A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Medieval Continuities 9

reduced to a small area straddling the straits between Asia and Europe,
which included its capital, Constantinople (modern Istanbul). Finally, the
Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople after a lengthy siege in 1453, the
final act of the decline of the Byzantine Empire. During the next four de­
cades, the Ottomans doubled their European territory, conquering Serbia in
1459, Bosnia in 1463, Albania in 1479, and Herzogovina in 1483. The addi­
tion of Hungary extended the Ottoman Empire to the Danube River.
The Ottoman Turks possessed a large army—much of it recruited from
converts to Islam, notably the infantry (the janissaries)—and a strong navy.
Effective diplomacy complemented military strength. During the first half of
the sixteenth century, the Ottomans also absorbed Egypt and moved into
Iran, reaching Baghdad in what is now Iraq in 1534, and then the Persian
Gulf. This was the apogee of the Ottoman Empire, which made use of loyal
elites at the local level to bring in the revenues that financed the state. For
the next several centuries, Roman Catholic Europe would view Islam as a
perpetual threat to its religion and culture. Yet a sizable majority of the myr­
iad populations the Ottoman Turks ruled remained Christian and were
allowed to continue to practice their religion. Despite the existence of a
common Islamic high culture, the Islamic Ottoman Turks accepted non­
Muslims in their empire, and the latter always represented a significant
majority of the population. In contrast, Christian states systematically perse­
cuted and expelled Muslims. For centuries, Western writers outdid each
other in describing the Ottoman Turks as “the scourge of God,” barbaric,
despotic, and cruel. However, the Russian Orthodox Church (which was
greatly influenced by its Byzantine heritage), Greek Orthodox Church (also
an Eastern Orthodox Church), Roman Catholic Church, and the Islamic
religion coexisted remarkably well in the Balkans under Ottoman Turkish
rule. The Ottomans established the millet system, which allowed autonomy
for religious minorities, with leaders of religious communities appointed by
the sultan.
Much of Europe thus confronted a huge semicircle of states under direct
or indirect Turkish control. The Western powers, which had launched Chris­
tian crusades against the Muslims, now were forced into a series of defen­
sive wars against Islam, which to the West was embodied by the Ottoman
Empire. To aid in their defense, the Venetians constructed a series of fortifi­
cations along the Adriatic coast.

The Structure of Society

Medieval society was roughly divided into three social groups: the clergy,

who prayed and cared for souls; nobles, who governed and fought; and peas­

ants, who labored in the fields. Burghers, town residents whose entrepre­

neurial activity made possible the economic dynamism of medieval Europe

between 1000 and 1350, were, despite their increasing importance, outside

this classical typology.