Interesting stories of the Ottoman Empire. Türkiye - history of the Ottoman Empire

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 transformed 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 connected with the ceremony of welcoming foreign ambassadors, which was given by the Sultan at the Palace Gate. This has also been interpreted as indicating the Empire's position as liaison 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 old Constantinople, now for over 6 centuries, which was the center of interaction between the Western and Eastern Worlds. But before that, the Ottomans had three more main cities. Initially, it was Söğüt, then 30 years later it took this post, from Bursa the capital of the Ottoman Empire moved to Edirne, this was in 1365, and then, 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 Turkish Republic, although by the time the capital was moved to Edirne, Ankara had already been captured for ten years.

Türkiye

After World War I, during which much of Ottoman territory was captured by the Allies, Ottoman elites established Turkish war for independence.

On top of the Ottoman

The empire reached its zenith under Suleiman I (Qanuni 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

The 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 Caucasus front, 2 times the status quo was determined - under Mehmed 4th and Mahmud 2nd, and during the Crimean War there were no official winners. The remaining 7 wars against the Ottomans were won by the Russian Empire.

Stage of weakening of the Ottomans

In the 17th century, the Ottomans were weakened both internally and externally in costly wars against Persia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia and Austria-Hungary. It was a time of drafts in the constitutional monarchy, in which the Sultan already had little energy. During that period, sultans ruled starting 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 distinguished army officer during the Gallipoli-Palestine campaign, was officially sent from Istanbul to take control of the victorious Caucasian army and reorganize it. This army played important role in the Turkish victory for independence (1918-1923), and the Turkish Republic 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 who took on Islamic religious and judicial positions automatically became military men.

Distribution of positions

From the mid-15th century to the early 17th century, the means of establishing judicial, military and political posts were fairly clear. Graduates of Muslim colleges called madrassas were appointed judges in the provinces, imams or teachers in these same madrassas. Speaking of the highest judicial positions, this was exclusively the domain of elite families.

How was life for the main one?

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

Something about viziers

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

36 Ottoman sultans

The Ottoman Empire ruled for 634 years. The famous Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sat on the throne the longest - he reigned for 46 years. The shortest reign was that of 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 not only the 16th can be distinguished interesting facts, but also 16 points with dates in different centuries. For example:

1299 - Osman I founded the Ottoman Empire
1389 - The Ottomans conquered most of Serbia
1453 - Mehmed II captured 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. The attempt was unsuccessful, 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 empire's decline
1699 - The Ottomans relinquished control of Hungary to Austria
1718 - The era of tulips begins. What did reconciliation mean in some European countries, introduction to science, architecture, and so on?
1821 – Beginning of the Greek War of Independence
1914 - The Ottomans joined the "Central Forces" side in World War I
1923 - The Ottoman Empire dissolves and the Turkish Republic becomes a country

2017-02-12

Anatolia (Asia Minor), where Türkiye is located, was the cradle of many civilizations in ancient times. By the time the ancestors of modern Turks arrived, the Byzantine Empire existed here - a Greek Orthodox state with its capital in Constantinople (Istanbul). The Arab caliphs who fought with the Byzantines invited Turkic tribes to military service, which were allocated border and empty lands for settlement.
The state of the Seljuk Turks arose with its capital in Konya, which gradually expanded its borders to almost the entire territory of Asia Minor. Destroyed by the Mongols.
In the lands conquered from the Byzantines, the Turkish Sultanate was founded with its capital in the city of Bursa. The Janissaries became the basis of the power of the Turkish sultans.
The Turks, having conquered lands in Europe, moved their capital to the city of Adrianople (Edirne). Turkey's European possessions were named Rumelia.
The Turks took Constantinople (see Fall of Constantinople) and made it the capital of the empire.
Under Selim the Terrible, Türkiye conquered Syria, Arabia and Egypt. The Turkish Sultan deposed the last caliph in Cairo and became the caliph himself.
The Battle of Mohacs took place, during which the Turks defeated the Czech-Hungarian army and occupied Hungary and approached the walls of Vienna. At the height of its power, during the reign of Suleiman "the Magnificent" (-), the empire stretched from the gates of Vienna to the Persian Gulf, from the Crimea to Morocco.
The Turks captured Ukrainian territories west of the Dnieper.

Rise of an Empire

The Ottomans clashed with the Serbian rulers and won victories at Chernomen () and Savra ().

Battle of Kosovo Field

Early 15th century

His strong opponent was the Albanian hostage Iskander Beg (or Skanderbeg), who was brought up at the Ottoman court and was Murad’s favorite, who converted to Islam and contributed to its spread in Albania. Then he wanted to make a new attack on Constantinople, which was not dangerous for him militarily, but was very valuable due to its geographical position. Death prevented him from carrying out this plan, carried out by his son Mehmed II (1451-81).

Capture of Constantinople

The pretext for the war was that Constantine Palaeologus, the Byzantine emperor, did not want to hand over to Mehmed his relative Orkhan (son of Suleiman, grandson of Bayazet), whom he was saving for inciting unrest, as a possible contender for the Ottoman throne. The Byzantine emperor had only a small strip of land along the shores of the Bosphorus; the number of his troops did not exceed 6,000, and the nature of the administration of the empire made it even weaker. There were already quite a few Turks living in the city itself; the Byzantine government, starting from Orthodox churches. Only extremely convenient geographical position Constantinople and strong fortifications made it possible to resist.

Mehmed II sent an army of 150,000 people against the city. and a fleet of 420 small sailing ships blocking the entrance to the Golden Horn. The armament of the Greeks and their military art were somewhat higher than the Turkish, but the Ottomans also managed to arm themselves quite well. Murad II also established several factories for casting cannons and making gunpowder, which were run by Hungarian and other Christian engineers who converted to Islam for the benefits of renegadeism. Many of the Turkish guns made a lot of noise, but did no real harm to the enemy; some of them exploded and killed a significant number of Turkish soldiers. Mehmed began preliminary siege work in the fall of 1452, and in April 1453 he began a proper siege. The Byzantine government turned to Christian powers for help; the pope hastened to respond with a promise to preach a crusade against the Turks, if only Byzantium agreed to unite the churches; the Byzantine government indignantly rejected this proposal. Of the other powers, Genoa alone sent a small squadron with 6,000 men. under the command of Giustiniani. The squadron bravely broke through the Turkish blockade and landed troops on the shores of Constantinople, which doubled the forces of the besieged. The siege continued for two months. A significant part of the population lost their heads and, instead of joining the ranks of the fighters, prayed in churches; the army, both Greek and Genoese, resisted extremely courageously. It was led by Emperor Constantine Palaiologos, who fought with the courage of despair and died in a skirmish. On May 29, the Ottomans opened the city.

Rise of Ottoman power (1453-1614)

The conquest of Greece brought the Turks into conflict with Venice, which entered into a coalition with Naples, the Pope and Karaman (an independent Muslim khanate in Asia Minor, ruled by Khan Uzun Hassan).

The war lasted 16 years in the Morea, the Archipelago and Asia Minor simultaneously (1463-79) and ended in victory for the Ottoman state. According to the Peace of Constantinople of 1479, Venice ceded to the Ottomans several cities in Morea, the island of Lemnos and other islands of the Archipelago (Negropont was captured by the Turks back in the city); The Karaman Khanate recognized the power of the Sultan. After the death of Skanderbeg (), the Turks captured Albania, then Herzegovina. In the city they waged war with the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray and forced him to recognize himself as dependent on the Sultan. This victory was very important for the Turks. military significance, since the Crimean Tatars supplied them with auxiliary troops, at times 100 thousand people; but later it became fatal for the Turks, as it pitted them against Russia and Poland. In 1476, the Ottomans devastated Moldavia and made it a vassal state.

This ended the period of conquest for some time. The Ottomans owned the entire Balkan Peninsula to the Danube and Sava, almost all the islands of the Archipelago and Asia Minor to Trebizond and almost to the Euphrates; beyond the Danube, Wallachia and Moldavia were also very dependent on them. Everywhere was ruled either directly by Ottoman officials or by local rulers who were approved by the Porte and were completely subordinate to it.

Reign of Bayazet II

None of the previous sultans did as much to expand the borders of the Ottoman Empire as Mehmed II, who remained in history with the nickname “Conqueror”. He was succeeded by his son Bayazet II (1481-1512) in the midst of unrest. The younger brother Cem, relying on the great vizier Mogamet-Karamaniya and taking advantage of the absence of Bayazet from Constantinople at the time of his father’s death, proclaimed himself sultan.

Bayazet collected the remaining loyal troops; The hostile armies met at Angora. Victory remained with the elder brother; Cem fled to Rhodes, from there to Europe and after long wanderings found himself in the hands of Pope Alexander VI, who offered Bayazet to poison his brother for 300,000 ducats. Bayazet accepted the offer, paid the money, and Cem was poisoned (). Bayazet's reign was marked by several more uprisings of his sons, which ended (except for the last one) successfully for the father; Bayazet took the rebels and executed them. However, Turkish historians characterize Bayazet as a peace-loving and meek man, a patron of art and literature.

Indeed, in Ottoman conquests there was a certain stop, but rather due to failures than to the peacefulness of the government. The Bosnian and Serbian pashas repeatedly raided Dalmatia, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola and subjected them to cruel devastation; Several attempts were made to take Belgrade, but without success. The death of Matthew Corvinus caused anarchy in Hungary and seemed to favor Ottoman designs against that state.

The long war, waged with some interruptions, ended, however, not particularly favorably for the Turks. According to the peace concluded in the city, Hungary defended all its possessions and although it had to recognize the right of the Ottoman Empire to tribute from Moldavia and Wallachia, it did not renounce the supreme rights to these two states (more in theory than in reality). In Greece, Navarino (Pylos), Modon and Coron () were conquered.

The first relations between the Ottoman state and Russia date back to the time of Bayazet II: ambassadors of Grand Duke Ivan III appeared in Constantinople to ensure unimpeded trade for Russian merchants in the Ottoman Empire. Other European powers also entered into friendly relations with Bayazet, especially Naples, Venice, Florence, Milan and the Pope, seeking his friendship; Bayazet skillfully balanced between everyone.

His main attention was directed to the East. He started a war with Persia, but did not have time to end it; in the city the Janissaries at the head rebelled against him younger son Selim defeated him and overthrew him from the throne. Soon Bayazet died, most likely from poison; Selim's other relatives were also exterminated.

Reign of Selim I

The war in Asia continued under Selim I (1512-20). In addition to the usual desire of the Ottomans for conquest, this war also had a religious reason: the Turks were Sunnis, Selim, as an extreme zealot of Sunnism, passionately hated the Shia Persians, and on his orders, up to 40,000 Shiites living on Ottoman territory were destroyed. The war was fought with varying degrees of success, but final victory, although far from complete, was on the side of the Turks. Around the world, Persia ceded to the Ottoman Empire the regions of Diyarbakir and Mosul, which lie along the upper reaches of the Tigris.

The Egyptian Sultan of Kansu-Gavri sent an embassy to Selim with a peace offer. Selim ordered to kill all members of the embassy. Kansu stepped forward to meet him; the battle took place in the Dolbec Valley. Thanks to his artillery, Selim won complete victory; The Mamelukes fled, Kansu died during the escape. Damascus opened the gates to the winner; after him, all of Syria submitted to the Sultan, and Mecca and Medina surrendered under his protection (). The new Egyptian Sultan Tuman Bey, after several defeats, had to cede Cairo to the Turkish vanguard; but at night he entered the city and destroyed the Turks. Selim, not being able to take Cairo without a stubborn fight, invited its inhabitants to surrender with the promise of their favors; the inhabitants surrendered - and Selim carried out a terrible massacre in the city. Fog Bey was also beheaded when, during the retreat, he was defeated and captured ().

Selim reproached him for not wanting to obey him, the Commander of the Faithful, and developed a theory, bold in the mouth of a Muslim, according to which he, as the ruler of Constantinople, is the heir of the Eastern Roman Empire and, therefore, has the right to all the lands ever included in its composition.

Realizing the impossibility of ruling Egypt solely through his pashas, who would inevitably eventually become independent, Selim retained next to them 24 Mameluke leaders, who were considered subordinate to the pasha, but enjoyed a certain independence and could complain about the pasha to Constantinople. Selim was one of the most cruel Ottoman sultans; besides his father and brothers, besides countless captives, he executed seven of his great viziers during the eight years of his reign. At the same time, he patronized literature and himself left a significant number of Turkish and Arabic poems. In the memory of the Turks he remained with the nickname Yavuz (unyielding, stern).

Reign of Suleiman I

Union with France

The closest neighbor of the Ottoman state and the most dangerous enemy Austria was hers, and entering into a serious fight with her without enlisting anyone’s support was risky. France was the natural ally of the Ottomans in this struggle. The first relations between the Ottoman Empire and France began in the city; Since then, both states have exchanged embassies several times, but this did not lead to practical results. In 1517, King Francis I of France proposed to the German Emperor and Ferdinand the Catholic an alliance against the Turks with the aim of expelling them from Europe and dividing up their possessions, but this alliance did not take place. : the interests of the named European powers were too opposed to each other. On the contrary, France and the Ottoman Empire did not come into contact with each other anywhere and they had no immediate reasons for hostility. Therefore, France, which once took such an ardent part in the Crusades, decided to take a bold step: a real military alliance with a Muslim power against a Christian power. The final impetus was given by the unfortunate Battle of Pavia for the French, during which the king was captured. Regent Louise of Savoy sent an embassy to Constantinople in February 1525, but it was beaten by the Turks in Bosnia, undoubtedly against the wishes of the Sultan. Not embarrassed by this event, Francis I sent an envoy from captivity to the Sultan with a proposal for an alliance; the Sultan was supposed to attack Hungary, and Francis promised war with Spain. At the same time, Charles V made similar proposals to the Ottoman Sultan, but the Sultan preferred an alliance with France.

