Tales of the Ottoman Empire

unmerged(9097) · Apr 26, 2003

Tales of the Ottoman Empire

Volume I: The Ottoman Expansion prior to 1550

Hi all I am back again! My work has kept me busy the past few months but now I have found some time to write a new AAR. I have started the game (Grand Campaign) in 1419. While playing, I decided to write an AAR about it so you’re ‘actually dropping in’. To fill in the gaps here are the first few chapters describing what happened so far.

Up to now the Ottoman Turks have been ruled by six successive sultans. All of them have been great warriors who conquered neighboring states, adding them to the great Ottoman Empire. Each of the Sultans has added something different, so I’ll discuss each of them separately. No pictures at the moment but I garantee that Volume II will be illustarted

Chapter I: Sultan Meh.med I 1402 - 1421
The Ottomans start in 1419 controlling nothing more but the western tip of the Anatolian peninsula and the southern part of the Balkan. Sultan Meh.med I ruled over the Ottomans for 17 years by then, expanding their hold over the Balkan and central Anatolia.

On January 20th 1419 he launches an attack on the last Greek-Roman outpost in Anatolia, the city of Trebizond. This city is allied with Byzantium but the latter doesn’t support them in these times of trouble. Reason for this is the fact that the Byzantines had offered the Turks military access to their provinces and they didn’t want to risk an all-out Turkish invasion as had happened many times before. The weak Trebizond armies are easily defeated and the Turks take the city on May 20 1420.

In other to expand the Ottoman territories even more, Meh.med I declares war upon the small state of Georgia to the northeast of Anatolia on December 17th 1420. He had no intention of actually taking any provinces from them as that would spread recourses a little too thin across the peninsula, but the Georgians are allied with the Byzantines and that’s whom Meh.med is after! Unfortunately, he doesn’t live to see how his plans worked out as he died of old age on May 27th 1421. Nevertheless he had started a series of events that would lead the Ottomans to great glory!

unmerged(9097) · Apr 26, 2003

Chapter II: Sultan Murâd II 1421 - 1451

Murâd II is the first warrior sultan to take the field himself. He commanded the armies in the east personally in order to oversee the defeat of the Georgians. Leaving it to local commanders take on the Byzantines in the west. Murâd has success in fighting the Georgians. He takes their capital Tiblisi in November 1421 and the northern region of Georgia (Sochi) in early 1423. His western commanders manage to take the city of Constantine but all their attempts to take Morea in the southern Balkan fail. The peace of Tiblisi (December 1423) between the Ottomans on one side and Georgia and Byzantine on the other, hands over Morea to the Turks anyway. Georgia also becomes a vassal of Turkey.

Murad wanted to continue the aggressive politics of his predecessor. He initiates a series of wars on the Balkan during his entire reign. It are:

Ottoman - Wallachian War (1427 - 1429): resulting in the annexation of Wallachia and the Moldavian province of Bujak

Ottoman - Byzantine War (1430 - 1431): resulting in the annexation of Constantine

Murad moves the capital from Bursa to Constantinople. He replaces the patriarch but leaves the Orthodox Christians mostly untouched. He also closes down trading posts of the Venetians and the market of Constantinople becomes an important commercial centre. The Turkish city states in the eastern part of Anatolia grew suspicious of the Ottoman ambitions leading to the:

First Anatolian War (1431 - 1433): leading to the annexation of Teke and eastern Anatolia

This intermezzo didn’t stop Murad from continuing his conquest of the Balkan:

Ottoman - Italian War (1434): resulting in the annexation of Athens by the Ottomans

First Turkish - Venetian War (1438 - 1442): resulting in the annexation of Ionia and Albania

This war had greatly drained the resources from the Turkish navy even though the Turks had won a decisive victory over the Venetian fleet in the Battle of Crete (1441). The first two decades after this war the Turkish fleet was practically non-existent.

Before he continued his conquest of the Balkan, Murad wanted to get rid of the troublesome Turkish city states. He launched the:

Second Anatolia War (1445): resulting in the annexation of Taurus

Poland and Lithuania however saw through his plans of conquest on the Balkan and launched a pre-emptive strike against the Turks, the:

Polish Intervention War (1445)
This sneak attack by the Polish was repelled by the Turks but the Balkan armies where disorganized and needed time to recuperate. In fact, the entire nation needed time to restore from the almost continuous warfare. From 1427 to 1445 the Turks had known only 6 years of peace!! In order to go a more friendly course, Murad arranged marriages between his family and the sultans of Algiers and Morocco. He also setup a refinery in the Anatolia-province to stimulate the export of wine.

