Ottoman Empire
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The Sublime Ottoman State Ottoman Empire Osmanlı İmparatorluğu دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Aliyye-i Osmâniyye | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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1299–1923 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
'Motto: 'دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-muddet ( "The Eternal State" ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Anthem:(various) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() Ottoman Empire at its peak in 1683. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Status | Empire | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Capital | Söğüt(1299–1326) Bursa(1326–1365) Edirne(1365–1453) Constantinople(1453–1922) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Government |
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Sultans | |||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1281–1326 (first) | Osman I | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1918–22 (last) | Mehmed VI | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Grand Viziers | |||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1320–31 (first) | Alaeddin Pasha | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1920–22 (last) | Ahmed Tevfik Pasha | ||||||||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1299 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1402–1413 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1876-1878 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1908-1918 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
July 24 1923 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1680 | 5,500,000 km2(2,100,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Population | |||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1856 | 35350000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1906 | 20884000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1914 | 18520000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1919 | 14629000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Currency | Akçe,Kuruş,Lira | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Today part of | ![]() |
TheOttoman Empireexisted between 1299 and 1923. It controlled the regions fromBalkanstoArabiaand fromBlack SeatoNorth Africa.It was founded as a small tribe and became a major power in 16th century. Its capital wasConstantinople(nowIstanbul).
The Ottomans originate from the Turkic tribes that escaped fromMongol invasionaround 1250. It was formed as a chiefdom in modern-dayBilecik.The Ottomans quickly captured vast territories aroundBalkansandAnatoliaand they conquered Constantinople in 1453.
Ottoman society was multicultural, withMuslims,Catholics,Orthodoxs andJews.The religious groups had autonomy under themilletsystem. 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 withdevşirmesystem. They were trained to become loyal soldiers and administrators for the Sultan.
With the capture ofLevantandEgyptin 1517, the Empire controlledMediterraneantrade routes.This provided a great source of income during the 16th century but became unprofitable with the discovery ofAmericas.In the 17th century, long wars withAustria,Poland,RussiaandIranweakened the state, and the Empire.
In the beginning of the 18th century, Ottoman society enjoyed relative peace. There was rich cultural activity during what is now known asTulip period.Between 1735 and 1792, the Ottoman Empire fought wars againstRussian Empireand lost the control of theBlack Sea.
After the French Revolution of 1789, Christian minorities began independence movements. In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire implemented military, economic and social reforms. Britain, France and Russia partitioned the remaining Ottoman territories inAfricaand theBalkans.
In the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire allied with theGerman Empireand joined theCentral Powers.The government surrendered in 1918 with the armistice of Mudros and signed theTreaty of Sèvresin 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 theTreaty of Laussane,and theTurkish Republicwas proclaimed.
Rise, 1299-1448
[change|change source]The Ottoman Empire was founded byOsman Iin 1299. His son,Orhan,fought against theByzantine Empireand captured the city ofBursain 1324. In the late 1300s, the Ottomans began consolidating power in theBalkans.SultanMurad IdefeatedSerbiain 1389 at theBattle of Kosovo.He died at the battle, and his sonBayezid Itook control. At the 1396Battle of Nicopolis,he defeated a largecrusadeof the Christian kingdoms. But Bayezid was deposed byTamerlaneat theBattle of Ankarain 1402. His absence led to a civil war, which is known as theFetret period(Ottoman Interregnum).Mehmed Çelebidefeated his brothers and got the throne. His son,Murad II,besieged Constantinople, but was unsuccessful because of a rebellion in Anatolia. He won a war against theKaramanidsin 1423 and also against a large Christian alliance ofHungary,Poland,andWallachiaat theBattle of Varnain 1444.John Hunyadi,a Hungarian general, tried defeating the Ottomans but lost at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448.
