The Long Period of Wars in the West
The Long Period of Wars in the West 1481-1512
Bayezid II 1481-1512
The 1480s would bring endless wars to the Ottomans and their Turkish allies. A strong contingent of Ottoman forces were sent into a second war against the Venetians. Bayezid II was convinced that the Venetians and their smaller allies, The Knights and Moldavia were ripe for the taking. The powerful Austrian alliance was also assaulting the continental holdings of Venice during these years. The Turkish alliance quickly secured most of the Venetian colonies, save Kerch in far off Crimea. Numerous naval battles were fought, but this time the Turks were better prepared for this kind of warfare. In the middle of the war, a certain Cem in the mountainous regions of Anatolia stirred a great revolt against the sultan. The joint forces of the sultan and the White Sheep crushed the rebels soundly. By the end of the Venetian war Ak Koyunlu annexed Moldavia while The Ottoman Empire was awarded Istria, Crete and Ionia by a Venetian government weary of conflicts. Bayezid II planned to consolidate these new parts of the empire economically and religiously, as the people Corfu - taken in the first Venetian war - had adopted the state religion by then. The integration of Ak Koyunlu into the empire was another pressing goal for the sultan.
These plans would however have to be postponed, since the Hungarian juggernaught - at this time covering all lands from Poland to Venice to Greece - decided to launch a surprise attack on the White Sheep as they presumably felt threatened by the recent annexation of neighboring Moldavia. By the mid-1480s, a great war was raging across the Balcans and Carpathians. Initial Hungarian successes against an Ottoman army partially reduced due to the recent campaign against Venice seemed to win the war for Corvino, Hungary's successful monarch and military leader.
A big Ottoman mobilization both on land and sea would however turn the tide in the sultan's favor. After demolishing the Hungarian fleet, the Ottoman army led by the sultan himself went on to occupy Serbia, Kosovo and Bujak - a minor Hungarian holding on the Black Sea coast. Numerous revolts in the Balcans - no doubt stirred by the recent Hungarian integration of these areas into Greater Hungary - would however exhaust Hungarian war efforts.
Just as the Turkish alliance was defeating Hungary, the latter's Christian supporters in the north - Poland-Lithuania and their German vassals - declared war. As Hungary was not yet completely on its knees, this two front war proved to be a tremendous threat to Ottoman victory. Tens of thousands of Polish, Lithuanian, Pommerianian and Brandenburgian troops swarmed across the border into Moldavia and the Ottoman Balcans. Though the harsh winter diminished these forces, both The Ottoman Empire and Ak Koyunlu suffered several bitter losses. On sea, the Turkish fleet - led by admiral Kemal Reis - met with great success, sinking all enemy fleets.
Although the Ottomans would be able to defeat both these great adversaries, Sultan Bayezid II deemed it necessary to concentrate on concluding a successful war versus Hungary. The Polish-Lithuanian alliance was therefore asked to return to a status-quo. Their refusal angered the sultan, and Ottoman land forced besieged Lithuanian Wallacia on the Ottoman border. By the end of the 1480s the Poles made peace with the Ottomans, offering a symbolic sum of gold. A Hungarian nation threatened by revolts in the south chose to give up Serbia and Bujak to the Ottomans, giving the sultan peace for the first time in many years.
The eastern allies of The Ottoman Empire went on to attack Georgia in 1491, but after a few successful battles against the minor Caucasian nation, the sultan made peace with them, taking a minor sum of gold. With the renewed peace, Bayezid II dreamed of building up the economy and continue his father's dream of religious unity throughout the Empire. By 1492 the newly acquired provinces had their tax levels increased, contributing to a poor Ottoman treasury.
