A Tale of Two Germanies

Warning, this post contains copious amounts of Duke Devlin.

@Enewald: Where's the fun in that?


Ibrahim's conquest of Hungary and Suleiman's victory over Persia marked the last external threat either regent would face, as by this point the Ottoman Empire was indisputably the most powerful nation of the world. The only hostilities that brought themselves to the Ottoman Table would be a brief rebellion in Bosnia which would spill over into Serbia and Ottoman Hungary before being quelled by Ibrahim, and a rebellion in the territories seized from Persia which would prove significantly more damaging.

The Rebellion in Bosnia drew initially from issues with Ibrahim's reorganized conscription laws which the local governor was incapable of enforcing. The Rebellion itself lasted only four months, quickly seizing control of Bosnia and Serbia and executing the Governors Ibrahim had appointed there. While Ibrahim gathered his troops in Bulgaria, the army of Transylvania was already moving East under the command ot Stephen Báthory, the Governor-General appointed to administrate the area.

Although it would be Ibrahim who would finally defeat the Revolutionary army in Bosnia and destroy it, Stephen's efforts would push the armies from Serbia. Ibrahim would officially take control of Stephen's army to persue the revolutionaries, leaving Stephen in control of the land they had reconquered. Although Stephen would not gain control of Serbia itself, this period of time would see him gain great influence in Serbia and Bosnia. Although Stephen would never rule as Duke of Transylvania, instead passing that honor on to his brother Mihály, he retains dominance over the affairs of Transylvania to this day.

Stephen and his family would remain loyal to the Ottoman Empire until the death of Ibrahim. In return for their loyalty and ability, the administrative region of Transylvania saw a massive gain in territory, drawing virtually the whole of Ottoman Hungary under its control. Serbia and Bosnia would be merged into a single unit under the control of Ibrahim himself for several years before being passed to a hand picked General.

At the other end of the Empire, Suleiman himself had been likewise called to deal with a revolt in the recently conquered Persian Lands, which would remain a financial and military drain on the Empire's resources. Suleiman's son Jem had contributed several victories to suppressing the revolutionaries, and had himself dealt with this problem since the acquisition of the territory, however by 1581 the situation had spiraled out of his control.

Suleiman's entrance into the conflict would by its very nature greatly reduce the ability of the revolting powers, as it became increasingly clear that they were being funded by the Persian Shah himself, fresh from a crushing victory over the small states of the East. However, the presence of Suleiman and an astounding one quarter of the Ottoman Army on their border would make a potential war far too likely and of too great a risk to allow.

The remaining rebels would be swiftly defeated and pushed once more into Persia itself, bringing the area to some semblance of peace. The true end result of this rebellion would be the deepening rivalry between Suleiman's two sons. Suleiman had at this point not named his successor for Eastern Regent of the Ottoman Empire, and this rebellion prompted Suleiman's eldest son, Mustafa, to present his case for successor, citing this as an obvious example of Jem's lack of ability.

Suleiman would not entertain these discussions and made no change to the succession or lack there of, thus leaving the succession still uncertain throughout all of the Ottoman Empire. Although the Sultan himself still reigned in title and had a chosen successor, his lack of power rendered this pointless. In contrast, neither Suleiman nor Ibrahim had defined any sort of succession for the positions of Regent. Suleiman had not decided between his two sons, and Ibrahim had no sons having never married. Why this was the case remains a mystery.

Despite these looming problems, the Empire itself was in a state of peace and stability, as the above were merely two isolated incidents. Given the sheer breadth of territory administrated by the Ottoman State, two localized provincial revolts hardly registered, and in most cases the people of the Empire remained blissfully free of the chaos so quickly consuming Europe.

All of this would change on September Ninth, 1585, when Regent Suleiman would take his life, plunging the Ottoman Empire into the depths of the Ottoman Regent's War.



And THAT, Ladies and Gentlemen, is an Empire.
It'll be Dead within the Decade.

Shut up before I Befriend You!

