The Ottoman Empire (in Europe it was traditionally called the Ottoman Empire) is the largest Turkish state-sultanate, the successor of the Muslim Arab Caliphate and Christian Byzantium.

The Ottomans are a dynasty of Turkish sultans that ruled the state from 1299 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was formed in the 15th-16th centuries. as a result of Turkish conquests in Asia, Europe and Africa. For 2 centuries, a small and little-known Ottoman emirate has become a huge empire, pride and strength of the entire Muslim world.

The Turkish Empire lasted 6 centuries, occupying the period of its highest prosperity, from the middle of the 16th century. to the last decade of the 18th century, vast lands - Turkey, the Balkan Peninsula, Mesopotamia, North Africa, the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, the Middle East. Within these boundaries, the empire existed for a long historical period, posing a tangible threat to all neighboring countries and distant territories: the armies of the sultans were feared by all of Western Europe and Russia, and Turkish fleet reigned supreme in the Mediterranean.

Having turned from a small Turkic principality into a strong military-feudal state, the Ottoman Empire fought fiercely against the "infidels" for almost 600 years. The Ottoman Turks, continuing the work of their Arab predecessors, captured Constantinople and all the territories of Byzantium, turning the former powerful state into a Muslim land and linking Europe with Asia.

After 1517, having established his power over the holy places, the Ottoman sultan became the minister of two ancient shrines - Mecca and Medina. The assignment of this rank endowed the Ottoman ruler with a special duty - to protect the holy Muslim cities and promote the well-being of the annual pilgrimage to the shrines of the faithful Muslims. Since this period of history, the Ottoman state has almost completely merged with Islam and is trying in every possible way to expand the territories of its influence.

Ottoman Empire, to the XX century. having already lost its former greatness and power, it finally disintegrated after the defeat in the First World War, which became fatal for many states of the world.

At the origins of civilization

The beginning of the existence of Turkish civilization should be attributed to the period of the Great Migration, when in the middle of the 1st millennium the Turkic settlers from Asia Minor found refuge under the rule of the Byzantine emperors.

At the end of the 11th century, when the Seljuk sultans persecuted by the crusaders moved to the borders of Byzantium, the Oghuz Turks, being the main people of the sultanate, assimilated with the local Anatolian population - Greeks, Persians, Armenians. Thus, a new nation was born - the Turks, representatives of the Turkic-Islamic group, surrounded by a Christian population. The Turkish nation was finally formed in the 15th century.

In the weakened state of the Seljuks, they adhered to traditional Islam, and the central government, which had lost its power, relied on officials consisting of Greeks and Persians. During the XII-XIII centuries. the power of the supreme ruler became less and less noticeable simultaneously with the strengthening of the power of local beys. After the invasion of the Mongols in the middle of the XIII century. the Seljuk state practically ceases to exist, torn apart from the inside by the unrest of religious sectarians. By the XIV century. Of the ten beyliks located on the territory of the state, the western beylik rises noticeably, which was first ruled by Ertogrul, and then by his son Osman, who later became the founder of a huge Turkish state.

Birth of an empire

The founder of the empire and his successors

Osman I, Turkish Bey of the Ottoman dynasty, is the founder of the Ottoman dynasty.

Having become the ruler of a mountainous region, Osman in 1289 received the title of Bey from the Seljuk Sultan. Having come to power, Osman immediately went to conquer the Byzantine lands and made the first captured Byzantine town of Melangia his residence.

Osman was born in a small mountainous place in the Seljuk Sultanate. Osman's father, Ertogrul, received neighboring Byzantine lands from Sultan Ala-ad-Din. The Turkic tribe, to which Osman belonged, considered the seizure of neighboring territories to be a sacred affair.

After the escape of the overthrown Seljuk sultan in 1299, Osman created an independent state on the basis of his own beylik. During the first years of the XIV century. the founder of the Ottoman Empire managed to significantly expand the territory of the new state and moved his headquarters to the fortress city of Epishehir. Immediately after this, the Ottoman army began to raid the Byzantine cities located on the Black Sea coast, and the Byzantine regions in the area of ​​the Dardanelles.

The Ottoman dynasty was continued by Osman's son Orhan, who began his military career with the successful capture of Bursa, a powerful fortress in Asia Minor. Orhan declared the prosperous fortified city the capital of the state and ordered the minting of the first coin of the Ottoman Empire, the silver akce, to begin. In 1337, the Turks won several brilliant victories and occupied territories as far as the Bosporus, making the conquered Ismit the main shipyard of the state. At the same time, Orkhan annexed the neighboring Turkish lands, and by 1354, under his dominion were the northwestern part of Asia Minor to the eastern shores of the Dardanelles, part of its European coast, including the city of Galliopolis, and Ankara, recaptured from the Mongols.

Orhan's son Murad I (Fig. 8) became the third ruler of the Ottoman Empire, who added territory near Ankara to its possessions and set off on a military campaign in Europe.

Rice. 8. Ruler Murad I

Murad was the first sultan of the Ottoman dynasty and a true champion of Islam. The first schools in Turkish history began to be built in the cities of the country.

After the very first victories in Europe (the conquest of Thrace and Plovdiv), a stream of Turkic settlers poured onto the European coast.

The sultans fastened the decrees-firmans with their own imperial monogram - the tughra. The complex oriental pattern included the Sultan's name, his father's name, title, motto, and the epithet "always victorious."

New conquests

Murad paid much attention to the improvement and strengthening of the army. For the first time in history, a professional army was created. In 1336, the ruler formed a Janissary corps, which later turned into the personal guard of the Sultan. In addition to the Janissaries, the Sipah cavalry was created, and as a result of these fundamental changes, the Turkish army became not only numerous, but also unusually disciplined and powerful.

In 1371, on the Maritsa River, the Turks defeated the united army of the South European states and captured Bulgaria and part of Serbia.

The next brilliant victory was won by the Turks in 1389, when the Janissaries took up firearms for the first time. In that year, a historic battle took place on the Kossovo field, when, having defeated the crusaders, the Ottoman Turks annexed a significant part of the Balkans to their lands.

Murad's son Bayazid continued his father's policy in everything, but unlike him, he was distinguished by cruelty and indulged in debauchery. Bayazid completed the defeat of Serbia and turned it into a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, becoming the absolute master in the Balkans.

For the rapid movement of the army and energetic actions, Sultan Bayazid received the nickname Ilderim (Lightning). During the lightning campaign in 1389-1390. he subjugated Anatolia, after which the Turks took possession of almost the entire territory of Asia Minor.

Bayazid had to fight simultaneously on two fronts - with the Byzantines and the Crusaders. On September 25, 1396, the Turkish army defeated a huge army of crusaders, having received all the Bulgarian lands into submission. On the side of the Turks, according to the description of contemporaries, more than 100,000 people fought. Many noble European crusaders were captured, later they were ransomed for a lot of money. Caravans of pack animals with gifts from Emperor Charles VI of France reached the capital of the Ottoman Sultan: gold and silver coins, silk fabrics, carpets from Arras with paintings from the life of Alexander the Great woven on them, hunting falcons from Norway and many others. True, Bayazid did not make further trips to Europe, distracted by the eastern danger from the Mongols.

After the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople in 1400, the Turks had to fight the Tatar army of Timur. On July 25, 1402, one of the greatest battles of the Middle Ages took place, during which an army of Turks (about 150,000 people) and an army of Tatars (about 200,000 people) met near Ankara. Timur's army, in addition to well-trained soldiers, was armed with more than 30 war elephants - a fairly powerful weapon in the offensive. The Janissaries, showing extraordinary courage and strength, were nevertheless defeated, and Bayazid was captured. Timur's army plundered the entire Ottoman Empire, exterminated or captured thousands of people, burned the most beautiful cities and towns.

Muhammad I ruled the empire from 1413 to 1421. Throughout his reign, Muhammad was on good terms with Byzantium, turning his main attention to the situation in Asia Minor and making the first campaign in the history of the Turks to Venice, which ended in failure.

Murad II, the son of Muhammad I, ascended the throne in 1421. He was a just and energetic ruler, who devoted a lot of time to the development of arts and urban planning. Murad, coping with internal strife, made a successful campaign, capturing the Byzantine city of Thessalonica. No less successful were the battles of the Turks against the Serbian, Hungarian and Albanian armies. In 1448, after the victory of Murad over the united army of the crusaders, the fate of all the peoples of the Balkans was sealed - Turkish rule hung over them for several centuries.

Before the start of the historic battle in 1448 between the united European army and the Turks, a letter was carried on the tip of a spear with a ceasefire agreement violated once again through the ranks of the Ottoman army. Thus, the Ottomans showed that peace treaties they are not interested, only battles and only offensive.

From 1444 to 1446, the Turkish sultan Muhammad II, son of Murad II, ruled the empire.

The rule of this sultan for 30 years turned the state into a world empire. Starting his reign with the already traditional execution of relatives who potentially claimed the throne, the ambitious young man showed his strength. Muhammad, nicknamed the Conqueror, became a tough and even cruel ruler, but at the same time he had an excellent education and spoke four languages. The Sultan invited scholars and poets from Greece and Italy to his court, allocated a lot of funds for the construction of new buildings and the development of art. The sultan set the conquest of Constantinople as his main task, and at the same time he treated its implementation very thoroughly. Opposite the Byzantine capital, in March 1452, the fortress of Rumelihisar was founded, in which the newest cannons were installed and a strong garrison was placed.

As a result, Constantinople was cut off from the Black Sea region, with which it was connected by trade. In the spring of 1453, a huge land army of the Turks and a powerful fleet approached the Byzantine capital. The first assault on the city was unsuccessful, but the Sultan ordered not to retreat and to organize the preparation of a new assault. After being dragged into the bay of Constantinople along a specially constructed flooring over the iron barrage chains of the ships, the city found itself in the ring of Turkish troops. Battles went on daily, but the Greek defenders of the city showed examples of courage and perseverance.

The siege was not a strong point of the Ottoman army, and the Turks won only due to the careful encirclement of the city, the numerical superiority of forces by about 3.5 times and due to the presence of siege weapons, cannons and powerful mortars with 30 kg cannonballs. Before the main assault on Constantinople, Muhammad invited the inhabitants to surrender, promising to spare them, but they, to his great amazement, refused.

The general assault was launched on May 29, 1453, and selected Janissaries, supported by artillery, broke into the gates of Constantinople. For 3 days, the Turks plundered the city and killed Christians, and the Hagia Sophia was later turned into a mosque. Türkiye has become a real world power, proclaiming the ancient city as its capital.

In subsequent years, Muhammad made conquered Serbia his province, conquered Moldova, Bosnia, a little later - Albania and captured all of Greece. At the same time, the Turkish sultan conquered vast territories in Asia Minor and became the ruler of the entire Asia Minor peninsula. But he did not stop there: in 1475, the Turks captured many Crimean cities and the city of Tanu at the mouth of the Don on the Sea of ​​Azov. The Crimean Khan officially recognized the authority of the Ottoman Empire. Following this, the territories of Safavid Iran were conquered, and in 1516 Syria, Egypt and Hijaz with Medina and Mecca were under the rule of the Sultan.

At the beginning of the XVI century. the conquering campaigns of the empire were directed to the east, south and west. In the east, Selim I the Terrible defeated the Safavids and annexed the eastern part of Anatolia and Azerbaijan to his state. In the south, the Ottomans suppressed the warlike Mamluks and took control of the trade routes along the Red Sea coast to the Indian Ocean, in North Africa they reached Morocco. In the west, Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1520s. captured Belgrade, Rhodes, Hungarian lands.

At the peak of power

The Ottoman Empire entered its peak at the very end of the 15th century. under Sultan Selim I and his successor Suleiman the Magnificent, who achieved a significant expansion of territories and established a reliable centralized government of the country. The reign of Suleiman went down in history as the "golden age" of the Ottoman Empire.

Starting from the first years of the 16th century, the empire of the Turks turned into the most powerful power in the Old World. Contemporaries who visited the lands of the empire, in their notes and memoirs, enthusiastically described the wealth and luxury of this country.

Suleiman the Magnificent

Sultan Suleiman is the legendary ruler of the Ottoman Empire. During his reign (1520-1566), the huge power became even larger, the cities became more beautiful, the palaces became more luxurious. Suleiman (Fig. 9) also went down in history under the nickname of the Legislator.

Rice. 9. Sultan Suleiman

Having become a sultan at the age of 25, Suleiman significantly expanded the borders of the state, capturing Rhodes in 1522, Mesopotamia in 1534, and Hungary in 1541.

The ruler of the Ottoman Empire was traditionally called Sultan, a title of Arabic origin. It is considered correct to use such terms as “shah”, “padishah”, “khan”, “caesar”, which came from different peoples under Turkish rule.

Suleiman contributed to the cultural prosperity of the country; under him, beautiful mosques and luxurious palaces were built in many cities of the empire. The famous emperor was a good poet, leaving his writings under the pseudonym Muhibbi (In love with God). During the reign of Suleiman, the wonderful Turkish poet Fuzuli lived and worked in Baghdad, who wrote the poem "Leyla and Majun". The nickname Sultan Among the Poets was given to Mahmud Abd al-Baqi, who served at the court of Suleiman, who reflected life in his poems. high society states.

The Sultan entered into a legal marriage with the legendary Roksolana, nicknamed Mishlivaya, one of the slaves of Slavic origin in the harem. Such an act was at that time and according to Sharia an exceptional phenomenon. Roksolana gave birth to the Sultan's heir, the future Emperor Suleiman II, and devoted a lot of time to patronage. The wife of the Sultan also had great influence on him in diplomatic affairs, especially in relations with Western countries.

In order to leave a memory of himself in stone, Suleiman invited the famous architect Sinan to create mosques in Istanbul. The emperor's associates also erected large religious buildings with the help of a famous architect, as a result of which the capital was noticeably transformed.

Harems

Harems with several wives and concubines, allowed by Islam, could only be afforded by wealthy people. Sultan's harems became an integral part of the empire, its hallmark.

Harems, in addition to the sultans, were possessed by viziers, beys, emirs. The vast majority of the population of the empire had one wife, as it should be in the entire Christian world. Islam officially allowed a Muslim to have four wives and several slaves.

The Sultan's harem, which gave rise to many legends and traditions, was in fact a complex organization with strict internal orders. This system was run by the Sultan's mother, the Valide Sultan. Her main assistants were eunuchs and slaves. It is clear that the life and power of the ruler of the Sultan directly depended on the fate of her high-ranking son.

The harem was inhabited by girls captured during wars or acquired in slave markets. Regardless of their nationality and religion, before entering the harem, all the girls became Muslim women and studied the traditional Islamic arts - embroidery, singing, conversation, music, dance, and literature.

Being in the harem for a long time, its inhabitants passed several steps and ranks. At first they were called jariye (beginners), then pretty soon they were renamed shagart (apprentices), over time they became gedikli (companions) and usta (craftswomen).

There were isolated cases in history when the Sultan recognized the concubine as his lawful wife. This happened more often when the concubine gave birth to the ruler of the long-awaited son-heir. A striking example- Suleiman the Magnificent, who married Roksolana.

Only girls who reached the stage of craftswomen could gain the attention of the Sultan. From among them, the ruler chose his permanent mistresses, favorites and concubines. Many representatives of the harem, who became the mistresses of the Sultan, were awarded their own housing, jewelry and even slaves.

