Ottomans: Military History and Notable Events

1299 - 1453 - Byzantine-Ottoman Wars (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts in which the Ottoman Empire eventually defeated and replaced the Byzantine Empire

• Series of conflicts which

  • began when Byzantium was still trying to come to terms with the shock defeat of its imperial troops by a group of Ottoman Turkish tribesman on its eastern border in 1301

  • included reports from the battlefield having said that the Turkish attackers were about to raid a valley leading to the port of Nicomedia when they were stopped by Byzantine Imperial forces

  • included looting had been taking place in the immediate area but in which no further advance on Nicomedia had been conducted

1366 - 1526 - Hungarian-Ottoman Wars (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts which ended with the Battle of Mohacs

1371 - Battle of Maritsa (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Ottoman Turks defeated the Bulgarians, conquering all of Macedonia except for Salonika

1389 - Battle of Kosovo (All Facts)

• Battle in which Bayezid and Murad and the Ottomans defeated St. Lazar and the Serbians, but in which Murad was killed

• Battle in which the entire Serbian nobility was wiped out

• Battle which represented the Ottoman Turkish conquest over the Balkans

• Battle whose location name means “field of the blackbirds”

• Battle after which St. Lazar was taken and executed along with his nobles

• Battle in which the Janissary corps of forcibly recruited Christian boys fought very well for the Turkish rulers against the Serbians

• Battle after which Bayezid married St. Lazar’s daughter Olivera Despina as a pledge of peace between the Lazarević (Serbian) and Ottoman dynasties

1396 - Battle of Nicopolis (All Facts)

• Battle in which Bayezid and the Ottoman Turks defeated King Sigismund of Hungary and the Crusaders, leaving Constantinople at the Ottomans’ mercy

• Battle which led to the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire, in which the Bulgarian czar was imprisoned and killed and the namesake Bulgarian fortress on the Danube River was captures

• Battle in which the French and reluctant vassal forces of the Crusader army were eventually persuaded to join, but showed more appetite for pillage and plunder than for military strategy as the allies advanced down the Danube River

• Battle in which the brave but blindly-led French advance was overwhelmed before the rest of the crusaders’ army disintegrated and Bayezid and his forces took bloody revenge, slaughtering French captives by the hundreds

1402 - Battle of Ankara (All Facts)

• Battle in which Tamerlane and the Timurids defeated Bayezid and the Ottomans

• Battle which began when

  • Bayezid rejected an offer from Tamerlane of compromise over a border dispute by questioning Tamerlane’s sexual virility

• Battle in which, by a remarkable bluff, Tamerlane contrived to march into the heart of Anatolia and occupy a position behind his opponent and upstream, across the only water source in that desolate plain, which he diverted

• Battle in which Bayezid put Tartar cavalry, of the same blood as Tamerlane, at the front, only to have promptly changed sides, reducing Ottoman forces by a quarter

• Battle after which Bayezid was taken prisoner and died in captivity

  • While prisoner, in response to Bayezid’s response to his offer of compromise, Tamerlane forced Bayezid to act as his footstool while Bayezid’s wife Olivera Despina served at Tamerlane’s table as a naked waitress

• Battle after which Tamerlane captured Smyrna and reached the Bosporus Strait

• Battle which brought temporary disorder to the Ottoman Empire

1441 - Battle of Smederevo (All Facts)

• Battle in which General Janos Hunyadi of Hungary and his forces defeated Ishak Bey and the Ottoman Turks in modern-day Serbia during the Hungarian-Ottoman Wars

1442 - Battle of the Iron Gate (All Facts)

• Battle in which General Janos Hunyadi of Hungary and his forces defeated Mezid Bey and the Ottoman Turks in modern-day Romania during the Hungarian-Ottoman Wars

1444 - Battle of Varna (All Facts)

• Battle in which Murad II and the Ottoman Turks defeated General Janos Hunyadi of Hungary and King Wladyslaw III of Poland and their forces in modern-day Bulgaria on the shores of the Black Sea during the Hungarian-Ottoman Wars

• Battle which allowed the Ottoman Turks to enter Constantinople and which failed to prevent further Ottoman expansion into the Balkans

• Battle after which King Wladyslaw III vanished

1448 - Battle of Kosovo (All Facts)

• Battle in which Murad II and the Ottoman Turks defeated General Janos Hunyadi of Hungary and his forces in modern-day Serbia during the Hungarian-Ottoman Wars

1453 - Siege and Conquest of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Giovanni Giustiniani-Longo and his forces and the namesake city fell and was besieged by Mehmed II and the Ottoman Turks, thus having ended the Roman / Byzantine Empire after 2,000+ years

• Conflict in which the brave but doomed resistance of the Byzantines was eventually overwhelmed by the Ottoman Turks

• Conflict after which the head of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI was displayed on the Augusteum column

• Conflict before which the Ottoman Turks spent time maneuvering the Byzantines’ heavy artillery into position, while several towns on the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea were overrun

• Conflict in which Mohammed directed his great cannon at the Gate of St. Romanus, where he and his Genoese mercenaries had mustered

• Conflict in which the Byzantines initially resisted quite strongly, in which they