Soon after, Francis sent a request to Constantinople to allow the restoration of at least one catholic church, but received a decisive refusal from the Sultan in the name of the principles of Islam, along with a promise of all kinds of protection for Christians and protection of their safety ().

Military successes

Reign of Mahmud I

Under Mahmud I (1730-54), who was an exception among the Ottoman sultans with his gentleness and humanity (he did not kill the deposed sultan and his sons and generally avoided executions), the war with Persia continued, without definite results. The war with Austria ended with the Peace of Belgrade (1739), according to which the Turks received Serbia with Belgrade and Orsova. Russia acted more successfully against the Ottomans, but the conclusion of peace by the Austrians forced the Russians to make concessions; Of its conquests, Russia retained only Azov, but with the obligation to demolish the fortifications.

During the reign of Mahmud, the first Turkish printing house was founded by Ibrahim Basmaji. The Mufti, after some hesitation, gave a fatwa, with which, in the name of the interests of enlightenment, he blessed the undertaking, and the Sultan Gatti Sherif authorized it. Only the printing of the Koran and holy books was prohibited. In the first period of the printing house’s existence, 15 works were printed there (Arabic and Persian dictionaries, several books on the history of the Ottoman state and general geography, military art, political economy, etc.). After the death of Ibrahim Basmaji, the printing house closed, a new one appeared only in the city.

Mahmud I, who died of natural causes, was succeeded by his brother Osman III (1754-57), whose reign was peaceful and who died in the same way as his brother.

Attempts at reform (1757-1839)

Reign of Abdul Hamid I

The Empire at this time was almost everywhere in a state of ferment. The Greeks, excited by Orlov, were worried, but, left by the Russians without help, they were quickly and easily pacified and severely punished. Ahmed Pasha of Baghdad declared himself independent; Taher, supported by Arab nomads, accepted the title of Sheikh of Galilee and Acre; Egypt under the rule of Muhammad Ali did not even think of paying tribute; Northern Albania, ruled by Mahmud, Pasha of Scutari, was in a state of complete rebellion; Ali, Pasha of Yanin, clearly sought to establish an independent kingdom.

The entire reign of Adbul Hamid was occupied with pacifying these uprisings, which could not be achieved due to the lack of money and disciplined troops from the Ottoman government. This was joined by a new war with Russia and Austria (1787-91), again unsuccessful for the Ottomans. It ended with the Peace of Yassy with Russia (1792), according to which Russia finally acquired Crimea and the space between the Bug and the Dniester, and the Peace of Sistov with Austria (1791). The latter was relatively favorable for the Ottoman Empire, since its main enemy, Joseph II, died, and Leopold II directed all his attention to France. Austria returned to the Ottomans most of the acquisitions it made during this war. Peace was already concluded under Abdul Hamid's nephew, Selim III (1789-1807). In addition to territorial losses, the war brought one significant change to the life of the Ottoman state: before it began (1785), the empire entered into its first public debt, first internal, guaranteed by some state revenues.

Reign of Selim III

Kuchuk-Hussein moved against Pasvan-Oglu and waged a real war with him, which did not have a definite result. The government finally entered into negotiations with the rebellious governor and recognized his lifelong rights to rule the Viddinsky pashalyk, in fact on the basis of almost complete independence.

The war with the French had barely ended (1801) when the uprising of the Janissaries began in Belgrade, dissatisfied with the reforms in the army. Their oppression sparked a popular movement in Serbia () under the leadership of Karageorgi. The government initially supported the movement, but it soon took the form of a real popular uprising, and the Ottoman Empire was forced to take military action. The matter was complicated by the war started by Russia (1806-1812). Reforms had to be postponed again: the Grand Vizier and other senior officials and military personnel were at the theater of military operations.

Coup attempt

Only the kaymakam (assistant to the grand vizier) and deputy ministers remained in Constantinople. Sheikh-ul-Islam took advantage of this moment to plot against the Sultan. The ulema and janissaries took part in the conspiracy, among whom rumors were spread about the Sultan’s intention to distribute them among the regiments of the standing army. The Kaimaks also joined the conspiracy. On the appointed day, a detachment of Janissaries unexpectedly attacked the garrison standing army, standing in Constantinople, and carried out a massacre among it. Another part of the Janissaries surrounded Selim's palace and demanded that he execute people they hated. Selim had the courage to refuse. He was arrested and taken into custody. Abdul Hamid's son, Mustafa IV (1807-08), was proclaimed Sultan. The massacre in the city continued for two days. Sheikh-ul-Islam and Kaymakam ruled on behalf of the powerless Mustafa. But Selim had his followers.

Even in the territory remaining with the empire, the government did not feel confident. In Serbia, an uprising began in the city, ending only after Serbia was recognized by the Peace of Adrianople as a separate vassal state, with its own prince at its head. The uprising of Ali Pasha of Yanin began in the city. As a result of the treason of his own sons, he was defeated, captured and executed; but a significant part of his army formed cadres of Greek rebels. In the city, the uprising, which developed into the War of Independence, began in Greece. After the intervention of Russia, France and England and the Battle of Navarino (sea) which was unfortunate for the Ottoman Empire, in which the Turkish and Egyptian fleets were lost, the Ottomans lost Greece.

Army reform

In the midst of these uprisings, Mahmud decided to boldly reform the Janissary army. The Janissary corps was replenished with annual intakes of Christian children of 1000 annually (in addition, service in the Janissary army was inherited, for the Janissaries had families), but at the same time it was reduced due to constant wars and rebellions. Under Suleiman there were 40,000 Janissaries, under Mehmed III - 1,016,000. During the reign of Mehmed IV, an attempt was made to limit the number of Janissaries to 55 thousand, but it failed due to their rebellion, and by the end of the reign their number rose to 200 thousand. Under Mahmud II it was probably even greater (salaries were given to more than 400,000 people), but it is completely impossible to accurately determine it precisely due to the complete indiscipline of the Janissaries.

The number of orts or ods (detachments) was 229, of which 77 were stationed in Constantinople; but the agis themselves (officers) did not know the true composition of their odes and tried to exaggerate it, since in accordance with it they received salaries for the Janissaries, which partly remained in their pockets. Sometimes salaries, especially in the provinces, were not paid at all for entire years, and then even this incentive to collect statistical data disappeared. When rumors spread about the reform project, the Janissary leaders at a meeting decided to demand that the Sultan execute its authors; but the Sultan, who foresaw this, sent a standing army against them, distributed weapons to the population of the capital and proclaimed a religious war against the Janissaries.

A battle took place in the streets of Constantinople and in the barracks; government supporters broke into homes and exterminated the Janissaries with their wives and children; The Janissaries, taken by surprise, offered almost no resistance. At least 10,000, and according to more accurate information, up to 20,000 Janissaries were exterminated; the corpses were thrown into the Bosphorus. The rest fled across the country and joined bandits. In the provinces, arrests and executions of officers were carried out on a large scale, while the mass of the Janissaries surrendered and were distributed to the regiments.

Following the Janissaries, on the basis of the Mufti's fatwa, the Bektashi dervishes, who had always served as faithful companions of the Janissaries, were partly executed and partly expelled.

Military losses

Getting rid of the Janissaries and Dervishes () did not save the Turks from defeat both in the war with the Serbs and in the war with the Greeks. These two wars and in connection with them were followed by a war with Russia (1828-29), ending with the Peace of Adrianople in 1829. The Ottoman Empire lost Serbia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Greece, and the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

Following this, Muhammad Ali, Khedive of Egypt (1831-1833 and 1839), broke away from the Ottoman Empire. In the fight against the latter, the empire suffered blows that put its very existence at stake; but she was saved twice (1833 and 1839) by the unexpected intercession of Russia, caused by fear European war, which would probably have been caused by the collapse of the Ottoman state. However, this intercession also brought real benefits to Russia: around the world in Gunkyar Skelessi (), the Ottoman Empire granted Russian ships passage through the Dardanelles, closing it to England. At the same time, the French decided to take Algeria from the Ottomans (since 2006), which had previously, however, been only nominally dependent on the empire.

Civil reforms

The wars did not stop Mahmud's reform plans; private reforms in the army continued throughout his reign. He also cared about raising the level of education among the people; with him () began to go out to French the first newspaper in the Ottoman Empire that had an official character (“Moniteur ottoman”), then () the first Ottoman also official newspaper “Takvim-i-vekai” - “Diary of Incidents”.

Like Peter the Great, perhaps even consciously imitating him, Mahmud sought to introduce European morals among the people; he himself wore a European costume and encouraged his officials to do so, prohibited the wearing of a turban, organized festivities in Constantinople and other cities with fireworks, with European music and generally according to the European model. He did not live to see the most important reforms of the civil system conceived by him; they were already the work of his heir. But even the little he did went against the religious feelings of the Muslim population. He began to mint coins with his image, which is directly prohibited in the Koran (the news that previous sultans also removed portraits of themselves is subject to great doubt).

Throughout his reign in different parts state, especially in Constantinople, there were constant Muslim riots caused by religious feelings; the government dealt with them extremely cruelly: sometimes 4,000 corpses were thrown into the Bosphorus in a few days. At the same time, Mahmud did not hesitate to execute even the ulema and dervishes, who were generally his bitter enemies.

During the reign of Mahmud there were especially many fires in Constantinople, some of them caused by arson; the people explained them as God's punishment for the sins of the Sultan.

Results of the board

The extermination of the Janissaries, which at first damaged the Ottoman Empire, depriving it of a bad, but still not useless army, after several years turned out to be extremely beneficial: the Ottoman army rose to the level of European armies, which was clearly proven in the Crimean campaign and even more so in the war of 1877-78 and in the Greek war. Territorial reduction, especially the loss of Greece, also turned out to be more beneficial than harmful for the empire.

The Ottomans never allowed Christians to serve in military service; regions with a solid Christian population (Greece and Serbia), without increasing the Turkish army, at the same time required significant military garrisons from it, which could not be put into action in a moment of need. This applies in particular to Greece, which, due to its extended maritime border did not even represent strategic benefits for the Ottoman Empire, which was stronger on land than at sea. The loss of territories reduced the state revenues of the empire, but during the reign of Mahmud, trade between the Ottoman Empire and European states somewhat revived, and the country's productivity increased somewhat (bread, tobacco, grapes, rose oil, etc.).

Thus, despite all external defeats, despite even the terrible battle of Nizib, in which Muhammad Ali destroyed a significant Ottoman army and was followed by the loss of an entire fleet, Mahmud left Abdülmecid a state strengthened rather than weakened. It was also strengthened by the fact that from now on the interest of the European powers was more closely connected with the preservation of the Ottoman state. The importance of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles has increased enormously; The European powers felt that the capture of Constantinople by one of them would deal an irreparable blow to the others, and therefore they considered the preservation of the weak Ottoman Empire more profitable for themselves.

In general, the empire was still decaying, and Nicholas I rightly called it a sick person; but the death of the Ottoman state was delayed indefinitely. Beginning with the Crimean War, the empire began to intensively make foreign loans, and this gained it the influential support of its numerous creditors, that is, mainly the financiers of England. On the other hand, internal reforms that could raise the state and save it from destruction became increasingly important in the 19th century. It's getting more and more difficult. Russia was afraid of these reforms, since they could strengthen the Ottoman Empire, and through its influence at the court of the Sultan tried to make them impossible; Thus, in 1876-77, she killed Midhad Pasha, who was capable of carrying out serious reforms that were not inferior in importance to the reforms of Sultan Mahmud.

Reign of Abdul-Mecid (1839-1861)

Mahmud was succeeded by his 16-year-old son Abdul-Mejid, who was not distinguished by his energy and inflexibility, but was a much more cultured and gentle person in character.

Despite everything Mahmud did, the Battle of Nisib could have completely destroyed the Ottoman Empire if Russia, England, Austria and Prussia had not entered into an alliance to protect the integrity of the Porte (); They drew up a treaty, by virtue of which the Egyptian viceroy retained Egypt on a hereditary basis, but undertook to immediately cleanse Syria, and in case of refusal he had to lose all his possessions. This alliance caused indignation in France, which supported Muhammad Ali, and Thiers even made preparations for war; however, Louis-Philippe did not dare to take it. Despite the inequality of power, Muhammad Ali was ready to resist; but the English squadron bombarded Beirut, burned the Egyptian fleet and landed a corps of 9,000 people in Syria, which, with the help of the Maronites, inflicted several defeats on the Egyptians. Muhammad Ali conceded; The Ottoman Empire was saved, and Abdulmecid, supported by Khozrev Pasha, Reshid Pasha and other associates of his father, began reforms.

Gulhanei Hutt Sheriff

providing all subjects with perfect security regarding their life, honor and property;
the correct way to distribute and collect taxes;
an equally correct way of recruiting soldiers.

