Western Civilization

dream: by the time of his death in 1725, Russia had

become a great military power and an important

actor on the European stage.

The Ottoman Empire

After conquering Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman

Turks tried but failed to complete their conquest of the

Balkans, where they had been established since the four-

teenth century (see Map 15.3). The reign of Sultan Sulei-

man (soo-lay-MAHN) I the Magnificent (1520–1566),

however, brought the Ottomans back to Europe’s

attention. Advancing up the Danube,

the Ottomans seized Belgrade in 1521

and Hungary by 1526, although their

attempts to conquer Vienna in 1529

were repulsed. At the same time, the

Ottomans extended their power into

the western Mediterranean, threaten-

ing to turn it into an Ottoman lake.

However, the Spanish destroyed a

large Ottoman fleet at Lepanto (in

modern-day Greece) in 1571. De-

spite the defeat, the Ottomans

continuedtoholdnominalcontrol

over the southern shores of the

Mediterranean.

By the beginning of the seven-

teenth century, the Ottoman Empire

was being treated like any other Eu-

ropean power by European rulers

seeking alliances and trade conces-

sions.Inthefirsthalfofthecentury,

the empire was a “sleeping giant.”

Occupied by domestic bloodletting

and severely threatened by a chal-

lengefromPersia,theOttomans

were content with the status quo in

eastern Europe. But under a new line

of grand viziers in the second half of

the seventeenth century, the Otto-

man Empire again took the offen-

sive. By 1683, the Ottomans had

marched through the Hungarian

plain and laid siege to Vienna.

Repulsed by a mixed army of Austri-

ans, Poles, Bavarians, and Saxons,

the Ottomans retreated and were

pushed out of Hungary by a new Eu-

ropean coalition. Although they retained the core of

their empire, the Ottoman Turks would never again

be a threat to Europe.

The Limits of Absolutism

In recent decades, historical studies of local institutions

have challenged the traditional picture of absolute

monarchs. We now recognize that their power was far

from absolute, and it is misleading to think that they

actually controlled the lives of their subjects. In 1700,

government for most people still meant the local

Peter the Great as Victor.Peter the Great wished to westernize Russia, especially

in the realm of technical skills. His goal was the creation of a strong army and navy

and the acquisition of new territory in order to make Russia a great power. He is

shown here as the victor at the Battle of Poltava in an eighteenth-century portrait

attributed to Gottfried Danhauer.

Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow/The Bridgeman Art Library

370 Chapter 15 State Building and the Search for Order in the Seventeenth Century

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