Expansion, 1453-1571
[change|change source]Mehmed the ConquerorconqueredConstantinopleon May 29, 1453. He also subjugatedAlbaniaand expanded tolerance for theOrthodox Church.Mehmed continued his expansion, followed by his sonBayezid II.Selim IconqueredEgyptandthe Levant,which were ruled by theMamluks,in early 1517. He also defeated theSafavid Persiansat theBattle of Chaldiranin 1514. The Ottomans were at odds withPortugalover their expansion as well.Suleiman the Magnificent,Selim's son, capturedBelgradeand most ofHungaryafter theBattle of Mohácsin 1526. HisSiege of Viennawas repulsed by theHoly Roman Empirein 1529.Transylvania,Wallachia,andMoldaviabecametributary statesto the Ottoman Empire soon afterwards.
In the east, the Ottomans capturedBaghdadfrom theSafavidsand partitioned theCaucasuswith them. Meanwhile, Suleiman allied withFrancis I of Franceover their mutual hatred of theHabsburgs.That led to Ottoman activity in theMediterranean,whereRhodes,Tunis,Algiers,andTripoliwere captured.Barbarossa Hayreddinled the Ottoman advance. In 1566, Suleiman died.
Stagnation, 1572-1683
[change|change source]The Ottomans lost theBattle of Lepantoin 1571 byPhilip II of Spainand hisHoly League.The Ottomans recovered by capturingCyprusfrom theRepublic of Venice.The defeat shattered the myth of Ottomaninvincibility.The Ottomans suffered many defeats underMurad IIIin the next 30 years. The Long War with theAustrian Empireended a in stalemate, and the Safavids invaded the eastern Ottoman provinces.Murad IVrecapturedIraqand theCaucasusfromPersia.The "Sultanate of Women" became an nickname for the Ottoman Empire after theconsortsKösem SultanandTurhan Sultanbecame important in the empire and sometimes made even economic decisions in the Sultan's place. TheGrand Vizieralso took a greater role under the leadership of theKöprülüs.Cretewas captured fromVenice,and southernUkrainewas captured fromPoland.
Decline, 1699-1792
[change|change source]In 1683,Grand VizierKara Mustafa Pashacarelessly opened up the empire to attack when he attackedViennaand laid siege to the city. TheAustrians,Poles,Russians,andVenetiansall attacked the Ottomans back in theGreat Turkish War.AustriaandPolandattacked the overstretched Turks inHungaryandTransylvaniawhileRussiahammeredCrimeaand eventually captured it from the Turks.Venicesettled to attackGreece,which was entirely under Ottoman Turkish occupation. The warring sides signed theTreaty of Karlowitz,which ceded Hungary and Transylvania to Austria,Podolia(southern Ukraine) to Poland,Morea(southern Greece) to Venice, andAzov(aBlack Seaport) to Russia.
Russia andSwedenwent to war,and the Ottomans got involved by retakingAzovand then making peace. Austria, Russia, Venice, and the Ottomans would go to war several times. By 1739, the Ottomans had retaken theMoreaandSerbia.In the 1740s and the 1750s, the Ottomans began to modernize their military. In the 1760s, the Ottomans went to war with Russia again. Russia took over Crimea in 1783 and claimed thatOrthodox Christiansliving in the Ottoman Empire were under Russian protection.Selim IIIcontinued modernizing the military, but the eliteJanissarycorps troops revolted.NapoleonattackedEgyptbut was repulsed by the Anglo-Turkish armies.
Dissolution, 1804-1923
[change|change source]Serbiarevolted and gained nominal independence in 1815, but it remained avassalof the Ottoman Empire.Greecewon its independence after along war of independencefrom 1821 to 1829. Theal-Saudfamily revolted in 1811 with the support of theWahhabisect. Egypt underMuhammad Alithen 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 called the "sick man of Europe" because of their incompetence in international affairs.