@ Kapt Torbjorn: Don't we all?
@ Enewald: More like Shredded Asunder .
@ Zauberfloete: I disagree, this Empire's fall will be BEAUTIFUL!
@ Tweetybird: What about seeing the Giant that IS your doorstep collapsing? And Thanks!
@ theconfusedone: Mayhap, a week and a day?
@ Peasant-at-war: Why thank you.


Suleiman's Suicide in 1585 brought the expansion and stability of the Ottoman Empire crashing to a halt, as the single unifying force of the Empire fell at his own hands. The causes of Suleiman's suicide remain a mystery, however its effects are quite clear to any who study this period.

Within weeks of the news, the Empire seemed ready to tear itself apart, and in no area was this more apparent than in Suleiman's two sons Mustafa and Jem. Each claimed the now vacant throne of Eastern Regent. Although Ibrahim survived as Regent of the Empire, his authority was only truly recognized in the Christian Lands of the Empire, and although his power-base in the Balkan states remained strong and united under his leadership, his ability to project his power beyond this area was limitted.

Although the conflict between Jem and Mustafa was slow to develop into a full war, this lack of speed was purely cosmetic as each waited for either the other to move, or for Ibrahim to pronounce his verdict as to who he would support, and this verdict hapenned in February of 1586, as Ibrahim put his weight behind the eldest, Mustafa, who had served as Vice-Regent of Anatolia under his father.

Jem, who had served as Vice-Regent of Mesopotamia, of course disputed this claim, and moved his armies to attack Mustafa's forces. The Campaign would be carried out primarily in Syria, where, after an initial victory against Jem, Mustafa's advance would grind to a halt in the harsh terrain and Jem's vastly superior fortifications in the area, these having been constructed long ago by both the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt to defend against the Ottoman Empire, and then refurbished by Suleiman to defend against the Black Sheep Khanates. Upon his ascension to the title of Vice-Regent of Mesopotamia, Jem had begun a construction project to reinforce the fortresses on the Ottoman-Persian border, however he also appears to have diverted funds from this project to rebuilding the fortresses in Syria.

In April, after it became apparent that this conflict would not end quickly, Ibrahim decided to intervene himself, landing a large force in Beirut and then striking into Southern Syria in an attempt to open a second front against Jem, who was officially pronounced as a Rebel against the rightful Regent of Mustafa.

Sadly for Ibrahim, this would merely exacerbate the tensions running through the empire. This act, which Jem pronounced as a new Crusade against Islam, would rip the empire in half, as the Generals who had seized power over Egypt and Judea, largely personal friends of Suleiman, would not support Mustafa. Although regarded as an intelligent man and possessing a powerful charisma, Mustafa had never participated in a military campaign until this war with his brother, who had, on the other hand, been a constant presence on the Ottoman-Persian border fighting against revolts and raids from the latter. Despite needing assistance from his father, he was well liked by the generals, of Egypt.

In May, once word of Ibrahim's landing passed south, Virtually the entire south of the Ottoman Empire declared secession under various states. The nominal vassals of Algiers, Adal, and Tripolitania simply broke their ties with the Empire, these ties having been largely founded on personal relations with Suleiman. In Egypt and Judea however, local Generals, who had been appointed by Suleiman to oversee the territory when he returned north to Constantinople, declared formal secession from the empire while pledging their support to Jem should he prove victorious.

Hedjaz, Najd and Shirvan remained nominally a part of the Empire, however they provided no support to either side of the conflict and their leaders began a large scale development program to strengthen their largely symbolic militaries, both states having been reliant on Egypt and Adal for their protection. The Black Sheep Khanate was officially pulled into the Persian Sphere of Influence early in the war.

As Jem fell back before Ibrahim's concentrated attack, the latter felt confident he could leave the suppression of his rebellious brother to Mustafa, and so instead turned his armies south to attack the rebelling generals in Egypt.

Ibrahim's campaign in Egypt would be a long one, lasting the better part of a year while Mustafa struggled to contain, however Ibrahim's control of the Sea would be critical to his eventual victory, enabling him to move his army vastly more quickly than the Rebelling Generals in Egypt.

