Made inevitable the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, which for centuries dominated large territories that fell victim to its insatiable military expansion. Forced to join the Central Powers, such as Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, it suffered the bitterness of defeat, unable to further establish itself as the world's leading empire.
Founder of the Ottoman Empire
At the end of the 13th century, Osman I Gazi inherited from his father Bey Ertogrul power over the countless Turkish hordes inhabiting Phrygia. Having declared the independence of this relatively small territory and taking the title of Sultan, he managed to conquer a significant part of Asia Minor and thus found a powerful empire, named Ottoman in his honor. She was destined to play an important role in world history.
Already in the middle, the Turkish army landed on the coast of Europe and began its centuries-long expansion, which made this state in the 15th-16th centuries one of the greatest in the world. However, the beginning of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire began already in the 17th century, when the Turkish army, which had never known defeat before and was considered invincible, suffered a crushing blow near the walls of the Austrian capital.
First defeat from the Europeans
In 1683, hordes of Ottomans approached Vienna, besieging the city. Its inhabitants, having heard enough about the wild and ruthless morals of these barbarians, showed miracles of heroism, protecting themselves and their relatives from certain death. As historical documents testify, the success of the defenders was greatly facilitated by the fact that among the command of the garrison there were many prominent military leaders of those years who were able to competently and promptly take all the necessary defensive measures.
When the king of Poland arrived to help the besieged, the fate of the attackers was decided. They fled, leaving rich booty for the Christians. This victory, which began the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, had for the peoples of Europe, first of all, psychological significance. She dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the all-powerful Porte, as Europeans used to call the Ottoman Empire.
Beginning of territorial losses
This defeat, as well as a number of subsequent failures, became the reason for the Peace of Karlowitz concluded in January 1699. According to this document, the Porte lost the previously controlled territories of Hungary, Transylvania and Timisoara. Its borders have shifted to the south by a considerable distance. This was already quite a significant blow to its imperial integrity.
Troubles in the 18th century
If the first half of the next, XVIII century, was marked by certain military successes of the Ottoman Empire, which allowed it, albeit with the temporary loss of Derbent, to maintain access to the Black and Sea of Azov, then the second half of the century brought a number of failures, which also predetermined the future collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Defeat in Turkish war, which Empress Catherine II negotiated with the Ottoman Sultan, forced the latter to sign a peace treaty in July 1774, according to which Russia received the lands stretching between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug. The next year brings a new misfortune - the Porta loses Bukovina, which was transferred to Austria.
The 18th century ended in complete disaster for the Ottomans. The final defeat led to the conclusion of the very unfavorable and humiliating Peace of Yassy, according to which the entire Northern Black Sea region, including the Crimean Peninsula, went to Russia.
The signature on the document certifying that from now on and forever Crimea is ours was personally put by Prince Potemkin. In addition, the Ottoman Empire was forced to transfer to Russia the lands between the Southern Bug and the Dniester, as well as come to terms with the loss of its dominant positions in the Caucasus and the Balkans.
The beginning of a new century and new troubles
The beginning of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century was predetermined by its next defeat in Russian-Turkish war 1806-1812. The result of this was the signing in Bucharest of another agreement, essentially disastrous for the Porte. On the Russian side, the chief commissioner was Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, and on the Turkish side, Ahmed Pasha. The entire area from the Dniester to the Prut went to Russia and began to be called first the Bessarabia region, then the Bessarabia province, and now it is Moldova.
The attempt made by the Turks in 1828 to take revenge from Russia for past defeats turned into a new defeat and another, signed by next year in Andreapol with a peace treaty, which deprived her of the already rather scanty territory of the Danube Delta. To add insult to injury, Greece declared its independence at the same time.
Short-term success, again replaced by defeats
The only time luck smiled on the Ottomans in the years Crimean War 1853-1856, mediocrely lost by Nicholas I. His successor on the Russian throne, Emperor Alexander II, was forced to cede a significant part of Bessarabia to the Porte, but the new war that followed in 1877-1878 returned everything to its place.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire continued. Taking advantage favorable moment, in the same year Romania, Serbia and Montenegro separated from it. All three states declared their independence. The 18th century ended for the Ottomans with the unification of the northern part of Bulgaria and the territory of the empire that belonged to them, called Southern Rumelia.
War with the Balkan Union
The final collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of Republic of Turkey. This was preceded by a series of events, which began in 1908 when Bulgaria declared its independence and thereby ended the five-hundred-year Turkish yoke. This was followed by the war of 1912-1913, declared on the Porte by the Balkan Union. It included Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro. The goal of these states was to seize territories that belonged to the Ottomans at that time.
Despite the fact that the Turks fielded two powerful armies, Southern and Northern, the war ended in victory Balkan Union, led to the signing of another treaty in London, this time depriving the Ottoman Empire of almost the entire Balkan Peninsula, leaving it only Istanbul and a small part of Thrace. The bulk of the occupied territories were received by Greece and Serbia, which almost doubled their area. In those days, a new state was formed - Albania.
Proclamation of the Turkish Republic
You can simply imagine how the collapse of the Ottoman Empire occurred in subsequent years by following the course of the First World War. Wanting to regain at least part of what was lost for last centuries territories, the Porte took part in hostilities, but, unfortunately, on the side of the losing powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. This was the final blow that crushed the once mighty empire that terrified the whole world. The victory over Greece in 1922 did not save it either. The process of decay was already irreversible.
The First World War for the Porte ended with the signing in 1920, according to which the victorious allies shamelessly stole the last territories remaining under Turkish control. All this led to its complete collapse and the proclamation of the Turkish Republic on October 29, 1923. This act marked the end of more than six hundred years of history of the Ottoman Empire.
Most researchers see the reasons for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, first of all, in the backwardness of its economy, the extremely low level of industry, and the lack of a sufficient number of highways and other means of communication. In a country at the level of medieval feudalism, almost the entire population remained illiterate. By many indicators, the empire was much less developed than other states of that period.
Objective evidence of the collapse of the empire
Speaking about what factors indicated the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, we should first of all mention political processes, which took place in it at the beginning of the 20th century and were practically impossible in more early periods. This is the so-called Young Turk Revolution, which occurred in 1908, during which members of the Union and Progress organization seized power in the country. They overthrew the Sultan and introduced a constitution.
The revolutionaries did not last long in power, giving way to supporters of the deposed Sultan. The subsequent period was filled with bloodshed caused by clashes between warring factions and changes in rulers. All this irrefutably indicated that powerful centralized power was a thing of the past, and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire began.
To briefly summarize, it should be said that Turkey has completed the path that from time immemorial was prepared for all states that left their mark in history. This is the origin, rapid flourishing and finally decline, which often led to their complete disappearance. The Ottoman Empire did not disappear completely without a trace, having become today, although a restless, but by no means a dominant member of the world community.
Osman I Ghazi (1258-1326) reigned from 1281, founder of the Ottoman Empire in 1299.
The first Turkish Sultan, Osman I, at the age of 23, inherited vast territories in Phrygia from his father, Prince Ertogrul. He united the scattered Turkish tribes with the Muslims who had fled from the Mongols, later they all began to be called Ottomans, and conquered a significant part of the Byzantine state, gaining access to the Black and Marmara seas. In 1299 he founded the empire named after him. Having captured the Byzantine city of Yenisehir in 1301, Osman made it the capital of his empire. In 1326, he stormed the city of Bursa, which already under his son Orhan became the second capital of the empire.
The territory in Asia Minor, where Turkey is located today, was called Anatolia in ancient times and was the cradle of many civilizations. Among them, one of the most developed was the Byzantine Empire - a Greco-Roman Orthodox state with its capital in Constantinople. Created in 1299 by Sultan Osman, the Ottoman Empire actively expanded its borders and captured neighboring lands. Gradually, many provinces of the weakening Byzantium came under his rule.
