Alphabetical Index to Bible Timeline – Page 9 – Amazing Bible Timeline with World History

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Kat Cendana — 4 Comments

Ottoman-Venetian Wars (1st through 6th)

The Republic of Venice was one of the Ottoman Empire’s most important trade partners in the Mediterranean during its early years. In 1460, this relationship turned sour when the Ottoman Empire attacked and conquered the Peloponnese Peninsula (Morea). The first war between the rivals in the Mediterranean flared up three years later. It was followed by a series of Ottoman wars with Venice between the 15th-century and into the 17th-century. The last Ottoman-Venetian War (the sixth) was concluded only in 1699 when the two sides signed the Treaty of Karlowitz. These events are recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History.

The Struggle for Supremacy: The First and Second Ottoman-Venetian Wars

The Republic of Venice possessed one of the most formidable navies in the Mediterranean during the 15th century. But over in Istanbul, Sultan Mehmed I (1413-1421) decided to improve the Ottoman fleet. The rulers of Venice knew that they would soon have a powerful rival in the occupation of the eastern Mediterranean, and they were not mistaken in their assumption.

The Ottoman occupation of Morea in 1460 and the possible loss of its colonies in Greece drove the Venetians to declare war against the Turks in 1463. It marked the First Ottoman-Venetian War which lasted for 16 more years. The loss of its Crimean trading ports to the Ottomans forced Venice to sue for peace in 1479.

The Second Ottoman-Venetian War flared up in 1499 after Sultan Bayezid II’s navy attacked the Greek city of Nafpaktos (Lepanto). The navy’s close proximity to Venice’s Morean colonies forced the Republic to declare another war against the Ottomans. This did not end well for the Venetians as the Ottomans successfully took the trading ports of Modon and Coron from them in 1500. In the same year, the Ottomans drove out the remaining Venetians from the Peloponnese Peninsula and occupied it as their own. In 1503, Venice once again sued for peace.

Ottoman_Wars — The Battle of Lepanto was the site of a major skirmish between the Ottoman and Habsburg fleets.

Third Ottoman-Venetian War

During his reign, Suleiman I entered into an alliance with the French king Louis XI to counter the threat posed by the Habsburg ruler Charles V. The sultan also offered this alliance to the Venetians, but they refused it as they feared the Habsburg king. While this conflict continued to rage, the navies of both sides continued to fight minor battles in the Adriatic. By 1537, the skirmishes turned into the Third Ottoman-Venetian War when Suleiman decided to launch an attack on Rome.

Suleiman’s trusted admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa gathered his forces near Vlore in Albania. He led the Ottoman navy in attacking Otranto, while Suleiman led the assault on the Venice-held island of Corfu. The Venetian defenders of the island fought hard, so the sultan had no choice but to retreat.

Before the double assaults, the Venetian had always been hesitant in confronting the Ottomans head-on. Any full-scale war with the Ottomans was a venture that they could not afford. The attacks on Otranto and Corfu, however, sealed their decision to join the alliance offered by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

On September 27, 1538, a combined fleet led by the Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria faced off with the Ottomans off the coast of Preveza. The European fleet was crushed, and the disappointed Venetian rulers agreed to sign a peace treaty in 1539. It was finalized in 1540, and the Venetians finally gave up some of their last few ports in Greece. They were also forced to pay a hefty compensation to the Ottomans as part of the new peace treaty.

Suleiman I died in 1566, and he was succeeded by his son, Selim II. Like his father before him, Selim II’s reign was plagued by naval wars.

Fourth Ottoman-Venetian War

The Lusignan kings of Cyprus had ruled the island since the time of the Crusaders. But everything changed when the last potential Lusignan king died in infancy. Because of this, the administration passed on to his Venetian mother, Caterina Cornaro. With no one to help her, the queen was later forced to give the island up to the Venetian rulers who took over in 1489. Venice ruled Cyprus until the Ottoman navy wrested the island from them during the Fourth Ottoman-Venetian War.

The island of Cyprus was one of the few Mediterranean islands that belonged to the Venetians after the last war. This changed when the Ottomans learned that the Venetians in Cyprus protected the corsairs who attacked Ottoman ships which passed by the area. For the Ottomans, this act was a direct violation of the peace treaty the two parties signed years before. The Ottomans finally decided to take the island from the Venetians to prevent them from disrupting trade and communication with Egypt.

Preparations for a new naval attack against Cyprus took place in 1569. Lala Mustafa Pasha led the Ottoman army, while Admiral Muezzinzade Ali Pasha led the naval forces. He was assisted by Piyale Pasha. Rumors of the attack reached the Venetian rulers, so they hurriedly fortified Cyprus between 1568 to 1569. In 1570, the dreaded letter from Selim II arrived in Venice. As usual, the sultan demanded that the Venetians give up Cyprus which Venice refused to do. But it was already too late as the Ottoman forces had already occupied Nicosia in Cyprus in the same year.

The rulers of Venice had no one in Europe to turn to except for the Pope. The powerful Habsburg rulers were unwilling to help them as the Venetians could not be counted on to take their side in the past wars. In addition, there was simply no incentive for the House of Habsburg to join a costly war. But in 1571 the Pope arranged an alliance between the House of Habsburg and Venice. The condition, however, was that the Republic would help Habsburg Spain in North Africa. The rulers of Venice agreed.

