Mohacs: The Battle that Lead to the Fall of Hungary
From the 900s, when the Hungarian tribes conquered the Carpathian Basin for themselves, until 1526, the Kingdom of Hungary was a proud and powerful monarchy, one of the great regional powers of Central Europe. Hungarians nowadays believe that it was in 1526, at the Battle of Mohacs, that the independence of their country was lost, and the history of Hungary changed for the worse for the next centuries, or even permanently.
It was the Ottoman Empire, whose armies led by the formidable Suleiman the Magnificent trounced the Hungarian Royal Army at Mohacs. In the aftermath of the battle, thanks to the collapse of Hungarian power, it was also this power that annexed or vassalized most of the lands of the falling kingdom, however, to understand why the Ottomans were able to defeat and subdue Hungary, we need to travel back further in time.
Background
The Ottoman Turks started to expand their domains during the reign of Osman I, the founder of the dynasty. During the reign of Osman and his successors, the Ottomans conquered most of Anatolia and the Balkans by the end of the 14th century. The rise of the Ottomans was halted by a major defeat Bayazid I suffered at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. The Sultan was captured in the aftermath of the battle, and his conqueror, Timur, never released him afterwards. In…