The reasons for Sultan Osman's victories lay primarily in his ideology; he declared war on Christians and intended to seize their lands and enrich his subjects. Many Muslims flocked to his banner, including Turkic nomads and artisans who fled from the Mongol invasion, and there were also non-Muslims. The Sultan received everyone. For the first time, he formed an army of Janissaries - the future regular Turkish infantry, created from Christians, slaves and prisoners, and later it was replenished with the children of Christians raised in Islamic traditions.
Osman's authority was so high that poems and songs began to be composed in his honor during his lifetime. Many scientists of that time - dervishes - pointed to the prophetic meaning of his name, which, according to some sources, meant “breaker of bones,” that is, a warrior who knows no barriers and knocks down the enemy; according to others, it means “a hawk-vulture” who feeds the carrion of the dead. But in the West, Christians called him not Osman, but Ottoman (hence the word ottoman - a soft Turkish seat without a back), which simply meant “Ottoman Turk.”
The widespread offensive of Osman and his well-armed army led to the fact that the Byzantine peasants, whom no one protected, were forced to flee, abandoning their well-cultivated agricultural areas. And the Turks got pastures, vineyards, and orchards. The tragedy of Byzantium was that its capital, Constantinople, was captured by the crusading knights in the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The completely plundered city became the capital of the Latin Empire, which collapsed by 1261. At the same time, Byzantium was created again, but already weakened and unable to resist external invasion.
The Byzantines concentrated their efforts on creating a fleet; they wanted to stop the Turks at the sea and prevent them from advancing deeper into the mainland. But nothing could stop Osman. In 1301, his army inflicted a crushing defeat on the combined Byzantine forces near Nicaea (now the Turkish city of Iznik). In 1304, the Sultan captured the city of Ephesus on the Aegean Sea - the center of early Christianity, in which, according to legend, the Apostle Paul lived and wrote the Gospel of John. The Turks sought to Constantinople, to the Bosphorus Strait.
Osman's last conquest was the Byzantine city of Bursa. This victory was very important - it opened the way to Constantinople. The Sultan, who was dying, ordered his subjects to turn Bursa into the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Osman did not live to see the fall of Constantinople. But other sultans continued his work and created the great Ottoman Empire, which lasted until 1922.
By the end of the 15th century, the Ottoman state, as a result of the aggressive policy of the Turkish sultans and military-feudal nobility, turned into a vast feudal empire. It included Asia Minor, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina and vassal Moldavia, Wallachia and the Crimean Khanate.
The plunder of the wealth of conquered countries, along with the exploitation of their own and conquered peoples, contributed to further growth military power of the Turkish conquerors. Many seekers of profit and adventure flocked to the Turkish sultans, who carried out a policy of conquest in the interests of the military-feudal nobility, calling themselves “ghazi” (fighter for the faith). Feudal fragmentation, feudal and religious strife that took place in the countries of the Balkan Peninsula favored the implementation of the aspirations of the Turkish conquerors, who did not encounter united and organized resistance. Capturing one region after another, the Turkish conquerors used material resources conquered peoples to organize new campaigns. With the help of Balkan craftsmen, they created strong artillery, which significantly increased the military power of the Turkish army. As a result of all this, the Ottoman Empire by the 16th century. turned into a powerful military power, whose army soon inflicted a crushing defeat on the rulers of the Safavid state and the Mamluks of Egypt in the East and, having defeated the Czechs and Hungarians, approached the walls of Vienna in the West.
The 16th century in the history of the Ottoman Empire is characterized by continuous aggressive wars in the West and in the East, the intensification of the offensive of the Turkish feudal lords against the peasant masses and the fierce resistance of the peasantry, which repeatedly rose up in arms against feudal oppression.
Turkish conquests in the East
As in the previous period, the Turks, using their military advantage, pursued an offensive policy. At the beginning of the 16th century. The main objects of the aggressive policy of the Turkish feudal lords were Iran, Armenia, Kurdistan and Arab countries.
In the battle of 1514 at Chapdiran, the Turkish army led by Sultan Selim I, which had strong artillery, defeated the army of the Safavid state. Having captured Tabriz, Selim I took out huge military booty from there, including the personal treasury of Shah Ismail, and also sent a thousand of the best Iranian craftsmen to Istanbul for yard service and Turkish nobility. Iranian craftsmen brought to Iznik at that time laid the foundation for the production of colored ceramics in Turkey, which was used in the construction of palaces and mosques in Istanbul, Bursa and other cities.
In 1514-1515, Turkish conquerors conquered Eastern Armenia, Kurdistan and Northern Mesopotamia up to and including Mosul.
During the campaigns of 1516-1517. Sultan Selim I sent his armies against Egypt, which was under the rule of the Mamluks, who also owned Syria and part of Arabia. The victory over the Mamluk army gave all of Syria and Hejaz, along with the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, into the hands of the Ottomans. In 1517, Ottoman troops conquered Egypt. Modest war booty in the form of precious utensils and the treasury of local rulers was sent to Istanbul.
As a result of the victory over the Mamluks, the Turkish conquerors acquired control over the most important shopping centers in the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Cities such as Diyarbakir, Aleppo (Aleppo), Mosul, Damascus were turned into strongholds of Turkish rule. Strong Janissary garrisons were soon stationed here and placed at the disposal of the Sultan's governors. They carried out military and police service, guarding the borders of the Sultan's new possessions. The named cities were also the centers of the Turkish civil administration, which mainly collected and recorded taxes from the population of the province and other revenues to the treasury. The collected funds were sent annually to Istanbul to the court.
Wars of conquest of the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Suleiman Kanuni
The Ottoman Empire reached its greatest power mid-16th century V. under Sultan Suleiman I (1520-1566), called the Lawgiver (Kanuni) by the Turks. For his numerous military victories and the luxury of his court, this sultan received the name Suleiman the Magnificent from the Europeans. In the interests of the nobility, Suleiman I sought to expand the territory of the empire not only in the East, but also in Europe. Having captured Belgrade in 1521, the Turkish conquerors undertook throughout 1526-1543. five campaigns against Hungary. After the victory at Mohács in 1526, the Turks suffered a serious defeat in 1529 near Vienna. But it didn't free Southern Hungary from Turkish domination. Soon Central Hungary was captured by the Turks. In 1543, the part of Hungary conquered by the Turks was divided into 12 regions and transferred to the management of the Sultan's governor.
The conquest of Hungary, like other countries, was accompanied by the robbery of its cities and villages, which contributed to the even greater enrichment of the Turkish military-feudal elite.
Suleiman alternated campaigns against Hungary with military campaigns in other directions. In 1522, the Turks captured the island of Rhodes. In 1534, Turkish conquerors launched a devastating invasion of the Caucasus. Here they captured Shirvan and Western Georgia. Having also captured coastal Arabia, they reached the Persian Gulf through Baghdad and Basra. At the same time, the Mediterranean Turkish fleet drove the Venetians out of most of the islands of the Aegean archipelago, and on the northern coast of Africa Tripoli and Algeria were annexed to Turkey.
In the second half of the 16th century. The Ottoman feudal empire spread over three continents: from Budapest and Northern Taurus to the northern coast of Africa, from Baghdad and Tabriz to the borders of Morocco. The Black and Marmara Seas became the internal basins of the Ottoman Empire. Vast territories of South-Eastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa were thus forcibly included within the borders of the empire.
