reorganization of the state. This is the reorganization following Orhan I which organized a standing army paid by salary rather than booty or fiefs. This army was the force during rise of the Ottoman Empire, the organization was twofold, central and peripheral. Following a century long reform efforts, this Army was forced to disbandment by Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826 by what is known as Auspicious Incident, the main theme of this period is reforming the Janissaries. The Janissary corps were made up of conscripted young Christian boys who became military educated under the Ottoman Empire. During the 15th and 16th Centuries they became known as the most efficient, aside from the Janissary infantry, there was also the Sipahi Cavalry. They were, however, different from the Janissaries in that they had military and administrative duties. Within these agricultural lands, the Sipahi were in charge of collecting the taxes which would serve as their salary, at the same time they were responsible for maintaining peace and order there. They were also expected to be able to serve in the military whenever the Sultan deemed their service necessary, western cavalry military people were imported as advisors but their abilities to enact change on the Classic Army were limited. The Ottoman Empire made numerous efforts to recruit French experts for its modernization, another officer François Baron de Tott was involved in the reform efforts for the Ottoman military. He succeeded in having a new foundry built to make howitzers and he built fortifications on the Bosphorus and started a naval science course that laid the foundation stone for the later Turkish Naval Academy
Military of the Ottoman Empire
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Aga
Military of the Ottoman Empire
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Sipahi
Military of the Ottoman Empire
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Head cook
Military of the Ottoman Empire
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Classical period (1451–1606)
2.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
Ottoman Empire
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Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. Painting from 1523.
Ottoman Empire
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Flag (1844–1923)
Ottoman Empire
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Battle of Mohács in 1526
Ottoman Empire
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Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha defeats the
Holy League of
Charles V under the command of
Andrea Doria at the
Battle of Preveza in 1538.
3.
Ottoman Army (15th-19th centuries)
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Ottoman Classical Army was the military structure established by Mehmed II, during his reorganization of the state and the military. This was the reorganization following Orhan Is standing army paid by salary rather than booty or fiefs. This army was the force during the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the organization was twofold, central and peripheral. This army was forced to disbandment by Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826 by what is known as Auspicious Incident following a long reform efforts. The Ottomans were one of the first states to maintain an army in Europe since the Roman Empire. The force originated in the 14th century, it was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826, the Janissaries were elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultans household troops and bodyguards. Sultan Murad I created the force in 1383 and they began as an elite corps of slaves recruited from young Christian boys, and became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. By 1620 they were hereditary and corrupt and an impediment to reform, for all practical purposes, Janissaries belonged to the Sultan, carrying the title kapikulu indicating their collective bond with the Sultan. Janissaries were taught to consider the corps as their home and family, the janissary corps was significant in a number of ways. The janissaries wore uniforms, were paid in cash as regular soldiers, the history Yaya goes to the early Ottoman military forces consisted of irregular nomadic cavalry and volunteer light infantry. These units were efficient against local Byzantine feudal lords but were unable to capture fortified castles by direct assault, established by Sultan Orhan during Alaeddin Pashas reorganization the military in the mid 1320s. Yaya, and Musellem over time they lost their martial qualities and were employed only at such tasks as transportation or founding cannonballs. The organisation was abolished in 1582. The Six Divisions of Cavalry, also known as the Kapıkulu Süvarileri, was a corps of cavalry soldiers in the army of the Ottoman Empire. There were not really six, but four, divisions in the corps, two of the six were sub-divisions. The Silahdars were a division for the Sultan, under the command of the Silahdar Agha. Silahdars were chosen from the best warriors, Infantry soldiers had to enlist as serdengecti and survive suicide missions to join the Silahdar division. Sipahi refers to all freeborn Ottoman Turkish mounted troops other than akıncıs, the word was used almost synonymously with cavalry
Ottoman Army (15th-19th centuries)
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Janissary (1805)
Ottoman Army (15th-19th centuries)
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Agha of the Janissary (18th century)
Ottoman Army (15th-19th centuries)
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Janissary (16th century)
Ottoman Army (15th-19th centuries)
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Agha of the Janissary (16th century)
4.
Janissaries
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The Janissaries were elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultans household troops, bodyguards and the first standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established during the reign of Murad I and they began as an elite corps of slaves made up of conscripted young Christian boys, and became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. Unlike typical slaves, they were paid regular salaries, forbidden to marry or engage in trade, their complete loyalty to the Sultan was expected. By the seventeenth century, due to a increase in the size of the Ottoman standing army. Civilians bought their way into the corps in order to benefit from the socioeconomic status it conferred upon them. Consequently, the corps gradually lost its character, undergoing a process which has been described as civilianization. The corps was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 in the Auspicious Incident in which 6,000 or more were executed, the formation of the Janissaries has been dated to the reign of Murad I, the third ruler of the Ottoman Empire. From the 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the system which was abolished in 1638. This was the taking of non-Muslim boys, notably Anatolian and Balkan Christians, Jews were never subject to devşirme, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, in early days, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from Albania, Bosnia, and Bulgaria were preferred, the Janissaries were kapıkulları, door servants or slaves of the Porte, neither freemen nor ordinary slaves. They were subjected to strict discipline, but were paid salaries and pensions upon retirement, as such, they became one of the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, rivalling the Turkish aristocracy. The brightest of the Janissaries were sent to the palace institution, through a system of meritocracy, the Janissaries held enormous power, stopping all efforts at reform of the military. These boys were taken from their parents and given to Turkish families in the provinces to learn Turkish language and customs. The recruits were indoctrinated into Islam, forced into circumcision and supervised 24 hours a day by eunuchs and they were subjected to severe discipline, being prohibited from growing a beard, taking up a skill other than soldiering, and marrying. As a result, the Janissaries were extremely well-disciplined troops, and became members of the askeri class, most were non-Muslims, because it was not permissible to enslave a Muslim. The Janissary system was introduced in the 14th century, the Janissary Corps was a trained and loyal group of slaves to the sultan. In the late 16th century, a sultan gave in to the pressures of the Corps and permitted Janissary children to members of the Corps. They also became rent-seeking and sought protection of their special rights, according to paintings of the era, they were also permitted to grow beards
Janissaries
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Janissaries
Janissaries
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Janissary, before 1657
Janissaries
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A Janissary
Ağa in the year 1768.
Janissaries
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Registration of boys for the devşirme. Ottoman miniature painting from the Süleymanname, 1558.
5.
Sipahi
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Sipahi were two types of Ottoman cavalry corps, including the fief-holding provincial timarli sipahi, which constituted most of the army, and the regular kapikulu sipahi, palace troops. Other types of cavalry which were not regarded sipahi were the irregular akıncı, the sipahi formed their own distinctive social classes, and were notably in rivalry with the Janissaries, the elite corps of the Sultan. It was also the given to several cavalry units serving in the French. The word is derived from Persian sepāhī, meaning soldier, the term is also transliterated as spahi and spahee, rendered in other languages as, spahiu, spahis, spahija or spahiya. The word sepoy is derived from the same Persian word sepāhī, the term refers to all freeborn Ottoman Turkish mounted troops other than akıncı and tribal horsemen in the Ottoman army. The word was used almost synonymously with cavalry, the provincial governors, or beys, were rotated every few years, preventing land inheritance. The provinces, or sanjaks, were not all equal since Anatolia, the entwinement of land, military, politics, economics and religion was a way of life. The timar system, where the sultan owned all land but individual plots of land, the sipahi did not inherit anything, preventing power centres from growing and threatening the supreme power structure. The locals on the timar used the land and all it produced, the Timarli Sipahi or timariot was the holder of a fief of land granted directly by the Ottoman sultan or with his official permission by beylerbeys. He was entitled to all of the income from that land, the peasants on the land were subsequently attached thereto. Timarli Sipahis status resembled that of the knights of medieval Europe, unlike medieval knights, they were not legally owners of their fiefs. The right to govern and collect taxes in a fief was merely given to a Timarli Sipahi by the Ottoman State. And in return, tımarli sipahis were responsible for security of the people in their timar, enlisting and training cebelu soldiers for the army. A timar was the smallest unit of land held by a Sipahi, providing a revenue of no more than 20,000 akçe. A ziamet was a unit of land, yielding up to 100,000 akçe. A has was the largest unit of land, giving revenues of more than 100,000 akçe, and was only held by the highest-ranking members of the military. A tîmâr Sipahi was obliged to provide the army with up to five armed retainers, a ziamet Sipahi with up to twenty, the sipahi were traditionally recruited among Turkic landowners, and thus, the non-Turkic provinces such as Arabia and Maghreb did not have sipahi. Recruitment of non-Turkic sipahi was banned with a 1635 ferman, in contrast to the Janissaries, Timarli Sipahis from that time onwards were Turks
Sipahi
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A Sipahi, from a 16th-century Western engraving
Sipahi
Sipahi
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Miniature depicting an Anatolian Timariot, dating to before 1657.
Sipahi
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Timariot armour dating to 1480–1500
6.
Azap
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Azabs also known as Asappes or Asappi, were irregular light infantry of the Ottoman Army. The Azaps were also known as the bachelors, they were volunteers who were paid only during campaigns and had the freedom to leave the army whenever they wanted. The Azaps were initially only Anatolian Turks, though by the late 16th century any Muslim from an Ottoman province could enlist as an Azap, the main role of Azaps was fighting as infantry archers, although they were often mounted as well. In addition to jobs in the military also had jobs as guards. As volunteers the Azaps had a range of weaponry. These include pole arms, such as the tirpan and harba as well as balta, in addition to pole arms they were armed with a variety of maces, bows, sabers and to a rarer extent crossbows. Later on guns were adopted instead, the power and significance of the Azaps began to deteriorate as time went on. Despite once seen as rivals to the elite Janissary Ocak, by the 16th they were responsible for taking on tasks such as carrying ammunition. In the late 16th century all Muslim men could enlist, from every 20-30 households 1 man would join whilst the others supported him. The standard weaponry of an Azap of this era was a matchlock, akinci Seymen Ga ́bor A ́goston, Bruce Alan Masters
Azap
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An archer of the Turkish Galleys - Azab
7.
Levend
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Levend or levendi was a name for irregular soldiers. The term originated with the Ottoman Navy, but eventually spread to encompass most irregular troops, the Ottomans, who relied on the same manpower pool, borrowed the name. Gradually, as the Ottoman navy became more professional, the undisciplined levends started to be replaced by regular troops, the name however survived as a generic name for naval troops, particularly the riflemen. Thus the Imperial Arsenal in Constantinople contained two barracks for levends, thus in the 17th and 18th centuries, levend came to refer to irregular mercenaries, mostly infantry but also cavalry, used alongside other terms. A notable aspect of Ottoman mercenaries is that served away from their home region, thus Albanians served in the Middle East. When without employment, however, the levends often turned to brigandage, at the turn of the 18th century, the Ottoman authorities tried to counter the activities of roving levend bands by offering them employment in the new military corps of deli and gönüllü. Later, repeated expeditions were waged against them in Anatolia in 1737,1747,1752,1759, the Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume V, Khe–Mahi. Off the Straight Path, Illicit Sex, Law, and Community in Ottoman Aleppo, a Military History of the Ottomans, From Osman to Atatürk
Levend
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Skyline of Levent business district as seen from the
Bosphorus, with the
Dolmabahçe Palace at right.
Levend
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A catamaran
Seabus on the
Bosphorus, with the skyline of Levent in the background.
Istanbul Sapphire is the first tower at left.
Levend
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Büyükdere Avenue in Levent, with the new
Finansbank headquarters (formerly Soyak Crystal Tower) at right.
Levend
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Kanyon Towers & Mall on Büyükdere Avenue in Levent, with
Istanbul Sapphire in the background.
8.
Timariots
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A timariot was another name given to the Timarli Sipahi cavalry that served the Ottoman sultan and in return was granted a fief called a timar. The timariots had to assemble with the army when at war, when at war, the timariot had to bring his own equipment and in addition a number of armed retainers. The timariot was granted feudatory with the obligation to go mounted to war, the timariot owed personal service for his sword in time of war and for a certain sum of money owed a number of soldiers as a substitute. The was bound to live on the estate and look after the land. When summoned for campaign the timariot and his had to present themselves with a cuirass, when a timariot failed to obey the summon he was deprived of his timar for one or two years. Above a certain income of the timar the sipahi horse had also to be equipped with armor of very thin steel, tents for different purposes e. g. for treasury, kitchen, saddlery store, etc. had to be provided. This ensured that all equipment and troops for campaigns was determined in advance, in this way, the Ottomans could quickly muster a large army. When the war was over the warriors returned to their lands, in addition, the sultans lands were taken care of. Local peasants were subjects to the timariot, law and order was kept, taxes were collected and bandits were brought to justice. The system of timars was organized during the reign of Orhan I, the Sultan granted officers fiefs with local peasants subjected to their rule in an arrangement similar to European feudal fiefs. They were an important part of the Ottoman army, especially for being so easily supportable, the titles and lands of the timar holders remained in use much longer than that. When on campaign, the timariots were organized into regiments called alays that were commanded by alay beys, larger units were the sanjak regiments or livas, commanded by sanjak beys. At the top were the governors, the beylerbeys. A province in the 16th century could muster some thousand timariots, in 1525 the total number of timar holders were 37,818 men, according to the tax rolls. The number of armed retainers was estimated to 50,000 men, of course, these great numbers were spread out all over the empire, and could not possibly serve in one campaign at a time
Timariots
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“Dely oder Türkischen Rittern”
9.
Ottoman military reforms
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Ottoman military reforms began in the late 18th century. When Selim III came to the throne in 1789, an effort of military reform was launched, geared towards securing the Ottoman Empire. The sultan and those who surrounded him were conservative and desired to preserve the status quo, no one in power in the Empire had any interest in social transformation. Western military advisors were imported as advisors but their abilities to change were limited. A parade of French officers were brought in, and none of them could do a great deal, one example of an advisor who achieved limited success was the François Baron de Tott, a French officer. He did succeed in having a new foundry built to make artillery, as well he directed the construction of a new naval base. Unfortunately it was almost impossible for him to divert soldiers from the army into the new units. The new ships and guns made it into service were too few to have much of an influence on the Ottoman army. When they had requested French help, an artillery officer by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte was to be sent to Constantinople in 1795 to help organize Ottoman artillery. He did not go, for just days before he was to embark for the Near East he proved himself useful to the Directory by putting down a Parisian mob in the whiff of grapeshot and was kept in France. The most important change was the creation of a new infantry unit, the nizam-i jedid was set up with western uniforms, weapons. This group would offend the Janissaries, once elite forces, the Janissaries had become a conservative elite using their military power to advance themselves commercially and politically. In 1806 the Janissaries, with support of the ulema and the governors, revolted against the Sultan and his new force. In 1808 Selim III was replaced by Mahmud II with martial law of Alemdar Mustafa Pasha who restarted the reform efforts and his first task was to ally with the Janissaries in order to break the power of the provincial governors. He then turned on the Janissaries, massacring them in their barracks in Istanbul, the Sultan now set himself to replace the Janissaries by other regular troops. The Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 did not give him time to organize a new army, the war was brought to a close by the disastrous Treaty of Adrianople. Sultan Abdul Medjid enjoyed several years of peace, which enabled him to form a powerful, in each corps there were three regiments of infantry, two of cavalry, and one of artillery, with thirty-three guns. The whole establishment of this branch amounts, therefore, to 180,000 men, belonging to the active service, the reserve of four of the six armies consisted of eleven regiments, six of which were infantry, four of cavalry, and one of artillery
Ottoman military reforms
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Contemporary caricature of the 1783 French Military Mission in Constantinople training Ottoman troops.
