· 1299-1326 : Osman I
· 1326-1359 : Orhan I
· 1359-1389 : Murat I
· 1389-1402 : Bayezit I
· 1403-1421 : Mehmet I
· 1421-1451 : Murat II
· 1451-1481 : Mehmet II
the Conqueror ·
1481-1512 : Bayezit II
· 1512-1520 : Selim I
· 1520-1566 : Süleyman I
the Magnificent
· 1566-1574 : Selim II
· 1574-1595 : Murat III
· 1595-1603 : Mehmet III
· 1603-1617 : Ahmet I
· 1617-1618 : Mustafa I
· 1618-1622 : Osman II
· 1622-1623 : Mustafa I
· 1623-1640 : Murat IV
· 1640-1648 : Ibrahim I
· 1648-1687 : Mehmet IV
· 1687-1691 : Süleyman II
· 1691-1695 : Ahmet II
· 1695-1703 : Mustafa II
· 1703-1730 : Ahmet III
· 1730-1754 : Mahmut I
· 1754-1757 : Osman III
· 1757-1774 : Mustafa III
· 1774-1789 : Abdülhamit I
· 1789-1807 : Selim III
· 1807-1808 : Mustafa IV
· 1808-1839 : Mahmut II
· 1839-1861 : Abdülmecit
· 1861-1876 : Abdülaziz
· 1876 : Murat V
· 1876-1909 : Abdülhamit II
· 1909-1918 : Mehmet V Reşat
· 1918-1922 : Mehmet VI Vahdettin
Birth
of the Ottoman dynasty (1299-1923) :
about 1300, when the Mongols withdrew from
Anatolia, they left behind them small Seljuk
emirates and tribes led by chieftains.
These newly arrived Turcomans were known as
gazis,
meaning "warriors of the faith".
One of these chieftains was Osman,
the founder of the "Osmanli"
(Ottoman) dynasty. In 1299, Osman declared
the independence of his beylik
from the Seljuk Sultanate
of Rum and he laid the foundations of
a gazi state whose major mission was military
conquest. His successor, Orhan I,
who established the "Divan"
(Council), was the first ruler to use the
title of sultan since it had been left vacant
with the extinction of the last Seljuk sultan
in 1308. Orhan I took Bursa
(1326) where he established the first
Ottoman capital.
In a short time, the Ottomans started a vertiginous
expansion of their domains, and undertook
the annexation of the beyliks (Turkish emirates)
which was achieved in the beginning of the
16th century.
Osman I
Expansion
of the Empire : in 1353, by taking
Gallipoli,
for the first time the Ottomans got a foothold
in Europe, blockading the Strait
of the Dardanelles. In 1365, Adrianople
was taken by Murat I
and became their second capital under the
name Edirne.
In 1376, Murat I established the janissary
corps (see below). In 1389, he captured
Sofia and Serbia
at the Battle of Kosovo. Proclaimed
sultan on the battlefield upon his father's
death, Bayezit I, known as
Thunderbolt, achieved the conquest of Bulgaria
and Serbia. In 1397, he laid the
first siege to Constantinople
(1397) which was lifted in 1400 upon the arrival
of Tamerlane (Timur Lenk)
who had founded a Turkish empire in the East,
and who overran Anatolia,
trying to restore and become allied to the
emirates annexed by the Ottomans. He captured
Bayezit at the Battle of Ankara
(1402) who, forced to follow his victor,
died (a suicide according to some accounts)
in captivity in Aksehir.
After eight months spent in Anatolia, Tamerlane
went back to Samarkand (he died in 1405 when
he was about to invade China), leaving behind
him two of the sultan's sons who gave themselves
over to merciless fghts for the succession
to the throne.
Bayezit proclaimed sultan - miniature
After
a period of interregnum (1403-1413), Mehmet
I, emerged as the winner, restored
the Ottoman power in Anatolia and had good
relations with Emperor Manuel
II. When Murat II succeeded
to his father in 1421, war started again between
the Turks and the Byzantines.
