55 Facts About Ottoman Turkey

1.

Under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Turkey Empire marked the peak of its power and prosperity, as well as the highest development of its governmental, social, and economic systems.

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2.

Turkish word for "Ottoman Turkey" originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century.

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3.

Ottoman Turkey then laid siege to Vienna in 1529, but failed to take the city.

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4.

France and the Ottoman Turkey Empire, united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule, became strong allies.

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5.

The Ottoman Turkey Empire continued to invade Eastern Europe in a series of slave raids, and remained a significant power in Eastern Europe until the end of the 17th century.

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6.

The final assault being fatally delayed, the Ottoman Turkey forces were swept away by allied Habsburg, German, and Polish forces spearheaded by the Polish king John III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna.

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7.

Accordingly, King Charles XII of Sweden was welcomed as an ally in the Ottoman Turkey Empire following his defeat by the Russians at the Battle of Poltava of 1709 in central Ukraine.

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8.

The Treaty revealed that the Ottoman Turkey Empire was on the defensive and unlikely to present any further aggression in Europe.

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9.

In 1768 Russian-backed Ukrainian Haidamakas, pursuing Polish confederates, entered Balta, an Ottoman Turkey-controlled town on the border of Bessarabia in Ukraine, massacred its citizens, and burned the town to the ground.

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10.

In 1883, a German military mission under General Baron Colmar von der Goltz arrived to train the Ottoman Turkey Army, leading to the so-called "Goltz generation" of German-trained officers who were to play a notable role in the politics of the last years of the empire.

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11.

Defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Turkey Empire began with the Second Constitutional Era, a moment of hope and promise established with the Young Turk Revolution.

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12.

Ottoman Turkey Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers and was ultimately defeated.

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13.

Partition of the Ottoman Turkey Empire was finalized under the terms of the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.

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14.

The Republic of Ottoman Turkey was established in its place on 29 October 1923, in the new capital city of Ankara.

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15.

Several historians such as British historian Edward Gibbon and the Greek historian Dimitri Kitsikis have argued that after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman Turkey state took over the machinery of the Byzantine state and that in essence, the Ottoman Turkey Empire was a continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire under a Turkish Muslim guise.

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16.

The American historian Speros Vryonis wrote that the Ottoman Turkey state was centered on "a Byzantine-Balkan base with a veneer of the Turkish language and the Islamic religion".

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17.

The American historian Heath Lowry and Kitsikis posit that the early Ottoman Turkey state was a predatory confederacy open to both Byzantine Christians and Turkish Muslims, whose primary goal was attaining booty and slaves, rather than spreading Islam, and that only later Islam became the primary characteristic of the empire.

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18.

The Divan, in the years when the Ottoman Turkey state was still a Beylik, was composed of the elders of the tribe.

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19.

The Ottoman Turkey Empire was always organized around a system of local jurisprudence.

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20.

Legal administration in the Ottoman Turkey Empire was part of a larger scheme of balancing central and local authority.

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21.

Ottoman Turkey power revolved crucially around the administration of the rights to land, which gave a space for the local authority to develop the needs of the local millet.

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22.

The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Turkey Empire was aimed to permit the integration of culturally and religiously different groups.

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23.

The Ottoman Turkey system had three court systems: one for Muslims, one for non-Muslims, involving appointed Jews and Christians ruling over their respective religious communities, and the "trade court".

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24.

The Ottoman Turkey state tended not to interfere with non-Muslim religious law systems, despite legally having a voice to do so through local governors.

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25.

The Ottoman Turkey military was a complex system of recruiting and fief-holding.

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26.

The main corps of the Ottoman Turkey Army included Janissary, Sipahi, Akinci and Mehteran.

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27.

The Ottoman Turkey army was once among the most advanced fighting forces in the world, being one of the first to use muskets and cannons.

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28.

The Ottoman Turkey Turks began using falconets, which were short but wide cannons, during the Siege of Constantinople.

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29.

The Ottoman Turkey cavalry depended on high speed and mobility rather than heavy armor, using bows and short swords on fast Turkoman and Arabian horses, and often applied tactics similar to those of the Mongol Empire, such as pretending to retreat while surrounding the enemy forces inside a crescent-shaped formation and then making the real attack.

