Ottoman Empire Expansion in Balkans - Coursework Example

Introduction

The Ottoman Empire expanded its territory in Europe through a series of wars called the Ottoman wars or the Turkish Wars. The Ottoman Empire acquired a big size of the Balkans, the mountain range cutting through current day Bulgaria running from the east to the west where they ruled for three centuries. Balkan is Turkish for “thickly wooded mountain range” describing the Balkan Peninsula and mountain range. In addition, the Ottoman Empire also ruled Poland, Greece, and Hungary at the end of the Christian conquest in Spain, which provided the impetus for a Muslim movement. The Ottoman gained Eastern Europe after losing the Western Europe in a world supremacy battle with the Christian faith (Pavlowitch, 2014; Goodwin, 2011).

European Expansion

The Ottoman Empire began expanding westwards towards Europe in 1356. The first victim was the Serbian Empire that was still young and had been worn out due to the Battle of Kosovo where opposing leaders were killed. After this the Ottoman went ahead to conquer the Bulgarian Empire in the Battle of Marista, and later Sofia and Tarnovgrad. The rest of the Bulgarian Empire was conquered after the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. The Battle of Savra led to the conquest of Albania in 1385 and in 1480 (Goodwin, 2011).

Constantinople went down in 1453 in the Battle of Varna, with Serbia fully conquered in 1459, and later in 1460, Greece was conquered. Bosnia and Herzegovina were each conquered in 1463 and 1482 respectively. The Siege of Belgrade in 1456 opened Catholic Europe to the Ottoman Empire for about 70 years. After port Otranto in Italy was taken between 1480 and 1481, the Ottoman army raided and successfully conquered Styria and Croatia in 1493 (Pavlowitch, 2014).

Albania

Çelik (2010) stated that one of the fierce rivals that the Ottoman Empire encountered were led by Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, an Albanian highlander leader who was raised mediaeval nobleman. The Albanian highlanders rallied under him to put off the Ottoman army for about 30 years. They are credited together with the Battle of Kosovo as one of the anti-Ottoman resistance fronts. They Albanian highlanders also helped to stop the Ottoman from advancing through to west Europe from the eastern flank, a fact that saved Italy from the Ottomans.

Hungary

After the fall of ruling Arpad dynasty, which was replaced by the Jagiellonian and Angevin kings, the Kingdom of Hungary fell to the Ottoman Empire. The Kingdom extended from Transylvania in the east to Croatia in the west. Hungary feel after staging a series of unsuccessful wars that lasted 176 years in the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. The kingdom was occupied and ruled by the Ottomans for 150 years in what Hungarians call the Turkish Occupation (Brunnbauer, 2011).

In the battle of Mohacs, the Ottomans were only able to conquer the southern part of kingdom of Hungary. This led to the more campaigns that were smaller and included summer invasions between 1526 and 1556. It is recorded that the Ottoman attacked the Austrian Habsburg Empire in 1526 with 100,000 troops in an attempt to take over Vienna. The siege of Vienna is considered one of the key events in the Ottoman-European expansion (Goodwin, 2011).

Without giving up, the Ottomans mounted a second attack in 1532 on Vienna with 60,000 troops but were help up by relatively small fort of 800 defenders who were on a suicidal mission. It was not until winter started approaching that the Ottoman troops left for home through Styria (Inalcik, 2013). But they later returned in 1552 with two armies pushing the Hungarian border castles that formed the defence of an anticipated Mongol invasion. This was a tragic case for Hungarians especially the fall of Dregely fort which was guarded by 146 men.

The siege of Eger a major border fort castle with over 2,000 men was besieged by a 75,000 troop Ottoman army that was able to capture it within five weeks. The 1556 campaign put Transylvania under the Ottoman control. Other major wars by the Ottomans in Habsburg and Hungary in 1566-1568 gaining more territories. The 1566 Battle of Szigetvar was the third time the castle was besieged and at which it was finally captured (Uyar, 2015).

Venice

In 1423, the Ottomans begun sea campaigns over maritime control of Adriatic and Aegean Seas starting a war with Venice that lasted seven years. The Ottoman started the wars again in 1463 before a peace treaty was reached in 1479. Venice benefited with this treaty as it gained access to the Middle East with Ottoman Empire permission became a major maritime power on the east of the Mediterranean Sea with routes to Aleppo and Alexandria. Venice competed with Portugal for the pepper trade and was the forwarding most of the Ottoman business with the west (Inalcik, 2013).

With the nuisance of the Venetian Republic fleet out of the way, the Ottoman Empire conquered Rhodes in 1480 in a siege, and later captured Ontranto. However, the peace treaty did not last long as in 1499 the Ottoman Empire started wars again with Venice. Under the command of Gonzalo de Córdoba, a combination of Spanish and Venetian army took control of Kefalonia which stopped the Ottoman from reached the eastern side of Venice (Çelik, 2010).

Conquest of the Balkans.

After the death of Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia in 1355, the Balkan states became fragmented and weak making it easy for the Ottoman Empire to conquer the Balkan Peninsula. Except the North West part of Balkan, the Ottoman army proved too much powerful and highly motivated to the Balkans weak states. In the first attack of the Balkans, the Ottomans had a quick conquest of Bulgaria, Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly. At the same time, the Ottomans reduced Serbia, Wallachia, Morea and Byzantium to vassal clientage (Pavlowitch, 2014).