Legal marriage was not provided for by Sharia, but the Sultan chose four wives from all the inhabitants of the harem, who were in a privileged position. Of these, the main one became the one who gave birth to the Sultan's son.

After the death of the Sultan, all his wives and concubines were sent to the Old Palace, located outside the city. The new ruler of the state could allow retired beauties to marry or join his harem.

Imperial capital

great city Istanbul, or Istanbul (formerly Byzans and then Constantinople), was the heart of the Ottoman Empire, its pride.

Strabo reported that the city of Byzance was founded by Greek colonists in the 7th century. BC e. And named after their leader, Byzas. In 330, the city, which became a major commercial and cultural center, was turned into the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine. New Rome was renamed Constantinople. The Turks named the city for the third time, capturing the long-desired capital of Byzantium. The name Istanbul literally means "towards the city".

Capturing Constantinople in 1453, the Turks made this ancient city, which they called the "threshold of happiness", a new Muslim center, erected several majestic mosques, mausoleums and madrasahs, and in every possible way contributed to the further flourishing of the capital. Most of the Christian churches were converted into mosques, a large oriental bazaar was built in the center of the city, around it were caravanserais, fountains, and hospitals. The Islamization of the city, begun by Sultan Mehmed II, continued under his successors, who sought to radically change the former Christian capital.

For the grandiose construction, workers were required, and the sultans in every possible way contributed to the resettlement of both the Muslim and non-Muslim population to the capital. Muslim, Jewish, Armenian, Greek, Persian quarters appeared in the city, in which crafts and trade developed rapidly. A church, mosque or synagogue was built in the center of each quarter. The cosmopolitan city treated any religion with respect. True, the allowed height of the house among Muslims was somewhat higher than among representatives of other faiths.

At the end of the XVI century. more than 600,000 inhabitants lived in the Ottoman capital - it was the largest city in the world. It should be noted that all other cities of the Ottoman Empire, except for Istanbul, Cairo, Aleppo and Damascus, could rather be called large rural settlements, the number of inhabitants in which rarely exceeded 8,000 people.

Military organization of the empire

The social system of the Ottoman Empire was completely subordinated to military discipline. Once captured new territory, it was divided into fiefs between military leaders without the right to transfer land by inheritance. With such land use in Turkey, the institution of the nobility did not appear, there was no one to claim the division of supreme power.

Every man of the empire was a warrior and began his service with a simple soldier. Each owner of an earthly allotment (timara) was obliged to give up all peaceful affairs and join the army at the outbreak of war.

The orders of the Sultan were exactly transmitted to two beys of the same Berlik, as a rule, a European and a Turk, they transmitted the order to the governors of the regions (sanjaks), and they, in turn, conveyed information to the petty rulers (aliybeys), from whom the orders passed to the leaders of small military detachments and to the chiefs of the group of detachments (timarlits). After receiving orders, everyone was going to war, mounted horses, and the army was immediately ready for new conquests and battles.

The army was supplemented by mercenary detachments and Janissary guards, recruited among captured youths from other countries of the world. In the first years of the existence of the state, the entire territory was divided into sanjaks (banners), headed by a sanjak-bey. Bey was not only a manager, but also the leader of his own small army, which consisted of relatives. Over time, having turned from nomads into a settled population of the empire, the Turks created a regular army of horsemen-sipahs.

Each sipah warrior received a land allotment for his service, for which he paid a certain tax to the treasury and which he could inherit only to one of the successors who entered the army.

In the XVI century. In addition to the land army, the Sultan created a large modern fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, which mainly consisted of large galleys, frigates, galliots and rowboats. Since 1682, there has been a transition from sailing ships to rowing. Both prisoners of war and criminals served as rowers in the fleet. The strike force on the rivers were special gunboats, which participated not only in major military battles, but also in the suppression of uprisings.

Over the 6 centuries of the existence of the Ottoman Empire, its powerful army changed radically 3 times. At the first stage (from the 14th to the 16th centuries), the Turkish army was considered one of the most combat-ready in the whole world. His power was based on the strong authority of the Sultan, supported by local rulers, and on the most severe discipline. The guard of the Sultan, which consisted of Janissaries, well-organized cavalry also significantly strengthened the army. In addition, it was, of course, a well-armed army with numerous artillery pieces.

At the second stage (in the 17th century), the Turkish army experienced a crisis due to a significant reduction in conquest campaigns and, consequently, a decrease in military booty. Janissaries from a combat-ready unit of a large army turned into the personal guard of the Sultan and took part in all internal strife. New troops of mercenaries, supplied worse than before, constantly raised uprisings.

The third stage, which came in early XVIII century, is closely connected with attempts to rebuild the weakened army in order to restore its former power and strength. The Turkish sultans were forced to invite Western instructors, which caused a sharp reaction from the Janissaries. In 1826, the sultan had to disband the Janissary corps.

The internal structure of the empire

The main role in the economy of the vast empire was played by agriculture, farming and animal husbandry.

All the lands of the empire were in state ownership. Warriors - the commanders of the sipahs - became the owners of large land plots (zeamets), on which hired peasants-rays worked. Zaims and the Timariots under their leadership were the basis of a huge Turkish army. In addition, the militia and Janissaries-guards served in the army. The military schools in which future warriors were brought up were subordinate to the monks of the Bektashi Sufi order.

The treasury of the state was constantly replenished at the expense of military booty and taxes, as well as as a result of the development of trade. Gradually, a bureaucratic stratum developed in the militarized state, which had the right to own land plots such as timars. Around the Sultan were people close to him, large landowners from among the relatives of the ruler. All leading positions in the state apparatus of government were also occupied by representatives of the clan to which the Sultan belonged; later, it was this state of affairs that served as one of the reasons for the weakening of the empire. The Sultan had a huge harem, and after his death, many heirs claimed the throne, which caused constant disputes and strife within the Sultan's entourage. During the heyday of the state, a system of murder by one of the heirs of all potential rivals to the throne was almost officially developed.

The supreme body of the state, completely subject to the Sultan, was the Supreme Council (Divan-i-Humayun), which consisted of viziers. The legislation of the empire was subject to Islamic law, Sharia and adopted in the middle of the 15th century. code of laws. All power was divided into three large parts - military-administrative, financial and judicial-religious.

Suleiman I the Magnificent, who ruled in the middle of the 16th century, received a second nickname - Kanuni (Legislator) due to several of his successful bills that strengthened the central government.

At the beginning of the XVI century. There were 16 large regions in the country, each of which was headed by a beylerbey governor. In turn, large areas were divided into small counties-sanjaks. All local rulers were subordinate to the Grand Vizier.

A characteristic feature of the Ottoman Empire was the unequal position of the Gentiles - Greeks, Armenians, Slavs, Jews. Turks, who were in a minority, and a few Muslim Arabs were exempted from additional taxes and occupied all the leading positions in the state.

Empire population

According to rough estimates, the entire population of the empire during the heyday of the state was about 22 million people.

Muslims and non-Muslims are two large groups in the population of the Ottoman Empire.

Muslims, in turn, were divided into askers (all military personnel and officials of the state) and raya (literally - "herds", rural farmers and ordinary townspeople, and in some periods of history - merchants). Unlike the peasants medieval Europe Raya were not attached to the land and in most cases could move to another place or become artisans.

Non-Muslims made up three large religious parts, which included Orthodox Christians (Rum, or Romans) - Balkan Slavs, Greeks, Orthodox Arabs, Georgians; Eastern Christians (Ermeni) - Armenians; Jews (Yahudis) - Karaites, Romaniotes, Sephardim, Ashkenazi.

The position of Christians and Jews, i.e., non-Muslims, was determined by Islamic law (Sharia), which allowed representatives of other peoples and religions to live on the territory of the empire, adhere to their beliefs, but obliged them to pay a soul tax as subjects who were one step lower than all Muslims.

All representatives of other religions had to differ in appearance, wear different clothes, refraining from bright colors in it. The Koran forbade a non-Muslim to marry a Muslim girl, and in court, in resolving any issues and disputes, priority was given to Muslims.

The Greeks were mainly engaged in petty trade, crafts, kept taverns or devoted themselves to maritime affairs. The Armenians controlled the silk trade between Persia and Istanbul. Jews found themselves in the smelting of metals, jewelry, usury. The Slavs were engaged in crafts or served in Christian military units.

According to Muslim tradition, a person who mastered a profession and benefited people was considered a happy and worthy member of society. All inhabitants of a huge power received some kind of profession, supported in this by the example of the great sultans. So, the ruler of the empire, Mehmed II, mastered gardening, and Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent were high-class jewelers. Many sultans wrote poetry, mastering this art perfectly.

This state of affairs continued until 1839, when all the subjects of the empire, according to the adopted law, during the beginning of the period of reforms (tanzimat) received equal rights.

The position of a slave in Ottoman society was much better than in ancient world. Special articles of the Qur'an ordered to provide the slave with medical care, feed him well and help him in his old age. For a cruel attitude towards a Muslim slave, a serious punishment threatened.

A special category of the population of the empire were slaves (kele), disenfranchised people, as in the rest of the world of slave owners. In the Ottoman Empire, a slave could not have a house, property, did not have the right to inherit. A slave could marry only with the permission of the owner. A slave concubine who gave birth to a child to her master became free after his death.

Slaves in the Ottoman Empire helped to run the household, served as watchmen in mausoleums, madrasahs and mosques, as eunuchs who guarded the harem and their master. Female slaves in the majority became concubines and servants. In the army and agriculture, slaves were used much less.

Arab states under empire

Baghdad, which flourished under the Abbasids, fell into complete decline after the invasion of Timur's army. The rich Mesopotamia also became empty, first turning into a sparsely populated region of Safavid Iran, and in the middle of the 18th century. became a remote part of the Ottoman Empire.

Türkiye gradually increased its political influence over the territories of Iraq and developed colonial trade in every possible way.

Arabia, inhabited by Arabs, formally submitting to the power of the sultans, retained considerable independence during internal affairs. In Central Arabia during the XVI-XVII centuries. the Bedouins, led by sheikhs, were in charge, and in the middle of the 18th century. on its territory, an emirate of Wahhabis was created, which extended its influence to almost the entire territory of Arabia, including Mecca.

In 1517, having conquered Egypt, the Turks almost did not interfere in the internal affairs of this state. Egypt was ruled by a pasha appointed by the sultan, while the Mamluk beys still had significant local influence. During the crisis period of the XVIII century. Egypt withdrew from the empire and the Mamluk rulers pursued an independent policy, as a result of which Napoleon easily captured the country. Only pressure from Great Britain forced the ruler of Egypt, Mahummed Ali, to recognize the sovereignty of the Sultan and return to Turkey the territories of Syria, Arabia and Crete, captured by the Mamluks.

An important part of the empire was Syria, which submitted to the Sultan almost completely, with the exception of the mountainous regions of the country.

Eastern question

Capturing Constantinople in 1453 and renaming it Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire established power over European lands for several centuries. Once again, the eastern question was on the agenda for Europe. Now it sounded like this: how far can Turkish expansion go and how long can it last?

It was about organizing a new Crusade against the Turks, but the church and the imperial government, which had weakened by this time, could not muster the strength to organize it. Islam was in the stage of its prosperity and had a huge moral preponderance in the Muslim world, which, thanks to the cementing property of Islam, the strong military organization of the state and the authority of the power of the sultans, allowed the Ottoman Empire to gain a foothold in the southeast of Europe.

Over the next 2 centuries, the Turks managed to annex even more vast territories to their possessions, which greatly frightened the Christian world.

Pope Pius II made an attempt to curb the Turks and convert them to Christianity. He wrote a letter to the Turkish sultan, in which he suggested that he accept Christianity, arguing that baptism would glorify the ruler of the Ottomans. The Turks did not even bother to send an answer, starting new conquests.

For many years, the European powers had to reckon with the policy of the Ottoman Empire in the territories inhabited by Christians.

The crisis of the empire began from within, along with the accelerated growth of its population in the second half of the 16th century. A large number of landless peasants appeared in the country, and the Timars, decreasing in size, brought income that decreased every year.

In Syria, popular riots broke out, and in Anatolia, peasants rebelled against exorbitant taxes.

Researchers believe that the decline of the Ottoman state dates back to the reign of Ahmed I (1603–1617). His successor, Sultan Osman II (1618–1622), was removed from the throne and executed for the first time in the history of the Ottoman state.

Loss of military power

After the defeat of the Turkish fleet at Lepanto in 1571, the undivided maritime dominance of the empire ends. To this were added failures in battles with the Habsburg army, battles lost to the Persians in Georgia and Azerbaijan.

At the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. For the first time in the history of the empire, Türkiye lost several battles in a row. It was no longer possible to hide the noticeable weakening of the military power of the state and its political power.

From the middle of the XVIII century. The Ottoman Empire had to hand out so-called capitulations for supporting it in military clashes.

Capitulations are special privileges first granted by the Turks to the French for their help in the war with the Habsburgs in 1535. In the 18th century. several European powers, including the mighty Austria, achieved similar privileges. Since that time, capitulations began to turn into unequal trade agreements that provided Europeans with advantages in the Turkish market.

According to the Treaty of Bakhchisaray in 1681, Turkey was forced to abandon the territory of Ukraine in favor of Russia. In 1696, the army of Peter I recaptured the Azak (Azov) fortress from the Turks, as a result of which the Ottoman Empire lost land on the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov. In 1718 the Ottoman Empire left Western Wallachia and Serbia.

Began at the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. the weakening of the empire led to the gradual loss of its former power. In the XVIII century. Turkey, as a result of the battles lost to Austria, Russia and Iran, lost part of Bosnia, the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov with the fortress of Azov, Zaporozhye lands. The Ottoman sultans could no longer exert political influence on neighboring Georgia, Moldova, Wallachia, as it was before.

In 1774, the Kyuchuk-Kaynarji peace treaty was signed with Russia, according to which the Turks lost a significant part of the northern and eastern coast of the Black Sea. Crimean Khanate gained independence - for the first time the Ottoman Empire lost Muslim territories.

By the 19th century the territories of Egypt, the Maghreb, Arabia and Iraq came out from under the influence of the Sultanate. Napoleon dealt a serious blow to the prestige of the empire, having made a successful Egyptian military expedition for the French army. Armed Wahhabis recaptured most of Arabia from the empire, which came under the rule of the ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali.

At the beginning of the XIX century. Greece fell away from the Ottoman Sultanate (in 1829), then the French in 1830 captured Algeria and made it their colony. In 1824, there was a conflict between the Turkish sultan and Mehmed Ali, the Egyptian pasha, as a result of which Egypt achieved autonomy. Lands and countries fell away from the once great empire with incredible speed.

The decline of military power, the collapse of the land tenure system led to a cultural, economic and political slowdown in the development of the country. The European powers did not fail to take advantage of this circumstance, putting on the agenda the question of what to do with a huge power that had lost most of its power and independence.

Rescue Reforms

The Ottoman sultans, who ruled throughout the 19th century, tried to strengthen the military-agricultural system through a series of reforms. Selim III and Mahmud II attempted to improve the old timar system, but they realized that it was impossible to restore the empire to its former power.

