Ottoman-Byzantine Wars

Byzantine - Constantinople

Jan 1, 1204

The Byzantine Empire was occupied by the Fourth Crusaders. The Fourth Crusaders were an armed expedition and the main objective of the expedition was to conqure jersualm, which was Muslim controlled. At this time the empire was already weak from being misruled and was divided, essentially living in chaos.

Constantinople Retaken

Jan 1, 1261

Constantinople was taken from the Latin Empire by the Nicaean Empire, which is the largest of the Greek Byzantine States. The Byzantine Empire was uncertain because of the three rival surrounding kingdoms: Despotate of Epirus, Serbia, Second Bulgarian Empire. Constantinople was easily retaken back because of the chaos and misrule from the Fourth Crusader occupation.

Sulfanate of Rum

Jan 1, 1262

From the resulting chaos and switching in power, the sulfanate was weakened. This allowed for zero resistance when the Ghazis were setting up a fiefdom in the Byzantine Empire. Ghazis are religous warfare participants and a fiefdom is an estate of a feudal lord. The fedual system is a system that peasants works and in return is given a peice of their land.

Rise of the Ottoman

Jan 1, 1299

The power and influence of Osman I allowed for the Ottoman Empire to rise and being its reign of terror over the whole region. Finally, becoming the empire superpower, The conquest of the Byzantine Empire continued and the next target was the Latin Territory. The Turks began their raid of the Byzantine's Anatolia. The old Byzantine Empereor dies and comes as a huge relief. The Latin territory wants to appease the Roman Church. There was heavy taxation and miltary expenditure.

Osman I

Jan 1, 1299

Osman I declared himself Sultan, which is defined as a Muslim Sovereign. Sovereign can be simply defined as an absolute power or authority. All the territories after he declared himself Sultan, were known as Ottoman Empire. The great part about this was that Osman I was able to unite all the territories and he became a great leader for over 600 years.

Byzantine Civil War

Jan 1, 1320

The death of the emperor plunged the Byzantine Empire into a state of disorder. This lead to a huge power struggle between Andonikos, Syrgiannes, and Kantakousenos. This struggle for the ultimate power led to the empire being weakened and open for anyone to conquer. The trade was also Interrupted and that reduced the production of argiculture that lead to some finiacal troubles for the empire.

BE - Civil War Conflict 1

Jan 1, 1321

Th Byzantine Empire civil was was split into three different conflicts. The first being when Andronikos went to the capital Adrianople. Here he initiated an upriding against his grandfather. There were some neogotations and a peace agreement was made where Andronikos was recognized as the coemperor. He was given Thrace and Macedonia. The rest was kept by his grandfather. His grandfather also kept the foregin policy of the territory.

BE- Civil War Conflict 2

Jan 1, 1322

The peace agreement did not last very long, because Andronikos wanted to be in control of the foreign policy of his assigned areas. The tensions were rising between Syrgiannes and Kantakouzenos, they felt like they were underapprecaited and resented Andronikos. Andronikos also tried to seduce and sleep with Syriannes wife.

BE- Civil War Conflict 2

Jan 1, 1325

This new peace agreement between grandson and grandfather left Syrgiannes in a weird sitution and was basically on the outside looking in. He made a plan to assassinate the gradfather. Unfortunatley for him, this plan failed and he was senteneced to life in prision. Andronikos was crowed co-emperor by his grandfather. This was major becasue the constant troop movement reduced the production of agriculture and trade was interupted, creating some harsh times.

BE- Civil War Conflict 3

Jan 1, 1327

The Treaty of Chernomen,developed after the Balkan countries involvement in the war, the grandfather got the Serbian King and Andronikos got the Bulgarian Emperor. Andronikos was fighting for the Macedonian territories and triumphed. His next target was to capture Constaninople.

Byzantium Counter

Jan 1, 1328

This was the last attempt that the Byzantine Empire had to restore the glory that was once Rome. The Byzantine troops were sent to meet the Ottoman troops. The Ottoman troops had been blocking off Nicomedia since 1301. The Byzantine Empire was thwarted by Andronicus. The Ottoman troops still took control over Nicomedia and the city fell. The chaos of this civil war almost ruined trade and made it a breeze for the Ottomans to come in, battle, win, and take over Nicomedia.

Balkan Invasion

Jan 1, 1341

Andronicus dies and leaves his 10 year old son John V to rule. This is of course a horible idea. The temporary rule over the kingdom was between Cantacuzunus and Kalekas. They had a disagreement in the way that they thought the kingdom should be ruled. During this time, there is also a plauge and numerous earthquakes. This dual rule was a huge failure. The failure of this dual role was only exacerbated by the invasion.

Turks- Orhan I

Jan 1, 1354

With the death of Osmun I, the sucessor Osman I takes control and captures Kalipolis. This allowed the Ottoman Empire to gain acess to the main land of Europe. This gave the soliders access to Constainople. There was a lull in the civil war fighting becasue they were both expaning their land but they were not stepping on each other toes. The Byzantine empire was not able to create a solid retaliation anyway.

Byzantine Civil War (2)

Jan 1, 1371

The Ottoman won, of course, thanks to the chaos that was created inside the Byzantine Empire. There were very few settlements left, one being Constaninople. This was fairly easy because of the civil conflicts between Palaeologus and Andronicus IV. They took over Thessalonika and liverated parts of Greece from Ottoman rule.

Ottoman Victory

Jan 1, 1424

The Ottoman Empire really only had three major opponents: the Serbs, the Hungarians, the Albanians. The Byzantine empire was being ruled by Constantine and the Ottoman empire was being ruled by Mehmed. Constantine threatened Mehmed unless certain things were done. Instead of doing those things, Mehmed closed off Constantinople from the outside. This eliminated all naval assistance and put a stop on Byantine's emconmy, becasue there could not be any trade.

Ottoman Victory

Jan 1, 1453

The Ottoman Empire already had control over the surround land near Constaninople. They began their assualt in 1453, the Byzantine Emipre received no outside help and the Ottomans were too powreful. The fall of Constantinople was not only due to the milarty efforts of the Ottoman Empire but becasue the odds were against the Byzantine empire. They had bad luck and were out numbered 10 to 1. The Ottoman took Morea in 1460 and Trebizond in 1461. They came to be the greatest empire lasting 600+ years