The Ottomans - Empire and Legacy

The tribe of Osman emerged from the borderlands of modern day Turkey and Iraq during the thirteenth century. From being nomadic horsemen and mercenaries, they settled, flourished and began to challenge the established powers surrounding them.

In 1453, the once thought impregnable Christian stronghold of Constantinople fell as Osman’s successors expanded westwards into the Balkans, then eastwards towards Damascus and Cairo.

By the middle of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was ruled by its most glorious of sultans. Whenever his name was mentioned, rulers in Europe, Africa and Persia trembled. His armies marched across the deserts of Arabia and to the gates of Vienna. His architects built on a scale which surpassed anything in Renaissance Europe. He wrote love poems to a slave girl in his harem. He was a general and a law-giver. He was Suleiman the Magnificent.

However, throughout history, empires have risen and fallen; the Ottomans were just the same and by the mid-nineteenth century they were mocked as “the sick man of Europe”.

As a result of the peace treaties at the end of the First World War, the Ottomans lost their remaining non-Turkish lands. Then, in 1922, they lost their throne. However, the legacy of the Ottomans still remains, having ruled the Balkans, Anatolia, the Middle East and North Africa for up to 700 years, they have played a pivotal role in the shaping of those areas in the present era and the turmoil which has recently convulsed them. These included the brutal civil wars in 1990’s Yugoslavia as the former-remnants of the Ottoman Empire, were once again gripped by nationalism. The late-2010, challenges to the governments in the Middle East and North Africa, collectively known as the ‘Arab Spring’ and the political upheavals in Turkey itself during 2013.

This 16,500 word study covers:

• Introduction
• The Rise of the Ottoman Turks
• Suleiman the Magnificent
• The Decline of the Ottoman Empire
• The Aftermath of Ottoman Rule.

It is designed to give the reader a solid introduction into the subject in its own right and to act as a stepping-stone for those who wish to explore this area of interest further.