Administrative reforms were aimed mainly at creating a new type of Turkish army, an army that included artillery, a strong fleet, guards detachments, and specialized engineering units. Consultants were brought from Europe to help rebuild the army and minimize the old attitudes among the troops. In 1826, by a special decree of Mahmud, the Janissary corps was disbanded, as the latter rebelled against innovations. Along with the former greatness of the corps, the influential Sufi order, which occupied a reactionary position during this period of history, also lost its power. In addition to fundamental changes in the army, reforms were carried out that changed the system of government and introduced European borrowings into it. The entire period of reforms in the empire was called tanzimat.

Tanzimat (translated from Arabic - "ordering") - a series of progressive reforms in the Ottoman Empire from 1839 to 1872. The reforms contributed to the development of capitalist relations in the state and the complete reorganization of the army.

In 1876, as a result of the reform movement of the "new Ottomans", the first Turkish Constitution was adopted, however, suspended by the despotic ruler Abdul Hamid. Reforms XIX V. turned Turkey from a backward Eastern power by this time into a self-sufficient European country with a modern system of taxation, education and culture. But Türkiye could no longer exist as a powerful empire.

On the ruins of the former greatness

Berlin Congress

The Russian-Turkish wars, the struggle of numerous enslaved peoples against the Muslim Turks significantly weakened the huge empire and led to the creation of new independent states in Europe.

According to the San Stefano peace agreement of 1878, which consolidated the results Russian- Turkish war 1877–1878, the Berlin Congress was held with the participation of representatives of all the major powers of Europe, as well as Iran, Romania, Montenegro, Serbia.

According to this treaty, Transcaucasia went to Russia, Bulgaria was declared an autonomous principality, in Thrace, Macedonia and Albania, the Turkish sultan was to carry out reforms aimed at improving the situation of the local population.

Montenegro and Serbia gained independence and became kingdoms.

Decline of an empire

At the end of the XIX century. The Ottoman Empire turned into a country dependent on several states Western Europe who dictated to her their conditions of development. A movement of the Young Turks was formed in the country, striving for the political freedom of the country and for liberation from the despotic power of the sultans. As a result of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, nicknamed the Bloody for his cruelty, was overthrown, and a constitutional monarchy was established in the country.

In the same year, Bulgaria declared itself an independent state from Turkey, proclaiming the Third Bulgarian Kingdom (Bulgaria was under Turkish rule for almost 500 years).

In 1912–1913 Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro in the united Balkan Union defeated Turkey, which lost all European possessions except Istanbul. New independent state-kingdoms were created on the territory of the former majestic power.

The last Ottoman sultan was Mehmed VI Vahideddin (1918–1922). After him, Abdul-Mejid II ascended the throne, replacing the title of Sultan with the title of Caliph. The era of a huge Turkish Muslim power is over.

The Ottoman Empire, located on three continents and possessing enormous power over hundreds of peoples, left behind a great legacy. On its main territory, Turkey, in 1923 the supporters of the revolutionary Kemal (Ataturk) proclaimed the Republic of Turkey. The Sultanate and the Caliphate were officially abolished, the regime of capitulations and privileges of foreign investment were cancelled.

Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), nicknamed Ataturk (literally - "father of the Turks"), - a large Turkish political figure, leader of the national liberation struggle in Turkey after the First World War. Kemal after the victory of the revolution in 1923 became the first president in the history of the state.

On the ruins of the former sultanate, a new state was born, which turned from a Muslim country into a secular power. On October 13, 1923, Ankara, the center of the national liberation movement of the Turks in 1918–1923, became its capital.

Istanbul has remained a legendary historical city with unique architectural monuments, a national treasure of the country.

The Great Ottoman Empire or the Turkish Empire was founded in 1299 on the lands of northwestern Anatolia by a native of the medieval Oghuz tribe. In 1362 and 1389, Murad I conquered the Balkans, which turned the Ottoman Sultanate into a caliphate and transcontinental empire. And Mehmed the Conqueror occupied Constantinople in 1453, which marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. Here are some interesting facts about the history of the Ottoman Empire that may surprise you.

Origin of the Omani Empire

Ottoman Empire(Osmanlı İmparatorluğu) was an imperial power that existed from 1299 to 1923 (634 years!!). This is one of the largest empires that ruled the borders of the Mediterranean Sea. During her reign, she included Anatolia, the Middle East, part North Africa and South Eastern Europe.

Ottoman names...

French translation Ottoman name "Bâb-i-âlî" - "high gate". This was due to the ceremony of meeting foreign ambassadors, which was given by the Sultan at the Palace Gate. It has also been interpreted as an indication of the Empire's position as a link between Europe and Asia.

Founding of the Ottoman Empire

The empire was founded by Osman I in the last year of the 13th century.

4 Ottoman capitals

The capital of the Ottoman Empire was the old Constantinople, now more than 6 centuries old, which was the center of interaction between the Western and Eastern Worlds. But before that, the Ottomans had three more head cities. Initially, it was Sogut, then after 30 years she took this post, the capital of the Ottoman Empire moved from Bursa to Edirne, it was in 1365, and after, in the year of the conquest of Constantinople, the capital moved to it. Ankara, the fifth in a row, became the capital only after the formation of the Republic of Turkey, although by the time the capital was transferred to Edirne, Ankara had already been captured for ten years.

Türkiye

After the First World War, during which much of the Ottoman territory was taken over by the Allies, the Ottoman elites established themselves during the Turkish War of Independence.

On top of the Ottoman

The empire reached its apogee under Suleiman I (Kanuni or Suleiman the Magnificent) in the 16th century, when the Ottomans extended from the Persian Gulf (east) to Hungary (northwest) and from Egypt (south) to the Caucasus (north).

12 wars of the Ottomans with the Russian Empire

Ottomans fought with Russia 12 times at different times with different authorities and different distribution of territories. The Ottoman Empire won only 2 times during the Prut campaign and on the Caucasian front, the status quo was determined 2 times - under Mehmed 4th and Mahmud 2nd, and there were no official winners during the Crimean War. The remaining 7 wars against the Ottomans were won by the Russian Empire.

The stage of the weakening of the Ottomans

In the 17th century, the Ottomans were weakened both internally and externally in costly wars against Persia, the Commonwealth, Russia and Austria-Hungary. It was a time of drafts in a constitutional monarchy in which the sultan already had little energy. During that period, sultans ruled from Ahmed the First. And in the 19th century, around the reign of Mahmud II, the Ottomans were losing their power due to the increase in the strength of European powers.

Formation of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a prominent army officer during the Gallipoli-Palestine campaign, was officially dispatched from Istanbul to take control of the victorious army of the Caucasus and reform it. This army played an important role in the Turkish victory for independence (1918-1923) and the Republic of Turkey was founded on October 29, 1923 from the remnants of the collapsed Ottoman Empire.

Vizier ...

Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, the founder of the Albanian political dynasty in the Ottoman Empire, was appointed to his position as grand vizier by Turhan, the mother of the seven-year-old ruler Mehmed IV.

Military classes of the Ottomans

The vizier, like the sultan, also served as a military commander in the cavalry. In addition, men, having taken up Islamic religious judicial positions, automatically became military men.

Distribution of positions

From the middle of the 15th century until the beginning of the 17th century, the ways in which judicial, military, and political posts were established were fairly clear. Graduates of Muslim colleges called madrasahs were appointed judges in the provinces, imams or teachers in these same madrasas. Speaking of the highest judicial positions, this was the realm of exclusively elite families.

How was the life of the chief?

The head of the cavalry unit had allotments, he was a Muslim by birth, which gave him the right to a feudal inheritance. In other words, he could leave his allotments as an inheritance to his relatives.

Something about viziers

The viziers and governors of the Ottoman Empire were usually former Christian converts.

36 Ottoman sultans

The Ottoman Empire ruled for 634 years. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sat on the throne for the longest time - he ruled for 46 years. The shortest reign was for the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V - about a year, who was also called crazy.

Replacing empires

The Ottoman Empire, with its intelligence and endurance, completely replaced Byzantium as a major power in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Multiple chronology of significant events in the Ottoman Empire

Chronology of important events in the Ottoman Empire can be distinguished not only by 16 interesting facts, but also by 16 points with dates in different centuries. For example:

• 1299 - Osman I founded the Ottoman Empire
• 1389 - Ottomans conquer most of Serbia
• 1453 - Mehmed II captures Constantinople to end the Byzantine Empire
• 1517 - The Ottomans conquered Egypt, making it part of the empire
• 1520 - Suleiman the Magnificent becomes ruler of the Ottoman Empire
• 1529 - Siege of Vienna. An unsuccessful attempt, which stopped the rapid expansion of the Ottomans in European lands
• 1533 - Ottomans conquer Iraq
• 1551 - Ottomans conquer Libya
• 1566 - Suleiman dies
• 1569 - Most of Istanbul burned down in a great fire
• 1683 - The Turks were defeated at the Battle of Vienna. This signals the beginning of the decline of the empire
• 1699 - Ottomans relinquish control of Hungary to Austria
• 1718 - Beginning of the era of tulips. What did reconciliation mean in some European countries, familiarization with science, architecture, and so on
• 1821 - Greek War of Independence begins
• 1914 - Ottomans joined the Central Forces in WWI
• 1923 - The Ottoman Empire dissolves and the Republic of Turkey becomes a country

2017-02-12

The content of the article

OTTOMAN (OTTOMAN) EMPIRE. This empire was created by the Turkic tribes in Anatolia and existed since the decline of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century. until the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1922. Its name comes from the name of Sultan Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty. The influence of the Ottoman Empire in the region began to gradually disappear from the 17th century, it finally collapsed after the defeat in the First World War.

Rise of the Ottomans.

The modern Republic of Turkey traces its origins to one of the Ghazi beyliks. The creator of the future mighty state, Osman (1259–1324/1326), inherited from his father Ertogrul a small border inheritance (uj) of the Seljuk state on the southeastern border of Byzantium, not far from Eskisehir. Osman became the founder of a new dynasty, and the state received his name and went down in history as the Ottoman Empire.

In the last years of Ottoman power, a legend appeared that Ertogrul and his tribe arrived from Central Asia just in time to save the Seljuks in their battle with the Mongols, and their western lands were rewarded. However, modern research does not confirm this legend. Ertogrul was given his inheritance by the Seljuks, to whom he swore allegiance and paid tribute, as well as to the Mongol khans. This continued under Osman and his son until 1335. It is likely that neither Osman nor his father were ghazis until Osman fell under the influence of one of the dervish orders. In the 1280s, Osman managed to capture Bilecik, İnönü and Eskisehir.

At the very beginning of the 14th century. Osman, together with his ghazis, annexed to his inheritance the lands that stretched up to the coasts of the Black and Marmara Seas, as well as most of the territory west of the Sakarya River, up to Kutahya in the south. After the death of Osman, his son Orkhan occupied the fortified Byzantine city of Brusa. Bursa, as the Ottomans called it, became the capital of the Ottoman state and remained so for more than 100 years until Constantinople was taken by them. In almost one decade, Byzantium lost almost all of Asia Minor, and such historical cities as Nicaea and Nicomedia were named Iznik and Izmit. The Ottomans subjugated the beylik of Karesi in Bergama (former Pergamum), and Gazi Orhan became the ruler of the entire northwestern part of Anatolia: from the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles to the Black Sea and the Bosporus.

conquests in Europe.

The rise of the Ottoman Empire.

In the period between the capture of Bursa and the victory in Kosovo, the organizational structures and management of the Ottoman Empire were quite effective, and already at that time many features of the future huge state were looming. Orhan and Murad were not interested in whether the new arrivals were Muslims, Christians or Jews, whether they were listed as Arabs, Greeks, Serbs, Albanians, Italians, Iranians or Tatars. State system board was based on a combination of Arab, Seljuk and Byzantine customs and traditions. In the occupied lands, the Ottomans tried to preserve, as far as possible, local customs, so as not to destroy the established social relations.

In all newly annexed areas, military leaders immediately allocated income from land allotments as a reward to valiant and worthy soldiers. The owners of these kind of fiefs, called timars, were obliged to manage their lands and from time to time participate in campaigns and raids on remote territories. From the feudal lords, called sipahs, who had timars, cavalry was formed. Like the ghazis, the sipahis acted as Ottoman pioneers in the newly conquered territories. Murad I distributed many such inheritances in Europe to Turkic clans from Anatolia who did not have property, resettling them in the Balkans and turning them into a feudal military aristocracy.

Another notable event of that time was the creation of a corps of Janissaries in the army, soldiers who were included in the military units close to the Sultan. These soldiers (Turkish yeniceri, lit. new army), called Janissaries by foreigners, later began to be recruited among captured boys from Christian families, in particular in the Balkans. This practice, known as the devshirme system, may have been introduced under Murad I, but did not fully take shape until the 15th century. under Murad II; it continued uninterrupted until the 16th century, with interruptions until the 17th century. Being slaves of the sultans in status, the Janissaries were a disciplined regular army, consisting of well-trained and armed foot soldiers, superior in combat capability to all similar troops in Europe until the advent of the French army of Louis XIV.

The conquests and fall of Bayezid I.

Mehmed II and the capture of Constantinople.

The young sultan received an excellent education at the palace school and as governor of Manisa under his father. He was undoubtedly more educated than all the other monarchs of the then Europe. After the murder of his minor brother, Mehmed II reorganized his court in preparation for the capture of Constantinople. Huge bronze cannons were cast and troops were gathered to storm the city. In 1452, the Ottomans built a huge fort with three majestic fortress castles in the narrow part of the Bosphorus about 10 km north of the Golden Horn harbor of Constantinople. Thus, the Sultan was able to control shipping from the Black Sea and cut off Constantinople from supplies from the Italian trading posts located to the north. This fort, called Rumeli Hisary, together with another Anadolu Hisary fortress built by the great-grandfather of Mehmed II, guaranteed reliable communication between Asia and Europe. The most spectacular move of the Sultan was the ingenious crossing of part of his fleet from the Bosphorus to the Golden Horn through the hills, bypassing the chain stretched at the entrance to the bay. Thus, the cannons from the ships of the Sultan could bombard the city from the inner harbor. On May 29, 1453, a breach was made in the wall, and the Ottoman soldiers broke into Constantinople. On the third day, Mehmed II was already praying in Ayasofya and decided to make Istanbul (as the Ottomans called Constantinople) the capital of the empire.

Owning such a well-located city, Mehmed II controlled the position in the empire. In 1456, his attempt to take Belgrade ended unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, Serbia and Bosnia soon became provinces of the empire, and before his death, the Sultan managed to annex Herzegovina and Albania to his state. Mehmed II captured all of Greece, including the Peloponnese, with the exception of a few Venetian ports, and the largest islands in the Aegean. In Asia Minor, he finally managed to overcome the resistance of the rulers of Karaman, seize Cilicia, annex Trebizond (Trabzon) on the Black Sea coast to the empire and establish suzerainty over the Crimea. The Sultan recognized the authority of the Greek Orthodox Church and worked closely with the newly elected patriarch. Previously, for two centuries, the population of Constantinople was constantly declining; Mehmed II moved many people from various parts of the country to the new capital and restored traditionally strong crafts and trade in it.

The heyday of the empire under Suleiman I.

