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unmerged(83854)

Second Lieutenant
Sep 12, 2007
124
0
Hi everyone,

I'm probably a more recent player than many on that forum, but I love EU2 (more than any other paradox game), AGCEEP, and reading your AARs. So I decided that I might give it a try and to one of my own.

The 2 countries I prefer, for the challenge and historical interest, are Ottoman Empire and Russia. The difficulty I encounter usually is that their big size hinders their tech skills and the 17th century (say nothing about the 18th) is usually pretty hard. Austria is an example of big, big pb for these countries.

So here I'm going to try another strategy with the Turks : keep it small, invest a lot in tech (land&infra) and manufactures. Only try to grab a couple of rich provinces (the mediterrean islands full of grapes to put my manus, for example), keep a low BB to make a lot of alliance. And vassalize/release vassals a lot, to get some of the income I would have add by annexation without the BB and tech hindrance.

Are you interested in that theme ? I'm open to any suggestion. I actually played already a bit of the game, but I'll do an AAR only if there are some readers interested in the idea.
 
Part One: 1419-1435

Part One: 1419-1435
Mehmed I takes Byzantium and creates the Golden Confederacy.

The first impulse of what would be soon known as the Golden Confederacy was given in 1419 by the Sultan Mehmed I. The wise and old man, who had been in power for seventeen years, saw the opportunity for his people, the Ottomans, to grab the regional power they had been deprived by Tamerlan and the Timurid Empire. The internal troubles of its rival would leave a room for the rise of the Turks.

Building a regional power

The first step was to take the wealthy city of Byzantium. The last part of the once glorious Byzantine Empire would be quickly swallowed: in 1419, Mehmed cancelled the vassalization he had with the Greeks, under the excuse that they had refused a new trade tax, and quickly moved his armies.

At the same time, he sent emissaries to the various Turkish kingdoms in Anatolia, with various results. In Candar, the Sultan found a goodwill people, considering favourably an alliance with the Ottomans, but only rude rebuttal came from Ghazi and Karaman. The wise and calm Mehmed knew he would have to take over them, but he wanted to fortify the European border of the Ottoman territory.

The first Golden Alliance

For that purpose, he gathered the Balkanic states, eager to find a protector against the greedy Hungary, in a loose diplomatic connection that he called the Golden Alliance. The links between the members was no more, at first, than a couple of diplomatic Royal Marriages, but the ties between the members of the Confederacy would be strengthened by a military alliance between them. Albania, Bosnia and Wallachia quickly joined. The alliance was called the Golden Alliance, because of the gold, looted from Thrace, that covered the room where the treaty was signed.

When the successful Sultan eventually sized the Second Rome and made Constantinople his capital, he was ready to retake his power in Anatolia. Unfortunately, death took him before he could achieve his dream, and his son would not immediately follow his steps.

Murad II creates the Golden Confederacy

The proud Sultan Murad II rose to power in May 1421, after the death of his father. He had a different view on the political situation than his father, and he was certainly more in a hurry to consolidate his power on his existing possessions than to conquer Anatolia. Murad was especially upset by Morea, the Greek kingdom which had supported the Byzantine Empire before its end. They were still leading raids in Macedonia, and it was something the new Sultan could not tolerate. He led his armies through the territories of his vassal of Athens, and in no time the cities of Morea fell before him.

The Sultan Murad, not looking for greedy conquests in an area that could prove itself hard to administrate, extended the idea of the Golden Alliance laid down by his father into a Confederacy. The members of the Golden Confederacy would give half of their monthly income to Constantinople, in return of which the Sultan would leave them administrate themselves and guarantee their independence. Every year, each member would send a delegation to the Congress of the Confederacy. With the years, the structure of the Confederacy would evolve, and the status of the different countries would depend if they were trustworthy allies, or vassal states and mere spoils of war, but it overall remained in the way Murad defined it in December 1421.