Meanwhile on the Balkan several conflicts were fought between the Hungarian-Bavaria –alliance and Austria over Serbia and Croatia. Venice (semi-ally of Austria) was fighting for control over the city of Ragusa and Bohemia had the independence wars of Siebenbürgen. The Ottomans simply couldn’t let any of their contesters get the advantage over them in the Balkan region and so Murad had to go to war again:

First Great Balkan War (1447 - 1452)
Actually a name for several conflicts fought between various states simultaneously during this period. The Turks began this war by attacking Serbia in 1447 and Ragusa in 1448 (resulting in the annexation of Serbia in 1448 and Kosovo in 1451). The conflict soon spread as Bavaria aided by Venice, the Papal States, Mantua and Kleves declared war upon the Turks in early 1449. The Bavarians launched an attack from Croatia as the pope landed troops in Anatolia and Burak! With the Turkish fleet busy in Cyprus (ally of Ragusa and conquered in 1449) there was little they could do about it but stand their ground. The Venetians were successfully driven out of Kosovo and the threat of an invasion of Crete led them to sign a white peace in 1450. With their troops in the southern Balkan freed from fighting the Venetians, the Turks began to take on Bavarian raiders leading to the peace of Ragussa (1452). This peace arranged more then just the formal passing of Kosovo, Serbia and Cyprus to Turkey. Ragusa was handed over to the Venetians (they were at war with each other since 1450) and Venice had to let go the claims she had on Morea and Ionia.

Murad didn’t live to see this peace come to live as he died in 1451. He was succeeded by Meh.med II.

unmerged(9097) · Apr 26, 2003

Chapter III: Sultan Meh.med II Fâtih 1451 - 1481

Before I tell more about the accomplishments of Meh.med II, I have to tell you that during the last war on the Balkan war, another war was fought in the east. The Kurdish hordes of Ak Koyunlu (aided with the Crimea) declared war upon the Ottomans in late 1451. The Kurds had converted from Sunni religion to Shiite religion and as a result tensions between them and the Sunni Turks had risen, resulting in the:

Third Anatolian War (1451 - 1454)
The Kurds took the provinces of Angora and Trebizond and lay siege to other cities in the east before Meh.med II was able to send enough troops to crush them. Not until the peace of Ragusa in 1452 was he able to free enough troops to retake the lost territories and sign a white peace with the Kurds (1454).

This war made Meh.med realize that before he could continue the conquest on the Balkan he had to secure his borders in the east. To make a begin with this he started the:

War between the Ottomans and the Knightly Order of Saint John (1456)

Meh.med II took the island of Rhodes as he wanted to use this island as staging area for an invasion against the Mammaluks but his opponents in the west didn’t give hem time to do so.

Second Great War of the Balkan (1457 - 1463)
Hungary attacked the Ottomans in 1457 as a reaction on the attack of Rhodes. Hungary had an impressive list of allies (Bavaria, Sweden and Prussia to name a few) but in reality only Hungary and Bavaria posed a real threat to the Turks. Meh.med is unable to prevent the Hungarians from invading, but when he retaliated by striking in the hart of the Hungarian defenses (the province of Banat) in late 1457 a white peace was signed between Hungary and Turkey.

Despite this peace, things didn’t settle down in the region as Venice attack the Ottomans 3 months later, aided by her Italian allies and Bosnia. The Turks, with a large army already present in the area, took Bosnia in 1459. This caused Hungary to pick up arms against them again that year as they allied themselves with Venice as reaction. The Turks now faced all of the Balkan states in a single war! The Hungarians took Serbia in 1460 but Meh.med managed to take Croatia from the Bavarians later that year. Hungary settled for peace with the Turks for a mere 20 golden ducats as the Bavarians offered Meh.med a swooping 200 ducats in order to vacate Croatia!

