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Ottoman invasion of Otranto

Campaign · 1480

The fleet under Gedik Ahmed Pasha sailed from Vlorë (Avlona) on 26 July 1480 and on 28 July landed troops before Otranto in southern Italy. The city, held for King Ferrante I of Naples, was taken on 11 August 1480 — the first place the Ottomans captured in Italy. In the spring of 1481 Gedik Ahmed Pasha returned to Vlorë to prepare a larger campaign, leaving a garrison under Hayreddin Bey. After the death of Mehmed II (3 May 1481) the garrison, besieged by Neapolitan forces by land and sea, ran out of food and water and surrendered the city on 10 September 1481.

About the event

Date	28 July 1480 – 10 September 1481
Location	Otranto, Kingdom of Naples (southern Italy)
Result	The Ottomans took the city (11 August 1480); the garrison surrendered on 10 September 1481

Belligerents	Ottoman Empire	Kingdom of Naples
Commanders	Gedik Ahmed Pasha Hayreddin Bey	Ferrante I (King of Naples) Alfonso (Duke of Calabria)
Strength	80–132 ships, about 18,000 men

This event in the atlas

Took place during the reign of Mehmed II (1451–1481). Mehmed II

Open the reign of Mehmed II on the map

Context of the period

By the atlas's calculation the Ottoman lands covered about 1,140,000 km² in 1480; at the start of Mehmed II's reign they measured 664,000 km², at its end 1,140,000 km².

During Mehmed II (1451–1481) the atlas records 13 regions gained and 0 regions lost.

Regions gained: Istanbul and the Straits (1453), Moldavia (1455), Athens–Central Greece (1456), Morea (Peloponnese) (1460), Trabzon (Pontus) (1461), Kastamonu–Sinop (Candar) (1461), Aegean Islands (Lesbos–Lemnos–Samos) (1462), Bosnia (1463), and 5 more.

Mehmed II in brief

The conquest of Constantinople (1453) ended the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), turned the Ottoman state into an empire and moved the centre of the state permanently to Istanbul. By eliminating most of the independent states in the Balkans and Anatolia he consolidated the borders between the Danube and the Euphrates; his first reign was in 1444–1446.

Other battles and treaties of Mehmed II

Fall of Constantinople (1453)
Ottoman conquest of the Morea (1460)
Siege of Trebizond (1461) (1461)
Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1463)
Battle of Otlukbeli (1473)
Siege of Caffa (1475) (1475)
Treaty of Constantinople (1479) (1479)

In nearby years (1484), under other sultans

Kilia and Akkerman (1484)

Areas are land area computed from the atlas's region data; see Method and sources.

Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), adapted for the atlas.