The power of the Ottoman Empire reached its peak in the middle of the 16th century. The reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent (1520-1566) is considered the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman I (previous Suleiman, son of Bayezid I, never ruled all of its territory) surrounded himself with many capable dignitaries. Most of them were recruited according to the devshirme system or captured during army campaigns and pirate raids, and by 1566, when Suleiman I died, these "new Turks", or "new Ottomans", already firmly held power over the entire empire in their hands. They formed the backbone of the administrative authorities, while the highest Muslim institutions were headed by the indigenous Turks. Theologians and jurists were recruited from among them, whose duties included interpreting laws and performing judicial functions.

Suleiman I, being the only son of a monarch, never faced any claims to the throne. He was an educated man who loved music, poetry, nature, and also philosophical discussions. And yet the military forced him to adhere to a militant policy. In 1521 the Ottoman army crossed the Danube and captured Belgrade. This victory, which Mehmed II could not achieve at one time, opened the way for the Ottomans to the plains of Hungary and to the basin of the upper Danube. In 1526 Suleiman took Budapest and occupied all of Hungary. In 1529, the sultan began the siege of Vienna, but was unable to capture the city before the onset of winter. Nevertheless, a vast territory from Istanbul to Vienna and from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea formed the European part of the Ottoman Empire, and Suleiman during his reign carried out seven military campaigns on the western borders of the state.

Suleiman led fighting and in the east. The borders of his empire with Persia were not defined, and the vassal rulers in the border regions changed their masters, depending on which side the power was on and with whom it was more profitable to conclude an alliance. In 1534, Suleiman took Tabriz, and then Baghdad, including Iraq in the Ottoman Empire; in 1548 he regained Tabriz. The Sultan spent the entire 1549 in pursuit of the Persian Shah Tahmasp I, trying to fight him. While Suleiman was in Europe in 1553, Persian troops invaded Asia Minor and captured Erzurum. Having expelled the Persians and devoted most of 1554 to the conquest of the lands east of the Euphrates, Suleiman, according to the official peace treaty concluded with the shah, received a port in the Persian Gulf at his disposal. The squadrons of the naval forces of the Ottoman Empire operated in the waters of the Arabian Peninsula, in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez.

From the very beginning of his reign, Suleiman paid great attention to strengthening the maritime power of the state in order to maintain the superiority of the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. In 1522 his second campaign was directed against Fr. Rhodes, lying 19 km from the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. After the capture of the island and the eviction of the Joannites who owned it to Malta, the Aegean Sea and the entire coast of Asia Minor became Ottoman possessions. Soon french king Francis I turned to the Sultan for military assistance in the Mediterranean and with a request to oppose Hungary in order to stop the advance of the troops of Emperor Charles V, advancing on Francis in Italy. The most famous of Suleiman's naval commanders, Khairaddin Barbarossa, supreme ruler of Algeria and North Africa, devastated the coasts of Spain and Italy. Nevertheless, Suleiman's admirals failed to capture Malta in 1565.

Suleiman died in 1566 in Szigetvar during a campaign in Hungary. The body of the last of the great Ottoman sultans was transferred to Istanbul and buried in a mausoleum in the courtyard of the mosque.

Suleiman had several sons, but his beloved son died at the age of 21, two others were executed on charges of conspiracy, and the only remaining son, Selim II, turned out to be a drunkard. The conspiracy that destroyed Suleiman's family can be partly attributed to the jealousy of his wife, Roxelana, a former slave girl of either Russian or Polish origin. Another mistake of Suleiman was the elevation in 1523 of his beloved slave Ibrahim, who was appointed chief minister (grand vizier), although there were many other competent courtiers among the applicants. And although Ibrahim was a capable minister, his appointment violated the long-established system of palace relations and aroused the envy of other dignitaries.

Mid 16th century was the heyday of literature and architecture. More than a dozen mosques were erected in Istanbul under the guidance and designs of the architect Sinan, the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, dedicated to Selim II, became a masterpiece.

Under the new Sultan Selim II, the Ottomans began to lose their positions at sea. In 1571, the united Christian fleet met the Turkish in the battle of Lepanto and defeated it. During the winter of 1571-1572, the shipyards in Gelibolu and Istanbul worked tirelessly, and by the spring of 1572, thanks to the construction of new warships, the European naval victory was nullified. In 1573, the Venetians were defeated, and the island of Cyprus was annexed to the empire. Despite this, the defeat at Lepanto was an omen of the coming decline of Ottoman power in the Mediterranean.

Decline of the empire.

After Selim II, most of the Ottoman sultans were weak rulers. Murad III, Selim's son, reigned from 1574 to 1595. His tenure was accompanied by turmoil caused by palace slaves led by Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokolki and two harem factions: one led by the Sultan's mother Nur Banu, a Jewish convert to Islam, and the other by a beloved Safi's wife. The latter was the daughter of the Venetian governor of Corfu, who was captured by pirates and presented to Suleiman, who immediately gave her to his grandson Murad. However, the empire still had enough strength to move east to the Caspian Sea, as well as to maintain its position in the Caucasus and Europe.

After the death of Murad III, 20 of his sons remained. Of these, Mehmed III ascended the throne, strangling 19 of his brothers. His son Ahmed I, who succeeded him in 1603, tried to reform the system of government and get rid of corruption. He departed from the cruel tradition and did not kill his brother Mustafa. And although this, of course, was a manifestation of humanism, but since that time all the brothers of the sultans and their closest relatives from the Ottoman dynasty began to be kept in confinement in a special part of the palace, where they spent their lives until the death of the ruling monarch. Then the eldest of them was proclaimed his successor. Thus, after Ahmed I, few of those who reigned in the 17th-18th centuries. Sultans had sufficient intellectual development or political experience to manage such a huge empire. As a result, the unity of the state and the central government itself began to weaken rapidly.

Mustafa I, brother of Ahmed I, was mentally ill and ruled for only one year. Osman II, the son of Ahmed I, was proclaimed the new sultan in 1618. Being an enlightened monarch, Osman II tried to transform state structures, but was killed by his opponents in 1622. For some time, the throne again went to Mustafa I, but already in 1623 Osman's brother Murad ascended the throne IV, who ruled the country until 1640. His reign was dynamic and reminiscent of the reign of Selim I. Having reached the age of majority in 1623, Murad spent the next eight years in relentless attempts to restore and reform the Ottoman Empire. In an effort to improve state structures, he executed 10,000 officials. Murad personally led his armies during the eastern campaigns, banned the consumption of coffee, tobacco and alcoholic beverages, but he himself showed a weakness for alcohol, which led the young ruler to death at the age of only 28 years.

Murad's successor, his mentally ill brother Ibrahim, managed to largely ruin the state he inherited before he was deposed in 1648. The conspirators put Ibrahim's six-year-old son Mehmed IV on the throne and actually led the country until 1656, when the Sultan's mother achieved the appointment of Grand Vizier with unlimited powers talented Mehmed Köprülü. He held this position until 1661, when his son Fazıl Ahmed Koprulu became vizier.

The Ottoman Empire nevertheless managed to overcome the period of chaos, extortion and crisis of state power. Europe was split religious wars and the Thirty Years' War, while Poland and Russia experienced a troubled period. This made it possible for both Köprül, after the purge of the administration, during which 30,000 officials were executed, to capture the island of Crete in 1669, and in 1676 Podolia and other regions of Ukraine. After the death of Ahmed Koprulu, his place was taken by a mediocre and corrupt palace favorite. In 1683, the Ottomans laid siege to Vienna, but were defeated by the Poles and their allies, led by Jan Sobieski.

Leaving the Balkans.

The defeat at Vienna was the beginning of the retreat of the Turks in the Balkans. First, Budapest fell, and after the loss of Mohacs, all of Hungary fell under the rule of Vienna. In 1688 the Ottomans had to leave Belgrade, in 1689 Vidin in Bulgaria and Nish in Serbia. Thereafter Suleiman II (r. 1687–1691) appointed Mustafa Köprülü, Ahmed's brother, as grand vizier. The Ottomans managed to retake Nis and Belgrade, but they were utterly defeated by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1697 near Senta, in the far north of Serbia.

Mustafa II (r. 1695–1703) attempted to recapture lost ground by appointing Hussein Köprülä as grand vizier. In 1699, the Karlovitsky Peace Treaty was signed, according to which the Peloponnese and Dalmatia peninsulas retreated to Venice, Austria received Hungary and Transylvania, Poland - Podolia, and Russia retained Azov. The Treaty of Karlovtsy was the first in a series of concessions that the Ottomans were forced to make as they left Europe.

During the 18th century The Ottoman Empire lost most of its power in the Mediterranean. In the 17th century The main opponents of the Ottoman Empire were Austria and Venice, and in the 18th century. – Austria and Russia.

In 1718, Austria, according to the Pozharevatsky (Passarovitsky) treaty, received a number of territories. Nevertheless, the Ottoman Empire, despite the defeats in the wars that it waged in the 1730s, according to the treaty signed in 1739 in Belgrade, regained this city, mainly due to the weakness of the Habsburgs and the intrigues of French diplomats.

Surrenders.

As a result of behind-the-scenes maneuvers of French diplomacy in Belgrade, in 1740 an agreement was concluded between France and the Ottoman Empire. Called "Surrenders", this document was for a long time the basis for the special privileges received by all states in the territory of the empire. The formal beginning of the agreements was laid as early as 1251, when the Mamluk sultans in Cairo recognized Saint Louis IX, King of France. Mehmed II, Bayezid II and Selim I confirmed this agreement and used it as a model in relations with Venice and other Italian city-states, Hungary, Austria and most other European countries. One of the most important was the agreement of 1536 between Suleiman I and the French king Francis I. In accordance with the agreement of 1740, the French received the right to move freely and trade on the territory of the Ottoman Empire under the full protection of the Sultan, their goods were not taxed, with the exception of import and export duties, French envoys and consuls acquired judicial power over compatriots who could not be arrested in the absence of a representative of the consulate. The French were given the right to erect and freely use their churches; the same privileges were reserved within the Ottoman Empire and for other Catholics. In addition, the French could take under their protection the Portuguese, Sicilians and citizens of other states who did not have ambassadors at the Sultan's court.

Further decline and attempts at reform.

The end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 marked the beginning of new attacks against the Ottoman Empire. Despite the fact that the French king Louis XV sent Baron de Totta to Istanbul to modernize the Sultan's army, the Ottomans were defeated by Russia in the Danube provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia and were forced to sign the Kyuchuk-Kainarji peace treaty in 1774. Crimea gained independence, and Azov went to Russia, which recognized the border with the Ottoman Empire along the Bug River. The Sultan promised to provide protection for the Christians living in his empire, and allowed the presence in the capital of the Russian ambassador, who received the right to represent the interests of his Christian subjects. Starting from 1774 and up to the First World War, the Russian tsars referred to the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi agreement, justifying their role in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire. In 1779, Russia received rights to the Crimea, and in 1792 the Russian border was moved to the Dniester in accordance with the Iasi peace treaty.

Time dictated change. Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730) brought in architects who built him palaces and mosques in the style of Versailles and opened a printing press in Istanbul. The closest relatives of the Sultan were no longer kept in strict imprisonment, some of them began to study the scientific and political heritage of Western Europe. However, Ahmed III was killed by the conservatives, and Mahmud I took his place, during which the Caucasus was lost, passed to Persia, and the retreat in the Balkans continued. One of the prominent sultans was Abdul-Hamid I. During his reign (1774-1789), reforms were made, French teachers and technical specialists were invited to Istanbul. France hoped to save the Ottoman Empire and keep Russia out of the Black Sea straits and the Mediterranean.

Selim III

(reigned 1789–1807). Selim III, who became sultan in 1789, formed a 12-member cabinet of ministers in the style of European governments, replenished the treasury and created a new military corps. They created new educational establishments, designed to educate civil servants in the spirit of the ideas of the Enlightenment. Printed publications were again allowed, and the works of Western authors began to be translated into Turkish.

In the early years French Revolution The Ottoman Empire was left alone with its problems by the European powers. Napoleon considered Selim as an ally, believing that after the defeat of the Mamluks, the sultan would be able to strengthen his power in Egypt. Nevertheless, Selim III declared war on France and sent his fleet and army to defend the province. Saved the Turks from defeat only the British fleet, located off Alexandria and off the coast of the Levant. This step of the Ottoman Empire involved it in the military and diplomatic affairs of Europe.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, after the departure of the French, Muhammad Ali, a native of the Macedonian city of Kavala, who served in the Turkish army, came to power. In 1805 he became governor of the province, which opened a new chapter in the history of Egypt.

After the conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, relations with France were restored, and Selim III managed to keep the peace until 1806, when Russia invaded its Danubian provinces. England helped her ally Russia by sending her fleet through the Dardanelles, but Selim managed to speed up the restoration of defensive structures, and the British were forced to sail into the Aegean Sea. The French victories in Central Europe strengthened the position of the Ottoman Empire, but a rebellion began in the capital against Selim III. In 1807, during the absence of Bayraktar, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, the sultan was deposed, and his cousin Mustafa IV took the throne. After the return of Bayraktar in 1808, Mustafa IV was executed, but before that, the rebels strangled Selim III, who was imprisoned. Mahmud II remained the only male representative of the ruling dynasty.

Mahmoud II

(reigned 1808–1839). Under him, in 1809, the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain concluded the famous Dardanelles Peace, which opened the Turkish market for British goods on the condition that Great Britain recognized the closed status of the Black Sea straits for military ships in peacetime for the Turks. Earlier, the Ottoman Empire agreed to join the continental blockade created by Napoleon, so the agreement was perceived as a violation of previous obligations. Russia began hostilities on the Danube and captured a number of cities in Bulgaria and Wallachia. Under the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812, significant territories were ceded to Russia, and she refused to support the rebels in Serbia. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Ottoman Empire was recognized as a European power.

National Revolutions in the Ottoman Empire.

During the French Revolution, the country faced two new problems. One of them has been ripening for a long time: as the center weakened, the separated provinces eluded the power of the sultans. In Epirus, Ali Pasha Yaninsky, who ruled the province as sovereign and maintained diplomatic relations with Napoleon and other European monarchs, revolted. Similar actions also took place in Vidin, Sidon (modern Saida, Lebanon), Baghdad and other provinces, which undermined the power of the Sultan and reduced tax revenues to the imperial treasury. The strongest of the local rulers (pashas) eventually became Muhammad Ali in Egypt.

Another intractable problem for the country was the growth of the national liberation movement, especially among the Christian population of the Balkans. At the height of the French Revolution, Selim III in 1804 faced an uprising raised by the Serbs, led by Karageorgiy (George Petrovich). The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) recognized Serbia as a semi-autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire, led by Miloš Obrenović, a rival of Karađorđe.

Almost immediately after the defeat of the French Revolution and the fall of Napoleon, Mahmud II faced the Greek national liberation revolution. Mahmud II had a chance to win, especially after he managed to convince the nominal vassal in Egypt, Muhammad Ali, to send his army and navy to support Istanbul. However, the Pasha's armed forces were defeated after the intervention of Great Britain, France and Russia. As a result of the breakthrough of Russian troops in the Caucasus and their offensive against Istanbul, Mahmud II had to sign the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, which recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Greece. A few years later, the army of Muhammad Ali, under the command of his son Ibrahim Pasha, captured Syria and found itself dangerously close to the Bosphorus in Asia Minor. Rescued Mahmud II only Russian amphibious assault who landed on the Asian shore of the Bosporus as a warning to Muhammad Ali. After that, Mahmud never managed to get rid of Russian influence until he signed the humiliating Unkiyar-Iskelesi Treaty in 1833, which gave the Russian Tsar the right to "protect" the Sultan, as well as to close and open at his discretion Black Sea Straits for the passage of foreign warships.

