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A quick question that has probably been asked before ; what are the names of the fonts you're using in your titles? And can they be downloaded anywhere?
Awesome AAR.
Awesome AAR.
Ah, kindly, child-like friendly Ettore. With the dark, hidden, secrets. Such a nice study in contrasts.
Poland, clearly, should not be much of a worry for you. Not anytime soon, at least. And you already hinted that Persia wasn't very expansionist. Which leaves, I guess, the Hungarians, the Austrians and the Russians as noteworthy bordering foes.
So, are you going to tackle any of the obvious threats, or are you going adventuring in Italy for a bit? Or somewhere else entirely?
Poland, clearly, should not be much of a worry for you. Not anytime soon, at least. And you already hinted that Persia wasn't very expansionist. Which leaves, I guess, the Hungarians, the Austrians and the Russians as noteworthy bordering foes.
So, are you going to tackle any of the obvious threats, or are you going adventuring in Italy for a bit? Or somewhere else entirely?
It is indeed. I have really lucked out so far because Russia has been too busy dealing with other nations to invade me from the north. But that is certain to change. . .
Brandenburg is awesome!
Yeah, they have been doing very, very well. They lucked out on some events and managed to get some land diplomatically. Normally expanding in the HRE in MM isn't easy to do.
Thanks for posting! I think it might have been asked once before, but since I can't remember it I can't fault a reader for the same thing!
They were all free fonts (just google 'free fonts' and you should find some good sites), the first being "Arab Dances" and the other "Alfred Drake". I also have used a few other fonts in the AAR from time to time, but those two are the most used and are the ones from the title bar.
I don't know, I haven’t been paying much attention to northern Europe. The only thing that caught my attention in the HRE (besides Brandenburg) was that England had diplo-annexed Lorraine after the had a personal union for a few years.
Not necessarily. The Turks are a little more focused on the Balkan region after cementing their hold on Arabia.
Persia has been a surprise, but the problem is that I can't ignore them completely. If they go to war with the OE at the wrong time, I could have the Empire split in half without warning!
Likewise, going to war with Austria when she is HRE could be devastating - that manpower bonus can be brutal. And Russia is also a major threat, due to its great location and large manpower reserves.
As a player I am trying to create what I consider a "Historical Plus" Ottoman Empire, so expect the Turks to try and take Vienna sometime in the next century. My goal is to create an OE that is larger than the OE was IRL, but I am not trying to conquer all of Europe or something of that magnitude. I'm just not that good of a player, not to mention MM does up the difficulty at least a wee bit!
So in summary, the OE is still growing, but don't be surprised when it starts to get beset by troubles later on.
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Well with that out of the way, I thought I would post an update notice. I originally had planned to post the second intermission on Persia and Russia today, but due to me needing to have a paper written for class in 9 hours, I had to put that on hold. So the update should be here Friday (I guess thats technically today) or there abouts.
The Last Ottoman
Full Article
Thought this was interesting enough to post about. Thoughts?
BBC.com said:
Full Article
Thought this was interesting enough to post about. Thoughts?
I found the news of the death of the 'Last Osman' quite surprising and interesting.
What struck me most was how lucky His Imperial Highness has been, compared to some other contemporary dynasties (the Romanovs in particular spring to mind). Exiled, yes, but he was allowed to get on with his life and returned to his home country to live out his final years. In all, the disappearance of the Ottoman dynasty has been a very gentle affair and I think that is a credit to both the Turkish state and His Imperial Highness.
Anyway, as far as the AAR goes, maybe you can rename a future Sultan in his honor?
What struck me most was how lucky His Imperial Highness has been, compared to some other contemporary dynasties (the Romanovs in particular spring to mind). Exiled, yes, but he was allowed to get on with his life and returned to his home country to live out his final years. In all, the disappearance of the Ottoman dynasty has been a very gentle affair and I think that is a credit to both the Turkish state and His Imperial Highness.
Anyway, as far as the AAR goes, maybe you can rename a future Sultan in his honor?
And yes, that was a sad piece of news.
It's like an entire world just slipped firmly into history.
It's like an entire world just slipped firmly into history.
Just as a note, it seems I need to stop making promises about when I will update. I spent the entire weekend in bed sick after promising an update this weekend. . .
It's as if fate is just waiting for me to give my word so it can oppose me.
True.
We'll see.
I was suprised too.
It's as if fate is just waiting for me to give my word so it can oppose me.
It's shame how the relics of once glorious monarchies die...
True.
I found the news of the death of the 'Last Osman' quite surprising and interesting.
What struck me most was how lucky His Imperial Highness has been, compared to some other contemporary dynasties (the Romanovs in particular spring to mind). Exiled, yes, but he was allowed to get on with his life and returned to his home country to live out his final years. In all, the disappearance of the Ottoman dynasty has been a very gentle affair and I think that is a credit to both the Turkish state and His Imperial Highness.