On September 1571, Charles V’s son Philip II and his half-brother Don Juan of Austria sailed from Italy to Cephalonia in Greece. But by late 1571, the Ottomans had already occupied some important areas in Cyprus so the Habsburg fleet’s main task was now to recapture the island. The fleet tried to continue to Cyprus, but they encountered the Ottoman warships in the Gulf of Patras. The encounter resulted in a major naval battle when the two sides finally faced off near the coast of Nafpaktos (Battle of Lepanto).

The result was an overwhelming victory for Don Juan’s fleet. The Ottoman navy suffered heavy casualties, and among the dead was Muezzinzade Ali Pasha. He was replaced by Kilic Ali Pasha at the helm. Naval battles off the coast of Morea continued in 1572, but there was no decisive winner. In 1573, the beleaguered Venice once again sued for peace and was forced pay another compensation to the Ottomans.

Fifth Ottoman-Venetian War

The Fifth Ottoman-Venetian War flared up more than seventy years after the last peace treaty between the two powers. The Mediterranean had long been plagued by pirates, and some of the most notorious were the Maltese corsairs. In 1644, some Maltese pirates attacked an Ottoman fleet bound for Mecca off the island of Karpathos. On board were some important Ottoman pilgrims from whom the Maltese pirates stole some treasures. They later sold the booty on the island of Crete which was then held by the Venetians.

The attack provoked the Ottomans who saw this as a violation of the treaty they signed more than seventy years before. The Venetians were not eager to face the Ottomans in another naval battle as they could not expect help from the Cretans who resented their rule. But the Ottomans had already sent their fleet to Crete, and their forces arrived on the 26th of June, 1645. The defenses of Crete were no match for the Ottoman fleet, so the invading forces immediately occupied Chania. Many of the island’s churches were converted into mosques during the occupation.

The Ottomans took Rethymno in 1646, while Iraklion fell the following year. By 1648, the Ottomans occupied a large part of Crete, but they were often harassed by small Venetian ships which lurked off the coast. To counter the Ottomans and prevent them from resupplying troops in Crete, the Venetians sent a fleet to blockade the Dardanelles. The Ottomans were forced to move their base to the port of Cesme on the Aegean to bypass the blockade.

It was not only the Venetians who were having problems. The Ottoman power had deteriorated over the years, and it was no better when Sultan Ibrahim (the Mad) took the throne. Palace intrigues, a weak economy, banditry in the Anatolian countryside, and rebellions in Istanbul plagued the empire. The Janissary corps who were resettled in Crete were also unhappy in the island. They rebelled and promptly went home. This left the island open once again to the Venetians.

The battles between the Ottomans and the Venetians continued in the next few years. The Venetians scored victories in 1651 off the coasts of Naxos and Santorini. In 1654, the Ottomans won a naval battle in the Dardanelles, but they also lost the actual battle that the Ottomans negotiated with the ambassador of Venice. In this treaty, the Ottomans would let Venice keep Iraklion, but they would have to pay a hefty compensation plus annual tributes. Cash-strapped Venice refused.

The Grand Vizier Fazil Ahmed Pasha led thousands of Ottoman soldiers from Edirne, Istanbul, and Peloponnese peninsula to attack Crete. They besieged the Venetian stronghold in Iraklion between 1667 and 1668. The defense could only hold for so long, and Venice (once again) sued for peace in 1668. The Ottomans, however, refused to negotiate. The Venetians had appealed to Louis XIV of France for help, so he sent his navy to help them in 1669. The French navy fought against the Ottomans for one month until it had to limp home in defeat. The Ottoman navy was just too strong.

Francesco Morosini, the leader of the Venetian defenders in Crete, finally surrendered to the Ottomans in 1669. The Ottomans allowed the Venetians to keep the fortresses of Suda, Spinalonga, and Gramvousa.

Sixth Ottoman-Venetian War

The Ottoman Empire was plagued with wars on almost all fronts during the latter part of the 17th century. Internal problems and a powerful European alliance (the Holy League) threatened the Ottoman power in Europe and the Mediterranean. They were forced to retreat after the disastrous Battle of Vienna in 1683. Sultan Mehmed IV was later deposed by his court, but their problems were far from over as he was succeeded by weak rulers.

In 1684, the Venetians joined the Holy League led by the House of Habsburg. They were emboldened when they saw that the Ottoman troops had somewhat weakened, so they took the opportunity to attack Ottoman ports in Morea, Dalmatia, and Albania. By 1685, they had a solid foothold in Dalmatia and in Athens itself. The naval and land battles which went on between 1688 and 1695 mostly took place in Crete. The Venetians also besieged Ottoman-held Lesbos, Bozcaada, and some territories in Dalmatia.

In 1699, the hard-pressed Ottomans were forced to surrender a large part of their European territories to the members of the Holy League. Venice regained Morea, Dalmatia, and other Aegean islands in the Treaty of Karlowitz. This ended the series of wars between Venice and the Ottoman Empire.

