Przejdź do głównej zawartości

Slowing down the Turkish invasion on Europe.



Following the defeat of crusader forces at Nicopolis in 1396 it seemed that no one was going to stop Ottoman invasion on Europe. Fortunately for christian kingdoms, Ottoman Sultan (still Bayezid I) had a threat coming from Asia towards his domain. It was the Timurid Empire ruled by Emir Timur. Both the Ottomans and Timurids were recently built empires and were hungry for land to conquer. It was inevitable for them to clash. Timur started the war in 1401 by crossing Ottoman border with his large army. After many manouvers, Bayezid I met him at Ankara, in 1402, July 28th. 
The Ottoman army was a mix of Tatar mercenaries, Eastern European knights, Seljuq cavalry and some professional Ottoman army corps. Meanwhile, Timurid army based on classic Mongol-Tatar force, containing many horse archers. The numbers of both battling forces make this battle one of the biggest in the Middle Ages. Ottomans had around 80 thousand man, while Timur had 100 thousand.
 Bayezid positioned archers in the front, janissaries in the second line and sipahi cavalry in reserve. His cavalry was positioned on the flanks.
Timur had formed up a line with his horsemen and some war elephants in the front. At the beggining of the battle both of enemy flanks started to fight. It wasn't clear if someone was winning. Suddenly most of  the right Ottoman flank ( which consisted from Tartar mercenaries) started to attack Sultan's troops. It became clear that they were paid by Timurid to fight against Ottomans. Shortly after, Ottomans started loosing the battle. Bayezid was captured and died few months later. Fortunately for the Ottomans Timur didn't invade further as he started invasion of China. Lost in the battle of Ankara made Ottomans enter a period of anarchy in their state.


Komentarze

  1. englishdiary29 września 2020 11:31

    Alek, stick to the word limit for god's sake!
    Are you going to write about something else than war? I bet they had culture, science, architecture, etc. that's worth looking at.

    OdpowiedzUsuń
  2. SABLOG29 września 2020 23:54

    I wanted to cover a battle and some facts about it so it required bigger amount of words. The Ottoman culture,architecture etc. will be covered by me in the next blogs as nothing interesting will happen in incoming period of Ottoman history.

    OdpowiedzUsuń

Prześlij komentarz

Popularne posty z tego bloga

Dangers hidden behind taking supplements

 Although taking diatery supplements can have a very good effects on our health and our performance during training, we can't be ignorant to the fact that by midless use of supplements can badly affect our health. Taking supplements is not so simple as many people could think, as overdosing or mixing wrong supplements can bring much harm to our body. A great example is a vitamin all of us know - vitamin D. Too much of this vitamin can harm our kidneys(kidney stones) or cause muscle pain. Overdosing calcium isn't a good idea either. Calcium is connected with vitamin D, as if we take too much calcium without adequate vitamin D to help absorb it, the extra calcium settles in the arteries instead of the bones. Many specialists say, that excessive usage of creatine can result in dehydration as well as kidney damage. What's more, it can worsen the symptoms of people who suffer with asthma. Although taking supplements can improve our performance and our health, overdosing it may h...
1 komentarz
Czytaj więcej

The war with Habsburgs and the siege of Vienna 1529

 After nearly doubling its size Ottoman Empire was hungry for more land. Their next step would be pushing forwards to central Europe, thus, it was inevitable they had to face with the Habsburg dynasty of Austria. Any further expansion into Europe wouldn't be possible without defeating the Hungarian king Louis II. Sultan Suleiman I achieved it in the battle of Mohacs in 1526,where the Hungarian king was killed. The Ottomans anexed half of Hungarian territory. After that Hungarian nobility elected two different kings : John Zapolya, who was from Hungary and the Archduke of Austria, Ferdinand I. Ferdinand swiftly started to gain control over the western part of Hungary, thus, starting to share borders with the Ottomans. Ferdinand attacked John Zapolya, who was defeated and ran to Poland. Suleiman I couldn't tolerate that. He mastered a giant army and marched towards the Habsburg territory. The sultan regained Hungarian territory and gave it back to John Zapolya. Then he marched to...
1 komentarz
Czytaj więcej

Ottoman Empire and its culture, technological advancement

My sources :  https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/ottoman-empire                           http://factsanddetails.com/asian/cat65/sub424/entry-5259.html  There are many factors which led to the raise of Ottomans. Their country was ruled firmly and had straight political goal - to get more powerful. Ottomans had a uniform law system and welcomed different types of art, literature and most importantly, religion.  Some may say that as they were muslim, they didn't accept any types of culture and religion different than theirs, but it's not true. They used a millet system, which gave non-muslim inhabitants a limited amount of power in their minority groups, but still under the Ottoman rule. There are many examples of Ottoman wealth and power gained by conquering so many lands in Europe, but in my opinion the best and the most magificent is the Topkapi palace which was the dwelling place for Otto...
1 komentarz
Czytaj więcej