Ottoman Empire
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- International Digital Organization for Scientific Information - How the Mamluk Historians Welcomed the Ottomans (PDF)
- PBS LearningMedia - An Ottoman Region | 1913: Seeds of Conflict
- History World - History of the Ottoman Empire
- Eleanor Roosevelt College - The Ottoman Empire (1700-1922) (PDF)
- Humanities LibreTexts - The Ottoman Empire
- Khan Academy - READ: Ottoman Empire
- World History Encyclopedia - Ottoman Empire
- The History Files - Ottoman Empire
Where did the Ottoman Empire start?
The Ottoman Empire was founded inAnatolia, the location of modern-day Turkey. Originating in Söğüt (nearBursa, Turkey), the Ottoman dynasty expanded its reign early on through extensive raiding. This was enabled by the decline of theSeljuq dynasty, the previous rulers of Anatolia, who were suffering defeat from Mongol invasion.
How did the Ottoman Empire start?
The Ottoman Empire began at the very end of the 13th century with a series of raids from Turkic warriors (known as ghazis) led byOsman I, a prince (bey) whose father, Ertugrul, had established a power base in Söğüt (nearBursa, Turkey). Osman and his warriors took advantage of a decliningSeljuq dynasty, which had been severely weakened by the Mongol invasions. The Ottoman dynasty continued to expand for several generations, controlling much of southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa at its peak. Osman’s grandsonMurad I laid the foundation for an institutionalized Ottoman state, continued by Murad’s sonBayezid I.
Why was the Ottoman Empire called “the sick man of Europe”?
After the peak of Ottoman rule underSüleyman the Magnificent in the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire struggled to maintain its bloated bureaucracy and decentralized political structure. Several attempts at reform kept the empire afloat but mostly addressed immediate issues, and any success was short-lived. The most far-reaching of these reforms, theTanzimat, contributed to a debt crisis in the 1870s. Its fragile state left it unable to withstand defeat inWorld War I, and most of its territories were divided as spoils as the empire disintegrated.
How did the Ottoman Empire end?
The Ottoman Empire disintegrated and was partitioned after its defeat inWorld War I. The empire had already been in decline for centuries, struggling to maintain a bloated bureaucracy or a centralized administrative structure after various attempts at reform. The problem was exacerbated further by the rise of more localized interests across the empire, such as the rise ofnationalist movements. Upon the Ottomans’ defeat in World War I, a combination of nationalist movements and partition agreements among the Allied powers forced its disintegration into numerous territories, withTurkey as the empire’s immediate successor.
Ottoman Empire, empire created by Turkish tribes inAnatolia (Asia Minor) that grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Ottoman period spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when it was replaced by theTurkish Republic and various successor states in southeasternEurope and theMiddle East. At its height theempireencompassed most of southeastern Europe to the gates ofVienna, including present-dayHungary, theBalkan region,Greece, and parts ofUkraine; portions of the Middle East now occupied byIraq,Syria,Israel, andEgypt;North Africa as far west asAlgeria; and large parts of theArabian Peninsula. The term Ottoman is a dynastic appellation derived fromOsman I (Arabic:ʿUthmān), the nomadicTurkmen chief who founded both thedynasty and the empire about 1300.
The Ottoman state to 1481: the age of expansion
The first period of Ottoman history was characterized by almost continuous territorial expansion, during which Ottoman dominion spread out from a small northwestern Anatolian principality to cover most of southeastern Europe and Anatolia. The political, economic, and social institutions of the classical Islamic empires were amalgamated with those inherited fromByzantium and the great Turkish empires ofCentral Asia and were reestablished in new forms that were to characterize the area into modern times.
- Date:
- c. 1300 - 1922
Origins and expansion of the Ottoman state, c. 1300–1402
In their initial stages of expansion, the Ottomans were leaders of the Turkish warriors for the faith ofIslam, known by the honorific titleghāzī (Arabic: “raider”), who fought against the shrinking ChristianByzantine state. The ancestors of Osman I, the founder of the dynasty, were members of the Kayı tribe who had entered Anatolia along with a mass of TurkmenOğuz nomads. Those nomads, migrating from Central Asia, established themselves as theSeljuq dynasty inIran andMesopotamia in the mid-11th century, overwhelmed Byzantium after theBattle of Manzikert (1071), and occupied eastern and central Anatolia during the 12th century. The ghazis fought against theByzantines and then the Mongols, who invaded Anatolia following the establishment of theIl-Khanid (Ilhanid) empire in Iran and Mesopotamia in the last half of the 13th century. With the disintegration ofSeljuq power and its replacement byMongol suzerainty, enforced by direct military occupation of much of eastern Anatolia, independent Turkmen principalities—one of which was led by Osman—emerged in the remainder of Anatolia.