battles+and+conquests

There was constantly battles going on between the Ottoman, Mughal and Safavid empires. They were always trying to expand their territory and gain more land to rule. To get all of this, a lot of warfare had to take place. Many people died in battle in the attempt to gain this land that was so important to everybody.

__**The Mughal Empire**__ Driven south by the rising power by offering to help an ailing dynasty against it's opponents. Although Babur's forces were far smaller than those of his adversaries, he possesed advanced waepons, including artillery, and he used them to great effect. This use of mobile cavalry was particulary successful against the massed forces, suplemented by mounted elephants, of his enemy. In 1526, with only 12,00 troops against an enemy of nearly ten times that amount, Babur captured Delhi and established his power in the plains of northern India. Over the next several years, he continued his conquests of India until his death in 1530. His son, Humayun, who was considered "intelligent but lazy". He lacked the will to consolidate his father's conquests and was forced to flee to Pursia, where he hid in exile. He moved back to India, but died in his home, when he died after falling after he smoke too much opium. He was followed by his son, Akbar, who was born while his father was in exile. He was only fourteen when he took the throne. Akbar set out to expand his domain, then was limited to Punjab and the upper Ganges River Vally. By the end of his life, he had brought Mughal rule to most of the subcontinent, from the Himalaya Mountains to the Godavari River in central India and from Kashmir ro the mouths of the Brahmaputra and the Ganges. This had become one of the greatest dynasties since the Mauryan dynasty, nearly 2,000 years earlier. Some think Akbar's success is because of his use of heavy artillery, which enabled his armies to beseige and subdue the traditional stone fortresses of his rivals. During the eighteenth century, Mughal power was threatened from both inside and outside the empire. Fueled by the growing power and autonomy of the local gentry and merchants, rebellious groups in proviences throughout the empire began to reassert local authority and reduce the power of the Mughal Empire. By 1700, the Europeans, who were at first just a irritant, had begun to seize control of regional trade routes. __**The Ottoman Empire**__ The Ottoman Empire began their expansion in the serch for more land in the early fourteenth century. In 1345, Ottoman forces, under Orkhan I, crossed the Bosporus for the first time to support an usurper againt the Byzantine emperor an Constantinople. They allied with Serbian and Bulgar farces against the Byzantines there. The Ottomans eventually drove out previous landlords and collected the taxes from the local Slavic peasants. In 1360, Murad I, succeeded his father, Orkhan, and began to build a military, made up of mainly Christians, because the military he had was too weak. Under Murad's successor, Bayazid I, the Ottomans advanced northward, annexed Bulgaria, and slaughtered the flower of French cavalry at amajor battle on the Danube. When Mehmet II, succeeded to the throne, he was determined to capture Constantinople. In 1453, Mehmet, followed by 80,000 of his military, attacked Constantinople and it's only 7,000 defenders, and the Byzantine empire died in the final battle. After the Ottomans defeated the Safavids in a major battle in 1514, Emperor Selim I, concolidated Turkish control over Mesopotamia and then turned to cotrol Egypt, because they failed to support the Ottomans in their struggle against the Safavids. Because he controled the Holy Cities of Islam, including Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina, Selim delared himself the new caliph, or successor to Muhammad. During the following years, the Ottomans armies and fleets advanced westward along the African coast, occupying Tripoli, Tunis, and Algeria, and eventually penitrating almost to the strait of Gibraltar. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, the Turks tried to complete their conquest of the Balkans, where they had been established since the fourteenth century. Although they were successful in taking the Romanian territory of Wallachia in 1476, the resistance of the Hungarians initially kept the Turks from advancing up in the Danube vally. From 1480 to 1520, internal problems and the need to consolidate their eastern frontiers kept the Ottomans from any other attacks on Europe. Under Suleyman I the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire was brought back to the attention of Europe. He led the Ottomans up the Danube, and they seized Belgrade in 1521 and won a major victory over the Hungarians at the battle of Mohacs on the Danube in 1526. Subsequently, the Ottomans overran most of Hungary, moved into Austria, and advanced as far as Vienna, where they were finally repulsed in 1529. At the same time, they extended their power into the western Mediterranean and threatened to turn it into a Turkish lake untill a large turkish fleet was destroyed by the Spanish at Lepanto in 1571. Despite the defeat, the Ottomans continued to hold nominal suzeranity over the southern shores of the Mediterranian. For the first half of the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Empire was cosidered to be a "sleeping giant", because they were content with what was going on, and laid low. But, around the second half of the century, by mid-1683, the Ottomans had marched through the the Hungarian plain and laid seige to Vienna. Repulsed by a mixed army of Austrians, Poles, Bavarians, and Saxons, the Ottomans retreated and were pushed out of Hungary by a new European coalition. The Ottomans would never be a threat to Europe again.By the seventeenth century, signs of internal rao had begun to appear, although the first loss of imperial territory did not occur untill 1699, at the Battle of Carlowitz. __**The Safavid Empire**__ In 1501, Ismail's forces seized much of the lands of modern day Iran and Iraq, and then proclaimed himself the shah of a new Pursain state. Baghdad was sybdued in 1508 and the Uzbeks in Bokhara shortly there after. The Ottoman sultan, Selim I, advanced against the Safavids in Iran and won a major batttle near Tabriz in 1514. But, Salim couldn't control this area, and Ismail regained Tabriz a few years later. The Ottomans returned tot he attack in the late 1580's and forced the new Safavid shah, Abbas I, to sign a punitive peace in which much territory was lost. Shah Abbas took this period of peace to strengthen his army and armed them with modern waepons. In the early seventeenth century, he tried to gain the lost land back. Although he had some initial succcess, war resumed in the 1620's and a lasting peace was not acheived until 1638. In the early eighteenth century, Afgan warriors took advantage of local revolts to seize the capital of Isfahan, forcing the remnants of the Safavid ruling family to retreat to Azerbaijan, their original homeland. The Ottomans seized territories along the wester bordar. Eventuall order was restored by the military adventurer Nadir Shah Afshar, who launched an extended series of campaigns that restored the country's boarders and even occupied the Mughal capital of Delhi.