The Turks, once a formidable force that once influenced the course of human history, created the Ottoman Empire across the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa and shook the world.
Suleyman I the Magnificenturl was a powerful monarch at the height of the Ottoman Empire and one of the three great powers of the Muslim world in the 16th-17th centuries (the other two being Akbar the Great of the Mughal Empire in India and Abbasid the Great of the Persian Safavid Dynasty).
Before Suleiman ascended to the throne, his ancestors and predecessors had laid an excellent foundation for him, on which he pushed the glory of the Ottoman Empire to the peak.
The Turks were only a small tribe of Turks, and the 13th-century Sultanate of Rum, founded by their distant relatives, the Seljuk Turks, became increasingly fierce and courageous, almost everyone was a warrior, because the Turks often fought against the neighboring Byzantine Empire.
At the end of the 13th century, a man named Ottoman (1258-1326) became the leader of Turkey, and he took advantage of the division of the Sultanate of Rum to declare independence and establish the "Ottoman Empire" named after him. Since then, almost every monarch of the Ottoman Empire has been warlike, expanding wildly, and their territory has become larger and larger. Before Suleiman the Great, the Ottoman Empire had produced several cattle emperors.
The third monarch, Murad I (1326-1359), invaded Europe, defeated the combined bulgarian, Serbian, Wallachian and Hungarian armies, swept across the Balkans, and defeated Europeans;
The seventh monarch, Mehmed II (c. 1430-1481), destroyed the thousand-year-old Byzantine Empire and turned the world's famous city, Byzantine capital Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), into his own capital, and stunned Europeans;
The ninth monarch, Selim I (c. 1467-1520), defeated Persia, conquered Egypt, and became the leader of the Muslim world (caliph), and Europeans were once again frightened enough.
Suleiman the Great, the son of Selim I, was born in Trabzun on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor in 1494, when the Ottoman Empire was under the rule of his grandfather Bayezid II, whose father Selim was then a prefect of the empire. Suleiman received a good court education from an early age, and began to serve as an administrative officer of the empire at the age of 15. After Selim ascended the throne, he fought foreign wars for many years, and Suleiman often presided over his father's administration. Because of his young career in politics, many military and state events are not unfamiliar to Suleiman, and when he succeeded to the Sultan's throne at the age of 26, he was already a fairly mature young politician.
Suleiman launched 13 foreign conquests in his lifetime, and conquest was the most important "cause" during his reign. In fact, Suleiman is not a barbarian who loves violence, he has loved literature since he was a child, especially poetry, and his writing is also good, and he has gathered a large group of literary masters and art masters around him. When talking to these literati about literature and art, he was more elegant than anyone else. But liking literature does not mean loving peace, Suleiman's ambition is no less than that of his predecessors, he does like to find chapters and excerpts, write poems, but prefer to gallop on the battlefield and conquer the four directions.
Suleiman was a fortunate monarch, because he did not need to work hard to start a business, and when he succeeded to the throne, the Ottoman Empire was already very strong, and he inherited from his predecessors a powerful imperial army, which was well-equipped, well-trained, perennial and invincible, with brave infantry, rapid cavalry, powerful artillery and advanced engineers, of which the Imperial Janissaries Corps was a battlefield force.
Suleiman's first conquest was Hungary in central Europe. To conquer Hungary, it is necessary to first take the famous city of Belgrade under Hungarian control and open the door to hungary, Suleiman's ancestors have coveted the city for a long time, but have not been able to succeed, Suleiman will complete this will for his ancestors. To this end, he mobilized 100,000 troops, 300 cannons and 30,000 grain camels.
In 1521, Suleiman took Belgrade with a swift and fierce attack, and converted all the Catholic churches in the city into Muslim mosques.
Two years after taking Belgrade, Suleiman moved to Rhodes in the middle of the Mediterranean, and occupied the island by the Knights of St. John, one of the three most famous medieval orders (also known as the Knights Hospitaller because it also treated the sick and wounded, and the other two were the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Knights). The Knights were well-equipped, combative, and had a powerful navy, and the island they occupied was the only Christian force in the entire Eastern Mediterranean, all the while fighting against the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Suleiman's father, Selim I, had planned to take Rhodes, but he died of illness and did not achieve it.
