Who sacked the Ottoman Empire?
The Ottoman empire officially ended in 1922 when the title of Ottoman Sultan was eliminated. Turkey was declared a republic on October 29, 1923, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938), an army officer, founded the independent Republic of Turkey. ... (1258), when the Mongols sacked the city which had been the center of Islamic power for 500 ...
What Ottoman leader is considered the Conqueror?
The Ottoman leader, Mehmed II, known as Mehmed the Conqueror, took advantage of a disagreement between the eastern and western Christian churches and the fact that he had at his disposal a huge cannon that would shoot 1200-pound cannon balls. The siege of the city lasted for 53 days before it was taken. Mehmed II made Constantinople his new ...
What Empire did the Ottoman Turks conquer?
Fall of Constantinople (May 29, 1453), conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire. The Byzantine Empire came to an end when the Ottomans breached Constantinople’s ancient land wall after besieging the city for 55 days. The fall of the city allowed for Ottoman expansion into eastern Europe.
Who came first the Roman Empire or the Ottoman Empire?
Roman Empire, which was established by Augustus, was controlled from 27 B.C. to 476 A.D., while the Ottoman Empire, which was conquered by Osman I, was dominated from 1299 A.D. to 1923 A.D. Living in a separate period in a different location with distinct cultures and customs, these two empires do show differences but also some similarities.
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Where did the Ottoman Empire start?
The Ottoman Empire was founded in Anatolia, the location of modern-day Turkey. Originating in Söğüt (near Bursa, Turkey), the Ottoman dynasty expan...
How did the Ottoman Empire start?
The Ottoman Empire began at the very end of the 13th century with a series of raids from Turkic warriors (known as ghazis) led by Osman I, a prince...
Why was the Ottoman Empire called “the sick man of Europe”?
After the peak of Ottoman rule under Süleyman the Magnificent in the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire struggled to maintain its bloated bureaucracy...
How did the Ottoman Empire end?
The Ottoman Empire disintegrated and was partitioned after its defeat in World War I. The empire had already been in decline for centuries, struggl...
What is the name of the Ottoman Empire?
In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ("The Ottoman Empire") or Osmanlı Devleti ("The Ottoman State"). The Turkish word for "Ottoman" ( Turkish: Osmanlı) originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century.
What were the parties of the Young Turks?
Among them " Committee of Union and Progress ", and " Freedom and Accord Party " were major parties. On the other end of the spectrum were ethnic parties, which included Poale Zion, Al-Fatat, and Armenian national movement organised under Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Profiting from the civil strife, Austria-Hungary officially annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The last of the Ottoman censuses was performed in 1914. Despite military reforms which reconstituted the Ottoman Modern Army, the Empire lost its North African territories and the Dodecanese in the Italo-Turkish War (1911) and almost all of its European territories in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). The Empire faced continuous unrest in the years leading up to World War I, including the 31 March Incident and two further coups in 1912 and 1913 .
How many volumes of the book Muteferrika?
Muteferrika's press published its first book in 1729 and, by 1743, issued 17 works in 23 volumes, each having between 500 and 1,000 copies. Ottoman troops attempting to halt the advancing Russians during the Siege of Ochakov in 1788. In Ottoman North Africa, Spain conquered Oran from the Ottoman Empire (1732).
What was the Ottoman miniature about?
Ottoman miniature about the Szigetvár campaign showing Ottoman troops and Tatars as avant-garde. In the second half of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire came under increasing strain from inflation and the rapidly rising costs of warfare that were impacting both Europe and the Middle East.
How did the discovery of new maritime trade routes by Western European states help them to avoid the Ottoman trade monopol?
The discovery of new maritime trade routes by Western European states allowed them to avoid the Ottoman trade monopoly. The Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 initiated a series of Ottoman-Portuguese naval wars in the Indian Ocean throughout the 16th century. Despite the growing European presence in the Indian Ocean, Ottoman trade with the east continued to flourish. Cairo, in particular, benefitted from the rise of Yemeni coffee as a popular consumer commodity. As coffeehouses appeared in cities and towns across the empire, Cairo developed into a major center for its trade, contributing to its continued prosperity throughout the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth century.
How many provinces did the Ottoman Empire have?
At the beginning of the 17th century, the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states.
What was the Ottoman Empire's military system?