On
May 29 1453, Mehmet II
conquered Constantinople and
pronounced that the city would be the last
capital of the Ottoman Empire. In 1461, the
harbours of the Black Sea, partly under Genoese
control, fell as well as Trebizond
where the Comneni
had maintained their dynasty. Mehmet II also
extended and reinforced his predecessors'
conquests in the Balkans
(Serbia, Bosnia and Herzogovina, Albania 1456-1467)
and seized the Crimea (1475).
Mehmet II The Conqueror
entering Constantinople - Zonaro
The "devsirme" : Murat
II and Mehmet II the Conqueror
developed the "devsirme" (established
by Murat I), a system of recruiting young Christian
males between eight and seventeen years old, who
were going to be converted to Islam and owe absolute
allegiance to the sultan. Brought before the sultan,
they were selected according to their qualities
and physique. The best of them we sent to the palace
school where they received the best available education
in the high Islamic tradition.
The elite was destined for the highest offices in
the Empire, which could open the way to the supreme
position of grand vizier (sadrazam) at the head
of the government and military. Those not selected
for the palace school received a more basic education
marked with folk Islamic
culture. Most of them were trained to serve
the Ottoman army, forming the sultan's elite infantry
corps called the Janissary Corps .
Janis
saries
Mehmet II
The janissaries (in Turkish yeniçeri,
meaning new soldier) composed the first Ottoman
standing paid army (1376), replacing Turcoman tribal
levies whose loyalty could not always be trusted.
They became the Ottoman dynasty's tremendous instrument
of conquest and power. The janissaries' training
and daily life were regulated by a strict discipline
(they were not allowed to marry) but in return for
their loyalty and devotion they were granted privileges
like good living standards, a respected social status,
exemption of taxes, a share of the booty during
campains, pensions for those retired or invalidaded...
They were fervent Moslems and had privilegiate relations
with the mystic order of the Bektasi
Dervishes. With time, the janissaries became
a powerful institution and influenced the government's
policies. The
huge cauldron used to make pilaf rice had a special
symbolic significance for the janissaries who, whenever
they demanded a change in the sultan's Cabinet or
the head of a Grand Vizier, would overturn it (the
expression "overturning the cauldron"
is still used to indicate a rebellion in the ranks).
The janissaries defended their own interests, obtaining
higher wages and the lifting of celibacy obligation.
By late 16 th century, the importance of the devsirme
diminished after free Muslim Turkish males were
allowed to enroll, and janissaries had started to
enroll their own sons, making membership to the
corps largely hereditary. By the beginning of the
18 th century, the devsirme system was finally abandoned.
From the 17 th century, the janissaries engaged
in palace coups, deposing, sometimes violently,
sultans and elevating to the throne another one
of their choice. In peace time they could work as
law-enforcers or as tradesmen, developing a social
and family life. As a result, their effectiveness
as combat troops decreased. They revolted each time
attempts were made to reorganize and modernize the
army. Their last revolt occured on June 14 1826,
but the next day Sultan Mahmut
II abolished the corps and had 6,000
janissaries massacred in their barracks. The others
were imprisoned or banished and their possessions
were confiscated.
The relatively peaceful
reign of Bayezit II (1481-1512) was marked
by a few expeditions in the Aegean Sea against the
Greek harbours still held by the Venetians
(fall of Lepanto in 1499, Modon
and Coron in 1500).
Ships were sent in order to aid the Moslems and
Jews of Spain harassed by the Inquisition Court.
The Moslems were conveyed to the coasts of North
Africa where the Ottomans established bases. The
Jews were conveyed to Istanbul
and Salonika which had been captured
in 1430.
The
great conquests started again
under Selim I (1512-1520),
known as the Cruel, who eliminated his
brothers in order to secure his sole authority.
The holy war on the Shiite Safavid
dynasty come to power in 1501
in Persia, and the Çaldiran Victory enabled
the annexation of Eastern Anatolia (Armenia,
region of Diyarbakir).
Owing to the campain he led between 1515-1517,
Selim I made the Empire the first Muslim
power: he crushed the Mamelukes
at Merdj Dabıq near Aleppo, capturing Syria,
Palestine. The Battle of
Ridaniyeh led to the fall of Cairo and the
annexation of Egypt as
well as the Hijaz where
the two holiest cities of Islam, Mecca and
Medina, are located. Having won the title
of "Protector of the Holy Places"
Selim I and his successors took advantage
of this position to add the title of Caliph
to that of Sultan.