References:
Picture by:Unknown – National Maritime Museum (BHC0261), Public Domain, Link
Carsten, F. L., ed. The New Cambridge Modern History, The Ascendancy of France: 1648-88. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 1961.
Faroqhi, Suraiya, ed. The Cambridge History of Turkey: The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603–1839. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. NY, NY: Basic Books, 2007.
Kia, Mehrdad. The Ottoman Empire. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.
Shaw, Stanford Jay. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey : Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Posted on May 22, 2017May 11, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Nicopolis, Crusaders Defeated in the Battle of

When Emperor John VI left the Byzantine throne in 1354, he left behind an “empire” so reduced that it was only made up of Constantinople itself and a few territories in Greece. His co-emperor, the rebellious John V Palaiologos, succeeded to the throne. John V was later followed by his son Manuel upon his father’s death. Manuel’s reign was marked by humiliating defeats of Christian kingdoms of Eastern Europe by the Turks. He renewed the call for a Crusade against the Turks. The Crusaders who took part in it were defeated again in the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during that time.

The Twilight of the Byzantine Empire

Emperor John VI left the Byzantine throne to his young co-emperor John V Palaiologos in 1354. In the years that followed, the Byzantines steadily lost Thracian cities to the Ottoman Turks. Faced with the loss of Byzantium itself, John V came up with a drastic solution. He wrote to the Pope and offered to return to Catholicism if he would provide the Byzantine army with extra men.

Pope Innocent VI was happy to help with John V’s desire to convert to Catholicism. As for the Emperor’s need for extra troops, the Pope was powerless about it. He did ask several European rulers to help the Byzantines, but they either ignored him or sent too few men to help John V.

Pope Innocent VI died in 1362, and he was succeeded by Pope Urban V. He returned to Italy in 1369 after living in Avignon for some years. He moved to Viterbo as the condition of the Lateran Palace was not good at that time. John VI travelled to Viterbo and made another desperate appeal to Pope Urban V. There he submitted to the Pope and converted to Catholicism.

John V’s submission was useless as the Pope could provide only hundreds of men. The emperor tried Genoa and Venice next as he had no money to go home to Constantinople yet. The rulers of Venice and Genoa refused to help him. The Doge of Venice also reminded John V that he owed a lot of money to Venice. This loan was made by his mother so she could support his bid as emperor during the civil war. He was left stranded in Venice until his son Manuel came up with enough money to bring him home.

When he returned to Constantinople, he had no choice but to submit to the Ottoman Sultan Murad. He became nothing more than an Ottoman vassal with a reduced and impoverished territory. He also sent his son Manuel to the Ottoman court to assure the Turks that he would behave.

Desperation

The Ottomans had a stable base in Thrace, so it was only a matter of time before they launched the attacks in Bulgaria and Serbia. Both kingdoms were beaten into submission, along with the Greek city of Thessalonica during the 1380s. Sultan Murad died during the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. He was replaced by his son Bayezid.

Bayezid forced Manuel to become a part of the Ottoman troops, and the prince had no choice but to submit. The Sultan also forbade John V from building Constantinople’s defences and threatened Manuel’s life if John V disobeyed. It was the last straw for the desperate John V. He stayed inside his own room until he starved to death in 1391.

Manuel fled from Bayezid when he heard that his father had died. He returned to Constantinople and ruled what was left of the once great Byzantine Empire. Bayezid allowed him to rule, but he sent Manuel a message that made it clear that the Ottomans would conquer Constantinople soon.

A New Crusade

The Turks first tried to besiege Constantinople in 1394, so Manuel had no choice but to ask other Christian kings for help. The problem, however, was that almost all the Christian rulers near him had submitted to the Turks. It was only King Sigismund of Hungary who answered his urgent pleas for help. Sigismund, in turn, pleaded with the Pope and other European kings to send soldiers to help them.

The antipope in Avignon and the Pope in Rome both issued a papal bull to start a new Crusade. As much as 10,000 French volunteers joined the Crusade, and they were led by John, Count of Nevers. A few Venetian and English soldiers also joined them, along with some Knights Hospitaller. They arrived in Hungary in June 1396.

nicopolis_battle — “The crusaders took eight days to cross the Danube at the Iron Gate”

The Battle of Nicopolis

Sigismund was so impressed with the entourage of the Count of Nevers that he became optimistic of their victory. The King added as much as 60,000 Hungarian soldiers to counter the Turkish threat. They crossed the Danube River, and easily captured a couple of Turkish strongholds. While Bayezid and the Turks were busy attacking Constantinople, the Crusaders started to attack the Ottoman stronghold of Nicopolis (in present-day Bulgaria). When Bayezid heard of this, he immediately left Constantinople and marched his men to Nicopolis.

The Crusaders were caught by surprise when they heard that the Turks were coming. The Turks and the Crusaders met on the 25th of September 1396 in Nicopolis. The French knights recklessly engaged the Turks in battle without waiting for the Hungarian soldiers, so they were easily defeated. Bayezid also hid the Ottoman soldiers in the woods near Nicopolis and attacked the Hungarian troops who followed the French knights. The Crusaders were slaughtered, and Sigismund only escaped by boarding a ship which took him across the Danube. The rest of the Crusaders drowned as they were trying to flee.