In the second wave of attack, the Ottoman Empire totally destroyed Byzantium and conquered Constantinople which was later renamed Istanbul. This included the outright acquisition of Albania, most of Croatia, Hercegovina, Bosnia, Epiros, a total takeover of Serbia and Morea (Goodwin, 2011).

Impacts in the Balkans

The Balkan countries had been under the Ottoman Empire for several thousand years and can provide a common identification factors. There are a number of both negative and positive effects of the Ottoman conquests on the Balkans. The devastating effects on the region, the people, and the culture of the Balkan region by the Ottoman conquest brought the rupture in their historical development. There has been a notion of the “Turkish Yoke” in the Bulgarian academia and imagination (Goodwin, 2011).

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Brunnbauer (2011) observed that the military principle used by the Ottomans was one of the reason for the rapid conquest of the Ottomans on the Balkans and the social organizations in the Balkans. It begun with the Turkish tribes in Anatolia who became in Byzantine Empire wars against Bulgaria and Serbia. Ottoman first came into the Balkans as mercenaries but later turned to conquer it. Ottomans are Muslims but not Arabs who used Islamic law in their cultural, legal and political forms.

They were concerned with the preservation and expansion of Islam with the sultan who was viewed as god agent. The sultan has to defend and increase his powers possessions and wealth. The sultan was the head of the government and was surrounded by a small circle of rulers who served as his instruments. The population who were subject, both Muslims and non-Muslims, to the sultan’s rule were referred to as "rayah" or the protected flock. Even though Jews and Christians were under the sultan’s protection, they were not allowed to be rulers or in the military. This was a way of luring them to converting to Islam so that they can gain power (Inalcik, 2013).

The sultan had no limitations in his rule as long as he observed the Islamic law. This led to many of those who served him being slaves but in a lesser sense form the convectional western slavery. This was military captivity where loyal slaves went on to become soldiers, officials and government agents as long as they proved trustworthy and responsible. These slave had the chance to be free after being in service for some time. Their children born to them were not taken as slaves but went ahead to enjoy their freedom (Uyar, 2015).

According to Pavlowitch (2014), the people of the Balkans had to oppose the Ottoman Empire to gain their freedom and independence. This led to the need for ‘necessary enmity’, a fact is not resigned for the Balkans. However, the people living in the Balkans have failed to overcome the enmity with clear and evident struggles between the two main religions in the Balkans, Islam and Christianity, as well as between dogmatism and civilization.

The “Ottoman Yoke” brings memories of pain and heightens confusion between Muslims and Turks. The Ottoman created an intersecting system of ethnic, political and religious groups especially when forming the Balkan states. The Ottoman is still viewed with skepticism today portraying a desire to move on westward and conquer Christian lands. The people of Balkans have a negative mentality about what the Ottomans did to them, with some claiming the current day Turkey wants to enslave them, destroy their countries, and halt their civilizations. The Balkans populations claim the Ottoman violated their human rights (Brunnbauer, 2011).

Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia hold grudges and negative views of the Ottoman actions back in history and have carried them the present day, with pointing fingers trained on the current day Turkey.

For over half a millennium, the Ottoman rule on the Balkan is sure to have left a mark on the culture, language, signs and gestures, and food among the Balkans. The Ottoman influence is so huge for it has affected the attitudes of a number of Balkan countries as they seek to be part of the European Union (Goodwin, 2011). The effects of the Ottoman can be felt almost on all levels of social interactions. The pazarlik bargaining is characteristic of the Ottoman where the current Balkan states employ exclusive extra institutional approach when solving political problems (Inalcik, 2013).

Here, it can be noted that the Ottoman used intellectuals who studied and were educated abroad as its elites, and the same trend runs through most of the Balkans countries currently. Countries in the Balkans follow a similar pattern left by the Ottoman where there was minimal industrialization a fact that weakens these states as it did back in history. The weak economic system is characterized by lack of local aristocrats and bourgeoisies (Brunnbauer, 2011).

Culturally, the Ottoman expansion in the Balkans left impacts that are seen in the daily gestures and customs and cultural codes. The Balkans have a language that has many borrowed items from Turkism. Even non-verbal cues such as spitting to show disgust. Balkans dishes show-striking similarities with Ottoman dishes such as cabbage leaves, Turkish coffee, and moussaka. Other influences that can be cited of the Balkans that stem from the Ottoman rule is patriarchy and judicial systems that are controlled by powerful politicians and elite businesspersons. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was very corrupt an aspect that most Balkan countries struggle with up to date (Pavlowitch, 2014).

Conclusion

The impact of the Ottoman Empire invasion on Europe had far reaching consequences that shook the dynamics of the region. Both in culture, religion t trade and warfare, the Ottomans left a mark in the history of Europe and more so the Balkans where they enjoyed lengthy dominion. The Ottoman Empire enjoyed rule over most of Eastern Europe called Balkans, which currently comprises of 10 nations. The effects of the Ottomans can be traced through the diverse political, social and economic systems of these states.