Selim I also managed to prevent Portugal
to establish a monopoly over the spice trade,
as Portuguese fleet had began to shut down
shipping routes between India, southern
Arabia and Egypt that supplied the Ottoman
spice trade.
Selim I
Cairo
Admiral
Piri Reis, an important
navigator and cartographer who, in 1513,
drew a map of the coasts of America discovered
by Christopher Columbus in 1492, took part
to the Campain of Egypt. In his "Treatise
on Navy", he discribed and drew maps
of the Mediterranean coasts, the course
of the Nile and the city of Cairo.
Cyprus
The reign of Süleyman
I (the longest in the Ottoman Empire,
from 1520 until 1566 when he died while on campaign
in Hungary), known as Süleyman the Magnificent,
saw the apogée of Ottoman power. The sultan was
also called Kanuni the lawmaker,
because he organized the state and society making
numerous laws. Under his reign, the Empire was
the first power in Central Europe as well as the
Mediterranean and Orient, and acted as an arbiter
in western Europe between Holy Roman Emperor Charles
V and Francis I of
France, with whom a treaty was signed in 1536,
conceding commercial privileges to the French
in exchange for an alliance against the Habsburgs.
Süleyman fought thirteen campains, conquired Belgrad
(1521), Rhodes (1522),
brought a great part of Hungary into subjection
following the Battle of Mohacs when Buda
and Pest were captured
(1526), but also unsuccessfuly besieged Vienna
(1529). His duel with Tahmasb
Shah, the rival Persian Safavid dynasty ruler,
provoked three important campains ending with
the Peace Treaty of Amasya (1555)
which ensured the possession of Eastern
Anatolia, Azerbaidjan,
Tabriz and Bagdad
to the Empire. He also established Ottoman naval
supremacy in the Mediterranean by taking Algier
and Tunis (1535).
Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha (Barbarossa Khayr
al-Din Pasha), who was a Turkish corsair reigning
over Algier, became Great Admiral of the Turkish
fleet in 1534 and defeated Charles V's armada
at the Preveze naval battle
(1538). The end of Süleyman's reign was marked
by continual fights with Charles V for the possession
of Hungary, and his failure facing the Knights
of Malta (including many of the Knights
released after the sultan's victory over Rhodes)
who were cutting off Ottoman sea routes.
Barbarossa
Süleyman the Magnificent
Miniature - the Belgrad Campain
The
artistic apogée : in the 16th century,
under the reign of Süleyman, a pleiad of artists
of all kinds appeared: architects, glass artists,
ceramists, calligraphists, miniaturists, silver
and goldsmith... If sculpted decorations declined
since the Seljuk
period, on the contrary inside wall decoration
increased with the use of the beautiful Iznik
and Kütahya
tiles. Mosques
grew in number, especially with the works
of the great architect Sinan. Sinan
was born a Greek Orthodox Christian in Ağırnaz,
a village near Kayseri
in
about 1490. He entered his father's trade
as a stone mason and carpenter. In 1512, according
to the devsirme
system, he was enrolled in the Ottoman army.
Following a period of schooling and rigorous
training, Sinan became a military engineer,
participated in many campaigns and started
to build bridges and fortifications.
Sinan
Because
of his exceptional talents, in 1538 he was
appointed "Mimarbasi", Chief of
the Imperial Architects, a post he held under
three sultans: Süleyman the Magnificent,
Selim II and Murat
III. Until his death in 1588, Sinan
built over four hundred buildings such as
mosques, palaces, hospitals, hammams, schools,
medreses, caravansarais, granaries, fountains,
aqueducts.
Sinan's
three most famous works are: the sehzade
Mosque which he regarded as the work
of an apprentice, the Süleymaniye
Mosque which he regarded as the work of
a mason, and the Selimiye
Mosque which he regarded as the work
of a master.
The Türbe of Sinan
is situated behind the Süleymaniye Mosque.
