Soliman's conquests were mostly in the West, though he had some Asiatic campaigns. The causes which provoked his inva sions were either trifling or invented for the purpose. He first marched into Hungary in 1521 because his envoy had been slighted and because he received no congratulations on his acces sion. He captured Belgrade, which remained a base throughout the Turkish wars in Europe. In 1523 Rhodes and Cos were con quered. In 1526 the Hungarians were severely defeated at the battle of Mohacs (see HUNGARY, History), their king, Louis IL, killed, and the greater part of Hungary including Budapest taken. The Turks appointed Zapolia, the voidode of Transylvania, to be king of the Magyars. The sultan then left Hungary to put down a Shia rising in Tabriz. Ferdinand, the brother of Charles V., then claimed the Hungarian throne as the brother-in-law of Louis II., invaded Budapest, and drove out Zapolia, who naturally appealed to Soliman. In 1529 Soliman with Zapolia marched into Hungary, seized Budapest, defeated the Austrians, and Zapolia was rein stated. Encouraged against Charles V. by Francis I. of France, Soliman laid siege to Vienna, but after three weeks was obliged to abandon it. Part of the Turkish army went as far as Ratisbon in Germany. In 1532 Soliman again marched against Charles V., and approached Vienna, but in 1533 a truce was signed and Hungary was divided between Zapolia and Ferdinand.
During his Persian wars Soliman retained the friendship of Ferdinand; but in 1539 Zapolia died and Ferdinand marched on Budapest. Soliman decided to uphold the claims of Zapolia's son and of his wife Isabella. He marched into Hungary, defeated Ferdinand and placed the young king on the throne under the regency of his mother. Soliman refused all overtures of peace and war continued both on land and sea. In 1542 an alliance between Francis I. and Soliman led to a combination of the Turkish and the French fleets against Charles V. On land, Soliman took Gran, Vizegrad, Szekesfehervar, and a part of Hungary which became a Turkish province consisting of 12 sanjaks. On June 15, 1547, a truce of five years was signed in Adrianople between Soliman, Charles V. and Ferdinand which recognized the Turkish conquests, and bound Ferdinand to pay a yearly tribute of 30,00o ducats to Turkey for the territory left to him. John Sigismund, the son of Zapolia, was recognized as the independent prince of Transylvania and of the 16 adjacent Hungarian countries, Queen Isabella to act as regent during his minority.
The terms of the treaty were soon ignored. Ferdinand being in league with Frater Gregory (see MARTINUZZI) to free Transyl vania from the Turkish suzerainty, Soliman sent a large army under Sokolli Mohammed Pasha into Hungary. Lippa and Temes var were taken but a victory of the Persians in the East forced Soliman to sign an armistice in 1553 and invite Austrian dele gates to Constantinople to negotiate for peace. The negotiations failed and war continued with atrocities on both sides till 1561.
On June I, 1562, peace was concluded between Soliman and Ferdinand, who had been crowned emperor. Ferdinand undertook to pay all his arrears of tribute to Turkey and to continue a yearly payment of 30,00o ducats, to leave Temesvar and other towns to Soliman, to recognize the independence of John Sigismund in Transylvania and to withdraw all his Habsburg claims to inter ference in Hungary.
In 1564 Ferdinand died and Maximilian II. succeeded him. Maximilian attacked Tokaj which was in Turkish possession and let the tribute fall into arrears. Sokolli Mohammed Pasha, the new Turkish grand vizier, desired to wipe out the disgrace of a naval defeat in Malta which had ended in the death of Admiral Torgout, and Soliman in 1566 led an army into Hungary, although 72 years old. He died during the siege of Szigetvar, but his death
was kept secret by Sokolli till the fortress fell. Thus Soliman, after ruling 46 years in life, ruled 46 days after his death, until his son Selim ascended the throne and reached Belgrade.
On the Asiatic frontier in 1526 Shah Tahmasep of Persia had taken Tabriz from the Turks while Soliman was fighting at Mohacs. On Soliman's return he set out for Persia with an army, conquered the Armenian plateau and joined another Turkish army commanded by Ibrahim Pasha which had already recaptured Tabriz. The Persians retreated without fighting and in 1534 Soliman took Baghdad.
In 1535 the French Ambassador, Jean de la Foret, negotiated a treaty between France and Turkey by which certain judicial and economic privileges were granted to France. This marks the be ginning of the capitulations, which, started when Turkey was a powerful empire, were only the means of procuring an easy market for Turkish goods in France, but led to political compli cations and became the pretext for exploiting Turkey in her de cadent days. In 1555 Soliman concluded a treaty of peace with the Persians at Amasia after conquering Georgia, the Armenian plateau and Erzerum.
Mohammed the Conqueror began the building of the Turkish navy but it was during Soliman's reign that Turkey became a first-rate sea-power. At no other time has Turkey had such a large number of famous admirals. Soliman had conceived the idea of using the renowned corsairs who raided the Spanish and Irish coasts and he had engaged Haired-din Barbarossa (see BAR BAROSSA). He was the son of a Turkish sepahi, Yacoub, a Mace donian, and his mother was Greek, his native place being Mitylene. He presented to Turkey Algiers which he had personally con quered, and he formed what was called Garb-0 jaklari (the States of Barbary). This was a military organization which adminis tered Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. Barbarossa took Tunis but was driven out by the fleet of Charles V. who devastated Tunis and destroyed mosques and valuable libraries because the Turks had converted churches into mosques in Hungary. Barbarossa's great est naval victory was in 1538 when he defeated the combined fleets of the emperor and the pope and of Venice under the com mand of Andrea Doria, off Preveza. He took Castel-Nuovo and a few islands of the Archipelago and he restored Morea to the Turkish empire. Torgout (known as Dragut in the west) was an other famous corsair who had ravaged the Italian and Spanish coasts and was now engaged by Soliman. He captured Tripoli from the Knights of Malta and was appointed its governor. He died in 1565, after an unsuccessful attack on Malta. Piale Pasha, Piri Reis, Salih Reis, Seidi Ali Reis, were other renowned ad mirals of this period. Piri Reis and Salih Reis conquered the coasts of Yemen and Aden as far as the Gulf of Basra. Piri Reis compiled a detailed sea-atlas (Bahrie) of the Aegean sea and of the Mediterranean. He also conquered Muskat and Ormuz but was finally defeated by the Portuguese and executed by the sul tan in Egypt because of his defeat. Seidi Ali Reis, a distinguished mathematician, succeeded him in the command of the fleet and was also defeated by the Portuguese. He escaped to the Indian ocean with three ships on which he lived for three years; then he landed and reached Turkey by land. He wrote his travels (Mirat ul-Memalik), a mathematical book on the astrolabe and a book called Muhit (Ocean) on the navigation of the Indian Seas.