Portal:Bulgarian Empire/Selected article/7

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The Bulgarian-Ottoman Wars (c. 1340 – 1422) were fought between the Bulgarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. The wars ended with a crushing Ottoman victory. Bulgaria was destroyed and was to be reborn almost five centuries later in 1878. During the struggle the Bulgarian lands were devastated and looted by the invaders and many towns were wiped out forever.

In the second half of the 14th century the once powerful Bulgarian Empire was only a shadow of its former self. During the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander the country became to desintegrate and after his death in 1371 it was divided between his sons Ivan Shishman and Ivan Sratsimir and despot Dobrotitsa who were constantly in conflict between one another. On the other hand the young Ottoman state quickly rising Islamic power. A strongly centralized and with a huge army the Ottomans managed to make use of the situation in the Balkans and to expand the territory of their Empire.

In 1352 the Turks seized their first fortress in the Balkans, Tsimpe. By the death of Ivan Alexander they conquered almost the whole of Thrace and defeated the Bulgarians in the battle of Ihtiman. In 1371 the Ottomans scored a major victory over a large Bulgarian-Serb army at Chernomen. Two year later they seized northern Thrace and the Rhodopes and Ivan Shishman had to become their vassal in order to stop the devastation of his country. However it only postponed the end of Bulgaria. In 1393 the Ottoman Turks seized Tarnovo and after the disaster of the crusade of Sigismund of Hungary at Nikopol fell Vidin, the capital of Ivan Sratsimir. Fighting continued to 1422 when the last resistance deminished.