Did you find out, no matter in terms of population, territorial area, economic aggregate, per capita GDP... Today's Turkey is not considered a world-class power, but today's Turks always have a big-country mentality.
Because their ancestors did give them a glorious past that they can be proud of. Because people's ancestors were rich: Turkey was formerly the Ottoman Empire!
Birth of the Ottoman Empire
According to expert research, the ancestors of the modern Turks were the Roma, a branch of the Turks. They originally lived a carefree nomadic life in the East and then migrated westward to the Asia Minor Peninsula in Europe.
In 1077 AD, on the Asia Minor peninsula, these Roma established the Roma Sultanate, and the title of the monarch was "Sultan".
Because the Roma are the ancestors of the Turks today, people usually regard the Roma dynasty established by the Roma as the first dynasty in Turkish history, and the founding monarch is Kutarmish I.
In the middle of the 12th century AD, the Roma Kingdom successively defeated the surrounding powerful countries and reached its peak.
However, with the rise of the Mongol Empire, in the Battle of Kesai Mountain in 1243, Xu Liegu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, defeated the Roma Sultanate, and the Roma Sultanate paid tribute to the Mongolian Empire.
In this way, after the middle of the 13th century, the Roma Sultanate began to decline. In the central and eastern parts of Anatolia, there were many small Turkic states, and the entire region entered the "Warring States Period."
At this time, the Turks, a branch of the Roma, quietly rose up, stood out from many small countries, became the only successor of these small countries, and then developed into an empire with great achievements, a long history, and a land spanning three continents.
In 1299 AD, after the decline of the Roma Dynasty, the Turk Ottoman, who was in charge of guarding the border of the Roma Dynasty, rose up to stand on his own, named himself the country, established the Ottoman Dynasty, and called himself Osman I.
In 1307 A.D., the surviving Roma Dynasty was wiped out by the Mongols, and the Mongol Empire also declined due to division, while the Ottoman Dynasty became stronger and stronger because of successive generations of Ming emperors!
Osman I
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
Beginning with the founding sultan Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire and the father of Turkey, Osman was wise and patient, and his subordinates devoted their allegiance to him not because of his bravery, but because of his composure and irresistibility charm.
The Ottoman under his rule was still a small piece of land in the west of the Asia Minor peninsula. But he was not in a hurry to expand the territory. He watched and waited, coexisted with his neighbors, and at the same time learning from them, and then saw the right time to erode the territory of the Byzantine Empire little by little.
In 1301, Osman I led the army to fight with the army sent by the Byzantine emperor in Bafius on the south bank of the Sea of Marmara, and defeated the Byzantine Empire!
The victory in the Battle of Bafius increased Ottoman's prestige, and jihadists from all over Anatolia joined Ottoman's account one after another.
Asia Minor Peninsula (Anatolia) in 1300
Seven years later, Ottoman thought he was ready to fight again, expanding his territory in the direction of the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Othman was killed during the siege of Bursa.
Uthman taught his son before he died: "Glorify the earth with justice and comfort my departed soul with victory... Use your force to promote religion. Glory to the learned man, so that the law of God will be established in the world."
If we say that Osman's role in history is that of a chieftain who gathers a nation around him, and his son Orhan's mission is to forge this nation into a country.
In 1326, Orhan, who was only 20 years old, succeeded to the throne. Orhan fulfilled his father's last wish, successfully captured Bursa, and then moved the capital to Bursa. Later historians regarded it as the beginning of the Ottoman Empire in 1326, and Orhan was hailed as the real founder of the Ottoman Empire.
Compared with Osman, Orhan's skin was lighter, his manners were more elegant, and his appearance was more stalwart, but he was also as simple and fair as his father. In about 10 years, almost all the territories of the Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor were conquered. In 1345, Urhan annexed the Emir of Kalesi, approached the Sea of Marmara, controlled the Dardanelles, and opened the door to Europe.
After a series of reforms, the development of the Ottoman Empire entered a golden period, the domestic economy is prosperous, political stability, and the country's national fortune also going up.
