The Ottoman Empire

In 1258, in Anatolia, which will later be called Turkey, Osman Ghazi is born. Osman is part of a community of people called the Turks, who are followers of Islam — Muslims. In the late 1200s, Osman establishes a small territory, or beylik, in today’s Turkey. In just a few generations, this beylik takes over more powerful neighbours to become the vast Ottoman Empire. In the early 1300s, Osman leads a group of Turks against a powerful group of Christians called the Byzantines.

He takes much of their territory and brings the people who live there under his rule. But Osman allows the Byzantines to maintain their Christian religion and to worship like they always have. This religious tolerance keeps the Christians from rebelling under Islamic rule; and means the empire can stay focussed on growing. When Osman dies, his son Orhan takes over and expands the Ottoman Empire into the Balkans, in southeast Europe. Here, the Ottomans capture thousands of young Christian boys.

Unlike other citizens of the empire, these boys don’t enjoy religious freedom. The Ottomans take them from their villages, convert them to Islam, and train them to be elite soldiers called Janissaries. With this new superior military, the Ottoman Empire takes over more Byzantine territories until all that remains is the Byzantine capital: Constantinople. In the spring of 1453, a new Ottoman leader, or sultan, Mehmed II, prepares to capture Constantinople. He orders the world’s largest cannon to be built, sends miners to dig tunnels under the city walls, and organises his fleet of ships to be carried overland, so the attack can take place from an unexpected direction.

Then Mehmed and his 50 000 men lay siege to the city. After 53 days of fighting, Constantinople falls to the Ottomans. They rename the city Istanbul, and make it their own capital. Through Istanbul, the Ottomans transport spices, jewels, silk and perfume from Asia to Europe. This trading brings the empire into a golden age of economic growth through the 1500s and allows Sultan Süleyman I, or Süleyman the Magnificent, to expand the empire further.

In the mid-1500s, his warships control much of the Mediterranean Sea and by the end of his reign, the Ottoman Empire stretches from Hungary to the Persian Gulf. But Süleyman is not just a conqueror. He also writes poetry and creates new systems of law. He orders the building of extravagant mosques throughout the Middle East and under his rule poetry and artistic handwriting, calligraphy, flourish. The Ottoman Empire is at the height of its wealth, economically and culturally.

In the late 1600s, the empire begins to lose power. In 1683, the Ottomans attempt to capture the city of Vienna in Austria and fail. The battle leads to over a century of wars with European leaders whose military systems are advancing more quickly than the Ottomans’. To try to catch up with the Ottomans’ rivals, Sultan Abdulmejid I updates the empire’s systems of government and tries to collect more taxes to fund the military. His program of changes from 1839 to 1871 is known as the Tanzimat.

But the Tanzimat’s reforms come too slowly, and the Ottoman Empire loses more territory, especially in the Balkans. By the late 1800s, the Ottoman Empire is known as the “sick man of Europe”. When World War I breaks out in 1914, the Ottoman Empire fights with the Germans, on the losing side. The defeat causes the empire to collapse completely, and in 1923, Mustafa Kemal, later Kemal Atatürk, founds and becomes president of a new country: The Republic of Turkey.