Ottoman Empire after the Congress of Vienna.

Period after Congress of Vienna, probably proved to be the most destructive for the Ottoman Empire. Greece seceded; Egypt under Muhammad Ali, which, moreover, by capturing Syria and South Arabia, became virtually independent; Serbia, Wallachia and Moldavia became semi-autonomous territories. During the Napoleonic Wars, Europe significantly strengthened its military and industrial power. The weakening of the Ottoman state is attributed to a certain extent to the massacre of the Janissaries organized by Mahmud II in 1826.

By signing the Treaty of Unkiyar-Isklelesiy, Mahmud II hoped to buy time to transform the empire. His reforms were so tangible that travelers visiting Turkey in the late 1830s noted that more changes had taken place in the country in the last 20 years than in the previous two centuries. Instead of the Janissaries, Mahmud created a new army, trained and equipped according to the European model. Prussian officers were hired to train officers in the new military art. Fezzes and frock coats became the official attire of civil officials. Mahmoud tried to introduce into all areas of government latest methods developed in the young European states. It was possible to reorganize the financial system, streamline the activities of the judiciary, and improve the road network. Additional educational institutions were created, in particular, military and medical colleges. Newspapers began to be published in Istanbul and Izmir.

In the last year of his life, Mahmud again entered the war with his Egyptian vassal. Mahmud's army was defeated in northern Syria, and his fleet in Alexandria went over to the side of Muhammad Ali.

Abdul Mejid

(reigned 1839–1861). The eldest son and successor of Mahmud II, Abdul-Majid, was only 16 years old. Without an army and navy, he was helpless in the face of the superior forces of Muhammad Ali. He was saved by the diplomatic and military assistance of Russia, Great Britain, Austria and Prussia. France initially supported Egypt, but the concerted action of the European powers made it possible to find a way out of the deadlock: the pasha received the hereditary right to rule Egypt under the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman sultans. This provision was legitimized by the London Treaty of 1840 and confirmed by Abdul-Mejid in 1841. In the same year, the London Convention of the European Powers was concluded, according to which military ships were not to pass through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus in peacetime for the Ottoman Empire, and the powers that signed it took to the obligation to assist the Sultan in maintaining sovereignty over the Black Sea straits.

Tanzimat.

During the struggle with his strong vassal, Abdul-Mejid in 1839 promulgated the khatt-i sherif (“sacred decree”), announcing the beginning of reforms in the empire, with which the chief minister Reshid Pasha spoke to the highest state dignitaries and invited ambassadors. The document abolished the death penalty without trial, guaranteed justice for all citizens regardless of their racial or religious affiliation, established a judicial council to adopt a new criminal code, abolished the farming system, changed the methods of recruiting the army and limited the length of military service.

It became apparent that the empire was no longer capable of defending itself in the event of a military attack by any of the great European powers. Reshid Pasha, who previously served as ambassador to Paris and London, understood that certain steps must be taken to show the European states that the Ottoman Empire was capable of self-reformation and manageable, i.e. deserves to be preserved as an independent state. Hutt-i sheriff seemed to be the answer to the doubts of the Europeans. However, in 1841 Reshid was removed from office. In the next few years, his reforms were suspended, and only after his return to power in 1845 did they begin to be put into practice again with the support of the British ambassador, Stratford Canning. This period in the history of the Ottoman Empire, known as the tanzimat ("ordering"), included the reorganization of the system of government and the transformation of society in accordance with the ancient Muslim and Ottoman principles of tolerance. At the same time, education developed, the network of schools expanded, sons from famous families began to study in Europe. Many Ottomans began to lead a Western way of life. The number of published newspapers, books and magazines increased, and the younger generation professed new European ideals.

At the same time, foreign trade grew rapidly, but the influx of European industrial products had a negative impact on the finances and economy of the Ottoman Empire. Imports of British factory-made textiles disrupted artisanal textile production and siphoned gold and silver out of the state. Another blow to the economy was the signing in 1838 of the Balto-Liman Trade Convention, according to which import duties on goods imported into the empire were frozen at the level of 5%. This meant that foreign merchants could operate in the empire on an equal footing with local merchants. As a result, most of the trade in the country was in the hands of foreigners, who, in accordance with the "Surrenders", were released from the control of officials.

Crimean War.

The London Convention of 1841 abolished the special privileges that the Russian Emperor Nicholas I received under the secret annex to the Unkiyar-Iskelesi Treaty of 1833. Referring to the Kyuchuk-Kainarji Treaty of 1774, Nicholas I launched an offensive in the Balkans and demanded a special status and rights for Russian monks in holy places in Jerusalem and Palestine. After the refusal of Sultan Abdulmejid to satisfy these demands, the Crimean War began. Great Britain, France and Sardinia came to the aid of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul became a forward base for the preparation of hostilities in the Crimea, and the influx of European sailors, army officers and civil officials left an indelible mark on Ottoman society. The Paris Treaty of 1856, which ended this war, declared the Black Sea a neutral zone. The European powers again recognized Turkish sovereignty over the Black Sea Straits, and the Ottoman Empire was admitted to the "Union of European States". Romania gained independence.

Bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire.

After the Crimean War, the sultans began to borrow money from Western bankers. Back in 1854, having practically no external debt, the Ottoman government very quickly became bankrupt, and already in 1875 Sultan Abdulaziz owed almost one billion dollars in foreign currency to European bondholders.

In 1875 the Grand Vizier declared that the country was no longer able to pay the interest on its debts. Noisy protests and pressure from the European powers forced the Ottoman authorities to raise taxes in the provinces. Unrest began in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia and Bulgaria. The government sent troops to "appease" the rebels, during which unprecedented cruelty was shown that amazed the Europeans. In response, Russia sent volunteers to help the Balkan Slavs. At this time, a secret revolutionary society of the "New Ottomans" appeared in the country, advocating constitutional reforms in their homeland.

In 1876, Abdul-Aziz, who succeeded his brother Abdul-Mejid in 1861, was deposed for incompetence by Midhat Pasha and Avni Pasha, leaders of the liberal organization of the constitutionalists. On the throne they put Murad V, the eldest son of Abdul-Mejid, who turned out to be mentally ill and was removed just a few months later, and Abdul-Hamid II, another son of Abdul-Mejid, was placed on the throne.

Abdul Hamid II

(reigned 1876–1909). Abdul-Hamid II visited Europe, and many pinned great hopes on him for a liberal constitutional regime. However, at the time of his accession to the throne, Turkish influence in the Balkans was in danger despite the fact that the Ottoman forces managed to defeat the Bosnian and Serbian rebels. This development of events forced Russia to come out with the threat of open intervention, which was sharply opposed by Austria-Hungary and Great Britain. In December 1876, a conference of ambassadors was convened in Istanbul, at which Abdul-Hamid II announced the introduction of the constitution of the Ottoman Empire, which provided for the creation of an elected parliament, a government responsible to it, and other attributes of European constitutional monarchies. However, the brutal suppression of the uprising in Bulgaria nevertheless led in 1877 to a war with Russia. In this regard, Abdul-Hamid II suspended the operation of the Constitution for the period of the war. This situation continued until the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

Meanwhile, at the front, the military situation was developing in favor of Russia, whose troops were already encamped under the walls of Istanbul. Great Britain managed to prevent the capture of the city by sending a fleet to the Sea of ​​Marmara and presenting an ultimatum to St. Petersburg demanding to stop hostilities. Initially, Russia imposed on the sultan the extremely disadvantageous Treaty of San Stefano, according to which most of the European possessions of the Ottoman Empire became part of a new autonomous entity - Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary and Great Britain opposed the terms of the treaty. All this prompted the German Chancellor Bismarck to convene the Berlin Congress in 1878, at which the size of Bulgaria was reduced, but the complete independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania was recognized. Cyprus went to Great Britain, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary. Russia received the fortresses of Ardahan, Kars and Batum (Batumi) in the Caucasus; to regulate navigation on the Danube, a commission was created from representatives of the Danube states, and the Black Sea and the Black Sea straits again received the status provided for by the Treaty of Paris of 1856. The Sultan promised to equally fairly govern all his subjects, and the European powers considered that the Berlin Congress had forever resolved the difficult Eastern problem.

During the 32-year reign of Abdul-Hamid II, the Constitution actually did not come into effect. One of the most important unresolved issues was the bankruptcy of the state. In 1881, under foreign control, the Office of the Ottoman Public Debt was created, which was made responsible for the payments on European bonds. Within a few years, confidence in the financial stability of the Ottoman Empire was restored, which contributed to the participation of foreign capital in the construction of such large projects as the Anatolian Railway, which connected Istanbul with Baghdad.

Young Turk Revolution.

During these years, national uprisings took place in Crete and Macedonia. In Crete, bloody clashes took place in 1896 and 1897, which led to the empire's war with Greece in 1897. After 30 days of fighting, the European powers intervened to save Athens from capture by the Ottoman army. Public opinion in Macedonia leaned towards either independence or union with Bulgaria.

It became obvious that the future of the state was connected with the Young Turks. The ideas of national upsurge were propagated by some journalists, the most talented of whom was Namik Kemal. Abdul-Hamid tried to suppress this movement with arrests, exiles and executions. At the same time, secret Turkish societies flourished in military headquarters around the country and in places as far away as Paris, Geneva, and Cairo. The most effective organization turned out to be the secret committee "Unity and Progress", which was created by the "Young Turks".

In 1908, the troops stationed in Macedonia rebelled and demanded the implementation of the Constitution of 1876. Abdul-Hamid was forced to agree to this, unable to use force. Elections to parliament followed, and the formation of a government of ministers responsible to that legislative body. In April 1909, a counter-revolutionary rebellion broke out in Istanbul, which, however, was quickly suppressed by armed units that arrived in time from Macedonia. Abdul-Hamid was deposed and sent into exile, where he died in 1918. His brother Mehmed V was proclaimed Sultan.

Balkan wars.

The Young Turk government soon faced internal strife and new territorial losses in Europe. In 1908, as a result of the revolution that took place in the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria proclaimed its independence, and Austria-Hungary seized Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Young Turks were powerless to prevent these events, and in 1911 they found themselves embroiled in a conflict with Italy, which had invaded the territory of modern Libya. The war ended in 1912 when the provinces of Tripoli and Cyrenaica became an Italian colony. In early 1912, Crete allied itself with Greece, and later that year, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria launched the First Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire.

Within a few weeks, the Ottomans lost all their possessions in Europe, with the exception of Istanbul, Edirne and Ioannina in Greece and Scutari (modern Shkodra) in Albania. The great European powers, anxiously watching how the balance of power in the Balkans was being destroyed, demanded a cessation of hostilities and a conference. The Young Turks refused to surrender the cities, and in February 1913 the fighting resumed. In a few weeks, the Ottoman Empire completely lost its European possessions, with the exception of the Istanbul zone and the straits. The Young Turks were forced to agree to a truce and formally give up the already lost lands. However, the victors immediately began an internecine war. The Ottomans entered into a clash with Bulgaria in order to return Edirne and the European regions adjacent to Istanbul. The Second Balkan War ended in August 1913 with the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest, but a year later the First Balkan War broke out. World War.

World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Developments after 1908 weakened the Young Turk government and isolated it politically. It tried to correct this situation by offering alliances to the stronger European powers. On August 2, 1914, shortly after the start of the war in Europe, the Ottoman Empire entered into a secret alliance with Germany. On the Turkish side, the pro-German Enver Pasha, a leading member of the Young Turk triumvirate and Minister of War, participated in the negotiations. A few days later, two German cruisers "Goeben" and "Breslau" took refuge in the straits. The Ottoman Empire acquired these warships, sailed them into the Black Sea in October and fired at Russian ports, thus declaring war on the Entente.

In the winter of 1914–1915, the Ottoman army suffered huge losses when Russian troops entered Armenia. Fearing that local residents would come out on their side, the government authorized the massacre of the Armenian population in eastern Anatolia, which many researchers later called the Armenian genocide. Thousands of Armenians were deported to Syria. In 1916, the Ottoman rule in Arabia came to an end: the uprising was raised by the sheriff of Mecca, Hussein ibn Ali, supported by the Entente. As a result of these events, the Ottoman government finally collapsed, although Turkish troops, with German support, achieved a number of important victories: in 1915 they managed to repulse the Entente attack on the Dardanelles, and in 1916 capture the British corps in Iraq and stop the advance of the Russians in the east. During the war, the Capitulation regime was canceled and customs tariffs were raised to protect domestic trade. The Turks took over the business of the evicted national minorities, which helped create the nucleus of a new Turkish commercial and industrial class. In 1918, when the Germans were withdrawn to defend the Hindenburg Line, the Ottoman Empire began to suffer defeat. On October 30, 1918, Turkish and British representatives concluded a truce, according to which the Entente received the right to "occupy any strategic points" of the empire and control the Black Sea straits.

The collapse of the empire.

The fate of most of the provinces of the Ottoman state was determined in the secret treaties of the Entente during the war. The Sultanate agreed to the separation of regions with a predominantly non-Turkish population. Istanbul was occupied by forces that had their own areas of responsibility. Russia was promised the Black Sea straits, including Istanbul, but the October Revolution led to the annulment of these agreements. In 1918, Mehmed V died, and his brother Mehmed VI took the throne, although he retained the government in Istanbul, he actually became dependent on the Allied occupying forces. Problems were growing in the interior of the country, far from the places of deployment of the Entente troops and government institutions subordinate to the Sultan. Detachments of the Ottoman army, wandering around the vast outskirts of the empire, refused to lay down their arms. British, French and Italian military contingents occupied various parts of Turkey. With the support of the Entente fleet in May 1919, Greek armed formations landed in Izmir and began to advance deep into Asia Minor in order to protect the Greeks in Western Anatolia. Finally, in August 1920, the Treaty of Sevres was signed. Not a single area of ​​the Ottoman Empire remained free from foreign supervision. An international commission was created to control the Black Sea Straits and Istanbul. After riots broke out in early 1920 as a result of the growth of national sentiment, British troops entered Istanbul.

Mustafa Kemal and the Lausanne Peace Treaty.

In the spring of 1920, Mustafa Kemal, the most successful Ottoman commander of the war period, convened a Grand National Assembly in Ankara. He arrived from Istanbul in Anatolia on May 19, 1919 (the date from which the Turkish national liberation struggle began), where he united patriotic forces around him, striving to preserve Turkish statehood and the independence of the Turkish nation. From 1920 to 1922 Kemal and his supporters defeated the enemy armies in the east, south and west and made peace with Russia, France and Italy. At the end of August 1922, the Greek army retreated in disorder to Izmir and the coastal regions. Then the detachments of Kemal went to the Black Sea Straits, where the British troops were located. After the British Parliament refused to support the proposal to start hostilities, British Prime Minister Lloyd George resigned, and the war was averted by the signing of a truce in the Turkish city of Mudanya. The British government invited the Sultan and Kemal to send their representatives to a peace conference, which opened in Lausanne (Switzerland) on November 21, 1922. However, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara abolished the Sultanate, and Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman monarch, left Istanbul on a British warship on November 17.