In June 1522, Suleiman mobilized a powerful fleet of 300 ships, 100,000 soldiers and 100 artillery pieces to attack Rhode Island. Although the forts off the coast of Rhode Island were extremely strong and the knights of the city were brave and tenacious, they were outnumbered after all, and under the onslaught of Ottoman artillery, the island defenders were forced to surrender on Christmas day of that year.
After conquering Rhodes, Suleiman turned his target back to Hungary. At that time, the situation on the European continent was complicated, King Francis I of France and the Emperor of the Haposburg Dynasty, Charles V, fought for hegemony, francis I in order to defeat Charles V, looking for cooperative allies everywhere, together to deal with Charles V (this person is not only the king of Spain, but also the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory includes Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, part of Italy and the American colonies, can be called the most extensive monarch in European history), looking for Suleiman, Suleiman was desperate for an alliance, because Charles V was suleiman's biggest obstacle to entering Europe, and he and France immediately agreed to unite against Charles V.
In April 1526, Suleiman, together with his able minister Ibrahim, led an army of 100,000 men and 300 cannons to Hungary.
On 29 August, King Louis II of Hungary cobbled together a force of 26,000 men to meet the frenzied Ottoman army on the Mohacs Plain near the Danube.
Louis II planned well, he wanted to spare money and rely on his familiar geographical advantages to defeat Suleiman.
At the beginning of the battle, the Hungarians also fought well, and their heavy cavalry repelled the cavalry of the Ottoman army, and Louis II felt very good.
However, Louis II gradually discovered that the battle was getting more and more wrong, the Ottoman artillery was too strong, and the Hungarian heavy cavalry was too fierce to attack, and it could not be as fierce as the Ottoman artillery.
When the Hungarian army was exhausted, Suleiman commanded the Ottoman cavalry to launch a counterattack, and the main force of the Hungarian army was defeated, many generals were killed, and fifteen thousand people were killed!
Louis II's euphoria at the beginning of the campaign was completely replaced by panic and frustration, and he fled the battlefield in a hurry, but unfortunately it was over in the end. He fell from his horse into the river and drowned.
The victorious Suleiman was overjoyed, and he led his men into the Hungarian capital of Buda (part of present-day Budapest), the capital of Hungary, and occupied the palace of the Hungarian king. In this beautiful capital, the Turks went berserk, looting the city, slaughtering the inhabitants, and 100,000 captured men and women who were brought back to the Ottoman Empire and sold as slaves. This is a terrible disaster in Hungarian history.
Suleiman chose a duke loyal to him as the new king of Hungary, leaving a small number of men and horses to garrison the fortress and lead a large army.
Not long after the Ottoman army had left, something went wrong in Hungary. Charles V's younger brother, Duke Ferdinand of Austria, with the support of a part of the Hungarian nobility, defeated the "Hungarian King" designated by Suleiman, occupied most of Hungary, and declared himself the true monarch of Hungary.
Suleiman, who had not yet fully emerged from the joy of conquering Hungary, heard this and was furious. In 1259, Suleiman led his army back to Hungary, this time not only wanted to re-level Hungary, but also wanted to defeat the "culprit" Austria. He dispatched 200,000 troops and 300 cannons. However, the journey was very difficult, the rain was continuous, the roads were muddy, and the heavy artillery of the siege led by the Ottoman army could not be dragged, so it had to stop on the road.
In September, Suleiman finally arrived in Buda, the capital of Hungary, and recaptured the city without much effort. Then, Suleiman went to the Austrian capital vienna and besieged this famous European city. Hundreds of Ottoman shells fell into Vienna, and many of the outer cities of Vienna were blown open, but Suleiman's heavy cannons were stopped on the road, and at this time the sieges were small guns, although there was also a certain destructive and lethality, but the effect was far less than that of heavy artillery.
Seeing that the cannons were ineffective, Suleiman played tunnel warfare and ordered the Ottoman soldiers to dig tunnels to the city of Vienna, and then bury explosives to blow up the city walls. But the Austrians who were guarding the city heard the news, and they began to destroy the tunnels of the Ottoman army and build wooden fences behind the walls of the city—even if you blew up our walls from the tunnels and rushed in, there would be wooden fences that would stop you.
In October, the city of Vienna could not be captured for a long time, Suleiman's supply convoy was delayed, and more and more soldiers died under siege, and one attack after another was repelled by the Defending Austrian Army. Moreover, the Austrian army had long begun to clear the field, and everything that could be taken away by the Ottomans was brought into the city, and those that could not be taken away were burned.
