Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was an empire that existed between 1299 and 1923. It controlled the regions from Balkans to Arabia and from Black Sea to North Africa. It was founded as a small tribe and became a major power in 16th century. Its capital was Constantinople (now Istanbul).

The Ottomans originate from the Turkic tribes that escaped from Mongol invasion around the 1250. It was formed as a beylik (chiefdom) in modern-day Bilecik. Ottomans quickly captured vast territories around Balkans and Anatolia and they conquered Constantinople, the jewel of Europe, in 1453.

Ottoman society was multicultural, formed of Muslims, Catholics, Orthodoxs and Jews. The religious groups had autonomy under the millet system. Until 19th century, most non-Muslims did not join the army and paid an exemption tax (jizye). Christian boys were recruited to the Ottoman army with devşirme system. They were trained to become loyal soldiers and administrators for the Sultan. 

With the capture of Levant and Egypt in 1517, the Empire controlled Mediterranean trade routes. This provided a great source of income during the 16th century but became unprofitable with the discovery of Americas. In the 17th century, long wars with Austria, Poland, Russia and Iran weakened the state, and the Empire entered into a period of stagnation.

In the beginning of 18th century, Ottoman society enjoyed relative peace. There was rich cultural activity during what is now known as Tulip period. Between 1735 and 1792, Ottoman Empire fought multiple wars against Russian Empire and lost the control of Black Sea.

After the French Revolution of 1789, Christian minorities began independence movements. In the 19th century, Ottoman Empire implemented military, economic and social reforms. Great powers like Britain, France and Russia partitioned the remaining Ottoman territories in Africa and Balkans. 

In the 20th century, Ottoman Empire allied with the German Empire and joined the Central Powers. The government surrendered in 1918 with the armistice of Mudros and signed the treaty of Servers in 1920. Turkish nationalists, who disliked the treaty, started a civil war against the monarchy and the invading armies. The civil war ended in 1923 with the Treaty of Laussane, and Turkish republic was proclaimed.

Rise, 1299-1448 
The Ottoman Empire was founded by Osman I in 1299. His son, Orhan, fought against the Byzantine Empire and captured the city of Bursa in 1324. In the late 1300s, the Ottomans began consolidating power in the Balkans. Sultan Murad I defeated Serbia in 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo. He died at the battle, and his son Bayezid I took control. At the 1396 Battle of Nicopolis, he defeated a large crusade of the Christian kingdoms. But Bayezid was deposed by Tamerlane at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. His absence led to a civil war, which is known as the Fetret period (Ottoman Interregnum). Mehmed Çelebi defeated his brothers and acquired the throne. His son, Murad II, besieged Constantinople, but was unsuccessful because of a rebellion in Anatolia. He won a war against the Karamanids in 1423 and also against a large Christian alliance of Hungary, Poland, and Wallachia at the Battle of Varna in 1444. John Hunyadi, a Hungarian general, tried defeating the Ottomans but lost at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448.

Expansion, 1453-1571 
Mehmed the Conqueror conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453. He also subjugated Albania and expanded tolerance for the Orthodox Church. Mehmed continued his expansion, followed by his son Bayezid II. Selim I conquered Egypt and the Levant, which were ruled by the Mamluks, in early 1517. He also defeated the Safavid Persians at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. The Ottomans were at odds with Portugal over their expansion as well. Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim's son, captured Belgrade and most of Hungary after the Battle of Mohács in 1526. His Siege of Vienna was repulsed by the Holy Roman Empire in 1529 despite the Protestant Reformation's deep divisions. Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia became tributary states to the Ottoman Empire soon afterwards.

In the east, the Ottomans captured Baghdad from the Safavids and partitioned the Caucasus with them. Meanwhile, Suleiman allied Francis I of France over their mutual hatred of the Habsburgs. That led to Ottoman activity in the Mediterranean, where Rhodes, Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli would eventually be captured. Barbarossa Hayreddin led the Ottoman advance. In 1566, Suleiman died, and many historians consider that to be the start of the Ottoman stagnation.

Stagnation, 1572-1683 
The Ottomans lost the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 by Philip II of Spain and his Holy League. The Ottomans quickly recovered by capturing Cyprus from the Republic of Venice. However, the defeat shattered the myth of Ottoman invincibility. The Ottomans suffered many defeats under Murad III in the next 30 years. The Long War with the Austrian Empire ended a in stalemate, and the Safavids invaded the eastern Ottoman provinces. Murad IV recaptured Iraq and the Caucasus from Persia. The "Sultanate of Women" became an nickname for the Ottoman Empire after the consorts Kösem Sultan and Turhan Sultan became important in the empire and sometimes made even economic decisions in the Sultan's place. The Grand Vizier also took a greater role under the leadership of the Köprülüs. Crete was captured from Venice, and southern Ukraine was captured from Poland.

Decline, 1699-1792 
In 1683, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha carelessly opened up the empire to attack when he attacked Vienna and laid siege to the city. The Austrians, Poles, Russians, and Venetians all attacked the Ottomans back in the Great Turkish War. Austria and Poland attacked the overstretched Turks in Hungary and Transylvania while Russia hammered Crimea and eventually captured it from the Turks. Venice settled to attack Greece, which was entirely under Ottoman Turkish occupation. The warring sides signed the Treaty of Karlowitz, which ceded Hungary and Transylvania to Austria, Podolia (southern Ukraine) to Poland, Morea (southern Greece) to Venice, and Azov (a Black Sea port) to Russia.

