The Balkans is a region full of different nations and influences from a turbulent history. A large part of this comes from the Ottomans. What was the Ottoman Empire and how did it come to shape the Balkan narrative for so many years? First, let's find out exactly where the Balkans is!
What are the Balkans?
The Balkans refers to the countries along the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe and bordering the Black Sea.
Fig. 1 - The Balkan Region (mapcharts.net) by Simon Fielding, StudySmarter
Of course, when the Ottoman Empire first rose to prominence, many of the modern sovereign nations did not exist, but as a reference point, this map provides us with some context of the region.
Ottoman Rule in the Balkans
The term Ottoman is from the Arabic for Uthman, which was the name of the third Islamic caliph, and showed their religious allegiance.
Caliph
From the Arabic word for 'follower', this was the name of the rulers of the Arabic Muslim world after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
We can trace the Ottoman Empire back to the year 1299 when Osman I of Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey) became the first sultan, meaning Ottoman King. He took advantage of weakened Byzantine and Seljuk dynasties in his surrounding territory and declared an Ottoman government, which began to expand rapidly in Asia Minor.
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is an area of western Turkey also referred to as Anatolia next to the Black Sea which the Ottomans initially gained control of.
The 1300s
Continuing toward the Balkans, the Ottomans gained the important Byzantine city of Bursa, which they made their capital in 1335. They had to take the long route, to the south of the Black Sea because they did not yet have the manpower to tackle the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. For this reason, as they amassed territories, they created a fierce team of foot soldiers or infantrymen to make up Janissary units and enrich their military potential.
What were Janissary units?
In the early years of Ottoman expansion, Janissary units were often made up of enslaved child soldiers from conquered Byzantine territories. The Ottoman Empire forced them to convert to Islam and participate in their wars of expansion. In conquered lands, the system of 'devşirme' or 'blood tax' was the price that subjugated Christians had to pay. Soon, to be a Janissary would become desirable. Although they had to succumb to Islam and remain celibate, they were given a salary and achieved status within the Ottoman court, frequently replacing the pre-Ottoman Balkan nobles.
The Wallach vassal state in particular benefitted from this system and was given preferential treatment as a result.
Vassal state
A state or region that is given autonomy to govern itself domestically, but is ruled over by a dominant empire in foreign affairs
During the latter half of the 14th century, some key conquests in the Balkans took place and strengthened their overall standing in the region:
1362: The Ottomans conquered Adrianople (in modern-day Edirne in Turkey) which would become their capital in 1413 and presented a gateway into the Balkans.
1371: In the Battle of Maritsa, the region of Thrace (which spanned modern-day Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria) was confirmed as a vassal Ottoman state. The Ottomans also gained much of south Serbia and had a clear path into Macedonia. In 1388, the Ottomans claimed much of eastern Bulgaria's territory.
1389: The Battle of Kosovo signalled the dissolution of Serbia to become part of the Ottoman Empire.
1396: A Christian Crusade of the Byzantine Empire and her allies led to a crushing defeat at the Battle of Nicopolis (in modern-day Greece). For the time being, this was the final advance of the Ottoman Empire into Europe as the eastern threat grew from the Turkic leader Timur.
The 1400s
The Ottoman progress was swift and effective. But as the new century dawned, Sultan Bayezid I began to quarrel with Turkic tribe leader, Timur the Lame.
Fig, 2 - Timur the Lame
This resulted in the Battle of Ankara (modern-day Turkey) in 1402. For the first time, the Ottomans had been defeated decisively, leading to a crisis in leadership and a pause on their monopoly over the Balkans. Timur outwitted Bayezid, who died and left a power vacuum behind him.
Ottoman Interregnum
With Bayezid I dead, his sons jostled for power and created a civil war that lasted until 1413. Timur had initially decided that Mehmed I would be sultan, but his brothers did not agree with his decision. All four of them claimed the throne before a decisive battle between Musa and Mehmed led to the consolidation of Mehmed's position. In the end, the Janissaries of Mehmed helped allow him to re-establish his rule.
Reassertion of power
The Ottoman Interregnum rocked an empire that, until that point, was brushing every threat aside. It may have contributed to the belief and desire of Christian forces in the Balkans to mount attacks and threaten their monopoly.
In 1444, they launched an attack at the Battle of Varna (in modern-day Bulgaria) led by Janos Hunyadi, the Hungarian. He was assisted by forces from Balkan states but also Papal, Venetian and Genoese blockades from modern-day Italy in a bid to expel the Ottomans from Europe. The Christian Crusade categorically failed and further defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1448 strengthened the position of the Ottomans in Serbia and the Balkans. Serbia fell after Smederevo was lost in 1459 and four years later the Ottomans killed the Bosnian king.
There was some resistance when the Albanian leader Skanderbeg proved a nuisance for the Ottomans. The Albanians drove them out after years of occupation in 1443, only to fully lose their territory again in 1506.
We can chart the expansion and successes of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and beyond on the map above.
Mehmed the Conqueror
Mehmed II or Mehmed the Conqueror was the sultan who made the largest impact on the Ottoman Empire during this period. His crowning glory was to strike at the heart of the crumbling Byzantine Empire at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Until this point, his predecessors had been reluctant to attack the capital. Murad II attempted a siege in 1422 but required more manpower and needed men to crush rebellions elsewhere in the empire.
Fig. 4 - Entrance of Mehmed II into Constantinople
By 1453, with the consolidation of power in the Balkans, the fragmentation of the Christian world and the naval threat in the Mediterranean at arm's length, they could mount a sustained attack. With the victory, the final Christian stronghold in the region was crushed, becoming the new Ottoman capital in the process. Mehmed declared himself 'Caesar of Rome'. Now their nearest threat was Hungary, which they overcame in the 1526 Battle of Mohacs.
