THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE But changes during Suleyman’s reign brought the start of a slow and steady decline Following his death the military took control of the government diminishing the power of the sultanate As the central government weakened many regions in the empire began to act independently displaying minimal loyalty loyalty to the sultan and the state The empire’s weakness was met with a West growing in power and assertiveness assertiveness Ottoman wars with Venice and Vienna in the late seventeenth century preceded decades of conflicts with other European nation-states leading to great losses of territory Russia waged several wars against the empire in the nineteenth century gaining control of the Black Sea The Ottomans survived the Crimean War 1854 56 and the Russo-Turkish War 1877 78 largely with the aid of Western powers including Great Britain France and Sardinia By the early twentieth century the empire was on the brink of collapse Siding with Germany in World War I the empire failed to hold Constantinople and several other strategic areas By 1920 the Ottomans had signed the Treaty of Sèvres which abolished the Ottoman Empire and all rights over its territories in the Middle East and North Africa The Treaty of Lausanne 1923 established the boundaries of the modern state of Turkey The six-hundred-year reign of the Ottoman Empire had come to an end 8
THE EARLY EMPIRE The Ottoman Empire began about 1300 CE when the family of the Turkish warrior Osman gained a foothold in Asia Minor also called Anatolia the peninsula of land that today constitutes the Asian part of Turkey The Osmans established a principality that spread from a small area in northwestern Asia Minor to cover most of the Anatolian Peninsula and much of south-eastern south-eastern Europe At its peak the empire also included large swaths of the Middle East North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula The dynasty that Osman founded was called Osmanli meaning sons of Osman Both the name of the dynasty and the empire it established are derived from Uthman the Arabic form of his name OSMAN AND HIS SUCCESSORS During the eleventh century bands of nomadic Turks emerged from their home in Central Asia to raid lands 9 Chapter 1
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE to the west A fierce group called the Seljuk Seljuk Turks soon established established themselves in Iran and Mesopotamia Mesopotamia growing to occupy much of Asia Minor during the twelfth century The Seljuks fought against the Byzantine Christians as well as warriors from the Mongol Empire who invaded Asia Minor in the thirteenth century century After defeating the Seljuks in 1293 the Mongols controlled controlled much of eastern eastern Asia Minor the remainder was occupied occupied by several independent independent Turkmen principalities the strongest of which was led by Osman in the northwest The initial areas of expansion under Osman I and his successors Orhan ruled 1326 59 and Murad I ruled 1359 89 were western Asia Minor and southeastern Osman I is featured in a miniature from a sixteenth-century manuscript illustrating the dynasty 10
THE EARLY EMPIRE southeastern Europe primarily the Balkan Peninsula As the major Muslim rivals of Byzantium the Ottomans attracted masses of nomads and unemployed city dwellers who were searching for a way to earn a living living and also seeking to fulfill their religious desire to expand the territory of Islam Orhan’s capture of several key cities allowed him to expand the Ottoman holdings into a real state and create an army which he filled with Christian mercenary troops Ottoman raiding parties began to move regularly into Thrace a region to the northwest northwest of Constantinople that includes parts of Turkey Bulgaria and Greece Huge quantities of captured treasure strengthened Ottoman power and attracted thousands of the uprooted people of Asia Minor into Ottoman service MURAD I IN ADRIANOPLE Orhan’s son Murad I conquered Thrace in 1361 He moved his capital to Adrianople now Edirne Thrace’s capital and a key city of the Byzantine Empire This conquest effectively cut off Constantinople from the outside world Adrianople also controlled the principal invasion route through the Balkan Mountains giving the Ottomans access to further expansion to the north From there Murad moved into Bulgaria capturing capturing the city of Philippopolis now Plovdiv in 1363 This brought the Ottomans control of critical grain and tax 11