Ottoman military reforms
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A fortification built by the Baron de Tott for the
Ottoman Empire during the
Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774).
Ottoman military reforms
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General
Aubert-Dubayet with his Military Mission being received by the Grand Vizier in 1796, painting by
Antoine-Laurent Castellan.
10.
Auspicious Incident
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The Auspicious Incident was the forced disbandment of the centuries-old Janissary corps by Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826. The Janissaries were first created by the Ottoman Sultans who employed captured prisoners as mercenary troops, the Janissary corps eventually consisted of enslaved young Christian boys who were given a strict military education. During the 15th and 16th centuries they were recognized as the best-trained and they became known for their discipline, morale and professionalism. They were paid regularly and were expected to be ready to enter in battle at any time, many Janissaries were not soldiers, but still collected pay from the Turkish state as dictated by the corps. The corps held an effective veto over the government, contributing to the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Any sultan who tried to diminish the status or power of the Janissaries was immediately either killed or deposed, as corruption continued, the Janissary corps began to undermine the Ottoman Empire. Over time it became clear that for the Ottoman Empire to be a power of Europe. The number of Janissaries grew from 20,000 in 1575 to 49,000 and 135,000 in 1826, Turkish historians claim that the counter-Janissary force, which was great in numbers, included the local residents who had hated the Janissaries for years. Historians suggest that Mahmud II purposely incited the revolt and have described it as the coup against the Janissaries. The sultan informed them that he was forming a new army, the Janissaries saw their institution as crucial to the well-being of the Ottoman Empire, especially to Rumelia, and had previously decided they would never allow its dissolution. Thus, as predicted, they mutinied, advancing on the sultans palace, Mahmud II then brought out the sacred standard of the Prophet from inside the treasury, intending all true believers to gather beneath it and thus bolster opposition to the Janissaries. In the ensuing fight the Janissary barracks were set ablaze by fire, resulting in 4,000 Janissary deaths. The survivors either fled or were imprisoned, their possessions confiscated by the Sultan, by the end of 1826 the captured Janissaries, constituting the remainder of the force, were put to death by decapitation in the Thessaloniki fort that soon came to be called the Blood Tower. Roughly 100 other Janissaries fled to the Cistern of Philoxenos where many drowned, the Janissary leaders were executed and their possessions confiscated by the Sultan. The younger Janissaries were either exiled or imprisoned, thousands of Janissaries had been killed, and thus the elite order came to its end. The Sufi Order of the Bektaşi Brotherhood, a core Janissary institution, was outlawed, a new modern corps, Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye was established by Mahmud II to guard the Sultan and replace the Janissaries. Many ordinary Janissaries, especially in the provinces, began rogue revolts, christians in the Balkans became very hostile to their Muslim convert neighbors and began to rally against the new Turkish armies sent from Constantinople. Some Janissaries survived by keeping a low profile and taking ordinary jobs, immediately after the Janissaries had been disbanded, Mahmud II ordered the court chronicler, Mehmet Esad Efendi, to record the official version of events
Auspicious Incident
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A Janissary musketeer. The entire Janissary corps was disbanded during the Auspicious Incident.
11.
Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye
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The Mansure Army was an ocak of the Ottoman army. It was established by Mahmud II, who also disbanded the Janissary Corps, after The Auspicious Incident and the disbandment of the Janissary Corps, Mahmud II established a new military ocak and Agha Hussein Pasha was appointed to the command of the corps. Husrev Pasha served as their serasker, Mahmud II was not the first sultan who started the modernisation of the Ottoman army. Despite of this, the Mansure Army became the army corps of the Ottoman Empire until the Dissolution era. In 1912, the uniforms of the ocak were changed and finally in 1918, the Ottoman army was dissolved
Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye
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Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye uniforms, Ertuğrul cavalry regiment
12.
Hamidiye (cavalry)
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Established by and named after Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1891, they were intended to be modeled after the Russian Cossacks and were supposedly tasked to patrol the Russo-Ottoman frontier. However, the Hamidiye were more used by the Ottoman authorities to harass. After Sultan Abdulhamids II reign the cavalry was not dissolved but given a new name, Abdul Hamid IIs reign has the reputation of being “the most despotic and centralized era in modern Ottoman History. ”Abdul Hamid is also considered the last sultan to have full control over Ottoman Empire. His reign struggled with the culmination of 75 years of change throughout the empire, Abdul Hamid II was particularly concerned with the centralization of the empire. His efforts to centralize the Sublime Porte were not unheard of among other sultans, the Ottoman Empire’s local provinces had more control over their areas than the central government. Abdul Hamid IIs foreign relations came from a “policy of non-commitment, the sultan understood the fragility of the Ottoman military, and the Empire’s weaknesses of its domestic control. Pan-Islamism became Abdülhamid’s solution to the loss of identity and power. His efforts to promote Pan-Islamism were for the most part unsuccessful because of the large population. Abdul Hamid IIs policies essentially isolated the Ottoman Empire, which aided in its decline. Several of the elite who sought a new constitution and reform for the empire were forced to flee to Europe, after the Treaty of Berlin, the Ottoman Empire began to contract and it lost certain territories. New groups of radicals began to threaten the power of the Ottoman Empire, there are several reasons advanced as to why the Hamidiye light cavalry was created. The establishment of the Hamidiye was in one part a response to the Russian threat, the Armenian revolutionaries posed a threat because they were seen as disruptive, and they could work with the Russians against the Ottoman Empire. The first Armenian revolutionary party was the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party was made up of Armenian university students whose aim was to create an independent Armenian state. The Hamidiye Light Cavalry was created to combat local and cross-border challenges to Ottoman authority, the biggest patron of the Hamidiye was Abdul Hamid II. He wanted to create a relationship of commitment and loyalty with the Kurds that were chosen to make up the Hamidiye Cavalry, the Hamidiye was divided into groups according to age, the ibtidaiye, the nizamiye, and the redif. An Ottoman diplomat, close advisor to the sultan, and contributor to the creation of the Hamidiye Light Cavalry was Sakir Pasa, over time the Russians forged relationships with Armenian revolutionaries, and with Kurdish tribal leaders. The Ottoman Empire understood the threat this created and is in part why they chose the Kurds to make-up the Hamidiye. The Kurdish population could potentially unite with the Russians, but with the formation of the Hamidiye they would protect the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, some argue that the creation of the Hamidiye “further antagonized the Armenian population” and it worsened the very conflict they were created to prevent
Hamidiye (cavalry)
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A major in the Hamidiye
13.
Ottoman Navy
–
During its long existence, it was involved in many conflicts and signed a number of maritime treaties. At its height, the Navy extended to the Indian Ocean, for much of its history, the Navy was led by the position of the Kapudan Pasha. This position was abolished in 1867, when it was replaced by the Minister of the Navy, after the end of the Ottoman Empire and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Navys tradition was continued under the modern Turkish Naval Forces. In 1091 Tzachass fleet raided the islands of Samos and Rhodes in the Aegean Sea, in 1095 Tzachass fleet raided the strategic port city and Gulf of Adramyttium on the Aegean coast of Anatolia and the city of Abydos on the Dardanelles Strait. Seljuq sultan of Rûm Alaeddin Keykubad I conquered Alaiye and formed a naval arsenal there, alanya became the homeport of the Seljuk fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Keykubad I later formed a fleet in the Black Sea based in Sinope, the conquest of the island of Kalolimno in the Sea of Marmara in 1308 marked the first Ottoman naval victory. The Ottoman fleet made its first landings on Thrace in 1321, in 1373 the first landings and conquests on the Aegean shores of Macedonia were made, which was followed by the first Ottoman siege of Thessaloniki in 1374. The first Ottoman conquest of Thessaloniki and Macedonia were completed in 1387, between 1387 and 1423 the Ottoman fleet contributed to the territorial expansions of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkan peninsula and the Black Sea coasts of Anatolia. Following the first conquests of Venetian territories in Morea, the first Ottoman-Venetian War started, albania was reconquered by the Ottoman fleet with landings between 1448 and 1479. In 1453 the Ottoman fleet participated in the conquests of Constantinople, Gökçeada. In 1462 the Ottoman fleet conquered the Genoese islands of the northern Aegean Sea and this was followed by the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1463-1479. In the following period the Ottoman fleet gained more territory in the Aegean Sea, until 1499 this was followed by further expansion on the Black Sea coasts and on the Balkan peninsula. By 1503 the Ottoman fleet raided the northeastern Adriatic coasts of Italy, and completely captured the Venetian lands on Morea, the Ionian Sea coast and the southeastern Adriatic Sea coast. According to Katib Celebi a typical Ottoman fleet in the century consisted of 46 vessels whose crew was 15,800 men, roughly two-thirds were oarsmen. Starting from the conquest of Syria in 1516, the Ottoman fleet of Selim I started expanding the Ottoman territories towards the Levant, in 1527 the Ottoman fleet participated in the conquest of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia and Bosnia. In 1529 the Ottoman fleet under Salih Reis and Aydın Reis destroyed the Spanish fleet of Rodrigo Portundo near the Isle of Formentera, the joint fleet was commanded by Charles Vs top admiral, Andrea Doria. In 1543 the Ottoman fleet participated with French forces in the Siege of Nice, afterwards, Francis I of France enabled the Ottoman fleet to overwinter in the French harbor of Toulon. This unique Ottoman occupation of Toulon allowed the Ottomans to attack Habsburg Spanish and Italian ports, matrakçı Nasuh, a 16th-century Ottoman Janissary, polymath and swordmaster, reportedly participated in the occupation of Toulon
Ottoman Navy
–
The
Battle of Zonchio in 1499.
Ottoman Navy
–
1844 to 1923
Ottoman Navy
–
The Ottoman admiral
Hayreddin Barbarossa defeated the
Holy League of
Charles V under the command of
Andrea Doria at the
Battle of Preveza in 1538.
Ottoman Navy
–
The Ottoman fleet during the
Capture of Tunis at
La Goulette in 1574.
14.
Ottoman Aviation Squadrons
–
The Aviation Squadrons of the Ottoman Empire were military aviation units of the Ottoman Army and Navy. The history of Ottoman military aviation dates back to June 1909 or July 1911, the organisation is sometimes referred to as the Ottoman Air Force. The fleet size reached its apex in December 1916, when the Ottoman aviation squadrons had 90 airplanes, the Aviation Squadrons were reorganized as the General Inspectorate of Air Forces on 29 July 1918. With the signing of the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, at the time of the armistice, the Ottoman military aviation had around 100 pilots,17 land-based airplane companies, and 3 seaplane companies, totalling 80 aircraft. On 2 December 1909, Louis Blériot and the Belgian pilot Baron Pierre de Caters performed the first flight demonstration in the Ottoman Empire, after witnessing the growing importance of an air combat support branch, the Ottoman government decided to organize its own military aviation program. For this purpose officers were sent to Europe by the end of 1910 for pilot training, however, due to financial difficulties, the student program was aborted and the trainees returned to the Ottoman Empire in the spring of 1911. On 28 June 1911, an examination was held and on 4 July, Cavalry Captain Mehmet Fesa. Mehmet Fesa was sent to France and Yusuf Kenan was sent to Germany, but because the German school wanted an excessively high fee, both of them were enrolled in the Blériot School at Étampes near Paris in July 1911. In late 1911 Staff Lieutenant Colonel Süreyya was entrusted with founding the Aircraft Committee with members from the Inspectorate of Technical, in the same year, eight more Ottoman officers were sent to France for flight training. Fesa Bey and Yusuf Kenan Bey flew over Constantinople on 27 April 1912, the Ottoman Empire started preparing its first pilots and aircraft, and with the founding of the Aircraft School in San Stefano on 3 July 1912, the empire began to train its own flight officers. The same year a single-seat and a two-seater Deperdussin were purchased from France, two of the two-seater version of Bleriot XI-b were also acquired, the first of which was presented by Supreme Commander Rıza Paşa. Three of a different two-seat model named XI-2 and three of the single-seat ground trainer Pingouin were also used by the Ottoman Army, the REP was also one of the first planes to be deployed by the Ottoman Empire. This aircraft was designed by Robert Esnault-Pelterie and its first flight took place in 1912, they entered service during the same year in France. In accordance with an agreement reached between the producer and the Ottoman Ministry of War, seven REP planes were purchased and the first one was planned to join the Ottoman Army on 15 March 1912. In late April 1912, the aircraft was shown to the public for the first time when a large military parade was held for the honor of Sultan Mehmed V Reshad. Five of the seven purchased were single-seaters and the two were two-seaters. One of the single-seaters were planned only for ground practicing, the last plane was confiscated by the Serbians while being brought to Istanbul by train. These aircraft were out of service by 1914
Ottoman Aviation Squadrons
–
Mahmud Shevket Pasha was instrumental in founding the Ottoman Aviation Squadrons
Ottoman Aviation Squadrons
–
Ottoman pilots in early 1912
Ottoman Aviation Squadrons
–
Yeşilköy Air Base in 1911
Ottoman Aviation Squadrons
–
Fese Bey.
15.
