Byzantine–Ottoman wars

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The Byzantine–Ottoman wars were a series of decisive conflicts between the Byzantine Greeks and Ottoman Turks and their allies that led to the final destruction of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The Byzantines, already having been in a weak state even before the dismemberment of their Empire following the Fourth Crusade, failed to recover fully under the rule of the Palaiologos dynasty. Thus, the Byzantines faced increasingly disastrous defeats at the hands of the Ottomans. Ultimately, they lost Constantinople in 1453, formally ending the conflicts (however, several Byzantine holdouts lasted until 1479). Taking advantage of a weakening Byzantine Empire, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum began seizing territory in western Anatolia, until the Nicaean Empire was able to repel the Seljuk Turks from the remaining territories still under Byzantine rule. Constantinople was retaken from the Latin Empire in 1261 by the Nicaean Empire, but the position of the Byzantine Empire...

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