How Ottoman finally CRUSHED Roman Empire | Fall of Constantinople 1453

How Ottoman finally CRUSHED Roman Empire | Fall of Constantinople 1453
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How Ottoman finally CRUSHED Roman Empire | Fall of Constantinople 1453. The Roman Empire didn't really end with the dethronement of Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 or the fall of Rome itself. Instead, it carried on with remarkable strength in the East as the Byzantine Empire. While we call them "Byzantine" today, to the people and emperors at the time, they were still Romans, continuing the legacy of the old empire.
By the time the Byzantine Empire was revived under the Komnenos dynasty in the 11th and 12th centuries, they were facing growing threats from all sides. The Bulgarian Empire, which had rebelled against the Byzantines centuries earlier, had revived and was now a serious rival.
The biggest concern, however, was the rise of the Turks from the East. After their victory at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, they quickly began taking Byzantine lands in Asia Minor, turning what was once a Christian stronghold into Islamic territory.

How Ottoman finally CRUSHED Roman Empire | Fall of Constantinople 1453. The "theme" system, which had once been an effective military defense structure for the Byzantines, was now weakening and becoming a thing of the past. The emperors had little choice but to hire foreign mercenaries, but these troops were often unreliable and lacked loyalty. Over time, Anatolia slipped further out of Byzantine control, eventually becoming fully Turkish territory, marking a severe decline for the Byzantine Empire.
The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum once controlled most of Anatolia, but its power weakened and eventually collapsed due to wars with the Mongols and internal divisions. As a result, several small Turkic states, known as beyliks, emerged across Anatolia. Osman I founded the Ottoman Beylik in the late 13th century, starting as a small principality. Initially, the Ottomans relied on raids and military actions against neighboring empires, especially the Byzantine Empire.
Osman’s raids were not just military operations but marked the beginning of interactions between the Ottomans and the Byzantine lands in the Balkans, which would later lay the groundwork for the Ottoman expansion into Europe. Osman’s successors continued to push eastward and westward, building on the momentum of these early raids.

How Ottoman finally CRUSHED Roman Empire | Fall of Constantinople 1453. After Osman I’s death, his son Orhan took over and started expanding Ottoman control eastward across the Mediterranean and into the Balkans. Early 14th-century Ottoman armies were mostly made up of cavalry. Orhan used these warriors in raids, ambushes, and lightning attacks, allowing him to control the rural areas of Bithynia. However, at first, he didn’t have enough resources to lay siege to major cities. Bursa, the first major town captured by the Ottomans, surrendered after being starved into submission by a long blockade rather than being attacked directly. Orhan made Bursa the new capital of the Ottoman state. The fall of Bursa marked the end of Byzantine control over northwest Anatolia, and from this point, the Ottomans gained control over siege warfare techniques.
Orhan continued to capture important Byzantine cities such as Nicaea in 1331 and Nicomedia in 1337. These cities were vital not only for their economic and strategic value but also for isolating Constantinople from the remaining Byzantine territories in Asia, which further weakened the Byzantine Empire and strengthened Ottoman control over the region.
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