The OttomanTanzimatperiod brought reform.Conscriptionwas introduced. Acentral bankwas formed.Homosexualitywasdecriminalised.The law wassecularised.Theguildswere replaced withfactories.The Christian part of the empire became much more advanced than the Muslim part, and that divide created tension. In the 1850s, theBritishand theFrenchhelped the Ottomans during theCrimean War.The Ottoman debts led to a state ofbankruptcy,and the European countries began providingloansand controlling the finances of the empire. The Ottomans began wars againstRussiaoverBulgarianindependence. At the 1878 Congress of Berlin,Romania,Serbia,andMontenegrogained complete independence. Bulgaria remained a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. TheBritishtook Cyprus, followed byEgyptin 1882.
In 1908, the Ottomans underwent a revolution by theYoung Turks.Due to the revolution,Abdul Hamid IIabdicated, andMehmed Vwas instated. Bulgaria gained independence, andAustriainvaded and conqueredBosniathat same year. In 1912, the Ottomans lostLibyato theItalians.The ensuingBalkan Warssaw the Ottomans lose all of their European territories except easternThraceto a coalition of Balkan Christian states which included the combined forces ofSerbia,Montenegro,Greece,andBulgaria.The newly independentBulgariamanaged to conquerEdirneand reach a few kilometres from the capitalIstanbulwhich they threatened. The Second Balkan War allowed the Ottomans to attack Bulgaria in conjunction with Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece and therefore recoverEdirneand most of eastern Thrace. Their victory meant little since the unrest continued, with a 1909countercoupto the Young Turk coup, followed by three countercoups.
In 1914, although they were utterly disorganised, the Ottomans attackedRussiaand declared war.BritainandFrancewent to war with the Ottomans, andWorld War Ihad come to what remained of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans performed better than had been expected early in the war. They won theBattle of Gallipoli,partly because of the incompetence of theBritishandFrenchcommanders. They did not do so well against theRussiansin theCaucasussector and the majority of eastern Anatolia was conquered byRussiawho installed anArmenianpuppet state.The Ottomans won theBattle of Kutagainst the British during the Middle Eastern campaign thoughIraqwas 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 theArabs revoltedin 1916 with British help.Sinai,Palestine,Iraq,Syria,and eventuallyAnatoliaitself fell. The Ottomans surrendered in 1918.Istanbulwas occupied by British, French, Italian and Greek troops who began entering the city in November 1918. Many parts of the Ottoman Empire in westernAnatoliawere occupied byGreece.Southeast Anatolia was occupied byFranceand southwest was occupied byItaly.The First Republic ofArmeniaoccupied most of easternAnatolia.
Ottoman military commanderMustafa Kemal Pashadecided to resign from the Ottoman army and gathered up a Turkish resistance force to push the occupying Allied armies out ofAnatolia.Mustafa Kemaldecided to set up his base of operations inAnkara.TheTurkish War of Independencewas a military campaign by the Turkish National Movement underMustafa Kemal Atatürk,which led to the foundation of the modernRepublic of Turkey.[3]
In 1923, the Ottoman Empire formally ceased to exist.
Succession policies
[change|change source]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Rukiye_Sabiha_Sultan_wedding.jpg/220px-Rukiye_Sabiha_Sultan_wedding.jpg)
The empire was ahereditary monarchyand followed aTurco-Mongoltradition in which all men in the leader's family could become rulers.[4]The ruler's title wasSultanand was used in front of the name (for example, "SultanSüleyman "). The title ofSultanwas also used for the wives and the daughters of the monarchs but it was used at the end of the name (for example, HürremSultan"). 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 theCaliphate.
After Ahmed, the system changed. In the new system, the Sultan would keep his male family members locked in a small apartment called akafesfrom 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 hisharemoften 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.[4]
References
[change|change source]- ↑Finkel, Caroline (2005).Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923.New York: Basic Books. pp. 110–1.ISBN978-0-465-02396-7.
