Conquest of Gallipoli
Map of the Balkans and Asia Minor 1355
| date | March 1354 |
|---|---|
| place | Gallipoli Peninsula |
| output | Ottoman victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 20,000 | 5,000 |
| losses | |
|
8,000-11,500 |
? |
The conquest of Gallipoli by the Ottoman Turks took place in March 1354. After fifty years of defeat, the Byzantines had lost almost all of their possessions in Asia Minor . The access to the Aegean and Marmara Sea enabled the Ottomans to conquer the Peloponnese and Greece and to advance north to Serbia and Hungary .
conquest
In the Byzantine Civil War from 1352 to 1357, Turkish mercenaries in the service of Emperor John VI. Kantakuzenos destroyed large parts of Byzantine Thrace . In 1352 they were given the small fortress of Tzympe near Gallipoli. On March 2, 1354, the area was struck by an earthquake that devastated hundreds of villages in the area. Almost every building in Gallipoli was destroyed, after which the Greek residents left the city. Within a month Süleman Pasha , the son of the Ottoman Sultan Orhan I , occupied the place and populated it with Turkish families from Anatolia.
consequences
John VI Orhan I. offered a payment in vain so that the Turks would leave the city again. The Sultan stated that he had not taken the city by force and could not return anything that Allah had given him. In Konstantin Opel is widespread panic because it was assumed that the Turks would the city now besiege soon. Kantakuzenos' power was weakened and he was deposed in November 1354.
Gallipoli was to establish itself as a bridgehead for the Ottoman invasions to Europe. In less than ten years the Turks fell into the hands of almost all of Byzantine Thrace , including Adrianople .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Nicolle, David and Hook, Adam. Ottoman Fortifications 1300-1710 . Osprey Publishing, 2010. Accessed Sept 3, 2011.
- ↑ Goffman, Daniel. The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe . Cambridge University Press, 2002. Accessed Sept 3, 2011.
- ↑ a b c Ostrogorsky, Georg . History of the Byzantine State, pp. 530-537. Rutgers University Press (New Jersey), 1969.
- ↑ Norwich, John . A Short History of Byzantium , p. 348. Alfred A. Knopf (New York), 1997.
- ↑ Vasiliev, Alexander . History of the Byzantine Empire, 324-1453 , 2nd ed, p. 622. (Madison), 1952.