Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire was a Turkish empire that existed between the period of 1299 to 1923 through the control of an extensive region in Southeastern Europe, West Asia and certain regions of North Africa [1] . Ottoman Empire consisted of many provinces and states, some of which later got absorbed into the empire while others operated independently. The empire also had control over other regions which were not part of the empire (but which sought allegiance to the Sultan of the empire) such as certain islands of the Atlantic Ocean. The Ottoman Empire therefore controlled a lot of land in the Mediterranean region and acted as a neutral trading block to both the Eastern and Western world [2] . Its collapse happened under imperial monarchy, after which it was taken over by Turkey when it became a republic [3] . The Ottoman Empire rose into dominance through conquest wars such as the battle of Kosovo which paved way for the empire’s expansion into Europe [4] . The battle of Nicopolis also saw the empire expand into other regions of the European continent but later, other conquests such as the battle of Ankara, the conquest of Constantinople and the invasion of Otranto expounded the empire even further into neighboring territories [5] . However, the empire experienced a period of stagnation and reform which saw some part of the empire’s territory revert to previous regimes such as the reversion of Balkans to Austria [6] . Many factors have been cited for the collapse of the empire; among them, environmental pressures, administrative challenges, financial constraints and the likes but this study identifies the rise of nationalism as the main cause for the collapse of the empire. Although the Ottoman Empire is historically known to be under much of Turkish influence, its existence was not primarily defined by ethnic representation, but language and religious orientation [7] . In spite of the fact that Turkish descendants constituted a greater part of the population and started the empire in the first place, it did not take long for the Turkish rulers to note that, for the empire to utilize the enormous human potential that lay within its borders, they had to assimilate the inhabitants from their native languages into the Turkish culture [8] . This was necessary because the inhabitants had diverse potential. For example, the Greek were well endowed with administrative and managerial expertise; the Armenians were endowed with mercantile and trade skills and the Balkans captives made good soldiers [9] . Initially, all these ethnic subgroups thought of themselves as Turkish and often identified with the Turkish language. During the onset of the 19 th century, there was a great nationalism wave that swept across Europe and left with it traces of the movement in the Ottoman Empire as well [10] . Considering many of the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire were vassals of certain external countries (which were captured by the Ottoman Empire), many of them started to search for their own independence. For instance, many people who hailed from small cities and towns in Italy started thinking of themselves as Italians while pondering on the concept of establishing Italy as a country, with