Timeline: The Ottomans and the Balkans
Chronology :
1300s:
Turkic tribe known as Ottomans forms small state in western Anatolia.
1352:
Ottomans invade and begin to occupy Bulgaria.
1371:
Ottomans defeat Serbs and their allies at Battle of Maritsa.
1389:
Ottomans inflict second defeat on Serbs, now led by Prince Lazar, at the Battle of Kosovo, beginning slow conquest of Serbia.
1402:
Ottomans move their capital from Asia Minor to Edirne (Adrianople) in Europe, signaling their intention to become a major European power.
1453:
Ottomans encircle and conquer Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire.
1459:
Fall of Smederevo liquidates last remnant of independent Serbian state.
1463:
Ottomans almost complete conquest of Bosnia, executing last king of Bosnia, Stjepan Tomasevic, at Jajce.
1468:
Albanian warrior prince Skenderbeg dies. Within a decade of his death, Ottomans overrun most of Albania.
1493:
Croatian nobility annihilated at Battle of Krbava in Lika, opening way to Ottoman conquest of much of Croatia.
1526:
Hungarian army crushed at Battle of Mohacs, opening way for Ottoman conquest of Hungary.
1557:
Sultan decrees restoration of Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate, vacant since the 1460s. Return of Patriarchs to Pec stimulates revival of Serbian identity within Ottoman Empire.
1683-1699:
Habsburgs conquer Ottoman-ruled Hungary and Croatia, forging new frontier between “Austrian” and “Turkish” empires. Failed uprising among Serbs in Kosovo results in mass emigration of Serbs to Habsburg Slavonia and Vojvodina.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article ... -in-europe