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30.

The Ottoman Turkey army continued to be an effective fighting force throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, falling behind the empire's European rivals only during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768.

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31.

The Ottoman Turkey army was the first institution to hire foreign experts and send its officers for training in western European countries.

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32.

Sultan Abdulaziz attempted to reestablish a strong Ottoman Turkey navy, building the largest fleet after those of Britain and France.

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33.

Ottoman Turkey locked most of the fleet inside the Golden Horn, where the ships decayed for the next 30 years.

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34.

The Ottoman Turkey Empire started preparing its first pilots and planes, and with the founding of the Aviation School in Yesilkoy on 3 July 1912, the Empire began to tutor its own flight officers.

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35.

Ottoman Turkey Empire was first subdivided into provinces, in the sense of fixed territorial units with governors appointed by the sultan, in the late 14th century.

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36.

The Anglo-Ottoman Turkey Treaty, known as the Treaty of Balta Liman that opened the Ottoman Turkey markets directly to English and French competitors, would be seen as one of the staging posts along with this development.

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37.

In contrast to the protectionism of China, Japan, and Spain, the Ottoman Turkey Empire had a liberal trade policy, open to foreign imports.

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38.

The liberal Ottoman Turkey policies were praised by British economists, such as John Ramsay McCulloch in his Dictionary of Commerce, but later criticized by British politicians such as Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who cited the Ottoman Turkey Empire as "an instance of the injury done by unrestrained competition" in the 1846 Corn Laws debate.

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39.

Ottoman Turkey Empire had a wide variety of Islamic sects, including Druze, Ismailis, Alevis, and Alawites.

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40.

Likewise, Ottoman Turkey Jews came under the authority of the Haham Basi, or Ottoman Turkey Chief Rabbi, while Armenians were under the authority of the chief bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

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41.

Ottoman Turkey replaced the Arabic alphabet with Latin letters, ended the religious school system, and gave women some political rights.

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42.

Only the Germans seemed helpful, and their support led to the Ottoman Turkey Empire joining the central powers in 1915, with the result that they came out as one of the heaviest losers of the First World War in 1918.

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43.

Until the 19th century, Ottoman Turkey prose did not contain any examples of fiction: there were no counterparts to, for instance, the European romance, short story, or novel.

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44.

Ottoman Turkey Divan poetry was a highly ritualized and symbolic art form.

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45.

Until the 19th century, Ottoman Turkey prose did not develop to the extent that contemporary Divan poetry did.

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46.

Early Ottoman Turkey architecture experimented with multiple building types over the course of the 13th to 15th centuries, progressively evolving into the Classical Ottoman Turkey style of the 16th and 17th centuries, which was strongly influenced by the Hagia Sophia.

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47.

The last Ottoman Turkey period saw more influences from Western Europe, brought in by architects such as those from the Balyan family.

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48.

Ottoman Turkey constructions were still abundant in Anatolia and in the Balkans, but in the more distant Middle Eastern and North African provinces older Islamic architectural styles continued to hold strong influence and were sometimes blended with Ottoman Turkey styles.

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49.

Tradition of Ottoman Turkey miniatures, painted to illustrate manuscripts or used in dedicated albums, was heavily influenced by the Persian art form, though it included elements of the Byzantine tradition of illumination and painting.

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50.

Ottoman Turkey illumination covers non-figurative painted or drawn decorative art in books or on sheets in muraqqa or albums, as opposed to the figurative images of the Ottoman Turkey miniature.

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51.

Ottoman Turkey classical music was an important part of the education of the Ottoman Turkey elite.

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52.

Ottoman Turkey cuisine refers to the cuisine of the capital, Constantinople, and the regional capital cities, where the melting pot of cultures created a common cuisine that most of the population regardless of ethnicity shared.

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53.

Ottoman Turkey calculated the eccentricity of the Sun's orbit and the annual motion of the apogee.

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54.

Ottoman Turkey experimented with steam power in Ottoman Egypt in 1551, when he described a steam jack driven by a rudimentary steam turbine.

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55.

Since, the Ottoman Turkey Empire is credited with the invention of several surgical instruments in use such as forceps, catheters, scalpels and lancets as well as pincers.

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