What allowed the Ottomans to have a huge gunpowder advantage to their European enemies during the 15th and 16th centuries?

by conbutt

Where did they first gain the cannon? And more importantly, how was it that the Ottomans surpassed their contemporaries in the field of gunpowder?

Klarok

I believe that the date of the first usage of cannon by the Ottomans is still disputed but is almost certainly in the late 14th century around 1386. Certainly by 1453 and the conquest of Constantinople, they were using and were proficient in their handling of cannon.

The Ottoman empire had several advantages which, combined, may have led to their successes with gunpowder.

  • Via janissaries, Ottomans made more use of ranged troops than many of the European powers (with the notable exception of the English) and this possibly made them more receptive to adopting ranged gunpowder weapons and more adept at utilising such range advantages (1)
  • The Ottomans had access to abundant natural deposits of saltpetre (particularly in Egypt) as well as ample forests for the creation of charcoal. This meant that their gunpowder was both abundant and of consistently higher quality than that which could be sourced in Europe. As a contrast, Europeans were known to employ saltpetre "plantations" which diverted organic waste run-off into pools and to harvest the nitrate salts from the same which was markedly inefficient compared to direct mining. EDIT: apparently these plantations also accumulated calcium salts which, while they still burned as gunpowder they also were far more susceptible to water contamination which reduced the quality and shelf life of gunpowder made this way.
  • The Ottomans had a strong system of state-run enterprises and a culture of allowing tax and/or military exemptions for ocaklik villages that produced valuable commodities like gunpowder. The combination of these meant that supply of the raw materials for the manufacture of gunpowder was internalised and was not overly vulnerable to trade disruptions
  • On the whole, the early and enthusiastic adoption of gunpowder led the Ottomans to prioritise production and transport of that strategic material. They established roads for transport of gunpowder, emphasised the transport and storage of raw materials, had state-run factories to produce gunpowder and used a variety of methods via land and sea to ensure timely delivery of dry gunpowder to armies.

All of these combined gave the Ottomans a significant advantage which they were able to exploit successfully through the 15th and into the early 16th centuries.

  1. Ágoston, Gábor. 2005. Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and The Weapons Industry in The Ottoman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. Goodwin, Jason. 1999. Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire, New York: Henry Holt.
  3. Kelly, Jack. 2004. Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History. New York: Basic Books.