Orhan
When Orhan's son Murad I came to power, he continued the empire's consistent expansion policy. Murad I has a never-weary fighting spirit and a passionate leadership temperament. Compared with the two previous emperors, this Sultan has achieved greater military and political achievements.
If Osman was a chief who united the nation, Orhan forged the nation into a country. By the time of Murad I, he expanded the country into an empire.
Beginning with Murad I, the West began to submit to the East. Just as in the days of Greece and Rome, the East was subjugated to the West.
Immediately after his succession, Murad set off to conquer those borders that bordered theirs, and even beyond— the remnants of the Byzantine Empire and the Balkan states.
First, in 1362, Murad I occupied Adrianople, an important city in the Byzantine Empire, and then the city soon replaced Bursa as the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. And use this as a base for marching to the Balkans.
Then, in 1371, he defeated and surrendered Bulgaria and Serbia in the Balkans. The princes and royal families in the Balkans who had surrendered were forced to fight together and join the Ottoman army to participate in the next expedition. The Ottoman army grew rapidly in a snowball manner.
During the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the 70-year-old Murad I personally led the army against the Balkan coalition composed of Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Magyar. The Ottoman army was outnumbered, but superior in confidence and morale to the Serbs and their allies. In the end, the Ottoman army won the victory, but the Balkan coalition forces took a slant. They sent an assassin to surrender to Murad I. As a result, Murad I was assassinated and killed by the surrenderer during the canonization ceremony for the surrenderer.
It took Murad I a generation to build the Ottoman country he inherited from his father into an empire that would stand proudly in the world for a long time.
Murad I, who expanded the territory and painstakingly built the empire foundation, became the cornerstone of the brilliant achievements of later generations of Sudan.
Murad I in the Battle of Kosovo
Immediately after Murad I was assassinated and killed, his eldest son was declared the heir on the battlefield in Kosovo as Bayezid I.
Bayezid I's nickname was "Yildirim", which means "lightning" or "thunder". Because he fights very fast, is full of energy, and is very destructive.
In Europe, in order to avenge his father's assassination, Bayezid almost slaughtered the nobles of Serbia on the battlefield in Kosovo, and then Serbia and Ottoman signed a peace treaty. Since then, Serbia will lose its dignity and independence as a vassal of the Ottoman for five hundred years.
In 1391, Bayezid I annexed Karamannia, and then annexed some small countries in the north. At this time, Ottoman had almost completely controlled the central and western parts of Asia Minor, reaching the Black Sea in the north and controlling the Aegean Sea in the west. On the southeast side, it borders the Mamluk Sultanate.
The "Thunder" Sultan will not stop his footsteps. Where will the Ottoman Empire expand next? He chose Constantinople.
Then in 1396, a large-scale attack on Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium. Facing the aggressive offensive, the Byzantine emperor felt an unprecedented crisis and finally realized that various political forces, including Venice and Hungary, jointly dispatched the Crusades. This is the last Crusade in history.
In 1396, the Crusaders and the Ottoman army fought a decisive battle at Nicoburg on the Danube. As a result, the Ottoman Empire led by Bayezid I won with an absolute advantage and held the area south of the Danube.
The Byzantine Empire was already in jeopardy, and Bayezid was ready to launch a final blow to it at any time. If it hadn't been for the arrival of an opponent, Bayezid might have occupied Constantinople.
At this time, Bayezid's backyard killed a more fierce master, that is, the lame Timur. He not only captured several Ottoman cities in Armenia but also captured Bayezid's prince. Bayezid had to put aside Europe and turned to face Timur.
However, in the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Timur led an army of 150,000 people into Anatolia and defeated the 70,000 Ottoman armies led by Bayezid. Bayezid was also defeated and captured and finally died in prison.
When Bayezid I was young, he plundered cities, conquered large tracts of land in Europe, smashed a crusade against the Turks, and finally lost to Timur. The Ottoman Empire almost became one of the many countries destroyed by the Mongol iron hoof, drowned in the dust of history.