Many of the captured Crusaders were executed right after the battle, while some knights were imprisoned and ransomed. The defeat of the Crusaders in the Battle of Nicopolis left another bitter taste in the mouth of the Europeans. It was the last of the major Crusades the European nobility took part in, and this fiasco left Constantinople truly alone. The Ottomans, meanwhile, followed up their victory by capturing several Bulgarian cities.

References:
Picture By Denis Barthel – http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afbeelding:IJzeren_Poort.JPG, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Uyar, Mesut, and Edward J. Erickson. A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatu虉rk. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International/ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Posted on May 19, 2017May 11, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Ottoman Empire Founded

The Ottoman Empire was founded in 1299 under the leadership of the Kayi tribal chief (bey) Osman Gazi. It is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History during that time. At first, they only raided Greek settlements in Asia Minor. But these later became military operations that expanded their territory westward. By the time of Osman’s death in 1326, the Ottomans had conquered most of southwestern Asia Minor except for a few Byzantines territories. Osman was so revered by his people that the name of the empire itself was derived from him.

From Wanderers to Empire-Builders

Large groups of Turkic peoples migrated westward from their homeland in Central Asia during the eleventh century. Over the years, many of them were captured and brought to Mesopotamia and Egypt as slaves. They eventually converted to Islam, and became warriors under the Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates. As these caliphates weakened, the Turkic ghilman (slave-soldiers) and mamalik (mamluk or slaves) became more powerful. Two former mamalik even ruled their own territories (Ghaznavid Empire and Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt).

The members of the Kayi tribe of the Oghuz Turks were some of the last ones to rise out of their obscure origins in Central Asia. Early records showed that they occupied a beylik (state) near the Byzantine border during the domination of the Mongol Ilkhanate. The Seljuk Empire had crumbled at that time so that independent Turkish beyliks sprouted in Asia Minor during the late thirteenth century.

The Kayi tribe under Osman started to expand its territories in 1299. The raids the Turks organized drove out and pushed the Greeks further into the western coast of Asia Minor. The Ottoman Turks gradually became powerful so that the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos needed to hire mercenaries to counter them. The Turks proved to be unstoppable, and before Osman died in 1326, they had expanded into the coast of the Sea of Marmara.

References:
Picture by: Public Domain, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Fleet, Kate. The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Maribel Fierro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Shepard, Jonathan. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire C. 500-1492. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Uyar, Mesut, and Edward J. Erickson. A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Ataturk. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International/ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Posted on May 18, 2017July 24, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Jews Driven from England

In 1290, King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion which drove the Jews to leave England for other parts of continental Europe. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during that time. Their ancestors first came from France to England in 1066 after William the Conqueror encouraged them to come with him to his new kingdom. The first wave of Jewish migrants initially worked as merchants and bankers. Others ventured into and became rich moneylenders. The cutthroat nature of the business, however, led to their downfall in England. They were oppressed for many years until they were finally forced to leave in 1290.

William I the Conqueror and the Jews

In 1066, the Norman nobleman William the Bastard landed in England from France and conquered it from King Harold II. He became King William I the Conqueror, the first ruler of England who came from the House of Normandy. He encouraged the Jews of Rouen (the capital of Normandy) to come with him to England after he was crowned as king. The Jews of Normandy were merchants and bankers, so he was eager for them to help him with the country’s finances and its administration. The Jews were enterprising and an offer to flourish in England was difficult to reject. Others, however, were eager to make a fresh start because they experienced oppression in France. The Jews arrived in England in 1066 with their families.

A Fresh Start

Many of them started out as merchants, pawnbrokers, and moneylenders. They were favored by King William I who announced that the Jews and their properties were under his protection during a council in 1070. More Jews migrated to England in the years that followed and started to live alongside the English. They expanded into Northampton, York, Bristol, Kent, and Newcastle. Many of them acquired their own lands and prospered as moneylenders. They were so rich that they could even afford to lend money to a hospital and to a certain bishop. They leased some of the homes they owned and even built their own synagogues.

Jews_expulsion — “Expulsions of Jews in Europe from 1100 to 1600.”

Misfortunes

However, their peaceful existence in England did not last long.

Just as many of the Jews became successful moneylenders, their neighbors became poor and sank into heavy debt. Some of the Jewish moneylenders also charged higher-than-usual interest rates (a practice called usury). As years passed by, the borrowers’ simmering resentment boiled over to full-blown anti-Jewish feelings. Some people were so angry with the Jews that they banded together and killed some of them after King Richard I’s coronation in 1189. This grim situation continued until 1190.

Richard, I was angry at his people as the Jews were important sources of revenues for his kingdom. To protect the Jews, he ordered Hubert Walter to set up an Archa system wherein all transactions between Jews and their clients were recorded. He also set up a protection scheme for the Jews. However, the system was prone to corruption as some administrators ordered the Jews to pay up so they would be protected from threats.

The efforts of Richard I to protect them did not mean that they were free from the cruelty of the next English kings. During King John’s reign in 1210, he ordered a Jew to be tortured after the man refused to pay his taxes. Each day, his torturers removed one tooth until he gave up and paid them to save his last molar. During the thirteenth century, the Jews were allowed to live in select areas of a town but were forbidden to live anywhere they wanted. Apart from the usury issues, rumors of them kidnapping children and killing them during Passover (Blood Libel) also circulated in thirteenth century England.