Russia and Sweden went to war, and the Ottomans got involved by retaking Azov and then making peace. Austria, Russia, Venice, and the Ottomans would go to war several times. By 1739, the Ottomans had actually retaken the Morea and Serbia. In the 1740s and the 1750s, the Ottomans began to modernize their military, but in the 1760s, the Ottomans went to war with Russia again. Russia took over Crimea in 1783 and claimed that Orthodox Christians living in the Ottoman Empire were under Russian protection. Selim III continued modernizing the military, but the elite Janissary corps troops revolted. Napoleon attacked Egypt but was repulsed by the Anglo-Turkish armies.

Dissolution, 1804-1923 
Serbia revolted and gained nominal independence in 1815, but it remained a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. Greece won its independence after a long war of independence from 1821 to 1829. The al-Saud family revolted in 1811 with the support of the Wahhabi sect. Egypt under Muhammad Ali then almost captured Constantinople, but the Russians repulsed them. The Egyptians settled with the Levant, and the Ottomans tried to retake it but were soundly defeated. The Ottomans was dubbed the "sick man of Europe" because of their incompetence in international affairs.

The Ottoman Tanzimat period brought reform and mconscription was introduced, a central bank was formed, homosexuality was decriminalised, the law was secularised, and the guilds were replaced with factories. The Christian part of the empire became much more advanced than the Muslim part, and that divide created tension. In the 1850s, the British and the French helped the Ottomans during the Crimean War. The Ottoman debts led to a state of bankruptcy, and the European countries began providing loans and controlling the finances of the empire. Worse yet, the Ottomans began wars against Russia over Bulgarian independence. At the 1878 Congress of Berlin, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro gained complete independence. Bulgaria remained a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. The British took Cyprus, followed by Egypt in 1882.

In 1908, the Ottomans underwent a revolution by the Young Turks. Due to the revolution, Abdul Hamid II abdicated, and Mehmed V was instated. Bulgaria gained independence, and Austria invaded and conquered Bosnia that same year. In 1912, the Ottomans lost Libya to the Italians. The ensuing Balkan Wars saw the Ottomans lose all of their European territories except eastern Thrace to a coalition of Balkan Christian states which included the combined forces of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria. The newly independent Bulgaria managed to conquer Edirne and reach a few kilometres from the capital Istanbul which they threatened. The Second Balkan War allowed the Ottomans to attack Bulgaria in conjunction with Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece and therefore recover Edirne and most of eastern Thrace. Their victory meant little since the unrest continued, with a 1909 countercoup to the Young Turk coup, followed by three countercoups.

In 1914, although they were utterly disorganised, the Ottomans attacked Russia and declared war. Britain and France went to war with the Ottomans, and World War I had come to what remained of the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottomans performed better than had been expected early in the war. They won the Battle of Gallipoli, partly because of the incompetence of the British and French commanders. However, they did not do so well against the Russians in the Caucasus sector and the majority of eastern Anatolia was conquered by Russia who installed an Armenian puppet state to rule the eastern parts of Anatolia. The Ottomans however won the Battle of Kut against the British during the Middle Eastern campaign though Iraq was lost later. In 1915, Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and others were targeted, and many as 1.5 million people were killed. The Ottoman Empire fell soon after the Arabs revolted in 1916 with British help. The empire fell after the Sinai, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and eventually Anatolia itself fell. The Ottomans surrendered in 1918. After the official surrender of the Ottoman Empire during the end of World War I, the capital Istanbul began to be occupied by British, French, Italian and Greek troops who began entering the city in November 1918. Many parts of the Ottoman Empire in western Anatolia were occupied by Greece meanwhile southeast Anatolia was occupied by France and southwest was occupied by Italy. The First Republic of Armenia was also occupying the majority of eastern Anatolia during this time. Due to the desperate situation, one Ottoman military commander Mustafa Kemal Pasha decided to resign from the Ottoman army and gathered up a Turkish resistance force to push the occupying Allied armies out of Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal decided to set up his base of operations in Ankara.

The Turkish War of Independence was military campaign by the Turkish National Movement under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which led to the foundation of the modern Republic of Turkey.

In 1923, the Ottoman Empire formally ceased to exist.

Succession policies 

The empire was a hereditary monarchy and followed a Turco-Mongol tradition in which all men in the leader's family could become rulers. The ruler's title was Sultan and was used in front of the name (for example, "Sultan Süleyman"). The title of Sultan was also used for the wives and the daughters of the monarchs. In this case, it was used at the end of the name (for example, Hürrem Sultan"). In the early years of the empire, shahzadahs, the sons of the Sultan, were sent to different parts of the empire (Sanjaks) to get experience of governing. Later, they might be candidates for the Sultanate and the Caliphate.

After Ahmed, the system changed. In the new system, the Sultan would keep his male family members locked in a small apartment called a kafes from which they would never be able to see the outside world and take power from him. Sometimes, a new Sultan would kill his male family members to make sure that no one else could be leader.

The women in his harem often sought greater status and influence, and the Sultan's mother could become a powerful political force in the Empire. Each mother in the harem would try to make her own son the next Sultan since they knew that he would probably be killed otherwise.

References

Other websites 

 The Ottoman Empire: A Chronogical Outline
 The Ottoman Empire: The Eternal State 
 Ottoman Website
 History of Turkish Empire—gives detailed timetable.
 Turkish Oral Narrative
 Information about Ottomans
 Forced population transfers in early Ottoman imperial policy - covers the period 1300-1600
 Turkey in Asia is an old book in English from 1920
 Ottoman Empire Citizendium

 
States and territories disestablished in the 20th century