Ottoman Empire
Empire based around the Turkish sultan, lasting from 1300 till 1922, and covering at its peak (1683- 99) an area including today's Hungary, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, southern Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia Iraq, Kuwait, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, eastern and western Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, eastern Yemen, Egypt, northern Libya, Tunisia, and northern Algeria.
The Ottoman Empire was not a Turkish empire as such, since Turks did not profit more from the benefits of the state than the peoples in non-Turkish territories. And even though the first sultans were Turkish, they generally married non-Turkish women, so the race of later sultans was not Turkish either.
The empire was through most of its period not a state in the modern sense of the word, but more of a military administration.
While the Ottoman Empire at its death bed had few friends, it still had offered its inhabitants many benefits through most of its existence. For Muslims it was considered as a defense against the non-Muslim world. For non-Muslims it offered a better life and more security than Christian states up until the 18th century. For most of its inhabitants it had offered career possibilities. And it offered peace and relative harmony to all its inhabitants despite cultural and ethnic differences.
Organization
The main institution in the Ottoman Empire was the army, which was put together of both Turkish cavalry called sipahis, and financed by grants of government revenues, and from the middle of the 14th century slave soldiers, called kapikulli. The extension of the army with kapikulli was necessary as the there were not available troops among the Turks.
While it is correct to call the kapikulli slaves, they were not mistreated slaves in the Western sense of the word. Most of them were Christian youths from the Balkans that had been taken from their families at an early age, and taken through education and training. In many circumstances, the members of the kapikulli represented the elite in the society, even if they were slaves the property of the sultan. It was f.x. kapikulli troops that formed the famous janissary infantry which was famous for its military skills.
The empire was divided into military districts ruled by officials. These were in charge of putting together the armies of free Turks, as well as raising money and supplies for the kapikulli troops. The districts were also in charge of constructing roads and bridges in order to facilitate warfare.
Democracy And Culture
Due to its great extent, the Ottoman Empire consisted of numerous peoples, of which Turks represented just one of several larger minorities. In general, the peoples of a region were left to their own devices, and the empire imposed little in terms of language and culture. The only exception was the conscription for the kapikulli.
Rise and Fall: Explanations
While it is difficult to find exact reasons for the rise of the Ottoman empire, except that there must have been skilled leaders, sufficient economical backing and probably weaknesses among the enemies; it is much easier to point at when the fall of the empire commenced, and its causes.
The second theory states that religious zeal made the Muslim warriors wage a jihad, holy war, against the Christian Byzantine empire in the west. While this theory has a lot of value for explaining the start of the empire, it cannot explain how the empire continued to grow over the next 4 centuries.
There are numerous reasons for the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The dominating reason, is that neighbor powers had grown stronger over the centuries. They had built stronger institutions, introduced modern arms, infrastructure and administration.
More than that, Ottoman institutions were often not working as smoothly as they used to.
But there were more things not working as they should have: The sultans since Süleyman had often been less apt to their role; more and more power had moved into the hands of the kapikulli class; the trade routes running through the empire was no longer as important for Europe, and hence yielded less income; the population had grown big and had become less controllable; cities had become weaker. By the time of the 19th century, the European mock name of the empire was correct: The sick man of Europe.
The Ottoman Empire tried to correct all the weaknesses, but it proved to be too late. It was during the times of the reform process, Tanzimat, that the empire lost the most of its territory.
History - Timeline
1325: The forces of sultan Orhan takes control over Bursa, and makes this the capital.
1338: The Byzantines are drive out of Anatolia. But their great city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) is still under their control.
1354: The region of Ankara is conquered.
1355: Gallipoli (Gelibolu) is conquered, and becomes an important staging post for the Ottoman's European expansion.
1361: The city of Adrianople (Edirne) on the western side of the Bosphorus, is conquered.
1393: Northern Greece is captured.
1402: The Ottomans are heavily defeated by Timur Lenk near Ankara, leading to a weakening that should last for a few decades. But the Ottoman empire would return to its old strength.
1453: After years of siege, the Ottomans takes control over Constantinople.
1466: Albania is conquered.
1475: Crimea is put under the empire as a vassal state.
1514: Iran is defeated with the battle at Chaldiran.
1517: Mamlukes of Egypt and Syria are defeated, and their territories are included into the empire. Together with this came the holy Muslim places in Arabia.
