Geopolitics and Markets Review – 11th March 2024

History of The Balkans – Part 2

Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Ottoman Empire

3. The Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire

4. The Hungarians

5. Concluding Remarks

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Bitesize Edition

• The Byzantine Empire ruled over the Balkans to varying degrees of control and influence over their 1000-year existence, but eventually fell to the Ottomans in 1453. Parts of their empire clung to existence, but they eventually faded into the history books completely in 1461.

• The Ottomans spent a portion of this chapter of their history under the command of Mehmed the Conqueror. Leading the Ottomans, they captured the Duchy of Athens, the territory of Serbia, Wallachia, and Bosnia. They also battled with the Safavid Iran Empire, defeating them and annexing areas of Eastern Anatolia and Northern Iraq.

• Things were looking up for the Ottomans. By looking upwards on a map, we can see the Ottoman’s journey through the Balkans brought them face-to-face with the Hungarians. Later, under the leadership of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottomans achieved magnificent success in battle against the Hungarians. Many mark the death of Suleiman the Magnificent as the start of a slow decline of the Ottoman Empire, in a thesis referred to as the Ottoman Decline Thesis. Others believe the Ottomans reached peak power in alignment with the furthest extent of their territorial control, which came over a century later.

• Still, this chapter of the Ottoman's rise is of vital importance for what comes next: Forever wars with the Hapsburgs, battles with the Russians, and the eventual rise in Balkan nationalism. For now, we’ll discuss the events that set up these eventual occurrences.

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Introduction

We ended last week with the fall of the Byzantines and the rise of the Ottomans in the Balkans. We’ll carry on today’s history with the rise of the Ottomans. Over the coming weeks, we’ll discuss the fall and the journey to the present day.

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Balkan History – Part 2

The Ottoman Empire

Mehmed the Conqueror led the Ottomans to the capture of Constantinople in a 53-day siege at the ripe old age of 21, cementing his status as a slight overachiever. The Ottomans now had control of one of the strongest, defensible cities at the time, partly due to the Walls of Constantinople, some of the most advanced of the time. However, generations of warfare shifted. Gunpowder and cannonballs were a contributing factor to the fall of Constantinople. The field of technology in war advances, and if a declining empire doesn’t keep up, its collapse is inevitable. The period of the Byzantine’s 1000-year empire, even longer if you include the Western Roman Empire, came to an end at the hands of the Ottomans.

So, what did the Ottomans do with their newfound empire I hear you ask?