The one recent event which made Sultan Bayezid II upset was the new-born alliance of Poland-Lithuania and Greater Hungary. With their German vassals and the Polish-integrated kingdom of Bohemia taken into account, this monster alliance controlled all lands from the Baltic to the Black to the Adriatic sea, save the Turkish holdings in the southern Balcans. The Ottoman victories during the 1480s had still proved that the sultan was the strongest man in the Eastern Mediterranean region. During the summer of 1494, a vengeful Lithuania attacked Ottoman allies Ak Koyunlu, and all the great powers were drawn into the war. The Ottoman Empire was this time better prepared for war and aimed at demolishing Greater Hungary before all, but also Poland-Lithuania. The time for major expansion seemed to have come. Ottoman strategy was to gradually take out one nation at the time, leaving Hungary alone in the end.
The major conflict between the Catholic and Muslim alliances of southeastern Europe lasted for several years. Ottoman strategy was to take out Lithuania early. The Turkish army was split in two parts in order to besiege both the Lithuanian Black Sea coast and the Hungarian plains and mountains. During the first year after the outbreak of the war, the Austrian alliance declared war on Hungary, drawing their alliance into yet a big conflict. Austrian military successes in the west gave the Ottomans room and time for major expansion. The fortresses of Wallacia, Jedisan and Crimea fell rapidly to Hadim Sinan's cavalries, and the Ottomans were awarded all three provinces through a desperate Lithuanian peace request. Most of the Hungarian Balcans were besieged by Bayezid II and his troops, mostly infantry. Banat, Kosovo and Bosnia fell quickly. Due to internal instability and war exhaustion in Hungary, rebels took Hungarian Ragusa and threatened to thwart Ottoman sieges in Dalmatia. Hungary, hard pressed by Austria in the northwest offered the sultan Banat, Kosovo and Bosnia. Sultan Bayezid II accepted, intending to rebuild the economy in the six recently acquired provinces. Pommern left the war during the first year, and the Polish alliance leader accepted to return to status-quo, no doubt more interested in throwing Austrian troops out of Poland itself. The Ottomans had great success in the wars and was a dangerous power by 1499.
The situtation in Europe did not change dramatically during these years. The Spanish realm had expanded into France in addition to spreading Christianity to their North African holdings. The English kingdom had annexed most of the Lowlands and part of northern Germany, making them a feared adversary of both France and Austria. The Moskowites on the Russian steppes had united most of the Russian principalities under their banner. The leading military power would however remain the French, despite their recent losses in Aquitaine. Austria took almost half of Hungary during their recent war, and were almost rivalling the strength of France. The Ottomans were in terms of military technology in second place among the great powers.
The turn of the century would promise more wars for the Ottomans. Sultan Bayezid II had reigned for several years, expanding the Ottoman realm more than his forebears. Following the last Hungarian war, the sultan decided to stay out of conflicts for some years, giving his empire a chance of strengthening economy and technological advance. A rapid technological advance in the north-west of Europe prompted Ottoman development too, including both the art of war and new methods of trade and production. When the Ottoman allies, Ak Koyunlu, were assaulted by Hungary and their alliance in 1501, Bayezid II refused to honor the alliance, fearing the great instability which would hit his realm if he broke the promises of truce with the Hungarians. The sultan was however quick to invite the Sheep into a new alliance.
The following year would see a great advance in Ottoman fighting capability. Technologies and armies were discovered and recruited. When Hungary declared war again during the second part of the decade, the Turks were prepared. Ottoman strategy would be to conduct a defencive campaign. Letting the Hungarian, Lithuanian and German forces struggle before the walls of the Turkish fortresses throughout the Balcans, and then make sweeping attacks on their reinforcements moving through Ottoman territory worked out well.
By the end of the second year of the war, the tide had turned in favor of the Turks. Lithuanian and Hungarian cities fell to the sultan, and Hungary awarded the Ottomans with Croatia, Pest and Transylvania, making a land bridge to Ottoman Istria at last. The Lithuanians long refused to make peace, but after the Ottoman occupation of Ragusa and Krementjug, these provinced were handed over, leaving only the North German states in the war. Pommeranian and Holsteinian military technology was too advanced, even for a numerically superior Ottoman army, and during these last months of the war, sultan Bayezid II died of old age, leaving the throne to Selim I.