The Turkish invasions were accompanied by the brutal destruction of cities and villages, the plunder of material and cultural values, and the abduction of hundreds of thousands of civilians into slavery. For the Balkan, Caucasian, Arab and other peoples who fell under the Turkish yoke, they were a historical catastrophe that delayed the process of their economic and cultural development for a long time. At the same time, the aggressive policy of the Turkish feudal lords had extremely negative consequences for the Turkish people themselves. By promoting the enrichment of only the feudal nobility, it strengthened the latter's economic and political power over its own people. The Turkish feudal lords and their state, depleting and ruining the country's productive forces, doomed the Turkish people to lag in economic and cultural development.
Agrarian system
In the 16th century In the Ottoman Empire, developed feudal relations were dominant. Feudal ownership of land came in several forms. To end XVI century most of land The Ottoman Empire was state property, its supreme administrator was the Sultan. However, only part of these lands was under the direct control of the treasury. A significant part of the state land fund consisted of the possessions (domain) of the Sultan himself - best lands in Bulgaria, Thrace, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. The income from these lands went entirely to the personal disposal of the Sultan and for the maintenance of his court. Many regions of Anatolia (for example, Amasya, Kayseri, Tokat, Karaman, etc.) were also the property of the Sultan and his family - sons and other close relatives.
The Sultan distributed state lands to feudal lords for hereditary ownership on the terms of military fief tenure. Owners of small and large fiefs (“timars” - with an income of up to 3 thousand akche and “zeamets” - from 3 thousand to 100 thousand akche) were obliged, at the call of the Sultan, to appear to participate in campaigns at the head of the required number of equipped horsemen (in according to the income received). These lands served as the basis of the economic power of the feudal lords and the most important source of the military power of the state.
From the same fund of state lands, the Sultan distributed land to court and provincial dignitaries, the income from which (they were called khasses, and the income from them was determined in the amount of 100 thousand akche and above) went entirely to the maintenance of state dignitaries in return for salaries. Each dignitary enjoyed the income from the lands provided to him only as long as he retained his post.
In the 16th century the owners of Timars, Zeamets and Khass usually lived in cities and did not run their own households. They collected feudal duties from the peasants sitting on the land with the help of stewards and tax collectors, and often tax farmers.
Another form of feudal land ownership was the so-called waqf possessions. This category included huge areas of land that were fully owned by mosques and various other religious and charitable institutions. These land holdings represented the economic base of the strongest political influence of the Muslim clergy in the Ottoman Empire.
The category of private feudal property included the lands of feudal lords, who received special Sultan's letters for any merit for the unlimited right to dispose of the estates provided. This category of feudal land ownership (called "mulk") arose in the Ottoman state at an early stage of its formation. Despite the fact that the number of mulks was constantly increasing, their share was small until the end of the 16th century.
Peasant land use and the position of the peasantry
Lands of all categories of feudal property were in the hereditary use of the peasantry. Throughout the territory of the Ottoman Empire, peasants living on the lands of feudal lords were included in the scribe books called raya (raya, reaya) and were obliged to cultivate the plots allocated to them. The attachment of rayats to their plots was recorded in laws at the end of the 15th century. During the 16th century. There was a process of enslavement of the peasantry throughout the empire, and in the second half of the 16th century. Suleiman's law finally approved the attachment of peasants to the land. The law stated that the rayat was obliged to live on the land of the feudal lord in whose register it was entered. In the event that a raiyat voluntarily left the plot allotted to him and moved to the land of another feudal lord, the previous owner could find him within 15-20 years and force him to return back, also imposing a fine on him.
While cultivating the plots allotted to them, the peasant rayats bore numerous feudal duties in favor of the land owner. In the 16th century In the Ottoman Empire, all three forms of feudal rent existed - labor, food and cash. The most common was rent in products. Raya Muslims were required to pay tithes on grain, garden and vegetable crops, taxes on all types of livestock, and also perform fodder duties. The landowner had the right to punish and fine those who were guilty. In some areas, peasants also had to work several days a year for the landowner in the vineyard, building a house, delivering firewood, straw, hay, bringing him all kinds of gifts, etc.
All the duties listed above were also required to be performed by non-Muslim rayas. But in addition, they paid a special poll tax to the treasury - jizya from the male population, and in some areas of the Balkan Peninsula they were also obliged to supply boys for the Janissary army every 3-5 years. The last duty (the so-called devshirme), which served the Turkish conquerors as one of the many means of forcible assimilation of the conquered population, was especially difficult and humiliating for those who were obliged to fulfill it.
In addition to all the duties that the rayats performed in favor of their landowners, they also had to perform a number of special military duties (called “avaris”) directly for the benefit of the treasury. Collected in the form of labor, various kinds of natural supplies, and often in cash, these so-called Diwan taxes were more numerous the more wars the Ottoman Empire waged. Thus, the settled agricultural peasantry in the Ottoman Empire bore the main burden of maintenance ruling class and the entire huge state and military machine of the feudal empire.
A significant part of the population of Asia Minor continued to lead the life of nomads, united in tribal or clan unions. Submitting to the head of the tribe, who was a vassal of the Sultan, the nomads were considered military. In wartime, cavalry detachments were formed from them, which, led by their military leaders, were supposed to appear at the first call of the Sultan to a specified place. Among the nomads, every 25 men formed a “hearth”, which was supposed to send five “next” ones from their midst on a campaign, providing them at their own expense with horses, weapons and food during the entire campaign. For this, nomads were exempt from paying taxes to the treasury. But as the importance of the captive cavalry increased, the duties of the detachments made up of nomads increasingly began to be limited to performing auxiliary work: the construction of roads, bridges, baggage service, etc. The main places of settlement of the nomads were the southeastern and southern regions of Anatolia, as well as some areas of Macedonia and Southern Bulgaria.
In the laws of the 16th century. traces of the unlimited right of nomads to move with their herds in any direction remained: “Pasture lands have no boundaries. Since ancient times, it has been established that where cattle go, let them wander in that place. Since ancient times, it has been incompatible with the law to sell and cultivate established pastures. If someone forcibly cultivates them, they should be turned back into pastures. Village residents have no connection with pastures and therefore cannot prohibit anyone from roaming them.”
Pastures, like other lands of the empire, could be the property of the state, clergy, or private individual. They were owned by feudal lords, which included the leaders of nomadic tribes. In all these cases, the exercise of ownership of land or the right to possess it belonged to the person in whose favor the corresponding taxes and fees were collected from the nomads who passed through his lands. These taxes and fees represented feudal rent for the right to use land.
Nomads were not attributed to the owners of the land and did not have individual plots. They used the pasture land together, as communities. If the owner or proprietor of pasture lands was not at the same time the head of a tribe or clan, he could not interfere in the internal affairs of nomadic communities, since they were subordinate only to their tribal or clan leaders.
The nomadic community as a whole was economically dependent on the feudal owners of the land, but each individual member of the nomadic community was economically and legally dependent completely on his community, which was bound by mutual responsibility and dominated by tribal leaders and military leaders. Traditional clan ties covered social differentiation within nomadic communities. Only the nomads who broke ties with the community, settling on the land, turned into rayats, already attached to their plots. However, the process of settling the nomads on the land occurred extremely slowly, since they, trying to preserve the community as a means of self-defense from oppression by landowners, stubbornly resisted all attempts to speed up this process by violent measures.
Administrative and military-political structure
Government system, administrative structure and military organization Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. were reflected in the legislation of Suleiman Kanuni. The Sultan controlled all the income of the empire and its armed forces. Through the great vizier and the head of the Muslim clergy - Sheikh-ul-Islam, who, together with other high secular and spiritual dignitaries, formed the Diwan (council of dignitaries), he ruled the country. The office of the Grand Vizier was called the Sublime Porte.
