In February 1451, Sultan Mehmed II ascended to the throne of the Ottomans, but his state did not have the extent it later acquired. He ruled over Asia Minor in Anatolia and in Europe he controlled Thrace, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Thessaly.

Albania was still resisting under George Kastrioti (Skanderbeg), and in the Archipelago, apart from the Greeks, the Genoese and Venetians dominated. Some remnants of the Seljuk state were still preserved in the eastern regions of Asia Minor, such as the Karamanids, the Zulkadri, and others.

In Trebizond, there was the empire of the Comneni, while the Mamluks ruled in Syria and Egypt, and the area east of the Euphrates belonged to the dynasty of the Black Sheep and White Sheep.