WI: Ottoman Trading Companies?

[Osman Aga]

Ottomans always prioritized the west for a reason, well several.
1) a source for janissaries
2) a Major source of tax revenue through Jizya, or tribute through tributary states such as moldovia ,transylvania and wallachia
3) keeps the army busy, keeping them content through land grants, war booty. a happy army is an army that does not conspire against you.

So the pressure to go west will always be there. unless there is an avenue of expansion, that synergizes with capturing the spice trade. that can only happen by expanding eastwards. the problem is of course the logistics, supplying an army past the zagros is why Iran never got annexed in the first place. Logistics is why heading towards west seems the easiest avenue of expansion.

Ottoman incursions into Hungary were always for a reason. Hungarians had a history up till 1526 of raiding into ottoman territory and being part of crusader coalitions ,Varna and Nicopolis are examples. the Ottomans are always going to prioritize that front.

unless you have an earlier reformation with a Protestant Hungary seeking an alliance with the Ottomans against Catholic HRE or something like that.

1. The Balkans were enough to get the Janissary Recruits. Most Janissaries were Slav or Albanian anyway in the time of the Devshirme. I can't recall one Hungarian, Romanian etc. Janissary that reached a position of a Vizier.

2. Sure enough though taxing isn't a good reason as far as I see it, considering trade income from India and the East Indies were good enough anyway.

3. Can be used in Persia, or North Africa too, rather than the HRE-Hungary borders.

Not if the annexation of Hungary is averted. It doesn't necessarily end Ottoman Campaigns in the West but makes it more managable and easier, without a lot of resources used against the Habsburgs, which drained the Ottoman resources. It become worse in long term as the Habsburgs used their increased resources and against the Ottoman Balkans. If Hungary exists, the Ottomans are less inclined to continuously fight in the West and with less resources.

The Ottomans capturing the Spice Islands is in theory doable though in practice never going to happen. The Ottomans are likely going to aid regional Muslims to capture Portuguese and Spanish outposts in the East Indies in best case scenario. Something like North Africa. It could result into East Indian Piracy targeting European and probably non-Muslim Indonesian regions. Actual Ottoman control over the Spice Islands seems unlikely to me.

Ottoman incursion into Hungary isn't a problem. It is getting rid of that wall between you and the Habsburgs. By the early 16th century the Hungarians were far from being a threat against the Ottomans. A Mohacs battle with Louis II surviving means the Hungarians are more than unlikely to raid Ottoman Lands. The times of Matthias Corvinus and Janos Hunyadi are long over. A Mohacs alike battle had mauled the Hungarian Forces means the Hungarians are far from being a threat anymore.

An alliance with Hungary isn't a pre. But if Hungary experiences the reformation it could lead to: 1. Protestant Hungary, probably allying HRE Protestant rulers and thus facing Austria or 2. Experiencing a Religious war like France. Either of them work fine for the Ottomans.