Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman state and its sultans, from the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 to the retreat from central Europe around 1700.
Category: States
- May 29, 1453Fall of Constantinople
The Ottomans take the Byzantine capital, ending the Eastern Roman Empire.
- May 1454Diet of Regensburg debates a crusade against the Ottomans
Emperor Frederick III's imperial diet at Regensburg takes up a crusade after the fall of Constantinople but only agrees to the war in principle. Frankfurt (Oct 1454) and Wiener Neustadt (1455) follow.
- July 4, 1456 – July 22, 1456John Hunyadi relieves Belgrade and halts Mehmed II's advance
Hungarian forces under János Hunyadi and a crusader army raised by John of Capistrano break the Ottoman siege of Belgrade. Mehmed II, wounded, retreats; the Ottoman push up the Danube is checked for decades.
- 1459 – 1460Pius II calls the Congress of Mantua to organise a crusade
Pope Pius II gathers European princes at Mantua to answer the Ottoman advance; the crusade he proclaims in January 1460 for three years stays largely on paper.
- May 29, 1460Mehmed II conquers the Morea; Mistra falls
Ottoman forces take Mistra, seat of the Despotate of the Morea ruled by the Palaiologos family, ending the last Byzantine holdout in Greece. The despots had been brothers of the last emperor, Constantine XI.
- August 15, 1461Mehmed II takes Trebizond, ending the last Byzantine successor state
Emperor David Komnenos surrenders the Empire of Trebizond on the Black Sea to Mehmed II after a month's siege. Historians treat it as the end of Byzantine continuity.
- August 11, 1480Ottoman fleet captures Otranto in southern Italy
Gedik Ahmed Pasha's Ottoman force takes Otranto in Apulia, alarming Italy and Rome. Mehmed II's death in 1481 ends the campaign and the town is retaken that year.
- August 29, 1526Suleiman I destroys the Hungarian army at Mohács; Habsburgs inherit Bohemia and Hungary
King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia dies at Mohács, triggering the Habsburg inheritance contract. Ferdinand, brother of Emperor Charles V, takes Bohemia and a disputed claim to Hungary, a rival king being Zápolya.
- September 27, 1529 – October 1529Suleiman I besieges Vienna for the first time
Suleiman's army, backing John Zápolya against Ferdinand of Habsburg, besieges Vienna. Charles V is busy in Italy, but the defenders hold and the Ottomans withdraw before winter.
- August 1541Ottomans occupy Buda and partition Hungary into three parts
Suleiman's troops take Buda by a ruse, annexing central Hungary as an Ottoman province. Royal Hungary stays Habsburg and Transylvania goes to Zápolya's heir; the division lasts until 1699.
- October 7, 1571Holy League defeats the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto
A Holy League of Spain, Venice and the papacy under Don John of Austria destroys most of the Ottoman fleet off western Greece. The league then falls apart and the Ottomans rebuild.
- 1593 – 1606The Long Turkish War between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans begins
In 1593 Emperor Rudolf II goes to war with the Ottoman Empire over Hungary. The war lasts thirteen years until the Peace of Zsitvatorok in 1606 and strains the Habsburgs' finances and their relations with their own Estates.
- November 11, 1606Peace of Zsitvatorok ends the Long Turkish War
Emperor Rudolf II and Sultan Ahmed I agree peace on the Zsitva River after 13 years of inconclusive war. The Ottomans keep Eger and Kanizsa, and the treaty sets the Habsburg-Ottoman frontier for half a century.
- August 1619 – September 1619Gábor Bethlen of Transylvania invades Royal Hungary and joins the revolt
In August 1619 the Calvinist Prince of Transylvania, Gábor Bethlen, invades Habsburg-ruled Royal Hungary and in September takes Košice, where Protestant supporters proclaim him leader of Hungary and protector of Protestants.
- September 12, 1683Polish-Imperial army lifts the Ottoman siege of Vienna
A relief army led by Jan III Sobieski of Poland and Emperor Leopold I's forces routs Kara Mustafa's Ottoman army outside Vienna. It is the last great Ottoman threat to central Europe and opens the Habsburg reconquest of Hungary.
- January 26, 1699Treaty of Karlowitz: Ottomans cede most of Hungary to the Habsburgs
After the Habsburg-Ottoman war of 1683-97 and the Ottoman defeat at Zenta, the Ottomans surrender Hungary (except the Banat of Temesvár), Slavonia and Transylvania to Emperor Leopold I.