- ↑TheTreaty of Sèvres(10 August 1920) afforded a small existence to the Ottoman Empire. The ending of the Ottoman Sultanate in November 1, 1922, did not end the OttomanState,but only the Ottomandynasty.The official end of the Ottoman State was declared through theTreaty of Lausanne(July 24, 1923). It recognized the new "Ankara government", not the old Constantinople-based Ottoman government, as representing the rightful owner and successor state. TheGrand National Assembly of Turkeydeclared the successor state to be the "Republic of Turkey"(October 29, 1923) less than a month after its international recognition as a state.
- ↑*Üngör, Uğur Ümit(2011).The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913–1950.Oxford University Press. p. 121.ISBN978-0-19-965522-9.
As such, the Greco‐Turkish and Armeno‐Turkish wars (1919–23) were in essence processes of state formation that represented a continuation of ethnic unmi xing and exclusion of Ottoman Christians from Anatolia.
- Kieser, Hans-Lukas(2007).A Quest for Belonging: Anatolia Beyond Empire and Nation (19th-21st Centuries).Isis Press. p. 171.ISBN978-975-428-345-7.
The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 officially recognized the "ethnic cleansing" that had gone on during the Turkish War of Independence ( 1919 - 1922 ) for the sake of undisputed Turkish rule in Asia Minor.
- Avedian, Vahagn (2012)."State Identity, Continuity, and Responsibility: The Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide".European Journal of International Law.23(3): 797–820.doi:10.1093/ejil/chs056.ISSN0938-5428.
The 'War of Independence' was not against the occupying Allies – a myth invented by Kemalists – but rather a campaign to rid Turkey of remaining non-Turkish elements. In fact, Nationalists never clashed with Entente occupying forces until the French forces with Armenian contingents and Armenian deportees began to return to Cilicia in late 1919.
- Kévorkian, Raymond(2020). "The Final Phase: The Cleansing of Armenian and Greek Survivors, 1919–1922". In Astourian, Stephan; Kévorkian, Raymond (eds.).Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State.Berghahn Books. p. 165.ISBN978-1-78920-451-3.
The famous 'war of national liberation', prepared by the Unionists and waged by Kemal, was a vast operation, intended to complete the genocide by finally eradicating Armenian, Greek, and Syriac survivors.
- Gingeras, Ryan(2016).Fall of the Sultanate: The Great War and the End of the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1922.Oxford University Press. p.288.ISBN978-0-19-967607-1.
While the number of victims in Ankara's deportations remains elusive, evidence from other locations suggest that the Nationalists were as equally disposed to collective punishment and population politics as their Young Turk antecedents... As in the First World War, the mass deportation of civilians was symptomatic of how precarious the Nationalists felt their prospects were.
- Kieser, Hans-Lukas(2018).Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide.Princeton University Press. pp. 319–320.ISBN978-1-4008-8963-1.
Thus, from spring 1919, Kemal Pasha resumed, with ex- CUP forces, domestic war against Greek and Armenian rivals. These were partly backed by victors of World War I who had, however, abstained from occupying Asia Minor. The war for Asia Minor— in national diction, again a war of salvation and independence, thus in- line with what had begun in 1913— accomplished Talaat's demographic Turkification beginning on the eve of World War I. Resuming Talaat's Pontus policy of 1916– 17, this again involved collective physical annihilation, this time of the Rûm of Pontus at the Black Sea.
- Levene, Mark(2020). "Through a Glass Darkly: The Resurrection of Religious Fanaticism as First Cause of Ottoman Catastrophe: The thirty-year genocide. Turkey's destruction of its Christian minorities, 1894–1924, by Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi, Cambridge, MA, and London, Harvard University Press, 2019, 672 pp.,ISBN 9780674916456".Journal of Genocide Research.22(4): 553–560.doi:10.1080/14623528.2020.1735560.ISSN1462-3528.S2CID222145177.