It was recognized as necessary to change the distribution of taxes in the sense of their equalization and abandon the system of farming them out, determine the costs of land and naval forces; publicity of the proceedings was established. All these benefits applied to all subjects of the Sultan without distinction of religion. The Sultan himself took an oath of allegiance to the Hatti Sheriff. All that remained was to actually fulfill the promise.

Tanzimat

The reform carried out during the reign of Abdul-Mejid and partly his successor Abdul-Aziz is known under the name tanzimat (from Arabic tanzim - order, arrangement; sometimes the epithet khairiye - beneficent is added). The tanzimat includes a number of events: the continuation of army reform, a new division of the empire into vilayets governed according to one general model, the establishment of a state council, the establishment of provincial councils (majlis), the first attempts to transfer public education from the hands of the clergy to the hands of secular authorities, the criminal code of 1840 g., trade code, establishment of the ministries of justice and public education (), charter of trade proceedings (1860).

In 1858, the trade in slaves within the Ottoman Empire was prohibited, although slavery itself was not prohibited (formally, slavery was only abolished with the declaration of the Turkish Republic in the 20th century).

Gumayun

Was besieged by rebels. Detachments of volunteers moved from Montenegro and Serbia to help the rebels. The movement aroused great interest abroad, especially in Russia and Austria; the latter turned to the Porte demanding religious equality, lower taxes, revision of real estate laws, etc. The Sultan immediately promised to fulfill all this (February 1876), but the rebels did not agree to lay down their weapons until the Ottoman troops were withdrawn from Herzegovina. The ferment spread to Bulgaria, where the Ottomans, in response, carried out a terrible massacre (see Bulgaria), which caused indignation throughout Europe (Gladstone's brochure about the atrocities in Bulgaria), entire villages were massacred, including infants. The Bulgarian uprising was drowned in blood, but the Herzegovinian and Bosnian uprising continued in 1876 and finally caused the intervention of Serbia and Montenegro (1876-77; see.

History of the Ottoman Empire

The history of the Ottoman Empire goes back hundreds of years. The Ottoman Empire existed from 1299 to 1923.

Rise of an Empire

Osman (reigned 1288-1326), son and heir of Ertogrul, in the fight against the powerless Byzantium annexed region after region to his possessions, but, despite his growing power, recognized his dependence on Lycaonia. In 1299, after the death of Alaeddin, he accepted the title "Sultan" and refused to recognize the power of his heirs. After his name, the Turks began to be called Ottoman Turks or Ottomans. Their power over Asia Minor spread and strengthened, and the sultans of Konya were unable to prevent this.

From that time on, they developed and rapidly increased, at least quantitatively, their own literature, although it was very little independent. They take care of maintaining trade, agriculture and industry in the conquered areas and create a well-organized army. A powerful state is developing, military, but not hostile to culture; in theory it is absolutist, but in reality the commanders to whom the Sultan gave different areas into management, often found themselves independent and reluctant to admit supreme power Sultan. Often the Greek cities of Asia Minor voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of the powerful Osman.

Osman's son and heir Orhan I (1326-59) continued his father's policies. He considered it his calling to unite all the faithful under his rule, although in reality his conquests were directed more to the west, to countries inhabited by Greeks, than to the east, to countries inhabited by Muslims. He very skillfully took advantage of internal discord in Byzantium. More than once the disputing parties turned to him as an arbitrator. In 1330 he conquered Nicaea, the most important of the Byzantine fortresses on Asian soil. Following this, Nicomedia and the entire northwestern part of Asia Minor to the Black, Marmara and Aegean Seas fell into the power of the Turks.

Finally, in 1356, a Turkish army under the command of Suleiman, son of Orhan, landed on the European shore of the Dardanelles and captured Gallipoli and its environs.

In Orhan's activities in the internal administration of the state, his constant adviser was his elder brother Aladdin, who ( the only example in the history of Turkey) voluntarily renounced his rights to the throne and accepted the post of grand vizier, established especially for him, but preserved after him. To facilitate trade, coinage was regulated. Orhan minted a silver coin - akche in his own name and with a verse from the Koran. He built himself a luxurious palace in the newly conquered Bursa (1326), from whose high gates the Ottoman government received the name “High Porte” (literal translation of the Ottoman Bab-ı Âlî - “high gate”), often transferred to the Ottoman state itself.

In 1328, Orhan gave his domains new, largely centralized administration. They were divided into 3 provinces (pashalik), which were divided into districts, sanjaks. Civil administration was connected to the military and subordinated to it. Orhan laid the foundation for the Janissary army, which was recruited from Christian children (at first 1000 people; later this number increased significantly). Despite a significant amount of tolerance towards Christians, whose religion was not persecuted (even though taxes were taken from Christians), Christians converted to Islam in droves.

From 1358 to Kosovo field

After the capture of Gallipoli, the Turks fortified themselves on the European coast of the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara. Suleiman died in 1358, and Orhan was succeeded by his second son, Murad (1359-1389), who, although he did not forget about Asia Minor and conquered Angora in it, moved the center of gravity of his activities to Europe. Having conquered Thrace, in 1365 he moved his capital to Adrianople. The Byzantine Empire was reduced to Constantinople and its immediate surroundings, but continued to resist conquest for almost a hundred years.

The conquest of Thrace brought the Turks into close contact with Serbia and Bulgaria. Both states went through a period of feudal fragmentation and could not consolidate. In a few years, they both lost a significant part of their territory, obliged themselves with tribute and became dependent on the Sultan. However, there were periods when these states managed, taking advantage of the moment, to partially restore their positions.

Upon the accession to the throne of the following sultans, starting with Bayazet, it became customary to kill immediate family to avoid family rivalry over the throne; This custom was observed, although not always, but often. When the relatives of the new Sultan did not pose the slightest danger due to their mental development or for other reasons, they were left alive, but their harem was made up of slaves made infertile through surgery.

The Ottomans clashed with the Serbian rulers and won victories at Chernomen (1371) and Savra (1385).

Battle of Kosovo Field

In 1389, the Serbian prince Lazar began a new war with the Ottomans. On Kosovo Field on June 28, 1389, his army of 80,000 people. clashed with Murad's army of 300,000 people. Serbian army was destroyed, the prince was killed; Murad also fell in the battle. Formally, Serbia still retained its independence, but it paid tribute and pledged to supply auxiliary troops.

Murad Murad

One of the Serbs who took part in the battle (that is, Prince Lazar's side) was the Serbian prince Milos Obilic. He understood that the Serbs had little chance of winning this great battle and decided to sacrifice his life. He came up with a cunning operation.

During the battle, Milos snuck into Murad's tent, pretending to be a defector. He approached Murad as if to convey some secret and stabbed him. Murad was dying, but managed to call for help. Consequently, Milos was killed by the Sultan's guards. (Miloš Obilic kills Sultan Murad) From this moment on, the Serbian and Turkish versions of what happened begin to differ. According to the Serbian version: having learned about the murder of their ruler, the Turkish army succumbed to panic and began to scatter, and only the taking of control of the troops by Murad’s son Bayazid I saved the Turkish army from defeat. According to the Turkish version: the murder of the Sultan only angered the Turkish soldiers. However, the most realistic option is the version that the main part of the army learned about the death of the Sultan after the battle.

Early 15th century

Murad's son Bayazet (1389-1402) married Lazar's daughter and thereby acquired the formal right to intervene in dynastic issues in Serbia (when Stefan, Lazar's son, died without heirs). In 1393, Bayazet took Tarnovo (he strangled the Bulgarian king Shishman, whose son saved himself from death by accepting Islam), conquered all of Bulgaria, obliged Wallachia to pay tribute, conquered Macedonia and Thessaly and penetrated into Greece. In Asia Minor, his possessions expanded far to the east beyond the Kyzyl-Irmak (Galis).

In 1396, near Nicopolis, he defeated a Christian army gathered for a crusade by King Sigismund of Hungary.

The invasion of Timur at the head of the Turkic hordes into the Asian possessions of Bayazet forced him to lift the siege of Constantinople and personally rush towards Timur with significant forces. At the Battle of Ankara in 1402, he was completely defeated and captured, where he died a year later (1403). A significant Serbian auxiliary detachment (40,000 people) also died in this battle.

The captivity and then death of Bayazet threatened the state with disintegration into parts. In Adrianople, Bayazet's son Suleiman (1402-1410) proclaimed himself sultan, seizing power over the Turkish possessions on the Balkan Peninsula, in Brousse - Isa, in the eastern part of Asia Minor - Mehmed I. Timur received ambassadors from all three contenders and promised his support to all three , obviously wanting to weaken the Ottomans, but he did not find it possible to continue its conquest and went to the East.

Mehmed soon won, killed Isa (1403) and reigned over all of Asia Minor. In 1413, after the death of Suleiman (1410) and the defeat and death of his brother Musa, who succeeded him, Mehmed restored his power over the Balkan Peninsula. His reign was relatively peaceful. He tried to maintain peaceful relations with his Christian neighbors, Byzantium, Serbia, Wallachia and Hungary, and concluded treaties with them. Contemporaries characterize him as a fair, meek, peace-loving and educated ruler. More than once, however, he had to deal with internal uprisings, which he dealt with very energetically.

The reign of his son, Murad II (1421-1451), began with similar uprisings. The brothers of the latter, in order to avoid death, managed to flee to Constantinople in advance, where they met with a friendly reception. Murad immediately moved to Constantinople, but managed to gather only a 20,000-strong army and was therefore defeated. However, with the help of bribes, he managed to capture and strangle his brothers soon after. The siege of Constantinople had to be lifted, and Murad turned his attention to the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula, and later to the south. In the north, a thunderstorm gathered against him from the Transylvanian governor Matthias Hunyadi, who won victories over him at Hermannstadt (1442) and Nis (1443), but due to the significant superiority of the Ottoman forces, he was completely defeated on the Kosovo field. Murad took possession of Thessalonica (previously conquered three times by the Turks and again lost to them), Corinth, Patras and a large part of Albania.

Capture of Constantinople

The pretext for the war was that Constantine Palaeologus, the Byzantine emperor, did not want to hand over to Mehmed his relative Orhan (son of Suleiman, grandson of Bayazet), whom he was saving for inciting unrest as a possible contender for the Ottoman throne. The Byzantine emperor had only a small strip of land along the shores of the Bosphorus; the number of his troops did not exceed 6,000, and the nature of the administration of the empire made it even weaker. There were already quite a few Turks living in the city itself; The Byzantine government, starting in 1396, had to allow the construction of Muslim mosques next to Orthodox churches. Only the extremely convenient geographical position of Constantinople and strong fortifications made it possible to resist.

Mehmed II sent an army of 150,000 people against the city. and a fleet of 420 small sailing ships blocking the entrance to the Golden Horn. The armament of the Greeks and their military art were somewhat higher than the Turkish, but the Ottomans also managed to arm themselves quite well. Murad II also established several factories for casting cannons and making gunpowder, which were run by Hungarian and other Christian engineers who converted to Islam for the benefits of renegadeism. Many of the Turkish guns made a lot of noise, but did no real harm to the enemy; some of them exploded and killed a significant number of Turkish soldiers. Mehmed began preliminary siege work in the fall of 1452, and in April 1453 he began a proper siege. The Byzantine government turned to Christian powers for help; the pope hastened to respond with a promise to preach a crusade against the Turks, if only Byzantium agreed to unite the churches; the Byzantine government indignantly rejected this proposal. Of the other powers, Genoa alone sent a small squadron with 6,000 men. under the leadership of Giustiniani. The squadron bravely broke through the Turkish blockade and landed troops on the shores of Constantinople, which doubled the forces of the besieged. The siege continued for two months. A significant part of the population lost their heads and, instead of joining the ranks of the fighters, prayed in churches; the army, both Greek and Genoese, resisted extremely courageously. It was led by Emperor Constantine Palaiologos, who fought with the courage of despair and died in a skirmish. On May 29, the Ottomans opened the city.

Conquests

The era of power of the Ottoman Empire lasted more than 150 years. In 1459, all of Serbia was conquered (except Belgrade, taken in 1521) and turned into an Ottoman pashalyk. In 1460, the Duchy of Athens was conquered, and after it almost all of Greece, with the exception of some coastal cities that remained under the control of Venice. In 1462 the island of Lesbos and Wallachia were conquered, in 1463 - Bosnia.

The war lasted 16 years in the Morea, the Archipelago and Asia Minor simultaneously (1463-79) and ended in victory for the Ottoman state. According to the Peace of Constantinople of 1479, Venice ceded to the Ottomans several cities in Morea, the island of Lemnos and other islands of the Archipelago (Negropont was captured by the Turks back in 1470); The Karaman Khanate recognized the power of the Sultan. After the death of Skanderbeg (1467), the Turks captured Albania, then Herzegovina. In 1475, they waged war with the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray and forced him to recognize himself as dependent on the Sultan. This victory was of great military significance for the Turks, since the Crimean Tatars supplied them with auxiliary troops, at times numbering 100 thousand people; but later it became fatal for the Turks, as it pitted them against Russia and Poland. In 1476, the Ottomans devastated Moldavia and made it a vassal state.