Under
Selim II, the invasion
in 1570 of Cyprus,
which was the last Christian stronghold in eastern
Mediterranean, led to the formation of an alliance
between pope Pius V, King Philip
II of Spain and the Republic
of Venice. On October 7 1571, the Ottoman
fleet was defeated for the first time at Lepanto
naval battle (at the mouth of the Gulf
of Patras) by the Holy League
(which disintegrated at the death of the Pius
V) commanded by Don Juan of Austria.
Among the wounded allied combatants was the famous
Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes
who lost the use of his left arm. Only Commander
Kiliç (Uluç) Ali Pasha succeeded
to escape and bring back to Istanbul
eighty seven ships, fourty two of which composed
his own squadron. The Lepanto disaster, where
a hundred and fourty two vessels were destroyed,
marked the end of Turkish naval supremacy in Mediterranean,
although early in June 1572, Kiliç Ali Pasha took
again the lead of the fleet reconstituted with
two hundred and fifty ships.
Lepanto naval battle
Ottoman practices of succession:
according to the Ottoman system, and that of their
Turkish ancestors, each individual in the hereditary
line, brothers and sons, were equally entitled
to the crown. Ottoman princes, called Şehzade,
were sent off to the provinces (sanjaks) in the
company of their tutors to learn the business
of government. When a sultan, or Padishah
, passed away, the crown fell to the
most worthy successor, in fact almost always the
eldest son, although the heirs often fought for
the sultanate. In order to obviate rebellion or
rival claims to the throne, in 1512, Selim
I established the practice of killing the
brothers of the sultan and their sons (careful
to leave at least one alive as a possible successor)
by having them strangled with a silk lace. In
1603, Ahmet I put an end to
this practice. As the sultans still distrusted
their loyalty, they locked their brothers in the
harem of the palace. They lived in luxury but
in isolated conditions and many of them became
fat and lazy, addicted to alcohol, or went mad.
No wonder that those who happened to be assigned
to rule, made bad sultans. In addition, the sultans
gave up leading their armies during military campains
and abandoned the practice of training their sons
by sending them to the provinces. Instead, princes
were kept in a special place in the palace called
" kafes" (the "cage"),
where they generally spent their days in idleness
among the women of their harems. As a result,
when they came to the throne they had no practical
experience in governing. After the reign of Süleyman
the Magnificent, there was sometimes a lack
of candidates who were of age to assume the sultanate.
Under such circumstances, power had to go somewhere.
During the period known as "the Sultanate
of the Women", when the political impact
of the harem was
strongly felt, the mothers (Valide Sultan) of
young sultans exercised power in the name of their
sons; on the other hand, the janissaries
slowly took over the military and administrative
posts in the government and passed these offices
on to their sons, mainly by bribing officials.
Signs
of the beginnings of the decline of the Empire
appeared from 1579, due to interdependent
factors such as ineffective sultans manipulated
by their mothers, wives and grand viziers, fight
for power, revolts of the janissaries
whose influence in the affairs of State increased
continually, corruption...
War against Austria was started again by
Murat III. In 1606, the Peace
of Svitvatorok, which stipulated
that the Emperor and the Sultan were of
equal status, was signed by Ahmet
I following the Ottoman military
failure, but also because a mobilization
of the army was necessary to put down the
Celali uprisings in Anatolia.
These popular uprisings against excessive
taxation levied by feudal lords, threatened
the State and caused large-scale destruction
of the countryside and the towns.
Ahmet I
Young
and inexperienced Osman II,
who attempted to make deep reforms, was
the first sultan deposed and killed by the
janissaries who put on the throne Mustapha
I for the second time, then in
1623 Murat IV, while he
was still a child. His mother, Sultana
Kösem, supported by the grand vizier,
exercised power but corruption, internal
troubles and rebellions in the provinces
increased day by day. Seizing power in 1632
through a coup d'état, Murat IV got rid
of the influence of the harem and ruled
with an iron hand, restoring peace and public
order.