The entire territory of the Ottoman Empire was divided into provinces, or governorates (eyalets). At the head of the eyalets were governors appointed by the Sultan - beyler beys, who kept all the fief rulers of a given province with their feudal militia under their subordination. They were obliged to go to war personally, leading these troops. Each eyalet was divided into regions called sanjaks. At the head of the sanjak was the sanjak bey, who had the same rights as the beyler bey, but only within his region. He was subordinate to the Beyler Bey. The feudal militia, supplied by the fief holders, represented the main military force of the empire in the 16th century. Under Suleiman Kanuchi, the number of feudal militia reached 200 thousand people.
The main representative of the civil administration in the province was the qadi, who was in charge of all civil and judicial affairs in the district under his jurisdiction, called “kaza”. The borders of the kazy usually, apparently, coincided with the border of the sanjak. Therefore, the kediyas and sanjak beys had to act in concert. However, the qadis were appointed by Sultan's decree and reported directly to Istanbul.
The Janissary army was on government pay and was staffed by Christian youths, who at the age of 7-12 were forcibly taken away from their parents and raised in the spirit of Muslim fanaticism in Turkish families in Anatolia, and then in schools in Istanbul or Edirne (Adrianople). This is an army whose strength in the middle of the 16th century. reached 40 thousand people, was a serious striking force in the Turkish conquests, it was especially important as a garrison guard in the most important cities and fortresses of the empire, primarily on the Balkan Peninsula and in the Arab countries, where there was always the danger of popular indignation against the Turkish yoke.
From the middle of the 15th and especially in the 16th century. Turkish sultans paid great attention creating your own navy. Using Venetian and other foreign specialists, they created a significant galley and sailing fleet, which, with constant corsair raids, undermined normal trade in the Mediterranean Sea and was a serious opponent of the Venetian and Spanish naval forces.
The internal military-political organization of the state, which responded primarily to the tasks of maintaining a huge military machine, with the help of which conquests were carried out in the interests of the class of Turkish feudal lords, made the Ottoman Empire, in the words of K. Marx, “the only truly military power of the Middle Ages.”( K. Marx, Chronological extracts, II “Archive of Marx and Engels”, vol. VI, p. 189.)
City, crafts and trade
In the conquered countries, the Turkish conquerors inherited numerous cities, in which a developed craft had long been established and a lively trade was conducted. After the conquest, major cities were turned into fortresses and centers of military and civil administration. Handicraft production, regulated and regulated by the state, was obliged primarily to serve the needs of the army, court and feudal lords. The most developed industries were those that produced fabrics, clothing, shoes, weapons, etc. for the Turkish army.
Urban artisans were united into guild corporations. No one had the right to work outside the workshop. The production of artisans was subject to the strictest regulation by the guilds. Craftsmen could not produce those products that were not provided for by the guild regulations. So, for example, in Bursa, where weaving production was concentrated, according to the workshop regulations, for each type of fabric it was allowed to use only certain types of threads, it was indicated what the width and length of the pieces should be, the color and quality of the fabric. Craftsmen were strictly prescribed places to sell products and purchase raw materials. They were not allowed to buy threads and other materials in excess of the established norm. No one could enter the workshop without a special test and without a special guarantee. Prices for handicraft products were also regulated.
Trade, like crafts, was regulated by the state. The laws established the number of shops in each market, the quantity and quality of goods sold and their prices. This regulation, state taxes and local feudal levies prevented the development of free trade within the empire, thereby restraining the growth of the social division of labor. The predominantly subsistence nature of peasant farming, in turn, limited the possibilities for the development of crafts and trade. In some places there were local markets where exchanges were made between peasants and townspeople, between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders. These markets operated once a week or twice a month, and sometimes less often.
The result of the Turkish conquests was a serious disruption of trade in the Mediterranean and Black Seas and a significant reduction in trade relations between Europe and the countries of the East.
However, the Ottoman Empire was not able to completely break the traditional trade ties between the East and the West. Turkish rulers benefited from the trade of Armenian, Greek and other merchants, collecting customs duties and market duties from them, which became a profitable item for the Sultan's treasury.
Venice, Genoa and Dubrovnik were interested in Levantine trade back in the 15th century. obtained permission from the Turkish sultans to conduct trade in the territory subject to the Ottomans. Foreign ships visited Istanbul, Izmir, Sinop, Trabzon, and Thessaloniki. However, the internal regions of Asia Minor remained almost completely uninvolved in trade relations with the outside world.
Slave markets existed in Istanbul, Edirne, in Anatolian cities and in Egypt, where an extensive slave trade was carried out. During their campaigns, the Turkish conquerors took tens of thousands of adults and children from the enslaved countries as prisoners, turning them into slaves. Slaves were widely used in the domestic life of Turkish feudal lords. Many girls ended up in the harems of the Sultan and the Turkish nobility.
Popular uprisings in Asia Minor in the first half of the 16th century.
Wars of the Turkish conquerors from the beginning of the 16th century. entailed an increase in the already numerous exactions, in particular exactions in favor of the active armies, which in a continuous stream passed through the villages and cities of Asia Minor or were concentrated in them in preparation for new offensives against the Safavid state and Arab countries. The feudal rulers demanded more and more funds from the peasants to support their troops, and it was at this time that the treasury began to introduce emergency military taxes (avaris). All this led to an increase in popular discontent in Asia Minor. This discontent found expression not only in the anti-feudal protests of the Turkish peasantry and nomadic herders, but also in the liberation struggle of non-Turkish tribes and peoples, including residents of the eastern regions of Asia Minor - Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, etc.
In 1511-1512 Asia Minor was engulfed in a popular uprising led by Shah-kulu (or Shaitan-kulu). The uprising, despite the fact that it took place under religious Shiite slogans, was a serious attempt by farmers and nomadic pastoralists of Asia Minor to provide armed resistance to the strengthening feudal exploitation. Shah-kulu, proclaiming himself a “savior,” called for refusal to obey the Turkish Sultan. In battles with rebels in the Sivas and Kayseri regions, the Sultan's troops were repeatedly defeated.
Sultan Selim I led a fierce struggle against this uprising. Under the guise of Shiites, more than 40 thousand inhabitants were exterminated in Asia Minor. Everyone who could be suspected of disobedience to the Turkish feudal lords and the Sultan was declared Shiites.
In 1518, another major popular uprising broke out - under the leadership of the peasant Nur Ali. The center of the uprising was the areas of Karahisar and Niksar, from there it later spread to Amasya and Tokat. The rebels here also demanded the abolition of taxes and duties. After repeated battles with the Sultan's troops, the rebels scattered to the villages. But soon a new uprising arose in 1519 in the vicinity of Tokat, in short term covered the entire Central Anatolia. The number of rebels reached 20 thousand people. The leader of this uprising was one of the inhabitants of Tokat, Jelal, after whose name everything of this kind popular uprisings later became known as “Jalali”.
Like previous uprisings, Celal's uprising was directed against the tyranny of the Turkish feudal lords, against countless duties and extortions, against the excesses of the Sultan's officials and tax collectors. Armed rebels captured Karahisar and headed towards Ankara.
To suppress this uprising, Sultan Selim I had to send significant military forces to Asia Minor. The rebels in the battle of Aksehir were defeated and scattered. Jalal fell into the hands of punitive forces and was brutally executed.
However, the reprisal against the rebels did not pacify the peasant masses for long. During 1525-1526 The eastern regions of Asia Minor up to Sivas were again engulfed in a peasant uprising, led by Koca Soglu-oglu and Zunnun-oglu. In 1526, an uprising led by Kalender Shah, numbering up to 30 thousand participants - Turks and Kurdish nomads, engulfed the Malatya region. Farmers and cattle breeders demanded not only a reduction in duties and taxes, but also the return of land and pastures that had been appropriated by the Sultan's treasury and distributed to Turkish feudal lords.
The rebels repeatedly defeated punitive detachments and were defeated only after a large Sultan's army was sent from Istanbul against them.