Ittihadist violence was as near as near could be optimal against the Armenians (and Syriacs) and in the final Kemalist phase was quantitively entirely the greater in an increasingly asymmetric conflict where, for instance, Kemal could deport "enemies" into a deep interior in a way that his adversaries could not..., it was the hard men, self-styled saviours of the Ottoman-Turkish state, and – culminating in Kemal – unapologetic génocidaires, who were able to wrest its absolute control.
- Levon Marashlian,"Finishing the Genocide: Cleansing Turkey of Armenian Survivors, 1920-1923," in Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide, ed. Richard Hovannisian (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999), pp. 113-45: "Between 1920 and 1923, as Turkish and Western diplomats were negotiating the fate of the Armenian Question at peace conferences in London, Paris, and Lausanne, thousands of Armenians of the Ottoman Empire who had survived the massacres and deportations of World War I continued to face massacres, deportations, and persecutions across the length and breadth of Anatolia. Events on the ground, diplomatic correspondence, and news reports confirmed that it was the policy of the Turkish Nationalists in Angora, who eventually founded the Republic of Turkey, to eradicate the remnants of the empire's Armenian population and finalize the expropriation of their public and private properties."
- Shirinian, George N. (2017).Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, 1913-1923.Berghahn Books. p. 62.ISBN978-1-78533-433-7.
The argument that there was a mutually signed agreement for the population exchange ignores the fact that the Ankara government had already declared its intention that no Greek should remain on Turkish soil before the exchange was even discussed. The final killing and expulsion of the Greek population of the Ottoman Empire in 1920–24 was part of a series of hostile actions that began even before Turkey's entry into World War I.
- Adalian, Rouben Paul(1999)."Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal".In Charny, Israel W. (ed.).Encyclopedia of Genocide: A-H.ABC-CLIO.ISBN978-0-87436-928-1.
Mustafa Kemal completed what Talaat and Enver had started in 1915, the eradication of the Armenian population of Anatolia and the termination of Armenian political aspirations in the Caucasus. With the expulsion of the Greeks, the Turkification and Islamification of Asia Minor was nearly complete.
- Morris, Benny;Ze'evi, Dror(2019).The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924.Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-91645-6.
The Greek seizure of Smyrna and the repeated pushes inland— almost to the outskirts of Ankara, the Nationalist capital—coupled with the largely imagined threat of a Pontine breakaway, triggered a widespread, systematic four- year campaign of ethnic cleansing in which hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Greeks were massacred and more than a million deported to Greece... throughout 1914–1924, the overarching aim was to achieve a Turkey free of Greeks.
- Meichanetsidis, Vasileios Th. (2015). "The Genocide of the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire, 1913–1923: A Comprehensive Overview".Genocide Studies International.9(1): 104–173.doi:10.3138/gsi.9.1.06.S2CID154870709.
The genocide was committed by two subsequent and chronologically, ideologically, and organically interrelated and interconnected dictatorial and chauvinist regimes: (1) the regime of the CUP, under the notorious triumvirate of the three pashas (Üç Paşalar), Talât, Enver, and Cemal, and (2) the rebel government at Samsun and Ankara, under the authority of the Grand National Assembly (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) and Kemal. Although the process had begun before the Balkan Wars, the final and most decisive period started immediately after WWI and ended with the almost total destruction of the Pontic Greeks...
- Kieser, Hans-Lukas(2007).A Quest for Belonging: Anatolia Beyond Empire and Nation (19th-21st Centuries).Isis Press. p. 171.ISBN978-975-428-345-7.
- ↑4.04.1Anderson, Betty S. (2016).A History of the Modern Middle East.Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 35.ISBN9780804798754.
Other websites
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Learning resourcesfrom Wikiversity |
- The Ottoman Empire: A Chronogical Outline
- The Ottoman Empire: The Eternal StateArchived2009-10-25 at theWayback Machine
- 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 Asiais an old book in English from 1920
- Ottoman EmpireCitizendium