  • repulsed an Ottoman surprise attack

  • Rebuilt its walls that were previously damaged by cannon fire

  • at sea, made the Turkish fleet suffer a reverse when four relief ship battled through the harbor

• Conflict in which the Ottoman Turks eventually defeated the Byzantines in which

  • Mehmed II decided to transport 72 ships overland from the Bosporus Strait to the Golden Horn, having penetrated the harbor defenses

  • Mehmed II’s cannon kept up the bombardment of the namesake city while his fellow besiegers had been digging under the namesake city’s walls

  • they stormed the city, fiercely fighting until they wounded the Byzantine commander Giovanni Giustiniani-Longo and killed Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI in the thick of battle

  • they plundered the city and dragged off people who were huddled in the namesake city’s church to slavery or had them killed or assaulted on the altar

  • Mehmed II curbed some of the excesses of the Ottoman takeover, having put the imprisoned Lucas Notaras, grand duke and admiral of the Byzantines, at the head of the namesake city’s administration, with the state and court officials, under future Ottoman rule

• Conflict in which each side executed their prisoners of war, in which the Ottomans executed their Venetian prisoners and the Byzantines executed their Ottoman prisoners

1456 - Siege of Belgrade (All Facts)

• Battle in which Mohammed II and the Ottoman Turks were defeated by General Janos Hunyadi of Hungary and his forces in modern-day Serbia during the Hungarian-Ottoman Wars

• Battle which took place on the Danube River

• Battle in which Hunyadi and his forces were outnumbered by but nevertheless defeated the larger Ottoman army and navy

• Battle before which Hunyadi gathered some 60K men, mostly volunteers and peasants, and a much smaller fleet

• Battle prior to which Mohammed II was able to prepare in secret and muster some 150K men and 60 ships to blockade the namesake city

• Battle in which the Ottoman Turks had some 300 siege guns, including 27 giant cannons and catapults and other weapons

• Battle in which huge boulders were hurled at the namesake fortress but were ineffective because of a successful warning system employed by the Hungarians involving bells

• Battle in which after Hunyadi’s navy broke the blockade, his troops relieved the namesake fortress and blunted a series of Ottoman attacks until the siege guns were overrun and they stormed to victory

1463 - 1479 - First Ottoman-Venetian War (All Facts)

• War in which Mehmed II and his Ottoman forces defeated the Republic of Venice, which lost several outposts as a result and the Ottomans gained some control over the Mediterranean Sea from Venice

1485 - 1491 - Ottoman-Mameluke War (All Facts)

• Ended with a peace agreement in which Cilicia was placed under control of the Egyptian Mamelukes

1499 - 1503 - Second Ottoman-Venetian War (All Facts)

• War in which Ottoman forces under Bayezid II defeated the Republic of Venice and gained control over the Mediterranean

• War in which Ottoman forces raided as far as Vincenza

• War in which the Republic of Venice lost more of its possessions

1505 - 1823 - Ottoman-Persian Wars (All Facts)

1505 - 1517 - First Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

1514 - Battle of Chaldiran (All Facts)

• Battle in which Selim and his Ottoman forces defeated Ismail and his Safavid forces during the First Ottoman-Persian War

• Battle which was located in the upper basin of the Aras River

1516 - Battle of Marj Dabiq (All Facts)

• Battle in which Selim and his Ottoman forces defeated al-Ghuri and his Mameluke forces, completely conquering and destroying the Mameluke Sultanate of Egypt

1516 - Capture of Algiers (All Facts)

• Battle in which Aruj Barbarossa and his Ottoman forces conquest the namesake territory and established the namesake regency

1516 - 1517 - Ottoman-Mamluk War (All Facts)

• War in which the Ottomans invaded, captured, and destroyed Mameluke Egypt

1521 - Siege of Belgrade (All Facts)

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated and conquered the namesake city within the Kingdom of Hungary, during the Hungarian-Ottoman Wars

• Battle before which the Hungarian’s pleas for help from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his forces went unnoticed given the Holy Roman Emperor’s issues in Germany due to the Protestant Reformation

• Battle in which the defenders of the namesake city had no answer to the Ottoman mines and cannon bombardment from an island in the Danube River

• Battle in which the namesake city fell and its Hungarian inhabitants were massacred while its Serb inhabitants were imprisoned in Istanbul

• Battle after which the Danube River became unreliable line of defense for the Kingdom of Hungary and Kingdom of Serbia, exposed to the Ottoman advance

• Battle which forced the Republic of Venice to anxiously negotiate peace with the Ottoman Empire

1522 - Siege of Rhodes (All Facts)

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated and expelled the Knights Hospitaller from the namesake city and stronghold

• Battle after which the Ottoman Turks secured control of the Eastern Mediterranean

1526 - 1791 - Ottoman-Habsburg Wars (All Facts)

1526 - Battle of Mohacs (All Facts)

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated King Louis II and his Hungarian forces, ending the Hungarian-Ottoman Wars

• Battle which was one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles in its day, in which King Louis II and 20K of his men died

• Battle which is considered one of the worst tragedies to befall the Hungarians to which they still mourn to this day