The Safavid Persians, taking
advantage of the unstable situation, recaptured
Bagdad in 1624. In 1638, the recapture of
Bagdad by Murat IV put an end to a war with
Iran that lasted for fifteen years. In order
to commemorate his victories in Iraq and
Armenia, the sultan built the Bagdad Kiosk
(163839) and the Revan Pavilion (163536)
in Topkapi Palace.
Murat IV
The internal situation deteriorated again
under Ibrahim I as the
janissaries
gained authority. Under Mehmet IV,
in the second half of the 17th century,
two efficient grand viziers, the Köprülüs
(the father, Mehmet Pasha, was succeeded
by his son Fazil Ahmet Pasha ), redressed
the situation in a spectacular way. With
the capture of Ukraine
from Poland, the victories won against the
Venetian navy and the conquest of Crete
(1668), the Köprülü revived the
vigor and pride of the Ottoman Empire. Their
successor, Kara Mustafa Pasha
of Merzifon, following the failure of the
second siege of Vienna
in 1683, was executed by Mehmet IV's order
during the Ottoman army's retreat.
The Ottoman Empire in the 17th century
1686
- 1792 Decline of the Ottoman Empire :
the end of the 17 th century and the beginning
of the 18 th century were marked by a succession
of military setbacks. After evacuating Hungary
in 1686, the Ottomans signed the Treaty
of Carlowitz with Austria (1699) ratifying
the loss of Transylvania: the Empire was forced
for the first time to relinquish territory. Süleyman
II, Ahmet II and Mustafa
II had to face a new adversary, Russia
which allied itself with Austria. Peter
the Great (1682-1725) started the conquest
of the Crimea, at the time a possession of the
Ottomans who counterattacked. War broke out, but
their defeat and the Treaty of Prut
(1711) halted for some time the Russian attempts
for an openining onto the Black Sea. With the
Treaty of Passarowitz (1718),
the Empire lost, in favor of Austria, new territories,
including Belgrade, which were partly recovered
with the Treaty of Belgrade
(1739).
Under
Ahmet III, after a period
of lull corresponding to the artistic Tulip
Period (Lale
Devri 1718-1730), war, raging again,
brought victories to the enemies of the
Empire. Mahmut I started
hostilities again in Caucasus, but peace
was signed with Persia in 1746. Under
Abd-ül-Hamit I, the State suffered
and economic crisis and had to face the
repeted assaults of Russia which became
the main adversary of the Ottomans who offered
to make peace. With the Treaty of
Kaynarca (1774), Russia won access
to the Black
Sea and Straits,
which was a major step to its expansionism
policy. Russia also obtained the right to
examine the fate of the Orthodox populations
of the Empire, that were numerous in the
Balkan regions. A few years later in 1783,
Russia annexed the Crimea. From 1787 to
1792, war started again between Russia and
the Ottoman Empire which suffered even more
losses.
Caftan
with a design of tulip
First
attempts towards modernization
were made, from the end of the 18th century
and during the 19th century, by enlightened
sultans such as Selim III
(1789-1807) who opened new military schools
and reorganized the military with the help
of French instructors, but failed to replace
the Janissaries
who overthrew him. Mahmut II
(1808-1839) abolished the Janissary Corps
(1826) opposed to any kind of reforms, having
a large number of them killed. He reorganized
the army modeled after the new military
institutions in the western countries, introduced
European clothing and replaced the traditional
turban
by the fez. Ministries were established
instead of the Divan.
In spite of all this, Mahmut II had to face
difficult challenges all along his reign.
Mahmut
II wearing fez
and European clothing
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte
occupied Egypt and the Ottomans did not regain
control of the province until 1801, after Mehmet
Ali Pasha was sent to resist the French
army. He became Ottoman governor (viceroy) of
Egypt, managed to become virtually independent
of the Ottoman sultan, and even exterminated the
Mameluk leaders
(1811). Mahmut II had promised to make him governor
of Syria in exchange for his intervention in the
Greek revolts. After Mehmet Ali's fleet was sunk
at Navarino (1827) by the British, French and
Russians, the sultan refused to hand over the
province. Mehmet Ali invaded Syria and Asia
Minor (1831) but threatened by the Europeans,
he was forced to desist. In a compromise arrangement,
Mahmut II acknowledged Mehmet Ali as hereditary
sovereign of Egypt.