History of the Russo-Turkish wars
–
The Russo-Turkish wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of conflicts in European history. The latters pro-Ottoman policy caused discontent among many Ukrainian Cossacks, who would elect Ivan Samoilovich as a sole Hetman of all Ukraine in 1674. In 1679–80, the Russians repelled the attacks of the Crimean Tatars and signed the Treaty of Bakhchisarai on January 3,1681, Russia had joined the European Holy League in 1686. During the war, the Russian army organized the Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689, the Russian involvement marked the beginning of the Russo-Turkish Wars. The gains by both were confirmed in the Treaty of Constantinople, for a few years, both would border each other through a large territory in the Caucasus now as well, which caused further frictions. The treaties made in 1732 and 1735, had other diplomatically favourable aspects as it included an Russo-Iranian alliance against Turkey as well, as Persia was at war with Ottoman Empire in 1730–1735. In the meantime Russia also was supporting the accession to the Polish throne of Augustus III in 1735 instead of the French protégé Stanisław Leszczyński, Austria was Russias ally since 1726. The casus belli was the raids of the Crimean Tatars on Ukraine in the end of 1735, in 1736, the Russian commanders envisioned the seizure of Azov and the Crimea. On June 19, the Russian Don army under the command of General Peter Lacy with the support from the Don Flotilla under the command of Vice Admiral Peter Bredahl seized the fortress of Azov, in July 1737, the Münnich army took by storm the Ottoman fortress of Ochakov. The Lacy army marched into the Crimea the same month, inflicting a number of defeats on the army of the Crimean khan, however, Lacy and his soldiers had to leave the Crimea due to lack of supplies. In July 1737, Austria entered the war against Turkey, but was defeated a number of times, in August, Russia, Austria and Turkey began negotiations in Nemirov, which would turn out to be fruitless. There were no significant military operations in 1738, the Russian army had to leave Ochakov and Kinburn due to the plague outbreak. In 1739, the Münnich army crossed the Dnieper, defeated the Ottoman Empire at Stavuchany and occupied the fortress of Khotin, however, Austria was defeated by the Ottoman Empire once again and signed a separate peace treaty on August 21. This, coupled with the imminent threat of the Swedish invasion, forced Russia to sign the Belgrade Peace Treaty with Turkey on September 18, following this border incident at Balta, Sultan Mustafa III declared war on Russia on September 25,1768. The Turks formed the alliance with the Polish oppositionary forces of the Bar Confederation, while Russia was supported by the United Kingdom, the naval operations of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Mediterranean yielded victories under the command of Aleksey Grigoryevich Orlov. In 1771, Egypt and Syria rebelled against the Ottoman rule, while the Russian fleet totally destroyed the Ottoman Navy. On July 21,1774, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, according to which the Crimean Khanate formally gained its independence, Russia received the contribution of 4.5 million rubles and two key seaports allowing the direct access to the Black Sea
History of the Russo-Turkish wars
–
Russian and
Cossack troops take the fortress of
Khadjibey, defeating the Ottomans and thus providing the impetus to found
Odessa.
History of the Russo-Turkish wars
–
Ottoman losses in the Balkans after the Crimean War, from Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe, by J. G. Bartholomew, 1912
History of the Russo-Turkish wars
–
Russian and Bulgarian
defence of Shipka Pass against Turkish troops was crucial for the independence of
Bulgaria.
16.
Ottoman wars in Asia
–
Ottoman wars in Asia refers to the wars involving the Ottoman Empire in Asia. Ottoman Empire was founded at the beginning of the 14th century and its original settlement was in the north west Anatolia where it was a small beylik. Its main rival was Byzantine Empire, in 1350s Ottomans were able to cross the Dardanelles strait and eventually they conquered whole south east Europe. Although they mainly concentrated on Europe, they fought in Asia. In the early years of the 14th century, there were many Turkish beyliks in Anatolia, the first Ottoman sultan Osman I was careful not to provoke the neighbouring beyliks. Second sultan Orhan was the very first Ottoman ruler who was engaged in a war against other beyliks and he annexed the territory of Karesi beylik, another beylik to the south of Ottoman beylik. His son Murad I established hegemony on most of the beyliks in Anatolia mainly by diplomacy Bayezid I continued expansion policy by harsher methods, at the end of the 14th century most beyliks were incorporated into Ottoman realm. However, in 1402, Beyazıt was defeated by Timur, a Turkic conqueror from Turkestan in the Battle of Ankara and the newly annexed beyliks regained their independence. During the reigns of Mehmed I, Murad II and Mehmed II, Ottomans captured İzmir from Aydın Beylik. Empire of Trebizond in east Black Sea region was conquered by Mehmed II in 1461, there were also some Christian forts some of which were in alliance with Karaman Beylik. When Ottomans conquered Karaman, the most important beylik, during the reign of Mehmed II, towards the end of the 14th century east of Central Anatolia was under the hegemony of a Turkmen leader named Kadı Burhaneddin. Bayezid I tried to conquer his territory without success, after his death Ottomans faced with a more powerful rival. In the 15th century tribes in the east, were united into a confederation named Akkoyunlu. In 1473, Mehmed II defeated Akkoyunlu sultan Uzun Hasan in the Battle of Otlukbeli, after this battle all of the Central Anatolia and parts of East Anatolia became Ottoman possessions. Egypt was under the rule of a military cast named Mamluks, Mamluks were actually Turks and Circassians. Ottomans were unable to defeat Mamluks in the clashes during the reign of Beyazıt II. However the Mamluks supported Safavid Persia against the Ottomans and this give the Ottoman sultan Selim I the necessary cause to wage a war to Egypt and his grand vizier Hadim Sinan Pasha defeated Dulkadir Beylik in Southeast Anatolia, a Mamluk vassal in 1516. Ramazan Beylik, the other Mamluk vassal in Çukurova voluntarily accepted the Ottoman suzerainty, during Selim’s long campaign to Egypt in 1516-18, Mamluks were defeated three times, in the Battle of Marj Dabiq, the Battle of Yaunis Khan and the Battle of Ridanieh
Ottoman wars in Asia
–
Mehmet II
Ottoman wars in Asia
–
Selim I
Ottoman wars in Asia
–
Süleyman I
Ottoman wars in Asia
–
Murat IV
17.
Ottoman wars in Africa
–
The Ottoman Empire was founded at the beginning of the 14th century. Beginning in the 16th century, it began acquiring possessions through a series of wars in Africa. Egypt was under the rule of a military cast named Mamluks, Mamluks were actually Turks and Circassians. In addition to Egypt they also controlled Syria, Palestine Lebanon, after Mehmet II united most of Anatolia under Ottoman rule, the two empires became neighbours of each other where two Mamluk vassals of Turkmen origin were the buffer states between the two. During the Ottoman-Safavid Persia war, Mamluks supported Persia, Selim I of the Ottoman Empire used this claim as a pretext to wage a war on Mamluks. During Selim’s long campaign to Egypt in 1516-18, Mamluks were defeated three times, in the battles Marj Dabiq and Yaunis Khan on the way to Egypt, the third battle in which Hadim Sinan Pasha fell was the final blow to Mamluks. After clashes in Cario, Tumanbay II the Mamluk sultan was arrested and Selim annexed whole Mamluk territory, turkish corsair Barbaros Hayreddin in 1516, captured the city of Algiers from the Holy Roman Empire. Although initially Barbaros and his brothers were independent, after his brothers death. In 1532, during the reign of Süleyman I, Barbaros was appointed as the admiral of the Ottoman navy. Eventually the Ottomans began controlling the hinterland also, in 1552, Salih Reis an Ottoman admiral, marched over the Sahara and captured Touggourt. In the early years of the 16th century Tunisia was ruled by Hafsid dynasty of Berber origin, in the year 1560, an Ottoman navy commanded by Piyale Pasha defeated a large navy of the Holy Roman Empire in the Battle of Djerba. After this battle Uluç Ali Reis of the Ottoman Empire captured the city for the time in 1569 during the reign of Selim II. Two years later the city was lost to Holy Roman Empire for the second time, finally in 1574, an Ottoman navy commanded by the grand admiral Sinan Pasha captured the city for the third time. After Knights Hospitaller left the island of Rhodes in 1522, some of them had settled in Tripoli, in 1551, Ottoman admiral Turgut Reis captured the city with the help of Sinan Pasha. Eventually Benghazi and the hinterland Fezzan were also annexed, between 1711 and 1835 Libya became autonomous under Karamanlı dynasty. After 1835 Mahmud II reestablished Ottoman control, in 1538 Süleyman I sent a navy to the Indian Ocean. The expeditions continued for about 30 years, Özdemir Pasha the deputy of the admiral conquered the west bank of the Red Sea in 1567 during the reign of Selim II. The Ottomans frequently interfered in the affairs of Morocco, and even captured Fes briefly in 1576 to enthrone their candidate as the Sultan of Fes, during the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578, they actively fought on the side of Morocco against Portugal
Ottoman wars in Africa
–
Selim I
Ottoman wars in Africa
–
Süleyman I
Ottoman wars in Africa
–
Barbaros
18.
Ottoman naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean
–
The Ottoman naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean were a series of Ottoman amphibious operations in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century. There were four expeditions between 1538 and 1554, during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, after the voyages of Vasco da Gama, a powerful Portuguese Navy took control of the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century. It threatened the coastal cities of the Arabian Peninsula and India, the headquarters of the Portuguese Navy was in Goa, a city on the west coast of India, in 1510. Ottoman control of the Red Sea meanwhile began in 1517 when Selim I annexed Egypt to the Ottoman Empire after the Battle of Ridaniya, most of the habitable zone of the Arabian Peninsula soon fell voluntarily to the Ottomans. Piri Reis, who was famous for his World Map, presented it to Selim just a few weeks after the arrived in Egypt. Part of the 1513 map, which covers the Atlantic Ocean, the portion concerning the Indian Ocean is missing, it is argued that Selim may have taken it, so that he could make more use of it in planning future military expeditions in that direction. In fact, after the Ottoman domination in the Red Sea, Selim entered into negotiations with Sultan Muzaffar II of Gujarat, about a possible joint strike against the Portuguese in Goa. In 1534, Suleiman annexed most of Iraq and by 1538 the Ottomans had reached Basra, the Ottoman Empire still faced the problem of Portuguese controlled coasts. Most coastal towns on the Arabian Peninsula were either Portuguese ports or Portuguese vassals, another reason for Turco-Portugal rivalry was economic. In the 15th century, the trade routes from the Far East to Europe. But after Africa was circumnavigated the trade income was decreasing, while the Ottoman Empire was a major sea power in the Mediterranean, it was not possible to transfer the navy to the Red Sea. So a new fleet was built in Suez and named the Indian fleet, the apparent reason of the expeditions in the Indian Ocean, nonetheless, was an invitation from India. Bahadur Shah, the son of Muzaffer II who had negotiated with Selim, Suleiman I used this opportunity to check Portuguese domination in the Indian Ocean and appointed Hadim Suleiman Pasha as the admiral of his Indian Ocean fleet. Hadim Suleiman Pashas naval force consisted of some 90 galleys, in 1538, he sailed to India via the Red and Arabian Seas, only to learn that Bahadur Shah had been killed during a clash with the Portuguese navy and his successor had allied himself with Portugal. After an unsuccessful siege at Diu, he decided to return, on his way back to Suez, however, he conquered most of Yemen, including Aden. After the expedition, Hadim Suleiman was promoted to grand vizier, after the first expedition, the Portuguese navy had captured Aden and laid siege to Jeddah and tried to penetrate the Red Sea. The aim of the expedition was to restore Ottoman authority in the Red Sea. The new admiral was Piri Reis, who had presented his World Map to Selim
Ottoman naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean
–
Ottoman fleet in the
Indian Ocean in the 16th century.
Ottoman naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean
–
The actual Arabian Sea
Ottoman naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean
–
The Ottoman admiral
Selman Reis defended Jeddah against a Portuguese attack in 1517
Ottoman naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean
–
The arrival of
Portuguese ships in
Hormuz
19.
Late Middle Ages
–
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th and 15th centuries. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the modern era. Around 1300, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt, a series of famines and plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population to around half of what it was before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare, France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants Revolt, as well as over a century of intermittent conflict in the Hundred Years War. To add to the problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism. Collectively these events are called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Despite these crises, the 14th century was also a time of progress in the arts. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. These two things would lead to the Protestant Reformation. Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, eroded the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire and cut off trading possibilities with the east. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the expedition of Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations. The changes brought about by these developments have led scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of modern history. However, the division is artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society. As a result there was continuity between the ancient age and the modern age. Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all, but rather see the period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance. The term Late Middle Ages refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages, along with the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People. Flavio Biondo used a framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire. Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, for 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance, with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit
Late Middle Ages
–
Silver mining and processing in
Kutná Hora, Bohemia, 15th century
Late Middle Ages
–
Western/Central Europe
Holy Roman Empire France Gascony Bohemia Eastern Europe
Teutonic Order Golden Horde G. Horde Vassals Genovese Prov. Poland Mazovia Wallachia Hungary Lithuania Italian peninsula
Two Sicilies (Sicily) Two Sicilies (Naples) Papal states Sardinia Venice Genoa
Late Middle Ages
–
Ottoman miniature of the
siege of Belgrade in 1456
Late Middle Ages
–
The peasants preparing the fields for the winter with a
harrow and sowing for the winter grain. The background contains the
Louvre, c. 1410
20.
Rumelia
–
Rumelia, also known as Turkey in Europe, was a historical term describing the area now referred to as the Balkans when it was administered by the Ottoman Empire. As such, it was used in Greek, Turkish, Albanian. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum meant the Sultanate of Anatolia, the name Rumelia was ultimately applied to a province composed of central Albania and north-western Macedonia, with Bitola for its chief town. Owing to administrative changes effected between 1870 and 1875, the name ceased to correspond to any political division. Eastern Rumelia was constituted as a province of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin,1878. The Kosovo Vilayet was created in 1877 and this region in Turkey is also referred to as Eastern Thrace or Turkish Thrace. In Greece, the term Ρούμελη has been used since Ottoman times to refer to Central Greece, the word Rumeli is also used in some cases to refer exclusively to the part of Istanbul Province that is situated west of the Bosphorus
Rumelia
–
Map of Rumelia in 1801
Rumelia
–
Rumeli Hisarı (Rumelian Fortress, 1452) on the European shore of the
Bosphorus strait in
Istanbul.
21.