The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society and military throughout the 17th and for much of the 18th century. However, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian empires.
How many people did the Ottoman Empire control?
It still controlled 28 million people, of whom 17 million were in modern-day Turkey, 3 million in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, and 2.5 million in Iraq. Another 5.5 million people were under nominal Ottoman rule in the Arabian peninsula.
What was the classic thesis of the Ottoman Empire?
Those about the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Classic thesis — as a result of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) with the subsequent Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. Previously marked by the beginning of the reign of Catherine the Great, the writing of " Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya " and the death of Koca Ragıp Pasha;
How did nationalism affect the Ottoman Empire?
The rise of nationalism swept through many countries during the 19th century, and it affected territories within the Ottoman Empire. A burgeoning national consciousness, together with a growing sense of ethnic nationalism, made nationalistic thought one of the most significant Western ideas imported to the Ottoman Empire. It was forced to deal with nationalism both within and beyond its borders. The number of revolutionary political parties rose dramatically. Uprisings in Ottoman territory had many far-reaching consequences during the 19th century and determined much of Ottoman policy during the early 20th century. Many Ottoman Turks questioned whether the policies of the state were to blame: some felt that the sources of ethnic conflict were external, and unrelated to issues of governance. While this era was not without some successes, the ability of the Ottoman state to have any effect on ethnic uprisings was seriously called into question.
Why did the majority of the Orthodox population accept Ottoman rule as preferable to Venetian rule?
Because of bad relations between the latter Byzantine Empire and the states of western Europe as epitomized by Loukas Notaras 's famous remark "Better the Sultan's turban than the Cardinal's Hat", the majority of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman rule as preferable to Venetian rule.
How many Crimean Tatars were there in the Ottoman Empire?
From the total Tatar population of 300,000 in the Tauride Province, about 200,000 Crimean Tatars moved to the Ottoman Empire in continuing waves of emigration. Toward the end of the Caucasian Wars, 90% of the Circassians were exiled from their homelands in the Caucasus and settled in the Ottoman Empire.
What was Suleiman's reign?
According to this thesis, Suleiman's reign was the zenith of the Ottoman classical period, during which Ottoman culture, arts, and political influence flourished, although the empire would not reach its maximum territorial extent until 1683, on the eve of the Battle of Vienna .
Why did the Ottoman Empire lose territory?
Per the same Ottoman decline thesis as first formulated by Bernard Lewis (see below), from 1699 onwards, the Ottoman Empire began to lose territory over the course of the next two centuries due to internal stagnation, costly defensive wars, European colonialism, and nationalist revolts among its multiethnic subjects.
Where was Mahdiya captured?
Capture of Mahdiya, Sfax, Sousse, Al Munastir in Tunisia; Laigueglia and Andora in Liguria; Gozo in Malta
Where was Bonifacio captured?
Capture of Bonifacio in Corsica, Castiglione della Pescaia, Talamone, Orbetello, Grosseto, Montiano, Porto Ercole, Isle of Giglio, Ischia, Forio, and the Isle of Procida
Which island was captured by the Republic of Venice?
Capture of the Gulf of Preveza, Isle of Lefkada, eastern Adriatic and Aegean islands belonging to the Republic of Venice, Candia in Crete
When did the Ottoman Empire expand?
A map of the territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire from 1307 to 1683.
When Did the Ottoman Empire Fall?
At the start of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was already in decline. The Ottoman army entered the war in 1914 on the side of the Central Powers (including Germany and Austria-Hungary) and were defeated in October 1918.
How many Sultans were there in the Ottoman Empire?
A total of 36 Sultans ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1299 and 1922. For many of these years, the Ottoman Sultan would live in the elaborate Topkapi palace complex in Istanbul. It contained dozens of gardens, courtyards and residential and administrative buildings.
What was the rise of the Ottoman Empire?
The Ottoman Empire reached its peak between 1520 and 1566, during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. This period was marked by great power, stability and wealth.
What did Sultan Suleiman do?
Suleiman created a uniform system of law and welcomed different forms of arts and literature. Many Muslims considered Suleiman a religious leader as well as a political ruler. Throughout Sultan Suleiman’s rule, the empire expanded and included areas of Eastern Europe.
How many Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire?
In 1915, Turkish leaders made a plan to massacre Armenians living the Ottoman Empire. Most scholars believe that about 1.5 million Armenians were killed.
