9 – He May Have Inadvertently Saved Europe
This is a controversial claim, but perhaps his victory over Bayezid at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 saved Europe from a Muslim conquest? European historians referred to the Ottoman Turks as the ‘scourge of the world,’ and they were making real inroads in terms of European conquest by the end of the 14th century. Before the formation of the Ottoman Empire in 1299, the Seljuk Turks were causing havoc. They conquered the last European stronghold in the Holy Land, Acre, in 1291 and while they lost their power, the Ottomans came on the scene and were a much bigger threat.
They began their European invasion in 1354 and soon took their first territory. Soon enough, the Ottomans had taken much of Turkey and were eating into what remained of the Byzantine Empire in Europe. They captured Thessaloniki in 1387, and after defeating the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, they were free to expand into Europe. A loss at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 temporarily halted their momentum, but it seemed inevitable that they would take over most of Europe.
When Timur destroyed the Ottoman army at the Battle of Ankara, emissaries from all over Europe traveled to meet and greet Timur. The warlord was only too happy to accept the praise and even called the King of Spain “his very own son.” The capture and eventual death of Bayezid caused havoc in the Ottoman Empire in the short-term as there was a bitter war of succession. It took them decades to fully recover, and in the meantime, Europe managed to regroup and was better prepared against future invasions.
Although the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453 and even conquered as far west as Hungary after victory at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, further western expansion was halted at the Siege of Vienna in 1529. While Timur only intended to punish the Ottomans, he might have helped Europe gain some valuable breathing space against the marauding Turks. We can at least be thankful that he never set his sights West.