When he let Morea being an independent state, although vassal of the Ottomans, the objective of the Sultan were to keep the Empire as strong as possible, that is, of manageable size, without the large conquests that always led to dilution of weakness. In this strategy, Murad proved itself a man of great intelligence and a scholar, having studied the fate of many an empire in history, first among which were the Mongol and Timurid empires…

Having settled the first war of his reign, and despite his will to conquer the land of his ancestors in Anatolia, he gave some rest to his armies. He was a great administrator, and under his rules, the trade in Constantinople flourished, as well as the scientific progress. Despite being a good Muslim, the Sultan never allowed bigotry and superstition to rule his country, and he favoured inventiveness and new techniques.

Murad II conquers Anatolia

It was only in 1427 that the Ottoman Empire began another war. In Anatolia, the wealth and the glory of the Ottoman was so great that the other Turkish rulers were either strongly attracted or repulsed by it. Some, such as Candar and some local Ghazi rulers, did everything they could to please the Sultan, whereas the leaders of the Ghazi and Karaman displayed outright hostility. The Ottomans, for their respect of their neighbours’ rights, did not want to invade them, in a way familiar to the barbarian Christian kingdoms in Europe. But when Ghazi and Karaman begun to imprison and kill those of their subjects who where the most attracted by the glory of the Ottoman, Murad I had to take action. The war was quick, and the Anatolian states fell.

In 1428, the Ottoman dynasty was the leader of all the western Anatolia. Candar, Albania, Athens (which had swiftly taken over Morea in Greece in the aftermath of the Ottoman victory), Serbia and Bosnia, regrouped in the Confederacy, were vassals or allies. Wallachia was a worry, but they merely kept changing alliance between the Confederacy, the Hungarians, and Moldavia. A seven-year long period of prosperity began, during which the Turks started building refineries in Anatolia, an investment that would eventually prove being a profitable asset.
 
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Good reading, I must admit. I will be following this. Good luck following a different strategy - most probably most of the other people playing the Ottomans would feel tempted by their military power, leaders, and lots of cores the Turks get in the game. It will be interesting to see how you manage to fulfill your goal :).

Again, good luck!
 
Difficulty normal/weakling. This difficulty level is very easy at the begining (as you both said, super good leader and initial advantage in land tech) but I found it was very hard to resist Austria and France and Russia in the later part of the game. Actually, in any game I was a little bit too high in BB, I couldn't manage all these wars. Therefore this new strategy.

I already played the game up to the mid-1500's and it's going on more or less according to the plan. lot of vassals, a couple of refineries, and a pretty decent tech level. But now I'm facing an already strong austria and a menacing Kara Konlyu - but let's save that for the updates.

May I ask you how to post pictures ? I have a couple of screenshots for the future that I'd like to add, I always prefer AAR with maps :)
 
Don Matito said:
I always prefer AAR with maps
I guess most of us do ;).

When you want to post a screenshot, you have to upload it to something like imageshack and put the appriopriate address (of the already uploaded screenie) into tags in the post.

You have to remember also, that you cannot post more than 10 images of any kind (including smilies) in a single post.
I think that's all :).
 
Interesting plan although i doubt you'll be able to vassalise the whole world. Nonetheless it will be fun watching you try. I like the way you try and substantiate going to war. Your kings obviously think a lot about their actions.

I'll try and follow this. All the ones i've tried before have failed early. I'm sure this one won't though ;) Good luck!
 
Part Two: 1435-1443.
The First Caucasian War.

The first step into the Caucasian mess

In October 1435, Candar, one of the most reliable and faithful ally of the Ottoman Empire, got caught into a border dispute with Trebizond. What had begun as an ownership issue on a couple of acres of swamp quickly turned into a full-scale war for the control of Caucasus. Georgia and Theodoros armies were immediately sent to help their ally Trebizond, who was invaded by the army of Candar, supported by the Ottomans.