• Battle during which the Hungarian forces were subject to internal bitter rivalries and disputes in which

  • no effort was made to hold the line of Drava River

  • the Hungarian nobles rejected all delaying actions which might have enabled reinforcements to arrive

• Battle during which successive frontal assaults by the Hungarian forces were met by heavy artillery fire and superior numbers by the Ottoman forces

• Battle in which any Hungarian survivors that remained were massacred

• Battle after which Hungary split into three parts:

  • Habsburg Hungary, which ruled the west and north

  • Ottoman Hungary, which ruled central Hungary around the city of Buda and was a province of the Ottoman Empire

  • Transylvanian Hungary, which ruled east and southeast Hungary and was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire

• Battle after which the Ottoman forces were just over 100 miles from Vienna (in Austria)

1529 - 1533 - First Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Ferdinand and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain)

• War which saw

  • The Siege of Vienna

  • The Siege of Kőszeg

1529 - Siege of Vienna (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Holy Roman Empire and Spain and their combined forces (nearly) defeated Suleiman and his Ottoman forces during the First Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Battle before which the Imperial Holy Roman Diet assembled in Innsbruck and voted 120K Rhenish guilders for defense against the Ottoman forces

  • In addition, the Diet of Speyer had promised an army of 16K men and 4K cavalry, despite opposition of Philip of Hesse and other German Protestant Princes

• Battle in which the Ottoman troops were first met by a garrison of seasoned veterans, and, wave after wave Suleiman and his forces were beaten back and made no significant breach into the city walls

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces lost a month battling through heavy storms, building bridges across rivers, and leading his troops through treacherous terrain of streams and marshes

• Battle in which bad weather and disease had been the crucial factors in preventing the Ottomans from gaining control of Austria, not Christian arms or strategies

  • Battle in which Suleiman and his forces lost horses and men from hunger and disease

• Battle after which the Ottoman forces, which were encamped beneath the namesake Austrian city walls for three weeks, were ordered by Suleiman to retreat, and headed back towards Belgrade

1532 - Siege of Kőszeg (All Facts)

• Battle in which Hungary and Croatia of the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire defeated Suleiman and his Ottoman forces during the First Habsburg-Ottoman War

1532 - 1555 - Second Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Sultan Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Shah Tahmasp and his Safavid forces

• War during which Sultan Suleiman and his Ottoman forces captured Tabriz in northwestern Persia

• War which ended with the Peace of Amasya

1533 - Truce of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Truce made by Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire and Holy Roman Emperor and King Ferdinand of Hungary, which ended the First Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Truce after which Hungarian rule remained divided between Holy Roman Emperor and King Ferdinand and John Zapolya of Transylvania

1534 - Capture of Baghdad (All Facts)

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Shah Tahmasp and his Safavid forces during the Second Ottoman-Persian War

1534 - 1537 - Second Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

1535 - Conquest of Tunis (All Facts)

• Conflict in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles and his forces defeated Hayreddin Barbarossa and his Ottoman forces and takes the namesake city from him during the

• Conflict in which 60K allied troops took the namesake city, along with the port of La Goleta and the bulk of Barbarossa’s fleet of 80 galleys

• Conflict in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles allowed his soldiers five days of pillaging and 30K inhabitants were reported to have been killed

• Conflict which began when King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles chose to invade after Barbarossa’s fleet had ravaged southern Italy at the behest of the Turkish sultan

  • As a result, King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles believed that Spanish possession of the namesake would effectively cut off Barbarossa from Constantinople

• Conflict in which a combined fleet of Spanish and Genoan galleys sailed from Barcelona to Sardinia, where more ships joined their fleet with 22K German and Italian troops

• Conflict in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles’ shock troops, the formidable “tercio” were the first to land at La Goleta, followed by artillery and a detachment of cavalry

• Conflict in which Barbarossa chose to remain behind the walls, trusting the extreme heat to wear down the enemy

  • War in which many of King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles’s forces dying of dysentery

• Conflict in which Barbarossa had not reckoned with the firepower of the fleet and land-artillery who pounded the walls for five hours before the infantry broke through, causing the namesake to fall more easily

1536 - 1538 - Seventh Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict between King Francis of France (Valois), with support from the Ottoman Turks; and Charles V of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire (Habsburgs) which ended in a stalemate

• Conflict which began when

  • King Francis of France tried to invade and pursue Piedmont

  • Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s troops invaded Provence, in pursuit of the army of King Francis of France

• Conflict during which

  • Anne of Montmorency drove back Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his forces, having applied scorched-earth tactics

• Conflict which ended with the Truce of Nice

1537 - 1540 - Third Ottoman-Venetian War (All Facts)

• War in which the Ottoman Turks defeated the Republic of Venice and its Holy League

• War which saw

  • The Siege of Corfu

  • The Battle of Prevesa

1537 - Siege of Corfu (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Ottoman Turks and France tried and failed to capture the namesake island from the Republic of Venice during the Third Ottoman-Venetian War

1538 - Battle of Prevesa (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Ottoman Turks defeated Andrea Doria and the Republic of Venice and its Holy League

• Battle after which the Ottoman Turks gained naval supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea

1538 - Siege of Diu (All Facts)

