The Ottoman Empire

  The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire, is a empire that should instantly pop into the heads of people who are intrigued about history, the most feared empire during its height in the 1600's and had its reasons to be feared. The Ottoman Empire was a surprise to the world during 1453, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, was take and now named the capital of the new empire. The Ottoman Empire officially ended the Roman Empire or the fragment of what it once was. Now the Ottomans seemed to have an empire destined for themselves, Eastern Europe was weaker and the middle east was filled with broken empires and remnants of the Mongolian hordes had and were dissolving.
  The Ottoman Empire looked to expand in the Balkan region, so it went to war with its neighbors which was Serbia, Bosnia, Wallachia, and the lands controlled by Venice. The empire conquered those lands in the span of a few years, setting up a vassal state in the progress. During that time, it went to war with the Islamic nation known as Mamluks, many thought that the young empire would meet its end, as the Mamluks was still one of the strongest nations in the middle east. To every nations surprise the Ottomans won and annexed the entire region. It gained lands to modern day Algeria while Expanding in Africa. It went as west as Iraq although it went further, they were always pushed back to that general location. The Ottoman Empire was heavily involved in Europe and at its peak it bordered modern day Austria and nearly took the city of Vienna from them, but was pushed back by the Polish. From that point forward the Ottomans began to decay slowly, however still a superpower, many European nations the empire had conquered desired independence. During the year of 1877 the Russo-Turkish war broke out, the Ottomans were utterly devastated, by the independence of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania. Luckily the German Empire got involved and wanted to make a peace treaty that would ease tensions and not give Russia major influence on the Balkan region.
  The year is 1912 and the Italo-Turkish war would break out, the navy of the Ottoman Empire would be tested in this war and it turned out that the navy wasn't so frightening after all, Italy won the war and gained Libya and Rhodes. The Ottomans were now broken, leaving the Balkan powers a chance to push the empire out of Europe. It worked, but the powers then declared war on Bulgaria. The Ottomans got involved and took some chunks of it's land back. The year is now 1914 and the month is October, World War One has been raging for a few weeks and the Ottomans wanted war with Russia. Russia was losing the war against the Central Powers, as internal conflicts were starting to break out. The Ottomans joined and had a goal, to prove to everyone that they were still relevant in the modern world. In 1918, the Ottomans officially laid down their arms and became a republic soon after. Turkey was created and now, would it prove to be better than the ottomans and stand the test of time, or was it going to decay like its former self.