|
|
|
Ottoman Empire |
|
Ottoman Empire (1299 - 1922)
The Ottoman Empire (Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmaniyye) was a Turkish empire that existed from 1299 to 1922. At the height of its power in the 16th and 17th centuries, it spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar (and in 1553 the Atlantic coast of North Africa beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of Austria and Slovakia and the hinterland beyond Ukraine in the north to Sudan and Yemen in the south.
 The empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. At its height, the Ottoman Empire was among the most powerful states of the world. The "golden age" of Ottoman Empire marked by Suleiman the Magnificent. The Empires achievements in urban life was reflected in establishments of Koca Mimar Sinan Ağa, in the navy by Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha. The Ottoman Empire was the only Islamic power to seriously challenge the rising power of Western Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries. With Istanbul as its capital, the Empire was in some respects an Islamic successor of earlier Mediterranean empires - the Roman and Byzantine empires.
 The empire steadily declined during the 19th century and met its demise after its defeat in World War I in the Middle Eastern theatre. In the aftermath of the war, the Ottoman government collapsed and the empire's lands partitioned. The new states created from the remnants of the empire; at present 39 nation-states (40 including the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). In Anatolia, an emergent Turkish national movement waged the Turkish War of Independence, and be the foundation of the birth of the Republic of Turkey. The new republic abolished the Caliphate and Sultanate, declared the Ottoman Dynasty as persona non grata of Turkey. Fifty years later, in 1974, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship.
Further information can be found at the following web sites:
Ottomans.org
Wikipedia: Ottoman Empire |
|
