Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

The Conquests of Muhammad II
What of the conquest themselves? The primary thrust of military advance throughout Muhammad’s reign was against the infidel, in the gazi tradition, to prevent unified opposition from the Western world as well as to acquire new territories. Muhammad was able to detach the Italian commercial republics by gianting them new trade privileges in his empire. In 1454 Venice was given the special right of paying only 2 percent ad valorem customs duties on goods entering and leaving the empire as well as that of having a commercial representative (called baile/balyos) living in Istanbul, in return for the payment of an annual tribute of 200,000 gold ducats. Genoa, its main rival, was given similar rights only in the Crimea and some of the Aegean Islands, again in return for tribute.
Contemplating future areas of expansion, Muhammad recognized the potential gains available in the north and the west. The northern hinterland of the Black Sea had become a political vacuum following the disintegration of the Golden Horde empire that for two centuries had controlled the lands from the steppes of the Ukraine to the valleys of the Don and the Volga. In the fourteenth century the Ukrine had been lost to the Polish-Lithuanian empire of the Jagellonians. By the mid-fifteenth century the Golden Horde had almost disappeared, with the steppes to the south falling under to Tatar Hans of Kazan after 1445, while the Crimea was controlled by a dynasty of Tatar Hans set up by the Jagellonians themselves in an effort to divide the Mongol remnants. Soon the Tatars became independent of the Poles and contacted Muhammad II. This led to an alliance between the Ottomans and the Crimean Tatars that proves advantageous to both.
There were also increasing problems in the principalities. Moldavia was now ruled by the famous Stephen the Great (1457-

1504), who built a sizable state, took the Danubian port of Kilia, and was intervening in Wallachian politics as a first step towards conquering the Black sea coast and the Crimea. His conflict with the Ottomans at this time was limited to rivalry for control of the weak princes of Wallachia. Finally, Vlad IV Tepes (the ”Impaler”) acknowledged Ottoman as well as Hungarian suzerainty and was recognized as prince of Wallachia. Muhammad promised to keep Ottoman raiders out as long as Stephen made no effort to enlarge his dominion in the area (1460).

Ottoman Empire
815
With Wallachia neutralized, Muhammad was able turn to Anatolia. The Black sea coast, with the exception of Byzantine Trabzon, had been brought under Ottoman control by the early part of Muhammad’s reign, but there were Muslim opponents in eastern and central Anatolia. After the collapse of the Timurid Empire, the Black Sheep had built a sizable empire in western Iran and northern Iraq, while the White Sheep, assistance, built their own dominion in western Iran and eastern Anatolia. Karaman again was extending its power in central Anatolia, fomenting revolts against the Ottomans.
The Ottoman successes in the Balkans also frightened Venice and Genoa into encouraging these eastern ambitions in order to lessen the Ottoman threat against them. Muhammad, therefore, felt an urgency to complete his rule along the Black Sea coast to frustrate any advances that his enemies might navy to join in landsea attacks that successively overwhelmed the Geneses in Amasra, then Candar, the last Turkoman principality in the area, and, finally,
Byzantine Trabzon itself. Uzun Hassan not strong enough to meet
the Ottomans alone was forced to accept a separate peace at
Erzincan (August 14, 1461). Karaman remained quite, fearing that any overt act might draw the sultan’s wrath against it. Muhammad established a new frontier province in the area under the command of the beylerbeyi of Anatolia, Gedik Ahmad Pasha, a Greek or Albanian Devsirme convert, who established strong frontier garrisons to guard against the White Sheep and Karaman. As a result, the latter turned its attention more towards the Mamluk territories in Cilicia, particularly Adana and Tarsus, which it occupied for a time before losing them to a Mamluk counterattack. A civil war instigated by the Ottomans further debilitated Karaman’s power after 1464.
Muhammad was distracted from his Anatolian campaigns by the raids of Vlad IV Tepes into Ottoman territories in northern Bulgaria (1461-1462). He responded by invading and conquering Wallachia and annexing it to his empire (April-August 1462). Its autonomy soon was restored , however, under Vlad’s brother, Radu IV the pay tribute and accept the sultan’s suzerainty in return for the throne. Another expansion along the Adriatic, Venice got Scanderbeg to break his alliance with the sultan and to resume attacks on Ottoman garrisons in the north (February 1462). The new king of Bosina. Stephen Tomasevic (1461-1463), cooperated with Scanderbeg, throwing off Ottoman suzerainty and accepting Hungarian protection and occupation (1462). Muhammad responded

816
Political and Cultural History of Islam

by invading Albania, forcing Scanderbeg to sign a new peace and to abandon his conquests (April 27, 1463).
This left the sultan free to deal with Bosina, which he conquered during the remainder of the summer with the considerable help of the native Bogomils, who had been subjected to persecution during the recent Hungarian occupation. Only two northern Bosnian districts remained under Hungarian control at’ this time’^Lbeing organized as banats, or Hungarian frontier provinces, rulecrby a puppet king who claimed all Bosina in the name of his’Mnaster. Herzegovina, however, now accepted Ottoman suzerainty’ and eventual annexation, bringing the sultan even closer to th^jAdriatic.
War with Venice was therefore inevitable. Pope Pius II used the situation to join Venice new Hungary in agreement-against the Ottomans (September 12, 1463). If this new Crusade was to succeed. Venice would get the Morea and the Greek territories along the Adriatic; Scanderbeg would expand his Albanian state into Macedonia; Hungary would rule Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosina, and Wallachia; and Constantinople and its environs would be returned to the surviving members of the Byzantine ruling house. Negotiations were also begun with Uzun Hasan, Karaman, and even the Crimean Tatars, who promised to attack the Ottomans in Anatolia at the same time that the Crusaders moved against Muhammad in Europe. Actual hostilities began in September 1463 when Venice seized a number of Aegean Island as well as much of the Morea. Thus began an Ottoman-Venetian war that was not fully settled until 1479.