The Judea itself was quickly taken by this method, as Ibrahim moved several large armies around to halt retreats and surround his enemies, defeating them while smaller forces besieged what few cities did not capitulate to his armies upon the defeat of the rebels. Jerusalem itself fell in November of 1586, giving Ibrahim control of the entire Holy Land. At this point things looked positive for the Empire, as Tunisia, which had declared a nominal autonomy similar to Hedjaz and Najd, swore allegiance to Ibrahim out of fear of the now hungry and powerful Algiers that neighbored it. Likewise, in an attempt to escape Polish ambitions, the Crimea swore allegiance to Ibrahim late in August. Najd remained largely neutral, however Hedjaz had likewise sworn loyalty to Ibrahim after his successes in Judea, having been invaded by the Egyptian Generals earlier in the year.

However, Ibrahim's successes were paralleled by Mustafa's failures against his brother, who stalled a renewed offensive and began his own invasion of Anatolia in late 1586. Mustafa himself fled before his brother at several key battles in Eastern Anatolia, thus greatly demoralizing his armies. by January of the next year, Mustafa's armies had largely abandoned him, and he himself was now hiding in the city of Konya, with much of Central Anatolia under the control of his brother Jem, and the walls of his capital being battered down around him.


Jem would not succeed in breaking through the walls of Konya until early 1588, as his forces continued to be harassed by what small armies remained loyal to Mustafa, many of which likely wished to earn autonomy by supporting a weak regent.

In Egypt however, the opposite once more occurred, as Ibrahim fought a long sweeping campaign along the Nile and the Red Sea Coast. The cities of the Delta fell to him quickly, they being largely dependent on naval trade for their livelihood and Ibrahim having total control of the waves. Even small Venezian smuggler fleets could not get into the port of Alexandria, which fell in only two months to Ibrahim.

With their central cities occupied, the generals fled with their armies into the wastes of the Sahara and to the cities of the southern Nile, where Ibrahim's fleet was largely incapable of reaching, or to the cities on the Red Sea coast, which Ibrahim's fleet was entirely incapable of reaching.

This forced Ibrahim to march his army south along the Nile and the Red Sea Coast, splitting his forces in foreign territory with a largely hostile native population, drawing the rebellion out into a year long battle against both man and nature which left almost half of Ibrahim's army dead by the end of it in June of 1587. However, by the end of this war Ibrahim was in complete control of almost half of the Ottoman Empire, as the Balkans supported him unconditionally, seeing this as the reconstruction of the great Byzantine Empire. Unfortunately, the local populations considered this no less than an invasion by a foreign power, as Ibrahim had never been regarded as a regent over them, but merely as Suleiman's Friend and Ally.

Thus, with Ibrahim so distracted, and Jem deep in Anatolia, the event most feared by both came to pass, as in late 1587 Persia invaded the Ottoman Mesopotamia. With his forces fighting his brother, Jem remained powerless to stop them, and although no official treaty was ever signed, the war enterred an undeclared peace in early 1588 when Jem managed to finally settle the dispute over the position of Eastern Regent when his armies took the city of Konya, and Jem himself executed his brother in a public display.

The remaining areas of Anatolia which had supported Mustafa joined Jem easily enough, with the areas of Mesopotamia Ibrahim had seized likewise returning to his control upon his movement to these areas, as Jem quickly pounced on the Exhausted armies of Ibrahim in Egypt while sending small forces to both Georgia and Thracia, seizing small stretches of territory but really being little more than distractions to prevent Ibrahim from receiving aid from his lands.

With this act, the Ottoman Regents war entered its second phase.

Um, Line?

@Enewald: I honestly don't know. I've kept very good notes of Germany and the revolution, but here I'm pretty much making stuff up. There was a massive rebellion in Serbia and Egypt and Persia got their provinces back. But I don't remember how.
@dinofs:

Table of Contents said:

The Death of the Ottoman Empire and the Rise of Persia

Click to expand...

@Kapt Torbjorn: Why thank you!
@wolfcity: Bad choice.


Jem secured the Queen of Cities in early 1589 while Ibrahim was contained in the last elements of his Egyptian Campaign. Ibrahim had made allowances for this, as most of his power was concentrated in the Balkans. Indeed, until this point, the most powerful single state under Ibrahim's control, the state of Bulgaria, quickly dispatched an army to Konstantinopolis to oust Ibrahim for their master.

