Sultan Mehmed II the "Forgotten Years" 1451-1453: Episode 24

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In episode 23, we left the young 19 year old Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, back in the saddle of the Sultanate for a second time in 1451. Most histories, podcasts, YouTube channels, and bloggers completely gloss over Mehmed's early years of 1451-1453. This is a mistake, however, as these three years set the stage for the entirety of Mehmed's life and reign. It would be easy to skip on ahead to the "cool stuff" like siege of Constantinople, but in doing so would be to do this show an injustice.

This episode covers Mehmed's bloody reform and purge of the Janissaries, securing his Eastern flanks in Anatolia, peace treaties with the Christian nations bordering his West, and launching a project to construct a navy.

Along the way Mehmed will build allies for his vision of conquering Constantinople and a sound strategy to this end is identified and laid out for the listener.