Ottoman Empire (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what the Ottoman Empire is and how its political-territorial organization was. In addition, its characteristics, decline and more.

What was the Ottoman Empire?

The Ottoman Empire was a Monarchical state that existed between 1299 and 1922 d. C. He grew from Anatolia (current Türkiye) and came to cover the European southeast, the Near East and North Africa. He was governed by the Osmanlí dynasty, also known as Oman’s house, a lineage of Turkish origin.

His most prominent rulers were Mehmed II (1444-1481), which Conquered Constantinople; Selim I (1512-1520), which incorporated the Middle East Asian and Egypt into the Empire; and Suliman “The Magnificent” (1520-1566), which conquered the European southeast.

The Ottoman Empire was a multiethnic state which included populations of great cultural and religious heterogeneity. In his long history, he was involved in numerous conflicts that affected the future of other powers.

In 1453, the Ottomans took Constantinople (capital of the Roman Empire of the East) and made it its capital, under the name of Istanbul. Thence, They managed to constitute a great empire that lasted until the nineteenth century.

In recent times of the empire, nationalist movements, competition with foreign powers and internal conflicts led to a time of crisis and instability. During World War I, the Ottoman State carried out the Armenian genocideconsidered by many historians as the first genocide of the twentieth century.

With the end of the Great War, the defeat concluded in a series of treaties that imposed a partition of the territories of the Empire and the Constitution of the current Republic of Türkiye.

Geographical location of the Ottoman Empire

At its peak, the Ottoman Empire It was composed of 29 provinces and four vassal states: Moldova, Transylvania, Valaquia and Crimea. He limited the West with Morocco, to the east with the Caspian Sea, to the North with Europe and the Western Mediterranean, and to the south with Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Arabia.

The Ottoman Empire It was located as a bridge between the East and Westso he occupied a central position in world conflicts for almost six centuries. In its apogee era, its territory connected three continents: Europe, Africa and Asia.

Temporary Location of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire It was founded in 1299 d. C. And lasts until 1922 d. C. In its more than 600 years of history, the Ottoman state lived the end of the Middle Ages, crossed the modern age and subsist until the mid -contemporary age.

History of the Ottoman Empire

Origin (thirteenth century)

Since the eleventh century AD. C., Anatolia was governed by Rüm’s sultanate (A monarchy governed by the Selyúcida dynasty). Within the territory, there were different Turcoman tribes that had emigrated from Central Asia and paid tributes to the Sultan to affirm his faithfulness.

Towards the mid -thirteenth century d. C., The Mongol Empire beat the Selyuk Dynasty and the Turcomanas tribes won independence. One of these tribes, originally located in the Bitinia hills, was led by Osmán I, founder of the Osmanlí dynasty. Osman began a series of campaigns and began expanding their territories.

Conformation of the Ottoman Empire (14th century)

During the fourteenth century, the descendants of Osman and continued their legacy and made a series of conquests that allowed to form a territorial state in all Anatolia and the European Balkan peninsula.

Western Christians began crusades to avoid the advance of Ottomans to Europe.

Fetretcrisis and imperial boom (15th and sixteenth centuries)

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Mongol Empire invaded Anatolia and almost manages to disintegrate the Ottoman State. After a period known as Fetret (“Interregno”), Mehmed I managed to reconquer territories and erect himself as the new ruling of the Ottoman State. For decades, Mehmed and his successors dedicated themselves to Restore the internal order, suppress the revolts of the conquered principalities and centralize power in the Osmanlí dynasty.

Women’s sultanate (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries)

Is known as the Women’s Sultanate to the period that covers from the mid -16th century until the end of the 17th century. At this time, sometimes, legitimate heirs became sultans when they were still very small or for some reason they were inept to govern. Therefore, the Valide Sultan (Legal mothers of the sultans), often exerted their influence and, in practice, acted as Sultanas.

However, we must not confuse the name of the period with the idea that women effectively exercised as sultans or could be legitimate heirs. It was a period where The exceptionality that the Valido Sultan became official regents was allowed of the Sultans in moments of instability or political weakness of the imperial dynasty.

The greatest exponent of this period was Valide Kösem Sultanalso called Mahpeyker, who was regent of two dynasties and with his ability to politics managed to restore internal order in moments of instability.