Amazingly however, the army would not accomplish this goal. When further armies from Macedonia and Greece arrived roughly a month after the initial Bulgarian Force, they found the Bulgarian Armies occupying the city while flying the banner of Jem. It seems, form what little records we have access to, that Jem promised the Bulgarian Regent, who Ibrahim had kept tight control over, a great amount of autonomy and what essentially amounted to virtual independence and control over the Imperial territories in the Balkans.

As such, when the Macedonian and Greek armies arrived at Konstantinople, they found themsleves up against a vaastly larger army, as the Bulgarian Host was likewise supported by the not inconsiderable force left behind by Jem to defend the city. The Macedonian army, defected to Jems allegiance instantly, being composed primarily of Moslems, while the Greek army was split in twain with its moslem portion defecting, and the remaining orthodox portion was quickly defeated and in most cases executed on the spot.

It would be good to note at this point the religious division in the Balkan states, as despite them being effectively under the control of a local Orthodox Power, a considerable amount of Moslem migration took place under the reign of Suleiman and Ibrahim, the completely open borders facilitating the transport of citizens, while the lack of serfdom laws ensured the people were not tied to the land. With the relative underpopulation of Macedonia drawing from the devestation of the Great Crusade, a great many moslems migrated into the area. Likewise, although not as pronounced, and not enough to affect its allegiance, a considerable moslem population servives to this day in Serbia, causing numerous problems due to the extreme religious diversity of that state, matched only possibly by the Polish or Swiss Confederations.


As stated, the Religious divisions of Serbia were not enough to change the loyalty of the area, and Serbia and Transylvannia remained allied to Ibrahim. Despite this, they remained largely out of the conflict at this point, as Serbia's army was largely in Egypt to support Ibrahim directly, and Transylvannia, the only other Balkan state capable of providing any significant force to assist Ibrahim, was paralyzed by the Bathory's relocation to Poland. Their lack of ability to act would be ultimately most clearly shown with the undeclared invasion of Ottoman Hungary by Austria, leading to the annexation of that small state into Austrian Hungary. With Greece having already been pacified, Jem was now effectively in complete control of the Balkans, while Ibrahim moved north and East into Mesopotamia, creating a reversal of the old areas of support, which would be completed when the Crimea shifted allegiance to Jem.

The Crimea's primarily Moslem population was more than willing to return to Islamic control, and the transition was suprisingly peaceful despite the almost instant rebellion of the Zhaparozhie area of Orthodox citizens, who instead enterred into Polish Orbit. Being still in a state of civil war, Jem remained largely powerless to do anything to change this, and so simply ignored the rebellion. As the rebellion primarily split the country along religious lines, neither power had little any real problem with accepting the Status Quo.

The attempted Rebellion of Najd however, was far more pressing, and far more accessible, as Ibrahim moved south to counter Ibrahim. Upon seeing his opportunity, Ibrahim withdrew from Israel, allowing the Najd revolutionaries, to occupy the area, and also allowing Hedjaz to withdraw from the Empire, hoping the rebellion would slow Jem and allow Ibrahim to drw further forces from Greece, his army having been largely spent fighting in the deserts of Egypt.

However this strategy would ultimately fail to slow Jem, as the Najd rebellion would collapse after a few defeats in Israel, most of its army routing and returning home, accepting Jem's authority. Although he could not draw forces from the area, it did not slow him nearly as much as Ibrahim had hoped, and when Jem moved into Egypt, Ibrahim had not managed to substantially increase his forces. Even the Hedjaz could not stop Jem, as he simply ignored the rebellion, not moving against them in the slightest.

There would be a slight pause to the conflict at the end of 1589 as the armies collected themselves, however the pause would be short lived.


