The Ottoman Invasion of Italy in 1480

The Ottoman Empire is famous for its many wars and sieges in mainland Europe and the Middle East. You have already heard of the Battle of Kosovo, the Naval Warfare at Lepanto and the Siege of Vienna. But outside of this narrative of famous battles and sieges, there were other military operations that were just as decisive for the fate of the Empire. And many of them were located well beyond the realm of the Ottomans.

This series aims to raise awareness of these certainly adventurous expeditions. We are going to recount six particularly important events that took place between the years 1480 and 1565. In the first episode we deal with the Otranto campaign, an expedition of the Ottomans to Apulia in Southern Italy. Mehmet II. had by then ruled the Ottoman Empire for nearly thirty years. His reign saw the famous conquest of Constantinople, the rebellions of Skanderbeg in the Balkans and the slowly-but-steadily expansion into Anatolia against the Karamanids, Ak Koyunlu and other Turkish kingdoms and empires. But just shortly before his death, Mehmet set his eyes on the Italian peninsula.

Produced by Emre Yavuz
Narrated by Troy Dolyniuk

Additional Music by:
Hamdi Aslan
Adrian von Ziegler

[KhansDen]

Of course, "Neaples" is actually spelled Naples. :-)

[The_ZeroLine]

Literal quote from Mehmed: “I will surpass Caesar, Alexander and Xerxes by far.” Proceeds to get absolutely smashed by tiny Romania. And when he tries the peninsula, captures the grand total of one small port city.

[godofchaoskhorne]

Fun fact for those who want to dispute Ottoman Turkness, Ottoman historian from the early 15th century (Yazicioglu Ali) traced Osman I genealogy to Oghuz Khan. Ottoman Sultans held motivational pre battle speeches about Oghuz Khan and other Turkic legends. Ottoman historians always referred to the Ottomans and their soldiers as Turks etc etc not to mention literally everyone else, friend or foe referred to them as Turk. It's kinda weird people would question that now

The Ottomans were in all aspects Turks and that's how they considered themselves. Only people who deny this are

1. Some Turkish people who believe that being pro Ataturk or Kemalist means that they need to reject or belittle Ottoman history which is incredibly ignorant and short sighted

2. Turcophobes who at every turn try to downplay Turkic people, their origins, their culture etc etc

[burqut]

An interesting and informative video, thank you!

[Bizmyurt]

Forgot to mention that Fatih Sultan Mehmed started a new huge huge campaign/march with secret destination but he died soon after start of the march a lot of it tells he was maybe on his way to Italy. Even some believe he was poisened by Pope sent Venetian or something doctor. So they were lucky the italians.

[pappapata]

Hej👋 I know a bit or two...and this series is a wonderfull and beautiful way to learn 3, 4, 5 & 6 also😉😊... TU 🙏

[enriib]

Mehmed was defeated numerous times and he only conquered Constantinople because of the Latins and the catastrophic damaged inflicted by the Fourth Crusade.

[bozkurtkara]

legend says the napels king bought the remaining Turks in toronto and conquered whole of italy

[fatmirzekaj]

You forgot to mention how the Turks massacred 12.000 civilians and enslaved 5.000 more.

[hollyarandelovic]

Yap Memeds mother not real mother was Serbian.He respected her and looked for her advice. I know Ottoman history.From mouth to mouth by my grandfather. His father and so on and so on.

[nomanor]

How Turkic were the Ottomans anyway? We’re they conscious of their Asian heritage? Did the know about the Seljuks, the Mongols and Ashina dynasty of the Gokturks? Did the Ottomans know about China and the Tang and Ming Dynasties??