Chronograph Русский Open the atlasAtlas
Historical thread1453–1543

Europe and the Ottoman Empire: the end of the Middle Ages

From the fall of Constantinople and the end of the Hundred Years’ War to the Reformation, the empire of Charles V and the Ottoman victories at Chaldiran, Ridaniya and Mohács.

19 events · 3 regions · Balkans and Anatolia, Western and Central Europe, Middle East and Egypt

The year 1453 is often seen as the boundary between the Middle Ages and the early modern period: the Ottomans took Constantinople, and the Battle of Castillon ended the Hundred Years’ War. In the decades that followed, printing spread across Europe and the High Renaissance began; in England the Wars of the Roses brought the Tudors to power, and in Spain Granada, the last Muslim state on the peninsula, fell. From 1517 the Reformation split Western Christianity, while Charles V united Spain, the Netherlands, the Austrian lands and the imperial crown under his rule.

Meanwhile the Ottoman Empire became a world power. Mehmed II, checked at Belgrade, subdued the Balkans and Anatolia and crushed the Aq Qoyunlu at Otlukbeli; Selim I defeated the Safavids at Chaldiran and conquered Mamluk Egypt; Suleiman I took Belgrade, Rhodes and Baghdad, destroyed the Hungarian army at Mohács and besieged Vienna. The Ottomans’ struggle with the Habsburgs on the Danube and in the Mediterranean, and with the Safavids in the east, shaped the politics of these lands for another century and a half.

Open the thread in the atlas

Events

Key participants

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): Early modern Europe
  2. Wikipedia (English): Ottoman Empire
  3. Wikipedia (English): Renaissance
  4. Wikipedia (English): Reformation
  5. Wikipedia (Russian): Раннее Новое время
  6. Wikipedia (Russian): Османская империя
  7. Wikipedia (Russian): Возрождение
  8. Wikipedia (Russian): Реформация
  9. İnalcık H. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300–1600. — London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973.
  10. Babinger F. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time / Ed. W. C. Hickman; transl. R. Manheim. — Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
  11. Еремеев Д. Е., Мейер М. С. История Турции в Средние века и Новое время. — М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1992.
  12. Cameron E. The European Reformation. — Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

Other threads