• Battle in which Portugal defeated Hadim Suleiman Pasha of Ottoman Egypt and his Ottoman forces, preventing them from taking the namesake Gujarati city in India

1538 - 1911 - Yemeni-Ottoman Wars (All Facts)

• In 1546, the Ottomans captured Yemen, the gateway to the Red Sea

• In 1570, the Ottomans occupied Yemen

• In 1636, the Ottomans were driven out of Yemen by Zaydi imams, who established their own independent and theocratic state in their place

1540 - 1547 - Third Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Ferdinand and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain)

1541 - Siege of Buda (All Facts)

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Holy Roman Emperor and Hungarian King Ferdinand in the namesake Hungarian city during the Third Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Battle after which Hungary became a (Turkish) province of the Ottoman Empire

1541 - Battle of Algiers (All Facts)

• Battle in which Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his forces were defeated by the Ottomans of the Regency of Algiers during the Habsburg-Ottoman Wars

1542 - 1546 - Eighth Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict between King Francis of France (Valois), with support from the Ottoman Empire; and Charles V of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire (Habsburgs), with support from Italy and King Henry VIII and England; which ended in a stalemate

• Conflict which began when

  • King Francis of France reopened hostilities with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V after he had appointed his son Philip to claim the Duchy of Milan

  • Holy Roman Emperor Charles V violated the Treaty of Toledo and allied with King Henry VIII of England against King Francis and France

• Conflict which saw the

  • Siege of Nice

  • Battle of Ceresole

  • Siege of Saint-Dizier

  • Siege of Boulogne

• Conflict which contributed to the delay of the convention of the Council of Trent

• Conflict which ended with the Treaty of Crepy

1543 - Siege of Nice (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and Italy (Habsburgs) defeated France and the Ottoman Empire during the Eighth Italian War

• Battle during which

  • Hayreddin Barbarossa and his Ottoman forces bombarded, besieged, and sacked the namesake Holy Roman imperial town in France, capturing the namesake gateway to Italy from France

  • the namesake town was captured and sacked by Hayreddin Barbarossa and Turkish pirates rampaged through its burning ruins, looting and raping and setting it ablaze

• Battle which strained relations between the French and Ottoman Turks given that the Turkish pirates violated the agreement made between the governor of the town and the joint French and Turkish forces, in which the French blamed the Turks and the Turks blamed the French

• Battle during which Muslims paced the decks of Hayreddin Barbarossa’s ships while Christian slaves, some of which were French, were chained to the galley’s oars and rowing benches

• Battle during which the Ottoman forces took to raiding French villages, carrying off peasants to replace rowers killed by the fever

• Battle during which the Ottoman forces took Christian slaves and sold them in the marketplace as the muezzin called for Muslim prayer in Christian Toulon

1547 - Truce of Adrianople (All Facts)

• Truce made between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire

1551 - 1559 - Ninth Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Charles V and Philip II and the Habsburgs (the Holy Roman Empire and Spain) defeated King Henry II and the Valois (France), ending the Italian Wars

• Conflict which began when

  • King Henry II of France declared war against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, with the intent of recapturing parts of Italy and ensuring French, rather than Habsburg, domination of European affairs

  • King Henry II of France publicly disavowed the Council of Trent

• Conflict which saw

  • The Siege of Metz

  • The Battle of Marciano

  • The Siege of Siena

  • The Battle of St. Quentin

  • The Siege of Calais

  • The Siege of Thionville

  • The Battle of Gravelines

• Conflict which included the Siege of Siena, a brutal 15-month blockade in which Cosimo de Medici and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire) defeated the Valois (France) and took Siena from the French, during the namesake war

• Conflict which ended with the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis

1551 - 1562 - Fourth Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain)

1551 - Siege of Tripoli (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Ottoman Empire and France captured the namesake city from the Knights Hospitaller during the Fourth Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

1552 - 1554 - Ottoman Campaign in Hormuz (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Portuguese prevented the Ottoman Turks from capturing the the namesake Strait in the Persian Gulf

1555 - Peace of Amasya (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire and Shah Tahmasp of the Safavid Empire, which ended the Second Ottoman-Persian War

• Peace Treaty which confirmed

  • Ottoman rule over Mesopotamia

  • Safavid (Persian) rule over the Azerbaijan region of Iran

1560 - Battle of Djerba (All Facts)

• Battle in which Dragut, Piali Pasha, and their Ottoman forces defeated Spain, the Knights of Malta (the Knights Hospitaller), and their Christian coalition forces

• Battle in which the Ottoman fleet wrecked King Philip II of Spain’s fleet

• Battle after which Dragut, Piali Pasha, and the Ottoman Corsairs established control of most of the coast of North Africa

1565 - Siege of Malta (All Facts)

• Battle in which the namesake Knights Hospitaller Order and Spain and their combined Christian forces, defeated the Ottoman Empire

• Battle which was one of the most heroic defensive actions in the history of warfare, as the Turks were repelled from the namesake, which was a major setback for Suleiman and the Ottoman Empire’s hopes of establishing control over the Mediterranean Sea

