Let's Sue Them All!!!

The Byzantine Disaster

Short History of the Ottomans
  1. In the 1300s Osmanlis (Ottomans) were driven west by the Mongols.
  2. They took Bursa in 1326 and it became the Capital of the Osmanli (Ottomans).
  3. They first settled in Europe in 1354 when they took Gallipoli.
  4. After the battle of Kossovo in 1389, Serbia ceased to be an independent state.
  5. An attack by Timur the Lame (Mongol) put pressure on the Ottomans in the east and only Timur's death and the withdrawal of the Mongols to Samarkand saved them from defeat in 1400-1403.
  6. The Ottomans were ruled by a Sultan with a grand vizier and a council.
  7. Soldiers came from conquered lands. Young boys were taken hostage, converted to Islam and made into soldiers (Janissaries) or government officials.
  8. The Sultans killed off their brothers, and the wives and children of their brothers, when they took office so there would be no claims to the throne.
  9. The Ottomans slowly took Byzantine land and tried 7 times to capture Constantinople before 1453.

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