Reign of Bayazet II

None of the previous sultans did as much to expand the borders of the Ottoman Empire as Mehmed II, who remained in history with the nickname “Conqueror”. He was succeeded by his son Bayazet II (1481-1512) in the midst of unrest. The younger brother Cem, relying on the great vizier Mogamet-Karamaniya and taking advantage of Bayazet's absence in Constantinople at the time of his father's death, proclaimed himself sultan.

Bayazet gathered the remaining loyal troops; The hostile armies met at Angora. Victory remained with the elder brother; Cem fled to Rhodes, from there to Europe and, after long wanderings, found himself in the hands of Pope Alexander VI, who offered Bayazet to poison his brother for 300,000 ducats. Bayazet accepted the offer, paid the money, and Cem was poisoned (1495). Bayazet's reign was marked by several more uprisings of his sons, which ended (except for the last one) successfully for the father; Bayazet took the rebels and executed them. However, Turkish historians characterize Bayazet as a peace-loving and meek man, a patron of art and literature.

Indeed, there was a certain halt in the Ottoman conquests, but more due to failures than to the peacefulness of the government. The Bosnian and Serbian pashas repeatedly raided Dalmatia, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola and subjected them to cruel devastation; Several attempts were made to take Belgrade, but without success. The death of Matthew Corvinus (1490) caused anarchy in Hungary and seemed to favor Ottoman designs against that state.

The long war, waged with some interruptions, ended, however, not particularly favorably for the Turks. According to the peace concluded in 1503, Hungary defended all its possessions and, although it had to recognize the Ottoman Empire’s right to tribute from Moldavia and Wallachia, it did not renounce the sovereign rights to these two states (more in theory than in reality). In Greece, Navarino (Pylos), Modon and Coron (1503) were conquered.

The first relations of the Ottoman state with Russia date back to the time of Bayazet II: in 1495, ambassadors of Grand Duke Ivan III appeared in Constantinople to ensure unimpeded trade for Russian merchants in the Ottoman Empire. Other European powers also entered into friendly relations with Bayazet, especially Naples, Venice, Florence, Milan and the Pope, seeking his friendship; Bayazet skillfully balanced between everyone.

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire waged war with Venice for the Mediterranean, and defeated it in 1505.

His main attention was directed to the East. He started a war with Persia, but did not have time to end it; in 1510, his youngest son Selim rebelled against him at the head of the Janissaries, defeated him and overthrew him from the throne. Soon Bayazet died, most likely from poison; Selim's other relatives were also exterminated.

Reign of Selim I

The war in Asia continued under Selim I (1512-20). In addition to the usual desire of the Ottomans for conquest, this war also had a religious reason: the Turks were Sunnis, Selim, as an extreme zealot of Sunnism, passionately hated the Shiite Persians, and on his orders, up to 40,000 Shiites living on Ottoman territory were destroyed. The war was fought with varying success, but the final victory, although far from complete, was on the side of the Turks. At the peace of 1515, Persia ceded to the Ottoman Empire the regions of Diyarbakir and Mosul, lying along the upper reaches of the Tigris.

The Egyptian Sultan of Kansu-Gavri sent an embassy to Selim with a peace offer. Selim ordered to kill all members of the embassy. Kansu stepped forward to meet him; the battle took place in the Dolbec Valley. Thanks to his artillery, Selim achieved a complete victory; The Mamelukes fled, Kansu died during the escape. Damascus opened the gates to the winner; after him, all of Syria submitted to the Sultan, and Mecca and Medina came under his protection (1516). The new Egyptian Sultan Tuman Bey, after several defeats, had to cede Cairo to the Turkish vanguard; but at night he entered the city and destroyed the Turks. Selim, not being able to take Cairo without a stubborn fight, invited its inhabitants to surrender with the promise of their favors; the inhabitants surrendered - and Selim carried out a terrible massacre in the city. Tuman Bey was also beheaded when, during the retreat, he was defeated and captured (1517).

Reign of Suleiman I

Selim's son Suleiman I (1520-66), nicknamed the Magnificent or Great by Christian historians, was the direct opposite of his father. He was not cruel and understood the political value of mercy and formal justice; He began his reign by releasing several hundred Egyptian captives from noble families who were kept in chains by Selim. European silk merchants, robbed in Ottoman territory at the beginning of his reign, received generous monetary rewards from him. More than his predecessors, he loved the splendor with which his palace in Constantinople amazed Europeans. Although he did not renounce conquests, he did not like war, only on rare occasions personally becoming the head of an army. He especially highly valued the art of diplomacy, which brought him important victories. Immediately after ascending the throne, he gave up peace talks with Venice and concluded an agreement with it in 1521, recognizing the Venetians’ right to trade in Turkish territory and promising them protection of their safety; Both sides pledged to hand over fugitive criminals to each other. Since then, although Venice did not keep a permanent envoy in Constantinople, embassies were sent from Venice to Constantinople and back more or less regularly. In 1521, Ottoman troops took Belgrade. In 1522, Suleiman landed a large army on Rhodes. A six-month siege of the main citadel of the Knights of St. John ended with its capitulation, after which the Turks began to conquer Tripoli and Algeria in North Africa.

In 1527, Ottoman troops under the command of Suleiman I invaded Austria and Hungary. At first, the Turks achieved very significant successes: in the eastern part of Hungary they managed to create a puppet state that became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, they captured Buda, ruined huge territories in Austria. In 1529, the Sultan moved his army to Vienna, intending to capture the Austrian capital, but he failed. On September 27, the siege of Vienna began; the Turks outnumbered the besieged by at least 7 times. But the weather was against the Turks - on the way to Vienna, due to bad weather, they lost many guns and pack animals, and illnesses began in their camp. But the Austrians did not waste time - they strengthened the city walls in advance, and Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria brought German and Spanish mercenaries to the city (his older brother Charles V of Habsburg was both the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Spain). Then the Turks relied on blowing up the walls of Vienna, but the besieged constantly made forays and destroyed all Turkish trenches and underground passages. Due to the approaching winter, disease and mass desertion, the Turks had to leave just 17 days after the start of the siege, on October 14.

Union with France

The closest neighbor of the Ottoman state and its most dangerous enemy was Austria, and entering into a serious struggle with it without enlisting anyone’s support was risky. France was the natural ally of the Ottomans in this struggle. The first relations between the Ottoman Empire and France began in 1483; Since then, both states have exchanged embassies several times, but this has not led to practical results.

In 1517, King Francis I of France proposed to the German Emperor and Ferdinand the Catholic an alliance against the Turks with the aim of expelling them from Europe and dividing their possessions, but this alliance did not take place: the interests of these European powers were too opposed to each other. On the contrary, France and the Ottoman Empire did not come into contact with each other anywhere and they had no immediate reasons for hostility. Therefore, France, which once took such an ardent part in the Crusades, decided to take a bold step: a real military alliance with a Muslim power against a Christian power. The final impetus was given by the unfortunate battle of Pavia for the French, during which the king was captured. Regent Louise of Savoy sent an embassy to Constantinople in February 1525, but it was beaten by the Turks in Bosnia, contrary to the wishes of the Sultan. Not embarrassed by this event, Francis I sent an envoy from captivity to the Sultan with a proposal for an alliance; the Sultan was supposed to attack Hungary, and Francis promised war with Spain. At the same time, Charles V made similar proposals to the Ottoman Sultan, but the Sultan preferred an alliance with France.

Soon after, Francis sent a request to Constantinople to allow the restoration of at least one Catholic church in Jerusalem, but received a decisive refusal from the Sultan in the name of the principles of Islam, along with a promise of all protection for Christians and protection of their safety (1528).

Military successes

According to the truce of 1547, all South part Hungary up to and including Ofen became an Ottoman province, divided into 12 sanjaks; the northern one came into the hands of Austria, but with the obligation to pay the Sultan 50,000 ducats of tribute annually (in the German text of the treaty, the tribute was called an honorary gift - Ehrengeschenk). The supreme rights of the Ottoman Empire over Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania were confirmed by the peace of 1569. This peace could only take place because Austria spent huge sums of money bribing Turkish commissioners. The Ottoman war with Venice ended in 1540 with the transfer to the power of the Ottoman Empire of the last possessions of Venice in Greece and the Aegean Sea. In the new war with Persia, the Ottomans occupied Baghdad in 1536, and Georgia in 1553. With this they reached the apogee of their political power. The Ottoman fleet sailed freely throughout Mediterranean Sea to Gibraltar and on the Indian Ocean he often plundered the Portuguese colonies.

In 1535 or 1536, a new treaty “on peace, friendship and trade” was concluded between the Ottoman Empire and France; France now had a permanent envoy in Constantinople and a consul in Alexandria. Subjects of the Sultan in France and subjects of the king in the territory of the Ottoman state were guaranteed the right to freely travel around the country, buy, sell and exchange goods under guard local authorities at the beginning of equality. Litigations between the French in the Ottoman Empire were to be dealt with by French consuls or envoys; in case of litigation between a Turk and a Frenchman, the French were provided with protection by their consul. During the time of Suleiman, some changes took place in the order of internal administration. Previously, the Sultan was almost always personally present in the divan (ministerial council): Suleiman rarely appeared in it, thus providing more space for his viziers. Previously, the positions of vizier (minister) and grand vizier, and also governor of the pashalyk were usually given to people more or less experienced in administration or military affairs; under Suleiman, the harem began to play a noticeable role in these appointments, as well as monetary gifts given by applicants for high positions. This was caused by the government's need for money, but soon became a rule of law and was the main reason for the decline of the Porte. Government extravagance has reached unprecedented proportions; True, government revenues also increased significantly due to the successful collection of tribute, but despite this, the Sultan often had to resort to damaging coins.

Reign of Selim II

The son and heir of Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II (1566-74), ascended the throne without having to beat his brothers, since his father took care of this, wanting to ensure the throne for him to please his beloved last wife. Selim reigned prosperously and left his son a state that not only did not decrease territorially, but even increased; for this, in many respects, he owed the mind and energy of the vizier Mehmed Sokoll. Sokollu completed the conquest of Arabia, which had previously been only loosely dependent on the Porte.

He demanded the cession of the island of Cyprus from Venice, which led to a war between the Ottoman Empire and Venice (1570-1573); the Ottomans suffered a heavy naval defeat at Lepanto (1571), but despite this, at the end of the war they captured Cyprus and were able to hold it; in addition, they obliged Venice to pay 300 thousand ducats of war indemnity and pay tribute for the possession of the island of Zante in the amount of 1,500 ducats. In 1574, the Ottomans captured Tunisia, which had previously belonged to the Spaniards; Algeria and Tripoli had previously recognized their dependence on the Ottomans. Sokollu conceived two great things: connecting the Don and Volga with a canal, which, in his opinion, was supposed to strengthen the power of the Ottoman Empire in Crimea and again subordinate it to Khanate of Astrakhan, already conquered by Moscow, - and the digging of the Isthmus of Suez. However, this was beyond the power of the Ottoman government.

Under Selim II, an Ottoman expedition to Aceh took place, leading to the establishment of long-term ties between the Ottoman Empire and this remote Malay Sultanate.

Reign of Murad III and Mehmed III

During the reign of Murad III (1574-1595), the Ottoman Empire emerged victorious from a stubborn war with Persia, capturing all of Western Iran and the Caucasus. Murad's son Mehmed III (1595-1603) executed 19 brothers upon his accession to the throne. However he was not cruel ruler, and even went down in history under the nickname Fair. Under him, the state was largely controlled by his mother through 12 grand viziers, often replacing each other.

Increased deterioration of coins and increased taxes more than once led to uprisings in various parts states. Mehmed's reign was filled with war with Austria, which began under Murad in 1593 and ended only in 1606, already under Ahmed I (1603-17). It ended with the Peace of Sitvatorok in 1606, marking a turn in the mutual relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. No new tribute was imposed on Austria; on the contrary, she freed herself from the previous tribute for Hungary by paying a one-time indemnity of 200,000 florins. In Transylvania, Stefan Bocskai, hostile to Austria, and his male offspring were recognized as the ruler. Moldova, which repeatedly tried to leave vassalage, managed to defend itself during border conflicts with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Habsburgs. From this time on, the territory of the Ottoman state was no longer expanded except for a short period. The war with Persia of 1603-12 had sad consequences for the Ottoman Empire, in which the Turks suffered several serious defeats and had to cede the East Georgian lands, Eastern Armenia, Shirvan, Karabakh, Azerbaijan with Tabriz and some other areas.

Decline of the Empire (1614-1757)

The last years of the reign of Ahmed I were filled with rebellions that continued under his heirs. His brother Mustafa I (1617-1618), the protege and favorite of the Janissaries, to whom he made gifts of millions from state funds, after three months of control, was overthrown by the mufti's fatwa as insane, and Ahmed's son Osman II (1618-1622) ascended the throne. After the unsuccessful campaign of the Janissaries against the Cossacks, he made an attempt to destroy this violent army, which every year became less and less useful for military purposes and more and more dangerous for the state order - and for this he was killed by the Janissaries. Mustafa I was re-enthroned and again dethroned a few months later, and a few years later he died, probably from poisoning.