Painting "Bayezid imprisoned by Timur"
Timur didn't want to weaken the Ottomans too much, so he entrusted the Ottoman country to Bayezid's four sons. After Timur returned to Central Asia, Bayezid's four sons fought for ten years of civil war in order to compete for the succession of Sudan. Finally, Bayezid I's youngest son Mehmet I seized the throne and restored the empire's territory, reunifying the Ottoman Empire.
At this time, the Timur Empire has also torn apart because of the death of the monarch Timur. After losing the biggest competitor in the East, the monarchs of the Ottoman Empire continued to expand frantically, defeated Poland, the most powerful opponent in Eastern Europe at that time, and conquered the entire Balkan Peninsula.
The Ottomans in the Balkans Called for Teenagers to Serve the Ottoman Royal Family and Government
The dynasty created by the Ottomans has risen from the ashes of disintegration, and the emergence of generations of outstanding monarchs has proved its strong resilience and vitality. A generation later, the Ottoman Empire produced the greatest conqueror in its history, Mehmed II.
The seventh Ottoman Sultan was Mehmet II, known as the "Conqueror". He was only 19 years old when he came to the throne, and he had made outstanding military achievements throughout his life, the greatest achievement of which was the conquest of Constantinople.
In 1453, Mehmet II led the Ottoman army to Constantinople and fought an epic battle with the Roman Emperor Constantine XI. Previously, 23 armies had attempted to capture the fabled city, but all had failed. Bayezid I had a chance to win but was held back by Timur.
This time, his descendant, Mehmet II, arrived, and after nearly seven weeks of siege, he was still unsuccessful.
In the early morning of May 29, 1453, Mehmet II ordered a general attack on the city wall. The guards rushed in from the gap in the city wall, and Constantinople fell.
The fall of Constantinople means the demise of the Byzantine Empire that lasted for thousands of years. Mehmet II renamed "Constantinople" to "Istanbul", and the Ottomans would continue to rule over this vast land for four and a half centuries.
Mehmed II the Conqueror
The Ottoman cannon, cast in 1464, was the premier weapon in the world at the time
The descendants of Muhammad II did not give up and continued to fight. They successively conquered most areas along the Mediterranean Sea and established a vast empire spanning Europe, Asia, and Africa. Until the reign of Suleiman I, the power of the Ottoman Empire reached its peak.
In 1520, Suleiman I, who was only 26 years old, came to the throne. During his 46-year reign, it was the heyday of the Ottoman Empire.
In its heyday, the Ottoman Empire had a land area of more than 5 million square kilometers and a population of more than 20 million. It controlled vast lands such as North Africa, Asia Minor, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, East Africa, and Crimea. The surrounding tribes and even some Islamic and Turkic regimes in Southeast Asia and Central Asia also expressed their submission. The Ottoman dynasty at this time was definitely the most powerful dynasty in the world, and it truly dominated Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Suleiman the Magnificent
King of Hungary meets Suleiman the Magnificent
The Fall of the Ottoman Empire
However, any dynasty in the history of the world is full of prosperity and decline, and the Ottoman dynasty is of course no exception. After Suleiman the Great Suleiman I, although his Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) Sokoli relied on his outstanding ability to make the empire The remaining prestige of the empire has been maintained for a period of time, but the empire is still irreversibly declining.
In the next three and a half centuries, after Suleiman the Great, the Ottoman Empire experienced another 25 sultans. Although the empire had occasional respite, it was generally in the process of slow decline, and the internal systems and concepts of the empire gradually became obsolete. Externally, it is also constantly being squeezed by emerging countries.
Beginning in the sixteenth century, Western Europe experienced the baptism of the Renaissance and the Reformation Movement, which ushered in the rapid progress of its technological and cultural development, and the era of the Ottomans began to end.
At the same time, the opening of new shipping routes and great geographical discoveries moved the World Trade Center to the Atlantic coast, making the Mediterranean Sea truly a backwater, and the Ottoman Turks lost the lucrative profits of Mediterranean trade.
During this period, along with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, great powers such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Russia, Prussia (Germany), and Italy rose successively.
The landmark event that the Ottoman Empire stopped its external expansion was the Lepanto naval battle that broke out in 1571.