During the winter, the Turks took the advantage and lay the siege of Trebizond, while, at the same time, using the recently built fleet to carry an army to the shores of Crimea. The relations between the Khan of Crimea and the Sultan of Constantinople had always been good since the Crimea broke from their Golden Horde rulers, and the Mongols were more than happy to help the Turks attack the hated Christians of Georgia from the north. During the years 1436 and 1437, the Ottoman army led a series of siege on the unprotected northern cities of Georgia, forcing the King of Georgia to remove his armies from the defence of Trebizond.

The war extends to the sea

In a desperate move to cut the supply lines of the attackers, the Trebizond fleet attacked the Turkish galleys. The first encounter between the two navies was is the gulf of Odessa, and the Greeks routed their opponents. Although many galleys were sunk by the Greek warships, the Ottoman Empire had enough resources to rebuild them and the second naval battle, the Battle of Varna, saw the annihilation of the Greek fleet.

During the year 1437, the Ottoman army eventually overcame the defences of Trebizond, just in time to return to Anatolia to face a new enemy, the Order of Saint-John, who just joined the war against them. The Knights had a superior fleet that allowed them to attack whichever undefended part of the coast they wanted and loot the unprotected cities. The Turkish army quickly defeated them and started reinforce the coastal cities, but it took several more years to the Sultan to build a fleet able to take over his opponents. In 1340, after many lost naval battles, the Battle of Rhodes was the turning point of the war. During that three-month battle, the Turkish galleys outnumbered, routed, and then pursued and destroyed the fleeing warships of the Knights.

The return to peace and prosperity

With Theodoros already reduced in a vassal state, Georgia conquered, and the island of Rhodes being attacked, all hope was lost for the Christian alliance. In December 1340, Rhodes was annexed by the Ottoman Empire to prevent the island to turn again into an raiding base on the coasts of Asia Minor, and Georgia had to pay a huge sum of money to keep their independence. Trebizond had to surrender a half of his territory to Kandar, and was added to the Golden Confederacy as a vassal state. In addition, the Ottomans found a new ally in the Khan of Astrakhan, who was so impressed by the Ottoman efficiency that he spontaneously looked for the Sultan as a protector.

For three years, peace reigned in the Confederacy, the people of Candar enthusiastically decided to become part of the Empire, and even the political instability in Wallachia and Albania could not undermine the good mood at the Ottoman court. Great progresses were made in the administration of the country; and the project for a huge refinery in Smyrna was worked out until the peace suddenly broke, on January 11, 1443. A huge coalition of Hungary, Austria, Poland, Bohemia and Bosnia launched a crusade against the Turks. The Sultan was saddened by the treason of the Bosnians and by the brutal attack on his peaceful country, but he would lead his armies to crush his ennemies.
 
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Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been at a conference for the week, and it turned out that it was the only conference I know that didn't have internet access !

Well, on the other hand, I did a bit of play and writing, so I have a couple of updates ready. They should be flowing smoothly now.

Thx for the tip on the pictures Emperor_krk. Only pb is that I have started taking screenshot only in 1503, which is certainly a couple of updates ahead. Be patient and have faith, my friends.

@The Swert: well, so far, it's going on pretty well (I'm mid 1500's so the hardest part is still ahead). And I'm planning to do a little bit of annexion, I will just be much slower than the historical exponential Ottoman growth. And I hope that vassalizing my rivals will hinder their tech developpment.
 
Part Three: 1443-1472.
The Great Christian Crusade.

The Crusade

The Crusade, a sudden attack of a massive coalition regrouping Hungary, Poland, Austria, Bohemia and the former Ottoman vassal of Bosnia, started with an all-out assault on Bulgaria. The Christians had of course carefully chosen their time, when the Ottoman armies were far from their base, just returning from the Georgian campaign. Hopefully, the bravery of a newly recruited regiment in Thrace saved the day, preventing the attackers from going to far in Bulgaria. The fleet was also useful in neutralizing the Hungarian navy in the first weeks of the war, hereby keeping the battlefield the Balkans.