• Battle during which the Ottoman forces became divided as Piale Pasha, head of the navy, and Mustafa Pasha, head of the land forces, diverged amongst each other

• Battle during which the Knights Hospitaller fought with extraordinary courage, notably in holding the fortress of St. Elmo for more than a month with only a few hundred men

  • When St. Elmo fell, only nine defenders remained alive

• Battle during which Dragut, the leader of the Ottoman Corsairs in the namesake battle, was killed by the Knights Hospitaller

• Battle which ultimately ended when a Christian fleet from Sicily arrived to reinforce the namesake inhabitants and the Knights Hospitaller, with the Ottoman forces being too demoralized to continue

• Battle in which ¾ of the Ottoman forces were killed, as only a quarter of their forces returned to Istanbul afterwards

1565 - 1568 - Fifth Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and his Habsburg forces

1568 - 1918 - Russo-Ottoman Wars / Russo-Turkish Wars (All Facts)

1568 - 1570 - First Russo-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Tsar Ivan IV and his Russian forces defeated Sultan Selim II and his Ottoman forces

• War in which the Ottoman Empire tried but failed to take control of the Astrakhan Khanate region previously controlled, and controlled thereafter, by Russia

• War in which the Ottoman forces failed to take Astrakhan despite hauling their ships over land from the Don River to the Volga River

• War in which the Ottoman forces retreated taking heavy losses and thus allowing the Astrakhan region to remain under the control of Russia

1570 - 1573 - Fourth Ottoman-Venetian War (All Facts)

• War in which Selim II and his Ottoman forces defeated Don John of Austria and his Holy League

• War which saw

  • The Battle of Lepanto

• War during which the Ottoman Empire overran Cyprus and expelled the Venetian garrison from the island

• War which ended when the Republic of Venice concluded a peace with the Ottoman Empire by which the Doge of Venice recognized Ottoman possession of Cyprus

1571 - Battle of Lepanto (All Facts)

• Battle in which Don John of Austria and the Holy League defeated Ali Pasha and the Ottoman Turks

• Battle in which two great galleys, one flying the pennant of the Cross and the other the Crescent were being rowed directly at each other, gathering speed all the time as the galley-masters whipped their slaves to even greater efforts

  • Battle in which the Cross met the Crescent in which many believed will be the last great encounter between the two galley fleets

  • Battle in which the La Real and Sultana flagships struck each other so hard that they locked together

• Battle triggered by Sultan Selim II’s invasion of Cyprus

  • This brought the combined fleets of Spain, Venice, and the Papacy face-to-face with the larger Turkish fleet

  • Famagusta had fallen, and reports of unbelievable atrocities had incensed the Christians to a crusading fervor as they sailed from Messina

• Battle in which Don John of Austria

  • rode in La Real, the Spanish flagship

  • drew his sword and braced himself for the inevitable head-on crash

  • began to charge forward in the La Real after the Ottomans had moved out to attack in their crescent formation

  • led his men onto the Sultana’s foredeck and confronted Ali Pasha in person

• Battle in which Ali Pasha (the Turkish commander)

  • ordered his men on the Sultana, the Turkish flagship, to prepare to board

  • and his fleet was anchored in the gulf when the Christian fleet hove into sight

  • and the Ottoman Turks hesitated before moving out to attack in a crescent formation

  • was killed by a Spanish arquebus, his head struck off and presented to Don John of Austria

• Battle in which the Ottoman Turks lost 230 galleys

• Battle in which the Holy League of Christians lost just 16 galleys

• Battle whose victory by the Christian Holy League brought great rejoicing throughout the West

1573 - Conquest of Tunis (All Facts)

• War in which Don John of Austria and his 20K forces defeated the Ottoman Turks and retook the namesake region from them

1574 - Conquest of Tunis (All Facts)

• War in which Spain was defeated by the Ottoman Turks

• War in which the Ottoman Turks recaptured the namesake, as well as Bizerta, out of La Goletta, from Spain and retook the namesake from Don John of Austria

1578 - 1590 - Third Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Murad III and his Ottoman forces defeated Mohammad Khodabanda and his Safavid forces

• War which broke out as the Ottomans sought to dominate Georgia and other Caucasian (Caucasus Mountain) principalities

• War which ended with the Treaty of Constantinople

1590 - Treaty of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Murad III and the Ottoman Empire and Abbas and the Safavid Empire, ending the Third Ottoman-Persian War

• Peace Treaty in which the Ottoman Empire acquired Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Shirwan, thus extending their frontiers to the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea

1591 / 1593 - 1606 - Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Murad III, Mehmed III, and Ahmed and their Ottoman forces fought against Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain) and their allies; which ended in a stalemate

• War during which Ottoman forces captured the fortress of Raab in Hungary

• War which saw the

  • Siege of Esztergom

  • Battle of Giurgiu

  • Siege of Eger

  • Battle of Mezőkeresztes

1595 - 1610 - Jelali Revolts (All Facts)

• Revolt of bands of brigands rebelling against Ottoman authority within the Ottoman Empire

1595 - Siege of Esztergom (All Facts)

• Battle in which Habsburg forces defeated Ottoman forces during the Long Turkish War Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

1595 - Battle of Giurgiu (All Facts)

