The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire Quiz

Answer: 1299

Osman I was the founder of the Ottoman state. He became the leader of the Ottomans after his father died in 1281, but it wasn't until 1299 that he declared their independence. After that, Osman focused on attacking the weakened Byzantine areas in Asia Minor, until his death in 1326.

Answer: Battle of Bapheus

The battle of Bapheus, an area between the cities of Nicaea and Nicomedia in Bithynia, took place in 1302 and resulted in an Ottoman victory. After the battle, the Byzantines lost their grip in Bithynia and in the next few decades they were slowly driven out of the area.

The siege of Prusa (present-day Bursa) in 1326 was the last campaign Osman participated in before his death, while Constantinople wasn't besieged by the Ottomans until the 15th century. The battle of Manzikert was an important battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Turks in 1071, before the rise of the Ottoman state.

Answer: Crusade of Nicopolis

As the Ottoman Empire expanded steadily throughout the 14th century, several European states became alarmed. In order to stop the Ottoman advance, a crusade was organized. The forces of the Holy Roman Empire, the kingdoms of France and Hungary, as well as the Bulgarian Empire and other minor allies united against the Ottomans, but were defeated soundly at the battle of Nicopolis in 1396.

The victory at Nicopolis established the Ottoman control of the Balkans and allowed them to be relieved from European pressure for several decades.

Answer: True

After the defeat of Sultan Bayezid I and the Ottomans by the forces of Tamerlane in the battle of Ankara in 1402, a succession war broke out between the Sultan's sons. After multiple battles between their armies for a decade, Mehmed emerged in 1413 as the only surviving son of Bayezid and became the next Sultan (Mehmed I), ending the period that is known as the Ottoman Interregnum.

Answer: Serbia

After the fall of Constantinople, Mehmed planned to conquer Hungary, but at that time the Serbian monarch Durad Brankovic refused to pay tribute. The Ottoman forces invaded Serbia and besieged Belgrade unsuccessfully in 1456. While securing Serbia in 1459, the Despotate of Morea did not pay tribute and revolted against the Ottoman Empire.

The same thing happened in Wallachia in 1462, forcing Mehmed to lead his forces against Vlad the Impaler.

Answer: Egypt

Egypt was conquered in 1517, while Selim I was still the Sultan. Selim focused his campaigns in the Middle East, until he was succeeded in 1520 by Suleiman I (the Magnificent), who turned his attention to Europe. In 1526, the Ottoman army defeated the Hungarian forces at the battle of Mohacs, while Wallachia and Moldavia became principalities of the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman also launched campaigns in Mesopotamia, conquering Baghdad in 1534.

The result of all these conquests was that the Ottoman Empire had control of the eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, even though this didn't last long.

Answer: 1683

After the failed siege of Vienna in 1529, the Ottomans besieged it again in 1683. The Ottoman forces were defeated by the alliance of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the years that followed, the Republic of Venice and the Tsardom of Russia joined the alliance, now named the Holy League, and engaged the Ottoman Empire on multiple fronts. Eventually, the Ottoman Empire lost its territories in Central Europe and was driven back to the Balkans.

Answer: War of 1710-11

The Ottoman Empire found its new greatest adversary in Russia during the 18th and 19th centuries. After winning the Russo-Turkish war of 1710-11, when Russia tried to invade Moldavia, the Ottoman Empire lost consecutively the Russo-Turkish wars of 1768-74, 1787-92, 1806-12 and 1828-29. The clash between the two empires only ended after World War I, when both of them were dissolved.

Answer: True

Apart from its wars with Russia, in the 19th century the Ottoman Empire had another issue to contend with. Serbia revolted in 1804, Greece did the same in 1821 and soon others followed. After the Ottoman defeat in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, several Balkan countries gained recognition of their independence (Romania, Serbia), while others became principalities (Bulgaria).

When the 19th century ended, the Ottoman Empire had lost most of its territories in the Balkans.

Answer: The Sultan restored the Ottoman parliament.

In 1908, a combination of several forces that opposed the Sultan and the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Empire, revolted with support from within the army. The Sultan, who had suspended the Ottoman parliament in 1878, agreed to its restoration. The Young Turk revolution was named after the party that organized the revolution and is considered one of the key moments that led to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1922.