Osman's younger brother, Murad IV (1623-1640), seemed intent on restoring the former greatness of the Ottoman Empire. He was a cruel and greedy tyrant, reminiscent of Selim, but at the same time a capable administrator and an energetic warrior. According to estimates, the accuracy of which cannot be verified, up to 25,000 people were executed under him. Often he executed rich people solely in order to confiscate their property. He again conquered Tabriz and Baghdad in the war with the Persians (1623-1639); he also managed to defeat the Venetians and conclude a profitable peace with them. He pacified the dangerous Druze revolt (1623-1637); but the uprising of the Crimean Tatars almost completely freed them from Ottoman power. The devastation of the Black Sea coast carried out by the Cossacks remained unpunished for them.

In internal management Murad sought to introduce some order and some economy in finances; however, all his attempts turned out to be impracticable.

Under his brother and heir Ibrahim (1640-1648), under whom state affairs again in charge of the harem, all the acquisitions of his predecessor were lost. The Sultan himself was overthrown and strangled by the Janissaries, who elevated his seven-year-old son Mehmed IV (1648-1687) to the throne. The true rulers of the state during the first time of the latter’s reign were the Janissaries; all government positions were filled by their proteges, management was in complete disarray, finances reached an extreme decline. Despite this, the Ottoman fleet managed to inflict a serious naval defeat on Venice and break the blockade of the Dardanelles, which had been held with varying success since 1654.

Russo-Turkish War 1686-1700

In 1656, the post of grand vizier was seized by an energetic man, Mehmet Köprülü, who managed to strengthen the discipline of the army and inflict several defeats on the enemies. Austria was supposed to conclude a peace in Vasvara that was not particularly beneficial for it in 1664; in 1669 the Turks conquered Crete, and in 1672, by peace in Buchach, they received Podolia and even part of Ukraine from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This peace caused the indignation of the people and the Sejm, and the war began again. Russia also took part in it; but on the side of the Ottomans stood a significant part of the Cossacks, led by Doroshenko. During the war, the Grand Vizier Ahmet Pasha Köprülü died after ruling the country for 15 years (1661-76). The war, which proceeded with varying success, ended with the Bakhchisarai Truce, concluded in 1681 for 20 years, at the beginning of the status quo; Western Ukraine, which was a real desert after the war, and Podolia remained in the hands of the Turks. The Ottomans easily agreed to peace, since they had a war with Austria on their agenda, which was undertaken by Ahmet Pasha's successor, Kara-Mustafa Köprülü. The Ottomans managed to penetrate to Vienna and besiege it (from July 24 to September 12, 1683), but the siege had to be lifted when the Polish king Jan Sobieski entered into an alliance with Austria, rushed to the aid of Vienna and won a brilliant victory near it over the Ottoman army. In Belgrade, Kara-Mustafa was met by envoys from the Sultan, who had orders to deliver the head of an incapable commander to Constantinople, which was carried out. In 1684, Venice and later Russia joined the coalition of Austria and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Ottoman Empire.

During the war, in which the Ottomans had to defend rather than attack on their own territory, in 1687 the Grand Vizier Suleiman Pasha was defeated at Mohács. The defeat of the Ottoman forces irritated the Janissaries, who remained in Constantinople, rioting and plundering. Under the threat of an uprising, Mehmed IV sent them the head of Suleiman, but this did not save him: the Janissaries overthrew him with the help of a fatwa from the mufti and forcibly elevated his brother, Suleiman II (1687-91), a man devoted to drunkenness and completely incapable of governing, to the throne. The war continued under him and under his brothers, Ahmed II (1691-95) and Mustafa II (1695-1703). The Venetians took possession of the Morea; the Austrians took Belgrade (soon again falling to the Ottomans) and all the significant fortresses of Hungary, Slavonia, and Transylvania; The Poles occupied a significant part of Moldova.

In 1699, the war was ended by the Treaty of Karlowitz, which was the first under which the Ottoman Empire did not receive either tribute or temporary indemnity. Its significance significantly exceeded the significance of the Sitvatorok Peace. It became clear to everyone that the military power of the Ottomans was not at all great and that internal turmoil was shaking their state more and more.

In the empire itself, the Peace of Karlowitz aroused awareness among the more educated part of the population of the need for some reforms. Köprülü had already had this consciousness - the family that gave the state during the 2nd half XVII and the beginning of the 18th centuries. 5 great viziers who belonged to the most remarkable statesmen of the Ottoman Empire. Already in 1690 he led. Vizier Köprülü Mustafa issued Nizami-Cedid (Ottoman: Nizam-ı Cedid - “ New order"), which established the maximum standards for poll taxes levied on Christians; but this law did not have practical application. After the Peace of Karlowitz, Christians in Serbia and Banat were forgiven a year's taxes; The highest government in Constantinople began from time to time to take care of protecting Christians from extortions and other oppression. Insufficient to reconcile Christians with Turkish oppression, these measures irritated the Janissaries and Turks.

Participation in the Northern War

Mustafa's brother and heir, Ahmed III (1703-1730), elevated to the throne by the Janissary uprising, showed unexpected courage and independence. He arrested and hastily executed many officers of the Janissary army and removed and exiled the Grand Vizier (Sadr-Azam) Ahmed Pasha, whom they had installed. The new Grand Vizier Damad Hassan Pasha pacified uprisings in different parts of the state, patronized foreign merchants, and founded schools. He was soon overthrown as a result of intrigue emanating from the harem, and viziers began to change with amazing speed; some remained in power for no more than two weeks.

The Ottoman Empire did not even take advantage of the difficulties experienced by Russia during the Northern War. Only in 1709 did she accept someone who had fled from Poltava Charles XII and, under the influence of his beliefs, started a war with Russia. By this time, in the Ottoman ruling circles there already existed a party that dreamed not of war with Russia, but of an alliance with it against Austria; At the head of this party was the leader. vizier Numan Keprilu, and his fall, which was the work of Charles XII, served as a signal for war.

The position of Peter I, surrounded on the Prut by an army of 200,000 Turks and Tatars, was extremely dangerous. Peter's death was inevitable, but the Grand Vizier Baltaji-Mehmed succumbed to bribery and released Peter for the comparatively unimportant concession of Azov (1711). The war party overthrew Baltaci-Mehmed and exiled him to Lemnos, but Russia diplomatically achieved the removal of Charles XII from the Ottoman Empire, for which it had to resort to force.

In 1714-18, the Ottomans waged war with Venice and in 1716-18 with Austria. According to the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), the Ottoman Empire received back the Morea, but gave Austria Belgrade with a significant part of Serbia, Banat, and part of Wallachia. In 1722, taking advantage of the end of the dynasty and the subsequent unrest in Persia, the Ottomans began a religious war against the Shiites, with which they hoped to compensate themselves for their losses in Europe. Several defeats in this war and the Persian invasion of Ottoman territory caused a new uprising in Constantinople: Ahmed was deposed, and his nephew, the son of Mustafa II, Mahmud I, was elevated to the throne.

Reign of Mahmud I

During the reign of Mahmud, Ibrahim Basmaji founded the first Turkish printing house. The Mufti, after some hesitation, gave a fatwa, with which, in the name of the interests of enlightenment, he blessed the undertaking, and the Sultan Gatti Sherif authorized it. Only the printing of the Koran and holy books was prohibited. In the first period of the printing house’s existence, 15 works were printed there (Arabic and Persian dictionaries, several books on the history of the Ottoman state and general geography, military art, political economy, etc.). After the death of Ibrahim Basmaji, the printing house closed, a new one arose only in 1784.

Mahmud I, who died of natural causes, was succeeded by his brother Osman III (1754-57), whose reign was peaceful and who died in the same way as his brother.

Attempts at reform (1757-1839)

Osman was succeeded by Mustafa III (1757-74), son of Ahmed III. Upon his accession to the throne, he firmly expressed his intention to change the policy of the Ottoman Empire and restore the shine of its weapons. He conceived quite extensive reforms (by the way, digging canals across the Isthmus of Suez and across Asia Minor), openly did not sympathize with slavery and released a significant number of slaves.

General discontent, and not before former news in the Ottoman Empire, was especially strengthened by two incidents: by an unknown person, a caravan of the faithful returning from Mecca was robbed and destroyed by an unknown person, and a Turkish admiral's ship was captured by a detachment of sea robbers of Greek nationality. All this testified to the extreme weakness of state power.

To settle finances Mustafa III started from saving in his own palace, but at the same time he allowed the coin to be damaged. Under the patronage of Mustafa, the first public library, several schools and hospitals were opened in Constantinople. He very willingly concluded an agreement with Prussia in 1761, which granted Prussian merchant ships free navigation in Ottoman waters; Prussian subjects in the Ottoman Empire were subject to the jurisdiction of their consuls. Russia and Austria offered Mustafa 100,000 ducats for the abolition of the rights given to Prussia, but to no avail: Mustafa wanted to bring his state as close as possible to European civilization.

Attempts at reform did not go any further. In 1768, the Sultan had to declare war on Russia, which lasted 6 years and ended with the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace of 1774. Peace was concluded under Mustafa’s brother and heir, Abdul-Hamid I (1774-1789).

Reign of Abdul Hamid I

The entire reign of Adbul Hamid was occupied with pacifying these uprisings, which could not be achieved due to the lack of money and disciplined troops from the Ottoman government. Joined this new war with Russia and Austria (1787-91), again unsuccessful for the Ottomans. It ended with the Peace of Yassy with Russia (1792), according to which Russia finally acquired Crimea and the space between the Bug and the Dniester, and the Peace of Sistov with Austria (1791). The latter was comparatively favorable for the Ottoman Empire, since its main enemy, Joseph II, had died and Leopold II was directing all his attention to France. Austria returned to the Ottomans most of the acquisitions it made during this war. Peace was already concluded under Abdul Hamid's nephew, Selim III (1789-1807). In addition to territorial losses, the war brought one significant change to the life of the Ottoman state: before it began (1785), the empire entered into its first public debt, first internal, guaranteed by some state revenues.

Reign of Selim III

Sultan Selim III first realized the deep crisis of the Ottoman Empire and began to reform the military and government organization of the country. By energetic measures the government cleared the Aegean Sea of pirates; it patronized trade and public education. His main attention was paid to the army. The Janissaries proved themselves almost completely useless in war, while at the same time keeping the country in a state of anarchy during periods of peace. The Sultan intended to replace their formations with a European-style army, but since it was obvious that it was impossible to immediately replace the entire old system, the reformers paid some attention to improving the position of traditional formations. Among the Sultan's other reforms were measures to strengthen the combat capability of the artillery and navy. The government was concerned with translating the best foreign works on tactics and fortification into Ottoman; invited to teaching positions at artillery and naval schools French officers; under the first of them, it founded a library of foreign works on military sciences. Workshops for casting guns have been improved; military ships of a new type were ordered from France. These were all preliminary measures.

The Sultan clearly wanted to move on to reorganizing the internal structure of the army; he set it for her new uniform and began to introduce stricter discipline. He hasn’t touched the Janissaries yet. But then, firstly, the uprising of the Viddin Pasha, Pasvan-Oglu (1797), who clearly neglected the orders coming from the government, and secondly, the Egyptian expedition of Napoleon, stood in his way.

In 1798, General Bonaparte made his famous attack on Egypt, then on Syria. Great Britain took the side of the Ottoman Empire, destroying French fleet at the Battle of Abukir. The expedition did not have any serious results for the Ottomans. Egypt remained formally in the power of the Ottoman Empire, in fact - in the power of the Mamluks.

The war with the French had barely ended (1801) when the uprising of the Janissaries began in Belgrade, dissatisfied with the reforms in the army. Their oppression caused a popular movement in Serbia (1804) under the leadership of Karageorgi. The government initially supported the movement, but it soon took the form of a real popular uprising, and the Ottoman Empire was forced to take military action. The matter was complicated by the war started by Russia (1806-1812). Reforms had to be postponed again: the Grand Vizier and other senior officials and military personnel were at the theater of military operations.

Coup attempt

Only the kaymakam (assistant to the grand vizier) and deputy ministers remained in Constantinople. Sheikh-ul-Islam took advantage of this moment to plot against the Sultan. The ulema and janissaries took part in the conspiracy, among whom rumors were spread about the Sultan’s intention to distribute them among the regiments of the standing army. The Kaimaks also joined the conspiracy. On the appointed day, a detachment of Janissaries unexpectedly attacked the garrison of the standing army stationed in Constantinople and carried out a massacre among them. Another part of the Janissaries surrounded Selim's palace and demanded that he execute people they hated. Selim had the courage to refuse. He was arrested and taken into custody. Abdul Hamid's son, Mustafa IV (1807-1808), was proclaimed Sultan. The massacre in the city continued for two days. Sheikh-ul-Islam and Kaymakam ruled on behalf of the powerless Mustafa. But Selim had his followers.

During the coup of Kabakçı Mustafa (Turkish: Kabakçı Mustafa isyanı), Mustafa Bayraktar (Alemdar Mustafa Pasha - Pasha of the Bulgarian city of Ruschuk) and his followers began negotiations regarding the return of Sultan Selim III to the throne. Finally, with an army of sixteen thousand, Mustafa Bayraktar went to Istanbul, having previously sent there Haji Ali Aga, who killed Kabakci Mustafa (July 19, 1808). Mustafa Bayraktar with his army, having destroyed quite a a large number of rebels, arrived in the Sublime Porte. Sultan Mustafa IV, having learned that Mustafa Bayraktar wanted to return the throne to Sultan Selim III, ordered the death of Selim and the Shah-Zade's brother Mahmud. The Sultan was killed immediately, and Shah-Zade Mahmud, with the help of his slaves and servants, was freed. Mustafa Bayraktar, having removed Mustafa IV from the throne, declared Mahmud II as Sultan. The latter made him sadrasam - grand vizier.

