The Ottomans Rise as Byzantium Shrinks to Constantinople's Walls
From a small Anatolian principality, the Ottomans surround the restored empire on every side
Quick facts
- Gallipoli crossing
- 1354 CE
- Key sultan
- Bayezid I
- Battle of Nicopolis
- 1396 CE
- Battle of Ankara (Bayezid captured)
- 1402 CE
What happened
What began as a small Turkish principality in Anatolia under Osman expanded rapidly under his successors, crossing into Europe when Orhan Ghazi's troops raised Ottoman standards at Gallipoli in 1354 CE as part of an arrangement with a Byzantine emperor fighting his own civil war. The alliance soon collapsed, and Ottoman forces advanced steadily, taking Adrianople around 1362 CE, then Thrace, southern Bulgaria, Sofia, Nish, and Salonica through the 1380s CE. Sultan Bayezid I, called Yilderim or thunderbolt, defeated a major European coalition at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 CE, leaving Byzantium almost entirely surrounded. Bayezid's ambitions were checked only when the Turko-Mongol conqueror Timur crushed his army at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 CE, capturing Bayezid and plunging the Ottoman state into a decade-long civil war.
Why it matters
By the close of the 14th century the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to little more than Constantinople itself and a handful of scattered holdings, entirely encircled by Ottoman territory; only Timur's defeat of Bayezid at Ankara bought Byzantium roughly another half-century before the Ottomans regrouped under Mehmed II.
How we know
The World History Encyclopedia's survey of Ottoman conquests traces the empire's expansion from Osman's principality through Gallipoli, the Balkan advances, and Bayezid's capture at Ankara in 1402 CE.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Battles & Conquests Of The Ottoman Empire (1299-1683) · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Dumbarton Oaks. Andronikos III Palaiologos (1328-1341) · Primary source (author-declared)doaks.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match).
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineThe Byzantine Empire27 events · How the eastern half of Rome outlived the west by a thousand years, then fell to Ottoman cannonView all →