• Battle in which Sigismund Bathory and his Habsburg forces defeated Ottoman forces during the Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

1596 - Siege of Eger (All Facts)

• Battle in which Mehmed III and his Ottoman forces defeated the Kingdom of Hungary and its Habsburg forces during the Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

1596 - Battle of Mezőkeresztes (All Facts)

• Battle in which Mehmed III and his Ottoman forces defeated Sigismund Bathory and his Habsburg forces and allies during the Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Battle in which Mehmed III

  • was personally responsible for turning the tide of battle, despite a mass desertion by the Ottoman Turkish infantry

  • in one fell swoop, saved a huge swathe of territory for the Ottoman Empire, saving its possessions in Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Hungary despite a string of previous Hungarian military victories

  • tried to follow the “siphahis” when they walked off the battlefield, but his generals held a council of war to persuade him to stay with the rest of his army

• Battle which

  • began badly for the Ottoman forces, when early reverses caused the “sipahis,” the fief-holding backbone of the Ottoman forces, to simply walk off the battlefield

• Battle in which the overconfident Christian Habsburg forces broke rank to plunder the Ottoman Turkish camp, only for the Ottoman cavalry to kill them and take enormous booty including a hundred cannons

• Battle in which 30K Hungarians and Germans died

1603 - 1612 - Fourth Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated Sultan Ahmed and his Ottoman forces

1603 - Capture of Tabriz (All Facts)

• Battle in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated Ottoman forces and retook the namesake city from the Ottoman Empire during the Fourth Ottoman-Persian War

1605 - Battle of Sufiyan (All Facts)

• Battle in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated the Ottoman forces during the Fourth Ottoman-Persian War

• Battle which was considered Shah Abbas’s greatest triumph over the Ottomans

1606 - Peace of Zsitvatorok (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Holy Roman Emperor Matthias and Sultan Ahmed of the Ottoman Empire, ending the Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War

• Peace Treaty signed between equals (unlike previous treaties which were “graciously accorded by the Sultan” to his “vanquished” rival) in the namesake obscure town on the Hungarian frontier, which promised a new era of stability between the two longstanding foes

• Peace Treaty in which Austria was no longer able to pay an annual tribute (to the Ottoman Empire) and a final payment was agreed upon, after which the ambassadors (and rulers) of the two great powers promised to exchange ceremonial gifts every three years

• Peace Treaty in which

  • the Ottoman Empire renounced its claims to Hungary with the exception of two newly-created provinces and the frontier fortresses of Erlau, Gran, and Kanischa

  • Stephen Bocskai and Transylvania gained considerably autonomy under Ottoman rule

• Peace Treaty which would remain in effect (definitively) for the next 20 years

1616 - 1618 - Fifth Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated Sultans Ahmed, Mustafa, and Osman II and their Ottoman forces

• War in which the Ottoman Empire recognized the reconquest of Persia by Shah Abbas

1620 - 1621 - Second Polish-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War between Osman II of the Ottoman Empire and King Ladislaus IV of Poland-Lithuania, which ended in a stalemate

• War in which the Janissaries were unwilling to fight for Osman II, yet they blamed him for the failure to take Poland

1622 - Ottoman Disaster (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the murder of Sultan Osman II when he was 19 years old by his own Janissaries

1623 - 1639 - Sixth Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Sultan Murad IV and his Ottoman forces defeated Shah Abbas and Shah Safi and their Safavid forces

• War which began due to an internal struggle for power between the Ottoman rulers (governors) of Baghdad in which

  • the Ottoman Pasha and the army both claimed power

  • two years prior to the namesake war, a Janissary officer took over to displace the Ottoman Pasha and claimed power via the army

  • the Janissary officer attempted to gain support from the Safavids to bolster up his position against the Ottoman Pasha, to which the Safavids complied and duly moved in

    • However, the Ottomans (under the Ottoman Pasha) eventually accepted him and the Janissary officer thus rejected Safavid assistance, no longer needing it

    • He was then assassinated by the Safavids and Baghdad became left in their hands

• War in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces took Baghdad, Mosul, and the whole of Mesopotamia

• War comprised of five campaigns by the Ottoman forces to recapture Baghdad from the Safavids and restore it to the Ottoman Empire, during which there was

  • widespread incompetence

  • bad weather

  • various commitments

• War after which Erivan / Yerevan remained a Safavid territory

1635 - Siege of Erivan / Yerevan (All Facts)

• Battle in which Sultan Murad IV and his Ottoman forces defeated the Safavid forces and took the namesake Armenian capital city during the Sixth-Ottoman Persian War

1638 - Siege of Baghdad (All Facts)

• Battle in which Sultan Murad IV and his Ottoman forces defeated the Safavid forces and recaptured the namesake city during the Sixth Ottoman-Persian War

• Siege which lasted seven months in which the defending Persians had vowed to fight until the last man

1639 - Treaty of Zuhab / Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Ottoman and Safavid Empires, which ended the Sixth Ottoman-Persian War and established a permanent frontier between them