1519: Algiers becomes part of the empire as a vassal state.
1521: Barka (northeastern Libya) is added to the empire.
Belgrade is captured.
1526: Hungary is defeated at the Battle of Mohacs.
1529: Sultan Süleyman 1 tries to conquer Venice, but does not succeed.
1531: Tunis is included to the empire as a vassal state.
1551: Tripolis (of today's Libya) is added into the empire as a vassal state.
1534: Iraq is added into the empire.
1829: Greece gets autonomy.
1830: Serbia gets autonomy.
Northern Algeria is taken by France.
1832: Greece becomes independent.
1839: Beginning of Tanzimat, the reform process that intended to bring the empire up on level with European states in administration and other fields.
1875: The Ottoman empire is bankrupt, and can no longer pay interests on its debts to European finance institutions.
1876: Under sultan Abdülhamit 2, the Ottoman empire gets its first constitution.
1878: The constitution is suspended.
Romania, Serbia, Montenegro as well as part of Bulgaria becomes independent as a part of the Treaty of san Stefano.
1881: The Ottoman empire is forced ot accept European financial control.
Tunisia is taken by the French.
1882: Egypt is occupied by Britain.
1912: Libya is annexed by Italy.
1914: The Ottoman empire enters the World War 1 in alliance with Germany, and in the beginning it sees several military victories.
1915-16: Armenians east in Anatolia are deported, and many massacred by Kurdish irregulars. 600,000 (some estimates run over 1 million) Armenians died.
1917: Beginning of the British campaigns in Iraq and Syria. This leads to several Ottoman defeats, and the following year the loss of the Middle Eastern territories.
1919 May: Greece attacks Anatolia at Smyrna, and takes control over many areas in western regions.
1920: The Ottoman empire is forced to sign the Treaty of Sèvres, leading to the loss of Arab territories and a partition of Anatolia.
1922: Nationalist Turks drive the Greek out of western Anatolia under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal.
November 1 The Ottoman empire is abolished, and would the following year be replaced with the Republic of Turkey.Ottoman Empire Rulers
Year CE Year Hijra The Bey's/Sultan's official name 1281-ca. 1324 680-ca. 724 Osman 1 ca. 1324-60 ca. 724-61 Orhan 1360-89 761-91 Murad 1 1389-1403 791-805 Bayezid 1 Yildirim 1403-21 805-24 Mehmed 1 Çelebi (different parts of the country are ruled by some of his brothers) 1421-44 824-48 Murad 2
*came back in power 2 years later, see below1444-46 848-50 Mehmed 2 Fatih
*came back in power 5 years later, see below1446-51 850-55 Murad 2
*was in power 2 years earlier, see above1451-81 855-86 Mehmed 2 Fatih
*was in power 5 years earlier, see above1481-1512 886-918 Bayezid 2 1512-20 918-26 Selim 1 Yavuz 1520-66 926-74 Süleyman 1 Kanuni 1566-74 974-82 Selim 2 1574-95 982-1003 Murad 3 1595-1603 1003-12 Mehmed 3 1603-17 1012-26 Ahmed 1 1617-18 1026-27 Mustafa 1
*came back in power 4 years later, see below1618-22 1027-31 Osman 2 1622-23 1031-32 Mustafa 1
*was in power 4 years earlier, see above1623-40 1032-49 Murad 4 1640-48 1049-58 Ibrahim 1648-87 1058-99 Mehmed 4 1687-91 1099-1102 Süleyman 2 1691-95 1102-06 Ahmed 2 1695-1703 1106-15 Mustafa 2 1703-30 1115-43 Ahmed 3 1730-54 1143-68 Mahmud 1 1754-57 1168-71 Osman 3 1757-74 1171-87 Mustafa 3 1774-89 1187-1203 Abdülhamid 1 1789-1807 1203-22 Selim 3 1807-08 1222-23 Mustafa 4 1808-39 1223-55 Mahmud 2 1839-61 1255-77 Abdülmecid 1 1861-76 1277-93 Abdülaziz 1876 1293 Murad 5 1876-1909 1293-1327 Abdülhamid 2 1909-18 1327-36 Mehmed 5 Resat 1918-22 1336-41 Mehmed 6 Vahidüttin 1922-24 1341-42 Abdülmecid 2 (only acting in the position of caliph, without the power of the sultan) 1924- 1342- Turkey as a republic Turkey history page