What was the millet system?
Those who weren’t Muslim were categorized by the millet system, a community structure that gave minority groups a limited amount of power to control their own affairs while still under Ottoman rule. Some millets paid taxes, while others were exempt.
Where did the Ottoman Sultan live?
For many of these years, the Ottoman Sultan would live in the elaborate Topkapi palace complex in Istanbul. It contained dozens of gardens, courtyards and residential and administrative buildings. Part of the Topkapi palace included the harem, a separate quarters reserved for wives, concubines and female slaves.
What were the crops that the Seljuks grew?
The Seljuks left much of their cattle herding, nomadic ways behind and began to grow many of the crops that would become staples for the Ottomans including rice, wheat, barley, millet, vetch (often used as animal feed), apples, grapes, watermelon, as well as berries.
What was the Ottoman Empire?
From 1299 until 1922, the Ottoman Empire was a driving force on the world stage. Rising from the ashes of the Seljuk Empire, the first Ottoman leader Osman I and founder of the dynasty that bore his name, would begin an empire that would go onto challenge European dominance. The Fall of Constantinople in 1453, in which the Ottomans destroyed ...
How many meals did the Ottomans eat a day?
It was important for the Ottomans to have food that was both nutritious and morale-boosting, so they were fed relatively well for the time. They ate two meals a day, as was customary for them, and it was often a simplified version of what they might eat at home.
Why did the amount of fish eaten after the fall of Constantinople increase?
For reasons not quite clear, the amount of fish eaten post-fall of Constantinople increased dramatically, though one possible reason is that in crushing the Byzantines, the Ottomans could now take full advantage of the Bosphorus, the narrow stretch of water connecting the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea.
Why was cattle important to Anatolia?
Cattle became more important for their labour and milk, as opposed to their meat, and so mutton often made up the shortfall. Second, Islam. The Seljuks introduced Islam to the Anatolia, and with it came many strict guidelines for what could and could not be eaten.
What is the biggest food legacy of Ottomans?
Their food legacy cannot be overstated, however, and Turkish food, the largest inheritor of both the Ottoman history and cuisine is considered one of the three great world cuisines, alongside French and Chinese. Perhaps the Ottomans did come to dominate the world then, just not in the way their Sultans imagined.
What was the most significant siege in the history of the world?
The Fall of Constantinople in 1453, in which the Ottomans destroyed the last vestige of the Eastern Roman Empire, is arguably the most significant siege in history. It’s commonly accepted as the end of the Medieval period, and many scholars fleeing the siege would go on to be leading figures in the Renaissance.
What was the purpose of Mehmed II?
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Now sultan for the second time, Mehmed II intended to complete his father’s mission and conquer Constantinople for the Ottomans. In 1452 he reached peace treaties with Hungary and Venice.
How many troops did the Venetians send to the Byzantine capital?
An Ottoman attack on a Venetian ship in the Bosporus prompted the Venetian Senate to send 800 troops and 15 galleys to the Byzantine capital, and many Venetians presently in Constantinople also chose to support the war effort, but the bulk of the Venetian forces were delayed for too long to be of any help.
What was Mehmed determined to do?
Mehmed was determined to take the Golden Horn and pressure the Byzantines into submission. He angled one of his cannons such that it could strike the defenders of the chain and then began to construct an oiled wooden ramp upon which he intended to portage his smaller vessels from the Bosporus to the Golden Horn. By April 22 the ships had circumvented the chain in this way and, barring the chain itself, seized control of all the waters surrounding the city. The defenders attempted to attack the remainder of the Ottoman fleet in the Bosporus, but they were defeated.
What was the name of the fortress that was built at the narrowest point of the Bosporus?
In 1452 he reached peace treaties with Hungary and Venice. He also began the construction of the Boğazkesen (later called the Rumelihisarı ), a fortress at the narrowest point of the Bosporus, in order to restrict passage between the Black and Mediterranean seas.
How long did the Ottomans rule Constantinople?
The dwindling Byzantine Empire came to an end when the Ottomans breached Constantinople’s ancient land wall after besieging the city for 55 days. Mehmed surrounded Constantinople from land and sea while employing cannon to maintain a constant barrage of the city’s formidable walls. The fall of the city removed what was once a powerful defense ...