Siege of Famagusta
–
The Siege of Famagusta happened in Venetian-controlled Famagusta, the last Christian possession in Cyprus. Famagusta fell to the Ottomans in August 1571 after a siege that lasted nearly a year, the large and wealthy island of Cyprus had been under Venetian rule since 1489. Together with Crete, it was one of the overseas possessions of the Republic. Its population in the century is estimated at 160,000. Aside from its location, which allowed the control of the Levantine trade, the defences of Cyprus, Crete, Corfu and other Venetian possessions were upgraded in the 1560s, employing the services of the noted military engineer Sforza Pallavicini. Their garrisons were increased, and attempts were made to make the isolated holdings of Crete and Cyprus more self-sufficient by the construction of foundries, however, it was widely recognized that, unaided, Cyprus could not hold for long. Its exposed and isolated location so far from Venice, surrounded by Ottoman territory, in the event, lack of supplies and even gunpowder would play a critical role in the fall of the Venetian forts to the Ottomans. Another problem for Venice was the attitude of the islands population, the harsh treatment and oppressive taxation of the local orthodox Greek population by the Catholic Venetians had caused great resentment, so that their sympathies generally lay with the Ottomans. The Turks decided to conquest Cyprus and on 27 June 1570 the invasion force, some 350–400 ships and 80, 000–150,000 men and they sieged and destroyed the capital Nicosia and other venetian fortifications. The Venetian walls of Nicosia were not useful -even because incomplete- in stopping this powerful Ottoman Army, on 15 September 1570 the Turkish cavalry appeared before the last Venetian stronghold in Cyprus, Famagusta. At this point already, overall Venetian losses were estimated by contemporaries at 56,000 killed or taken prisoner, the Venetian defenders of Famagusta numbered about 8,500 men with 90 artillery pieces and were commanded by Marco Antonio Bragadin. Marcantonio Bragadin led the defence of Famagusta with Lorenzo Tiepolo, Captain of Paphos, the Ottoman forces kept pressure on for eleven months, while their artillery relentlessly pounded the citys bulwarks. The besieged garrison of Famagusta put up a struggle lasting well beyond the most optimistic assumptions, against far superior enemy numbers. Furthermore the Turks were employing new tactics, the entire belt of walls surrounding the town and the exterior plain was filled with earth up to the top of the fortifications. In the meantime a number of tunnels were dug out towards and under the city walls to undermine, in July,1571 the Turks eventually breached the fortifications and their forces broke into the citadel, being repulsed only at the cost of heavy losses. With provisions and ammunition running out, and no sign of relief from Venice on August 1, the Turks lost some 52,000 men in five major assaults, including the first son of the Turk commander, Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha. The Venetian garrison lost nearly 8,000 soldiers and was reduced to just nine hundred soldiers, many of them wounded, for the next three days, evacuation proceeded smoothly. Suddenly, Mustafa pulled a knife and cut off Bragadins right ear, then ordered his guards to cut off the other ear, Mustafa even ordered to kill governor Astorre Baglioni, who was complaining that the Ottomans were not respecting the surrender agreement
Siege of Famagusta
–
Venetian Walls of S. Luca ("Bastioni San Luca") in Famagusta
Siege of Famagusta
–
Ottoman Turks attacking the last
Venetian stronghold in
Famagusta 1571
Siege of Famagusta
–
1570-1576
Titian 's Flaying of Marsyas. Some researchers such as
Helen Lessore speculate that Bragadin's flaying provided the inspiration for this painting.
22.
Cyprus
–
Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
Cyprus
–
A copper mine on Cyprus. In antiquity, Cyprus was a major source of copper.
Cyprus
–
Flag
Cyprus
–
Archeologic site of Choirokoitia with early remains of human habitation during Aceramic Neolithic period (reconstruction)
Cyprus
–
Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates,
Kourion
23.
Battle of Lepanto
–
The battle was in essence an infantry battle on floating platforms. It was the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity, over the following decades, the increasing importance of the galleon and the line of battle tactic would displace the galley as the major warship of its era, marking the beginning of the Age of Sail. It has long been compared to the Battle of Salamis both for tactical parallels and for its importance in the defense of Europe against imperial expansion. On 1 August, the Venetians had surrendered after being reassured that they could leave Cyprus freely, however, the Ottoman commander, Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha, who had lost some 50,000 men in the siege, broke his word, imprisoning the Venetians. The members of the Holy League were the Republic of Venice, the Spanish Empire, the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchies of Savoy, Urbino and Tuscany, the Knights Hospitaller and others. The banner for the fleet, blessed by the Pope, reached the Kingdom of Naples on 14 August 1571. There, in the Basilica of Santa Chiara, it was consigned to John of Austria. All members of the alliance viewed the Ottoman navy as a significant threat, the combined Christian fleet was placed under the command of John of Austria with Marcantonio Colonna as his principal deputy. The various Christian contingents met the force, that of Venice, in July and August 1571 at Messina. John of Austria arrived on 23 August, see Battle of Lepanto order of battle for a detailed list of ships and commanders involved in the battle. This fleet of the Christian alliance was manned by 40,000 sailors, Ali Pasha, the Ottoman admiral, supported by the corsairs Mehmed Siroco of Alexandria and Uluç Ali, commanded an Ottoman force of 222 war galleys,56 galliots, and some smaller vessels. The Turks had skilled and experienced crews of sailors but were deficient in their elite corps of Janissaries. The number of oarsmen was about 37,000, virtually all of them slaves, the Ottoman galleys were manned by 13,000 experienced sailors—generally drawn from the maritime nations of the Ottoman Empire, namely Berbers, Greeks, Syrians, and Egyptians—and 34,000 soldiers. An advantage for the Christians was their numerical superiority in guns and cannon aboard their ships and it is estimated that the Christians had 1,815 guns, while the Turks had only 750 with insufficient ammunition. The Christians embarked with their much improved arquebusier and musketeer forces, serious conflict had broken out between the Venetian and Spanish soldiers, and Venier enraged Don Juan by hanging a Spanish soldier for impudence. Despite bad weather, the Christian ships sailed south and, on 6 October, they reached the port of Sami, Cephalonia, early on 7 October, they sailed toward the Gulf of Patras, where they encountered the Ottoman fleet. While neither fleet had immediate strategic resources or objectives in the gulf, on the morning of 7 October, after the decision to offer battle was made, the Christian fleet formed up in four divisions in a north-south line. At the northern end, closest to the coast, was the Left Division of 53 galleys, mainly Venetian, led by Agostino Barbarigo, with Marco Querini and Antonio da Canale in support
Battle of Lepanto
–
The Battle of Lepanto, unknown artist, late 16th century
Battle of Lepanto
–
Depictions of the
Ottoman Navy during the battle of Lepanto
Battle of Lepanto
–
A sinking
Ottoman Navy vessel, painting by Pieter Brünniche, 1762.
Battle of Lepanto
–
The Victors of Lepanto (from left:
John of Austria,
Marcantonio Colonna,
Sebastiano Venier).
24.
Kingdom of Candia
–
The island was at the time and up to the early modern era commonly known as Candia after its capital, Candia or Chandax. In modern Greek historiography, the period is known as the Venetocracy, the island of Crete had formed part of the Byzantine Empire until 1204, when the Fourth Crusade dissolved the empire and divided its territories amongst the crusader leaders. Crete was initially allotted to Boniface of Montferrat, but, unable to enforce his control over the island, Venetian troops first occupied the island in 1205, but it took until 1212 for it to be secured, especially against the opposition of Venices rival Genoa. The islands of Tinos and Cythera, also under Venetian control, in the early 14th century, this division was replaced by four provinces, almost identical to the four modern prefectures. During the first two centuries of Venetian rule, revolts by the native Orthodox Greek population against the Roman Catholic Venetians were frequent, thereafter, and despite occasional revolts and Turkish raids, the island largely prospered, and Venetian rule opened up a window into the ongoing Italian Renaissance. After the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571, Crete was Venices last major overseas possession, only the three island fortresses of Souda, Gramvousa and Spinalonga remained in Venetian hands. Attempts to recover Candia during the Morean War failed, and these last Venetian outposts were taken by the Turks in 1715. Finally, on 12 August 1204, the Venetians preempted their traditional rivals, Venices gains were formalized in the Partitio Romaniae a few weeks later. To enforce their claim, the Venetians landed a force in Spinalonga. A first Venetian attack in summer 1207 was driven off, Pescatore even appealed to the Pope, and attempted to have himself confirmed as the islands king. It took the Venetians another five years of warfare to force him to surrender. Giacomo Tiepolo became the first governor of the new colony, with the title of duke of Crete, the duke usually held office for two years, assisted by two deputies and two councils. Venetians used Crete as a center for their profitable eastern trade, furthermore, they established a feudal state and administered a strict capitalist system for exploiting the islands agricultural produce. Exported products consisted primarily of wheat and sweet wine, and to a lesser extend of timber, Venetian rule over Crete proved troubled from the beginning, as it encountered the hostility of the local populace. In the words of the medievalist Kenneth Setton, it required an unceasing vigilance, already in 1212, the Hagiostephanitai brothers rose in revolt, which was only suppressed through the intervention of Marco I Sanudo, the Duke of Naxos. Sanudo then attempted to conquer the island for himself, relying on local support and he seized Candia, while Tiepolo escaped to the nearby fortress of Temenos disguised as a woman. Subsequently, the Cretans looked to the Greek Empire of Nicaea for aid in 1229, a Nicaean fleet arrived on the island, and in the 1230s the Nicaeans were able to challenge Venetian control over much of Crete and maintain troops there. It was only with the aid of the Greek lord of Rhodes, Leo Gabalas, Venetian rule over Crete was finally and formally recognised by the restored Byzantine Empire in treaties concluded in 1268 and 1277
Kingdom of Candia
Kingdom of Candia
–
Flag of the Republic of Venice
Kingdom of Candia
–
Venetian
Fortress Rocca al Mare in
Heraklion
25.
Morean War
–
The Morean War is the better-known name for the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War. The war was fought between 1684–1699, as part of the conflict known as the Great Turkish War, between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Military operations ranged from Dalmatia to the Aegean Sea, but the major campaign was the Venetian conquest of the Morea peninsula in southern Greece. As such, the Morean War holds the distinction of being the only Ottoman–Venetian conflict from which Venice emerged victorious, venices expansionist revival would be short-lived however, as its gains were reversed by the Ottomans in 1715. However, with the rise of the Ottomans, during the 16th and early 17th centuries, they lost most of these, such as Cyprus and Euboea to the Turks. Between 1645 and 1669, the Venetians and the Ottomans fought a long and costly war over the last major Venetian possession in the Aegean, Crete. During this war, the Venetian commander, Francesco Morosini, came into contact with the rebellious Maniots, in 1659, Morosini landed in the Morea, and together with the Maniots, he took Kalamata. However, he was soon forced to return to Crete. In 1683, a new war broke out between Austria and the Ottomans, with a large Ottoman army advancing towards Vienna, the Ottoman siege was broken in the Battle of Vienna by the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski. As a result, an anti-Ottoman Holy League was formed at Linz on 5 March 1684 between Emperor Leopold I, Sobieski, and the Doge of Venice, Marcantonio Guistinian. Over the next few years, the Austrians recovered Hungary from Ottoman control, however the Austrians were now overextended, as well as being embroiled in the Nine Years War against France. The Ottomans, under another Köprülü Grand Vizier, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, regained the initiative and pushed the Austrians back, recovering Niš and Vidin in 1690 and launching raids across the Danube. After 1696, however, the tide turned again, with the capture of Azov by the Russians in 1696 followed by a defeat at the hands of Eugene of Savoy at the battle of Zenta in September 1697. In its aftermath, negotiations began between the parties, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. On the Venetian side, the debate in the Senate about joining the war was heated and they were complemented by a numerous and well-equipped militia, but the latter could not be used outside Italy. Revenue was also scarce, at more than two million sequins a year. At the same time, the Ottoman navy is described by Chandos as being in a sore state, scarcely able to outfit ten men-of-war for operations. This left the Venetians with an uncontested supremacy at sea, while the Ottomans resorted to using light and fast galleys to evade the Venetian fleet and resupply their fortresses along the coasts
Morean War
–
Map of south-eastern Europe ca. 1670.
Morean War
–
Nafplion, or Napoli di Romagna, in the mid-16th century.
Morean War
–
Engraving depicting the Venetian siege of the
Acropolis of Athens, September 1687. The trajectory of the shell that hit the Parthenon, causing its explosion, is marked.
Morean War
–
Venetian medal of 1688, struck in honour of Morosini's conquest of the Morea and his election as Doge of Venice
26.
Peloponnese
–
The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is separated from the part of the country by the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea, the peninsula is divided among three administrative regions, most belongs to the Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the West Greece and Attica regions. In 2016, Lonely Planet voted the Peloponnese the top spot of their Best in Europe list, the Peloponnese is a peninsula that covers an area of some 21,549.6 square kilometres and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece. It has two connections with the rest of Greece, a natural one at the Isthmus of Corinth. The peninsula has an interior and deeply indented coasts. The Peloponnese possesses four south-pointing peninsulas, the Messenian, the Mani, the Cape Malea, mount Taygetus in the south is the highest mountain in the Peloponnese, at 2,407 metres. Οther important mountains include Cyllene in the northeast, Aroania in the north, Erymanthos and Panachaikon in the northwest, Mainalon in the center, the entire peninsula is earthquake prone and has been the site of many earthquakes in the past. The longest river is the Alfeios in the west, followed by the Evrotas in the south, extensive lowlands are found only in the west, with the exception of the Evrotas valley in the south and in the Argolid in the northeast. The Peloponnese is home to spectacular beaches, which are a major tourist draw. Two groups of islands lie off the Peloponnesian coast, the Argo-Saronic Islands to the east, the island of Kythera, off the Epidaurus Limera peninsula to the south of the Peloponnese, is considered to be part of the Ionian Islands. The island of Elafonissos used to be part of the peninsula but was separated following the quake of 365 AD. Since antiquity, and continuing to the present day, the Peloponnese has been divided into seven regions, Achaia, Corinthia, Argolid, Arcadia, Laconia, Messinia. Each of these regions is headed by a city, the largest city is Patras in Achaia, followed by Kalamata in Messinia. The peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times and its modern name derives from ancient Greek mythology, specifically the legend of the hero Pelops, who was said to have conquered the entire region. The name Peloponnesos means Island of Pelops, the Mycenaean civilization, mainland Greeces first major civilization, dominated the Peloponnese in the Bronze Age from its stronghold at Mycenae in the north-east of the peninsula. The Mycenean civilization collapsed suddenly at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, archeological research has found that many of its cities and palaces show signs of destruction. The subsequent period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, is marked by an absence of written records
Peloponnese
–
The
Corinth Canal separates the Peloponnese from mainland Greece.
Peloponnese
–
Landscape of
Arcadia
Peloponnese
–
Map of the Peloponnese of
Classical Antiquity.
27.
Ionian Islands under Venetian rule
–
The Ionian Islands were a maritime and overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from the mid-14th century until the late 18th century. The conquest of the islands took place gradually, the first to be acquired was Cythera and the neighboring islet of Anticythera, indirectly in 1238 and directly after 1363. In 1386, Corfu voluntarily became part of Venices colonies, following a century, Venice captured Zante in 1485, Cephalonia in 1500 and Ithaca in 1503. The conquest was completed in 1718 with the capture of Lefkada, each of the islands remained part of the Venetian Stato da Màr until Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the Republic of Venice in 1797. The Ionian Islands are situated in the Ionian Sea, off the west coast of Greece, Cythera, the southernmost, is just off the southern tip of the Peloponnese and Corfu, the northernmost, is located at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea. In modern Greek, the period of Venetian rule over Greek territory is known as Venetokratia or Enetokratia and it is believed that the Venetian period on the Ionian Islands was agreeable, especially compared with the coinciding Turkish rule over other parts of present-day Greece. The governor of the Ionian Islands during the Venetian period was the Provveditore generale da Mar, additionally, each islands authorities were divided into the Venetian and the domestic authorities. The economy of the islands was based on exporting local goods, primarily raisins, olive oil and wine, whereas Venetian lira, the currency of Venice, was also the currency of the islands. Some features of the culture of Venice were incorporated in the culture of the Ionian Islands, thus influencing to this day local music, cuisine and language. The Italian language, for instance, which was introduced on the islands as the language and was adopted by the upper class, is still popular today throughout the islands. Venice was founded in 421 after the destruction of communities by the Huns. During Justinian Is reconquest of Italy from the Visigoths, Venice was an important stronghold for the Empires Exarchate of Ravenna. The political centre of the exarchate, and the most senior officials of the Empire, were situated in Ravenna. The subordinate military officials who were their representatives in the Venetian lagoons were called tribunes, despite the Pax Nicephori, which recognised Venice as Byzantine territory, the influence of the Eastern Roman Emperor slowly faded away. By 814 Venice functioned as an independent republic. Even so, Venice became a partner of the Empire and trading privileges were granted to it by the Emperors via treaties, as Venice was one of the participants in the Crusade its relations with the Byzantine Empire were strained during this period. Efforts to improve relations, for example through the Nicaean–Venetian Treaty of 1219, a period of friendly relations only followed the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, when Venice, foreseeing the fall of Charles, the French King of Sicily, began forming closer relations with Byzantium. Venice had been bound by an alliance with Charles against Byzantium in 1281, the Islands were referred to, both individually and collectively, by various names
Ionian Islands under Venetian rule
–
The Ionian Islands in green. Map of 1785, when the Islands were still part of the
Venetian Republic.