Peasant uprisings of the early 16th century. in Asia Minor indicated a sharp aggravation class struggle in Turkish feudal society. In the middle of the 16th century. A Sultan's decree was issued on the deployment of Janissary garrisons in the largest points of all provinces of the empire. With these measures and punitive expeditions, the Sultan's power managed to restore calm in Asia Minor for some time.
External relations
In the second half of the 16th century. The international importance of the Ottoman Empire, as one of the strongest powers, increased greatly. Its range of external relations has expanded. The Turkish sultans pursued an active foreign policy, widely using not only military but also diplomatic means to fight their opponents, primarily the Habsburg Empire, which faced the Turks in South-Eastern Europe.
In 1535 (according to other sources in 1536), the Ottoman Empire entered into an alliance treaty with France, which was interested in weakening the Habsburg Empire with the help of the Turks; At the same time, Sultan Suleiman I signed the so-called capitulations (chapters, articles) - a trade agreement with France, on the basis of which French merchants received, as a special favor of the Sultan, the right to freely trade in all his possessions. The alliance and trade agreements with France strengthened the position of the Ottoman Empire in the fight against the Habsburgs, so the Sultan did not skimp on benefits for the French. French merchants and French subjects in general in the Ottoman Empire enjoyed especially privileged conditions on the basis of capitulations.
France held in its hands almost all of the Ottoman Empire's trade with European countries until the beginning of the 17th century, when Holland and England managed to achieve similar rights for their subjects. Until then, English and Dutch merchants had to trade in Turkish possessions on ships flying the French flag.
Official relations between the Ottoman Empire and Russia began at the end of the 15th century, after the conquest of Crimea by Mehmed P. Having conquered Crimea, the Turks began to obstruct the trade of Russian merchants in Kafe (Feodosia) and Azov.
In 1497 Grand Duke Ivan III sent the first Russian ambassador, Mikhail Pleshcheev, to Istanbul with a complaint about the said harassment of Russian trade. Pleshcheev was given an order to “give a list of the oppressions inflicted on our guests in Turkish lands.” The Moscow government repeatedly protested against the devastating raids of the Crimean Tatars on Russian possessions. The Turkish sultans, through the Crimean Tatars, attempted to extend their rule north of the Black Sea coast. However, the struggle of the peoples of the Russian state against Turkish aggression and the defensive measures of the Russian authorities on the Don and Dnieper did not allow the Turkish conquerors and Crimean khans to carry out their aggressive plans.
Culture
The Muslim religion, which sanctified the domination of the Turkish feudal lords, left its mark on the science, literature and art of the Turks. Schools (madrassas) existed only at large mosques and served the purpose of educating clergy, theologians, and judges. The students of these schools sometimes produced scientists and poets with whom the Turkish sultans and dignitaries liked to surround themselves.
The end of the 15th and 16th centuries are considered the heyday, the “golden age” of Turkish classical poetry, which was strongly influenced by Persian poetry. From the latter, such poetic genres as qasida (ode of praise), ghazal (lyrical verse), as well as subjects and images were borrowed: traditional nightingale, rose, singing of wine, love, spring, etc. Famous poets of this time - Ham- di Celebi (1448-1509), Ahmed Pasha (died 1497), Nejati (1460-1509), poetess Mihri Khatun (died 1514), Mesihi (died 1512), Revani (died 1524), Ishak Chelebi (died 1537) - wrote mainly lyrical poems. The last poets of the “golden age” - Lyami (died 1531) and Baki (1526-1599) repeated the plots of classical poetry.
The 17th century in Turkish literature is called the “century of satire.” The poet Veysi (died 1628) wrote about the decline of morals (“Exhortation to Istanbul”, “Dream”), the poet Nefi (died 1635) for his cycle of satirical poems “Arrows of Fate”, in which evil was exposed not only know, but also the Sultan, paid with his life.
In the field of science, Katib Chelebi (Haji Khalife, 1609-1657) gained the greatest fame during this period with his works on history, geography, bio-bibliography, philosophy, etc. Thus, his works “Description of the World” (“Jihan-nyuma”), “Chronicle of Events” (“Fezleke”), a bio-bibliographic dictionary of Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Central Asian and other authors, containing information about 9512 authors, have not lost their value to this day. Valuable historical chronicles of events in the Ottoman Empire were compiled by Khoja Sadddin (died 1599), Mustafa Selyaniki (died 1599), Mustafa Aali (died 1599), Ibrahim Pechevi (died 1650) and other authors XVI and first half XVII V.
Political treatises by Aini Ali, Katib Chelebi, Kochibey and other authors of the 17th century. are the most valuable sources for studying the military-political and economic state of the empire at the end of the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries. The famous traveler Evliya Celebi left a wonderful ten-volume description of his travels through the Ottoman Empire, southern Russia and Western Europe.
The art of construction was largely subject to the whims of the Turkish sultans and nobility. Every sultan and many major dignitaries considered it obligatory to mark the period of their reign by building a mosque, palace or some other structure. Many of the monuments of this kind that have survived to this day amaze with their splendor. Talented architect of the 16th century. Sinan built many different structures, including more than 80 mosques, of which the most architecturally significant are the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul (1557) and the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (1574).
Turkish architecture arose on the basis of local traditions in the conquered countries of the Balkan Peninsula and Western Asia. These traditions were diverse, and the creators of the architectural style of the Ottoman Empire primarily sought to unite them into something whole. The most important element of this synthesis was the Byzantine architectural scheme, especially manifested in the Constantinople Church of St. Sofia.
The prohibition by Islam to depict living beings resulted in the fact that Turkish fine art developed mainly as one of the branches of construction craftsmanship: wall painting in the form of floral and geometric patterns, wood, metal and stone carvings, relief work on plaster, marble, mosaic work made of stone, glass, etc. In this area, both forcibly resettled and Turkish craftsmen achieved high degree perfection. The art of Turkish craftsmen in the field of decorating weapons with inlay, carving, notching in gold, silver, ivory, etc. is also known. However, the religious prohibition of depicting living beings was often violated; for example, in many cases miniatures were used to decorate manuscripts, depicting both people and animals.
The art of calligraphy has reached high perfection in Turkey. Inscriptions from the Koran were also widely used to decorate the walls of palaces and mosques.
Beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire
By the end of the 16th century, at a time when strong centralized states began to emerge in Europe, in the vast and multi-tribal Ottoman Empire, internal economic and political ties not only did not strengthen, but, on the contrary, began to weaken. The anti-feudal movements of the peasantry and the struggle of non-Turkish peoples for their liberation reflected irreconcilable internal contradictions that the Sultan’s government was unable to overcome. The consolidation of the empire was also hampered by the fact that the central region of the empire - economically backward Anatolia - did not and could not become a center of economic and political gravity for the conquered peoples.
As commodity-money relations developed, the interest of feudal lords in increasing the profitability of their military fief possessions increased. They began to arbitrarily turn these conditional possessions into their own property. Military fiefs began to evade the obligation to maintain detachments for the Sultan and to participate in military campaigns, and began to appropriate income from fief possessions. At the same time, a struggle began between individual feudal groups for the possession of land, for its concentration. As a contemporary wrote, “among them there are people who have 20-30 and even 40-50 zeamet and timar, the fruits of which they devour.” This led to the fact that state ownership of land began to weaken and gradually lose its significance, and the military-feudal system began to disintegrate. Feudal separatism intensified. At the end of the 16th century, undoubted signs of a weakening of the Sultan's power appeared.
The extravagance of the sultans and their courtiers required enormous funds. A significant share government revenues absorbed the continuously growing bureaucratic military-administrative and financial apparatus of the state in the center and in the provinces. A very large part of the funds was spent on maintaining the army of the Janissaries, whose numbers increased as the feudal militia supplied by the fiefs decayed and declined. The number of Janissary troops also increased because the Sultan needed military force to suppress the growing struggle of the Turkish and non-Turkish masses against feudal and national oppression. Janissary army in early XVII exceeded 90 thousand people.
