The Balkans: Powder Keg of Europe

by Oksana Drozdova, M.A.

Lecture II

BEGINNING OF THE EMPIRE

Osman I Ghazi (1299-1326)founder of the Ottoman Empire

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THE ROMAN EMPIRE DURING THE REIGNS OF MAJORIAN & LEO I IN 460 AD.

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1054

ANATOLIA BEFORETHE OTTOMANS

Sultanate of Rûm (1077-1307)4

DECLINE OF THE SULTANATE OF RÛM

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Orhan (1326-1362)6

CONQUESTS OF ORHAN

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Murad I (1362-1389)8

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Serbian Empire (1345-1371) included present day Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria

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States that emerged after desolation of Serbian Empire (1371-1395)

BATTLE OF KOSOVO POLJE 15 JUNE 1389

Lazar, king of Moravian Serbia, led the combined Serbian-Kosovan-Bosnian army, a united force to resist the Muslims.

Sultan Murad I’s death on the battlefield incited his son Bayezid to kill his brother Yakub, thus establishing a tradition of fratricide as the means to obtain the power.

Serbia became an Ottoman vassal, obliged to pay tribute and supply troops. Bosnia and Kosovo lost their independence in 1392.

Kosovo Polje became a symbol of Christian resistance and still figures vividly in the Serbian national consciousness as a defining historical moment.

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Bayezid I (1389-1402)14

CONQUESTS OF BAYEZIDIn 1395 Bayezid's conquered Macedonia. This victory inevitably put Hungary on a collision course with the Ottoman Empire.

Battle of Nichopal (1396). By winning it, Bayezid gained control over the Balkans south of the Danube.

Led another campaign, but this time into the mainland of Anatolia, turning the rebellious emirate of Karamanid into just another territory in the growing empire of the Ottomans.

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JANISSARIESyeniçeri (‘new force’)

Christian territories were subject to a youth-levy (devşirme).

Albanian, Bosnian, Greek, Bulgar, Serbian and Croatian boys were preferred.

Jews and boys of Turkish, Kurdish, Persian, Ruthenian, Muscovite or Georgian stock were exempted.

Armenians were taken only for service in the palace, not in the armed forces.

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A 15th century Janissary drawing by Gentili Bellini

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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wearing the traditional janissary uniform.

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THE OTTOMAN INTERREGNUM(THE OTTOMAN CIVIL WAR) - (1402-1413)

Bayezid I

Mustafa Musa

İsa Süleyman

Mehmed I (1413-1421)

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AFTERMATH OF THE INTERREGNUM

After the end of the independent Serbian kingdom in 1389, few of the Balkan states questioned Ottoman regional dominance.

Ottomans tended to impose rather flexible conditions on the local population freeing them from the oppression of local lords.

In Anatolia, however, Tamerlane's protection allowed the emirates to assert their separate identity.

But the geographical disunity of the emirates and their lack of any common interest beyond antipathy to the Ottomans prevented the emergence of any sustainable challenge to Ottoman expansion.

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Murad II (1421-1444) (1446-1451)

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Mehmet II Fatih (1451-1481)

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PREPARING FOR CONSTANTINOPLERenewed his father's treaty with George Branković of Serbia.

Concluded a three-year treaty with John Hunyadi, regent of Hungary.

Pre-empted a possible attack from Venice by confirming the treaty of 1446.

He managed to sustain his influence in Anatolia by suppressing the former emirs.

Mehmed had murdered his sole surviving brother on their father's death.

RUMELI HISARI (BOĞAZKESEN HISARI)

THE BALKANSAFTER THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Serbia — the buffer between Ottoman and Hungarian territory and the route by which Hungarian influence could penetrate the Balkans.

In 1463 Mehmet invaded Bosnia, an Ottoman vassal state, and submitted it to his rule by executing its last king Stephen Tomašević. This conquest guaranteed security from Hungarian incursions.

Just like Serbia, Bosnia became an Ottoman province and a springboard to conquer the neighbouring Herzegovina the next year.

In 1478 Mehmed managed to conquer Albania by crushing the resistance movement led by Kastrioti Skanderbeg.

Selim I (1512-1520)31

AFTERMATHSelim was now the ruler of the Arab lands where Islam had begun, and for the first time in its history the population of the empire was predominantly Muslim.

Selim was now visibly the most successful Isamic ruler of the time. Victory over the Mamluks made him the guardian of the Holy Places of Mecca and Medina.

This sudden Muslim predominance within the empire sealed the Ottoman tendency towards fuller adaptation of the traditional Islamic practices.

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SÜLEYMAN ITHE MAGNIFICENT

(1522-1566)

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Charles Vof Habsburg

Ferdinand Iof Habsburg

Philip II of Spain

Francis I ValoisKing of France

Henry II Valois

Henry VIII

Edward VI

Mary I

Elizabeth I

Ivan IVTsar of Muscovy

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FOREIGN POLICYOn 29 August 1521 Süleyman conquered the fortress of Belgrade after a siege of almost two months. Possession of Belgrade provided the Ottomans with a strong forward base for any push into the heart of Hungary.

On 29 August 1526 the Ottomans emerged victorious over the army of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in the marshes of Mohács in southern Hungary. This victory was momentous in its consequences and initiated a 150-year struggle between Ottomans and Habsburgs in central Europe.

In 1538 Süleyman led a campaign westwards and annexed Moldavian lands and southern Bessarabia.

In 1541 it was the turn of central Hungary to fall under the Ottoman rule, while Ferdinand I of the Habsburg empire retained the western and northern parts of the former kingdom of Hungary.

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LEGISLATIONSüleyman was trying to convey a new, more sober image for the Ottoman dynasty. This image was not to be that of his grandfather Mehmed II, ruler of predominately Christian state, but rather one that would appeal to his Muslim subjects in the old Islamic lands of Egypt and Syria.

Theologist Ebüsuud is credited with bringing the dynastic law of the state, kânûn, into conformity with sacred law, shari’a.

There were thus whole areas of complex administrative practice in the Ottoman state over which sacred law had no jurisdiction. Mehmed II was the first one to bridge that gap and Süleyman continued that tradition.

Regularization of the law of the empire was accompanied by a reorganization of the religious establishment whose members also acted as judges arbitrating matters relating to both sacred and dynastic law.

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