Although the Anatolian geography is the lands where the Principality was founded, the foundations of the Ottoman Empire were laid in the Balkans. The geography of Greece, which located in the Balkan Peninsula, lived under the Ottoman control for centuries in history. But how the Ottoman Turks managed to conquer those huge, fertile lands?
The Ottoman conquest of Greece covers a long period of time spanning about 200 years. The conquests of Greek mainland, which started during the reign of Murad I, was completed in the reign of Suleiman I. (Kanûnî) In that period, the Ottomans captured many cities without siege, generally by the invitation of the Greek people. For example, the people of Ioannina and Peloponnese invited the Ottoman sultans to their region, as they were not satisfied with the management of the despots and the resulting fights for the throne. Thus the Ottomans took control of regions without any warfare.
Moreover, decisive land and naval battles of the Ottoman Empire took place in the geography of present-day Greece. For example, the Çirmen War of 1371, Preveza in 1538, Lepanto in 1571, and the Peloponnesian Wars in 1685-87 took place in the geography of today’s Greece.
When the Ottomans started to conquer Greece?
The first contact of the Greek geography with the Ottomans was experienced in the second half of the 14th century. In the 1360s, the Ottomans continued their advance in the Balkans and spread to the west. The Çirmen War in 1371 reinforced the presence of the Ottoman Empire in Thrace. In 1372, Gazi Evrenos Bey captured Komotini and Xanthi in Western Thrace. Kara Halil Pasha added Kavala, Drama, Zihne, Serez and Karaferye to the Ottoman territory. Therefore, the Ottomans began to seize Greece, during the reign of Murad I, through Western Thrace (the Ottomans call it the left arm).
Thessaloniki, one of the most important cities of the time with its wealthy port, was captured in 1387 under the leadership of Çandarlı Hayreddin Pasha and Gazi Evrenos Bey during the reign of Murad I (Hüdavendigar). (It was reconquered by Murad II in 1430.) The keys of Ioannina, one of the most important cities in the Epirus region of Greece, were handed over to Sinan Pasha by its people in 1430.
During the reign of Bayezid I, the Ottomans plundered Peloponnese and obtained various pillages. The conquest of Peloponnese completed by the Sultan Mehmed II (1451-81) when civil strife preceded before the Ottoman arrival to the peninsula. When the Byzantine nobles fled to Peloponnese and a civil war took place there, local Greeks and Albanians invited Mehmed to the peninsula to intervene the civil war. After these advances in the 1460s, most of the Greek geography passed into the hands of the Ottomans. The port cities remained under the control of Venice.
The Ottomans not only captured the already existing ports and fortifications in Greece, but also established new settlements in the region. The most well-known of these is Yenice-i Vardar (Yanniça), founded by Gazi Evrenos Bey.
When the conquest of Greece was completed?
The port cities in the Peloponnese were conquered during the Ottoman-Venetian Wars of 1499-1503. II. By seizing port cities such as Modon, Koron, Lepanto and Navarin, Bayezid acquired a new base in the Mediterranean Sea. Ottoman navy started to set sail into the Mediterranean using Aegean-Mediterranean route. Benefşe (Malvasia or Monemvasia), the last Venetian fortification in the Peloponnese, was captured in the 1540s during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. Thus, the conquest of the Greek mainland was completed by the Turks in XVI. century.
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