Reign of Mahmud II

Not inferior to Selim in energy and in understanding the need for reforms, Mahmud was much tougher than Selim: angry, vindictive, he was more guided by personal passions, which were tempered by political foresight, than by a real desire for the good of the country. The ground for innovation was already somewhat prepared, the ability not to think about the means also favored Mahmud, and therefore his activities still left more traces than the activities of Selim. He appointed Bayraktar as his grand vizier, who ordered the beating of the participants in the conspiracy against Selim and other political opponents. The life of Mustafa himself was temporarily spared.

As the first reform, Bayraktar outlined the reorganization of the Janissary corps, but he had the imprudence to send part of his army to the theater of war; he only had 7,000 soldiers left. 6,000 Janissaries made a surprise attack on them and moved towards the palace in order to free Mustafa IV. Bayraktar, who locked himself in the palace with a small detachment, threw out Mustafa’s corpse, and then blew up part of the palace into the air and buried himself in the ruins. A few hours later, an army of three thousand, loyal to the government, led by Ramiz Pasha, arrived, defeated the Janissaries and destroyed a significant part of them.

Mahmud decided to postpone the reform until after the war with Russia, which ended in 1812 with the Peace of Bucharest. The Congress of Vienna made some changes to the position of the Ottoman Empire or, more correctly, defined more precisely and confirmed in theory and on geographical maps what had already taken place in reality. Dalmatia and Illyria were assigned to Austria, Bessarabia to Russia; the seven Ionian Islands were given self-government under an English protectorate; English ships received the right of free passage through the Dardanelles.

Even in the territory remaining with the empire, the government did not feel confident. An uprising began in Serbia in 1817, ending only after Serbia was recognized by the Peace of Adrianople in 1829 as a separate vassal state, with its own prince at its head. In 1820, the uprising of Ali Pasha of Yanin began. As a result of the treason of his own sons, he was defeated, captured and executed; but a significant part of his army formed cadres of Greek rebels. In 1821, an uprising that developed into a war of independence began in Greece. After the intervention of Russia, France and England and the unfortunate for the Ottoman Empire, the Battle of Navarino (sea) (1827), in which the Turkish and Egyptian fleets were lost, the Ottomans lost Greece.

Military losses

Getting rid of the Janissaries and Dervishes (1826) did not save the Turks from defeat both in the war with the Serbs and in the war with the Greeks. These two wars and in connection with them were followed by a war with Russia (1828-29), ending with the Peace of Adrianople in 1829. The Ottoman Empire lost Serbia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Greece, and the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

Following this, Muhammad Ali, Khedive of Egypt (1831-1833 and 1839), broke away from the Ottoman Empire. In the fight against the latter, the empire suffered blows that put its very existence at stake; but she was saved twice (1833 and 1839) by the unexpected intercession of Russia, caused by the fear of a European war, which would probably be caused by the collapse of the Ottoman state. However, this intercession also brought real benefits to Russia: around the world in Gunkyar Skelessi (1833), the Ottoman Empire granted Russian ships passage through the Dardanelles, closing it to England. At the same time, the French decided to take Algeria from the Ottomans (since 1830), which had previously, however, been only nominally dependent on the empire.

Civil reforms

The wars did not stop Mahmud's reform plans; private reforms in the army continued throughout his reign. He also cared about raising the level of education among the people; under him (1831), the first newspaper in the Ottoman Empire that had an official character (“Moniteur ottoman”) began to be published in French. At the end of 1831, the first official newspaper in Turkish, Takvim-i Vekayi, began to be published.

Like Peter the Great, perhaps even consciously imitating him, Mahmud sought to introduce European morals among the people; he himself wore a European costume and encouraged his officials to do the same, prohibited the wearing of a turban, organized festivities in Constantinople and other cities with fireworks, with European music and generally according to the European model. He did not live to see the most important reforms of the civil system conceived by him; they were already the work of his heir. But even the little he did went against the religious feelings of the Muslim population. He began to mint coins with his image, which is directly prohibited in the Koran (the news that previous sultans also removed portraits of themselves is subject to great doubt).

Throughout his reign, Muslim riots caused by religious feelings incessantly occurred in different parts of the state, especially in Constantinople; the government dealt with them extremely cruelly: sometimes 4,000 corpses were thrown into the Bosphorus in a few days. At the same time, Mahmud did not hesitate to execute even the ulema and dervishes, who were generally his bitter enemies.

During the reign of Mahmud there were especially many fires in Constantinople, partly due to arson; the people explained them as God's punishment for the sins of the Sultan.

Results of the board

The extermination of the Janissaries, which at first damaged the Ottoman Empire, depriving it of a bad, but still not useless army, after several years turned out to be extremely beneficial: the Ottoman army rose to the level of European armies, which was clearly proven in the Crimean campaign and even more so in the war of 1877-1878 and in the Greek war of 1897. Territorial reduction, especially the loss of Greece, also turned out to be more beneficial than harmful for the empire.

The Ottomans never allowed Christians to serve in military service; regions with a solid Christian population (Greece and Serbia), without increasing the Turkish army, at the same time required significant military garrisons from it, which could not be put into action in a moment of need. This applies especially to Greece, which, due to its extended maritime border, did not even represent strategic benefits for the Ottoman Empire, which was stronger on land than at sea. The loss of territories reduced the state revenues of the empire, but during the reign of Mahmud, trade between the Ottoman Empire and European states somewhat revived, and the country's productivity increased somewhat (bread, tobacco, grapes, rose oil, etc.).

In general, the empire was still decaying, and Nicholas I rightly called it a sick person; but the death of the Ottoman state was delayed indefinitely. Beginning with the Crimean War, the empire began to intensively make foreign loans, and this gained it the influential support of its numerous creditors, that is, mainly the financiers of England. On the other hand, internal reforms that could raise the state and save it from destruction became increasingly important in the 19th century. It's getting more and more difficult. Russia was afraid of these reforms, since they could strengthen the Ottoman Empire, and through its influence at the court of the Sultan tried to make them impossible; Thus, in 1876-1877, she destroyed Midhad Pasha, who was capable of carrying out serious reforms that were not inferior in importance to the reforms of Sultan Mahmud.

Reign of Abdul-Mecid (1839-1861)

Mahmud was succeeded by his 16-year-old son Abdul-Mejid, who was not distinguished by his energy and inflexibility, but was a much more cultured and gentle person in character.

Despite everything Mahmud did, the Battle of Nisib could have completely destroyed the Ottoman Empire if Russia, England, Austria and Prussia had not entered into an alliance to protect the integrity of the Porte (1840); They drew up a treaty, by virtue of which the Egyptian viceroy retained Egypt on a hereditary basis, but undertook to immediately cleanse Syria, and in case of refusal he had to lose all his possessions. This alliance caused indignation in France, which supported Muhammad Ali, and Thiers even made preparations for war; however, Louis-Philippe did not dare to take it. Despite the inequality of power, Muhammad Ali was ready to resist; but the English squadron bombarded Beirut, burned the Egyptian fleet and landed a corps of 9,000 people in Syria, which, with the help of the Maronites, inflicted several defeats on the Egyptians. Muhammad Ali conceded; The Ottoman Empire was saved, and Abdulmecid, supported by Khozrev Pasha, Reshid Pasha and other associates of his father, began reforms.

Gulhanei Hutt Sheriff

Tanzimat

Tanzimat (Arabic: التنظيمات‎‎ - “ordering”, “code”) - the basic laws of Turkey, promulgated by Sultan Abdulmecid on November 3, 1839 upon his accession to the throne.

A well-known component is the Gülhaney Manifesto, which was supposed to reform the political life of Turkey.

Gulhanei Hutt Sheriff

providing all subjects with perfect security regarding their life, honor and property;

the correct way to distribute and collect taxes;

an equally correct way of recruiting soldiers.

It was considered necessary to change the distribution of taxes in the sense of their equalization and abandon the system of farming them out, determine the costs of land and naval forces; publicity of the proceedings was established. All these benefits applied to all subjects of the Sultan without distinction of religion. The Sultan himself took an oath of allegiance to the Hatti Sheriff. All that remained was to actually fulfill the promise.

The reforms were started by Abdulmecid's predecessor, Sultan Mahmud, the destroyer of the Janissaries, and were supposed to give the country a new political and administrative organization. The main champion of the Tanzimat was Reshid Pasha.

The consequences did not live up to the hopes placed on the Tanzimat in Western Europe. He could not revive Turkey.

Gumayun

After the Crimean War, the Sultan published a new Gatti Sherif Gumayun (1856), which confirmed and developed in more detail the principles of the first; especially insisted on the equality of all subjects, without distinction of religion or nationality. After this Gatti Sheriff, the old law on the death penalty for converting from Islam to another religion was abolished. However, most of these decisions remained only on paper.

The highest government was partly unable to cope with the willfulness of lower officials, and partly itself did not want to resort to some of the measures promised in the Gatti Sheriffs, such as, for example, the appointment of Christians to various positions. Once it made an attempt to recruit soldiers from Christians, but this caused discontent among both Muslims and Christians, especially since the government did not dare to abandon religious principles when producing officers (1847); this measure was soon cancelled. The massacres of Maronites in Syria (1845 and others) confirmed that religious tolerance was still alien to the Ottoman Empire.

During the reign of Abdul-Mecid, roads were improved, many bridges were built, several telegraph lines, mail is organized according to the European model.

The events of 1848 did not resonate at all in the Ottoman Empire; Only the Hungarian revolution prompted the Ottoman government to attempt to restore its dominance on the Danube, but the defeat of the Hungarians dispelled its hopes. When Kossuth and his comrades escaped on Turkish territory, Austria and Russia turned to Sultan Abdulmecid demanding their extradition. The Sultan replied that religion forbade him to violate the duty of hospitality.

Crimean War

1853-1856 were the time of a new Eastern War, which ended in 1856 with the Peace of Paris. A representative of the Ottoman Empire was admitted to the Paris Congress on the basis of equality, and thereby the empire was recognized as a member of the European concern. However, this recognition was more formal than actual. First of all, the Ottoman Empire, whose participation in the war was very large and which proved an increase in its combat capability compared with the first quarter of the 19th or the end of the 18th century, actually received very little from the war; the destruction of Russian fortresses on the northern coast of the Black Sea was of negligible significance for her, and Russia’s loss of the right to maintain a navy on the Black Sea could not last long and was canceled already in 1871. Further, consular jurisdiction was preserved and proved that Europe was still watching on the Ottoman Empire as a barbaric state. After the war, European powers began to establish their own postal institutions on the territory of the empire, independent of the Ottoman ones.

The war not only did not increase the power of the Ottoman Empire over the vassal states, but weakened it; the Danube principalities united in 1861 into one state, Romania, and in Serbia, the Turkish-friendly Obrenovichi were overthrown and replaced by the Russian-friendly Karageorgievici; a little later, Europe forced the empire to remove its garrisons from Serbia (1867). During the Eastern Campaign, the Ottoman Empire loaned £7 million to England; in 1858,1860 and 1861 I had to make new loans. At the same time, the government issued a significant amount of paper money, the value of which quickly fell sharply. In connection with other events, this caused the trade crisis of 1861, which had a severe impact on the population.

Abdul Aziz (1861-76) and Murad V (1876)

Abdul Aziz was a hypocritical, voluptuous and bloodthirsty tyrant, more reminiscent of the sultans of the 17th and 18th centuries than of his brother; but he understood the impossibility under these conditions of stopping on the path of reform. In the Gatti Sherif published by him upon his accession to the throne, he solemnly promised to continue the policies of his predecessors. Indeed, he released political criminals imprisoned in the previous reign from prison and retained his brother's ministers. Moreover, he stated that he was abandoning the harem and would be content with one wife. The promises were not fulfilled: a few days later, as a result of palace intrigue, the Grand Vizier Mehmed Kibrısli Pasha was overthrown and replaced by Aali Pasha, who in turn was overthrown a few months later and then again took the same post in 1867.

In general, grand viziers and other officials were replaced with extreme speed due to the intrigues of the harem, which was very soon re-established. Some measures in the spirit of Tanzimat were nevertheless taken. The most important of them is the publication (which, however, does not exactly correspond to reality) of the Ottoman state budget(1864). During the ministry of Aali Pasha (1867-1871), one of the most intelligent and dexterous Ottoman diplomats of the 19th century, the waqfs were partially secularized, Europeans were granted the right to own real estate within the Ottoman Empire (1867), the State Council was reorganized (1868), published new law O public education, the metric system of measures and weights was formally introduced, which, however, did not take root in life (1869). The same ministry organized censorship (1867), the creation of which was caused by the quantitative growth of periodical and non-periodical press in Constantinople and other cities, in Ottoman and foreign languages.

Censorship under Aali Pasha was characterized by extreme pettiness and severity; she not only forbade writing about what seemed inconvenient to the Ottoman government, but directly ordered the printing of praises of the wisdom of the Sultan and the government; in general, she made the entire press more or less official. Its general character remained the same after Aali Pasha, and only under Midhad Pasha in 1876-1877 was it somewhat softer.