• Peace Treaty in which

  • the Ottoman Empire kept Baghdad, Shahrizur, Van, and Kars

  • the Ottoman Empire renounced all claims to Azerbaijan

1645 - 1669 - Fifth Ottoman-Venetian War / Cretan War / Siege of Candia (All Facts)

• War in which the Ottoman forces laid siege to Heraklion, or the namesake, and defeated the Republic of Venice and its forces

• War during which Koprulu Mehmed Pasha and his Ottoman forces took the islands of Tenedos and Lemnos from the Republic of Venice and its forces

• War during which Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and his Ottoman forces marched on Candia and took Crete, the Republic of Venice’s last colonial possession by that point

• War which consisted of one of the longest sieges in history

• War during which Spain, England, France, the Papal States, Tuscany, and Malta and their seamen all supplies arms, provisions, and men to the Venetian garrison only for them to have disagreements with the Venetian commander which, in turn led to a withdrawal of most of those European forces which made surrender to the Köprülüzade Fazil Ahmed Pasha and his forces inevitable, especially at the point when those Ottoman forces intensified their blockade during the course of the war

• War in which Sultan Mehmed IV allowed the Republic of Venice to retain some trading privileges in return for the Republic of Venice’s evacuation of Crete

1663 - 1664 - Austro-Turkish War / Seventh Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and his Ottoman forces, with help from Wallachians, Tartars, and disgruntled Hungarian peasants devastated the territories of Moravia and Silesia in Transylvania and Hungary

• War which began when the Habsburgs invaded Ottoman-controlled territory in Transylvania, in which the Ottomans responded by invading Transylvania and Hungary

• War during which Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and his Ottoman forces advanced from Belgrade towards Vienna

• War during which the Habsburgs succeeded in persuading their Christian allies to come to their aid, including France and Germany (the Holy Roman Empire)

• War during which Raimondo Montecuccoli held the right bank of the Raab

• War which ended with the Peace of Vasvar

1664 - Battle of Saint Gotthard (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Raimondo Montecuccoli and the Holy Roman Empire and France and their combined forces defeated the Ottoman forces during the Austro-Turkish War, a battle whose victory was held as a triumph of Christianity over Islam

• Battle in which French auxiliaries played a key role in repelling the superior numbers of the Ottoman forces, destroying most of their cannons and equipment

• Battle which ended with the Peace of Vasvar

1664 - Peace of Vasvar (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty which ended the Austro-Turkish War / Seventh Habsburg-Ottoman War, which

  • renewed the Peace of Zsitvatorok

  • made it so that the Habsburgs

    • paid money to the Ottomans

    • evacuated Transylvania

    • recognized the Ottoman vassal Apafy

  • made it so that the Ottomans

    • retained much of northern Hungary

    • retained the newly-conquered stronghold of Nauhausel

  • lasted nearly twenty years

1666 - 1671 - Polish-Cossack-Tatar War (All Facts)

• War in which John III Sobieski and his Polish-Lithuanian forces defeated Petro Doroshenko and his Cossack forces and Sultan Mehmed IV and his Ottoman forces and their combined Crimean forces, in which Poland-Lithuania regained control over Ukraine

1672 - 1676 - Fourth Polish-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which John III Sobieski and his Polish-Lithuanian forces fought against Sultan Mehmed IV and Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and their Ottoman forces, which ended in a stalemate

• War during which Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and Poland-Lithuania was forced to sign the Treaty of Buchach

1672 - Treaty of Buchach (All Facts)

• Treaty which Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki was forced to sign during the Fourth Polish-Ottoman War, in which Poland-Lithuania

  • recognized Petro Doroshenko as sole hetman of the (Ukrainian) Cossack Hetmanate

  • agreed to become vassals of Sultan Mehmed IV and the Ottoman Empire

1673 - Battle of Khotyn (All Facts)

• Battle in which John III Sobieski and his Polish-Lithuanian forces defeated the Ottoman forces during the Fourth Polish-Ottoman War

• Battle which made John III Sobieski a Polish war hero and upon which he was eventually bestowed the title of “Defender of the Faith” by the Papacy, it catapulted him into winning the successive election to the Polish-Lithuanian throne

1672 / 1676 - 1681 - Second Russo-Turkish War (All Facts)

• War in which Sultan Mehmed IV and Kara Mustafa Pasha and their Ottoman forces foguht against Tsar Alexis and Tsar Feodor III and the Russian forces, which ended in a stalemate

• War which began when Kara Mustafa Pasha and his Ottoman forces launched a campaign to expel the Russian and Poles from Ukraine

• War which ended with the Treaty of Radzin

1681 - Treaty of Radzin (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty which ended the Second Russo-Turkish War, in which the Ottoman Turks gave up claims to Ukraine

1683 - 1699 - Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War (All Facts)

• War during which the armies of the Holy League were drawn from the Republic of Venice, Poland, Malta, Tuscany, and the Papacy and moved steadily across Hungary to force the Ottoman Empire out of Hungary

• War in which the Ottoman Empire suffered a major reverse at the hands of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold’s Habsburg forces which boldly fought their way across the plains to occupy much of Hungary and Transylvania (Romania) in the namesake campaign