The state authorities, trying to increase treasury revenues, began to increase old taxes and introduce new ones from year to year. The jizya tax, at the beginning of the 16th century equal to 20-25 akche per person, by the beginning of the 17th century reached 140 akche, and tax collectors who extremely abused their powers sometimes brought it up to 400-500 akche. Feudal taxes levied by landowners also increased.
At the same time, the Treasury began to give the right to collect taxes from state lands to tax farmers. Thus, a new category of land owners appeared and began to strengthen - tax farmers, who actually turned into feudal owners of entire regions.
Court and provincial dignitaries often acted as tax farmers. A large number of state lands through taxation fell into the hands of the Janissaries and Sipahii.
During the same period, the aggressive policy of the Ottoman Empire encountered increasingly serious obstacles.
Strong and ever-increasing resistance to this policy was provided by Russia, Austria, Poland and, in the Mediterranean, Spain.
Under Suleiman Kanuni's successor, Selim II (1566-1574), a campaign was launched against Astrakhan (1569). But this event, which required significant costs, was not successful: the Turkish army was defeated and was forced to retreat.
In 1571, the combined fleet of Spain and Venice inflicted a crushing defeat on the Turkish fleet in the Gulf of Lepanto. Failure Astrakhan campaign and the defeat at Lepanto indicated the beginning of the military weakening of the empire.
Nevertheless, the Turkish sultans continued to wage wars that were exhausting for the masses. Started in 1578 and bringing enormous disasters to the peoples of Transcaucasia, the war of the Turkish Sultan with the Safavids ended in 1590 with the signing of a treaty in Istanbul, according to which Tabriz, Shirvan, part of Luristan, Western Georgia and some other regions of the Caucasus were assigned to Turkey. However, she was able to keep these areas (except for Georgian ones) under her rule only for 20 years.
Peasant uprisings at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries.
The state treasury sought to compensate for its military expenses through additional levies from the tax-paying population. There were so many all kinds of emergency taxes and “surcharges” to existing taxes that, as the chronicler wrote, “in the provinces of the state, emergency taxes brought the subjects to the point that they were disgusted with this world and everything that is in it.” The peasants went bankrupt in droves and, despite the punishments that threatened them, fled from their lands. Crowds of hungry and ragged people moved from one province to another in search of tolerable living conditions. Peasants were punished and forced to pay increased taxes for leaving the land without permission. However, these measures did not help.
The arbitrariness of officials, tax farmers, all kinds of duties and labor associated with the need to serve the Sultan's army during camps, caused outbreaks of discontent among the peasants during the last quarter of the 16th century.
In 1591, there was an uprising in Diyarbakir in response to the brutal measures taken by the Beyler Bey when collecting arrears from the peasants. Clashes between the population and the army occurred in 1592-1593. in the Erzl Room and Baghdad areas. In 1596, uprisings broke out in Kerman and neighboring areas of Asia Minor. In 1599, discontent, becoming general, resulted in peasant revolt, which covered the central and eastern regions of Anatolia.
This time the indignation of the rebels was directed against feudal exactions, taxes, bribery and the arbitrariness of the Sultan's officials and tax farmers. The peasant movement was used by small peasants, who in turn opposed the usurpation of their rights to land by people from the court-bureaucratic aristocracy, large landowners and tax farmers. The small Anatolian feudal lord Kara Yazıcı, having gathered an army of 20-30 thousand people from rebel farmers, nomadic cattle breeders and small farmers, took possession of the city of Kayseri in 1600, declared himself the sultan of the captured regions and refused to obey the Istanbul court. The struggle of the Sultan's armies against popular anti-feudal uprisings continued for five years (1599-1603). In the end, the Sultan managed to come to an agreement with the rebellious feudal lords and brutally suppress the peasant uprising.
However, in subsequent years, throughout the first half of the 17th century, the anti-feudal protests of the peasantry in Asia Minor did not stop. The Jalali movement was especially powerful in 1608. This uprising also reflected the struggle of the enslaved peoples of Syria and Lebanon for liberation from the yoke of Turkish feudal lords. The leader of the uprising, Janpulad-oglu, proclaimed the independence of the regions he had captured and made efforts to attract some Mediterranean states to fight against the Sultan. He concluded, in particular, an agreement with the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Using the most brutal terror, the Sultan’s punishers mercilessly dealt with participants in the “Jalali” movement. According to chroniclers, they destroyed up to 100 thousand people.
Even more powerful were the uprisings of the non-Turkish peoples of the empire in Europe, especially in the Balkans, directed against Turkish rule.
The fight against anti-feudal and people's liberation movements required enormous funds and constant effort from the Turkish rulers, which further undermined the regime of the Sultan's despotism.
The struggle of feudal groups for power. Role of the Janissaries
The Ottoman Empire was also shaken by numerous feudal-separatist uprisings throughout the first half of the 17th century. the uprisings of Bekir Chavush in Baghdad, Abaza Pasha in Erzurum, Vardar Ali Pasha in Rumelia, the Crimean khans and many other powerful feudal lords followed one after another.
The Janissary army also became an unreliable support for the Sultan's power. This large army required huge funds, which were often not enough in the treasury. The intensified struggle for power between individual groups of the feudal aristocracy made the Janissaries a force actively participating in all court intrigues. As a result, the Janissary army turned into a hotbed of court unrest and rebellion. So, in 1622, with his participation, Sultan Osman II was overthrown and killed, and a year later his successor, Mustafa I, was overthrown.
Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 17th century. was still a strong power. Vast territories in Europe, Asia and Africa remained under the rule of the Turks. The long war with the Austrian Habsburgs ended in 1606 with the Treaty of Sitvatorok, which fixed the former borders of the Ottoman state with the Habsburg Empire. The war with Poland ended with the capture of Khotyn (1620). As a result of the war with Venice (1645-1669), the Turks took possession of the island of Crete. New wars with the Safavids, which lasted with short interruptions for almost 30 years, ended in 1639 with the signing of the Kasri-Shirin Treaty, according to which the lands of Azerbaijan, as well as Yerevan, went to Iran, but the Turks retained Basra and Baghdad. Nevertheless military power The Turks had already been undermined. It was during this period - in the first half of the 17th century. - those trends developed that later led to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire, officially called the Great Ottoman State, lasted 623 years.
It was a multinational state, whose rulers respected their traditions, but did not deny others. It was for this advantageous reason that many neighboring countries allied with them.
In Russian-language sources the state was called Turkish or Tursky, and in Europe it was called Porta.
History of the Ottoman Empire
The Great Ottoman State emerged in 1299 and lasted until 1922. The first sultan of the state was Osman, after whom the empire was named.
The Ottoman army was regularly replenished with Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and other nations. Anyone could come and become a member of the Ottoman army only by uttering an Islamic formula.
The lands obtained as a result of the seizure were allocated for agriculture. In such areas there was small house and garden. The owner of this plot, which was called "timar", was obliged to appear to the Sultan at the first call and fulfill his demands. He had to appear to him on his own horse and fully armed.
The horsemen did not pay any taxes, since they paid with “their blood.”
Due to the active expansion of borders, they needed not only cavalry troops, but also infantry, which is why they created one. Osman's son Orhan also continued to expand the territory. Thanks to him, the Ottomans found themselves in Europe.
There they took little boys aged about 7 years old to study with Christian peoples, whom they taught, and they converted to Islam. Such citizens, who grew up in such conditions from childhood, were excellent warriors and their spirit was invincible.
Gradually they formed their own fleet, which included warriors of different nationalities, they even took in pirates who willingly converted to Islam and fought active battles.