Attempts to drive the Jews out of England started in earnest in 1231 in Leicester. It was led by Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester. It would have succeeded if the Bishop of Lincoln did not interfere. The Jews of Leicester still needed to move to another part of the town until they were finally driven out in 1253.

The campaign to drive out the Jews from their cities and towns spread to other parts of England in the years that followed. During the latter half of the 1200s, they were forced to live in Archa towns specifically designed for them. Others retreated into remote parts of the island to escape oppression. Those who could not escape became victims of violent crimes.

Edward I and the Edict of Expulsion

Their situation grew worse when King Edward I (Hammer of the Scots) started his reign. He had just returned from the Ninth Crusade and came home to an empty treasury. Many of his people were heavily indebted to the Jews, so they had no money to pay for their taxes. Since his people could not pay the moneylenders, he could not collect money from the Jews, too. That was the point when the king decided that the Jews’ usefulness had also run out.

If the situation of the Jews in England was bleak, then it could only get worse. Over in Italy, Pope Gregory X issued a condemnation of usury and prohibited anyone from engaging in this kind of business. When the news reached him, Edward immediately told the remaining Jews to give up their money lending businesses. He ordered them to switch to other trades or work as laborers so that they would not be punished.

The Jews appealed to Edward, but he did nothing to ease their plight. Some of them were forced to return to Normandy, while others traded in wool and corn. Those who could not find other trades started to clip the edges of coins so these could be melted, formed, and put back into circulation. Those who were caught clipping coins were arrested and their properties were confiscated. Some Jews chose to convert to Christianity as punishments for these offences were sometimes lighter on Christians.

Plans to expel the Jews from England began in earnest during the 1280s. It reached a grim finale when Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion for the Jews in 1290. They needed to leave England before November 1st of the same year or face consequences. They did not have a choice, and the Jews left England for France, Spain, Germany, and Flanders in 1290.

References:
Picture By Expulsión_judíos.svg: Ecelanderivative work: ecelan (talk) – Expulsión_judíos.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Chazan, Robert. The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom, 1000-1500. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. Atlas of Jewish History. London: Routledge, 1994.
“Oxford Jewish Heritage.” The History of the Medieval Jews of England. Accessed December 14, 2016. http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage.

Posted on May 17, 2017May 11, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Constantinople, The First Siege of

The city of Constantinople was built on the shores of the Bosphorus so the enemies of the Byzantine Empire would have a hard time invading it. Many of those enemies tried to invade the city over the years, but none succeeded. It was only breached by the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It was then ruled by western Europeans for more than fifty years. The Byzantines took back Constantinople in 1261. Another powerful threat lurked in the horizon: the Ottomans. They expanded their territory in Anatolia near the end of the thirteenth century and launched the first siege of Constantinople in 1422 where it is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.

Constantinople: The Jewel of the Eastern Roman Empire

On the 11th of May 330, Emperor Constantine founded a new city on the European shore of the Bosphorus. He called it Constantinople, and it became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for the next 1,100 years. During the Medieval Period, Avars, Persians, Arabs, Bulgarians, and Russians all tried to conquer the great city but none of them succeeded. It endured for hundreds of years. However, the Byzantines never expected that it would fall to the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

Constantinople_first_seige — “Map of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), designed in 1422 by Florentine cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti. This is the oldest surviving map of the city, and the only surviving map which predates the Turkish conquest of 1453. The Bosphorus is visible along the right hand side of the map, wrapping vertically around the historic city.”

The Byzantine rulers took it back from the Latin Empire in 1261, but the rise of the Ottomans became a potent threat to the city. Bayezid, the great Turkish sultan, started the plans to conquer it in 1396. He was captured by the Timur-e Lang (Tamerlane) in 1402. Bayezid’s sons Mehmed I, Suleyman, and Isa all escaped captivity during the Battle of Ankara in 1402. Another son called Musa, however, was taken to Timur’s capital of Samarkand with his father. Their loss threw the Ottoman Empire into a brief period of decline (1402-1413). It was followed by a civil war when his heirs fought against each other for domination of the Ottoman throne.

Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos seized the opportunity to weaken the Ottoman Empire by using the Turkish princes against each other. In 1413, Mehmed I finally succeeded in getting rid of his brothers to claim the title of Ottoman Sultan. Mehmed I died in 1421 after a riding accident but not before reviving the glory days of the Ottoman Empire. His successor, Murad II, immediately besieged Constantinople in 1422 after he was declared the new Sultan. The defenders of Constantinople successfully defended it. This failure did not deter the Ottomans. They tried to besiege the city again more than thirty years later. Constantinople finally fell to them in 1453.

References:
Picture By Cristoforo Buondelmonti – Liber insularum Archipelagi (1824), version available at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Public Domain, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Mikaberidze, Alexander. Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO Interactive, 2011.
Turnbull, Stephen R. The Walls of Constantinople: AD 324-1453. Oxford: Osprey, 2004.
Uyar, Mesut, and Edward J. Erickson. A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International/ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Posted on May 16, 2017May 11, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Ottomans on the Danube

From the time of the Romans to the domination of the Byzantine Empire, the Danube River served as a natural marker of the Balkan region. Its banks were already lined with ports and fortresses during the Medieval Period. The Ottomans had conquered a great part of Thrace during the mid-1300s, but they did not stop there. Hungry for land, the Ottomans then pushed north and eventually conquered many territories on the Danube starting in 1388. The Ottomans on the Danube is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History during 1336.

