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sweet_boy24
Turkey
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http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/album/mapsindex.html http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/engindex.html http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/ourselection/ourindex.html 1451 – 1481, Mehmet II, Fatih (The Conqueror). Fall of Constantinople in 1453 only the beginning of an aggressive policy of conquest; capital moved from Edirne to Istanbul; shift of political power from provincial notables and feudal lords to the sultan’s slaves (kapikullari); the Palace School and the organization of religious education through the medrese system; elaborate court and expanded bureaucracy; the imperial tradition is firmly established and the classical age of the Ottoman Empire has begun. War with Serbia, aided by Hungary; Hunyadi and the Serbian king, Brankovich, both die in 1457; family quarrels over succession; one claimant appeals to Pope for aid, offering to make Serbia a papal dependency; people declare they prefer rule of Muslim Sultan to Catholic Pope and open their cities to Mehmet; Serbian independence ends in 1459. Ottomans invade Bosnia in 1453; Bosnian nobles refuse to support Catholic king, Stephen, and hand over fortresses to Mehmet, many converting to Islam at the same time, thus beginning the process which ultimately sees most Bosnians become Muslims. Herzegovina is occupied a year or so later, and Albania is absorbed following Skanderbeg’s death in 1467. War with Venice ends in 1479 with the Venetians giving up Scutari (Uskudar) and other stations on the coast and agreeing to pay a tribute for permission to trade in the Black Sea. In 1480, an Ottoman force occupies Otranto in southern Italy, causing panic throughout the Catholic Europe. Mehmet besieges Rhodes (1480-81), held by the Knights of St. John, a relic of the Crusades, but dies before the siege is successful.
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