Lecture 1

Fall of the Ottoman Empire

Fall of the Ottoman Empire

What do you imagine when you think about America? How factual is it?

What do you think was in the imagination of the people in the Ottoman Empire in 1500? 1900?

Central active pivot for Greeks/Romans/Byzantines/Ottomans-Europeans – Dardanelles

[Contrast with central worship pivot of Jerusalem-Mecca]

Who were the Ottomans?

What was going on in/outside the empire which led to its disintegration in 1917?

What were the elements that disappeared? that stayed? that changed form?

source: compiled from Wikipedia by mew

Introduction

The Sublime Ottoman State was a Turkish empire which lasted from 27 July 1299 to 29 October 1923. It was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history; its politics, conflicts, and cultural heritage in a vast area provide one of the longest continuous narratives. During the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular at the height of its power under Suleiman the Magnificent, it the most powerful state in the world – a multinational, multilingual empire.

The Ottomans governed from the southern borders of the Holy Roman Empire to the outskirts of Vienna, Royal Hungary (modern Slovakia) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the north to Yemen and Eritrea in the south; from Algeria in the west to Azerbaijan in the east; controlling much of southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.

With Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), as its capital city, and vast control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, the empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for over six hundred years.

Early era

In the medieval Turkish story "Osman's Dream", the young Osman was inspired to conquest by a vision of empire: a big tree whose roots spread through three continents and whose branches cover the sky. From its roots came four rivers: the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile and the Danube. The tree shaded four mountain ranges, the Caucasus, the Taurus, the Atlas and the Balkan ranges.

Ottoman rule extended over the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. The Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 failed to stop its advance. The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II cemented the status of the Empire as the preeminent power in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.

During the reign of Suleiman, Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia, became tributary principalities. In the east, the Turks took Baghdad from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of Mesopotamia and naval access to the Persian Gulf. The Empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the Mediterranean Sea. By the end of Suleiman's reign, the Empire's population totalled about 15,000,000 people.

European states tried to curb Ottoman control of the traditional overland trade routes between East Asia and Western Europe, which started with the Silk Road. They avoided the Ottoman trade monopoly by finding routes to Asia by sea. The Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 initiated a series of Ottoman-Portuguese naval wars in the Indian Ocean. Also, the huge influx of Spanish silver from the New World caused a sharp devaluation of the Ottoman currency and rampant inflation.

The expansion of Muscovite Russia under Ivan IV (1533–1584) into the Tartar Volga and Caspian regions disrupted the northern pilgrimage and trade routes. In 1571, the Crimean khan Devlet I Giray burned Moscow, and the Crimean Khanate continued to invade Eastern Europe in a series of slave raids. It remained a significant power until the end of the 17th century.

By contrast, the Habsburg frontier settled into a reasonably permanent border, marked only by minor battles for individual fortresses. The stalemate was caused by a simple geographical limit: Vienna marked the furthest point that an Ottoman army could march from Constantinople during the early spring to late autumn campaigning season.