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Bayezid readies his armies once more with a goal of subduing the rest the Beyliks in Anatolia, and the increasingly annoying Qara Qoyunlu Turkmen, who had recently taken over Armenia and were encroaching on Ottoman territory. On the beginning of the campaign season, the Sultan’s armies were deployed. One by one the Anatolian principalities would fall. First Candar, and then Mentese, then Karaman, and Lesser Armenia. These campaigns rapidly expanded the borders of the Ottomans, pushing them past the Tarsus mountains and into Northern Syria. By 1406, the Ottomans were at the outskirts of the final defiant Beyliks: The Ramadanids and Dulkadirids. Situated at the border with Syria, these two powers (if one would be so generous as to call them that) were preserved only due to the weakness of other beyliks, Ottoman commitments in other places, and the backing of the Mamluks; whose interest in preserving the balance of power played a long way in starving off Ottoman advancement. And like so many times before, Ottoman commitments in Europe would see that the beys would remain free men for another day. For in 1406, the Christians would strike back.
In the aftermath of Constantinople's conquest, Christendom was in shock. The Holy city had fallen to the infadels. Shock turned to anger, and anger turned to belligerence. Calls for crusade were rampant, and on 1405, yet another crusade was called upon and discussed. However, while there was great talk of launching a holy crusade, support for actually implementing it was… varied. While the Emperor in Germany, the new king in Hungary and the remnant Serbians, Albanians and Greeks were the most ardent supporters, the Italians and French were rather lukewarm to the idea of crusade, the merchant republics of Venice and Genoa notwithstanding. (France especially was ambivalent to sending men so far off as its war with England required full commitment). The Portuguese and English outright ignored requests for soldiers.
But still, thanks to some good diplomacy and deals of land in the Post Ottoman war, the plans for Crusade were in motion. Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Wallacia, Bulgaria and the Empire in Germany answered the call, providing the bulk of the manpower, along with Venice, Genoa and a host of various Serbian, Albanian and Greek principalities.
Finally, in 1406, an invasion was launched from the starting point of Dalmatia, along with massive raids into Ottoman held Greece by the Venetians and Genoese, who were both wary about losing their access to the Black Sea trade and their colonies. This was followed by another advance via a joint Albanian-Greek army. While the Crusaders may have initially gained momentum, they eventually repeated the same mistakes of their predecessors in previous crusades. The Europeans were prone to infighting, often squabbling amongst themselves; their conduct was horrible (often looting the very towns they planned to liberate) and their discipline questionable. With these factors at hand, the Crusader advance stumbled, and the tide quickly turned. The more disciplined (and in many cases numerous and better armed, thanks to the superior Ottoman logistics) managed to puncture the Crusader’s forces, and inflict heavy casualties. Beginning in 1408, the Ottomans were launching counter invasions into Serbia and Athens.
The naval front of the war was different, however. The vast Venetian and Genoese fleets, staffed with well trained and experienced men, were able to do significant damage to Ottoman shipping and conduct landings in Thrace and even Bithynia. In addition, they were able to cut down on resupply and hurt the logistics. The initial idea was not only to harm the logistics, but to effectively deny the ability to move troops by splitting the Ottomans in half, isolating its European holdings from Anatolia. However, as the war passed the bridge between the powers were closing. This strategy of isolation culminated in a brazen attack on Constantinople by a Venetian-Genoese fleet. While initially successful, the Venetians finally learned the difficulties in attacking the Queen of Cities, and the luck that aided them in the Fourth Crusade was no more. The battle ended in disaster, with much of the Crusading fleet destroyed. The Italians quickly salvaged what they could to Dalmatia for repair, but the damage was done. Never again would Venice be able to reach Constantinople.
Still, by 1410 the war was dying down. Ottoman troops had overrun what remained of Bulgaria, Athens and the Peloponnese. They had inflicted heavy losses on the main contingent of Crusader troops, pushing them back into Bosnia and Northern Serbia. The Ottoman vassals at The war had become a meat grinder for the crusaders, and bit by bit demoralization had kicked in. After it became apparent that the invasion would no longer have any chance of victory, Poland and Bohemia withdrew. Further losses prompted the Emperor in Germany to also withdraw. Seeing which way the wind was blowing the merchant republics of Italy made peace with the Ottomans and left. This left the fighting now to mostly Hungary, already weakened by its recent bout of civil war, Wallachia and the remaining Balkan states. None were able to resist the advance of the Osman’s heirs. It was only a matter of time until all fell to the Dar Al Islam.
First was Greece, and then remnants of Serbia. Albania would last somewhat longer, with sporadic resistance continuing until late into the 1420s, but would bit by bit be pacified. Wallachia stubbornly refused to go down without fighting, and payed the price. It would be subdued, broken and visualized in the campaigns that would follow. Finally, Hungary was alone and outmatched. In 1412, they finally submitted, ceding their Bosniak and Dalmatian holdings in exchange for peace.
At the same time of the Crusader war, the Qara Qoyunlu began a series of raids into the Ottoman East. While it did little to damage the Anatolian possessions, it became a serious annoyance. Ottoman troops were able to hold them off rather easily, but the flat lands of Eastern Anatolian Plateau are not as easy to defend as mountains. It was then decided a new border was needed, one far more defensible. After conducting the counsel of his advisors and Vizier, the mountains of Armenia was decided as the perfect place for the frontier. It had the advantage of being mountainous and defensible, had a largely Christian populace that could be subject to Jizya, and finally was a great way to punish the Qara Qoyunlu for their raids with a show a force.
But first, Trebizond would need to be eliminated. As a terminus of Silk Road trade, this wealthy city could not be ignored. While being able to survive this long was impressive due to the empire’s masterful diplomacy, like the Romans before them, they had ran out of allies. With the acquisition of Trebizond the Ottomans had both an excellent port at their disposal but a waypoint into the Caucasus and Armenia. An army of 20,000 men was dispatched and the empire fell by 1410. And with war dying down in Europe, more troops could be shifted east to focus on the nomadic threat. What soon followed was various counter raids and expansion into Armenia proper. Nomadic horsemen had always been the bane of settled states, but the advent of firearms turned the tide. Being able to fortify themselves in the mountains, the Ottomans cemented their position and expelled the Black Sheep Turkmen into Azerbaijan. This show of weakness embolden the Timurid remnants to the south, who proceeded to expand north into Qoyunlu lands.
This new, more defensible border would serve the Ottomans well. Its cemented their position in the east and freed up more men for future advances in the south and west. And it would be the last thing Bayezid would accomplish. For in late 1414, the sultan had passed on Bayezid I “the Thunderbolt”, as he was best known had managed to defeat the last great threat and solidify the Ottomans position in the Eastern Mediterranean, but it would be the last thing he did. With his death the Ottoman Empire sprawled from the Caucasus to Dalmatia, and like the Roman Empire at the death of the Great Basil II, was the most powerful state in the East.
The throne was now in the hands in the son of Bayezid, Suleyman. Suleyman, a well educated man raised in Rumelia, gladly adopted the title of Kayser-i Rum and made it his own. And it is with this knowledge of the ancients that inspired Suleyman to cement his legacy amongst the Ottoman Empire. In 1415, upon musing the state of his empire, he is reported to have quoted the statement that would alter the fate of Europe forever.
“If we have the Second Rome, why not the first?”...