The Danube: Central and Eastern Europe’s Link

The Danube River was one of the most important waterways in Europe during the Medieval Period. The source of the mighty river come from the Black Forest in Germany. Its waters flow east into ten countries to eventually drain into the Black Sea. The Romans were the first to use it as a border. It was then used by the Byzantines as a buffer between them and the northern tribes during the early part of Medieval Period.

Ottomans_danube — “Where the Danube Meets the Black Sea “

The Byzantine Empire became smaller and less powerful during the latter part of the Medieval Period. Several kingdoms also appeared along the banks of the Danube in the Balkans just when the Byzantine Empire had weakened. Some of the kingdoms eventually turned into present-day Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. Their nearness to Constantinople meant that they would eventually come face to face with the powerful Ottomans who, at that time, were on a conquest spree.

The Ottomans entered Thrace during the mid-1300s. It was only a matter of time before they advanced north. During the reign of Sultan Bayezid I (1389-1403) the Ottomans first conquered their territories along the banks of the Danube. In 1393, Bayezid seized the region of the Bulgarian ruler John Shishman along the Danube. The Bulgarian territories of Ruse and Silistra fell to the Ottomans earlier in 1388. The fall of Vidin, Oryahovo, and Nicopolis followed in 1396.

The Ottoman civil war period (1402-1413) gave some principalities along the Danube a break from invasions. This was broken when the Ottomans were reunified during the reign of Mehmed I (1413-1421). He was succeeded by his son, Murad II, who pushed north into Wallachia. He conquered the Wallachian strongholds of Isaccea and Tulcea on the Danube during the early years of the 1420s. He later turned west and captured the Golubac fortress in 1427. The Serbian cities of Smederevo and Belgrade fell between 1438 and 1440.

References:
Picture By NASA – NASA Earth Observatory: Where the Danube meets the Black Sea, Public Domain, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Fleet, Kate. The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Maribel Fierro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Mikaberidze, Alexander. Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO Interactive, 2011.

Posted on May 15, 2017May 11, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Osman Invades East Rome (Byzantine Empire)

The Turkish leader Osman rose to prominence after he conquered a great part of the territories of the Byzantine Empire starting in 1299. This is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History during that time. The Byzantine emperor, Andronikos II Palaiologos, tried his best to contain Osman and the Turks. But in the end, the Byzantine defences were helpless against the mighty Ottoman army. By the time of Osman’s death, the Ottomans had conquered much of the western coast of Anatolia. They added these territories to their own beylik that was centered in Sogut.

The Mighty Osman

Osman Gazi (the Warrior) was the son of Ertugrul, the bey (leader) of the Turkish Kayi tribe who migrated from Central Asia. Osman inherited leadership when his father died in 1280. Since then, the young bey started to conquer one territory after another in Asia Minor. He began his raids on small Greek settlements near Sogut and Nicomedia between 1299 and 1301. Nicomedia itself remained free from Ottoman rule well beyond Osman’s death in 1326. On the 27th of July 1302, Osman defeated the Byzantine army in the Battle of Bapheus. The Turks then pushed into the southwest coast of Anatolia and conquered many Byzantine cities.

In Constantinople, Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos knew that Osman would try to press into the Byzantine capital. He inherited a weak, unstable, and impoverished empire from his father, Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. Andronikos was also a poor strategist, so the Byzantines lost more territories during his time. He placed his son as the commander of an army that he hoped would defeat the Turks. His son, however, lost heart even before the battle began because his army was outnumbered.

osman_invades — “An imagined portrait of Osman I.”

Roger de Flor and the Catalan Company

Andronikos then hired European mercenaries to counter the Turkish threat. The emperor learned from the disastrous results of the Crusades two centuries before. Roger de Flor, a Sicilian mercenary was booted out of the Knights Templar after he was accused of robbery. Many Aragonese men joined him as mercenaries for hire. They were later called the Catalan Company. As much as 6,000 to 8,000 men led by Roger de Flor arrived in Constantinople in September 1302. This turned out to be a big mistake.

The Catalan Company defeated the Turks led by Osman and pushed them back to their beylik. But to Andronikos’ dismay, they also raided Greek settlements in Anatolia. The regretful emperor refused to pay the mercenaries because of this, so Roger threatened to attack the Byzantines instead. The emperor sent another set of mercenaries to follow Roger and the Catalan Company to the island of Gallipoli where they spent winter of 1304. They killed Roger de Flor. Then the Byzantine army appeared to kill the remaining men of the Catalan Company.

His latest venture had ended in failure, so Andronikos was at wit’s end. He offered his daughter in marriage to the Ilkhan ruler Oljeitu in order to gain a powerful ally. Oljeitu accepted his offer and in return, he provided the troops Andronikos needed. Although they were successful in pushing the Turks back temporarily, Osman and his men were unstoppable. He continued to conquer one Byzantine territory to another. His ultimate prize was the city of Brusa (Bursa) in 1326. He died the same year, and was succeeded by his son, Orhan, as bey.