The deposition by Selim III of the pro-Russian
governors of Moldovia and Walachia
led to the Russo-Turkish War
of 18061812. In 1821, the Greek
War of Independence began. Mahmut II
having refused an armistice demanded by Britain,
Russia, and France, their allied fleets defeated
the fleet of Mehmet Ali, but only Russia, however,
declared war in 1828. Defeated, the Ottomans accepted
the Treaty of Adrianople by
which Russia was granted more territory on the
Black Sea, Serbia
attained its autonomy in 1829, and Greece its
independence in 1830.
The
Crimean War : Russia, whose major
ambition was to capture Constantinople
and control the Straits,
tried to obtain more concessions from the Ottomans,
but the Empire was supported by France and Britain
who needed its survival for the international
political balance. When Russia's claim to guardianship
of the Holy Places in
Palestine was
turned down by France and the Ottoman government,
in July 1853 Russia retorted by occupying the
Ottoman vassal states of Moldavia and Walachia.
In October, the Crimean War broke out when the
Ottomans declared war on Russia. When the Russians
sank the Ottoman fleet at the naval battle of
Sinop, Great Britain, France and Piedmont, concluding
that Russian expansion had to be halted, intervened
militarily in March 1854. Austria remained neutral,
but by threatening to enter the war on the Ottoman
side, forced Russia to evacuate Moldavia and Walachia.
Tsar Alexander II's accession
to the throne and the capture of Sevastopol by
the allied troops led to peace negotations. They
resulted in the Treaty of Paris
(February 1856) that recognized the independence
and integrity of the Ottoman Empire and made the
Black Sea neutral
and closed to all warships.
The
Ottoman bankruptcy and public debt: the
Empire emerged from the war economically exhausted.
The financial situation was disastrous, corruption
generalized, public revenue was partly mortgaged
to the benefit of the administrators of the Ottoman
Debt who represented its foreign creditors. Britain,
France and Austria having invested a great deal
of resources in the Crimean war, and not wishing
to come to the aid of the faltering Empire again,
sent businessmen and administrators to reform
and rebuild the economy. But the Empire was struck
by the impact of western capitalism of the time.
After the Vienna stock market crashed on May 9
1873, taking with it the economy of Europe, the
money and loans from abroad stopped flowing into
the Ottoman capital and the government entered
a financial crisis. By this time, the Empire was
known as "the sick man of Europe". An
agreement was reached in 1881, setting up the
Public Debt Administration consisting of Ottoman
and European representatives. This arrangement
subjected the Ottomans to foreign financial control
from which they failed to free themselves, in
part because of continued borrowing.
The
"Tanzimat" reform period,
which lasted from 1839 to 1876, saw great
changes: under Abdülmecit
( 1839-1861) two decrees, one in 1839 the
other in1856, containing an important program
of civil reforms known as "Tanzimat",
were issued. A national bank was created;
administration was modernized; justice was
partially secularized; all citizens were
proclaimed equal before the law with no
discrimination of the religion.
Dolmabahçe Palace built under Abdülmecit
Abdülaziz
(1861-1876) was the first
sultan to travel to Europe. Invited
by Napoleon III, in June-July
1867 he attended the World Exhibition in
Paris. He then visited Queen Victoria
in London, Wilhem I
in Prussia, Franz Joseph I
in Vienna. Within the framework of the Regulation
for Public Education, a modern free compulsory
education system was established for all
children until the age of twelve. In September
1868, the famous Ottoman Imperial
Lycée of Galatasaray was opened.
French was the main language of instruction,
most of the teachers were foreign, and the
student body included members of all religious
communities. In addition, numerous private
schools were established by the religious
minorities and foreign missionaries.
Abdülaziz
The
construction of a railroad was started to
(the Orient
Express) and within Anatolia (Aegean
region). But the fact that Abdülaziz
spent a great deal of the money coming from
the loans from European banks on the imperial
family's account, building and furnishing
kiosks and palaces to rival the ones in
Europe, was his ruin. Under his reign, the
Liberal Party was formed
by Mithat Pasha , the leader
of the revolution, who deposed the sultan.