Did you know? The Great Schism (1054) split the Roman Catholic and Eastern Greek Orthodox Christian churches, leading to centuries of quarrels between the two. A reunion may have created a greater urgency to fight for Constantinople but the people of the city wanted to remain Orthodox.
Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean
Drunk on his success, Mehmed II turned his attention to the Mediterranean Sea, believing it to be as significant as the Balkans in consolidating the Ottoman Empire. He gained control of the Greek Peninsula, known as Morea after fighting with Venetian forces. The Ottomans also brought the island of Chios under their spell in the 1450s. Rhodes proved more of a challenge but was a key checkpoint in the route to North Africa. Under a new sultan, Süleyman I, the island was finally taken in the 16th century. Kate Fleet documented the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean. She concluded that:
Ottoman pragmatism and flexibility, quintessential characteristics of the early empire, were reflected in the fluidity of the eastern Mediterranean zone, a world into which Ottoman control thus fitted well."
-Kate Fleet, 'The Ottomans in the Mediterranean in the Later Fifteenth Century: the Strategy of Mehmed II', 20151
The furthest Ottoman foray into Western Europe was Otranto, situated on the boot of Italy. They laid the city under siege in 1480 and were victorious. However, amidst fears that Rome was under threat and the death of Mehmed II, forces from Naples expelled them a year later.
Reasons for success
Let's take a breath to contemplate the immense expansion and successes of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and the Mediterranean.
Zakat
The compulsory tax that all followers of Islam in the Ottoman Empire had to pay.
We can now crystallise the factors for its growth and sustenance.
| Reason | Explanation |
| Treatment of territories | The Ottomans were careful not to loot and pillage their conquered lands. They used them as a fertile ground for Janissaries, but it was not only men that they gained. Through zakat and the non-Islam tax, the empire's coffers were always full. This, combined with Qanuns (flexible state-specific laws) lessened the impact of Islamic doctrine. Finally, vassal states, which governed their internal affairs, meant that a flexible approach could be devised for each political situation. |
| Strategic alliances | The Ottomans were not concerned with interfaith marriages and knew that peaceful alliances could be built as a foundation for occupation or control. The marriage of the Serbian princess Despina Hatun to the sultan Bayezid I shortly after the victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 was a clear example of this. In addition, vassal states such as Wallachia were never occupied because of their loyalty to the Empire and their willingness to contribute taxes and Janissaries. |
| Fragmented opposition | As the Ottoman Empire replaced the Abbasid Caliphate, becoming the world's foremost Islamic empire, it was clear for all to see what it represented; an empire united under a faith. This was in stark contrast to the Christian forces. Coupled with the Great Schism, the rise of Lutherism meant that there were a lot of politics involved in the religious conversation. It was difficult for a unified empire to develop under these conditions and so small countries or even city-states such as the Genoese or Venetians were often tasked with facing the mighty Ottomans. |
These factors were of significance during the zenith of the Ottoman Empire and the reign of Süleyman I (1520 - 1566).
The Collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans
Süleyman I or Süleyman the Magnificent had an empire spanning much of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. This empire also reached areas of the Mediterranean and thus giving the Ottomans access to swathes of North Africa, the Levant to the east, and part of the Arabian Peninsula.
A slow decline
However, as the 1600s dawned, bringing the Renaissance, European powers were on the rise once more. The 1683 Battle of Vienna against the rising Habsburg Empire of Austria was a significant defeat for the Ottomans and showed chinks in their armour. A significant dent in their monopoly over the Balkans came in the form of Greek independence in 1830 which was followed by the Congress of Berlin, granting Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania independence in 1878.
The End
Finally, in 1912, a unified war effort between forces from Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro came together to defeat the Ottomans and virtually expel them from Europe in the First Balkan War. Unfortunately, after emerging victorious they had territorial disputes of their own, resulting in a Second Balkan War. Crucially though, after centuries of subjugation, the Balkan countries were free to create their own destiny.
The Ottoman Empire formally ended in 1922, after their disastrous alliance with Germany in World War I. In the years since Ottoman rule in the Balkans, their legacy has obviously remained. In states such as Bosnia, there are still large numbers of Muslims. Focusing on Serbia, the historian Miljkovic notes that:
With the Ottoman conquest, the nourishment in the Balkans had changed, rapidly and dramatically. It had been enriched by the dishes, which are still part of the menu of the majority of the Balkan nations."
-Ema Miljkovic, 'Ottoman Heritage in the Balkans: The Ottoman Empire in Serbia, Serbia in the Ottoman Empire', 20092
So next time you are in a Balkan state, see if you can find something that an Ottoman would have eaten!
Ottoman Empire in the Balkans - Key takeaways
- The Balkans are a region of southeastern Europe that the Ottoman Empire almost fully controlled for hundreds of years.
- The Ottomans were a Turkic and Islamic tribe that rose to prominence and made their first impact on Balkan soil in the 14th century.
- Once Mehmed II gained Constantinople from the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Ottoman Empire was in a position of considerable strength in the Balkans and began to seek to control of the Mediterranean.
- A combination of their treatment of territories, strategic alliances and fragmented opposition were the main contributors to the empire's longevity and success.
- The empire continued to expand into North Africa and Asia before steadily declining after the Battle of Vienna in 1683 and finally ending after a series of conflicts in 1922.
References
- Kate Fleet, 'The Ottomans in the Mediterranean in the Later Fifteenth Century: the Strategy of Mehmed II', Storja (2015), pp 19- 36.
- Ema Miljkovic, 'Ottoman Heritage in the Balkans: The Ottoman Empire in Serbia, Serbia in the Ottoman Empire', SDU Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences: Special Issue on Balkans (Mar 2009), pp 129-137.
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