• Empire Total War Ottoman Guide

The Ottoman Empire begins the grand campaign with the largest number of holdings of any empire. Unfortunately these holdings will quickly and continuously come under attack from your neighbors due. In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire was ill-prepared to enter a total modern war. This was a war that would be waged primarily against the British Empire and the Russian Empire at the same time. Yet, war is more than just a matter of numbers and statistics. Sometimes, one can beat the odds.

.: 5 October 2009.: October 2009,Mode(s),Empire: Total War is a and developed by and published. The fifth installment in the, the game was released in 2009. The game, which focuses on the of the 18th century, was announced at the in August 2007. The version of the game was released by on 10 June 2014. The Linux version was released, also by Feral Interactive, on 8 December 2014.Players choose an 18th-century faction and set out to achieve domination over the known world through military force, diplomacy, espionage and economics. The interface and play are similar to earlier Total War titles: although the campaign element of the game is turn-based, players can direct battles in real-time. Empire: Total War is the first game in the series to allow naval battles to be conducted in real-time.

In addition to the standard campaign mode, a special campaign follows the development of the from the to the. Players may also recreate several historical battles from the early modern era, such as the, and.Empire: Total War was met with universal acclaim; several critics commended it as one of the foremost strategy titles of recent times. Praise was bestowed upon the extensive strategic breadth, accurate historical challenges and visual effects. The real-time land battles, with a far greater focus on gunpowder weaponry than earlier Total War titles, were considered successful.

Empire Total War Ottoman Guide

Criticisms focused on shortcomings with the game's artificial intelligence and on the real-time naval battles being difficult to control and co-ordinate. The game was a commercial success, topping sales charts within a week of release; nevertheless, several Creative Assembly employees later commented on various issues caused by a perceived early release.On November 18, 2018, Empire: Total War (along with Medieval II and Napoleon) was rebranded as Total War: EMPIRE – Definitive Edition, making all DLC free alongside the core game, and thus giving access to players who already owned a copy. Contents.Gameplay Empire: Total War is focused on exploration, economics, politics, religion, the founding of and, ultimately, conquest. The game is set in the from 1700 until the end of the 18th century, allowing players to lead various nations and attempt to dominate, the, and the, along with the maritime trade theatres of the coast, and the. As with previous Total War games, Empire: Total War consists of two separate areas of gameplay: a geopolitical campaign that allows the user to deploy complex strategies by moving armies and navies across the globe, conducting diplomacy, trade, espionage, and managing the internal politics of their nation, as well as a battle mode that enables players to command military forces in battle both on land and at sea.The game features about fifty 18th-century factions; however, only eleven of the most powerful and influential are playable. In western Europe, these are, the, and, and in central and eastern Europe,.

In the Balkans and Middle East, the is the principal faction, while the and are the major powers on the Indian subcontinent. The colonies of the major powers are represented as of their home nation. The establishment of new nations during the era, such as and the, and the fall of native states to the larger empires, is reflected in the game, although these major events may be averted by player actions. Smaller factions, such as the German and Italian states, tribes, and North African countries, are also represented.A story-driven campaign entitled 'Road to Independence' is also included, allowing the player to guide the in three structured chapters. The first sees the player establish and develop the English colony of, the second focuses on the British fighting both the French and their allied Native American nations in the, whilst the third has the player directing the American against the British in the.

This campaign is goal-oriented and strictly historical, and also functions as a tutorial for the gameplay, both military, economic and political. Completion of 'Road to Independence' unlocks the newly formed United States to use in a shorter, later version of the full campaign. Campaign The main campaign of Empire: Total War involves a player choosing a faction and moving to forge a global empire during the 18th century.

Each faction controls various historical provinces, each with a regional capital, and a number of other settlements ranging from minor villages to prosperous sea ports (as long as they are coastal territories). The player can recruit armies and navies to take and defend provinces by military means, or adopt and to make advances in the game. In addition, players can use and to their advantage, as well as clandestine means such as. The campaign mode is turn-based, with each turn representing six months starting in summer or winter, allowing the player to attend to all needs of their faction before ending their turn and allowing the to make all other factions' moves. The campaign mode has been redesigned from earlier games to reflect early modern politics and economicsThe campaign mode is similar to those in and, but with several enhancements. It features three main theatres of play: (which also includes North Africa and the Middle East), the, and the, as well as four minor theatres: the, the, the. The way provinces work has been decentralised: although a central settlement is still used, other locations within a province can generate trade and technology, allowing factions to disrupt a province's productivity without assaulting the main settlement.

Diplomacy, taxation, and trade have been streamlined to reduce the need for, including allowing the player to appoint to govern the nation. Previous Total War games required the player to promote a governor for each major city, whereas in Empire ministers' qualifications affect the government of all cities, modified in each case by the size of the metropolitan administration, reflecting the shift from premodern city-statehood to modern nation-statehood. The wandering scholars, spies, emissaries and assassins used in previous titles to deal with diplomacy, trade and espionage have been replaced with just three units:,. The former handle research and can challenge other characters to a (thus eliminating the diplomatic risk of being implicated in an assassination plot), while rakes perform clandestine tasks such as spying, assassination, and sabotage. Missionaries serve to convert the populace to the state religion, which reduces religious unrest and softens cultural unrest. Isomorphic units also exist for the Ottomans, Persians, and other near eastern nations, replacing rakes with, while Indian nations use for the same purposes, and all nations south and east of the Ottoman Empire use Eastern Scholars instead of gentlemen (although these cannot duel). The isomorphic religious leaders are, and missionaries,.