Abdülhamit
II (1876-1909) succeeded Murat
V who was in turn shortly deposed because
of his insanity. Mithat Pasha,
as grand vizier, secured the promulgation of the
first Turkish constitution (1876-77).
But the external and domestic crises early in his
reign convinced the sultan that only strong, centralized
government could rescue the empire from collapse.
Abdülhamit II soon dismissed Mithat Pasha, dissolved
the parliament and replaced it by a strict absolutism.
The sultan lived in virtual isolation in the Palace
of Yildiz and would only see a few trusted advisors.
Harsh internal measures were taken, including bureaucratization
of the government, the establishment of a secret
police organization and a system of censorship.
The sultan who led a life of religious observance,
unlike his predecessors in the 19 th century, presented
himself as the chief protector of the Moslems and
developed a Pan-Islamic policy.
The Russo-Turkish War of 187778 broke
out as a result of the anti-Ottoman uprisings in
Hercegovina and Bosnia (1875) followed by Bulgaria
and Sebia, territories of the Balkans whose population
was mostly Slav as were the Russians. Concerned
by the increasing Russian influence, the European
great powers convened the Congress of Berlin
to revise and alter the desastrous Treaty
of San Stefano of 1878, to which the Ottomans
had been forced by Russia, and which deprived the
Empire of most of their European territories. As
a result, Russia acquired Ardahan, Batum, and Kars
in northeastern Anatolia; Romania (Walachia and
Moldavia), become independent, was forced to cede
South Bessarabia to Russia in return for the Dobruja;
Serbia and Montenegro became also independent; Bosnia
and Hercegovina passed under Austro-Hungarian administration;
Greater Bulgaria was reduced to an independent principality
in the north, and the Ottomans regained possession
of Eastern Rumelia (formerly Southern Bulgaria which
was annexed again by Bulgaria in 1885) and Macedonia.
Britain was allowed to occupy and administer Cyprus
in return for a pledge to defend the Ottomans against
Russia. Otto von Bismarck was the one
who forced many of the major concessions upon Russia.
This led to close Germano-Turkish relations. The
visit of Kaiser William II to
Istanbul strengthened the ties between the Empire
and the Germans who saw economic interests and became
the chief providers of weapons and training to the
Ottoman army.
Abdülhamit II's reign saw further territorial losses,
including the loss of Tunisia to the French in 1881,
and Egypt to the British in 1882. In 1897, the Greeks
declared war on the Ottomans following an insurrection
in Crete and the proclamation by the rebels of union
with Greece. Defeated, Greece asked for European
intervention. As a result, Greece was forced to
pay war indemnities but Crete gained its autonomy
and thousands of Muslim refugees from Crete and
Greece fled to western Anatolia.
The
Revolution of the Young Turks was provoked
by the implacable brutality of despotic Abdülhamit,
known as the red sultan, and the intensifying
internal repression. A liberal opposition movement,
the "Young Turks Party"
mainly composed of intellectuals and army officers,
organized as the "Committee for Union
and Progres". The Young Turks started
a revolution (1908) to compel the sultan to restore
the 1876-77 constitution and parliamentary government.
In 1909, with the complicity of the sultan, an attempt
by a conservative Muslim group to a counter-revolution
led the Young Turks to depose Abdülhamit.
Abdülhamit's
brother, Mehmet V, succeeded
to the throne, but it was Enver Pasha
(he formed a triumvirate with Talat
and Cemal Pashas)
who virtually held power. He suppressed all
opposition parties and by 1914 controlled
practically all the seats in the parliament
as well as all ministries, establishing an
authoritarian regime.
The
success of the Young Turks opened the way
for a series of profound changes. Efforts
were made towards modernization with a particular
attention given to urbanization, industry,
agriculture, secularization of the state
as well as emancipation of women (opening
of schools to women
and progresses made in women's rights).