War in Montenegro

In 1862, Montenegro, seeking complete independence from the Ottoman Empire, supporting the rebels of Herzegovina and counting on the support of Russia, began a war with the empire. Russia did not support it, and since a significant preponderance of forces was on the side of the Ottomans, the latter fairly quickly won a decisive victory: Omer Pasha’s troops penetrated all the way to the capital, but did not take it, since the Montenegrins began to ask for peace, to which the Ottoman Empire agreed .

Revolt in Crete

In 1866, the Greek uprising began in Crete. This uprising aroused warm sympathy in Greece, which began hastily preparing for war. European powers came to the aid of the Ottoman Empire and resolutely forbade Greece to intercede on behalf of the Cretans. An army of forty thousand was sent to Crete. Despite the extraordinary courage of the Cretans who led guerrilla warfare in the mountains of their island, they could not hold out for long, and after three years of struggle the uprising was pacified; the rebels were punished by executions and confiscation of property.

After the death of Aali Pasha, the great viziers began to change again with extreme speed. In addition to the harem intrigues, there was another reason for this: two parties fought at the Sultan’s court - English and Russian, acting on the instructions of the ambassadors of England and Russia. The Russian ambassador in Constantinople in 1864-1877 was Count Nikolai Ignatiev, who had undoubted relations with the dissatisfied in the empire, promising them Russian intercession. At the same time, he had great influence on the Sultan, convincing him of Russia’s friendship and promising him assistance in the Sultan’s planned change in the order of succession to the throne not to the eldest in the family, as was before, but from father to son, since the Sultan really wanted to transfer the throne to his son Yusuf Izedin.

Coup d'etat

In 1875, an uprising broke out in Herzegovina, Bosnia and Bulgaria, dealing a decisive blow to Ottoman finances. It was announced that from now on the Ottoman Empire would pay only one half of the interest in money for its foreign debts, and the other half in coupons payable no earlier than in 5 years. The need for more serious reforms was recognized by many senior officials of the empire, led by Midhad Pasha; however, under the capricious and despotic Abdul-Aziz, their implementation was completely impossible. In view of this, the Grand Vizier Mehmed Rushdi Pasha conspired with the ministers Midhad Pasha, Hussein Avni Pasha and others and Sheikh-ul-Islam to overthrow the Sultan. Sheikh-ul-Islam gave the following fatwa: “If the Commander of the Faithful proves his madness, if he does not have the political knowledge necessary to govern the state, if he makes personal expenses that the state cannot bear, if his stay on the throne threatens with disastrous consequences, then should he be deposed or not? The law says yes."

On the night of May 30, 1876, Hussein Avni Pasha, putting a revolver to the chest of Murad, the heir to the throne (son of Abdulmecid), forced him to accept the crown. At the same time, a detachment of infantry entered the palace of Abdul-Aziz, and it was announced to him that he had ceased to reign. Murad V ascended the throne. A few days later it was announced that Abdul-Aziz had cut his veins with scissors and died. Murad V, who was not quite normal before, under the influence of the murder of his uncle, the subsequent murder of several ministers in the house of Midhad Pasha by the Circassian Hassan Bey, who was avenging the Sultan, and other events, finally went crazy and became just as inconvenient for his progressive ministers. In August 1876, he was also deposed with the help of a fatwa from the mufti and his brother Abdul-Hamid was elevated to the throne.

Abdul Hamid II

Already at the end of the reign of Abdul-Aziz, an uprising began in Herzegovina and Bosnia, caused by the extremely difficult situation of the population of these regions, partly obliged to serve corvée in the fields of large Muslim landowners, partly personally free, but completely powerless, oppressed by exorbitant exactions and at the same time constantly fueled in his hatred of the Turks by the close proximity of free Montenegrins.

In the spring of 1875, some communities turned to the Sultan with a request to reduce the tax on sheep and the tax paid by Christians in return for military service, and to organize a police force from Christians. They didn't even get an answer. Then their residents took up arms. The movement quickly spread throughout Herzegovina and spread to Bosnia; Niksic was besieged by rebels. Detachments of volunteers moved from Montenegro and Serbia to help the rebels. The movement aroused great interest abroad, especially in Russia and Austria; the latter turned to the Porte demanding religious equality, lower taxes, revision of real estate laws, etc. The Sultan immediately promised to fulfill all this (February 1876), but the rebels did not agree to lay down their weapons until the Ottoman troops were withdrawn from Herzegovina. The ferment spread to Bulgaria, where the Ottomans, in response, carried out a terrible massacre (see Bulgaria), which caused indignation throughout Europe (Gladstone's brochure about the atrocities in Bulgaria), entire villages were massacred, including infants. The Bulgarian uprising was drowned in blood, but the Herzegovinian and Bosnian uprising continued in 1876 and finally caused the intervention of Serbia and Montenegro (1876-1877; see Serbo-Montenegrin-Turkish War).

On May 6, 1876, in Thessaloniki, the French and German consuls were killed by a fanatical crowd, which included some officials. Of the participants or accomplices of the crime, Selim Bey, the chief of police in Thessaloniki, was sentenced to 15 years in the fortress, one colonel to 3 years; but these punishments, which were far from being carried out in full, satisfied no one, and the public opinion of Europe was strongly incited against the country where such crimes could be committed.

In December 1876, at the initiative of England, a conference of the great powers was convened in Constantinople to resolve the difficulties caused by the uprising, but it did not achieve its goal. The Grand Vizier at this time (from December 13, 1876) was Midhad Pasha, a liberal and Anglophile, the head of the Young Turk party. Considering it necessary to make the Ottoman Empire a European country and wanting to present it as such to the authorized representatives of the European powers, he drafted a constitution in a few days and forced Sultan Abdul Hamid to sign and publish it (December 23, 1876).

The constitution was drawn up on the model of European ones, especially the Belgian one. It guaranteed individual rights and established a parliamentary regime; Parliament was to consist of two chambers, from which the Chamber of Deputies was elected by a universal closed vote of all Ottoman subjects, without distinction of religion or nationality. The first elections were held during the administration of Midhad; its candidates were almost universally chosen. The opening of the first parliamentary session took place only on March 7, 1877, and even earlier, on March 5, Midhad was overthrown and arrested as a result of palace intrigues. Parliament was opened with a speech from the throne, but was dissolved a few days later. New elections were held, the new session turned out to be just as short, and then, without the formal repeal of the constitution, even without the formal dissolution of parliament, it no longer met.

Russo-Turkish War 1877-1878

In April 1877, the war with Russia began, in February 1878 it ended with the Peace of San Stefano, then (June 13 - July 13, 1878) with the amended Treaty of Berlin. The Ottoman Empire lost all rights to Serbia and Romania; Bosnia and Herzegovina was given to Austria to restore order in it (de facto - for full possession); Bulgaria formed a special vassal principality, Eastern Rumelia - an autonomous province, which soon (1885) united with Bulgaria. Serbia, Montenegro and Greece received territorial increments. In Asia, Russia received Kars, Ardahan, and Batum. The Ottoman Empire had to pay Russia an indemnity of 800 million francs.

The Russian-Turkish war clearly proved that the Ottoman state was much stronger than it was before. He had talented generals, and his army exceeded all expectations in courage and endurance; the artillery and infantry weapons turned out to be excellent. Nevertheless, the war weakened him significantly. It lost significant provinces with a rather mixed population, among which there were many Muslims (in Bosnia, Eastern Rumelia, Bulgaria). In Europe, the empire retained, besides Constantinople and its environs, only Thrace, Macedonia, Albania and Old Serbia. In Asia, its holdings also decreased. Its prestige, which rose in 1853-1855 and 1862, fell again. The indemnity for all military losses for a long time deprived the Ottoman Empire of the opportunity to get back on its feet financially. In 1879 and 1880 she significantly reduced her government spending, even on the army, navy and courtyard. In 1885, the Ottoman Empire reacted quite calmly to the Eastern Rumelian coup, which greatly affected its interests.

Riots in Crete and Western Armenia

Nevertheless internal conditions lives remained approximately the same, and this was reflected in the riots that constantly arose in one place or another in the Ottoman Empire. In 1889, an uprising began in Crete. The rebels demanded a reorganization of the police so that it would consist of more than just Muslims and would protect more than just Muslims, a new organization of courts, etc. The Sultan rejected these demands and decided to act with weapons. The uprising was suppressed.

In 1887 in Geneva, in 1890 in Tiflis, the Armenians organized the political parties Hnchak and Dashnaktsutyun, which became famous for their terrorist activities against the Ottoman Empire, and later Turkey. In August 1894, at the instigation of the Dashnaks and under the leadership of a member of this party, Ambartsum Boyadzhiyan, unrest began in Sasun. Armenian historiography explains these events by the powerless position of the Armenians, especially by the robberies of the Kurds, who made up part of the troops in Asia Minor. The Turks and Kurds responded with terrible massacres, reminiscent of the Bulgarian horrors in response to the massacres that the Armenians committed against the Turks, where the rivers flowed with blood for months; Entire villages were massacred; many Armenians were taken prisoner. All these facts were confirmed by European (mainly English) newspaper correspondence, which very often spoke from positions of Christian solidarity and caused an explosion of indignation in England, however, these newspaper correspondences, despite the fact that the Turks provided evidence that the massacre began first from the Armenians , did not even express a desire to listen to the Turks. To the representation made on this matter by the British ambassador, Porta responded with a categorical denial of the validity of the “facts” and a statement that it was a matter of the usual pacification of a riot. However, the ambassadors of England, France and Russia in May 1895 presented the Sultan with demands for reforms for the territories of eastern Anatolia populated by Armenians, based on the provisions of the Berlin Treaty; they demanded that the officials administering these lands be at least half Christian and that their appointment depend on a special commission in which Christians would also be represented; Kurdish troops in Asia Minor should be disbanded, but I would like to ask whether these states have the right to meddle in the internal politics of another country, forgetting about their actions in the Caucasus, Libya and Algeria, and other countries?! The Porte replied that it did not see any need for reforms for individual territories, but what did it mean general reforms for the entire state.

On August 14, 1896, Dashnaktsutyun militants in Istanbul itself attacked the Ottoman Bank, killed the guards and entered into a firefight with the arriving army units. On the same day, as a result of negotiations Russian Ambassador Maksimov and the Sultan, the terrorists left the city and headed to Marseille, on the yacht of the general director of the Ottoman Bank, Edgard Vincent. The European ambassadors made a presentation to the Sultan on this matter. This time the Sultan considered it necessary to respond with a promise of reform, which was not fulfilled; Only new administration of vilayets, sanjaks and nakhiyas was introduced (see. State structure Ottoman Empire), which changed the essence of the matter very little.

In 1896, new unrest began in Crete and immediately took on a more dangerous character. Session opened national assembly, but it did not enjoy the slightest authority among the population. Nobody counted on European help. The uprising flared up; Rebel detachments in Crete harassed the Turkish troops, repeatedly causing them heavy losses. The movement found a lively echo in Greece, from which in February 1897 a military detachment under the command of Colonel Vassos set off for the island of Crete. Then the European squadron, consisting of German, Italian, Russian and English warships, under the command of the Italian admiral Canevaro, assumed a threatening position. On February 21, 1897, she began to bombard the rebel military camp near the city of Kanei and forced them to disperse. A few days later, however, the rebels and the Greeks managed to take the city of Kadano and capture 3,000 Turks.

At the beginning of March, there was a riot in Crete by Turkish gendarmes, dissatisfied with not receiving their salaries for many months. This revolt could have been very useful for the rebels, but the European landing disarmed them. On March 25, the rebels attacked Canea, but came under fire from European ships and had to retreat with heavy losses. In early April 1897, Greece moved its troops into Ottoman territory, hoping to penetrate as far as Macedonia, where minor riots were occurring at the same time. Within one month, the Greeks were completely defeated and Ottoman troops occupied all of Thessaly. The Greeks were forced to ask for peace, which was concluded in September 1897 under pressure from the powers. There were no territorial changes, other than a small strategic adjustment of the border between Greece and the Ottoman Empire in favor of the latter; but Greece had to pay a war indemnity of 4 million Turkish. fnl.

In the fall of 1897, the uprising on the island of Crete also ceased, after the Sultan once again promised self-government to the island of Crete. Indeed, at the insistence of the powers, Prince George of Greece was appointed governor-general of the island, the island received self-government and retained only vassal relations with the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century. in Crete, a noticeable desire was revealed for the complete separation of the island from the empire and for annexation to Greece. At the same time (1901) fermentation continued in Macedonia. In the fall of 1901, Macedonian revolutionaries captured an American woman and demanded a ransom for her; this causes great inconvenience to the Ottoman government, which is powerless to protect the safety of foreigners on its territory. In the same year, the movement of the Young Turk party, headed by Midhad Pasha, appeared with comparatively greater force; she began intensively publishing brochures and leaflets in the Ottoman language in Geneva and Paris for distribution in the Ottoman Empire; in Istanbul itself, many people belonging to the bureaucratic and officer class were arrested and sentenced to various punishments on charges of participating in Young Turk agitation. Even the Sultan’s son-in-law, married to his daughter, went abroad with his two sons, openly joined the Young Turk party and did not want to return to his homeland, despite the Sultan’s persistent invitation. In 1901, the Porte attempted to destroy European postal institutions, but this attempt was unsuccessful. In 1901, France demanded that the Ottoman Empire satisfy the claims of some of its capitalists and creditors; the latter refused, then the French fleet occupied Mytilene and the Ottomans hastened to satisfy all demands.