This was the last large-scale sailing battle in history, and it was also a decisive battle between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire for hegemony in the Mediterranean. The battle against the Ottoman navy was the navy of the "Holy Alliance" composed of Venice, Spain, the Papal States, Genoa, and other countries. The battle ended with the victory of the Christian Holy League, which dealt a heavy blow to the Ottoman Empire's maritime hegemony in the Mediterranean.
It is worth mentioning that in this battle that lasted more than three hours, about 230 galleys of the Ottoman fleet were sunk or captured, while the Christian fleet lost no more than 15 galleys. Among the Spaniards who participated in the battle was Cervantes, who was wounded while attacking Sirocco's flagship, and his left hand was disabled from then on. The victory of this battle, in the words of Cervantes in "Don Quixote": "For the Christian world, this is a lucky day, it makes all countries wake up, they believe that the Turks are invincible. How ridiculous."
1571 Battle of Lepanto
After the seventeenth century, the European power Austria and the emerging Russian Empire on the northern shore of the Black Sea became the main forces to contain the expansion of the Ottomans.
From 1606 to 1697, the Ottomans were defeated by Austria four times. Finally, the Treaty of Karlovitz in 1699 marked the end of the Ottoman era and the beginning of a new European history.
Throughout the nineteenth century, the biggest external threat to the Ottomans was Russia. The newly rising Russia regards the Ottoman Empire as a stumbling block on the road to expansion, and at the same time regards the territory of the Ottoman Empire as fat on the lip. In this century, there were four major wars between Russia and Turkey, and there was a Russian-Turkish war about every 20 years or so. Turkey only won a defensive victory in the Crimean War, and the other three wars lost to Russia. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the expansion of the Russian Empire was seen as a major threat to the balance of power in Europe, especially the squeeze on the living space of the Ottoman Empire.
The reasons for the decline of the Ottoman Empire are very complicated. The external causes are the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the opening of new sea routes, which changed the balance of power in Europe. The internal cause is the malpractice of the guards' tradition, the Qur'an tradition, and the succession system. Coupled with backward concepts, ethnic and religious issues, government corruption, etc., it also accelerated the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.
In repeated failures, the Ottomans took strong soldiers as the way to build a country, and began to learn advanced warfare technology from advanced Western countries, introduce advanced weapons, and advocate military reforms. After several generations of hard work and many top-down reforms, they all ended in failure.
The Ottoman Empire was unable to cope with this external war situation and suffered repeated setbacks. Since then, the once arrogant Ottoman Empire has become the real "sick man of Europe". In order to dismember the Ottoman Empire, the European powers specially invented the term "Oriental Problem": the problem of what to do with Turkey.
Fall of the Ottoman Empire
When the First World War broke out in 1914, Ottoman stood in the wrong camp and joined the Allied Powers to fight against the Allied Powers camp composed of Britain, France, and Russia. The result was defeated by the Allied Powers, and in World War I, Ottoman became the defeated side.
After the war, at the Paris Peace Conference, the Allied Powers proposed to occupy Istanbul, dismember the Ottoman Empire, and carve up Turkey's territories in Asia by France, Italy, and Greece.
In this context, the Turkish War of Independence broke out.
Mustafa Kemal, the leader of the Turkish national revolution, turned the tide and led his troops to block the attacks of Greece, France, and Armenia from the west, south, and east respectively, and kept Turkey's homeland. In 1922, Kemal forced Muhammad VI to abdicate. In 1923, the Ottoman dynasty was overthrown, the monarchy was abolished and the republic was replaced, so the Ottoman dynasty perished and the Turkish Republic was established.
Kemal
In 1922, the victorious Turkish army entered Izmir in the Turkish War of Independence
summary:
From a nomadic tribe in Central Asia, in more than a hundred years, they conquered cities, annexed Anatolia, conquered the Balkan Peninsula, and conquered the Arabian region. Central area. The establishment and growth of the Ottoman Turkish Empire were the results of the efforts of generations of Ottoman monarchs to explore and forge ahead. This empire was established in 1299 AD and perished in 1923 AD. The country lasted for 624 years and there were 36 sultans. This is rare in history. Among the great empires in history, there must be a place for the Ottoman Empire.
