56 RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND BULGARIA. 



battle of Angora, which proved fatal to the further progress of the 

 Ottoman domination for half a century. 



On the death of Tamerlane in 1405, his vast dominions in Asia and 

 Europe were dismembered, and by the divisions of his Empire> 

 Mahomet regained the Ottoman Throne. 



Amurath II. succeeded him and restored the Empire to its former 

 splendour, conquered Macedonia and Thessaly, and advanced up to 

 the isthmus of Corinth, and the centre of the Peloponnesus. 



It was not however until 1453, that the complete conquest of the 

 Greek Empire was secured by the taking of Constantinople under 

 Mahomet II., the son and successor of Amurath II., which destroyed the 

 last relics of the Empire of the Caesars, and this conquest was quickly 

 followed by that of Servia, Bosnia, Albania, and the whole of Greece 

 up to the Morea, as well as the Islands of the Archipelago, and the 

 Turkish Empire thus became firmly established in Europe. 



From this date the Turkish Empire rapidly acquired new possessions 

 in Asia and Europe, first under Bajazet II., the successor of Mahomet 

 II.,and afterwards under his successor, Selim I., who in 1517 overthrew 

 the powerful Empire of the Mamelukes, who ruled over Egypt, Syria, 

 Palestine, and Arabia, and made Cairo the capital of the Empire of 

 Egypt. 



Solimanthe Great, who succeeded his father Selim, raised the Turkish 

 Empire to the highest pitch of dominion and power, conquered 

 Moldavia, and Wallachia, and the greater part of Hungary, and he 

 increased the maritime strength of the Empire, by a powerful fleet 

 under Barbarossa the "Grand Admiral," that swept the Mediterranean 

 of all rivals. 



The decline of the Ottoman Empire, began on the^death of Soliman 

 in 1566, as the successive Sultans surrendered themselves to luxury 

 and effeminacy, and shut up in their Seraglios they left to their Grand 

 Viziers the government of the Empire, so that formerly so formidable, 

 it gradually fell from the summit of its grandeur, and its subsequent 

 history became marked by misfortunes. 



The first serious interference of Russia in the affairs of the 

 Ottoman Empire took place under the rule of the Empress Catherine 

 II. in 1 768, and of the Sultan Mustafa III., originating in the policy of the 

 dismemberment of Poland by Russia, which involved the two Empires 

 in a sanguinary war on land and sea for several years, and after serious 

 losses on both sides, it was terminated in 1774 by the Treaty of 

 Kainardi which proved most calamitous to the Ottoman Porte, the 

 loss of the Crimea, many important fortresses on the Dnieper, the 