The
Young Turks bringing
Mehmet V to power
Collapse
of the Empire : the new government was
plagued with external threats. In 1911-1912, Italy
occupied Tripoli and Cyrenaica (Lybia), the last
Ottoman tatters in Northern Africa, and also captured
the Dodecanese Islands. Following a revolt of
Abanian nationalists in Kosovo, Albania proclaimed
its independence in 1912. Except for the east
of Thrace, Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada)
Islands located off the Dardanelles,
the Empire's European possessions were lost during
the two Balkan Wars (1912-1913)
launched by Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and
Greece which finally annexed Crete .
Because
of close relations with Germany, the continuous
enmity towards Russia and the loss of Ottoman
territory in the Balkan Wars, in November
1914, Enver Pasha brought the Empire into
World War I. Having taken
Germany and Austria-Hungary's sides, the
Turks shared the defeat of the Central Powers
in spite of a victorious resistance, under
the command of Mustafa
Kemal, against the Anglo-French Dardanelles
landings
(1915). In 1914-1915 eastern Anatolia (Caucasus)
was invaded by the Russians supported by
Armenian volunteers. But Russia had to give
up the war due to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution,
and the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
(March 3, 1918) insured the evacuation
of the provinces of eastern Anatolia and
the return of Ardahan, Batum, and Kars.
Mustafa
Kemal Pasha
(standing in the center)
during the Dardanelles War
In
1917, the British captured Baghdad, Jerusalem
and Damascus. Intelligence officer T.E. Lawrence
(better known as Lawrence of Arabia) urged the
leaders of Yemen, Hijaz
and Palestine to rebel and coordinate their revolt
to aid British interests.
With the Armistice Treaty of Moudros
(30 October 1918), the Entente Cordiale Powers
were given the right to occupy the entire Ottoman
territory which they started to share: in 1918-19,
the British occupied Mosul, then in southeastern
Anatolia Kilis, Antep,
Maras
and Urfa
which were given to the French who had already
occupied Mersin and Adana.
The Italians occupied the Aegean region, Mugla,
Antalya,
Burdur,
Konya. The
Greeks landed at Izmir
on May 15, 1919. Mehmet VI (191822), the last
Ottoman sultan, capitulated to the Allies who
occupied Istanbul on
Mart 16, 1920. He consented to the extremely harsh
Treaty of Sèvres which liquidated
the Ottoman Empire and virtually abolished Turkish
sovereignty.
After six centuries of existence, the Ottoman
Empire had collapsed.
The Armenians
: in
1894-1896, already backed up by Russia, nationalist
revolutionary committees fomented riots which
first aimed to bring the Ottomans to react to
the violence and then to induce foreign powers
to intervene. The repressions of the Ottomans
caused the Armenians to start emigrating world-wide.
During World War I, Russia, that
had always dreamt of openings on the Mediterranean,
invaded the eastern part of Anatolia. Under the
pretext of a great united Armenia, Russia armed
and led the Ottoman Armenians into rebellion.
In spring 1915, Armenian revolutionary bands burnt
villages populated by Moslems in the province
of Van. They also seized Van
and delivered the city to the Russian army.
These events gave rise to Turkish reprisals
with actions aiming at putting an end to the nuclei
of revolt and to get the Armenians away from all
areas where they might hamper and undermine the
moves of the Ottoman army against the Russians
or against the British. The Ottoman government
took a decision fraught with consequences for
both sides by transfering, until 1917, about 700,000
Armenians from the provinces of Van, Bitlis, Erzurum,
from the districts of Adana,
Mersin,
Kozan, Maras,
Iskenderun,
Antakya,
from the province of Aleppo, to central and eastern
Syria and northern Irak.
Epilogue:
Modern Turkey's
history begins with Mustafa
Kemal, the leader of the Turkish nationalists,
who refused to accept the terms of the Treaty
of Sèvres and organized resistance.
A rival government was formed in Ankara and the
Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate
on November 1, 1922. The deposed sultan, Mehmet
VI, fled on November 17, 1922 (he died
in exile in San Remo on May 16, 1926 but was buried
in Damascus). The next day he was deposed as caliph,
in which capacity he was succeeded by his cousin,
Abdülmecit. Following the proclamation
of the Turkish Republic
(October 29, 1923) the caliphate was abolished
(Mart 3, 1924) and all members of the Ottoman
House were exiled.