After their initial surprise, the Ottoman leaders took the initiative and launched attacks in Bulgaria, Serbia and Kosovo. The Sultan ordered a large recruitment of new soldiers, and in that purpose took a loan from the Greek bankers in Constantinople. The Ottoman government usually tried not to borrow money for fear of giving too much power to foreigners over the finances of the Empire, but this was a time of crisis.

The war spreads in the Balkans. Mehmed II rises to power

In addition to the initial attackers, some smaller countries took the opportunity of what they thought was a weaker Ottoman rule to leave the Golden Confederacy. Albania cancelled its vassalization, as well as Wallachia, and the latter added to the infamy in joining the war against their former protector! The Sultan Murad II was so upset by the treason that despite the war going on in Serbia, he diverted an army from its destination and invaded Wallachia in 1444.

In July of the same year, Murad II died, and Mehmed II rose to power. It was not a time for a weak Sultan to learn his duties, but hopefully Mehmed II would prove a competent ruler and an amazing general, and would lead the Ottoman to their highest glory.

The first good news

Three months later, the news of the first of a long series of victories arrived to Constantinople. The new Sultan had led his army to victory in Wallachia and, after the fall of the fortress of Bran in the Carpates mountains, the Romanian King accepted to, once again, return under the Ottoman authority and pay the tribute to the Golden Confederacy.

At the same time the war against the Crusade was not going on well, with retreats out of Bosnia and Kosovo. The Ottoman army was stronger than his opponents in terms of technology and strategy, using gunpowder in ways unknown to the Europeans, but it was largely outnumbered. Before the large recruitments during Mehmed II’s reign, the Ottoman army was never larger than fifty thousand men, and a large fraction of them were kept in Anatolia and Rhodes. When they faced the armies of the Crusader Kingdoms they were often outnumbered by two to one. Mehmed II understood that the high proportion of rich cavalrymen in his army were very expensive to recruit, and shifted instead the recruitment to large regiments of infantrymen, led by the mighty Janissaries.

The reform of the army proved effective in just one year, and by the end of 1445 the Turks managed to retake the provinces of Serbia, Kosovo, and Bosnia. In 1446, after the lost of their largest army in Kosovo, the Poles paid a large amount of money to secure peace with the Sultan and retrieve their captured nobles. In 1447, after take the city of Belgrade in Serbia, the Ottoman army attacked, for the first time, the Hungarians on their own land, crossing the Danube river and invading Banat.

A peace secured by more wars

Frightened, pressed by his allies to settle the situation before it was too late, the King of Hungary offered a truce to the Ottoman, offering them the lands of Serbia and Bosnia as well as some money. The peaceful Sultan Mehmed II accepted and integrated the two countries in the Confederacy. The Serbs would prove faithful allies, but the Bosnians would never be trusted as they were during the reign of Murad II.

After the victory, the popularity of the Sultan across the Empire reached a level never seen before. As well as a military victory over a seemingly invincible enemy, the Christian Crusade, the Sultan brought to his people wealth and prosperity. He extended the trade and the administration efficiency to a level never known before by the Turks, and he eventually set up the refinery in Smyrna that was planned since such a long time.

In order to finish securing the borders of the Empire, he led the invasion of Albania in 1451, bringing peace to the country after decades of internal struggle by annexing it. To the east, he stabilized the Asian part of the country by entering a Royal Marriage with the Black Sheep, Kara Koyunlu, the strongest country of the area. After taking over Mamluks, Aka Konlyu and Timurid Empire, the Kara Konlyu was exactly the kind of extended and diluted Empire the Ottoman didn’t want to become. But for the moment, the Kara Koyunlu was strong enough to be respected, and the Ottoman gain benefit of it, seizing the Taurus province from the weakened White Sheep in 1453.