Why did Sultan Murad II lift the throne?
Sultan Murad II laid siege to Constantinople in 1422, but he was forced to lift it in order to suppress a rebellion elsewhere in the empire. In 1444 he lost an important battle to a Christian alliance in the Balkans and abdicated the throne to his son, Mehmed II.
How many people lived in Constantinople in the 12th century?
Furthermore, with Constantinople having suffered through several devastating sieges, the city’s population had dropped from roughly 400,000 in the 12th century to between 40,000 and 50,000 by the 1450s. Vast open fields constituted much of the land within the walls.
What was the name of the city that the Ottomans captured in 1453?
With no further threat by the Serbs and the subsequent Byzantine civil wars, the Ottomans besieged and took Constantinople in 1453 and then advanced southwards into Greece, capturing Athens in 1458. The Greeks held out in the Peloponnese until 1460, and the Venetians and Genoese clung to some of the islands, but by the early 16th century all of mainland Greece and most of the Aegean islands were in Ottoman hands, excluding several port cities still held by the Venetians ( Nafplio, Monemvasia, Parga and Methone the most important of them). The mountains of Greece were largely untouched, and were a refuge for Greeks who desired to flee Ottoman rule and engage in guerrilla warfare.
What were the new leading classes in Ottoman Greece?
The new leading class in Ottoman Greece were the prokritoi (πρόκριτοι in Greek) called kocabaşis by the Ottomans. The prokritoi were essentially bureaucrats and tax collectors, and gained a negative reputation for corruption and nepotism.
What was the mountainous region of Greece?
The mountains of Greece were largely untouched, and were a refuge for Greeks who desired to flee Ottoman rule and engage in guerrilla warfare. The Cyclades islands, in the middle of the Aegean, were officially annexed by the Ottomans in 1579, although they were under vassal status since the 1530s.
How did the Greeks become nationalists?
Greek nationalism was also stimulated by agents of Catherine the Great, the Orthodox ruler of the Russian Empire, who hoped to acquire Ottoman territory, including Constantinople itself, by inciting a Christian rebellion against the Ottomans. However, during the Russian-Ottoman War which broke out in 1768, the Greeks did not rebel, disillusioning their Russian patrons. The Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774) gave Russia the right to make "representations" to the Sultan in defense of his Orthodox subjects, and the Russians began to interfere regularly in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire. This, combined with the new ideas let loose by the French Revolution of 1789, began to reconnect the Greeks with the outside world and led to the development of an active nationalist movement, one of the most progressive of the time.
How were Christians treated in the Ottoman Empire?
Later, although the Turkish ruler attempted to pacify the local population with a restoration of peacetime rule of law, the Christian population also became subject to special taxes and the tribute of Christian children to the Ottoman state to feed the ranks of the Janissary corps. Violent persecutions of Christians did nevertheless take place under the reign of Selim I (1512-1520), known as Selim the Grim, who attempted to stamp out Christianity from the Ottoman Empire. Selim ordered the confiscation of all Christian churches, and while this order was later rescinded, Christians were heavily persecuted during his era.
Which islands did the Ottomans control?
While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century, Cyprus and Crete remained Venetian territory and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1670 respectively.
Which part of the Greek-speaking world escaped Ottoman rule?
The only part of the Greek-speaking world that escaped Ottoman rule was the Ionian Islands, which remained Venetian until 1797. Corfu withstood three major sieges in 1537, 1571 and 1716 all of which resulted in the repulsion of the Ottomans.
Overview
History
As the Rum Sultanate declined well into the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman I (d. 1323/4), a figure of obscure origins from whom the name Ottoman is derived. Osman's e…
Name
The word Ottoman is a historical anglicisation of the name of Osman I, the founder of the Empire and of the ruling House of Osman (also known as the Ottoman dynasty). Osman's name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān (عثمان). In Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye (دولت عليه عثمانیه), literally "The Supreme Ottoman State", or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti (عثمانلى دولتى). In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ("The Otto…
Historiographical debate on the Ottoman state
Several historians such as British historian Edward Gibbon and the Greek historian Dimitri Kitsikis have argued that after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman state took over the machinery of the Byzantine (Roman) state and that in essence, the Ottoman Empire was a continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire under a Turkish Muslim guise. The American historian Speros Vryonis wrote that the Ottoman state was centered on "a Byzantine-Balkan base with a veneer of the Turkish la…
Government
Before the reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries, the state organisation of the Ottoman Empire was a system with two main dimensions, the military administration, and the civil administration. The Sultan was in the highest position in the system. The civil system was based on local administrative units based on the region's characteristics. The state had control over the clergy. Ce…
Administrative divisions
The Ottoman Empire was first subdivided into provinces, in the sense of fixed territorial units with governors appointed by the sultan, in the late 14th century.