References:
Picture By Bilinmiyor – [1], Public Domain, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Fleet, Kate. The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Maribel Fierro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Muntaner, Ramon. The Chronicle of Muntaner. Translated by Anna Goodenough. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2010.
Shepard, Jonathan. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire C. 500-1492. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Uyar, Mesut, and Edward J. Erickson. A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Ataturk. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International/ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Posted on May 12, 2017May 11, 2017 by Kat Cendana — 1 Comment

Osman Born

Osman, the great Turkish leader of the thirteenth century, was born between 1258 and 1259 where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History. His family belonged to the Kayi tribe of the Oghuz Turks. He was known for his conquests of a great part of the restored Byzantine Empire in the fourteenth century. His heir, Orhan, later named his empire Ottoman in honor of his father.

The Turks in West Asia and in Anatolia

The Turks lived on the fringes of great empires before they first appeared in Mesopotamia as soldiers of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutasim (833-842) in the ninth century. These ghilman (Turkic slave soldiers) made up the bulk Al-Mutasim’s army which he used to attack the Byzantine Empire. Other Turks, at the same time, also served the Byzantine emperors as guards or warriors.

osman_born — “Abbasid Caliphate at its greatest extent, c. 850.”

The Turks became stronger as the years went by. They started to carve out empires of their own (Ghaznavid and Seljuk Empires). Many of them flowed into Asia Minor in the eleventh century when Oghuz Turks took large parts of eastern Anatolia from the Byzantines. They were led by Chaghri Beg. He (along with the Seljuk sultan Toghrul) later defeated the Ghaznavids in 1040.

Their dominance in the region cleared the way for their migration from Central Asia to West Asia. Others lived near the frontiers of Anatolia and began large-scale raids in the region. The Seljuks, by then, had grown so powerful that they defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert (1071). The Sultanate of Rum (a vassal state of the Seljuks) was founded in 1077 after the Byzantine Empire’s humiliating loss to the Turks.

The Birth of Osman

The Seljuk ruler Malik Shah then encouraged his people to resettle west into Anatolia now that the Byzantine Empire had become so weak. Although the Turks belonged to different tribes, they were formidable as a people. During the early 1200s, they started to capture and occupy most of Eastern Anatolia. The Seljuk Sultanate started its slow decline during the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century.

The rulers that followed the Sultan of Rum, Kaykhusraw II, became puppets for the Mongols Ilkhans. Different Turkish tribes built their own states or beyliks. The most important of these beyliks was the one occupied by the Kayi tribe of the Oghuz Turks. Their beylik was centered in Sogut which was wedged between the Byzantine border and other Turkish beyliks. Out of this beylik came the great Ottoman rulers Toghrul and his son Osman.

Osman was born between 1258 and 1259. At the time of his birth, his father, Ertugrul, was already a powerful tribal chief of the Kayi tribe. Ertugrul had led his tribe from Central Asia to Anatolia. They lived near the ancient city of Doryleaum. Osman’s real name was probably Ataman (Osman was the Arabic version of his name). He became a great warrior during his youth, and he was later known as Osman Gazi (the Warrior). He started his conquests in 1290 and one by one, the Byzantine cities fell into his hands.

References:
Picture By Gabagool – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Fleet, Kate. The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Maribel Fierro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Uyar, Mesut, and Edward J. Erickson. A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Ataturk. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International/ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Posted on May 11, 2017July 24, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Aztec Empire at its Height in Mexico

The Mexica people came a long way from homeless and oppressed wanderers between 1200 and 1300 to masters of the Valley of Mexico during the 1400s. They built the city of Tenochtitlan in 1325 and turned it into a magnificent capital of an expanding kingdom. The Mexica realm became bigger when its kings established the Aztec Triple Alliance with the cities of Tlacopan and Texcoco. During the fifteenth century, the Aztec empire stretched from Central Mexico into the Gulf and Pacific Coasts. They also conquered the northern frontiers of Guatemala. The Aztec Empire’s height in Mexico is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during the late 1400s.

The Rise of the Aztec Empire

Before they became the undisputed masters of Central Mexico, the Mexica people were ruled by the powerful and cruel Tepanec rulers of Azcapotzalco. This kind of arrangement continued until the Tepanec lords decided to murder Chimalpopoco, the Mexica’s third king, along with his half-Tepanec son while they slept in his palace.

The Mexica people and their council of elders hastily elected a successor to replace their murdered king. The successor was Prince Itzcoatl, the son of the previous king Huitzilihuitl. He became the new ruler of Mexicas in 1426/1427. After the celebrations, King Itzcoatl sent his nephew to negotiate for peace with King Maxtla, the Tepanec king of Azcapotzalco. But Maxtla did not want peace between his people and the Mexicas, so he declared war on them.

Itzcoatl had no choice but to tell his people to prepare for war. The rulers of the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan also agreed to join him in battle as their people were also oppressed by the Tepanecs. It became the Mexica (Tenochtitlan)-Texcoco-Tlacopan Triple Alliance, and as the years passed, it would be known as the Aztec Empire. The armies of the Triple Alliance defeated the Tepanec warriors and killed many of their people. They also brought the city of Azcapotzalco to the ground as revenge for their oppression. King Itzcoatl then allowed his soldiers to loot the city’s treasures and added these to Tenochtitlan’s wealth.