In the following years, Mehmed II continued to expand the influence of the Golden Confederacy. After forcing the Ak Koyunlu in vassalage in 1455, he sent an army to help Crimea against the rebel Abkhazia, a war for which Bosnia refused to honour their alliance. Instead of allowing Crimea to annex the region, he added them to the Confederacy. The Duchy of Athens managed, with the political backup of Austria and because of Mehmed II peaceful mood, to leave the Confederacy unarmed. In spite of it, and for the greater good of the Empire, he invaded and annexed Cyprus in1464. The Sultan was not comfortable with having a hostile Christian state being a potential base for raids on the Anatolian shores.

In 1472, another mighty opponent declared war on Ottoman Empire. The Confederacy had enjoyed almost twenty-five years of prosperity, economic growth, and relative peace, but it was soon to be over.
 
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The peaceful Sultan Mehmed II
known IRL also as el-Fatih, "the Conqueror" :D. This made me smile, y'know. I think we will bear somehow the lack of pictures for the next 30 years of gameplay, won't we? ;)

I like your writing. It's all so clear, so neat, so pleasant to read, really. Refreshing, sort of. Keep it up!
 
Part Four: 1472-1479
The Muscovite invasion of the Khanates, the campaign of Hungary.

A growing interest in the Mongol tribes

Between 1450 and 1470, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed II, grew increasingly interested in the Khanates of the Siberian steppe, Crimea, Golden Horde, and Kazan. The heirs of the former Mongol Empire were at the same time Sunnites Muslims and regional rivals of Lithuania, Russia and Poland. For these two reasons, they were ideal potential allies of the Ottoman Empire and the Golden Confederacy, strengthening its northern border. The first Khanate to become an ally was Crimea, in 1454, then Kazan in 1466. Astrakhan, who was deeply supportive of the Ottoman Empire since the liberation of Daghestan from Trebizond, joined then Golden Alliance in 1468.

Muscovy, at the same time, was building momentum and power. After shaking the Tatar rule, the Muscovites took over their rival of Novgorod and gathered the other Slavic principalities under one country. They kept growing and strengthening, which eventually led to a direct rivalry with the Khanates of Crimea and Khazan. In 1472, they attacked Kazan, and the Ottoman Empire was dragged into the war.

The Muscovite aggression

After the long period of peace they had enjoyed, the quality of the Ottoman army had significantly declined. Despite the lack of preparation, Mehmed II sent an army to Crimea, with the plan to head north to force the Russian troops to lift their siege of Kazan. Nevertheless, things did not happen as expected. When they unboarded in Crimea, the Ottoman troops discovered that another Russian army was now looting the Crimean provinces, and that the Mongol troops were unable to stop it. After a short campaign, the Turks forced the Russian to retreat, but it was more a temporary delay than a decisive victory on the field. During the years 1472 and 1473, a series of small-scale battles and poor supply chain combined to inflict heavy losses to the Ottoman expeditionary corps. At the same time Kazan surrendered to Muscovy. Mehmed II decided to stop wasting troops in the frozen steppes of Crimea, and ordered the army to come back to board in the navy in the sea of Asov, but the Russian troops ambushed them on their way back. Hopefully, the battle turned to the advantage of the Turks, and the diplomats of the Golden Confederacy managed to secure a white peace with the Muscovites.

They outcome of the war was not catastrophic, except for the lost of Kazan, but it acted as a warning in the Ottoman Empire against being too comfortable and feeling too secure during periods of peace. Mehmed II ordered that the Turks should always be ready for war: he increased the soldiers’ wages, intensified their training, and initiated a more aggressive foreign policy. Ottoman Empire would not let his enemies prepare themselves for war anymore.