Ionian Islands under Venetian rule
–
Flag of the Republic of Venice
Ionian Islands under Venetian rule
–
View of Venice in 1565.
Ionian Islands under Venetian rule
–
A ca. 1690 Venetian map of Isola di Corfu: posseduta dalla Serenissima Republica di Venetia. The map shows the fortresses of Corfu surrounded by wreaths and ribbons. Angelokastro is indicated as "Castello S. Angelo" in a ribbon below the top right wreath of the map.
28.
Great Turkish War
–
The war was a defeat for the Ottoman Empire, which lost large amounts of territory in Central Europe. The war was significant in that it marked the first time Russia was involved in a western European alliance. After Bohdan Khmelnytskys rebellion, when the Tsardom of Russia acquired parts of Eastern Ukraine from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and their leader, Petro Doroshenko, wanted to connect the rest of Ukraine with the Ottoman Empire, starting a rebellion against Hetman John Sobieski. Sultan Mehmed IV, who knew that the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was weakened due to conflicts, attacked Kamianets-Podilskyi. The small Polish force resisted the Siege of Kamenets for two weeks but was forced to capitulate. The Polish Army was too small to resist the Ottoman invasion, after three months, the Poles were forced to sign the Treaty of Buchach in which they agreed to surrender Kamyanets-Podilsky, Podolia and to pay tribute to the Ottoman Sultan. When the news about the defeat and treaty terms reached Warsaw, the Sejm refused to pay the tribute and organized an army under Jan Sobieski, subsequently. After King Michaels death in 1673, Jan Sobieski was elected king of Poland, he tried to defeat the Ottomans for four years. The war ended on 17 October 1676 with the Treaty of Żurawno in which the Turks only retained control over Kamianets-Podilskyi and this Turkish attack also led in 1676 to the beginning of the Russo-Turkish Wars. After a few years of peace, the Ottoman Empire attacked the Habsburg Empire, the Turks almost captured Vienna, but John III Sobieski led a Christian alliance that defeated them in the Battle of Vienna, stalling the Ottoman Empires hegemony in south-eastern Europe. A new Holy League was initiated by Pope Innocent XI and encompassed the Holy Roman Empire, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the second Battle of Mohács was a crushing defeat for the Sultan. The Turks were more successful on the Polish front and were able to retain Podolia during their battles with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, russias involvement marked the first time the country formally joined an alliance of European powers. This was the beginning of a series of Russo-Turkish Wars, which continued into the 20th century, as a result of the Crimean campaigns and Azov campaigns, Russia captured the key Ottoman fortress of Azov. Following the decisive Battle of Zenta in 1697 and lesser skirmishes, the Ottomans ceded most of Hungary, Transylvania and Slavonia to the Habsburg Empire while Podolia returned to Poland. Most of Dalmatia passed to Venice, along with the Morea, Serbs, as volunteers, massively joined the Austrian side. In the first half of 1688, the Habsburg army, together with units of Serbian Militia, captured Gyula, Lipova and Ineu from the Ottoman Empire. After Belgrade had been liberated from the Ottomans in 1688, Serbs from the territories in the south of Sava and Danube rivers began to join Serbian Militia units. However, with the rise of the Ottomans, during the 16th and early 17th centuries, they lost most of these, such as Cyprus and Euboea to the Turks
Great Turkish War
–
Sobieski at Vienna by
Juliusz Kossak
29.
Serbian Revolution
–
The first part of the period, from 1804 to 1815, was marked by a violent struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire with two armed uprisings taking place, ending with a ceasefire. The adoption of the first written Constitution in 1835 abolished feudalism and serfdom, the term Serbian Revolution was coined by a German academic historiographer, Leopold von Ranke, in his book Die Serbische Revolution, published in 1829. These events marked the foundation of modern Serbia and it called for national unity, drawing on Serbian history to demand the freedom of religion and formal, written rule of law, both of which the Ottoman Empire had failed to provide. It also called on Serbs to stop paying taxes to the Porte, in 1830 and again in 1833, Serbia was recognized as an autonomous principality, with hereditary princes paying annual tribute to the Porte. Finally, de facto independence came in 1868, with the withdrawal of Ottoman garrisons from the principality, during the Austrian occupation of Serbia, many Serbs served as soldiers and officers in Habsburg armies, where they acquired knowledge about military tactics, organization and weapons. Others were employed in administrative offices in Hungary or in the occupied zone and they began to travel in search of trade and education, and were exposed to European ideas about secular society, politics, law and philosophy, including both rationalism and Romanticism. There they met with the values of the French Revolution, which affect a lot of Serbian merchants. There was an active Serbian community in southern Habsburg Empire, from where ideas made their way southwards, another role model was the Russian Empire, the only independent Slavic and Orthodox country, which had recently reformed itself and was now a serious menace to the Turks. The Russian experience implied hope for Serbia, other Serbian thinkers found strengths in the Serbian nation itself. Two top Serbian scholars were influenced by Western learning to turn their attention to Serbias own language, one was Dositej Obradović, a former priest who left for Western Europe. Shocked that his people had no modern secular literature, he assembled grammars and dictionaries to create a modern Serbian language, wrote some books himself, others followed his lead and revived tales of Serbias medieval glory. He later became the first Minister of Education of modern Serbia, the second figure was Vuk Karadžić. Vuk was less influenced by Enlightenment rationalism like Dositej Obradović and more by Romanticism which romanticized rural, Vuk collected and published Serbian epic poetry, work that helped to build Serbian awareness of a common identity based in shared customs and shared history. This kind of linguistic and cultural self-awareness was a feature of German nationalism in this period. During almost 5-10 years of the First Serbian Uprising, Serbia perceived itself as an independent state for the first time after 300 years of Ottoman, encouraged by the Russian Empire, the demands for self-government within Ottoman Empire in 1804 evolved into a war for independence by 1807. Combining patriarchal peasant democracy with modern national goals the Serbian revolution was attracting thousands of volunteers among the Serbs from across the Balkans, the Serbian Revolution ultimately became a symbol of the nation-building process in the Balkans, provoking peasant unrests among the Christians in both Greece and Bulgaria. Following the successful siege with 25,000 men, on 8 January 1807 the charismatic leader of the revolt Karađorđe Petrović proclaimed Belgrade the capital of Serbia. Serbs responded to the Ottoman brutalities by establishing its separate institutions, Governing Council, the Great Academy, Karađorđe and other revolutionary leaders sent their children to the Great Academy, which had among its students also Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, the famous reformer of the Serbian alphabet
Serbian Revolution
–
Battle of Mišar (1806), painting by Afanasij Šeloumov
Serbian Revolution
–
Karađorđe Petrović (Black George) leader of the
First Serbian Uprising.
Serbian Revolution
–
The Skull Tower, built by Ottomans near
Niš, 1809. Made out of Serbian revolutionairies' skulls.
Serbian Revolution
–
Miloš Obrenović, leader of the
Second Serbian Uprising and the first
Prince of Serbia
30.
Greek War of Independence
–
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1832 against the Ottoman Empire. Even several decades before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, during this time, there were several revolt attempts by Greeks to gain independence from Ottoman control. In 1814, an organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities, the first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821 and this declaration was the start of a spring of revolutionary actions from other controlled states against the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in revolt against the Turks and by October 1821. The Peloponnesian revolt was followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea, tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. In the meantime, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese, and Athens had been retaken. Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers—Russia, Britain and France—decided to intervene in the conflict and each sent a navy to Greece. Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the battle began after a tense week-long standoff, ending in the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet. As a result of years of negotiation, Greece was finally recognized as an independent nation in the Treaty of Constantinople of May 1832, the Revolution is celebrated by the modern Greek state as a national day on 25 March. The Fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and the subsequent fall of the states of the Byzantine Empire marked the end of Byzantine sovereignty. After that, the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans and Anatolia, Orthodox Christians were granted some political rights under Ottoman rule, but they were considered inferior subjects. The majority of Greeks were called Rayah by the Turks, a name referred to the large mass of non-Muslim subjects under the Ottoman ruling class. Demetrius Chalcondyles called on Venice and all of the Latins to aid the Greeks against the abominable, monstrous, however, Greece was to remain under Ottoman rule for several more centuries. The Greek Revolution was not an event, numerous failed attempts at regaining independence took place throughout the history of the Ottoman era. Throughout the 17th century there was resistance to the Ottomans in the Morea and elsewhere
Greek War of Independence
–
Theodoros Vryzakis (oil painting, 1852,
Benaki Museum, Athens) illustrates Bishop
Germanos of old
Patras blessing the Greek banner at
Agia Lavra on the outset of the national revolt against the Turks on 25 March 1821.
Greek War of Independence
–
Portrait of a Greek armatolos by
Richard Parkes Bonington (oil painting, 1825–1826, Benaki Museum).
Greek War of Independence
–
Adamantios Korais
31.
Russo-Turkish wars
–
The Russo-Turkish wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of conflicts in European history. The latters pro-Ottoman policy caused discontent among many Ukrainian Cossacks, who would elect Ivan Samoilovich as a sole Hetman of all Ukraine in 1674. In 1679–80, the Russians repelled the attacks of the Crimean Tatars and signed the Treaty of Bakhchisarai on January 3,1681, Russia had joined the European Holy League in 1686. During the war, the Russian army organized the Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689, the Russian involvement marked the beginning of the Russo-Turkish Wars. The gains by both were confirmed in the Treaty of Constantinople, for a few years, both would border each other through a large territory in the Caucasus now as well, which caused further frictions. The treaties made in 1732 and 1735, had other diplomatically favourable aspects as it included an Russo-Iranian alliance against Turkey as well, as Persia was at war with Ottoman Empire in 1730–1735. In the meantime Russia also was supporting the accession to the Polish throne of Augustus III in 1735 instead of the French protégé Stanisław Leszczyński, Austria was Russias ally since 1726. The casus belli was the raids of the Crimean Tatars on Ukraine in the end of 1735, in 1736, the Russian commanders envisioned the seizure of Azov and the Crimea. On June 19, the Russian Don army under the command of General Peter Lacy with the support from the Don Flotilla under the command of Vice Admiral Peter Bredahl seized the fortress of Azov, in July 1737, the Münnich army took by storm the Ottoman fortress of Ochakov. The Lacy army marched into the Crimea the same month, inflicting a number of defeats on the army of the Crimean khan, however, Lacy and his soldiers had to leave the Crimea due to lack of supplies. In July 1737, Austria entered the war against Turkey, but was defeated a number of times, in August, Russia, Austria and Turkey began negotiations in Nemirov, which would turn out to be fruitless. There were no significant military operations in 1738, the Russian army had to leave Ochakov and Kinburn due to the plague outbreak. In 1739, the Münnich army crossed the Dnieper, defeated the Ottoman Empire at Stavuchany and occupied the fortress of Khotin, however, Austria was defeated by the Ottoman Empire once again and signed a separate peace treaty on August 21. This, coupled with the imminent threat of the Swedish invasion, forced Russia to sign the Belgrade Peace Treaty with Turkey on September 18, following this border incident at Balta, Sultan Mustafa III declared war on Russia on September 25,1768. The Turks formed the alliance with the Polish oppositionary forces of the Bar Confederation, while Russia was supported by the United Kingdom, the naval operations of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Mediterranean yielded victories under the command of Aleksey Grigoryevich Orlov. In 1771, Egypt and Syria rebelled against the Ottoman rule, while the Russian fleet totally destroyed the Ottoman Navy. On July 21,1774, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, according to which the Crimean Khanate formally gained its independence, Russia received the contribution of 4.5 million rubles and two key seaports allowing the direct access to the Black Sea
Russo-Turkish wars
–
Russian and
Cossack troops take the fortress of
Khadjibey, defeating the Ottomans and thus providing the impetus to found
Odessa.
Russo-Turkish wars
–
Ottoman losses in the Balkans after the Crimean War, from Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe, by J. G. Bartholomew, 1912
Russo-Turkish wars
–
Russian and Bulgarian
defence of Shipka Pass against Turkish troops was crucial for the independence of
Bulgaria.
32.
First Balkan War
–
The First Balkan War, lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and comprised actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, as a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albania, despite its success, Bulgaria was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia, which provoked the start of the Second Balkan War. By 1867, Serbia and Montenegro had both secured independence, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Berlin, the question of the viability of Ottoman rule was revived after the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908, which compelled the Sultan to restore the suspended Ottoman constitution. Serbias aspirations to take over Bosnia and Herzegovina were thwarted by the Bosnian crisis, the Serbs directed their expansionism to the south. Following the annexation, the Young Turks tried to induce the Muslim population of Bosnia to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire and those who took up the offer were re-settled by the Ottoman authorities in districts of northern Macedonia where there were few Muslims. The experiment proved to be a catastrophe for the Empire since the immigrants readily united with the population of Albanian Muslims. They participated in the series of Albanian uprisings before and during the spring Albanian Revolt of 1912, some Albanian government troops switched sides. Serbia, which had helped arm the Albanian Catholic and Hamidian rebels and sent secret agents to some of the prominent leaders, things got so far out of hand that no one was satisfied with the situation in Turkey in Europe. It became unbearable for the Serbs, the Greeks and for the Albanians, by the grace of God, I have therefore ordered my brave army to join in the Holy War to free our brethren and to ensure a better future. To all of them we bring freedom, brotherhood and equality, in a search for allies, Serbia was ready to negotiate a treaty with Bulgaria. The agreement provided that, in the event of victory against the Ottomans, serbias expansion was accepted by Bulgaria as being to the north of the Shar Mountains. The intervening area was agreed to be disputed, it would be arbitrated by the Tsar of Russia in the event of a war against the Ottoman Empire. After the successful coup détat for unification with Eastern Rumelia, Bulgaria began to dream that its national unification would be realized, for that purpose, it developed a large army, and identified as the Prussia of the Balkans. But Bulgaria could not win a war alone against the Ottomans and they also wanted to reverse their defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 by the Ottomans. An emergency military reorganization led by a French military mission had been started for that purpose, in the discussions that led Greece to join the Balkan League, Bulgaria refused to commit to any agreement on the distribution of territorial gains, unlike its deal with Serbia over Macedonia. Bulgarias diplomatic policy was to push Serbia into an agreement limiting its access to Macedonia, Bulgaria believed that its army would be able to occupy the larger part of Aegean Macedonia and the important port city of Salonica before the Greeks. In 1911, Italy had launched an invasion of Tripolitania in present-day Libya, the Italians decisive military victories over the Ottoman Empire encouraged the Balkan states to imagine they might win a war against the Ottomans
First Balkan War
–
Clockwise from top right: Serbian forces entering the town of
Mitrovica; Ottoman troops at the
Battle of Kumanovo; The Greek king and the Bulgarian tsar in
Thessaloniki; Bulgarian heavy artillery
First Balkan War
–
Greek artillerymen with 75 mm field gun.