What was the name of the capital of the Ottoman Empire?
Emperor Mehmed II, having captured Constantinople, made it his capital and called it Istanbul.
However, not all battles went smoothly. At the end of the 17th century there was a series of failures. For example, the Russian Empire took Crimea, as well as the Black Sea coast, from the Ottomans, after which the state began to suffer more and more defeats.
In the 19th century, the country began to quickly weaken, the treasury began to empty, Agriculture was conducted poorly and inactively. When defeated during the First World War, a truce was signed, Sultan Mehmed V was abolished and went to Malta, and subsequently to Italy, where he lived until 1926. The empire fell apart.
The territory of the empire and its capital
The territory expanded very actively, especially during the reign of Osman and Orhan, his son. Osman began to expand his borders after he came to Byzantium.
Territory of the Ottoman Empire (click to enlarge)
Initially, it was located on the territory of modern Turkey. Then the Ottomans reached Europe, where they expanded their borders and captured Constantinople, which was later named Istanbul and became the capital of their state.
Serbia, as well as many other countries, were also annexed to the territories. The Ottomans annexed Greece, some islands, as well as Albania and Herzegovina. This state was one of the most powerful for many years.
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
The reign of Sultan Suleiman I is considered the heyday. During this period, many campaigns were made against Western countries, thanks to which the borders of the Empire were significantly expanded.
Due to active positive period reign, the Sultan was nicknamed Suleiman the Magnificent. He actively expanded borders not only in Muslim countries, but also by annexing European countries. He had his own viziers, who were obliged to inform the Sultan about what was happening.
Suleiman I ruled for a long time. His idea throughout the years of his reign was the idea of uniting the lands, just like his father Selim. He also planned to unite the peoples of the East and West. That is why he maintained his position quite directly and did not deviate from his goal.
Although active expansion of borders also occurred in the 18th century, when most of the battles were won, however, the most positive period is still considered era of the reign of Suleiman I - 1520-1566.
Rulers of the Ottoman Empire in chronological order
Rulers of the Ottoman Empire (click to enlarge)
The Ottoman dynasty ruled for a long time. Among the list of rulers, the most prominent were Osman, who formed the Empire, his son Orhan, and Suleiman the Magnificent, although each sultan left his mark on the history of the Ottoman State.
Initially, the Ottoman Turks, fleeing the Mongols, partially migrated towards the West, where they were in the service of Jalal ud-Din.
Next, part of the remaining Turks was sent to the possession of the padishah Sultan Kay-Kubad I. Sultan Bayazid I, during the battle of Ankara, was captured and then died. Timur divided the Empire into parts. After this, Murad II began its restoration.
During the reign of Mehmed Fatih, the Fatih Law was adopted, which implied the murder of all those who interfere with the rule, even siblings. The law did not last very long and was not supported by everyone.
Sultan Abduh Habib II was overthrown in 1909, after which the Ottoman Empire ceased to be a monarchical state. When Abdullah Habib II Mehmed V began to rule, under his rule the Empire began to actively fall apart.
Mehmed VI, who ruled briefly until 1922, until the end of the Empire, left the state, which finally collapsed in the 20th century, but the prerequisites for this were already in the 19th century.
Last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
The last sultan was Mehmed VI, who was 36th on the throne. Before his reign, the state was experiencing a significant crisis, so it was extremely difficult to restore the Empire.
Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI Vahideddin (1861-1926)
He became ruler at the age of 57. After the start of his reign, Mehmed VI dissolved parliament, but the First World War greatly undermined the activities of the Empire and the Sultan had to leave the country.
Sultanas of the Ottoman Empire - their role in government
Women in the Ottoman Empire did not have the right to rule the state. This rule existed in all Islamic states. However, there is a period in the history of the state when women actively participated in government.
It is believed that the female sultanate emerged as a result of the end of the period of campaigns. Also, the formation of a female sultanate is largely connected with the abolition of the law “On Succession to the Throne”.
The first representative was Hurrem Sultan. She was the wife of Suleiman I. Her title was Haseki Sultan, which means "Most Beloved Wife." She was very educated, knew how to conduct business negotiations and respond to various messages.
She was an advisor to her husband. And since he most spent time in battles, she took on the main responsibilities of the government.
Fall of the Ottoman Empire
As a result of numerous failed battles during the reign of Abdullah Habib II Mehmed V, the Ottoman state began to actively collapse. Why the state collapsed is a complex question.
However, we can say that the main moment in its collapse was precisely the First World War, which put an end to the Great Ottoman State.
Descendants of the Ottoman Empire in modern times
In modern times, the state is represented only by its descendants, determined by family tree. One of them is Ertogrul Osman, who was born in 1912. He could have become the next sultan of his empire if it had not collapsed.
Ertogrul Osman became the last grandson of Abdul Hamid II. He speaks several languages fluently and has a good education.
His family moved to Vienna when he was about 12 years old. There he received his education. Ertogul is married for the second time. His first wife died without giving him any children. His second wife was Zaynep Tarzi, who is the niece of Ammanullah, former king Afghanistan.
The Ottoman state was one of the great ones. Among its rulers there are several of the most outstanding, thanks to whom its borders significantly expanded in a fairly short period of time.
However, the First World War, as well as many lost defeats, caused serious damage to this empire, as a result of which it disintegrated.
Currently, the history of the state can be seen in the film “The Secret Organization of the Ottoman Empire,” where many moments from history are described briefly but in sufficient detail.
Start
Transformation of the Ottoman Empire from a tiny state in Asia Minor in the mid-15th century to greatest empire in Europe and the Middle East by the mid-16th century was dramatic. In less than a century, the Ottoman dynasty destroyed Byzantium and became the undisputed leaders of the Islamic world, wealthy patrons of a sovereign culture, and rulers of an empire stretching from the Atlas Mountains to the Caspian Sea. The key moment in this rise is considered to be the capture of the capital of Byzantium, Constantinople, by Mehmed 2 in 1453, the capture of which turned the Ottoman state into a powerful power.
History of the Ottoman Empire in chronological order
The 1515 peace treaty concluded with Persia allowed the Ottomans to gain the regions of Diyarbakir and Mosul (which were located on the upper reaches of the Tigris River).
Also, between 1516 and 1520, Sultan Selim 1 (reigned 1512 - 1520) expelled the Safivids from Kurdistan and also destroyed the Mameluke power. Selim, with the help of artillery, defeated the Mameluke army at Dolbec and took Damascus; he subsequently subjugated the territory of Syria, took possession of Mecca and Medina.
S ultan Selim 1
Selim then approached Cairo. Having no other opportunity to capture Cairo except by a long and bloody struggle, for which his army was not prepared, he offered the inhabitants of the city to surrender in exchange for various favors; the residents gave up. Immediately the Turks carried out a terrible massacre in the city. After the conquest of the Holy Places, Mecca and Medina, Selim proclaimed himself caliph. He appointed a pasha to rule Egypt, but left next to him 24 rains of Mamelukes (who were considered subordinate to the pasha, but had limited independence with the ability to complain about the pasha to the Sultan).
Selim is one of the cruel sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Execution of their relatives (the Sultan’s father and brothers were executed on his orders); repeated executions of countless prisoners captured during military campaigns; executions of nobles.
The capture of Syria and Egypt from the Mamelukes made Ottoman territories an integral part of a vast network of overland caravan routes from Morocco to Beijing. At one end of this trade network were the spices, medicines, silks and, later, porcelain of the East; on the other - gold dust, slaves, precious stones and other goods from Africa, as well as textiles, glass, hardware, wood from Europe.
The struggle between Ottoman and Europe
The reaction of Christian Europe to the rapid rise of the Turks was contradictory. Venice sought to maintain as large a share as possible in trade with the Levant - even ultimately at the expense of its own territory, and King Francis 1 of France openly entered into an alliance with (reigned 1520 - 1566) against the Austrian Habsburgs.