• War which saw the

  • Battle of Vienna / Battle of Kahlenberg

  • Siege of Buda

  • Battle of Mohacs

  • (First) Siege of Belgrade

  • (Second) Siege of Belgrade

  • Battle of Zenta

  • Third Russo-Turkish War

  • Sixth Ottoman-Venetian War / Morean War

• War during which the Ottoman Empire lost control of Albania, the latest Balkan outpost of the weakened empire to succumb to a rising tide of nationalism as

  • Albania began to revolt following the Ottoman forces and their defeat in the Battle of Vienna / Battle of Kahlenberg

  • Albanian rebel forces seized Kamina, Vlore, and Medun (the citadel) in insurrection against the Ottoman Empire

  • Albanian anti-Ottoman resistance during the namesake war was primarily based on an unusual coalition of urban Muslims and rural Christians

• War during which the Ottoman Empire lost control of Montenegro, another Balkan outpost of the weakened empire to succumb to a rising tide of nationalism

• War which ended with the Treaty of Karlowitz

1683 - Battle of Vienna / Battle of Kahlenberg (All Facts)

• Battle in which John III Sobieski and his Polish-Lithuanian forces and Charles V of Lorraine and his Holy Roman and Austrian forces defeated Kara Mustafa Pasha and his Ottoman forces in the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

• Battle in which 70K Christian forces led by John III Sobieski and Charles V (of Lorraine) routed the vast Ottoman army that had been encamped around Vienna for eight weeks prior to the namesake battle

• Battle in which there was no effective opposition the moment Kara Mustafa Pasha’s Ottoman forces marched towards Vienna and besieged it

• Battle in which the Viennese (Austrian forces) had an advantage in artillery and had a 13K-strong garrison which resisted strongly, but could not survive the Ottoman siege forever

• Battle which turned around when Kara Mustafa Pasha made fatal errors, including his having allowed his relief forces to cross the Danube River and occupy the Kahlenberg Heights (the latter namesake mountain range) where he then tried to repel the attacks with cavalry alone and did not commit his main force of Janissaries until it was too late, and the initiative had been lost

1684 - 1699 - Morean War / Sixth Ottoman-Venetian War (All Facts)

• War in which Francesco Morosini and his Italian (Venetian) forces defeated Murad IV, Suleiman II, Ahmed II and their Ottoman forces within the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

• War in which Francesco Morosini and his Italian (Venetian) forces

  • seized parts of Dalmatia and the namesake

  • attacked the Ottoman forces in Ottoman Greece

  • took Corinth from Ottoman forces

  • besieged Athens against Ottoman forces

  • seriously damaged the Parthenon (which was converted into a powder magazine by the Ottoman forces) with a shell

• War during which the Ottoman forces eventually beat off an Italian (Venetian) attack on the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea

1686 - Siege of Buda (All Facts)

• Battle in which Charles V of Lorraine and his Holy Roman forces defeated the Ottoman forces and besieged the namesake city in Hungary, taking it from the Ottoman Empire and annexing it to Austria

• Battle after which Hungary was no longer a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, but a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria

1686 - Second Tarnovo Uprising (All Facts)

• Anti-Turkish conspiracy which was uncovered and destroyed by Ottoman forces in the namesake capital of Ottoman Bulgaria

1686 - 1700 - Third Russo-Turkish War (All Facts)

• War in which Tsar Peter and his Russian forces defeated the Ottoman forces and Crimean Khanate

• War which Russia declared after joining Pope Innocent XI’s Holy League and ensuring the safety of Kiev by a treaty with Poland

• War which was part of the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

• War which saw the

  • Azov Campaigns

1687 - Battle of Mohacs (All Facts)

• Battle in which Charles V of Lorraine and his Holy Roman forces defeated the Ottoman forces during the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

1688 - Siege of Belgrade (All Facts)

• Battle in which Holy Roman forces defeated Ottoman forces and took the namesake Serbian city from the Ottoman Empire during the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

1690 - Siege of Belgrade (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ottoman forces defeated Holy Roman forces and retook the namesake city from the Holy Roman Empire for the Ottoman Empire during the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

1695 - 1696 - Azov Campaigns (All Facts)

• Series of sieges in which Tsar Peter and his Russian forces defeated the Ottoman forces during the Third Russo-Turkish War

• In the first siege, Tsar Peter and his Russian forces laid siege to the namesake Ottoman-held city on the Don River, but they failed and suffered heavy casualties

• In the second siege, they mounted a blockade with their newly built fleet and successfully captured it from the Ottoman forces

1697 - Battle of Zenta (All Facts)

• Battle in which Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Holy Roman and Hungarian forces defeated Sultan Mustafa II and his Ottoman forces during the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

1699 - Treaty of Karlowitz (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Poland-Lithuania, the Republic of Venice (Italy), the Papacy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire; which ended the Great Turkish War / Eighth Ottoman-Habsburg War

• Peace Treaty in which, after its signing, Central Europe was no longer controlled by the Ottoman Empire but by the Holy Roman Empire / Habsburg Dynasty

• Peace Treaty in which the Ottoman Turks ceded

  • Transylvania and Hungary to Austria

  • Morea and Dalmatia to Italy (Venice)

  • Part of Ukraine to Poland (Poland-Lithuania)