The campaign of Hungary

Therefore, that is purely in the purpose of peace and security of the Ottoman Empire that, in July 1475, he declared war on Hungary. The Hungarian Kingdom was the main rival of the Turks in the Balkans, and, moreover, it had led the terrible – and unsuccessful – Crusade against the Empire in 1443. In addition, they were involved in a war against Austria at that time: a large of their forces would be kept at the other side of the country.

The war was short and glorious. Helped by their Serbian allies, the Ottomans invaded Hungary through the territory of their Balkanic vassals. Hungary tried to face the new threat by securing peace with Austria, giving them some territory, and counter-attacking in Banat. The battle took place in May 1476, as the Hungarians and their allies of Poland tried to break the Ottoman siege, but they completely failed in their attempt. The battle was a large victory for the Turco-Serbian alliance, destroying almost all the entire enemy army. Hungary would never recover from the defeat, and in less than three years, the country was totally controlled by the Ottomans. In 1479, Hungary became a vassal of the Ottomans, giving them a tribute of half their monthly income.

The Golden Confederacy had never been so large and influent. In addition to Serbia and Crimea, allies of Constantinople, Astrakhan, Athens, Trebizond, Wallachia and Hungary were under the Ottoman rule. But although Mehmed II had greatly increased the influence of the Empire, the beginning of the 17th century would see an even more glorious extension.
 
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Hi everyone,

The weekend allows me more time to update, hope you enjoy this one.

In terms of gaming strategy, I start being really happy with the vassalization of my strong neighbours. It give me something like 40-50 of year income, no stab penalty, and prevents the alliances like hungary-poland that are usually painful for the ottoman. My CB is not higher than 4 or 5, which is good to make alliances on my own, and avoid being DoWed.

The war with Russia was my first loss. I tried my best to slow down their expansion thourgh alliance, but a campaign far from home in the snowy steppe is not my kind of fun, so I let them have Kazan. Crimea is a nice ally that I'd like to keep as long as possible.

Sorry for the update Three title, the "rules over Hungary" have been for this update. The war with Russia made it too long an update so I split it in two. Part Three is more me resisting to the Hungarian Crusade, and Part Four is me counterattacking and making them regret having annoyed the Turks.

Next one will have political and diplomatical maps.
 
Having played the Ottomans normally, and with this vassilation strategy, what more can you say about the pros and cons of either of them?

It seems to me that I would just try to take the province that had my national culture, and vassalize the rest.
 
You will have to remember though that having too many vassals can be problematic. What I mean is you'd better avoid a situation where your vassal who you are allied with, drags you into a war with another vassal of yours - a stab hit due to breaking vassalisation, etc. So if I were you, I'd be careful with this vassalisation-only policy.

Pity for the loss of Kazan. What is your income at the moment? Looking forward to the maps. :)
 
@Minarchist : well, I wouldn't know, since I haven't reached the point where the "usual" strategy starts being very hard (say mid 1600's). It seems to me pretty interesting to be able to have a nice tech dev, and low stab problems. The "growing fast" strategy has its own advantages, for eg a nice green blob on the political map, and a large manpower. But you spend a lot of time dealing with revolts, it's kinda boring.

@Emperor_krk : you're perfectly right, it happened once (Hungary on Serbia if I recall). It's annoying. You would guess that a true lord would enforce some kind of peace between his vassals, right ? Another bothering issue is the fact that you're supposed the be "protector" of your vassal in exchange for the tribute. And my vassal non-ally states keep being attacked and annexed by other countries and I'm not even noticed of it. It bothers me a lot. I'd say the vassalization thing is not really well set up in EU2.

My income is pretty decent, around 200, and something like 30 monthly with 5 from my vassals.
 
Part Five: 1479-1503
The conquest of Venice

Mehmed's eyes on Venice

After the victory on Hungary, the next rival of the Ottomans in the Balkan was Venice. The city-state was not a strong military power, but their navy was powerful and their island possession gave them naval bases closes to the Ottoman shores, Corfu near Albania and Ionia between Greece and Anatolia. Therefore, they were a threat, and since the Russia invasion of the Mongol Khanates, the Sultan Mehmed II had sworn never to let a threat grow out of control.