First Balkan War
–
The armored cruiser
Georgios Averof, flagship of the Greek fleet. At the time, she was the most modern warship involved in the conflict, and played a crucial role in operations in the Aegean Sea.
First Balkan War
–
Ottoman troops during the Balkan Wars
33.
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
–
The foundation and rise of the Ottoman Empire is a period of history that started with the emergence of the Ottoman principality in c. 1299, and ended with the conquest of Constantinople on May 29,1453. For this reason, this period in the history has been described as the Proto-Imperial Era. Throughout most of period, the Ottomans were merely one of many competing states in the region. The cause of Ottoman success cannot be attributed to any single factor, the earlier part of this period, the fourteenth century, is particularly difficult for historians to study due to the scarcity of sources. Not a single written document survives from the reign of Osman I, the Ottomans, furthermore, did not begin to record their own history until the fifteenth century, more than a hundred years after many of the events they describe. At the beginning of the thirteenth century Anatolia was divided between two powerful states, the Byzantine Empire in the west and the Anatolian Seljuks in the central plateau. Mongol pressure pushed nomadic Turkish tribes to migrate westward, into the now poorly-defended Byzantine territory, the power of these groups was largely dependent upon their ability to attract military manpower. Western Anatolia was then a hotbed of raiding activity, with warriors switching allegiance at will to whichever chief seemed most able to provide them opportunities for plunder. The Ottoman dynasty is named after the first independent ruler of the Ottoman polity, according to later Ottoman tradition, he was descended from a Turkic tribe which migrated out of Central Asia in the wake of the Mongol Conquests. As evidenced by coins minted during his reign, Osmans father was named Ertuğrul, the origins of the Ottoman dynasty thus remain obscure, shrouded in myth and legend, and the identity of Osmans tribe and ancestors is not known for certain. Likewise, nothing is known about how Osman first established his principality as the sources, none of contemporary, provide many different. Osmans principality was initially supported by the manpower of nomadic Turkish groups. This Ottoman tribe was based not on blood-ties, but on political expedience, thus it was inclusive of all who wished to join, including people of Byzantine origin. The Ottoman enterprise came to be led by several great families, at least one of which was of Greek Christian origin. Nevertheless, Islam played a role in Ottoman self-identity from the start, as evidenced by a land grant issued by Osmans son Orhan in 1324. Such a war was known as gaza, and a fighting in it was called a gazi. Beginning in the 1980s, historians began to criticize Witteks thesis. Scholars now recognize that the terms gaza and gazi did not have religious connotations for the early Ottomans
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
–
The Ottoman advance after the Battle of Maritsa
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
–
Battle on Kosovo, by Adam Stefanovic, 1870
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
–
Battle of Nicopolis (1396)
34.
Fall of Constantinople
–
The Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by an invading army of the Ottoman Empire on 29 May 1453. The Ottomans were commanded by the then 21-year-old Mehmed the Conqueror, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Constantinople followed a 53-day siege that had begun on 6 April 1453, the capture of Constantinople marked the end of the Roman Empire, an imperial state that had lasted for nearly 1,500 years. The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople also dealt a blow to Christendom. After the conquest, Sultan Mehmed II transferred the capital of the Ottoman Empire from Edirne to Constantinople. The conquest of the city of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire was a key event in the Late Middle Ages, which also marks, for some historians, Constantinople had been an imperial capital since its consecration in 330 under Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great. In the following centuries, the city had been besieged many times but was captured only once. The crusaders established an unstable Latin state in and around Constantinople while the remaining empire splintered into a number of Byzantine successor states, notably Nicaea, Epirus and they fought as allies against the Latin establishments, but also fought among themselves for the Byzantine throne. The Nicaeans eventually reconquered Constantinople from the Latins in 1261, thereafter there was little peace for the much-weakened empire as it fended off successive attacks by the Latins, the Serbians, the Bulgarians, and, most importantly, the Ottoman Turks. The Black Plague between 1346 and 1349 killed almost half of the inhabitants of Constantinople, the Empire of Trebizond, an independent successor state that formed in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, also survived on the coast of the Black Sea. This optimism was reinforced by friendly assurances made by Mehmed to envoys sent to his new court, but Mehmeds actions spoke far louder than his mild words. Since the mutual excommunications of 1054, the Pope in Rome was committed to establishing authority over the eastern church, nominal union had been negotiated in 1274, at the Second Council of Lyon, and indeed, some Palaiologoi emperors had since been received into the Latin church. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos had also recently negotiated union with Pope Eugene IV, finally, the attempted Union failed, greatly annoying Pope Nicholas V and the hierarchy of the Roman church. Although some troops did arrive from the city states in the north of Italy. Some Western individuals, however, came to defend the city on their own account. One of these was a soldier from Genoa, Giovanni Giustiniani. A specialist in defending walled cities, he was given the overall command of the defense of the land walls by the emperor. In Venice, meanwhile, deliberations were taking place concerning the kind of assistance the Republic would lend to Constantinople
Fall of Constantinople
–
The last siege of Constantinople, contemporary 15th century French miniature
Fall of Constantinople
–
Restored Walls of Constantinople
Fall of Constantinople
–
Modern painting of
Mehmed II and the
Ottoman Army approaching
Constantinople with a giant bombard, by
Fausto Zonaro
Fall of Constantinople
–
A picture of the Fall of Constantinople by
Theophilos Hatzimihail.
35.
Mehmed the Conqueror
–
Mehmed II, commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, was an Ottoman sultan who ruled first for a short time from August 1444 to September 1446, and later from February 1451 to May 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Eastern Roman Empire, Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far west as Bosnia. Mehmed is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world, among other things, Istanbuls Fatih district, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Fatih Mosque are named after him. Mehmed II was born on 30 March 1432, in Edirne and his father was Sultan Murad II and his mother Hüma Valide Hatun, born in the town of Devrekani, Kastamonu. When Mehmed II was eleven years old he was sent to Amasya to govern and thus gain experience, Sultan Murad II also sent a number of teachers for him to study under. This Islamic education had an impact in molding Mehmeds mindset. He was influenced in his practice of Islamic epistemology by practitioners of science - particularly by his mentor, Molla Gürani -, after Murad II made peace with the Karamanids in Anatolia in August 1444, he abdicated the throne to his 12-year-old son Mehmed II. In Mehmed IIs first reign, he defeated the crusade led by János Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce Peace of Szeged. Cardinal Julian Cesarini, the representative of the pope, had convinced the king of Hungary that breaking the truce with Muslims was not a betrayal, at this time Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne, but Murad II refused. Angry at his father, who had long retired to a contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia, Mehmed II wrote, If you are the Sultan, come. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and it was only after receiving this letter that Murad II led the Ottoman army and won the Battle of Varna in 1444. When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451 he devoted himself to strengthening the Ottoman navy, having completed his fortresses, Mehmed proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard bearer of Muhammad, had died during the first Siege of Constantinople, as Mehmed IIs army approached Constantinople, Mehmeds sheikh Akshamsaddin discovered the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. After the conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site to emphasize the importance of the conquest to the Islamic world, in early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. At first, the walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmeds army used the new bombard designed by Orban. The harbor of the Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain, thus the Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of the walls. About a month later, Constantinople fell, on 29 May, after this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople. The contemporary scholar George of Trebizond supported his claim, the claim was recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church, but not by the Catholic Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe
Mehmed the Conqueror
–
Sultan Mehmed II smelling a rose, from the Sarayı Albums, c. 1480 CE
Mehmed the Conqueror
Mehmed the Conqueror
–
Accession of Mehmed II in
Edirne, 1451
Mehmed the Conqueror
–
Sultan Mehmed II's entry into
Constantinople, painting by
Fausto Zonaro (1854-1929)
36.
Fall of Gallipoli
–
The Fall of Gallipoli was the siege and capture of the Gallipoli fortress and peninsula, until then under Byzantine rule, by the Ottoman Turks in March 1354. After suffering a half-century of defeats at the hands of the Ottomans, access to the Aegean and Marmara seas meant that the Ottomans could now implement the conquest of the southern Balkans, and could advance further north into Serbia and Hungary. On 2 March 1354, the area was struck by an earthquake that destroyed hundreds of villages, nearly every building in Gallipoli was destroyed, causing the Greek inhabitants to evacuate the city. Within a month, Süleyman Pasha seized the site, quickly fortifying it, john VI offered cash payments to the Ottoman sultan Orhan to vacate the city, but was refused. The sultan reportedly said he had not taken the city by force, panic spread throughout Constantinople as many believed that the Turks would soon be coming for the city itself. Because of this, Kantakouzenoss position became unstable, and he was overthrown in November 1354, Gallipoli was to become the major bridgehead into Europe through which the Ottomans would facilitate further expansion into Europe. In less than ten years, nearly all of Byzantine Thrace had fallen to the Turks, including Adrianople
Fall of Gallipoli
–
The Byzantine and Ottoman Empires within a year of the occupation of Gallipoli
37.
Byzantine Empire
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
Byzantine Empire
–
Tremissis with the image of
Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) (see
Byzantine insignia)
Byzantine Empire
–
Byzantine
lamellar armour klivanium (Κλιβάνιον) - a predecessor of Ottoman krug
mirror armour
Byzantine Empire
–
The Baptism of Constantine painted by
Raphael 's pupils (1520–1524,
fresco, Vatican City,
Apostolic Palace);
Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as
was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving
baptism until shortly before his death
Byzantine Empire
–
Restored section of the Theodosian Walls.
38.
Constantinople
–
Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
Constantinople
–
Constantinople in the Byzantine era
Constantinople
–
Map of Byzantine Constantinople
Constantinople
–
Emperor
Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic.
Hagia Sophia, c. 1000
Constantinople
–
Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople
39.
Battle of Varna
–
The Battle of Varna took place on 10 November 1444 near Varna in eastern Bulgaria. The Ottoman Army under Sultan Murad II defeated the Hungarian-Polish and Wallachian armies commanded by Władysław III of Poland, John Hunyadi and it was the final battle of the Crusade of Varna. Đurađ Branković contributed to Ottoman victory by giving the Sultan information on the Christian advance, the Hungarian Kingdom fell into crisis after the death of King Sigismund in 1437. His son-in-law and successor, King Albert, ruled for two years and died in 1439, leaving his widow Elizabeth with an unborn child, Ladislaus the Posthumous. The Hungarian noblemen then called the young King Władysław III of Poland to the throne of Hungary, after his Hungarian coronation, he never went back to his homeland again, assuming rule of the Hungarian Kingdom next to the influential nobleman John Hunyadi. After failed expeditions in 1440–42 against Belgrade and Transylvania, and the defeats of the campaign of Hunyadi in 1442–43. After he had made peace with the Karaman Emirate in Anatolia in August 1444, on receipt of this news, Mehmet II understood that he was too young and inexperienced to successfully fight the coalition. He recalled Murad II to the throne to lead the army into battle, angry at his father, who had long since retired to a contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia, Mehmed II wrote, If you are the Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and it was only after receiving this letter that Murad II agreed to lead the Ottoman army. The Hungarian advance was rapid, Ottoman fortresses were bypassed, while local Bulgarians from Vidin, Oryahovo, on October 10 near Nicopolis, some 7,000 Wallachian cavalrymen under Mircea II, one of Vlad Draculs sons, also joined. Late on November 9, a large Ottoman army of around 50,000 men approached Varna from the west, at a supreme military council called by Hunyadi during the night, the Papal legate, cardinal Julian Cesarini, insisted on a quick withdrawal. However, the Christians were caught between the Black Sea, Lake Varna, the wooded slopes of the Franga plateau. Cesarini then proposed a defense using the Wagenburg of the Hussites until the arrival of the Christian fleet, the Hungarian magnates and the Croatian and Czech commanders backed him, but the young Władysław and Hunyadi rejected the defensive tactics. Hunyadi declared, To escape is impossible, to surrender is unthinkable, let us fight with bravery and honor our arms. Władysław accepted this position and gave him the command, andreas del Palatio states that Hunyadi commanded the Wallachian army indicating a large Romanian component in Hunyadis personal army. In the morning of November 10, Hunyadi deployed the army of some 20,000 –30,000 crusaders as an arc between Lake Varna and the Franga plateau, the line was about 3.5 km long. Two banners with a total of 3,500 men from the kings Polish and Hungarian bodyguards, Hungarian royal mercenaries, the Wallachian cavalry was left in reserve behind the center. The right flank that lined up the hill towards the village of Kamenar numbered 6,500 men in 5 banners, Bishop Jan Dominek of Varadin with his personal banner led the force, Cesarini commanded a banner of German mercenaries and a Bosnian one
Battle of Varna
–
Władysław III of Poland leading the
cavalry charge, by
Jan Matejko
Battle of Varna
Battle of Varna
–
Michael Szilágyi
Battle of Varna
–
A scene from the Battle of Varna (1444) on the Kronika wszystkiego świata of
Marcin Bielski, published in 1564.
40.