Suleiman's army was somewhat shaken.
Winter is also coming too soon.
There was no hope for the conquest of Vienna.
On a snowy morning, Suleiman led the Ottoman army to retreat, and before leaving, he killed and plundered the four outskirts of Vienna.
This was the biggest setback in Suleiman's life's conquests, and since then, the peak of the Ottoman Empire's expansion in Europe has passed, and Suleiman's self-esteem and English reputation have also been greatly damaged.
Since then, Suleiman has repeatedly fought against Austria in Hungary, but has not been able to completely defeat Austria. Hungary, however, remained under ottoman control until the 17th century, when Suleiman's conquests were fought not only in Europe, but also in Asia and Africa. Don't look at the contradictions between Muslim countries and those Christian countries in Europe, in fact, the contradictions between Muslim countries are not small. The Persian Safavid Dynasty was on the same footing as the Ottoman Empire in its struggle for hegemony in West Asia. In 1534, Suleiman sent the Ibrahim army to attack Persia, which was defeated one after another, and the Persian capital tabriz soon fell into the hands of Suleiman. The following year, Baghdad (present-day the capital of Iraq), which belonged to Persia, was also captured by Suleiman. Later, Suleiman attacked Persia many times, all of which were victorious, and Persia finally had to recognize Iraq, Georgia and other places to belong to the Ottoman Empire.
Suleiman's expansion in Africa relied mainly on the navy, and the naval commanders under his command were not serious soldiers, but pirates. The most famous of these is the red-bearded Barbarossa. It's good to use pirates to fight, they're fierce, cunning, and experienced. Suleiman used the high-ranking official Houlu to "recruit" many "elite talents" in the pirate world for his own use. The pirates also lived up to expectations, capturing Tunisia, occupying Tripoli in North Africa, and defeating twice as many Spanish and Venetian combined fleets at the famous Battle of Preveza in 1538, making Suleiman's cause of dominating the Mediterranean initially realized. In order to enhance his maritime power, Suleiman also established the Imperial Red Sea Fleet, which expanded from Suez as a base, expelled the Portuguese defeat in the Red Sea, occupied Yemen, and went south into the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf.
Suleiman fought all his life, but did not delay him in governing his internal affairs and developing the economy. He is meritocratic, governs the country according to law, and has the reputation of "legislator". Just like some of our ancient Chinese emperors are inseparable from the assistance of sages, Suleiman also has many capable generals, the most outstanding minister is Ibrahim, who was born a slave, has both wisdom and courage, Wenneng Anbang, Wu Neng Dingguo, and is indeed a generation of Haojie. But Suleiman's empire was not a splendor, and there was a lot of chaos in the court. Like our Chinese Emperor Han Wu, Suleiman has both a heroic and wise side and a confused side.
During his reign, Suleiman was very fond of a Russian slave girl named Roxerana, and almost obeyed this stunning beauty, who once proudly said: "I can make Your Majesty do whatever I want." ”
In order to allow her son to inherit Suleiman's throne, beauty spread rumors and framed Suleiman's eldest son Mustafa (whose mother was a slave girl of Negoro), causing Suleiman to kill Mstafa. In order to make her nephew prime minister, she blew pillow wind to Suleiman and slandered the famous minister Ibrahim, which eventually caused Ibrahim to die. It is said that Suleiman witnessed the killing of Ibrahim, and when he was about to exclaim, the beautiful woman suddenly hugged him and blocked Suleiman's mouth with a kiss...
In 1566, at the age of 72, Suleiman wanted to go on a campaign again, perhaps feeling that immersing himself in the life of the harem was really detrimental to the imperial might. He mobilized a large army to expedition to Austria, but at this time Suleiman was old, and he could no longer stand as he did when he was young, and could only sit in a carriage and follow the troops. On September 5, Suleiman's illness could not be supported, and he returned to heaven in the barracks.
After Suleiman's death, he and the beautiful woman's son "drunkard" Selim succeeded to the throne, and since then the monarchs of the Ottoman Empire have been almost inferior to a generation, and the empire has gradually declined, unfortunately becoming the "sick man of West Asia". It was not until the 1920s that another cattle marshal in Turkish history, Mustafa Kemal (revered as the "Father of Turkey"), ended the Ottoman Era and established the Republic of Turkey.
This article is written exclusively by Li Meng, like to tease the fish, please subscribe to the "comic fish of the world"