On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, which recognized the complete independence of Turkey. The Office of the Ottoman Public Debt and Capitulations were abolished, and foreign control over the country was abolished. At the same time, Türkiye agreed to demilitarize the Black Sea straits. The province of Mosul, with its oil fields, went to Iraq. It was planned to carry out an exchange of population with Greece, from which the Greeks living in Istanbul and the West Thracian Turks were excluded. On October 6, 1923, British troops left Istanbul, and on October 29, 1923, Turkey was proclaimed a republic, and Mustafa Kemal was elected its first president.



Turks are a relatively young people. His age is only 600 years old. The first Turks were a bunch of Turkmens, fugitives from Central Asia who fled from the Mongols to the west. They reached the Konya Sultanate and asked for land for a settlement. They were given a place on the border with the Empire of Nicaea near Bursa. There the fugitives began to settle down in the middle of the XIII century.

The main among the fugitive Turkmens was Ertogrul-bey. He called the territory allotted to him the Ottoman beylik. And taking into account the fact that the Konya Sultan lost all power, he became an independent ruler. Ertogrul died in 1281 and power passed to his son Osman I Ghazi. It is he who is considered the founder of the dynasty of the Ottoman sultans and the first ruler of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire existed from 1299 to 1922 and played a significant role in world history.

Ottoman sultan with his warriors

An important factor contributing to the formation of a powerful Turkish state was the fact that the Mongols, having reached Antioch, did not go further, as they considered Byzantium their ally. Therefore, they did not touch the lands on which the Ottoman beylik was located, believing that it would soon become part of the Byzantine Empire.

And Osman Gazi, like the crusaders, announced holy war but only for the Muslim faith. He began to invite everyone to take part in it. And from all over Muslim East Seekers of fortune began to flock to Osman. They were ready to fight for the faith of Islam until their swords became dull and until they got enough wealth and wives. And in the east it was considered a very big achievement.

Thus, the Ottoman army began to be replenished with Circassians, Kurds, Arabs, Seljuks, Turkmens. That is, anyone could come, pronounce the formula of Islam and become a Turk. And on the occupied lands, such people began to allocate small plots of land for farming. Such a site was called "timar". He represented a house with a garden.

The owner of the timar became a rider (spagi). It was his duty to appear at the first call to the Sultan in full armor and on his own horse in order to serve in the cavalry. It was noteworthy that spagi did not pay taxes in the form of money, since they paid the tax with their blood.

With such internal organization the territory of the Ottoman state began to expand rapidly. In 1324, Osman's son Orhan I captured the city of Bursa and made it his capital. From Bursa to Constantinople, a stone's throw, and the Byzantines lost control over the northern and western regions of Anatolia. And in 1352, the Ottoman Turks crossed the Dardanelles and ended up in Europe. After this, the gradual and steady capture of Thrace began.

In Europe, it was impossible to get by with one cavalry, so there was an urgent need for infantry. And then the Turks created a completely new army, consisting of infantry, which they called Janissaries(yang - new, charik - army: it turns out Janissaries).

The conquerors took by force from the Christian nations boys aged 7 to 14 years old and converted to Islam. These children were well fed, taught the laws of Allah, military affairs and made foot soldiers (Janissaries). These warriors turned out to be the best foot soldiers in all of Europe. Neither the knightly cavalry nor the Persian Qizilbash could break through the line of the Janissaries.

Janissaries - infantry of the Ottoman army

And the secret of the invincibility of the Turkish infantry was in the spirit of camaraderie. Janissaries from the first days lived together, ate delicious porridge from the same cauldron, and, despite the fact that they belonged to different nations, they were people of the same destiny. When they became adults, they got married, started families, but continued to live in the barracks. Only during the holidays they visited their wives and children. That is why they did not know defeat and represented the faithful and reliable force of the Sultan.

However, having reached the Mediterranean Sea, the Ottoman Empire could not confine itself to the Janissaries alone. Since there is water, ships are needed, and a need arose for a navy. The Turks began to recruit pirates, adventurers and vagabonds from all over the Mediterranean for the fleet. Italians, Greeks, Berbers, Danes, Norwegians went to serve them. This public had no faith, no honor, no law, no conscience. Therefore, they willingly converted to the Muslim faith, since they did not have any faith at all, and it did not matter to them who they were, Christians or Muslims.

From this motley crowd, a fleet was formed that looked more like a pirate than a military one. He began to rage in the Mediterranean, so much so that he horrified the Spanish, French and Italian ships. The very same navigation in the Mediterranean began to be considered a dangerous business. Turkish corsair squadrons were based in Tunisia, Algeria and other Muslim lands that had access to the sea.

Ottoman navy

Thus, from completely different peoples and tribes, such a people as the Turks was formed. And the connecting link was Islam and a single military destiny. During successful campaigns, Turkish soldiers captured captives, made them their wives and concubines, and children from women of different nationalities became full-fledged Turks born on the territory of the Ottoman Empire.

The small principality, which appeared on the territory of Asia Minor in the middle of the 13th century, very quickly turned into a powerful Mediterranean power, called the Ottoman Empire after the first ruler Osman I Gazi. The Ottoman Turks also called their state the High Port, and they called themselves not Turks, but Muslims. As for the real Turks, they were considered to be the Turkmen population living in the interior regions of Asia Minor. The Ottomans conquered these people in the 15th century after the capture of Constantinople on May 29, 1453.

European states could not resist the Ottoman Turks. Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople and made it his capital - Istanbul. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire significantly expanded its territories, and with the capture of Egypt, the Turkish fleet began to dominate the Red Sea. By the second half of the 16th century, the population of the state reached 15 million people, and the Turkish Empire itself began to be compared with the Roman Empire.

But by the end of the 17th century, the Ottoman Turks suffered a series of major defeats in Europe.. The Russian Empire played an important role in weakening the Turks. She always beat the warlike descendants of Osman I. She took away the Crimea, the Black Sea coast from them, and all these victories became a harbinger of the decline of the state, which in the 16th century shone in the rays of its power.

But the Ottoman Empire was weakened not only by endless wars, but also by ugly farming. Officials squeezed all the juice out of the peasants, and therefore they ran the economy in a predatory way. This led to the emergence of a large number of waste lands. And this is in the "fertile crescent", which in ancient times fed almost the entire Mediterranean.

Ottoman Empire on the map, XIV-XVII centuries

It all ended in disaster in the 19th century, when the state treasury was empty. The Turks began to borrow loans from the French capitalists. But it soon became clear that they could not pay their debts, since after the victories of Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Kutuzov, Dibich, the Turkish economy was completely undermined. The French then brought a navy into the Aegean and demanded customs in all ports, mining as concessions, and the right to collect taxes until the debt was repaid.

After that, the Ottoman Empire was called the "sick man of Europe." She began to quickly lose the conquered lands and turn into a semi-colony of European powers. The last autocratic sultan of the empire, Abdul-Hamid II, tried to save the situation. However, under him the political crisis worsened even more. In 1908, the Sultan was overthrown and imprisoned by the Young Turks (a political movement of the pro-Western republican persuasion).

On April 27, 1909, the Young Turks enthroned the constitutional monarch Mehmed V, who was the brother of the deposed sultan. After that, the Young Turks entered the First World War on the side of Germany and were defeated and destroyed. There was nothing good in their reign. They promised freedom, but ended up with a terrible massacre of Armenians, saying that they were against the new regime. And they really were against it, since nothing has changed in the country. Everything remained the same as before it was 500 years under the rule of the sultans.

After the defeat in the First World War, the Turkish Empire began to agonize. Anglo-French troops occupied Constantinople, the Greeks captured Smyrna and moved inland. Mehmed V died on July 3, 1918 from a heart attack. And on October 30 of the same year, the Mudros truce, shameful for Turkey, was signed. The Young Turks fled abroad, leaving the last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI, in power. He became a puppet in the hands of the Entente.

But then the unexpected happened. In 1919, in the distant mountainous provinces, a national freedom movement. It was headed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He led the common people. He very quickly expelled the Anglo-French and Greek invaders from his lands and restored Turkey within the borders that exist today. On November 1, 1922, the Sultanate was abolished. Thus, the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. On November 17, the last Turkish sultan, Mehmed VI, left the country and went to Malta. He died in 1926 in Italy.

And in the country on October 29, 1923, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey announced the creation of the Republic of Turkey. It exists to this day, and its capital is the city of Ankara. As for the Turks themselves, they have been living quite happily for the last decades. In the morning they sing, in the evening they dance, and in between they pray. May Allah protect them!

The content of the article

OTTOMAN (OTTOMAN) EMPIRE. This empire was created by the Turkic tribes in Anatolia and existed since the decline of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century. until the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1922. Its name comes from the name of Sultan Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty. The influence of the Ottoman Empire in the region began to gradually disappear from the 17th century, it finally collapsed after the defeat in the First World War.

Rise of the Ottomans.

The modern Republic of Turkey traces its origins to one of the Ghazi beyliks. The creator of the future mighty state, Osman (1259–1324/1326), inherited from his father Ertogrul a small border inheritance (uj) of the Seljuk state on the southeastern border of Byzantium, not far from Eskisehir. Osman became the founder of a new dynasty, and the state received his name and went down in history as the Ottoman Empire.

In the last years of Ottoman power, a legend appeared that Ertogrul and his tribe arrived from Central Asia just in time to save the Seljuks in their battle with the Mongols, and their western lands were rewarded. However, modern research does not confirm this legend. Ertogrul was given his inheritance by the Seljuks, to whom he swore allegiance and paid tribute, as well as to the Mongol khans. This continued under Osman and his son until 1335. It is likely that neither Osman nor his father were ghazis until Osman fell under the influence of one of the dervish orders. In the 1280s, Osman managed to capture Bilecik, İnönü and Eskisehir.

At the very beginning of the 14th century. Osman, together with his ghazis, annexed to his inheritance the lands that stretched up to the coasts of the Black and Marmara Seas, as well as most of the territory west of the Sakarya River, up to Kutahya in the south. After the death of Osman, his son Orkhan occupied the fortified Byzantine city of Brusa. Bursa, as the Ottomans called it, became the capital of the Ottoman state and remained so for more than 100 years until Constantinople was taken by them. In almost one decade, Byzantium lost almost all of Asia Minor, and such historical cities as Nicaea and Nicomedia were named Iznik and Izmit. The Ottomans subjugated the beylik of Karesi in Bergama (former Pergamum), and Gazi Orhan became the ruler of the entire northwestern part of Anatolia: from the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles to the Black Sea and the Bosporus.

conquests in Europe.

The rise of the Ottoman Empire.

In the period between the capture of Bursa and the victory in Kosovo, the organizational structures and management of the Ottoman Empire were quite effective, and already at that time many features of the future huge state were looming. Orhan and Murad were not interested in whether the new arrivals were Muslims, Christians or Jews, whether they were listed as Arabs, Greeks, Serbs, Albanians, Italians, Iranians or Tatars. The state system of government was built on a combination of Arab, Seljuk and Byzantine customs and traditions. In the occupied lands, the Ottomans tried to preserve, as far as possible, local customs, so as not to destroy the established social relations.

In all newly annexed areas, military leaders immediately allocated income from land allotments as a reward to valiant and worthy soldiers. The owners of these kind of fiefs, called timars, were obliged to manage their lands and from time to time participate in campaigns and raids on remote territories. From the feudal lords, called sipahs, who had timars, cavalry was formed. Like the ghazis, the sipahis acted as Ottoman pioneers in the newly conquered territories. Murad I distributed many such inheritances in Europe to Turkic clans from Anatolia who did not have property, resettling them in the Balkans and turning them into a feudal military aristocracy.

Another notable event of that time was the creation of a corps of Janissaries in the army, soldiers who were included in the military units close to the Sultan. These soldiers (Turkish yeniceri, lit. new army), called Janissaries by foreigners, later began to be recruited among captured boys from Christian families, in particular in the Balkans. This practice, known as the devshirme system, may have been introduced under Murad I, but did not fully take shape until the 15th century. under Murad II; it continued uninterrupted until the 16th century, with interruptions until the 17th century. Being slaves of the sultans in status, the Janissaries were a disciplined regular army, consisting of well-trained and armed foot soldiers, superior in combat capability to all similar troops in Europe until the advent of the French army of Louis XIV.

The conquests and fall of Bayezid I.

Mehmed II and the capture of Constantinople.

The young sultan received an excellent education at the palace school and as governor of Manisa under his father. He was undoubtedly more educated than all the other monarchs of the then Europe. After the murder of his minor brother, Mehmed II reorganized his court in preparation for the capture of Constantinople. Huge bronze cannons were cast and troops were gathered to storm the city. In 1452, the Ottomans built a huge fort with three majestic fortress castles in the narrow part of the Bosphorus about 10 km north of the Golden Horn harbor of Constantinople. Thus, the Sultan was able to control shipping from the Black Sea and cut off Constantinople from supplies from the Italian trading posts located to the north. This fort, called Rumeli Hisary, together with another Anadolu Hisary fortress built by the great-grandfather of Mehmed II, guaranteed reliable communication between Asia and Europe. The most spectacular move of the Sultan was the ingenious crossing of part of his fleet from the Bosphorus to the Golden Horn through the hills, bypassing the chain stretched at the entrance to the bay. Thus, the cannons from the ships of the Sultan could bombard the city from the inner harbor. On May 29, 1453, a breach was made in the wall, and the Ottoman soldiers broke into Constantinople. On the third day, Mehmed II was already praying in Ayasofya and decided to make Istanbul (as the Ottomans called Constantinople) the capital of the empire.

Owning such a well-located city, Mehmed II controlled the position in the empire. In 1456, his attempt to take Belgrade ended unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, Serbia and Bosnia soon became provinces of the empire, and before his death, the Sultan managed to annex Herzegovina and Albania to his state. Mehmed II captured all of Greece, including the Peloponnese, with the exception of a few Venetian ports, and the largest islands in the Aegean. In Asia Minor, he finally managed to overcome the resistance of the rulers of Karaman, seize Cilicia, annex Trebizond (Trabzon) on the Black Sea coast to the empire and establish suzerainty over the Crimea. The Sultan recognized the authority of the Greek Orthodox Church and worked closely with the newly elected Patriarch. Previously, for two centuries, the population of Constantinople was constantly declining; Mehmed II moved many people from various parts of the country to the new capital and restored traditionally strong crafts and trade in it.

The heyday of the empire under Suleiman I.

The power of the Ottoman Empire reached its peak in the middle of the 16th century. The reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent (1520-1566) is considered the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman I (previous Suleiman, son of Bayezid I, never ruled all of its territory) surrounded himself with many capable dignitaries. Most of them were recruited according to the devshirme system or captured during army campaigns and pirate raids, and by 1566, when Suleiman I died, these "new Turks", or "new Ottomans", already firmly held power over the entire empire in their hands. They formed the backbone of the administrative authorities, while the highest Muslim institutions were headed by the indigenous Turks. Theologians and jurists were recruited from among them, whose duties included interpreting laws and performing judicial functions.