With the seventeenth century military weaknesses began to appear. The Iranians attacked the oriental borders and took the territories of Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Iraq and southeast of Anatolia. This weakness was accentuated with the Kurdish revolts in Syria. However, Munrad IV (1623-1640) managed to resume control in Anatolia and the Arab Middle East and, in 1639, signed a peace treaty with the Iranians through which Iraq’s Ottoman control was established and Iranian control Azerbaijan and the south of the Caucasus.

However, internal conflicts and disputes over the sultanate continued during the reigns of Ibrahim (1640-1648) and Mehmed IV (1648-1687). This period was marked by the rise to the power of the Kröpülü family, whose members exercised as visires of the Sultan and managed to improve the stability of power for a few decades.

In 1645 The great Turkish war begana conflict that lasted until the end of the century, in which the Ottomans faced several powers (such as the Holy Roman Empire, Russian Empire and the Republic of Venice, among others) in order to expand through the European territory.

At the end of the century, The Ottomans tried to conquer Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire and failed. This defeat led to a great loss of military resources, organization and discipline, in addition to the territories of Hungary and Transylvania.

During the 18th century, the Empire was seen in constant conflicts with the Habsburg monarchy and with the Russian tsars.

Reforms and emergence of nationalist movements (19th century)

At the beginning of the 19th century, Selim III (1789-1807) introduced a series of reforms in order to improve the general state of the Empire and the military organization. In turn, he played a fundamental role in the alliances games of the European powers (with France, England and Russia). However, internal power conflicts continued and the different factions intervened in power (for example, with the “revolt of the jenízaros” in 1807).

By the mid -nineteenth century, the Empire was in a serious economic and administrative crisis. In 1876, The Sultan was deposed by a heterogeneous political group, known as “Turkish young people”which sought to restore a constitutional and democratic government. A parliamentary monarchy was established, known as the “First Constitution”, which lasted only one year until the new Sultan managed to dissolve it.

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Added to this, during the nineteenth century, Nationalist movements were extended that sought to create their own states for the nations or ethnicities that inhabited the Empire. Many of them were supported by European countries, which could benefit from the weakening of the empire.

In the Balkans there were the nationalist revolts of Greece and Serbia, and fundamental territories for the empire were lost, such as the island of Crete. Later, Mehmet Ali (Turkish governor in Egypt) rebelled against Osmanlí power and achieved great autonomy for Egypt and Syrian territories. And, since the end of the century, The Armenian nationalist movement began to organize through different parties.

Revolution and promotion of the “Turkish Youth” (19th and 20th centuries)

Between 1896 and 1909 ABDUL HAMIL ruled, whose purpose was to give unity and integrity to the empire that was dismembered. He sought to stop the expansion of nationalist ideas. On the one hand, he highlighted the rights of all imperial citizens and alluded to the idea of the great Ottoman Homeland. But on the other, he used the police to pursue and suppress the expression of opposition ideas to the regime.

During their government, European financial interests were completed within the Ottoman territory. In the form of investments for the construction of railroads and ports, foreign capital and debt were introduced strongly into the empire. However, investments were not linked to the industrial sector, so, over time, A dependence on imports was created Arrivals from European markets.

In 1908, through a rebellion, the Turkish young people forced the government of Abdul Hamil to restore the Constitution of 1876. Then, the new Parliament issued its dismissal and imposed the designation of Abdul Hamil II as a new Sultan, although with limited power.

Meanwhile, in the face of internal instability, The European powers pressed on the borders. The Habsburg annexed the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria declared their independence.

On the other hand, after the months, the new parliamentary regime led by the CUP (majority party) began to face a great internal opposition, linked to the Ottoman conservative political circles, the high religious hierarchies, portions of the army and the same Sultan. In 1909 a counterrevolution was unleashed that was suffocated in a few weeks.

World War I, Armenian Genocide and Disintegration of the Empire (20th century)

In World War I, the Ottoman Government allied the central empires (Germany and Austria-Hungary), against France, the United Kingdom and Russia. During the war, the most important front for the Ottomans was the border with Russia in the Caucasus and the Armenian region became the main fighting zone.

In this context Armenian genocide broke out, considered by many historians as the first genocide of the twentieth century. In principle, the Ottoman government implemented a policy of “burned land” in the area and expelled the Armenian minority, which was accused of attending Russian troops. Then, the Government of the Turkish young people deported hundreds of thousands of Armenians from all regions of Anatolia towards Mesopotamia and Syria.