Anyway, as far as the AAR goes, maybe you can rename a future Sultan in his honor?
We'll see.
I was suprised too.
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Intermission
Persia and Russia in the 1500s
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Intermission
Persia and Russia in the 1500s
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Persia has a long and colorful history stretching back to the dawn of recorded history. For the Ottomans, the rulers of Persia had always been a strong and potent threat to their existence, from the invasion of the Timurids in the 15th century to the Ak Koyunlu and its Shi'a successor in the Safavid dynasty. Persia sat astride the most profitable and desirable of the trade routes to the east, lending the kingdom an immense amount of wealth and power. By controlling which merchants passed on to India and China, the Persians were able to influence markets in Europe and Africa as they saw fit.
As the Ottoman Empire expanded into the Middle East there was a growing sense of animosity between the two Muslim powers. While Shi’a Persia might decide who was allowed to reach Asia, the Sunni Ottomans were able to decide which merchants reached the markets in the Mediterranean and Europe. This balance of power was enough to keep both sides from making a direct move against the other, yet their differing Muslim sects were a constant source of aggravation.
The Ottoman Empire was the most tolerant of societies during the 1500s, but this tolerance was extended almost entirely to non-Muslims of any denomination. The Ottoman’s viewed the Shi’a sect as heretics and they were routinely prosecuted by Ottoman officials. The justification for the earliest of the wars against the Mamelukes had been justified by the Ottomans as an attempt to remove the Shi’a “heresy” from Egypt, a belligerent stance that both sides would maintain for centuries.
Despite this, war was a rare occurrence between the two states. Most conflicts were limited in scope, as both nations were more concerned with keeping the trade flowing to enrich their coffers. A major war against the other would jeopardize the caravans that supported each nation, creating a stalemate between what otherwise would have been determined foes. Thus while the Ottoman Empire expanded outwards in almost every direction it only traveled as far east as Iraq, the border between the Empire and Persia reflecting roughly the geographic split between Sunni and Shi’a Islam.
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To the north of Ottoman Crimea was the Tsardom of Russia, the last independent Orthodox Christian nation left after the destruction of Byzantium by the Ottoman’s in 1453 and the subsequent expansion of Turkish control over the Balkan region. Russia had grown explosively over the previous centuries, establishing itself as the dominant power in northern Russia and expelling the Mongol overlords to free itself from foreign control. The Third Rome of Moscow grew in size as more land was annexed to the Russians, their Tsars first absorbing neighboring nations before looking beyond.
One of the most vulnerable of its neighbors was Poland (which I had covered in detail previously), which allowed the Russian Empire to continue to reunite Russian lands into the Tsardom. However, Russia was not as strong as it tried to portray itself. Its eastern border was filled with Muslim lands that were no friend of Russia and posed a daunting task to patrol. The border was massive and porous, allowing the descendents of the Mongols that had invaded the lands of the Rus’ in the 1200s to raid and pillage isolated communities.
The history of animosity between Russia and the Muslims to the east had a profound effect on the development of Russo-Turkish relations. Events like the capture of Constantinople and the establishment as Moscow as the ‘third Rome’ almost inevitably made the Ottomans into a religious enemy of the Orthodox Christians. The Russian Patriarchs often used the cause of liberating Constantinople within their writings to build the idea of Russia spreading the true faith to the world. Yes the reality was the Russian Tsars did not wish to fight a war against the Ottoman Turks without knowing they would win. The long period of Mongol domination had a profound effect upon the Russian psyche, and no Russian monarch wished to invite a war that would only result in having to submit to Muslim rule once again.
This did not keep the Tsars from helping to destabilize the region in the hopes of weakening the Turkish hold on the region. Many revolts within the northern Crimea were either instigated by or strongly supported by Russia, and inspired by their own problems in dealing with the steppe raiders sent small groups of bandits over the Ottoman border. Despite this provocation the Ottoman Sultans did not desire a war with Russia, feeling that the logistical difficulties in an invasion outweighed any gain. Thus the conflict was very limited in scope, both sides content to utilize small groups of cavalry to burn and pillage before escaping back into friendly lands. Only later would it escalate to true warfare.
- Johannes Krieger, The Sublime State: A History of The Ottoman Empire; vol. 1
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I wish I saw Persia that close to its historical strength/borders in any of my MMP games! They might not be a real threat by themselves but there are some surprisingly rich provinces in that region, both in tax/manpower and trade goods.
If you can get TRT-INT (on satellite or cable in major metro areas in the USA), you can watch a documentary on the Osmanogullaris return to Turkey. They had a big family reunion at Dolmabahche Palace several years ago. TRT-INT shows it every once in a while.
