I would like to start by saying that it is absolutely incredible to think that in addition to Suleyman, such influential leaders as Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, Phillip II of Spain, Elizabeth I of England, Ivan IV of Russia, and Akbar the Great of the Mughal Empire all reigned at the same time. Suleyman seems to be the quintessential Ottoman sultan. Within the Ottoman empire he was known as "Kanuni", or the lawgiver. He was a righteous man with his heart set on fixing the problems associated with his father's (Selim I) reign.
I have always been fascinated with historical "what-ifs". One of those giant "what-ifs" is "What if the Ottomans were not stopped at Vienna?" The Ottomans laid siege to Vienna twice (1529 and 1683). Both times they were fought off by the Habsburg forces. Had the Ottomans not been stopped in Vienna, isn't it possible that they would have overtaken all of Europe? No one knows the answer definitively, but if such a thing had happened, the world we live in today would be much different. We may have seen Islam become the dominant Western religion, and we would have seen the continual growth of the Ottoman Empire, rather than the slow decline. As I said earlier, it is somewhat pointless to debate these "what-ifs", but they remain interesting to consider.
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Well, the best thing about it is that Islam is now slowly becoming the dominant Western Religion today through a far slower process, and by that point, I wouldn't have been sure of their military advances they would have gained if they held all of Europe- since I'm not too sure they'd take the isles or France at the time- but Aneruca was becoming a very fast industrial giant. Between the two, that would've made for a very interesting trade of global commaidities and developments just before the Age of Steam Travel.
ReplyDeleteThen again, they are What-If's, as you say.