The Venetians now faced the Turks alone and with their navy in shambles they were unable to prevent them from taking Crete in 1459. Dalmatia fell 1462 after which Meh.med turned his armies towards the city of Venice itself! The city falls in Turkish hands in 1463 and the Doge is forced to sign a very unprofitable treaty with them. Crete and Corfu both fall in hands of the Turks (treaty of Venice 1463). With this treaty, the Venetians have stopped being a major power in the Mediterranean.

Though a major success, the Turks still were not out of the woods yet, the Kurds in the east had again launched a war against Meh.med:

Fourth Anatolian War (1460 - 1463)
The Kurds stroke against the Turks when all of their armies were in the west. Again Meh.med had to scramble an army out of nothing in order to stop them. Commanded by Aziz he launched a massive counterattack in the spring of 1461. The Kurdish main armies were defeated after which their cities fell one by one until only Kurdistan remained free (1463). The treaty of Armenia was signed that year. The Kurds handed over Armenia (and its rich gold mines) to the Turks but they were allowed to keep their other territories. With this treaty Meh.med II proved himself to be a very cunning diplomat as he knew that without the Armenian gold, the Kurds would not have the necessary recourses to fight against the Turks again!

With the Kurds out of harms way, Meh.med now was finally ready to secure his eastern borders once and for all. In 1466 he declared war against the Mammaluks and set out to give the Ottomans their greatest expansion to date!

The First Egyptian Campaign (1466 - 1471)
At that time the Mammaluks controlled all of the provinces from Cyrenaica in Libya to Aleppo in southeastern Anatolia. They were skilled warriors that had repelled most the Crusaders in the 12th to 14th century but they had been unable invest in a more stable government as only he who had the most powerful armies would be able rule as sultan. All of the sultans were thus forced to continuously wage war during their reign leading to instability in their realm.

Meh.med launched a very well planned attack on the Mammaluks as he knew their reputation as excellent horsemen on the fields. He chose to launch an invasion of Northern Egypt (Delta of the Nile and Cyrenaica) from Crete and an invasion by land in Aleppo and Lebanon. The campaign lasted from 1466 and lasted to 1471 during which all of their provinces were captured by the Turks. The treaty of Alexandria signed on October 24th 1471 handed over all of their territories east of the Sinai desert to the Turks. Meh.med had managed to conquer Syria, Lebanon, the Holy Lands and eastern Iraq in just 5 years!

With these conquest came the problem of religions and nationalities. The Ottoman empire now included Turkish, Greek, Slavonic, Arabic, Armenian and Kurdish inhabitants (all with either the Sunni, Greek Orthodox or Catholic believes). In order to unite these various cultures, Meh.med began to convert non-Muslims to the (true) Sunni fate. Bosnia, Bujak, Crete and Lebanon all were converted to the Sunni religion during the period between 1471 and 1480.

Meh.med II knew that after 80 years of almost continuous warfare, the empire needs rest in order to grow stronger. He does however, fight one more battle with the Turks of Cander in the:

Fifth Anatolian War (1480 - 1481): resulting in the annexation of Cander

After a long and productive life, sultan Meh.med II dies, leaving a prosperous empire to Sultan Bâyezîd II.

unmerged(9097) · Apr 26, 2003

Chapter IV: Sultan Bâyezîd II 1481 - 1512

Sultan Bâyezîd II was a wise ruler who wanted to continue the unification policy of his predecessor. The Turks knew that if they were unsuccessful in unifying matters of religion, they would not be able to keep the newly acquired territories together. Bâyezîd converts the Catholic heathens in Syria for example and closes down Shiite mosques in Kirkuk. The Sunni clergy aspired in the creation of a single (Sunni) state-religion; most Sultans however recognized that this was an unattainable goal, as the Ottoman Empire had a large population of Greek-Orthodox people.