While the last Sehzade might be dead, there are still many descendants in London and NYC.
A very good AAR, you have a very interesting style.
It's very interesting and rare that both Russia and Persia are at near-historical borders in the 1500s.
But yes, sending armies farther than Crimea is just inviting a lot of attrition losses.
But yes, sending armies farther than Crimea is just inviting a lot of attrition losses.
East and north don't look very inviting, but you still have some scope for south and west expansion before reaching your natural borders.
Yes, thats one of the reasons Persia remains a threat to the OE. While one on one the OE would win, if Persia were dragged into a war with the OE while the OE was distracted elsewhere, it could be devestating.
Well thanks, and I'm glad you are enjoying it so much.
Me too. And since I know what happens in the future, I don't think you will be dissapointed.
Exactly. Not to mention that most of the northern Crimea isn't that wealthy of land.
But no Sultan will want to be the first to loose territory!
Yep. I'm hoping to expand over the rest of North Africa and also in the Balkans.
I agree with you about 50/50. I dont like coffee.
But I do love the smell of coffee. :wacko:
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Part Thirty-four
The Poet Sultan
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And now I pass into the arms of my ancestors. Praise be to Allah.
- Sultan Abdulrahman’s last words, as recorded by his personal scribe.
Part Thirty-four
The Poet Sultan
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And now I pass into the arms of my ancestors. Praise be to Allah.
- Sultan Abdulrahman’s last words, as recorded by his personal scribe.
Sultan Abdulrahman’s death during the early months of 1540 was met with more than the usual amount of public mourning for a passing monarch. Abdulrahman was a well loved and glorified leader; his triumphs over the Egyptian Mamelukes had brought mountains of wealth to the Ottoman Empire and had cemented Turkish dominance over their fellow Sunni states. There was now a clear route for Ottoman Muslims on the Hajj from Constantinople down to Jerusalem and then on to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the Ottoman Army was second to none in both size and technological advancement, and even the everyday bureaucracy of the Turkish state was running as smoothly as one could imagine.
- Sultan Ali I
Into this fanfare over the loss of a cherished Sultan stepped Abdulrahman’s only son Ali, a man who was relatively unknown outside of the Sublime Porte. There had been a growing distance between the many upper level functionaries of the Ottoman State and the Sultan’s family, who resided within the massive Imperial Harem deep inside the Topkapı Palace. Construction on the palace had begun under Mehmet II’s reign and had developed into one of the most spectacular examples of early Ottoman architecture, it’s very size and ornamentation designed to impress upon any visitor the superiority of the House of Osman.
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By keeping the Imperial family inside the walls of the palace a level of mystique was bestowed upon the Sultanate by the Ottoman populace, who might live their whole lives in the shadows of the palace walls and never set eyes upon the monarch. Yet normally the eldest son of the monarch would, in his later teens, begin to travel with his father outside of the palace to gain practical knowledge about the running of the Empire. Sultan Abdulrahman, a man whose own childhood had been one of constant hardship travelling with his father to distant regions of the empire, had hoped to spare his son that by bringing the best of the Empire’s learned scholars within the palace walls.
Sultan Ali was a product of this upbringing, his education as fine as any monarch could hope for. By the time he was crowned Sultan, he was a well regarded poet amongst the Turkish elite. Although he could not leave the palace before he succeeded his father Ali was corresponding with a number of Ottoman writers, including the Bard of Baghdad Fuzûlî. Although some of this support was undoubtedly given in the hopes of attracting royal patronage through flattery, contemporary scholars have revaluated his published works and found them to be of a surprisingly high quality.
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While Ali had not spent much time outside the safe isolation of Topkapı Palace, he was certainly a smart and educated man that quickly jumped into his role as leader of the most powerful nation in the known world. With a poet’s mind, Ali grew to romanticize the position of Sultan and its paternal relationship with the Empire’s subjects. A number of his poems and essays would be reflections on the bond between sovereign and subjects, establishing himself as the protector of the lower classes in exchange for their loyalty and obedience. Men like Thomas Hobbes and other intellectuals of later centuries would read some of the translated works when they themselves established their own, refined ideas on the role of the monarchy in society.
Ali was very much a romantic at heart and sought to make himself into a benevolent father figure for the Turkish state. Much of his early reign was spent on the economy of the Empire, large subsidies being spent to fund local workshops and other enterprises that would bring the Ottoman Empire way from its dependence on agriculture and trade, both of which were not consistent enough to be reliable from year to year. This did much to improve the lot of the average Turk, but some in the military felt that the Sultan was ignoring their campaigns to keep the numerous minorities in line and didn’t possess the stomach for a real war. If the conflict erupted, some feared that the Empire would be at a severe disadvantage.
- Johannes Krieger, The Sublime State: A History of The Ottoman Empire; vol. 1
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