Fatih Sultan Mehmet 18 Şubat 1451'de Osmanlı tahtına geçmiştir. Bu dönemin, imparatorluk ve dünya tarihi açısından büyük değişikliklerin de başlangıcı olduğu bilinen bir gerçektir. Biz, bu çalışmamızda, çağ açan Osmanlı padişâhının, Karadeniz yöresindeki siyasi kuruluşlardan biri olan Trabzon-Rum imparatorluğu'nu Osmanlı hakimiyetine alma teşebbüsleri sırasında Anadolu ve Batı dünyasındaki siyasi ve askeri gelişmelerin tahlilini yapacağız.

When the Turks made the fateful decision of embracing Islam as their religion, they became a marked people in the eyes of the Christian World, which saw that religion as a great danger to its very existence. The Turks failure, or refusal, to accept Christianity, despite the efforts of Pope Pius II, did not endear them to the Christians of the West; nor did their contribution to the Muslim cause during the great politico-religious upheaval of the Crusades. These religious wars created bitterness, hatred and hostility between Islam and Christianity, which were to last for centuries. Christendom saw Islam as a deviance, a bogey, which, it believed, aimed at eradicating the Christian heritage; and therefore the Ottoman Turks, who had espoused the cause of Islam by taking over the Caliphate, became the object of that Christian hatred and hostility.