Suleiman I, being the only son of a monarch, never faced any claims to the throne. He was an educated man who loved music, poetry, nature, and also philosophical discussions. And yet the military forced him to adhere to a militant policy. In 1521 the Ottoman army crossed the Danube and captured Belgrade. This victory, which Mehmed II could not achieve at one time, opened the way for the Ottomans to the plains of Hungary and to the basin of the upper Danube. In 1526 Suleiman took Budapest and occupied all of Hungary. In 1529, the sultan began the siege of Vienna, but was unable to capture the city before the onset of winter. Nevertheless, a vast territory from Istanbul to Vienna and from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea formed the European part of the Ottoman Empire, and Suleiman during his reign carried out seven military campaigns on the western borders of the state.

Suleiman fought in the east as well. The borders of his empire with Persia were not defined, and the vassal rulers in the border regions changed their masters, depending on which side the power was on and with whom it was more profitable to conclude an alliance. In 1534, Suleiman took Tabriz, and then Baghdad, including Iraq in the Ottoman Empire; in 1548 he regained Tabriz. The Sultan spent the entire 1549 in pursuit of the Persian Shah Tahmasp I, trying to fight him. While Suleiman was in Europe in 1553, Persian troops invaded Asia Minor and captured Erzurum. Having expelled the Persians and devoted most of 1554 to the conquest of the lands east of the Euphrates, Suleiman, according to the official peace treaty concluded with the shah, received a port in the Persian Gulf at his disposal. The squadrons of the naval forces of the Ottoman Empire operated in the waters of the Arabian Peninsula, in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez.

From the very beginning of his reign, Suleiman paid great attention to strengthening the maritime power of the state in order to maintain the superiority of the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. In 1522 his second campaign was directed against Fr. Rhodes, lying 19 km from the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. After the capture of the island and the eviction of the Joannites who owned it to Malta, the Aegean Sea and the entire coast of Asia Minor became Ottoman possessions. Soon, the French king Francis I turned to the Sultan for military assistance in the Mediterranean and with a request to oppose Hungary in order to stop the advance of the troops of Emperor Charles V, advancing on Francis in Italy. The most famous of Suleiman's naval commanders, Khairaddin Barbarossa, supreme ruler of Algeria and North Africa, devastated the coasts of Spain and Italy. Nevertheless, Suleiman's admirals failed to capture Malta in 1565.

Suleiman died in 1566 in Szigetvar during a campaign in Hungary. The body of the last of the great Ottoman sultans was transferred to Istanbul and buried in a mausoleum in the courtyard of the mosque.

Suleiman had several sons, but his beloved son died at the age of 21, two others were executed on charges of conspiracy, and the only remaining son, Selim II, turned out to be a drunkard. The conspiracy that destroyed Suleiman's family can be partly attributed to the jealousy of his wife, Roxelana, a former slave girl of either Russian or Polish origin. Another mistake of Suleiman was the elevation in 1523 of his beloved slave Ibrahim, who was appointed chief minister (grand vizier), although there were many other competent courtiers among the applicants. And although Ibrahim was a capable minister, his appointment violated the long-established system of palace relations and aroused the envy of other dignitaries.

Mid 16th century was the heyday of literature and architecture. More than a dozen mosques were erected in Istanbul under the guidance and designs of the architect Sinan, the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, dedicated to Selim II, became a masterpiece.

Under the new Sultan Selim II, the Ottomans began to lose their positions at sea. In 1571, the united Christian fleet met the Turkish in the battle of Lepanto and defeated it. During the winter of 1571-1572, the shipyards in Gelibolu and Istanbul worked tirelessly, and by the spring of 1572, thanks to the construction of new warships, the European naval victory was nullified. In 1573, the Venetians were defeated, and the island of Cyprus was annexed to the empire. Despite this, the defeat at Lepanto was an omen of the coming decline of Ottoman power in the Mediterranean.

Decline of the empire.

After Selim II, most of the Ottoman sultans were weak rulers. Murad III, Selim's son, reigned from 1574 to 1595. His tenure was accompanied by turmoil caused by palace slaves led by Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokolki and two harem factions: one led by the Sultan's mother Nur Banu, a Jewish convert to Islam, and the other by a beloved Safi's wife. The latter was the daughter of the Venetian governor of Corfu, who was captured by pirates and presented to Suleiman, who immediately gave her to his grandson Murad. However, the empire still had enough strength to move east to the Caspian Sea, as well as to maintain its position in the Caucasus and Europe.

After the death of Murad III, 20 of his sons remained. Of these, Mehmed III ascended the throne, strangling 19 of his brothers. His son Ahmed I, who succeeded him in 1603, tried to reform the system of government and get rid of corruption. He departed from the cruel tradition and did not kill his brother Mustafa. And although this, of course, was a manifestation of humanism, but since that time all the brothers of the sultans and their closest relatives from the Ottoman dynasty began to be kept in confinement in a special part of the palace, where they spent their lives until the death of the ruling monarch. Then the eldest of them was proclaimed his successor. Thus, after Ahmed I, few of those who reigned in the 17th-18th centuries. Sultans had sufficient intellectual development or political experience to manage such a huge empire. As a result, the unity of the state and the central government itself began to weaken rapidly.

Mustafa I, brother of Ahmed I, was mentally ill and ruled for only one year. Osman II, the son of Ahmed I, was proclaimed the new sultan in 1618. Being an enlightened monarch, Osman II tried to transform state structures, but was killed by his opponents in 1622. For some time, the throne again went to Mustafa I, but already in 1623 Osman's brother Murad ascended the throne IV, who ruled the country until 1640. His reign was dynamic and reminiscent of the reign of Selim I. Having reached the age of majority in 1623, Murad spent the next eight years in relentless attempts to restore and reform the Ottoman Empire. In an effort to improve state structures, he executed 10,000 officials. Murad personally led his armies during the eastern campaigns, banned the consumption of coffee, tobacco and alcoholic beverages, but he himself showed a weakness for alcohol, which led the young ruler to death at the age of only 28 years.

Murad's successor, his mentally ill brother Ibrahim, managed to largely ruin the state he inherited before he was deposed in 1648. The conspirators put Ibrahim's six-year-old son Mehmed IV on the throne and actually led the country until 1656, when the Sultan's mother achieved the appointment of Grand Vizier with unlimited powers talented Mehmed Köprülü. He held this position until 1661, when his son Fazıl Ahmed Koprulu became vizier.

The Ottoman Empire nevertheless managed to overcome the period of chaos, extortion and crisis of state power. Europe was divided by the Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years' War, while Poland and Russia were in trouble. This made it possible for both Köprül, after the purge of the administration, during which 30,000 officials were executed, to capture the island of Crete in 1669, and in 1676 Podolia and other regions of Ukraine. After the death of Ahmed Koprulu, his place was taken by a mediocre and corrupt palace favorite. In 1683, the Ottomans laid siege to Vienna, but were defeated by the Poles and their allies, led by Jan Sobieski.

Leaving the Balkans.

The defeat at Vienna was the beginning of the retreat of the Turks in the Balkans. First, Budapest fell, and after the loss of Mohacs, all of Hungary fell under the rule of Vienna. In 1688 the Ottomans had to leave Belgrade, in 1689 Vidin in Bulgaria and Nish in Serbia. Thereafter Suleiman II (r. 1687–1691) appointed Mustafa Köprülü, Ahmed's brother, as grand vizier. The Ottomans managed to retake Nis and Belgrade, but they were utterly defeated by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1697 near Senta, in the far north of Serbia.

Mustafa II (r. 1695–1703) attempted to recapture lost ground by appointing Hussein Köprülä as grand vizier. In 1699, the Karlovitsky Peace Treaty was signed, according to which the Peloponnese and Dalmatia peninsulas retreated to Venice, Austria received Hungary and Transylvania, Poland - Podolia, and Russia retained Azov. The Treaty of Karlovtsy was the first in a series of concessions that the Ottomans were forced to make as they left Europe.

During the 18th century The Ottoman Empire lost most of its power in the Mediterranean. In the 17th century The main opponents of the Ottoman Empire were Austria and Venice, and in the 18th century. – Austria and Russia.

In 1718, Austria, according to the Pozharevatsky (Passarovitsky) treaty, received a number of territories. Nevertheless, the Ottoman Empire, despite the defeats in the wars that it waged in the 1730s, according to the treaty signed in 1739 in Belgrade, regained this city, mainly due to the weakness of the Habsburgs and the intrigues of French diplomats.

Surrenders.

As a result of behind-the-scenes maneuvers of French diplomacy in Belgrade, in 1740 an agreement was concluded between France and the Ottoman Empire. Called "Surrenders", this document was for a long time the basis for the special privileges received by all states in the territory of the empire. The formal beginning of the agreements was laid as early as 1251, when the Mamluk sultans in Cairo recognized Saint Louis IX, King of France. Mehmed II, Bayezid II and Selim I confirmed this agreement and used it as a model in relations with Venice and other Italian city-states, Hungary, Austria and most other European countries. One of the most important was the agreement of 1536 between Suleiman I and the French king Francis I. In accordance with the agreement of 1740, the French received the right to move freely and trade on the territory of the Ottoman Empire under the full protection of the Sultan, their goods were not taxed, with the exception of import and export duties, French envoys and consuls acquired judicial power over compatriots who could not be arrested in the absence of a representative of the consulate. The French were given the right to erect and freely use their churches; the same privileges were reserved within the Ottoman Empire and for other Catholics. In addition, the French could take under their protection the Portuguese, Sicilians and citizens of other states who did not have ambassadors at the Sultan's court.

Further decline and attempts at reform.

The end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 marked the beginning of new attacks against the Ottoman Empire. Despite the fact that the French king Louis XV sent Baron de Totta to Istanbul to modernize the Sultan's army, the Ottomans were defeated by Russia in the Danube provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia and were forced to sign the Kyuchuk-Kainarji peace treaty in 1774. Crimea gained independence, and Azov went to Russia, which recognized the border with the Ottoman Empire along the Bug River. The Sultan promised to provide protection for the Christians living in his empire, and allowed the presence in the capital of the Russian ambassador, who received the right to represent the interests of his Christian subjects. Starting from 1774 and up to the First World War, the Russian tsars referred to the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi agreement, justifying their role in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire. In 1779, Russia received rights to the Crimea, and in 1792 the Russian border was moved to the Dniester in accordance with the Iasi peace treaty.

Time dictated change. Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730) brought in architects who built him palaces and mosques in the style of Versailles and opened a printing press in Istanbul. The closest relatives of the Sultan were no longer kept in strict imprisonment, some of them began to study the scientific and political heritage of Western Europe. However, Ahmed III was killed by the conservatives, and Mahmud I took his place, during which the Caucasus was lost, passed to Persia, and the retreat in the Balkans continued. One of the prominent sultans was Abdul-Hamid I. During his reign (1774-1789), reforms were made, French teachers and technical specialists were invited to Istanbul. France hoped to save the Ottoman Empire and keep Russia out of the Black Sea straits and the Mediterranean.

Selim III

(reigned 1789–1807). Selim III, who became sultan in 1789, formed a 12-member cabinet of ministers in the style of European governments, replenished the treasury and created a new military corps. He created new educational institutions designed to educate civil servants in the spirit of the ideas of the Enlightenment. Printed publications were again allowed, and the works of Western authors began to be translated into Turkish.

In the early years of the French Revolution, the Ottoman Empire was left alone with its problems by the European powers. Napoleon considered Selim as an ally, believing that after the defeat of the Mamluks, the sultan would be able to strengthen his power in Egypt. Nevertheless, Selim III declared war on France and sent his fleet and army to defend the province. Saved the Turks from defeat only the British fleet, located off Alexandria and off the coast of the Levant. This step of the Ottoman Empire involved it in the military and diplomatic affairs of Europe.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, after the departure of the French, Muhammad Ali, a native of the Macedonian city of Kavala, who served in the Turkish army, came to power. In 1805 he became governor of the province, which opened a new chapter in the history of Egypt.

After the conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, relations with France were restored, and Selim III managed to maintain peace until 1806, when Russia invaded its Danubian provinces. England helped her ally Russia by sending her fleet through the Dardanelles, but Selim managed to speed up the restoration of defensive structures, and the British were forced to sail into the Aegean Sea. The French victories in Central Europe strengthened the position of the Ottoman Empire, but a rebellion began in the capital against Selim III. In 1807, during the absence of Bayraktar, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, the sultan was deposed, and his cousin Mustafa IV took the throne. After the return of Bayraktar in 1808, Mustafa IV was executed, but before that, the rebels strangled Selim III, who was imprisoned. Mahmud II remained the only male representative of the ruling dynasty.

Mahmoud II

(reigned 1808–1839). Under him, in 1809, the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain concluded the famous Dardanelles Peace, which opened the Turkish market for British goods on the condition that Great Britain recognized the closed status of the Black Sea straits for military ships in peacetime for the Turks. Earlier, the Ottoman Empire agreed to join the continental blockade created by Napoleon, so the agreement was perceived as a violation of previous obligations. Russia began hostilities on the Danube and captured a number of cities in Bulgaria and Wallachia. Under the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812, significant territories were ceded to Russia, and she refused to support the rebels in Serbia. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Ottoman Empire was recognized as a European power.

National Revolutions in the Ottoman Empire.

During the French Revolution, the country faced two new problems. One of them has been ripening for a long time: as the center weakened, the separated provinces eluded the power of the sultans. In Epirus, Ali Pasha Yaninsky, who ruled the province as sovereign and maintained diplomatic relations with Napoleon and other European monarchs, revolted. Similar actions also took place in Vidin, Sidon (modern Saida, Lebanon), Baghdad and other provinces, which undermined the power of the Sultan and reduced tax revenues to the imperial treasury. The strongest of the local rulers (pashas) eventually became Muhammad Ali in Egypt.

Another intractable problem for the country was the growth of the national liberation movement, especially among the Christian population of the Balkans. At the height of the French Revolution, Selim III in 1804 faced an uprising raised by the Serbs, led by Karageorgiy (George Petrovich). The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) recognized Serbia as a semi-autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire, led by Miloš Obrenović, a rival of Karađorđe.

Almost immediately after the defeat of the French Revolution and the fall of Napoleon, Mahmud II faced the Greek national liberation revolution. Mahmud II had a chance to win, especially after he managed to convince the nominal vassal in Egypt, Muhammad Ali, to send his army and navy to support Istanbul. However, the Pasha's armed forces were defeated after the intervention of Great Britain, France and Russia. As a result of the breakthrough of Russian troops in the Caucasus and their offensive against Istanbul, Mahmud II had to sign the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, which recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Greece. A few years later, the army of Muhammad Ali, under the command of his son Ibrahim Pasha, captured Syria and found itself dangerously close to the Bosphorus in Asia Minor. Mahmud II was rescued only by the Russian amphibious assault, which landed on the Asian coast of the Bosphorus as a warning to Muhammad Ali. After that, Mahmud never managed to get rid of Russian influence until he signed the humiliating Unkiyar-Iskelesi Treaty in 1833, which gave the Russian Tsar the right to “protect” the Sultan, as well as to close and open the Black Sea straits at his discretion for the passage of foreign military courts.

Ottoman Empire after the Congress of Vienna.

The period after the Congress of Vienna was probably the most destructive for the Ottoman Empire. Greece seceded; Egypt under Muhammad Ali, which, moreover, by capturing Syria and South Arabia, became virtually independent; Serbia, Wallachia and Moldavia became semi-autonomous territories. During the Napoleonic Wars, Europe significantly strengthened its military and industrial power. The weakening of the Ottoman state is attributed to a certain extent to the massacre of the Janissaries organized by Mahmud II in 1826.

