You don't need one when your source is freaking Reddit, a cesspool of stupidity if there's one.
Then would you kindly provide a more valid source so that we may all be better informed on the topic at hand?
And in any case, I just need to point out that I said nothing about blocking the spice trade and Asian goods, I was talking about the Ottomans advancing further into Europe, which is different.
The Ottomans caused Europe to start developing new technologies because, on top of being kicked out of their traditional trade routes, they were trying to find ways to defend themselves and repel the Ottomans.
Well, now you did, so that point is now valid. Unless "alternate ways to India" wasn't to replace the spice trade and Asian goods from those traditional trade routes that were now blocked (or at least held in monopoly by a single nation with not the best of relations with the major trading powers of the Mediterranean).
I don't think the rapid development of full-plated armour, new sailing ships, gunpowder weapons, and the printing press - which helped in the dissemination of information to develop new weapons that could defend Europeans against the Ottomans - around the same time in the 15th century is coincidental.
You don't think so. Lovely. Can we have a source for that aside from 'coincidence being an invalid reason?' Also, Europe is not restricted to the block of land between the Danube and the Volga and I distinctly do not remember the French needing to fight against the Ottomans until the 20th century. But then again, it's not like Europe had any other major conflicts that would've necessitated military innovation among multiple major combatants, aside from the Hundred Years' War, War of the Roses, Hussite Wars, War of the Castillian Succession, or the general warzone that we in the current era call "Northern Italy," now did it? Granted, some developments in military tactics and equipment may have arisen from conflicts in Eastern Europe. But pinning an entire century of innovation on the Ottomans? As with the printing press, perhaps it helped against them as a side effect and thus gained popularity over there (would like a source on that), but the entire continent?
Not to mention you keep ignoring the fact that the Ottomans were advancing into Western Europe. Also, no, you don't have only my assertion since the historical evidence is right there. The rapid technological developments that occurred in tandem in Western Europe can't be explained otherwise. And so what if Europe had gunpowder weapons before the Ottomans? They still only started to truly develop them until the 15th century.
1. I don't think most people have the same definition of 'western,' seeing as Vienna is a bit...in the middle (well, technically Vilnius is the geographical center but we don't exactly call Lithuania Central European and Poland Western, do we? Usually western Europe starts at the Rhine, I think. But yeah, the traditional view is that Austria is in Central Europe, not Western, maybe western central if you'd like)? You keep citing the Ottomans and Western Europe but, as far as I know, the only exclusively Western European (western European from the CIA world factbook, I'll just use their classification) conflicts with the Ottomans until the 20th century were mostly naval in nature and even then weren't the only experiences of naval combat that those nations would've had in the 15th century (also not in the 15th century).
2. Yes, it truly cannot. There was literally no other reason that Europeans would advance militarily at such a pace, not the numerous, lengthy, and frequent wars being fought amongst the major regional powers in the 15th century, a century we commonly associate with peace and not a century of warfare x2.
3. They didn't exactly leap from Chinese fire rockets to castle busting cannons. Plus, cannons weren't exactly exclusively a response to Ottoman advances. Not sure about Eastern Europe but, at least for the Western Europeans you keep citing, it was for those pesky castles and fortifications that regular humans couldn't capture but had a nasty tendency to break after being struck by hot balls of iron hurtling towards them at (relatively at the time) high speeds and the horses that kept smashing people down but had an unfortunate habit of panicking (thus ending the charge and maybe the rider and horse's life if unlucky) when the air shattered before them. They were great for breaking morale and fort walls even during the Hundred Years' War, prior to the Ottomans eating all of the Balkans.