XX century Collapse of the Empire

In the 19th century, on the outskirts of the empire, separatist sentiments. The Ottoman Empire began to gradually lose its territories, succumbing to the technological superiority of the West.

In 1908, the Young Turks overthrew Abdul Hamid II, after which the monarchy in the Ottoman Empire began to be decorative (see the article Young Turk Revolution). The triumvirate of Enver, Talaat and Dzhemal was established (January 1913).

In 1912, Italy captured Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (now Libya) from the empire.

In the First Balkan War of 1912-1913, the empire loses the vast majority of its European possessions: Albania, Macedonia, northern Greece. During 1913, she managed to recapture a small part of the lands from Bulgaria during the Inter-Allied (Second Balkan) War.

Weak, the Ottoman Empire tried to rely on help from Germany, but this only dragged it into the First world war which ended in the defeat of the Quadruple Alliance.

October 30, 1914 - The Ottoman Empire officially announced its entry into the First World War, having actually entered it the day before by shelling the Black Sea ports of Russia.

April 24, 1915 - mass arrests in Constantinople (Istanbul) of the Armenian intellectual, religious, economic and political elite; generally accepted date of the beginning of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

During 1917-1918, the Allies occupied the Middle Eastern possessions of the Ottoman Empire. After World War I, Syria and Lebanon came under the control of France, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq came under the control of Great Britain; in the west of the Arabian Peninsula with the support of the British (Lawrence of Arabia) formed independent states: Hijaz, Najd, Asir and Yemen. Subsequently, Hejaz and Asir became part of Saudi Arabia.

On October 30, 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was concluded, followed by the Treaty of Sèvres (August 10, 1920), which did not enter into force because it was not ratified by all signatories (ratified only by Greece). According to this agreement, the Ottoman Empire was to be dismembered, and one of the largest cities in Asia Minor, Izmir (Smyrna), was promised to Greece. The Greek army took it on May 15, 1919, after which the War of Independence began. The Turkish military statists, led by Pasha Mustafa Kemal, refused to recognize the peace treaty and, with the armed forces remaining under their command, expelled the Greeks from the country. By September 18, 1922, Turkey was liberated, which was recorded in the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, which recognized the new borders of Turkey.

On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, and Mustafa Kemal, who later took the name Ataturk (father of the Turks), became its first president.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

The Ottoman Empire arose in 1299 in the north-west of Asia Minor and existed for 624 years, managing to conquer many peoples and become one of the greatest powers in human history.

From place to quarry

The position of the Turks at the end of the 13th century looked hopeless, if only because of the presence of Byzantium and Persia in the neighborhood. Plus the sultans of Konya (the capital of Lycaonia - a region in Asia Minor), depending on whom, albeit formally, the Turks were.

However, all this did not prevent Osman (1288-1326) from territorially expanding and strengthening his young state. By the way, the Turks began to be called Ottomans after the name of their first sultan.
Osman was actively involved in the development of internal culture and treated others with care. Therefore, many Greek cities located in Asia Minor preferred to voluntarily recognize his supremacy. In this way they “killed two birds with one stone”: they received protection and preserved their traditions.
Osman's son, Orhan I (1326-1359), brilliantly continued his father's work. Having announced that he was going to unite all the faithful under his rule, the Sultan set out to conquer not the countries of the east, which would be logical, but the western lands. And Byzantium was the first to stand in his way.

By this time, the empire was in decline, which the Turkish Sultan took advantage of. Like a cold-blooded butcher, he "chopped off" area after area from the Byzantine "body". Soon the entire northwestern part of Asia Minor came under Turkish rule. They also established themselves on the European coast of the Aegean and Marmara Seas, as well as the Dardanelles. And the territory of Byzantium was reduced to Constantinople and its environs.
Subsequent sultans continued the expansion of Eastern Europe, where they successfully fought against Serbia and Macedonia. And Bayazet (1389 -1402) was “marked” by the defeat of the Christian army, which King Sigismund of Hungary led in the Crusade against the Turks.

From defeat to triumph

Under the same Bayazet, one of the most severe defeats of the Ottoman army occurred. The Sultan personally opposed Timur's army and in the Battle of Ankara (1402) he was defeated, and he himself was captured, where he died.
The heirs tried by hook or by crook to ascend to the throne. The state was on the verge of collapse due to internal unrest. It was only under Murad II (1421-1451) that the situation stabilized and the Turks were able to regain control of the lost Greek cities and conquer part of Albania. The Sultan dreamed of finally dealing with Byzantium, but did not have time. His son, Mehmed II (1451-1481), was destined to become the killer of the Orthodox empire.

On May 29, 1453, the hour of X came for Byzantium. The Turks besieged Constantinople for two months. Such a short time was enough to break the city's inhabitants. Instead of everyone taking up arms, the townspeople simply prayed to God for help, without leaving their churches for days. The last Emperor Constantine Palaiologos asked the Pope for help, but he demanded in return the unification of churches. Konstantin refused.

Perhaps the city would have held out longer if not for the betrayal. One of the officials agreed to the bribe and opened the gate. He did not take into account one important fact - in addition to the female harem, the Turkish Sultan also had a male harem. That's where the pretty son of the traitor ended up.
The city fell. The civilized world froze. Now all the states of both Europe and Asia realized that the time had come for a new superpower - the Ottoman Empire.

European campaigns and confrontations with Russia

The Turks did not even think of stopping there. After the death of Byzantium, no one blocked their path to rich and unfaithful Europe, even conditionally.
Soon, Serbia (except for Belgrade, but the Turks would capture it in the 16th century), the Duchy of Athens (and, accordingly, most of all of Greece), the island of Lesbos, Wallachia, and Bosnia were annexed to the empire.

In Eastern Europe, the territorial appetites of the Turks intersected with the interests of Venice. The ruler of the latter quickly gained the support of Naples, the Pope and Karaman (Khanate in Asia Minor). The confrontation lasted 16 years and ended in complete victory for the Ottomans. After that, no one stopped them from “getting” the remaining Greek cities and islands, as well as annexing Albania and Herzegovina. The Turks were so keen on expanding their borders that they even successfully attacked the Crimean Khanate.
Panic began in Europe. Pope Sixtus IV began to make plans for the evacuation of Rome, and at the same time hastened to declare a Crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Only Hungary responded to the call. In 1481 Mehmed II died and the era of great conquests came to a temporary end.
In the 16th century, when internal unrest in the empire subsided, the Turks again turned their weapons on their neighbors. First there was a war with Persia. Although the Turks won it, their territorial gains were insignificant.
After success in North African Tripoli and Algeria, Sultan Suleiman invaded Austria and Hungary in 1527 and besieged Vienna two years later. It was not possible to take it - bad weather and widespread illness prevented it.
As for relations with Russia, the interests of states collided for the first time in Crimea.

The first war took place in 1568 and ended in 1570 with the victory of Russia. The empires fought with each other for 350 years (1568 - 1918) - one war occurred on average every quarter of a century.
During this time there were 12 wars (including the Azov, Prut campaign, Crimean and Caucasian Front during the First World War). And in most cases, victory remained with Russia.

Dawn and sunset of the Janissaries

When talking about the Ottoman Empire, one cannot fail to mention its regular troops - the Janissaries.
In 1365, by personal order of Sultan Murad I, the Janissary infantry was formed. It was staffed by Christians (Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs, and so on) aged from eight to sixteen years. This is how the devshirme—the blood tax—worked, which was imposed on the non-believing peoples of the empire. It is interesting that at first life for the Janissaries was quite difficult. They lived in monasteries-barracks, they were forbidden to start a family or any kind of household.
But gradually the Janissaries from an elite branch of the army began to turn into a highly paid burden for the state. In addition, these troops took part in hostilities less and less often.

The decomposition began in 1683, when Muslim children began to be taken into the Janissaries along with Christian children. Rich Turks sent their children there, thereby deciding the issue of their successful future - they could do good career. It was the Muslim Janissaries who began to start families and engage in crafts, as well as trade. Gradually they turned into a greedy, impudent political force, which intervened in state affairs and participated in the overthrow of unwanted sultans.
The agony continued until 1826, when Sultan Mahmud II abolished the Janissaries.

Death of the Ottoman Empire

Frequent unrest, inflated ambitions, cruelty and constant participation in any wars could not but affect the fate of the Ottoman Empire. The 20th century turned out to be especially critical, in which Turkey was increasingly torn apart by internal contradictions and the separatist spirit of the population. Because of this, the country fell far behind the West technically, and therefore began to lose the territories it had once conquered.

The fateful decision for the empire was its participation in the First World War. The Allies defeated the Turkish troops and organized a division of its territory. On October 29, 1923, a new state emerged - the Turkish Republic. Its first president was Mustafa Kemal (later, he changed his surname to Ataturk - “father of the Turks”). Thus ended the history of the once great Ottoman Empire.

Nowadays, as a rule, people talk about Turkey with a view to vacationing in this country. Today we decided to talk a little about the history of the Ottoman Empire, which for many years was located in what is now Turkey and had a significant influence on the life of Europe at that time...

In this material we decided to briefly talk about some of the features of life in the Ottoman Empire. Perhaps there is something you haven't heard of yet and you will be interested in...

Fratricide
In the Ottoman Empire, primogeniture, when the eldest son inherited everything, was not practiced for a long time, so several brothers often claimed the throne. Mehmed the Conqueror, for example, having come to power, ordered the execution of most of his male relatives, including his infant brother, who was strangled in a cradle.

Moreover, Mehmed issued a decree that read: “Whichever of my sons who should get the sultanate must kill his brothers.” This decree was carried out for many years.

Cages for shehzade

The policy of fratricide was not popular among the people and the clergy, and it was abandoned in 1617. In return, the sehzade (sons of the sultan) who were to inherit the throne were imprisoned in special quarters in the Topkani Palace in Istanbul. They were there under security surveillance. Many of them went crazy or turned into drunkards and debauchees... What else was there to do?

The palace is a quiet hell

It was believed that the Sultan should not talk much. They even introduced a kind of sign language, which the Sultan used to give orders. So in Topkana, not only the heirs to the throne went crazy, but also the sultans themselves.

Gardeners-executioners

The Ottoman Empire did not have a separate corps of executioners. These duties were assigned to the court gardeners, who periodically chopped off the heads of those who did not please the Sultan. Interestingly, shedding the blood of a member of the Sultan's family or a high-ranking official was prohibited. They were strangled... That is why the head gardener was always a strong and muscular man.

Race for survival

At the end of the 18th century, an interesting custom appeared. The offending official was summoned to a meeting with the head gardener. If the gardener handed him white sherbet, it meant that this time the vizier received forgiveness. And if he was red, execution awaited him...

But the vizier had a chance to avoid death. He had to escape from the gardener, who was chasing him with a silk cord, through the palace gardens. If he succeeded, he was simply removed from palace duties and was no longer pursued. The catch was that the gardener was often much younger than any of the viziers. True, some managed to escape. And after that one dignitary even managed to become a sadak bey (something like a provincial governor).

Vizier - scapegoat

If something went wrong in the country, the grand viziers were the first to be executed or given over to the crowd to be torn to pieces. Even though they had almost as much power as the Sultan. During the reign of Selim the Terrible, so many viziers changed that their followers began to carry their wills with them...

Harem
This was one of the main attractions of the Topkana Palace, which no one had the right to see. The harem housed up to 2,000 women, who were mostly bought or kidnapped slaves. Some of them had almost never seen the Sultan. Others were able to achieve significant influence and even took part in resolving political issues. This was the famous Ukrainian beauty Roksolana, with whom Suleiman the Magnificent fell in love.

Bloody tribute

Non-Muslims in the empire were subject to a kind of tax: such families had to give young boys to the service, who then became Janissaries. Only the strongest were chosen, so the tax affected approximately one family in forty.

The boys were forcibly taken to Istanbul, circumcised and converted to Islam. The smartest and most beautiful went to the palace, where they were trained. Some could even become viziers as a result. Others worked on farms where they taught Turkish language and developed physically. By the age of 20, they became Janissaries - elite warriors of the Sultan's army.

Slavery

This was one of the main traditions of that empire. Most slaves were recruited from Africa and the Caucasus. There was also a constant influx of Ukrainians, Russians and Poles.

Initially, it was forbidden to enslave Muslims, but over time this tradition was quietly forgotten. True, it was a little easier for Ottoman slaves to gain freedom or achieve some position in society.

It is also worth mentioning that slavery was accompanied by great cruelty. People died during raids and from exhausting work. They lost the opportunity to procreate because they were made into eunuchs. The Ottomans imported millions of slaves from Africa, but modern Turkey there are very few people of African descent - further evidence of mistreatment...

Massacres

It is worth saying that the empire, despite all this, was quite loyal to the Gentiles. In the sense that the Turks even hosted Jews expelled from Spain. Among the officials there were many Greeks and Albanians. But when the Turks felt threatened, they made cruel decisions.

Selim the Terrible, for example, massacred nearly 40,000 Shiites who rejected his authority as a defender of Islam.

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