The Reformation and the subsequent Counter-Reformation led to the fact that they helped the slogan of the Crusades, which once united all of Europe against Islam, to become a thing of the past.
After his victory at Mohács in 1526, Suleiman 1 reduced Hungary to the status of his vassal and captured a significant part of European territories - from Croatia to the Black Sea. The Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529 was lifted more because of the winter cold and the long distances that made it difficult to supply the army from Turkey than because of Habsburg opposition. Ultimately, the Turks' entry into the long religious war with Safavid Persia saved Habsburg Central Europe.
The peace treaty of 1547 assigned the entire south of Hungary to the Ottoman Empire until Ofen was turned into an Ottoman province, divided into 12 sanjaks. Ottoman rule in Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania was consolidated by peace from 1569. The reason for such peace conditions was the large amount of money that was given by Austria to bribe Turkish nobles. The war between the Turks and the Venetians ended in 1540. The Ottomans were given the last territories of Venice in Greece and on the islands in the Aegean Sea. The war with the Persian Empire also bore fruit. The Ottomans took Baghdad (1536) and occupied Georgia (1553). This was the dawn of the power of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire's fleet sailed unhindered in the Mediterranean.
The Christian-Turkish border on the Danube reached a kind of equilibrium after the death of Suleiman. In the Mediterranean, the Turkish conquest of the northern coast of Africa was facilitated by a naval victory at Preveza, but the initially successful offensive of Emperor Charles 5 in Tunisia in 1535 and the extremely important Christian victory at Lepanto in 1571 restored the status quo: rather conventionally, the maritime border ran along a line running through Italy, Sicily and Tunisia. However, the Turks managed to restore their fleet in a short time.
Equilibrium time
Despite endless wars, trade between Europe and the Levant was never completely suspended. European merchant ships continued to arrive in Iskenderun or Tripoli, in Syria, in Alexandria. Cargoes were transported across the Ottoman and Saphivid Empires in caravans that were carefully organized, safe, regular, and often faster than European ships. The same caravan system brought Asian goods to Europe from Mediterranean ports. Until the mid-17th century, this trade flourished, enriching the Ottoman Empire and guaranteeing the Sultan's exposure to European technology.
Mehmed 3 (ruled 1595 - 1603) upon his accession executed 27 of his relatives, but he was not a bloodthirsty sultan (the Turks gave him the nickname the Just). But in reality, the empire was led by his mother, with the support of great viziers, often replacing each other. The period of his reign coincided with the war against Austria, which began under the previous Sultan Murad 3 in 1593 and ended in 1606, during the era of Ahmed 1 (reigned from 1603 to 1617). The Peace of Zsitvatorok in 1606 marked a turning point in relation to the Ottoman Empire and Europe. According to it, Austria was not subject to new tribute; on the contrary, it was freed from the previous one. Only lump sum payment indemnity of 200,000 florins. From this moment on, the Ottoman lands did not increase anymore.
Beginning of decline
The most costly of the wars between the Turks and Persians broke out in 1602. Reorganized and re-equipped Persian armies regained lands captured by the Turks in the previous century. The war ended with the peace treaty of 1612. The Turks ceded the eastern lands of Georgia and Armenia, Karabakh, Azerbaijan and some other lands.
After the plague and severe economic crisis, the Ottoman Empire was weakened. Political instability (due to the lack of a clear tradition of succession to the title of Sultan, as well as due to the increasingly growing influence of the Janissaries (initially the highest military caste, into which children were selected mainly from Balkan Christians according to the so-called devshirme system (forcible abduction of Christian children to Istanbul , for military service)) was shaking the country.
During the reign of Sultan Murad 4 (reigned 1623 - 1640) (a cruel tyrant (approximately 25 thousand people were executed during his reign), a capable administrator and commander, the Ottomans managed to regain part of the territories in the war with Persia (1623 - 1639), and defeat the Venetians. However, the uprisings of the Crimean Tatars and the constant raids of the Cossacks on Turkish lands practically drove the Turks out of Crimea and the adjacent territories.
After the death of Murad 4, the empire began to lag behind the countries of Europe in technology, wealth, and political unity.
Under Murad IV's brother, Ibrahim (ruled 1640 - 1648), all of Murad's conquests were lost.
The attempt to capture the island of Crete (the last possession of the Venetians in the Eastern Mediterranean) turned out to be a failure for the Turks. The Venetian fleet, having blocked the Dardanelles, threatened Istanbul.
Sultan Ibrahim was removed by the Janissaries, and his seven-year-old son Mehmed 4 (reigned 1648 - 1687) was elevated to his place. Under his rule, a number of reforms began to be carried out in the Ottoman Empire, which stabilized the situation.
Mehmed was able to successfully complete the war with the Venetians. The position of the Turks in the Balkans and Eastern Europe was also strengthened.
The decline of the Ottoman Empire was a slow process, punctuated by short periods of recovery and stability.
The Ottoman Empire alternately waged wars with Venice, Austria, and Russia.
Towards the end of the 17th century, economic and social difficulties began to increase.
Decline
Mehmed's successor, Kara Mustafa, launched a final challenge to Europe by laying siege to Vienna in 1683.
The answer to this was the alliance of Poland and Austria. The combined Polish-Austrian forces, approaching besieged Vienna, were able to defeat the Turkish army and force it to flee.
Later, Venice and Russia joined the Polish-Austrian coalition.
In 1687, the Turkish armies were defeated at Mohács. After the defeat, the Janissaries rebelled. Mehmed 4 was deposed. His brother Suleiman 2 (ruled 1687 - 1691) became the new sultan.
The war continued. In 1688, the armies of the anti-Turkish coalition achieved serious successes (the Venetians captured the Peloponnese, the Austrians were able to take Belgrade).
However, in 1690, the Turks managed to drive the Austrians out of Belgrade and push them beyond the Danube, as well as regain Transylvania. But, in the Battle of Slankamen, Sultan Suleiman 2 was killed.
Ahmed 2, brother of Suleiman 2, (ruled 1691 - 1695) also did not live to see the end of the war.
After the death of Ahmed 2, the second brother of Suleiman 2, Mustafa 2 (ruled 1695 - 1703), became the sultan. With him the end of the war came. Azov was taken by the Russians, Turkish forces were defeated in the Balkans.
Unable to continue the war any longer, Türkiye signed the Treaty of Karlowitz. According to it, the Ottomans ceded Hungary and Transylvania to Austria, Podolia to Poland, and Azov to Russia. Only the War between Austria and France preserved the European possessions of the Ottoman Empire.
The decline of the empire's economy was accelerated. Monopolization of trade in the Mediterranean Sea and oceans practically destroyed the trading opportunities of the Turks. The seizure of new colonies by European powers in Africa and Asia made the trade route through Turkish territories unnecessary. The discovery and development of Siberia by the Russians gave merchants a way to China.
Türkiye ceased to be interesting from the point of view of economics and trade
True, the Turks were able to achieve temporary success in 1711, after the unsuccessful Prut campaign of Peter 1. According to the new peace treaty, Russia returned Azov to Turkey. They were also able to recapture the Morea from Venice in the war of 1714 - 1718 (this was due to the military-political situation in Europe (the War of the Spanish Succession and the Northern War were going on).
However, then a series of setbacks began for the Turks. A series of defeats after 1768 deprived the Turks of the Crimea, and a defeat in the naval battle at Chesme Bay deprived the Turks of their fleet.
By the end of the 18th century, the peoples of the empire began to fight for their independence (Greeks, Egyptians, Bulgarians, ...). The Ottoman Empire ceased to be one of the leading European powers.