Second Battle of Kosovo
–
The Second Battle of Kosovo was fought at Kosovo Polje between a coalition of the Kingdom of Hungary and Wallachia led by John Hunyadi, against an Ottoman-led coalition under Sultan Murad II. The result of the battle was a decisive Ottoman victory, in 1448, John Hunyadi saw the right moment to lead a campaign against the Ottoman Empire. After the defeat at the Battle of Varna, he raised another army to attack the Ottomans and his strategy was based on an expected revolt of the Balkan people, a surprise attack, and the destruction of the main force of the Ottomans in a single battle. In September 1448 Hunyadi led the Hungarian forces across the Danube river and camped them in Serbia next to Kovin, for a full month the Hungarians were encamped there awaiting the German crusaders, the Wallachian Duke as well as the Bohemian and Albanian army. The Albanian army under Skanderbeg did not participate in battle as he was prevented from linking with Hunyadis army by the Ottomans. It is believed that he was delayed by Serbian despot Đurađ Branković, then allied with Sultan Murad II, as a result, Skanderbeg ravaged Brankovićs domains as punishment for deserting the Christian cause. Branković reacted ambiguously at the trespassing and negotiated the terms of joining the Crusade against the Ottomans over that period of time. Branković was weary, having had his realm restored after a full-scale Ottoman occupation only in 1444, Despot Branković was also unwilling to set himself under Hunyadis command under any condition, as he personally disliked him, considering him of lower stature. The central point of the dispute between Hunyadi and Branković was their personal quarrel and this had included gifting Hunyadi with the his possessions in the Hungarian Kingdom in favor of a pacifist approach. After Hunyadi eventually joined the side, Branković had asked for the return of his properties. The Serbian rejection and positioning as a side had led to Hunyadis fury. At the end of the negotiations, Hunyadi had threatened to kill Branković in person after his country was occupied, in late September 1448, Hunyadi had amassed 30,000 men and moved southwards. The Crusaders pillaged and burned across Serbia, but the Serb Despot gave an order of free passage. The Crusaders, numbering possibly 24,000, arrived at Kosovo Field – the site of the first Battle of Kosovo in 1389, between Serbs and Ottomans – and faced an Ottoman army of up to 60,000. Sultan Murad personally commanded a section of cannons and janissaries, while his son and successor Mehmed. Hunyadi commanded the center of his army in the battle, while the Crusaders right wing was under the Wallachians, the Hungarians had long barrage cannons. The next day the battle opened when Hunyadi attacked the Ottoman flanks with mixed cavalry, the Turkish flanks, consisting of soldiers from Rumelia and Anatolia, were losing until Turkish light cavalry arrived to reinforce them. The Christian flanks were subsequently routed and the survivors retreated back to Hunyadis main force, when Hunyadi saw the defeat of his flanks, he attacked with his main force, composed of knights and light infantry
Second Battle of Kosovo
–
An
Akıncı irregular defeating a Hungarian knight.
41.
Byzantine Greeks
–
Throughout the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified as Rhōmaîoi and Graikoí, but are referred to as Byzantines and Byzantine Greeks in modern historiography. The terms Byzantine Empire and Byzantine Greeks were first coined in the English language in 1857 by British historian George Finlay, the social structure of the Byzantine Greeks was primarily supported by a rural, agrarian base that consisted of the peasantry, and a small fraction of the poor. These peasants lived within three kinds of settlements, the chorion or village, the agridion or hamlet, and the proasteion or estate. Many civil disturbances that occurred during the time of the Byzantine Empire were attributed to political factions within the Empire rather than to large popular base. Soldiers among the Byzantine Greeks were at first conscripted amongst the rural peasants, as the Byzantine Empire entered the 11th century, more of the soldiers within the army were either professional men-at-arms or mercenaries. Until the twelfth century, education within the Byzantine Greek population was more advanced than in the West, particularly at primary school level, success came easily to Byzantine Greek merchants, who enjoyed a very strong position in international trade. Despite the challenges posed by rival Italian merchants, they held their own throughout the half of the Byzantine Empires existence. The clergy also held a place, not only having more freedom than their Western counterparts. This position of strength had built up over time, for at the beginning of the Byzantine Empire, under Emperor Constantine the Great, only a part, about 10%. The language of the Byzantine Greeks since the age of Constantine had been Greek, from the reign of Emperor Heraclius, Greek was the predominant language amongst the populace and also replaced Latin in administration. Over time, the relationship between them and the West, particularly with Latin Europe, deteriorated, relations were further damaged by a schism between the Catholic West and Orthodox East that led to the Byzantine Greeks being labeled as heretics in the West. However, the Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, during most of the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified as Rhōmaîoi, a term which in the Greek language had become synonymous with Christian Greeks. The ancient name Hellenes was in popular use synonymous to pagan and was revived as an ethnonym in the Middle Byzantine period, the term Byzantines or Byzantine Greeks is an exonym applied by later historians like Hieronymus Wolf, the Byzantines continued to call themselves Romaioi in their language. Most historians agree that the features of their civilization were, 1) Greek language, culture, literature. The Eastern Roman Empire was in language and civilization a Greek society, the term Byzantine has been adopted by Western scholarship on the assumption that anything Roman is essentially Western. However, modern Greeks still use the ethnonyms Romaioi and Graikoi to refer to themselves, as well as the terms Romaica, byzantinist August Heisenberg defined the Byzantine Empire as the Christianised Roman empire of the Greek nation. Byzantium was primarily known as the Empire of the Greeks by Western Europeans due to the predominance of Greek linguistic, cultural, many Greek Orthodox populations, particularly those outside the newly independent modern Greek state, continued to refer to themselves as Romioi well into the 20th century. Some of the children ran to see what Greek soldiers looked like
Byzantine Greeks
–
Byzantine culture
Byzantine Greeks
–
The
double-headed eagle, emblem of the
Palaiologos dynasty.
Byzantine Greeks
–
Soldier wearing the lamellar klivanion cuirass and a straight spathion sword.
Byzantine Greeks
–
A page of 5th or 6th century
Iliad like the one a grammarian might possess.
42.
Despotate of the Morea
–
The Despotate of the Morea or Despotate of Mystras was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centuries. The territory was ruled by one or more sons of the current Byzantine emperor. Its capital was the city of Mystras, near ancient Sparta. The Despotate of the Morea was created out of territory seized from the Frankish Principality of Achaea and this had been organized from former Byzantine territory after the Fourth Crusade. In 1259, the Principalitys ruler William II Villehardouin lost the Battle of Pelagonia against the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, William was forced to ransom himself by surrendering most of the eastern part of Morea and his newly built strongholds. The surrendered territory became the nucleus of the Despotate of Morea, a later Byzantine emperor, John VI Kantakouzenos, reorganized the territory during the mid-14th century to establish it as an appanage for his son, the Despot Manuel Kantakouzenos. The rival Palaiologos dynasty seized the Morea after Manuels death in 1380, Theodore ruled until 1407, consolidating Byzantine rule and coming to terms with his more powerful neighbours—particularly the expansionist Ottoman Empire, whose suzerainty he recognised. He also sought to reinvigorate the economy by inviting Albanians to settle in the territory. Subsequent despots were the sons of the Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, brother of the despot Theodore, Constantine, Demetrios, however, in 1446 the Ottoman Sultan Murad II destroyed the Byzantine defences—the Hexamilion wall at the Isthmus of Corinth. His attack opened the peninsula to invasion, though Murad died before he could exploit this and his successor Mehmed II the Conqueror captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople in 1453. The despots, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos, brothers of the last emperor, failed to send him any aid and their own incompetence resulted in an Albanian–Greek revolt against them, during which they invited in Ottoman troops to help them put down the revolt. At this time, a number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with Mehmed, Demetrios ended up a prisoner of the Ottomans and his younger brother Thomas fled. By the end of the summer the Ottomans had achieved the submission of all cities possessed by the Greeks. A few holdouts remained for a time, the rocky peninsula of Monemvasia refused to surrender and it was first ruled for a brief time by a Catalan corsair. When the population drove him out they obtained the consent of Thomas to submit to the Popes protection before the end of 1460, the Mani Peninsula, on the Moreas south end, resisted under a loose coalition of the local clans and then that area came under Venices rule. The very last holdout was Salmeniko, in the Moreas northwest, Graitzas Palaiologos was the military commander there, stationed at Salmeniko Castle. While the town surrendered, Graitzas and his garrison and some town residents held out in the castle until July 1461. Thus ended the last of the Byzantine Empire proper, after 1461 the only non-Ottoman territories were possessed by Venice, the port cities of Modon and Koroni at the southern end of the Morea, the Argolid with Argos, and the port of Nafplion
Despotate of the Morea
–
The Byzantine Empire and the Latin and other states resulting from the Fourth Crusade, as they were in 1265. The Byzantine province of the Morea is also shown. (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911).
Despotate of the Morea
–
The Despotate of the Morea in 1450, divided between the two brothers,
Thomas and
Demetrios Palaiologos
43.
Empire of Trebizond
–
The Empire of Trebizond or the Trapezuntine Empire was a monarchy that flourished during the 13th through 15th centuries, consisting of the far northeastern corner of Anatolia and the southern Crimea. The Emperors of Trebizond pressed their claim on the Imperial throne for decades after the Nicaean reconquest of Constantinople in 1261, the Trapezuntine monarchy survived the longest of the Byzantine successor states. The Despotate of Epirus was slowly decimated, and briefly occupied by the restored Byzantine Empire c. 1340, thereafter becoming a Serbian dependency and later inherited by Italians, ultimately falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1479, having long ceased to contest the Byzantine throne. While the Empire of Nicaea had become the resurrected Byzantine Empire, the Empire of Trebizond continued until 1461 when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered it after a month-long siege and took its ruler and his family into captivity. The Crimean Principality of Theodoro, an offshoot of Trebizond, lasted another 14 years and its demographic legacy endured for several centuries after the Ottoman conquest in 1461 and the region retained a substantial number of Greek Orthodox inhabitants until 1923. These are usually referred to as Pontic Greeks and their displacement was formalized, and the few still remaining were required to leave, in 1923 with the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Many were resettled in Greek Macedonia and those living in the Crimea and the Russian province of Kars Oblast, much of which lies in modern Georgia, stayed longer, with some Greek speaking villages remaining in both locations today. Anthony Bryer has argued that six of the seven banda of the Byzantine theme of Chaldia were maintained in working order by the rulers of Trebizond until the end of the empire, helped by geography. This territory corresponds to an area comprising all or parts of the modern Turkish provinces of Sinop, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Rize, and Artvin. In the 13th century, some believe the empire controlled the Gazarian Perateia. However, after Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople in 1261, in 1282, John II Komnenos stripped off his imperial regalia before the walls of Constantinople before entering to marry Michaels daughter and accept his legal title of despot. However, his successors used a version of his title, Emperor and Autocrat of the entire East, of the Iberians, rulers of Trebizond were also known as Prince of Lazes. Its wealth and exotic location endowed a lingering fame on the polity, cervantes described the eponymous hero of his Don Quixote as imagining himself for the valour of his arm already crowned at least Emperor of Trebizond. Rabelais had his character Picrochole, the ruler of Piedmont, declare, other allusions and works set in Trebizond continue into the 20th century. The city of Trebizond was the capital of the theme of Chaldia, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos confirmed him as governor of Chaldia, but kept his son at Constantinople as a hostage for his good conduct. Nevertheless, Gabras proved himself a worthy guardian by repelling a Georgian attack on Trebizond, one of his successors, Gregory Taronites also rebelled with the aid of the Sultan of Cappadocia, but he was defeated and imprisoned, only to be made governor once more. Another successor to Theodore was Constantine Gabras, whom Niketas describes as ruling Trebizond as a tyrant, although that effort came to nothing, this was the last rebel governor known to recorded history prior to the events of 1204. Henceforth, the links between Trebizond and Georgia remained close, but their nature and extent have been disputed, both men were the grandsons of the last Komnenian Byzantine emperor, Andronikos I Komnenos, by his son Manuel Komnenos and Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia
Empire of Trebizond
–
Alexios III, from the
chrysobull he granted to the
Dionysiou monastery on
Mount Athos.
Empire of Trebizond
–
Empire of Trebizond (violet) and surrounding states in 1300
Empire of Trebizond
–
A 14th-century miniature Greek manuscript depicting
Byzantine Greek soldiers from the Empire of Trebizond.
Empire of Trebizond
–
Manuel I Megas Komnenos, "The Great Captain", "The Most Fortunate"
44.
Ottoman Greece
–
Most of the areas which today are within modern Greeces borders were at some point in the past a part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman advance into Greece was preceded by victory over the Serbs to its north, first, the Ottomans won the Battle of Maritsa in 1371. The Serb forces were led by the King Vukasin Mrnjavcevic, the father of Prince Marko. This was followed by another Ottoman victory in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, with no further threat by the Serbs and the subsequent Byzantine civil wars, the Ottomans besieged and took Constantinople in 1453 and then advanced southwards into Greece, capturing Athens in 1458. The mountains of Greece were largely untouched, and were a refuge for Greeks who desired to flee Ottoman rule, the Cyclades islands, in the middle of the Aegean, were officially annexed by the Ottomans in 1579, although they were under vassal status since the 1530s. Cyprus fell in 1571, and the Venetians retained Crete until 1669, the Ionian Islands were never ruled by the Ottomans, with the exception of Kefalonia, and remained under the rule of the Republic of Venice. It was in the Ionian Islands where modern Greek statehood was born, Ottoman Greece was a multiethnic society as apart from Greeks and Turks, there were many Jews, Italians, Armenians, Serbs, Albanians, Roma, Bulgarians etc. However, the modern Western notion of multiculturalism, although at first glance appears to correspond to the system of millets, is considered to be incompatible with the Ottoman system, despite losing their political independence, the Greeks remained dominant in the fields of commerce and business. After the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Lepanto however, Greek ships often became the target of attacks by Catholic pirates. This period of Ottoman rule had an impact in Greek society. The Greek land-owning aristocracy that dominated the Byzantine Empire suffered a tragic fate. The new leading class in Ottoman Greece were the prokritoi called kocabaşis by the Ottomans, the prokritoi were essentially bureaucrats and tax collectors, and gained a negative reputation for corruption and nepotism. After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the Despotate of the Morea was the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans, however, this, too, fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the Ottoman conquest of mainland Greece. The only part of the Greek-speaking world that escaped Ottoman rule was the Ionian Islands, corfu withstood three major sieges in 1537,1571 and 1716 all of which resulted in the repulsion of the Ottomans. The consolidation of Ottoman rule was followed by two distinct trends of Greek migration and this trend had also effect on the creation of the modern Greek diaspora. The Sultan sat at the apex of the government of the Ottoman Empire, although he had the trappings of an absolute ruler, he was actually bound by tradition and convention. These restrictions imposed by tradition were mainly of a religious nature, indeed, the Quran was the main restriction on absolute rule by the sultan and in this way, the Quran served as a constitution. Ottoman rule of the provinces was characterized by two main functions, the local administrators within the provinces were to maintain a military establishment and to collect taxes
Ottoman Greece
–
A map of the
Ottoman Empire at the death of
Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566.
Ottoman Greece
–
"The Hyperian Fountain at
Pherae ",
Edward Dodwell.
Ottoman Greece
–
Engraving of a Greek merchant (16th century)
45.
