us position” (Bossenbrook 504). The Ottomans, now with a powerful, better trained and well supplied army, went and sieged the city of Constantinople (April 6-May 28, 1453). Finally on May 29,1453 the city fell to the powerful army of the Ottomans. The Ottomans changed the name of Constantinople to Istanbul, and made it its capitol. Venice had built up a series of forts along the Agean Sea (they considered it to be a Venetian Sea). The Ottomans saw them as a threat to their navy and expansion. They demanded the Venitians to surrender them. -6- “When Venice refused to surrender its important forts on the Agean coast of the Morea, Mehemed inaugurated the second Venitian-Ottoman War (1463-79)... and several naval raids led to peace in 1479 whereby Venice gave up its forts and paid an annual tribute” ( J. F. von Hamer-Pugstall 778). After the defeat of the Safavid army Selim took the opportunity to attack the weak state of the Mamluks, who were in a period of civil disorder, due to the death of their leader. The Ottomans crushed the small and out manned army. By 1517 the Ottomans had control of Syria and Egypt. “With Shah Esmail [of the Safavid Empire] still busy restoring his army, Selim was able to overcome the Mamluks in a single years campaign during the summer and winter of 1516-17. The Mamluk army fell easily to the well organized and disciplined Ottoman infantry and cavalry, supported by artillery” ( J. F.von Hamer-Pugstall 778). The Europeans had started to fear the Ottomans in the latter half of the 13th century. In the 16th century Doria of Spain thought that an allied force of European armies personally led by him would be able to defeat the Ottoman’s navy’s power in the Mediterranean. -7- And thus, allow European countries to colonize Crete, Cyprus and Northern Africa. “Dorian then organized and led an allied European naval force against the Ottomans, but it was routed at the Battle...