Bâyezîd does wage wars during his reign, he starts the:

Second Egyptian Campaign (1481 - 1485)
The Mamaluks still ruled over most of Egypt and Bâyezîd needed to control the Nile valley in order to secure the large supplies of grain it produced. This campaign was a copy of the previous Egyptian campaign fought by Meh.med II in 1466-1471, the Turks launched an attack through the Sinai on the eastern flank and they landed an army in Alexandria and Cyrenaica from Crete. The Mameluks were prepared for this invasion and actually managed to prevent the Turkish fleet from leaving Crete twice (1481 and 1482). When the Turks send a relief fleet from Thrace however they crushed the Mameluk ships and took all of northern-Egypt during 1482-1485. Meanwhile the Mameluks were facing another threat as the Nubians attacked from the south (Nubian - Egyptian War from 1482 to 1487). Unable to hold off both attackers the Mameluks handed over all of northern Egypt to the Ottomans. The Nubians took the southern provinces (Nile and Cataract). The Mamaluks controlled nothing more but the surroundings of Cairo as Nubian vassals.

Lithuania, again seeing through the plans of the Turks, launches another intervention army at the Turks in 1488:

Lithuanian Intervention War (1488 - 1490)
The Turks stood their ground against a combined attack of the Polish, Hungarians and Lithuanians. After the army of the Balkan had driven out their armies and attacked the province of Jedisan, the Lithuanians saw the writing on the wall and signed a peace treaty. This was to be the last intervention war on the Balkan for a long time.

Meanwhile the Mamaluks found themselves again at war with the Nubians. In order to prevent the Nubians from taking Cairo, Bâyezîd send his own intervention army to the city:

Third Egyptian Campaign (1494-1496) resulting in the annexation of Egypt.

With things settled in North Africa and the Balkan, things took an expected turn in the east. Persia freed itself from the rule of Timurid Empire in 1482. The Turks would get their share of trouble with them later on! For now the Kurds allied themselves with their new neighbors giving them military access to the eastern Anatolian provinces. Bâyezîd found this an unacceptable as this meant that the Shiite Persians now had access to the eastern parts of Anatolia. In order to prevent the Persians from exercising this right of passage, the Turks declared war upon the Kurdish-Persian alliance in 1496:

First Kurdish War (1496 - 1497) resulting in the annexation of the Carpatian provinces.

In order to accomplish complete domination over Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean, he also launches an attack against Nubia:

Nubian War (1499 - 1502) resulting in the annexation of southern Egypt and the vassalization of Nubia

The Ottoman Empire now stretched from Nubia to the Black Sea and from the Carpatian Sea to Istria. In order to secure their eastern borders, the Turks declared war upon the Georgians again:

Georgian War (1505 - 1506) resulting in the annexation of Georgia province and the vassalization of the Georgian princes in Sochi

The Kurds meanwhile became vassals of the Persians in 1508, grating the Persians access to their territories again. This led to the:

Second Kurdish War (1508) in which all of Kurdistan is handed over to the Ottomans with the exception of Kurdistan-province.

In the remaining years of Bâyezîd’s reign, no more wars were fought as the Ottomans had secured their borders with Persia now. Bâyezîd does hire an English explorer called Carter who charts the west-coast of Africa for the Turks in 1508-1509. He doesn’t find any suitable sites for setting up colonies however so no colonization as yet for the Turks.

Bâyezîd dies in 1512 and is succeeded by another great Sultan, Sultan Selîm I Yavuz.

unmerged(9097) · May 2, 2003

Chapter V: Sultan Selîm I Yavuz 1512 - 1520

Sultan Selîm I is already an old man when he ascends the throne in 1512. Despite his age, like his predecessors, he takes control of the Turkish armies of the Balkan in order to expand the Turkish borders further west. Though Selîm will expand the Turksih borders in the west in time, Shiite rebels in the east calls for all his attention:

Third Kurdish War (1514 - 1515)
In 1512 eastern Anatolia rises up in revolt as Shiite rebels, aided by the Persians, try to free themselves of the Sunni Turks. The rebels are crushed in 1513 after which Selîm wants to get rid of the Shiite Kurds in the east to put an end to it all. The Persians prove to be no match for the superior Turkish forces; the Persian capital is even besieged by the Turks in 1514!

Selîm however doesn’t want to add Shiite Persian provinces to the Ottoman Empire, after his troops had taken Kurdistan, they annexed the Kurds and signed a (lasting) treaty with the Persians in 1515 (treaty of Kirkuk). Now all of Kurdistan is part of the Turkish Empire.