In early March of 1590, Jem resumed his offensive, pushing from Israel into Egypt and meeting little resistance outside of Ibrahim's personal army, which tended to withdraw from direct confrontation, instead allowing the deserts of egypt to fight Jem instead. Jem succeeded in taking Cairo quickly, as the city had no love for Ibrahim, and Ibrahim had left no more than a token defensive force to hold the area. Alexandria however, would be a different story, as it was the port and city around which Ibrahim had formed his temporary occupation of Egypt. His supplies and administration flowed through this city, and it was here, if anywhere, that he would receive reinforcements, and thus Alexandria could not be lost unless Ibrahim was to withdraw from the area, and this would be a concession of defeat.

Instead, Ibrahim chose to withdraw into the city and hope the improved defenses Suleiman had constructed would hold Jem off, the city having been Suleiman's effective capitol. The siege would continue for seven months before the walls fell, not from any attack from Jem, but from an internal rebellion brought on by the conduct of one of Ibrahim's generals. The exact circumstances remain unknown, however the general had not been tolerant of the Moslem faith of the citizens of the city, and the citizens rose up. Not managing to defeat the occupation force themselves, they instead openned one of the gates, and allowed Jem to march his army into the city, where the people welcomed him.

Ibrahim was found hanged within Suleiman's old room, never having truly faced Jem. And with his death, any possibility of unity for the empire shattered, as the Balkan states, with the exception of Macedonia and Bulgaria but instead assisted both by Georgia and Poland, now rebelled in earnest.

I was writing a Paper, on the PC, and it was like; Bleep bleeep beepbeepbeepbeeep!

@dinofs: Don't worry, the OE is winding down... for now....
@Enewald: No actually, he survives for another two decades and has a son.


Although the Ottoman Regent's war was officially over, with Jem standing as the sole Regent over the Empire, the troubles of the Empire had only begun. Jem had managed to maintain control over much of the Muslim territories of the Ottoman Empire, however with the death of Jem and with no popular Christian regent to succeed him, the Duality of the Ottoman Empire shattered. Although Jem demonstrated a willingness to continue the Ottoman Empire's practice of religious Tolerance, this was lost on the larger Christian States of the Empire.

Having secured the backing of the Polish Confederation, now firmly under the control of its elected King Stephen Bathory of Transylvannia, the Balkan states rebelled against Jem, supported further by The Kingdom of Georgia, although it was not a recognized member of the Alliance.

The initial rebellion saw Serbian and Transylvannian armies march East into Bulgaria, where they were met by the forces of Jem and his Bulgarian Vassal. After an extensive campaign around the city of Sofia, the Balkan armies retreated. Casualties had been largely the same on both sides, with no decisive battle to end the war. The Balkan armies instead moved north and, being now reinforced by the Polish armies moving into Moldavia, invaded Bulgaria from the north.

The army of Jem would face this force without Bulgarian support, though with further forces drawn from Anatolia, and would meet the Allied armies near Dobritsch. Again, no decisive battle occurred, however this was not the case further south in Greece, where the Bulgarian and Macedonian armies were pressing hard on the beleaguered Greek Revolutionaries and secured several key victories, occupying much of the rebelling territory, however seeing other setbacks against small isolated Greek armies who had the advantage of terrain.

After several months of inconclusive fighting, Stephen and Jem met at Warna, the latter wishing to end this war to turn his attention to the Ottoman Government, and the latter wishing to end the war so he could give support to the German Republic in the latter's invasion of Lower Austria. Terms were quickly agreed upon, seeing the current areas occupied by Bulgaria ceded to that state, while Serbia, Greece and Transylvannia would be acknowledged as independent, and the Moldavia would be returned to Poland. The conditions were quickly accepted, the treaty signed after only a single day of deliberation, and peace returned.

Or such it might have, however the Greek Revolutionaries refused to accept the terms as it would see a massive portion of Greece ceded to Bulgarian control. With no further patience or inclination to continue the war however, all this protest accomplished was forcing Poland to abandon the Greek state to its fate, publicly washing its hands of the affair and allowing Jem, with the support of the Bulgarian armies, to quickly invade and annex the small state in August of 1591.

This being considered the perfect pretense by the Georgian state, functionally independent if not acknowledged as such by the states around it, the generals there invaded and annexed the Trebizond region of Anatolia. This would prove a costly mistake however, as with no foreign support, the Ottoman armies were able to easily defeat the Georgian rebels and pull the entire area into Jem's control.