The Eyalet (also Pashalik or Beylerbeylik) was the territory of office of a Beylerbey ("lord of lords" or governor), and was further subdivided in Sanjaks. The Vilayets were introduced with the promulgation of the "Vilayet Law" (Teskil-i Vilayet Niz…
Economy
Ottoman government deliberately pursued a policy for the development of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, successive Ottoman capitals, into major commercial and industrial centers, considering that merchants and artisans were indispensable in creating a new metropolis. To this end, Mehmed and his successor Bayezid, also encouraged and welcomed migration of the Jews fro…
Demographics
A population estimate for the empire of 11,692,480 for the 1520–1535 period was obtained by counting the households in Ottoman tithe registers, and multiplying this number by 5. For unclear reasons, the population in the 18th century was lower than that in the 16th century. An estimate of 7,230,660 for the first census held in 1831 is considered a serious undercount, as this census w…
Overview
The Ottoman Empire was founded c. 1299 by Osman I as a small beylik in northwestern Asia Minor just south of the Byzantine capital Constantinople. The Ottomans first crossed into Europe in 1352, establishing a permanent settlement at Çimpe Castle on the Dardanelles in 1354 and moving their capital to Edirne (Adrianople) in 1369. At the same time, the numerous small Turkic states in …
Classical Age (1453–1566)
The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II cemented the status of the Empire as the preeminent power in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. After taking Constantinople, Mehmed met with the Orthodox patriarch, Gennadios and worked out an arrangement in which the Eastern Orthodox Church, in exchange for being able to maintain its autonom…
Ottoman etiology
With the end of the First World War and the Ottoman Empire, questions arose in a geopolitical and historical context about the reasons for the emergence and decline of the Ottomans, their empire and how both were defined. On the eve of World War II, the geographical position and geopolitical weight of Turkey, the major historical heir to the Ottoman Empire, gave the issues weight as propaganda. The first item on the agenda of the Tehran conference was the issue of Turkey's par…
Formulable theses
1. Ghaza thesis — it is formulated first, but it is the most criticized and politicized. The thesis most clearly advocates the ethnic pan-Turkic principle. It was developed by Paul Wittek;
2. Renegade thesis — represented in studies, articles and books by various authors. It is based on numerous eyewitness accounts. It is supplemented by the hypothesis of the geographical and to some extent civilizational succession of the Ottoman Empire (Rûm) by the Eastern Roman Empire;
Rise of the Ottoman Empire (1299–1453)
With the demise of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum during 12th to 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent states, the so-called Anatolian Beyliks. For the next few centuries, these Beyliks were under the sovereignty of Mongolians and their Iranian Kingdom Ilkhanids. This accounts for the Persian nature of the later Ottomans. By 1300, a weakened Byzantine Empire had lost most of its Anatolian provinces to these Turkish principalities. One of the beyliks was led by
Transformation of the Ottoman Empire (1566–1700)
European states initiated efforts at this time to curb Ottoman control of the traditional overland trade routes between East Asia and Western Europe, which started with the Silk Road. Western European states began to avoid the Ottoman trade monopoly by establishing their own maritime routes to Asia through new discoveries at sea. The Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 …
Stagnation and reform (1700–1827)
During this period threats to the Ottoman Empire were presented by the traditional foe—the Austrian Empire—as well as by a new foe—the rising Russian Empire. Certain areas of the Empire, such as Egypt and Algeria, became independent in all but name, and later came under the influence of Britain and France. Later, in the 18th century, centralized authority within the Ottoman Em…
Decline and modernization (1828–1908)
During this period, the empire faced challenges in defending itself against foreign invasion and occupation. The empire ceased to enter conflicts on its own and began to forge alliances with European countries such as France, the Netherlands, Britain and Russia. As an example, in the 1853 Crimean War, the Ottomans united with Britain, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia against Russia.