Distinctive Facts About The Mighty Ottoman Empire

1. From the Black Death to Powered Flight

Six centuries – the lifetime of the Ottoman Empire – is a long time. The Ottoman dynasty had already established itself when the Black Death raged in the mid-fourteenth century, and it was still around as WWI raged in the twentieth century. During that span, Ottoman troops went from fighting against the Byzantine Empire with bows and arrows, to fighting against the British Empire with machine guns, modern artillery, and airplanes.

Defeat in WWI and its immediate aftermath finished off the Ottomans. After the war, the last sultan, Mehmet VI, signed a peace treaty that was seen as a humiliating betrayal by Turkish nationalists in Anatolia, the empire’s heartland. A nationalist opposition led by Mustafa Kemal (later surnamed “Ataturk”, or Father of the Turks) waged a successful Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923). By the time the dust had settled, Mehmet VI had been forced to abdicate, bringing to an end the Ottoman Empire, whose Turk heartland became The Republic of Turkey.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Daily Sabah, August 6^th, 2015 – The History of Fratricide in the Ottoman Empire

Encyclopedia Britannica – Black Army

Encyclopedia Britannica – Siege of Vienna

Factinate – 42 Unhinged Facts About Ibrahim, the Mad Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

Freely, John – Istanbul: The Imperial City (1998)

Gordon, Matthew S. – The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military of Samarra A.H. 200-275/ 815-889 C.E. (2001)

Kinross, Lord – The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (1977)

Listverse – 10 Dark Secrets of the Ottoman Empire

Live Science – What Was the Most Pointless Battle in History?

Murphey, Rhoades – Ottoman Warfare, 1500-1700 (1999)

Ottoman History – Shehzade Mustafa

Shahin, Kaya – Empire and Power in the Reign of Suleiman: Narrating the Sixteenth-Century Ottoman World (2013)

Turkey For You – History of Seljuk Turks

Warfare History Network – Clash of the Tyrants

War History Online – Once the Greatest Army in Europe: The Black Army of Hungary

War History Online – Punch Drunk at Karansebes: The Austrian Army That Fought Itself

Wheatcroft, Andrew – The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle For Europe (2009)

Wikipedia – Anarchy at Samarra

Wikipedia – Battle of Megiddo (15^th Century BC)

Wikipedia – Battle of Megiddo (1918)