Bulgarian–Ottoman wars
| Bulgarian-Ottoman Wars | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Clockwise from right: Emperor Ivan Alexander, the remains of the Shumen fortress, Sultan Bayazid I |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Bulgarian Empire* Tsardom of Vidin |
 Ottoman Empire
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Ivan Alexander Ivan Shishman  Ivan Sratsimir (POW) Dobrotitsa Momchil |
Murad I Bayezid I Lala Şahin Pasha |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Heavy | Unknown | ||||||||
The Bulgarian–Ottoman wars were fought between the kingdoms remaining from the disintegrating Second Bulgarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, in the second half of the 14th century. The wars resulted with the collapse and subordination of the Bulgarian Empire, and effectively came to an end with the Ottoman conquest of Tarnovo in July 1393, although other Bulgarian territories, such as the Tsardom of Vidin, held out slightly longer. As a result of the wars the Ottoman Empire greatly expanded its territory on the Balkan peninsula, stretching from Danube to the Aegean Sea.
From the 13th century, the two main Balkan powers Byzantium and Bulgaria fell victims to a process of decentralization, as local feudal lords grew stronger and more independent from the emperors in Constantinople and Tarnovo. This weakened the military and economic power of the central rulers. The process deteriorated central authority to an even larger extent in the 14th century, when numerous nobles came to be only nominally subordinated to the government. In Bulgaria the powerful House of Shishman ruled over the Vidin Province in the west, while in the east Balik established a quasi-independent Despotate of Dobruja.
While the two Empires were facing enormous internal difficulties, the Serbs took the favorable opportunity to expand its domain. During the civil war in Byzantium in 1320s and 1330s, the Serbs conquered most of the Bulgarian and Aromanian populated Macedonia from the Byzantines. In 1330 Serbian forces defeated Bulgarian Emperor Michail Shishman at Velbazhd effectively raising the country to the status of the most powerful state in the region. In 1346 king Stefan Uroš IV Dušan even received the title of Emperor with the blessing of the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Alexander, although after his death in 1355, the large Serbian Empire disintegrated into a few independent states. In Bulgaria of the same period Ivan Sratsimir inherited Vidin from his father Ivan Alexander in 1356, while despot Dobrotitsa – nominally his subject – ruled Dobruja. Lack of stability was eminent in the southern Balkans as well: in 1341–1347 the Byzantine Empire was shaken by a bloody civil war between John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakouzenos.
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Wikipedia