Byzantine weakness left a power vacuum which was filled by bands of
Turks fleeing from the Mongols. Guerilla units, each led by a warlord,
took over parts of the Aegean and Marmara coasts. The Turks who moved
into Bithynia, around Bursa, were followers of a man named Ertugrul. His
son, Osman, founded (in about 1288) a principality which was to grow
into the Osmanli (Ottoman) empire.
The Ottomans took Bursa in 1326. It served them well as their first
capital city. But they were vigorous and ambitious, and by 1402 they
moved the capital to Adrianople (Edirne) because it was easier to rule
their Balkan conquests from there. Constantinople was still in
Byzantine
hands.
The Turkish advance spread rapidly to both east and west, despite some
setbacks. By 1452, under Mehmet the Conqueror (Fatih Sultan Mehmet),
they were strong enough to think of taking Constantinople, capital of
eastern Christendom. They took it in 1453. Mehmet’s reign (1451-1481)
began the great era of Ottoman power.
The height of Ottoman glory was under Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent
(1520- 1566). Called ‘The Lawgiver’ by the Turks, he beautified
Istanbul, rebuilt Jerusalem and expanded Ottoman power to the gates of
Vienna (1529). The Ottoman fleet under Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha seemed
invincible. But by 1585 the empire had begun its long and celebrated
decline. Most of the sultans after Suleyman were incapable of great
rule. Luckily for the empire, there were very competent and talented men
to serve as Grand Vezirs, ruling the empire in the sultans’ instead.
By 1699, Europeans no longer feared an invasion by the ‘terrible Turk’.
The empire was still vast and powerful, but it had lost its momentum and
was rapidly dropping behind the west in terms of social, military,
scientific and material progress. In the 19th century, several sultans
undertook important reforms. Selim III, for instance, revised taxation,
commerce, and the military. But the .Janissaries and other conservative
elements resisted the new measures strongly and sometimes violently. It
was tough to teach an old culture new tricks.
Affected by the new currents of ethnic nationalism, the subject peoples
of the empire revolted. They had lived side-by- side with Turks for
centuries, ruled over by their heads of communities (Chief Rabbi,
Patriarch, etc) who were responsible to the sultan. But decline and
misrule made nationalism very appealing. The Greeks gained independence
in 1830; the Serbs, Bulgarians, Rumanians, Albanians and Arabs would all
seek their independence soon after.
As the empire broke up, the European powers (England, France, Italy,
Germany, Russia) hovered in readiness to colonize or annex the pieces.
They used religion as a reason for pressure or control, saying that it
was their duty to protect the Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox subjects
from misrule and anarchy. The Holy Places in Palestine were a favourite
target, and each power tried to obtain a foothold here for colonization
later.
The Russian Empire took control of Ottoman Rumania in 1853 and then put
pressure on the Turks to grant them powers over all Ottoman Orthodox
subjects. The Russian Emperor would ‘protect’ all the sultan’s orthodox
subjects. The result of this pressure was the Crimean War (1853-56),
with Britain and France fighting on the side of the Ottomans against the
Russians.