The war actually broke out because of the conflict between Christian and Muslim merchants for the control of the ports of the Black Sea. The Venetians controlled the former Genoese trading post of Kerch, and the Mongols of Crimea had conquered the port of Abkhazia during the Caucasus War thirty years earlier. The fragile balance broke out in 1481 when the Christians of Abkhazia, who felt oppressed by the Khan, revolted with the support of Venice. Mehmed II warned the Doge of Venice that any interference with the Crimean internal affairs would result in a war, but despite the threat, Venice sent a fleet and eight thousand soldiers to relieve the besieged Abkhazian. Mehmed II riposted by sending his army to Ragusa and his fleet to blockade the island of Ionia.

Bayezid II becomes the new leader of the Empire

Just after the war begun, Mehmed II died and his son, Bayezid II, later known as the Law-Abiding, rose to the Throne of the Ottoman Empire and the leadership of the Golden Confederacy, which regrouped the vassals of the Ottomans, Trebizond, Astrakhan, Theodoros, Wallachia, Serbia, Bosnia, Athens and Hungary, and their allies of Crimea. Bayezid was not only going to extend the conquests of his father but, more important, to strengthen and stabilize the Empire.

The war on the seas and the lands

The war against Venice was the hardest war the Ottoman Empire had ever had to fight. The Venetians fought bravely for each of their city, even when they were outnumbered at one against two, and even when the Turkish cannons were crushing their walls. At the same time, a large part of the army was forced to fight in Anatolia against the rebels following the false Sultan Cem. The Venetian warships sunk most of the galleys of the Ottoman navy during the first two years of the war, and it took huge financial efforts for Constantinople to build a new fleet of large, strong warships. The Venetian navy kept sinking the new ships, and Turks kept building new ones, during almost five years, until the Turkish ships eventually outnumbered the Venetians and managed to take control of the Ionian and Istrian seas.

In January 1491, after nine years of wars, the Venetians surrendered to the Ottomans. Their lands, all their cities, were controlled by the Turks, and the mighty army of their ally in Milan was not moving to help them. It was a incredible victory over one of their strongest rival for the Ottomans, and the celebrations in the streets of Constantinople were still going on when the first monthly tribute from Veneto arrived.

Bayezid's enforcement of the central authority

During the following decade, Bayezid would lay down the foundations of the real achievement of his reign: the enforcement of the Ottoman law throughout the whole Empire. He gained his name of law abiding by defining, spreading and enforcing the same law in every province, reducing corruption, injustice and insecurity. He deprived the rebel movements in Cyprus, Dobrudja and Rhodes of their best fuel, the lack of central authority, by appointing legal officials in every large city. At a time were Western Europe was torn apart by cruel wars between England, France, Brittany and Lorraine, and when the Middle East was burning out of the conflict between Mameluks and Kara Koyunlu, the Ottoman Empire was a heaven of stability and peace.

To continue securing the Ottoman Empire, Bayezid II had to take care of the Golden confederacy. Because the Ottoman’s attention had been distracted from Central Europe during the war against Venice, Wallachia had taken the opportunity to break their vassalage with the Ottoman Empire, and so did Athens, going even further by placing themselves under the protection of Lithuania in exchange for the control of ports and trading posts in Moldavia. But in 1503, the Ottoman Empire was the most stable and advanced country in Europe and Asia.
 
Hello everyone,

I reformated my previous posts, I think it's more readable. I hope you like it. I also had time for a short update, I'm catching up with my game now.

I was pretty happy with the victory over Venice. Added to the vassalage of Hungary, I managed to take down the (usually) main opponents of OE in the early game. I still have to do something about Austria though.

I'm uploading pictures on imageshack now, I think it's time for a quick overview of the Golden Confederacy