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History of the Middle East (Part 4: Ottoman Empire), The Janissaries could…

- - - - An extremely pragmatic ruler, Osman expanded through political maneuvering and the use of mercenaries, who liked his reputation of winning very often.
      - Osman took Bursa from the Byzantines and made it the new capital of the Beylik, but died in the same year and was succeeded by his son, Orhan (r. 1324-1362).
- - - - Great at exploring European rivalries, he took Rhodes from the knights (1522) and made an alliance with the French to oppose the Habsburgs in 1536.
    - - Rather than expanding, Suleiman spent his later years focused on the internal affairs of the empire.
  - - - In 1439, one of the last Byzantine emperors agreed with several points of the Catholic church in order to gather support for a crusade, despite the Christians having a truce with the Ottomans.
        
        Mehmed was still too young (12) to fight the crusaders, so his viziers told him to recall his father, Murad. In the battle of Varna, Bulgaria (1444), Władysław III, king of Poland and Hungary, was killed, and the crusade ended.
    - - In 1453, Mehmed led a massive campaign against the Byzantines, conquering Constantinople, thus succeeding where 13 of his predecessors had failed and making it the new capital of the empire.
      - When it was taken, the city was only a shadow of its former glory, but the Ottomans made it flourish again, with multiculturalism, great architects such as Sinan (1490-1588), trade and culture from all over the known world.
    - - Mehmed focused the rest of his reign in conquering the Balkans, annexing Serbia in 1458, and fighting Venice (1463-1479) and Uzun Hasan.
      - To fight Venice and even take Rhodes to launch a campaign on Egypt, Mehmed considerably strengthened the Ottoman navy.
  - - - Although the first Ottoman-Mamluk war (1485-1491) ended in a stalemate, he annexed Karaman in 1487 while the Mamluks were weakened, finally getting rid of the buffer state.
    - - In 1517, the Ottomans easily conquered the Mamluk empire, as they had barely started embracing gunpowder. Now with access to the Red Sea, a rivalry with the Portuguese began.
- - - - Selim's concubine, Nurbanu Sultan, ruled as queen-mother instead of her son, Murad III.
      - The women often competed with the janissaries and religious class over influence.
  - - - In order to get cheap soldiers, the unhappy peasantry was drafted, but this made revolts broke out across the empire, notably the Celali rebellions.
        
        In the middle of a crisis, the Ottomans began suffering from Cossack raids.
        
        As the crisis dragged on, religious intolerance grew inside the empire.
  - - - In this war, the Ottomans lost the vassalage of Crimea, and thus the Black sea, to Russia. It also made Russia protector of the Orthodox Christians in the empire.
      - With the loss of Crimea, the empire became poorer. They also had to cut relations with France, their main trade partner, when Napoleon invaded Egypt (1798)
        
        Napoleon’s invasion stopped Selim III’s (1789-1807) reforms to westernize the empire, such as his New Order army to replace the now not-Christian Ottomans.
- - - - Moldavia was lost to Russia in 1806 and Greece, with their help, became independent in 1829.
      - British faith in the Ottomans diminished, allowing Russia to attack in 1876, taking a third of the empire and making almost the entire Balkans independent. Thus, the Ottomans turned to Germany for help.
  - - - The Young Turks (CPU) desired a constitutional monarchy, and got one after revolution in 1908, the Second Constitutional Era.
  - - - Ataturk abolished all forms of slavery in the republic and established a secular state.
  - - - The Allies couldn't agree on what to do with the Ottoman empire, and eventually Greece occupied Smyrna to strengthen their claims, with tensions and resistance eventually leading to war.