With things settled in the east, Selîm is finally able to crush his enemies on the Balkan once and for all. He reforms the navy by instituting the Halic Shipyard in December 1515 and launches his attack on the Hungarian alliance in 1516, starting:

Third Great War of the Balkan (1516-1518)
Hungary at that time was allied with Poland, Lithuania, Brandenburg and Bohemia. The alliance had large armies present in the Balkan and the surrounding provinces and it looked like the Turks were in for some heavy weather. However, in 1515 the Reformation had arrived in Europe and the alliance was already at war with several minor German states that had converted to the Protestant faith. When the Turks launched their invasion of Hungary, all of its allies sought ways to make peace with the Turks as soon as possible. By late 1516 Hungary faced the Ottomans alone…

Selîm invaded Hungary with three armies. The battle plan was pretty straightforward: attack the larger enemy units in your way and lay siege to the most important fortifications. Province after province was placed under Turkish control without the Hungarians being able to do much about it. By March 1518, most of Hungary had fallen into Turkish hands and plans were made to divide the conquered territories among loyal beys (lords). When some of these future rulers didn’t get their hands on the lands they wanted, they sided with the Hungarians no less causing great instability in the Turkish realm! Facing internal uprisings, Selîm was forced to seek peace with Hungary before he could annihilate her. The treaty of Istria (August 1st 1518) handed over all of Hungary with the exception of the northwestern provinces over to the Turks. Hungary also became a Turkish vassal.

Selîm I had expanded the borders of the empire to the gates of Vienna and the Adriatic Coast, adding much to the splendor of Turkey. He also created a big internal problem by adding new nationalities, religions and cultures to the already divers mix of Ottoman citizens. This however was not to be his problem to solve. A mere two years after the treaty of Istria was signed Selîm died of old age and he was succeeded by probable the most important ruler in the Ottoman history: Süleymân I Kanuni.

Alexandru H. · May 4, 2003

he was succeeded by probable the most important ruler in the Ottoman history: Süleymân I Kanuni.

What did he do? Conquer the world?

Hey, this isn't the way to an AAR. A good AAR must be delayed, updated as slow as possible, even forgotten for some time, with more backposts than actual wAARiting...

Nikolai II · May 4, 2003

He's only bringing us up to speed, the actual AAR begins in 1550

unmerged(9097) · May 5, 2003

Chapter VI: Sultan Süleymân I Kanuni 1520 until 1550

Sultan Süleymân I (the Great) inheres a great empire, filled with problems though. The Ottomans have expanded their territory in 100 years from a minor state on the Balkan, to an impressive power that stretches from the borders of Austria in the West to the borders of Persia in the East and from the Black Sea in the North to the Southern parts of Egypt.

Of course at that time, there were no real ‘Ottomans’. The empire included Turks, Greek, Ruthians, Slavonic, Arabic and even Italian minorities. Religious turmoil was almost daily business in some parts as no less then 5 religions were incorporated in the empire (Sunni, the state religion, Shiite, Greek Orthodox, Catholic and even Protestants). The Muslims had a hard time excepting the Catholic and Protestant minorities and one of the first things Süleymân does is persecuting the Catholic and Protestant minorities in the Balkan. Especially the Protestant minorities in Barat province keep the Turks at their toes as they revolt many times against this harsh policy during the 1520s and early 1530s (they are eventually converted to true Muslim believes in 1532).

The Mamaluks in Egypt are also not content with their role as mere beys (lords). The revolt en masse in Egypt in 1520 but luckily Süleymân has a large army in based in Alexandria. This uprising (all over Egypt) was put down within the year.

During the 1520s and early 1530s that was pretty much Süleymân policy; converting religious minorities, reforming the army and the navy (both increase to level 9) and putting down regional rebellions in order to keep the newly formed empire together. On the diplomatic front he sought contact with his Sunni brothers, the Arabs, in North Africa and Arabia resulting in some marriages between his family and the ones of Aden, Algeria, Morocco and Medina. Most of his neighbors were pleased to see that the Turks had stopped attacking. The Venetians however were still contemplating how they could retake their lost possessions in the Balkan; in 1531 it resulted again to war:

Second Turkish - Venetian War (1531 - 1533):
Venice (allied with Spain and Portugal) was no longer a superior power in the Mediterranean. Venice had lost all of territories in Greece and Crete to the Turks but she had gained control over Ragusa and still held Dalmatia, in Italy they had taken Modena and most of the former Papal States. The Turks were not interested in taking any Italian provinces, they did want the Adriatic provinces however and Süleymân wanted to turn the Venetians into a vassal as a border state against Austria and Spain.