By signing the Treaty of Unkiyar-Isklelesiy, Mahmud II hoped to buy time to transform the empire. His reforms were so tangible that travelers visiting Turkey in the late 1830s noted that more changes had taken place in the country in the last 20 years than in the previous two centuries. Instead of the Janissaries, Mahmud created a new army, trained and equipped according to the European model. Prussian officers were hired to train officers in the new military art. Fezzes and frock coats became the official attire of civil officials. Mahmud tried to introduce the latest methods developed in the young European states into all areas of government. It was possible to reorganize the financial system, streamline the activities of the judiciary, and improve the road network. Additional educational institutions were created, in particular, military and medical colleges. Newspapers began to be published in Istanbul and Izmir.

In the last year of his life, Mahmud again entered the war with his Egyptian vassal. Mahmud's army was defeated in northern Syria, and his fleet in Alexandria went over to the side of Muhammad Ali.

Abdul Mejid

(reigned 1839–1861). The eldest son and successor of Mahmud II, Abdul-Majid, was only 16 years old. Without an army and navy, he was helpless in the face of the superior forces of Muhammad Ali. He was saved by the diplomatic and military assistance of Russia, Great Britain, Austria and Prussia. France initially supported Egypt, but the concerted action of the European powers made it possible to find a way out of the deadlock: the pasha received the hereditary right to rule Egypt under the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman sultans. This provision was legitimized by the London Treaty of 1840 and confirmed by Abdul-Mejid in 1841. In the same year, the London Convention of the European Powers was concluded, according to which military ships were not to pass through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus in peacetime for the Ottoman Empire, and the powers that signed it took to the obligation to assist the Sultan in maintaining sovereignty over the Black Sea straits.

Tanzimat.

During the struggle with his strong vassal, Abdul-Mejid in 1839 promulgated the khatt-i sherif (“sacred decree”), announcing the beginning of reforms in the empire, with which the chief minister Reshid Pasha spoke to the highest state dignitaries and invited ambassadors. The document abolished the death penalty without trial, guaranteed justice for all citizens regardless of their racial or religious affiliation, established a judicial council to adopt a new criminal code, abolished the farming system, changed the methods of recruiting the army and limited the length of military service.

It became apparent that the empire was no longer capable of defending itself in the event of a military attack by any of the great European powers. Reshid Pasha, who previously served as ambassador to Paris and London, understood that certain steps must be taken to show the European states that the Ottoman Empire was capable of self-reformation and manageable, i.e. deserves to be preserved as an independent state. Hutt-i sheriff seemed to be the answer to the doubts of the Europeans. However, in 1841 Reshid was removed from office. In the next few years, his reforms were suspended, and only after his return to power in 1845 did they begin to be put into practice again with the support of the British ambassador, Stratford Canning. This period in the history of the Ottoman Empire, known as the tanzimat ("ordering"), included the reorganization of the system of government and the transformation of society in accordance with the ancient Muslim and Ottoman principles of tolerance. At the same time, education developed, the network of schools expanded, sons from famous families began to study in Europe. Many Ottomans began to lead a Western way of life. The number of published newspapers, books and magazines increased, and the younger generation professed new European ideals.

At the same time, foreign trade grew rapidly, but the influx of European industrial products had a negative impact on the finances and economy of the Ottoman Empire. Imports of British factory-made textiles disrupted artisanal textile production and siphoned gold and silver out of the state. Another blow to the economy was the signing in 1838 of the Balto-Liman Trade Convention, according to which import duties on goods imported into the empire were frozen at the level of 5%. This meant that foreign merchants could operate in the empire on an equal footing with local merchants. As a result, most of the trade in the country was in the hands of foreigners, who, in accordance with the "Surrenders", were released from the control of officials.

Crimean War.

The London Convention of 1841 abolished the special privileges that the Russian Emperor Nicholas I received under the secret annex to the Unkiyar-Iskelesi Treaty of 1833. Referring to the Kyuchuk-Kainarji Treaty of 1774, Nicholas I launched an offensive in the Balkans and demanded a special status and rights for Russian monks in holy places in Jerusalem and Palestine. After the refusal of Sultan Abdulmejid to satisfy these demands, the Crimean War began. Great Britain, France and Sardinia came to the aid of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul became a forward base for the preparation of hostilities in the Crimea, and the influx of European sailors, army officers and civil officials left an indelible mark on Ottoman society. The Paris Treaty of 1856, which ended this war, declared the Black Sea a neutral zone. The European powers again recognized Turkish sovereignty over the Black Sea Straits, and the Ottoman Empire was admitted to the "Union of European States". Romania gained independence.

Bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire.

After the Crimean War, the sultans began to borrow money from Western bankers. Back in 1854, having practically no external debt, the Ottoman government very quickly became bankrupt, and already in 1875 Sultan Abdulaziz owed almost one billion dollars in foreign currency to European bondholders.

In 1875 the Grand Vizier declared that the country was no longer able to pay the interest on its debts. Noisy protests and pressure from the European powers forced the Ottoman authorities to raise taxes in the provinces. Unrest began in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia and Bulgaria. The government sent troops to "appease" the rebels, during which unprecedented cruelty was shown that amazed the Europeans. In response, Russia sent volunteers to help the Balkan Slavs. At this time, a secret revolutionary society of the "New Ottomans" appeared in the country, advocating constitutional reforms in their homeland.

In 1876, Abdul-Aziz, who succeeded his brother Abdul-Mejid in 1861, was deposed for incompetence by Midhat Pasha and Avni Pasha, leaders of the liberal organization of the constitutionalists. On the throne they put Murad V, the eldest son of Abdul-Mejid, who turned out to be mentally ill and was removed just a few months later, and Abdul-Hamid II, another son of Abdul-Mejid, was placed on the throne.

Abdul Hamid II

(reigned 1876–1909). Abdul-Hamid II visited Europe, and many pinned great hopes on him for a liberal constitutional regime. However, at the time of his accession to the throne, Turkish influence in the Balkans was in danger despite the fact that the Ottoman forces managed to defeat the Bosnian and Serbian rebels. This development of events forced Russia to come out with the threat of open intervention, which was sharply opposed by Austria-Hungary and Great Britain. In December 1876, a conference of ambassadors was convened in Istanbul, at which Abdul-Hamid II announced the introduction of the constitution of the Ottoman Empire, which provided for the creation of an elected parliament, a government responsible to it, and other attributes of European constitutional monarchies. However, the brutal suppression of the uprising in Bulgaria nevertheless led in 1877 to a war with Russia. In this regard, Abdul-Hamid II suspended the operation of the Constitution for the period of the war. This situation continued until the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

Meanwhile, at the front, the military situation was developing in favor of Russia, whose troops were already encamped under the walls of Istanbul. Great Britain managed to prevent the capture of the city by sending a fleet to the Sea of ​​Marmara and presenting an ultimatum to St. Petersburg demanding to stop hostilities. Initially, Russia imposed on the sultan the extremely disadvantageous Treaty of San Stefano, according to which most of the European possessions of the Ottoman Empire became part of a new autonomous entity - Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary and Great Britain opposed the terms of the treaty. All this prompted the German Chancellor Bismarck to convene the Berlin Congress in 1878, at which the size of Bulgaria was reduced, but the complete independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania was recognized. Cyprus went to Great Britain, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary. Russia received the fortresses of Ardahan, Kars and Batum (Batumi) in the Caucasus; to regulate navigation on the Danube, a commission was created from representatives of the Danube states, and the Black Sea and the Black Sea straits again received the status provided for by the Treaty of Paris of 1856. The Sultan promised to equally fairly govern all his subjects, and the European powers considered that the Berlin Congress had forever resolved the difficult Eastern problem.

During the 32-year reign of Abdul-Hamid II, the Constitution actually did not come into effect. One of the most important unresolved issues was the bankruptcy of the state. In 1881, under foreign control, the Office of the Ottoman Public Debt was created, which was made responsible for the payments on European bonds. Within a few years, confidence in the financial stability of the Ottoman Empire was restored, which contributed to the participation of foreign capital in the construction of such large projects as the Anatolian Railway, which connected Istanbul with Baghdad.

Young Turk Revolution.

During these years, national uprisings took place in Crete and Macedonia. In Crete, bloody clashes took place in 1896 and 1897, which led to the empire's war with Greece in 1897. After 30 days of fighting, the European powers intervened to save Athens from capture by the Ottoman army. Public opinion in Macedonia leaned towards either independence or union with Bulgaria.

It became obvious that the future of the state was connected with the Young Turks. The ideas of national upsurge were propagated by some journalists, the most talented of whom was Namik Kemal. Abdul-Hamid tried to suppress this movement with arrests, exiles and executions. At the same time, secret Turkish societies flourished in military headquarters around the country and in places as far away as Paris, Geneva, and Cairo. The most effective organization turned out to be the secret committee "Unity and Progress", which was created by the "Young Turks".

In 1908, the troops stationed in Macedonia rebelled and demanded the implementation of the Constitution of 1876. Abdul-Hamid was forced to agree to this, unable to use force. Elections to parliament followed, and the formation of a government of ministers responsible to that legislative body. In April 1909, a counter-revolutionary rebellion broke out in Istanbul, which, however, was quickly suppressed by armed units that arrived in time from Macedonia. Abdul-Hamid was deposed and sent into exile, where he died in 1918. His brother Mehmed V was proclaimed Sultan.

Balkan wars.

The Young Turk government soon faced internal strife and new territorial losses in Europe. In 1908, as a result of the revolution that took place in the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria proclaimed its independence, and Austria-Hungary seized Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Young Turks were powerless to prevent these events, and in 1911 they found themselves embroiled in a conflict with Italy, which had invaded the territory of modern Libya. The war ended in 1912 when the provinces of Tripoli and Cyrenaica became an Italian colony. In early 1912, Crete allied itself with Greece, and later that year, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria launched the First Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire.

Within a few weeks, the Ottomans lost all their possessions in Europe, with the exception of Istanbul, Edirne and Ioannina in Greece and Scutari (modern Shkodra) in Albania. The great European powers, anxiously watching how the balance of power in the Balkans was being destroyed, demanded a cessation of hostilities and a conference. The Young Turks refused to surrender the cities, and in February 1913 the fighting resumed. In a few weeks, the Ottoman Empire completely lost its European possessions, with the exception of the Istanbul zone and the straits. The Young Turks were forced to agree to a truce and formally give up the already lost lands. However, the victors immediately began an internecine war. The Ottomans entered into a clash with Bulgaria in order to return Edirne and the European regions adjacent to Istanbul. The Second Balkan War ended in August 1913 with the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest, but a year later the First World War broke out.

World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Developments after 1908 weakened the Young Turk government and isolated it politically. It tried to correct this situation by offering alliances to the stronger European powers. On August 2, 1914, shortly after the start of the war in Europe, the Ottoman Empire entered into a secret alliance with Germany. On the Turkish side, the pro-German Enver Pasha, a leading member of the Young Turk triumvirate and Minister of War, participated in the negotiations. A few days later, two German cruisers "Goeben" and "Breslau" took refuge in the straits. The Ottoman Empire acquired these warships, sailed them into the Black Sea in October and fired at Russian ports, thus declaring war on the Entente.

In the winter of 1914–1915, the Ottoman army suffered huge losses when Russian troops entered Armenia. Fearing that local residents would come out on their side, the government authorized the massacre of the Armenian population in eastern Anatolia, which many researchers later called the Armenian genocide. Thousands of Armenians were deported to Syria. In 1916, the Ottoman rule in Arabia came to an end: the uprising was raised by the sheriff of Mecca, Hussein ibn Ali, supported by the Entente. As a result of these events, the Ottoman government finally collapsed, although Turkish troops, with German support, achieved a number of important victories: in 1915 they managed to repulse the Entente attack on the Dardanelles, and in 1916 capture the British corps in Iraq and stop the advance of the Russians in the east. During the war, the Capitulation regime was canceled and customs tariffs were raised to protect domestic trade. The Turks took over the business of the evicted national minorities, which helped create the nucleus of a new Turkish commercial and industrial class. In 1918, when the Germans were withdrawn to defend the Hindenburg Line, the Ottoman Empire began to suffer defeat. On October 30, 1918, Turkish and British representatives concluded a truce, according to which the Entente received the right to "occupy any strategic points" of the empire and control the Black Sea straits.

The collapse of the empire.

The fate of most of the provinces of the Ottoman state was determined in the secret treaties of the Entente during the war. The Sultanate agreed to the separation of regions with a predominantly non-Turkish population. Istanbul was occupied by forces that had their own areas of responsibility. Russia was promised the Black Sea straits, including Istanbul, but the October Revolution led to the annulment of these agreements. In 1918, Mehmed V died, and his brother Mehmed VI took the throne, although he retained the government in Istanbul, he actually became dependent on the Allied occupying forces. Problems were growing in the interior of the country, far from the places of deployment of the Entente troops and government institutions subordinate to the Sultan. Detachments of the Ottoman army, wandering around the vast outskirts of the empire, refused to lay down their arms. British, French and Italian military contingents occupied various parts of Turkey. With the support of the Entente fleet in May 1919, Greek armed formations landed in Izmir and began to advance deep into Asia Minor in order to protect the Greeks in Western Anatolia. Finally, in August 1920, the Treaty of Sevres was signed. Not a single area of ​​the Ottoman Empire remained free from foreign supervision. An international commission was created to control the Black Sea Straits and Istanbul. After riots broke out in early 1920 as a result of the growth of national sentiment, British troops entered Istanbul.

Mustafa Kemal and the Lausanne Peace Treaty.

In the spring of 1920, Mustafa Kemal, the most successful Ottoman commander of the war period, convened a Grand National Assembly in Ankara. He arrived from Istanbul in Anatolia on May 19, 1919 (the date from which the Turkish national liberation struggle began), where he united patriotic forces around him, striving to preserve Turkish statehood and the independence of the Turkish nation. From 1920 to 1922 Kemal and his supporters defeated the enemy armies in the east, south and west and made peace with Russia, France and Italy. At the end of August 1922, the Greek army retreated in disorder to Izmir and the coastal regions. Then the detachments of Kemal went to the Black Sea Straits, where the British troops were located. After the British Parliament refused to support the proposal to start hostilities, British Prime Minister Lloyd George resigned, and the war was averted by the signing of a truce in the Turkish city of Mudanya. The British government invited the Sultan and Kemal to send their representatives to a peace conference, which opened in Lausanne (Switzerland) on November 21, 1922. However, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara abolished the Sultanate, and Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman monarch, left Istanbul on a British warship on November 17.

On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, which recognized the complete independence of Turkey. The Office of the Ottoman Public Debt and Capitulations were abolished, and foreign control over the country was abolished. At the same time, Türkiye agreed to demilitarize the Black Sea straits. The province of Mosul, with its oil fields, went to Iraq. It was planned to carry out an exchange of population with Greece, from which the Greeks living in Istanbul and the West Thracian Turks were excluded. On October 6, 1923, British troops left Istanbul, and on October 29, 1923, Turkey was proclaimed a republic, and Mustafa Kemal was elected its first president.