With absolute control of the state vested into Jem's hands, he took the final step that even his father had not, and declared himself to once more be the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, executing the current puppet Sultan and reorganizing the Ottoman Beaurocracy, filling it with generals and governors hand picked by Jem for their loyalty to his reign.

The Ottoman Divan was formally abolished in favor of this new government, and few two months the Empire seemed to be returning to its former glory. However the Empire's finances were in shambles, and the reorganization of the government prevented any meaningful tax collection as most of the funds were spent on the reconstruction of Government Buildings and the Road Network, in addition to providing the Government officials the finances necessary to gain lodging in their new territories of control, and in early 1592 the Ottoman Empire was effectively bankrupt.

With this latest development Algiers withdrew entirely from the Ottoman Orbit, having been previously independent in fact but not name. Likewise, all potential claims to the rebelled states evaporated as the Empire's ability to project its power outside of its borders rapidly diminished.

Despite this, and initial problems with desertion in the Ottoman Army, the empire slowly began to recover, and by 1593 it had regained some semblance of stability. The Ottoman Army had returned to a respectable size, while the new Ottoman Divan had quickly reorganized the state and finances, and the sheer size of the Empire, in addition to the massive amounts of trade that went through Thrace, and budget saving techniques in the decentralization of the Empire had allowed the state to recover.

However this period of recovery would be short lived, as in mid 1593 Jem would be forced into a war with Persia, the empire growing on his eastern Border. Persia had retained control over much of Mesopotamia following its invasion during the Regent's War, and at last, the Empire appeared strong enough to fight against this threat just as they received a reason to go to war.

The Persian state had been gradually building its influence in Arabia and the Caucasus Region, having taken Oman and Adal into its orbit and putting a strong pressure onto Shirvan to likewise defect from the Ottoman Empire, and in 1593 they made another bid for control of the West Coast of the Caspian Sea. Although Shirvan was nominally independent from the Ottoman Empire following the bankruptcy of 1592, the Ottoman Empire still controlled a strip of territory between Georgia and the Sea directly, and this too would need to be claimed in order for Persian Dominance over the area to become complete.

The war between the two Empires would be long, lasting until 1595, however would prove largely inconclusive. The Ottoman Army proved more than a match for the Persian army, being now composed almost entirely of the elite regiments who served under Jem in the Regent's war. Most of the fighting would take place in Mesopotamia, where Jem would occupy much of his former lands and see several decisive victories, however events in the West would pull him from a total victory. Seeing his defenses established, Jem would depart for Greece, where another Revolution was growing, this time with Italian Support.


In early 1594, Venezian and Tuscan armies, supported by several other small Italian States, moved into Greece with the intention of reclaiming Venezian territory there. Several small territories were seized from Bulgarian control, and most of the Greek Islands returned to Italian control. When Jem arrived, much of the peninsula had been lost, and he looked towards an uphill battle against a now entrenched enemy. However the city of Athens remained loyal to Bulgaria, and Jem was able to bring his forces into the city by sea to strike at the back of the Italian armies.

After several decisive victories against the Tuscan armies, Jem had liberated much of the territory surrounding Athens, however events would conspire to pull him away yet again, as after several failed attempts, the Persia armies managed to overwhelm the defenses left in Mesopotamia and seize the city of Baghdad.

Judging Mesopotamia to be of greater import than Greece, a hasty treaty was concluded. With the death of many of the Tuscan Generals in the conflict, Venezia was able to obtain primacy on the peninsula, taking de-facto control of a large swathe of territory. Although this territory remained still officially a part of the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria in particular, the fact of the situation saw it virtually annexed by Venezia.

Returning now to Mesopotamia, Jem reclaimed what territory he could, however the Ottoman Finances were being once again drained by this war, and another Bankruptcy could not be allowed, thus Jem was forced to sign away control of many of the territories he had fought for, including dominance over the Shirvan. Despite this defeat, Jem retained the strip of territory between Georgia and the Caspian sea, preventing absolute Persian dominance over the area and greatly hindering Persian attempts to project power into the Northern territories of the Shirvan, which would remain de-facto under Ottoman Control.