The war itself was pretty straight forward; the Turkish armies took Ragussa and Dalmatia within two years of fighting. The Spanish and Portuguese have little apatite for another adventure in the Mediterranean, they wanted to focus their efforts on colonizing the new world, they both sigh a white peace in April 1531. When the Turkish march up to the city of Venice itself the Doge quickly signed a treaty with Süleymân, the Adriatic provinces are handed over to the Turks but Venice is not made a vassal as Portugal beat them to it (Venice becomes a Portuguese vassal in late 1532).

During this war, an English explorer called Bates surveyed the lands south of Nubia in the Horn of Africa. He discovers Massawa, Keren and Issas in 1532-1533 but when he arrives in Issas he is ambushed by very hostile natives and his expedition vanished without a trace. The Turks settle this area during the reign of Süleymân.

In 1534 Siebenburgen became a protestant nation. Fearing that the Siebenburgers, now completely surrounded by the Turks, would flare up religious unrest again on the Balkan, Süleymân declared war upon them in 1535:

Fourth Great War of the Balkan (1535 - 1536)
Though a very short war, this is an important war nevertheless since it units all of the Balkan under the rule of the Turks. The Siebenburgers were allied with Poland, Hungary, Bohemia and Lithuania, but besides the Hungarians none of these powers were willing to risk an all out war in the Balkan. This was caused mostly because of the religious wars that were fought in the rest of Europe at that time. The Hungarians, severely weakened by the previous war, were unable to prevent the annexation of Siebenburgen by the Turks in 1535 after which the Turks turned against the Hungarians again (they had broken the vassal agreement of 1518). By late 1536, all of Hungary was again in hands of the Turks. The previous Hungarian government was replaced by a pro-Turkish one and the vassal agreement of 1518 was again reinstated. This proved to be a very durable treaty as the Turks didn’t see war again until 1550!

Though successful, the nationalists problem on the Balkan hadn’t been solved by this latest conquest. During the 1530s and 1540s Süleymân began what historians now call the ‘internal conquest’. Süleymân gave Turkey new sets of laws, he reformed the navy and the army to the most modern army force at that time and he successfully converts the Protestant and Catholic provinces into Muslim ones. In 1549 the Edict of Constantine is issued stating that only Sunni and Greek Orthodox religions are accepted in the empire, all other religions were no longer allowed. This provided the rest the empire needed to survive the turbulent times up ahead.

On the political front, Süleymân was able to turn the Arabs of Aden and Medina into his vassals (1535 and 1536 respectively) and added them as part of the Empire in 1547. He also manages to maintain excellent relations with the sultans of Algiers and Tunis but they decline to be placed under his rule for the moment. Meanwhile Austria is getting more and more powerful in central Europe as they conquer large parts of Bohemia during the continuous religious wars that are being fought in Western Europe. They had also allied themselves with the Russians who shared a common border with the Turks in Dahagstan. This clearly poses a threat to Süleymân’s policy of dominance on the Balkan and the Middle East. It leads to war again in 1550:

One Year War (1550)
The final war on the Balkan for quite some time to come; a war between the Turks and the Austrian – Russian alliance. The Turks however have the best trained and armed army in the world at that time so the Austrian forces pose very little threat to them. The Austrians suffer a devastating defeat at the Battle of Presburg (May 1550) after which Vienna itself is taken by the army commanded by Süleymân (July 1550). The Austrians were quick to make peace after this defeat, signing the treaty of Odenburg (December 1550). This treaty handed over Presburg, Odenburg and Steiermark to the Turks (concluding their conquest of the Balkan for a long time to come). The Russians also have no armies that can pose a threat to the Turks. They sign a separate peace with the Turks in November 1550.

This concludes volume I and almost 150 years of continuous warfare for the Turks. The challenge for them was to keep things together…

Ottoman Empire 1550

Alexandru H. · May 6, 2003

Meanwhile Austria is getting more and more powerful in central Europe

Judging by the map, I can see the danger...the Austrians just conquered one of your villages...

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Tales of the Ottoman Empire

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