The Ottoman Empire: 15th And 16th Century

During the 15th and 16th centuries, at the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire was a transcontinental juggernaut that encompassed vast stretches of land: most of Southern Europe, significant portions of the Middle East, North Africa, and large parts of the Arabian Peninsula. From Vienna to Jerusalem, the Ottoman Empire reigned supreme. By the onset of the 20th century, Ottoman Turkey was on it’s knees. Having lost a series of disastrous wars, the once great empire was now branded as the “Sick man of Europe”. The Ottomans- whose name derives from the dynastic appellation of Osman I, the nomadic founder of the nascent Ottoman Empire- were no more. In their place arose the Turks and the Turkish Republic, a secular republic under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, more commonly known as Ataturk.
By 1922, the empire’s legs were trembling and the upholstery was peeling off, it was time to rearrange the furniture. Redistribution of land, political disputes, the carving of zones of influence, population change, all of these were directly correlated with the fall of the empire. The gradual dissolution of the Ottoman Empire had profound effects on the global geopolitical landscape. I will be examining these changes and evaluating how they impacted Europe, ranging from the Italo-Turkish War to the Caucasus