King Itzcoatl died in 1440, but not before he led his army to conquer the cities of Coyoacan and Xochimilca. When he died, he left behind a stronger, bigger, and wealthier empire.

aztec_empire_height — “The maximal extent of the Aztec Empire”

Aztec Golden Age

King Itzcoatl was succeeded by his son Moctezuma I Ilhuicamina. He ruled a wealthy and powerful empire, so he decided that it was time to honor Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. Moctezuma ordered his people to build the Great Temple right in the center of Tenochtitlan. It took many years before they finished the building. It remained unfinished when he died and was only completed by his son Ahuitzotl. He folded the city of Texcoco and the lands of the Chalcas into the Aztec empire during his reign and expanded his domain east into the Gulf of Mexico. He ruled for thirty years. These years were considered to be the Aztecs’ golden age in political influence and military might.

Two of his sons succeeded Moctezuma I when he died, but both kings were unremarkable and their years were marked with crushing defeats. The second son, King Tizoc, was so unpopular that he was murdered by his own men. The council elected Moctezuma’s youngest son, Prince Ahuitzotl, as Tizoc’s successor in 1486.

Luckily, their gamble paid off as King Ahuitzotl was a young and brave warrior who was favored by his people. It was during his reign that the Aztecs completed the construction of the Great Temple. This event was celebrated with a feast and the sacrifice of tens of thousands of slaves and captives in honor of their god.

Ahuitzotl proved to be a capable ruler and a great military commander. He expanded the empire’s borders into Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracruz, and even as far south as Guatemala. He died in 1502 after returning from a war in Oaxaca.

References:
Picture By Provincias_tributarias_de_la_Triple_Alianza_(s._XVI).svg: Yavidaxiu Aztec_Empire_(orthographic_projection).svg:File:Provincias tributarias de la Triple Alianza (s. XVI).svg : Yavidaxiu File:Mexico (orthographic projection).svg : SsolbergjDerivative work : Keepscases and Sémhur – Provincias_tributarias_de_la_Triple_Alianza_(s._XVI).svg, from the Atlas del México prehispánico, special edition of Arqueología Mexicana, 2000-07-05, México.Aztec_Empire_(orthographic_projection).svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Cremin, Aedeen. The World Encyclopedia of Archaeology. Richmond Hill, Ont.: Firefly Books, 2012.
Hardoy, Jorge Enrique. Pre-Columbian Cities. New York: Walker, 1973.

Posted on May 10, 2017May 11, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Ahuitzotl, Rule of Aztec Emperor

King Ahuizotl was an Aztec emperor who ruled from 1486 until his death in 1502 which is where he is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History. He was the eighth tlatoani (ruler) and was best remembered as the ruler who expanded the empire’s borders into Guatemala. The years of his reign was considered the Aztec’s golden age.

Emperor Ahuitzotl

King Moctezuma I had many sons. Three of them came to rule the Aztec Empire after his death in 1469. The first son, King Axayatl, ruled for twelve years. His reign as king was not as good as his father’s. The second son, King Tizoc, ruled from 1481. He was regarded as a weak ruler who did not expand the Aztec borders. To compensate for his lack of achievements, he ordered Aztec sculptors to carve stone reliefs that depicted him as a conqueror. It was, however, the past kings who conquered these cities, so his people looked down on him. He was poisoned by the members of his own army five years after he was crowned as king.

Two sons of Moctezuma I were not good kings so the members of the council of elders were not excited to elect another son to lead them. But the youngest, Ahuitzotl, was a renowned warrior who was popular because of his youth and his bravery. So the council decided to crown him as king. Many noblemen, however, were not confident that the new king would be as great as his father. They had no choice except to submit.

Ahuitzotl was crowned as the new Aztec emperor in 1486. Since he was a warrior, he had the solid support of the army behind him. The Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli was finished during the reign of Ahuitzotl although it was his father who started its construction. They celebrated its completion with a great feast that was attended by nobles and commoners alike.

It was said to be one of the greatest celebrations in Aztec history. Four of the most powerful men in the empire led the event. The main attraction was the gruesome human sacrifice in honor of the god Huitzilopochtli. The Aztecs even sacrificed as much as 80,000 captives and slaves within four days. The captives’ hearts were cut out during the ceremony, and their bodies were tossed down the temple stairs afterwards. The people who waited at the foot of the stairs scooped up the blood and spread it on their houses and temples so that their gods would bless them.

Over the years, Ahuitzotl expanded his empire by conquering the cities on the coast of present-day states of Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. He also led his army to conquer the state of Guerrero which opened the Pacific trade to the Aztecs. The Aztecs under Ahuitzotl pushed their borders as far south into modern Guatemala. Ahuitzotl reigned over as many as 25 million people during the Aztec Empire’s golden age.

Ahuitzotl fell sick in 1502 after he returned from a war in Oaxaca. He became weak and died in the same year while inaugurating an aqueduct. The popular warrior-king was mourned by his people and was succeeded by Moctezuma II.

References:
Public Domain, Link
Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Read, Kay Almere, and Jason J. González. Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.