The rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire from principality to empire

The rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire is a period described as the "Proto-Imperial Era." By the middle of the fifteenth century, Sultan Mehmed II established a centralized imperial state, and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 marked the shift from principality to empire.

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The reading path

1. Read
   

   the rise and fall of the ottoman empire · Wikipedia · 45 min read

   The Ottoman principality was initially supported by nomadic Turkish groups, whom Osman led in raids against Byzantine territories. This politically expedient, not blood-based, principality began c. 1299 and transformed from a small principality on the Byzantine frontier into an empire by c. 1453. The Black Death reached Anatolia and the Balkans after 1347, devastating urban centers and settled regions more than nomadic groups. Depopulation was almost certainly a major factor in early Ottoman expansion into the Balkans and contributed to the weakening of the Byzantine Empire and the depopulation of Constantinople. The Ottomans began employing gunpowder weapons in the 1380s at the latest and were regularly using cannons in siege warfare by the 1420s, as they transformed from a small principality on the Byzantine frontier into an empire.

2. Read
   

   Ottoman Empire · World History Encyclopedia · 16 min read

   Suleiman I, the Ottoman ruler, conquered Belgrade in 1521, took the island of Rhodes in 1523, and secured a major victory against Hungary at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, destabilizing the region and allowing Ottoman dominion to compete with the Austrians. The Ottoman army's defeat at the walls of Vienna in 1683 cost the empire its military prestige.

3. Book
   

   The Janissary Tree · Bookshop.org

   The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin describes four officers disappearing from the Westernized corps that replaced the Janissaries before a military exercise, and Yashim the eunuch being entrusted with solving the case.

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