It is estimated that at borders with Syria and Iraq There were more than twenty -five concentration camps which were used to confine the Armenian population. Currently the number of Armenian victims is discussed by various positions. German sources (allied to the Ottoman Empire during the war) estimated more than one and a half million victims. Instead, the Ottoman official media reduced the figure to half a million.

With the end of World War I, Versailles’s treaty signing established the partition of the Ottoman Empire. Some regions of the empire were annexed by the victorious powers of war; Others achieved their independence and constituted as new states. However, the conflicts in the region lasted and was only with the treaties of Sevres (1920) and Lausana (1923) that were delimited the new limits of the Republic of Turkey.

Political Organization of the Ottoman Empire

Since its foundation until the end of the 19th century, the main form of government of the Ottoman Empire was that of an absolute monarchy in which a sultan governed. During the governments of Mehmed II (1451-1481) and Solimán the Magnificent (1520-1566), the political organization of the empire was established that, with certain modifications product of the historical context, remained for centuries.

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The Sultan, “lord of two seas and two continents,” was on the cusp of a strict state hierarchy. The ceremonial and protocols granted him a sacred place, linked to the Muslim divine mandate.

Immediately below the Sultan was the great vizier, who presided over the divanthe State Council. In addition, there were the Jenízaros (Sultan soldiers) and AGÁ (your commander), the jurists (that drafted the laws), the Ulemes (religious hierarchy) and DEFTERDAR (Empire Treasurer)

In the vast territory of the empire, Sultan’s sovereignty was exercised in relation to the proximity or remoteness of the capital. The regions closest to Constantinople were divided into Beylerbeyilik (regions) and Sanjacatos (Provinces), and were subject to greater control and dependence on central power. On the other hand, in the farthest areas, the territories were organized as semi -autonomous principalities.

Ottoman society was divided into two classes:

Asker. They were the soldiers and servers of the state. They practiced the Muslim faith, swore perpetual loyalty to the Sultan and were integrated into the complex framework of customs, behavior and language that characterized the Ottoman ceremonial.
Re’aya. It was the rest of the Ottoman population, which through their production and work supported the State paying taxes.

This distinction was not state or rigid since people could, in relation to their occupation, move from one class to another. It was rather a legal distinction that allowed to establish privileges or duties according to its belonging to the imperial bureaucratic framework.

On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire was a Multiethnic status, composed of hundreds of peoples and communities of different originthat lived within the territory of the Empire but that retained their customs and religious practices with enough autonomy. The protection and freedom of the empire allowed these communities to maintain for centuries their own identity linked to their language, their customs, their beliefs and their history.

During the 19th and 20 claim full autonomy and, in the long run, generate the fall and disintegration of the empire.

Religion in the Ottoman Empire

The official religion of the Ottoman Empire was Islamand the expansion of their territories obeyed, in principle, to the purpose of bringing religion to everyone. However, during the first centuries, the Turks showed great tolerance regarding the practice of other religions within the empire.

The group of men who belonged to the administration of religion were called Ilmiye. On the cusp was the Great Muftí de Istanbulthe highest religious hierarchy, on whom the appointments of the rest of the importance of importance depended.

With territorial expansion, populations of various ethnicities and beliefs were incorporated. In principle, the Turks did not seek to Islamize these populations and allowed them to freely practice their religions. They considered that in a multiethnic empire it was easier to govern communities with a certain degree of autonomy and collect, in turn, an extra tax for maintaining some freedoms.

On the other hand, instead of dividing the groups by their ethnicity, the Ottoman authorities organized the communities conquered according to their religious practice into different Millet: Orthodox, Gregorian Armenian, Jewish, Catholic or Protestant.

So, The communities that were not Muslim were organized around their religious leaders. And the hierarchies of each Millet They were made up of renowned advisors close to the Ottoman Sultan.

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References

Bennasar, B., Jacquart, J., Blayau, N., Denis, M., & Lebrun, F. (2005). Modern history (Vol. 8). Akal editions.
KIA, M. (2011). Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire. ABC-Clio.
Romero, E. and Romero, I. (2017). Brief history of the Ottoman Empire. Nowtilus editions
Hintlian, G. (2003). The Armenian genocide. History and politics: ideas, processes and social movements, (10), 65-94.