NY Regents 9.7: Ottoman Empire and Ming Dynasty (Pre-1600)

This event unfolded in Söğüt, a small town in northwestern Turkey — sitting on the Anatolian plateau, roughly between the Black Sea to the north and the Sea of Marmara to the south, close to the…

This event unfolded in Nanjing, China — a city on the lower Yangtze River plain, roughly where that great river curves toward the East China Sea, deep in the heart of eastern China. In 1368, Zhu…

This battle took place at Ankara, the city now serving as the capital of Turkey, sitting on the broad Anatolian plateau in the heart of the peninsula that bridges Asia and Europe — exactly where that…

This event began in Nanjing, the great city on the Yangtze River in eastern China, exactly where a powerful dynasty launched its fleets toward the Indian Ocean world. In 1405, Admiral Zheng He led…

This is Beijing, the capital of modern China, sitting on the North China Plain where the mountains of the northwest give way to the broad lowlands stretching toward the Bohai Sea. In the early 1400s…

Kosovo Polje — the 'Field of Blackbirds' — lies in what is today Kosovo, a landlocked territory in the heart of the Balkan Peninsula, exactly the flat plain between the Adriatic to the west and the…

This ambush took place at Tumu Fortress, in what is now Hebei province, China — on the plateau corridor between the Mongolian grasslands to the north and the North China Plain to the south, exactly…

This is Constantinople, now called Istanbul, in modern Turkey — sitting precisely on the Bosphorus strait where Europe and Asia are separated by less than a kilometre of water, exactly the narrow…

This is Belgrade, the capital of modern Serbia, sitting precisely at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers — the geographic heart of the Balkans, roughly equidistant between the Adriatic Sea…

This is Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey — perched on the promontory where the Bosphorus strait separates Europe from Asia, exactly where the Black Sea funnels into the Sea of Marmara. In 1459…

The Battle of Chaldiran took place in 1514 near what is now Caldiran, in the Van Province of eastern Turkey — on the high Anatolian plateau where the highlands of Anatolia give way toward the Zagros…

Marj Dabiq is a plain near the town of Dabiq in northern Syria, sitting just south of where the Taurus Mountains descend toward the flat expanse of the Syrian plateau, with the Mediterranean coast…

This battle took place at Yaunis Khan, in what is today the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine — a narrow strip of land squeezed between the Mediterranean coast to the west and the desert interior to the…

This is Cairo, Egypt — where the Nile Delta meets the northeastern edge of Africa, just west of the Sinai Peninsula that links Africa to Asia. In 1517, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I crushed the Mamluk…

The battle unfolded near Mohács, Hungary, on the broad floodplain beside the Danube that sits almost exactly midway between the Carpathian arc and the Adriatic coastline. On August 29, 1526, the…

This is Vienna, now the capital of Austria, sitting on the Danube where the Alps give way to the vast flat basin stretching east toward the Black Sea — exactly the geographic bottleneck the title…

This battle took place at Preveza, a coastal town in northwestern Greece, sitting precisely where the Adriatic and Ionian Seas meet at a narrow channel on the western edge of the Balkan Peninsula…

This is Valletta, the capital of Malta — a small limestone island sitting almost exactly at the midpoint of the Mediterranean Sea, roughly equidistant between the North African coast and the southern…

This is Vienna, the capital of Austria, sitting in the Danube basin where the eastern Alps give way to the great Central European plain — exactly the forested hills above the city that the title…