Byzantine-Ottoman Wars
The Byzantine-Ottoman Wars were a series of conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the rising Ottoman Empire from the early 14th century until the mid-15th century. Initially, the Byzantine Empire, under the Palaeologus dynasty, considered the Ottoman presence in Asia Minor as a minor threat. However, the Ottomans, led by Orhan and later Mehmed II, began to capture key Byzantine cities, including Nicaea and Adrianople, significantly altering the balance of power in the region. The wars marked a gradual decline of Byzantine influence, culminating in the pivotal Siege of Constantinople in 1453, which led to the city's fall and the effective end of the Byzantine Empire.
The Ottomans, benefiting from a strong local governance structure, maintained their territorial gains and expanded further into Europe. Despite temporary setbacks, such as the interlude caused by Tamerlane's invasion, the Ottomans solidified their control by the mid-1400s. The conflicts not only reshaped the political landscape of the Balkans and Asia Minor but also had lasting cultural and religious implications, as the Ottomans established a significant Islamic presence in regions that had been predominantly Christian. The Byzantine-Ottoman Wars are essential for understanding the transition from medieval to early modern Europe and the enduring legacy of these historical shifts.
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Byzantine-Ottoman Wars
At issue: Whether the reduced Byzantine Empire could hold out against surging Ottoman strength
Date: 1302–1461
Location: Asia Minor and southeastern Europe
Combatants: Byzantines and Western mercenaries vs. Ottoman Turks
Principal commanders:Byzantine, John VI Cantacuzenus (1292?-1383), Constantine XI Palaeologus (1404–1453); Ottoman Turkish, Orhan (1288–1360), Mehmed II (1432–1481)
Principal battles: Pelekanos, Kosovo, Nicopolis, Ankara, Constantinople
Result: Ottoman domination of Balkans and Near East
Background
By 1328, when Andronicus III ascended the Byzantine throne, the restored Byzantine Empire ruled by Michael VIII Palaeologus’s descendants did not appear weak. The only powers believed capable of dislodging the remnants of Byzantine glory were Western naval powers such as Venice or Genoa or the Orthodox Slavic states of the Balkans such as Bulgaria and Serbia. The small domain ruled by the house of Osman (whose descendants were called Ottomans) in the northwest corner of Asia Minor was geographically close to Constantinople but seemed merely the petty realm of a local chieftain. At first, the Ottomans had occupied only the Byzantine countryside, leaving alone its major cities, and therefore were not deemed a significant threat.
In 1326, however, the Ottomans had captured the city of Brusa and made it their capital. The Ottoman sultan, Orhan, then threatened Nicaea, which had once been a Byzantine capital. The Byzantines sought to relieve Nicaea by reestablishing their control over the countryside. On June 10, 1329, these plans were foiled by a major Ottoman defeat of the Byzantine army at Pelekanos. At this battle, Andronicus III was wounded and hurried back to Constantinople, turning what was already a defeat into a total rout. In 1331, the Ottomans took Nicaea and held it permanently. The Ottoman fighters, in a region where they faced many challenges, became battle-hardened and developed superb confidence and morale.
In 1341, the hereditary Byzantine emperor John V was challenged by his energetic father-in-law, John VI Cantacuzenus, who had been in the field at Pelekanos. The Ottomans were persuaded to take part in the fighting on Cantacuzenus’s side. Cantacuzenus had fought at Pelekanos but still saw the Ottomans more as petty mercenaries than as a rising empire, even though the Ottomans by now had developed a navy. In 1345, Cantacuzenus encouraged Orhan and the Turks to cross the strait of the Hellespont into Thrace. When the fortress of Callipolis collapsed because of an earthquake in 1356, the Turks occupied it and spread out over the territory of Thrace, capturing the city of Adrianople and renaming it Edirne. What Cantacuzenus thought would be a temporary campaign turned out to be the initiation of a Turkish presence on the European side of the straits.
Action
Once the Turks had crossed into Thrace, the security of Byzantium was seriously compromised. The Byzantine leaders could no longer shuttle their resources between combating their European and Asian opponents because the Ottomans were threatening them on both sides. From the mid-1360’s, the Byzantines were no longer able to oppose the Ottomans militarily, except defending fortresses in sieges and making occasional raids on Ottoman-occupied territory. Previous Turkish empires had disintegrated upon the death of a powerful ruler, but the Ottomans’ strong interest in local government prevented this and enabled the consolidation of a powerful realm. Slavic neighbors and Western crusaders tried to relieve the Ottoman pressure on Byzantium, but Ottoman victories at Kosovo (1389) and, more convincingly, Nicopolis (1396) seemed to seal Ottoman hegemony over the entire region. Only the city of Constantinople and a few scattered domains, mainly in southern Greece, remained of the Byzantine Empire.
Doom for the Byzantines was averted, though, by the sudden appearance of the Mongol leader Tamerlane, whose troops annihilated those of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I at Ankara (1402). At the time, Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus was away on a tour of Western Europe seeking aid. When he returned, Byzantium did not have the strength or the resources necessary to seize the momentum while the Turks were weak. Under the reign of Murad II, Turkish suzerainty over the area soon returned.
Thessalonica, the empire’s second city for centuries, was relinquished to the Venetians in 1423 and finally to the Ottomans in 1430. The Genoese mercenaries, who, along with the city’s walls, provided the main defense for Constantinople, were caught between Christian solidarity with the Byzantines and the profit motive. When Constantine XI Palaeologus became emperor in 1448, Byzantium had its first truly talented military commander in more than a century. However, with little territory and few resources, Constantine could do little but brace for inevitable assault.
When the young Mehmed II assumed the Ottoman sultanate in 1451, the new sultan was determined to prove himself a conqueror. Using Byzantine default on pledged tribute as a pretext, Mehmed prepared for a siege by erecting the fortress of Rumeli Hisar on the opposite side of the Bosporus from Constantinople. Soon the final Siege of Constantinople commenced. The newly developed large-bore cannons enabled the walls of the Byzantine capital to be pierced, and the Ottomans entered the city on May 29, 1453.
Aftermath
Constantine’s younger brothers still ruled as despots in the Peloponnesus peninsula of southern Greece; Mehmed easily conquered them in the years following the fall of Constantinople. The last Byzantine domain, the small, independent empire of Trebizond on the Black Sea, fell in September, 1461.
Bibliography
Babinger, Franz. Mehmet the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978.
Fine, John V.A. The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.
Goodwin, Jason. Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
Imber, Cohn. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1481. Istanbul: Isis Press, 1990.
Nicol, Donald. The Immortal Emperor. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Last Centuries of Byzantium. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Reluctant Emperor: John Cantacuzene, Emperor and Monk. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Norwich, John Julius. Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
Treadgold, Warren. A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.