Thrace
–
It comprises southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and the European part of Turkey. In antiquity, it was referred to as Europe, prior to the extension of the term to describe the whole continent. The name Thrace comes from the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeastern Europe, the word itself was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from Ancient Greek Thrake, descending from Thrāix. The name of the continent Europe first referred to Thrace proper, the region obviously took the name of the principal river there, Hebros, probably from the Indo-European arg white river, according to an alternative theory, Hebros means goat in Thracian. In Turkey, it is referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans. The name appears to derive from an ancient heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, the historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into Asia, Libya, Europa and this largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time. After the Macedonian conquest, this regions former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River and this usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, Thrace referred only to the tract of land covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is Eastern Thrace, the largest cities of Thrace are, İstanbul, Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Yambol, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Xanthi, Edirne, Çorlu and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Muslims, Ancient Greek mythology provides them with a mythical ancestor, named Thrax, son of the war-god Ares, who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homers Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas, later in the Iliad, Rhesus, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont, Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Tereus, Lycurgus, Phineus, Tegyrius, Eumolpus, Polymnestor, Poltys, and Oeagrus. In addition to the tribe that Homer calls Thracians, ancient Thrace was home to other tribes, such as the Edones, Bisaltae, Cicones. Thrace is also mentioned in Ovids Metamorphoses in the episode of Philomela, Procne, Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, Procne, plot to get revenge, by killing Itys, at the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne, a swallow, Philomela, a nightingale, and Tereus, a hoopoe
Thrace
–
The physical-geographical boundaries of Thrace: the Balkan Mountains, the Rhodope Mountains and the Bosporus. The Rhodope mountain range is highlighted.
Thrace
–
The modern boundaries of Thrace in
Bulgaria,
Greece and
Turkey
Thrace
–
The Roman province of Thrace
Thrace
–
Map of Ancient Thrace made by
Abraham Ortelius in 1585, stating both the names Thrace and Europe
46.
Macedonia (region)
–
Macedonia /ˌmæsᵻˈdoʊniə/ is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, however it came to be defined as the geographical region by the mid 19th century. Nowadays the region is considered to include parts of six Balkan countries, Greece and it covers approximately 67,000 square kilometres and has a population of 4.76 million. Its oldest known settlements date back approximately 9,000 years, from the middle of the 4th century BC, the Kingdom of Macedon became the dominant power on the Balkan peninsula, since then Macedonia has had a diverse history. The definition of Macedonia has changed several times throughout history, expansion of Kingdom of Macedon,1. Kingdom of Perdiccas I, Macedonian Kingdom of Emathia consisting of six provinces Emathia, Pieria, Bottiaea, Mygdonia, Eordea, Kingdom of Alexander I, All the above provinces plus the eastern annexations Crestonia, Bisaltia and the western annexations Elimiotis, Orestis and Lynkestis. Kingdom of Philip II, All the above plus the appendages of Pelagonia and Macedonian Paeonia to the north, Sintike, Odomantis and Edonis to the east. In the 2nd century, Macedonia covered approximately the area where it is considered to be today, for reasons that are still unclear, over the next eleven centuries Macedonias location was changed significantly. The Roman province of Macedonia consisted of what is today Northern and Central Greece, much of the area of the present-day Republic of Macedonia. Simply put, the Romans created a larger administrative area under that name than the original ancient Macedon. In the Byzantine Empire, a province under the name of Macedonia was carved out of the original Theme of Thrace and this thema variously included parts of Thrace and gave its name to the Macedonian dynasty. Hence, Byzantine documents of this era that mention Macedonia are most probably referring to the Macedonian thema, during medieval and modern times, Macedonia has been known as a Balkan region inhabited by ethnic Greeks, Albanians, Vlachs, Serbs, Bulgarians, Jews, and Turks. Today, as a region where several very different cultures meet. Macedonian Greeks self-identify culturally and regionally as Macedonians and they form the majority of the regions population. They number approximately 2,500,000 and, today, smaller Greek minorities exist in Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, although their numbers are difficult to ascertain. Ethnic Macedonians self-identify as Macedonians in a sense as well as in the regional sense. They are the second largest ethnic group in the region, because of their primarily Slavic origin they are also known as Macedonian Slavs and Slav Macedonians. They form the majority of the population in the Republic of Macedonia where according to the 2002 census, according to the latest Bulgarian census held in 2001, there are 3,117 people declaring themselves ethnic Macedonians in the Blagoevgrad Province of Bulgaria
Macedonia (region)
–
Distribution of races in the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor in 1910 (Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, New York)
Macedonia (region)
–
Macedonia shown in blue. The modern region of Macedonia is
divided by the national boundaries of
Greece (
Greek Macedonia), the
Republic of Macedonia,
Bulgaria (
Blagoevgrad Province),
Albania (
Mala Prespa and
Golo Brdo),
Serbia (
Prohor Pčinjski), and
Kosovo (
Gora).
Macedonia (region)
–
Distribution of races in the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor in 1918 (National Geographic)
Macedonia (region)
–
Expansion of Macedon into a kingdom
47.
Battle of Maritsa
–
Before the Battle of Maritsa, Vukašin had the intention to recapture Skadar for the Serbian Empire. The Serbian army numbered 20, 000–70,000 men, most sources agree on the higher number. Despot Uglješa wanted to make an attack on the Ottomans in their capital city, Edirne. Thousands of Serbs were killed, and thousands drowned in the Maritsa river when they tried to flee, after the battle, the Maritsa ran scarlet with blood. Macedonia and parts of Greece fell under Ottoman power after this battle, the battle preceded the later 1389 Battle of Kosovo, and was one of many in history of the Serbian-Turkish wars. Battle of the Maritsa River Encyclopædia Britannica
Battle of Maritsa
–
The Ottoman advance after the battle of Chernomen.
48.
Second Bulgarian Empire
–
The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. It was succeeded by the Principality and later Kingdom of Bulgaria in 1878, until 1256, the Second Bulgarian Empire was the dominant power in the Balkans, defeating the Byzantine Empire in several major battles. In 1205 Emperor Kaloyan defeated the newly established Latin Empire in the Battle of Adrianople and his nephew Ivan Asen II defeated the Despotate of Epiros and made Bulgaria a regional power again. During his reign, Bulgaria spread from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, in the late 13th century, however, the Empire declined under constant invasions by Mongols, Byzantines, Hungarians, and Serbs, as well as internal unrest and revolts. The 14th century saw a recovery and stability, but also the peak of Balkan feudalism as central authorities gradually lost power in many regions. Bulgaria was divided into three parts on the eve of the Ottoman invasion, despite strong Byzantine influence, Bulgarian artists and architects created their own distinctive style. In the 14th century, during the known as the Second Golden Age of Bulgarian culture, literature. The capital city Tarnovo, which was considered a New Constantinople, became the main cultural hub. The name most frequently used for the empire by contemporaries was Bulgaria, during Kaloyans reign, the state was sometimes known as being of both Bulgarians and Vlachs. Pope Innocent III and other such as the Latin Emperor Henry mentioned the state as Bulgaria. In modern historiography, the state is called the Second Bulgarian Empire, Second Bulgarian Tsardom, the existing tax system, laws, and the power of low-ranking nobility remained unchanged until his death in 1025. The autocephalous Bulgarian Patriarchate was subordinated to the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople and downgraded to an archbishopric centred in Ohrid, while retaining its autonomy, Basil appointed the Bulgarian John I Debranin as its first archbishop, but his successors were Byzantines. The Bulgarian aristocracy and tsars relatives were given various Byzantine titles, despite hardships, the Bulgarian language, literature, and culture survived, surviving period texts refer to and idealize the Bulgarian Empire. Most of the conquered territories were included in the themes Bulgaria, Sirmium. The initial centre of the resistance was the theme of Bulgaria, in what is now Macedonia, where the massive Uprising of Peter Delyan, both were quelled with great difficulty by Byzantine authorities. These were followed by rebellions in Paristrion and Thrace, the disastrous rule of the last Comnenian emperor Andronikos I worsened the situation of the Bulgarian peasantry and nobility. The first act of his successor Isaac II Angelos was to impose a tax to finance his wedding. In 1185, two brothers from Tarnovo, Theodore and Asen, asked the emperor to enlist them into the army and grant them land
Second Bulgarian Empire
–
Bulgaria under Ivan Asen II
Second Bulgarian Empire
–
The
Church of St Demetrius in Tarnovo, built by Asen and Peter in the beginning of the uprising
Second Bulgarian Empire
–
The
Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs where Kaloyan was buried.
49.
Battle of Nicopolis
–
It is often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis as it was one of the last large-scale Crusades of the Middle Ages, together with the Crusade of Varna in 1443–1444. There were many minor crusades in the 14th century, undertaken by individual kings or knights, most recently there had been a failed crusade against Tunisia in 1390, and there was ongoing warfare in northern Europe along the Baltic coast. In 1393 the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman had lost Nicopolis — his temporary capital — to the Ottomans, while his brother, Ivan Stratsimir, still held Vidin but had been reduced to an Ottoman vassal. In the eyes of the Bulgarian boyars, despots and other independent Balkan rulers, in addition, the frontline between Islam and Christianity had been moving slowly towards the Kingdom of Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary was now the frontier between the two religions in Eastern Europe, and the Hungarians were in danger of being attacked themselves. The Genoese also owned the citadel of Galata, located at the north of the Golden Horn in Constantinople, to which Bayezid had laid siege in 1395. The two decisive factors in the formation of the last crusade were the ongoing Hundred Years War between Richard IIs England and Charles VIs France and the support of Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, in 1389, the war had ground to one of its periodic truces. The support of Burgundy, among the most powerful of the French nobles was also vital, in 1391, Burgundy, trying to decide between sending a crusade to either Prussia or Hungary, sent his envoy Guy de La Trémoille to Venice and Hungary to evaluate the situation. Burgundy originally envisioned a crusade led by himself and the Dukes of Orléans and Lancaster and it was very unlikely that defense against the Turks was considered a particularly important goal of the crusade. Charles VI, having secured a peace with England through the marriage of his daughter, was able to reply that it was his responsibility to protect Christianity, the number of combatants is heavily contested in historical accounts. The oft-given figure of 100,000 crusaders is dismissed by Tuchman, next in importance were the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes, who were the standard bearers of Christianity in the Levant since the decline of Constantinople and Cyprus. Venice supplied a fleet for supporting action, while Hungarian envoys encouraged German princes of the Rhineland, Bavaria, Saxony. French heralds had proclaimed the crusade in Poland, Bohemia, Navarre and Spain, the Italian city-states were too much engaged in their customary violent rivalries to participate, and the widely reported and acclaimed English participation never actually occurred. The report of 1,000 English knights comes from contemporary Antonio Fiorentino, a thousand knights would have actually amounted to four to six thousand men and at least twice as many horses, counting foot-soldiers and other retainers. However, there are no records of financial arrangements being made in England to send a force abroad, nor of any royal preparation needed to organize and dispatch such a force. Atiya also thought that the invocation of St. Furthermore, there was no collection of money in England to pay for captives. Nevertheless, obviously inflated figures continue to be repeated, the strength of the Ottoman forces is also estimated at about 20-25,000, but inflated figures continue to be repeated. The Ottoman force also included 1,500 Serbian heavy cavalry knights under the command of Prince Stefan Lazarević, however, Burgundy retained control of the enterprise he was funding by naming 24-year-old John, Count of Nevers, the Dukes eldest son, for nominal command
Battle of Nicopolis
–
Battle of Nicopolis (Note the counterfactual depiction of siege weapons)
Battle of Nicopolis
–
The Battle of Nicopolis, as depicted by a Turkish miniaturist in 1588
Battle of Nicopolis
–
The crusaders took eight days to cross the
Danube at the
Iron Gate
Battle of Nicopolis
–
Titus Fay saves King Sigismund of Hungary in the Battle of Nicopolis. Painting in the Castle of Vaja, creation of Ferenc Lohr, 1896.
50.
Serbian Empire
–
The Serbian Empire is a historiographical term for the empire in the Balkan peninsula that emerged from the medieval Serbian Kingdom. It was established in 1346 by King Stefan Dušan, known as the Mighty and he also promoted the Serbian Church to an Orthodox patriarchate. His son and successor, Uroš the Weak, lost most of the territory, the Serbian Empire effectively ended with the death of Stefan V in 1371 and the break-up of the Serbian state. Some successors of Stefan V claimed the title of Emperor in parts of Serbia until 1402, Stefan Dušan became King of Serbia by deposing father, Stefan Dečanski. By 1345, Dušan the Mighty had expanded his state to cover half of the Balkans, therefore, in 1345, in Serres, Dušan proclaimed himself Tsar. On 16 April 1346, in Skopje, he had himself crowned Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, the ceremony was performed by the newly elevated Serbian Patriarch Joanikije II, the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon, and Nicholas, the Archbishop of Ohrid. Tsar Dušan doubled the size of his kingdom, seizing territories to the south, southeast. Serbia held parts of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moravian Serbia, Kosovo, Zeta, modern Macedonia, modern Albania and he did not fight a single field battle, instead winning his empire by besieging cities. Dušan undertook a campaign against the Byzantine Empire, which was attempting to avert a deteriorating situation after the destruction caused by the Fourth Crusade, Dušan swiftly seized Thessaly, Albania, Epirus, and most of Macedonia. Dušan thus ruled over the almost the entire Balkan peninsula, with only southern Greece, Salonica and he gave sanctuary to the former regent of the Byzantine Empire, John VI Kantakouzenos, in revolt against the government, and agreed to an alliance. In 1349 and 1354, Dušan enacted a set of known as Dušans Code. The Code was based on Roman-Byzantine law and the first Serbian constitution and it was a Civil and Canon law system, based on the Ecumenical Councils, for the functioning of the state and the Serbian Orthodox Church. In 1355, Dušan begin military preparations, assembling an army of 80,000 men, Dušan marched towards Constantinople, capturing Adrianople in a fierce battle. The Serbian army was proceeding to Constantinople, located 40 miles to the east and his expedition ended as well, and the army retreated carrying the dead body of the man who had elevated Serbia to the rank of a great power. Dušan was succeeded by his son, Stefan Uroš V, called the Weak, the combination of sudden conquest, backwards administration, and failure to consolidate its holdings led to the fragmentation of the empire. The period was marked by the rise of a new threat, the Ottoman Turkish sultanate gradually spread from Asia to Europe and conquered first Byzantine Thrace, and then the other Balkan states. Too incompetent to sustain the empire created by his father. The Serbian Empire of Stefan V fragmented into a conglomeration of principalities, Stefan Uroš V died childless on 4 December 1371, after much of the Serbian nobility had been killed by the Ottoman Turks during the Battle of Maritsa
Serbian Empire
–
Serbian Emperor
Stefan Dušan
Serbian Empire
–
Serbian Empire under
Stefan Dušan, 1355
Serbian Empire
–
German map from 19th century showing
Bulgaria as Serbian vassal state after the
Battle of Velbazhd
Serbian Empire
–
Dušan's Code from 1349
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