The way armies are produced also differs: in addition to being produced at settlements, generals can now build their armies in the field by recruiting from nearby settlements. Players can now research technologies along a, advancing in areas such as infrastructure, politics, agriculture and the military.Changes in government may occur during the campaign, for example as a consequence of a rise in. The United States may only come into existence if the ruling is unable to maintain social order.

In addition, nations with highly unpopular governments and a history of workers' unrest may experience revolutions similar to the. When the middle or upper classes become disenchanted with a current government, a civil war or revolt may occur. Upon revolution, the player can choose to side with the rebels or with the loyalists. The type of government selected by the player will determine how other factions view the player and influence their diplomatic relations. While religion no longer plays a central role (as in Medieval II: Total War), it is still important in helping bring under control newly captured regions and in influencing diplomatic relations between nations.Factions will have varying objectives as their victory conditions, such as establishing successful colonies and trade routes, and controlling specified regions.In January 2009, after the delay of the release of Empire Total war, the addition of a full campaign multiplayer mode was unveiled. The technology to create a multiplayer campaign game was not available in previous Total War games, and the extended development, due to the delayed release, allowed the Creative Assembly to implement the underlying technology for such a mode in Empire: Total War. On 7 December 2009 Sega released keys for a beta multiplayer campaign where two players could play online together as separate nations.

Eventually, due to the incomplete and buggy nature of the beta alongside other development focuses, it was cancelled, never being fully patched into the game. In 2013, CA's community team released some additional keys for fans of the game, so they could play the incomplete multiplayer beta. Even after the closing date at the end of 2013, beta keys for the campaign was still available from Sega customer support.Warfare The second major area of gameplay is the battle system.

Unlike the campaign game, here players control battles in real-time. As with all titles in the series after, battles can take place on both land and at sea. However, Empire is the first to allow naval battles to be fought in real-time; in previous titles they were automatically resolved by the game's artificial intelligence. Automatic resolution of battles remains an option for both land and sea battles. Separately from the main campaign game, players can recreate individual historical battles in the 18th century and early 19th century.

Land-based combat features a greater focus on gunpowder weaponry than in previous gamesIn land engagements, players have an 18th-century army consisting of units such as,. Each has its own intrinsic advantages, disadvantages, cost, and overall effectiveness. Players must use 18th-century tactics and formations to defeat their enemies. The battlefield terrain and the weather are also important. Factions can lay to settlements, replacing open land battles with street fighting and close-quarter combat. Each unit has, which increases if the battle goes well, or decrease after heavy casualties, army losses, coming under bombardment, or with the death of the general.

Tactical situations such as attacking from a flank or the rear, or depriving a unit of allied reinforcements, also hit morale. When a unit's morale is sufficiently depleted, it will and flee the battlefield. Depending on whether morale is merely broken or entirely shattered, the player may be able to rally the unit and regroup.

Victory is achieved by causing every enemy unit to rout, or be annihilated. In addition, sieges can be won if the attacker manages to take control of the settlement's central square for a set amount of time.

Empire: Total War also introduces several new battlefield elements to the Total War series. Units can take behind walls or in buildings, allowing increased interactivity with the terrain and making some buildings points of tactical importance. Field defences may be constructed on the battlefield.

Infantry units can also scale small obstacles such as walls and fences. Each unit has different capabilities such as Square Formation, Wedge, Diamond, Equip bayonets, or Fire at will.In naval battles, players control a fleet of up to twenty varied ships, and use 18th-century tactics to overcome enemy fleets. As with army units, each ship's crew has a set amount of morale that changes as a battle progresses; a crew may attempt to withdraw their vessel from the battle if their morale is broken, or in extreme cases may surrender. A battle is won when all hostile ships have been sunk, captured, or have left the map. Individual ships can be maneuvered, or remain in formation with other ships from the fleet.

Players can designate which parts of a hostile ship they want a crew to target, making ships prone to sustaining authentic damage during a battle: masts can be toppled, sails and gun ports can be destroyed and damage can entirely disable a ship's ability to manoeuvre or eventually sink it. The types of ammunition can be used during a battle are, and, which have different uses, from killing enemy crew to disabling enemy movement. As battles progress, crews can try to board enemy vessels and fight hand-to-hand in an attempt to capture the ship. The weather in a naval battle is also important; bad weather can create poor visibility.

Ships cannot be repaired in mid-battle unlike its successor, but fires on board ships can be put out automatically.Development. Real-time naval battles are a major new addition to the Total War series. One designer spent a year working on the water's physics system.Empire: Total War was announced by Creative Assembly and publisher Sega at the on 22 August 2007. In their press release, Creative Assembly outlined various features in the game, such as the new and the addition of real-time naval combat. However, while the game had been in the planning stages since the release of, it was still in early development; no gameplay footage was demonstrated at the convention.

The game was announced alongside The Creative Assembly's title. Media releases over the subsequent months showed of the game and elaborated more on Empire: Total War 's game mechanics. The game's, consisting of computer-generated footage, was released 10 July 2008. A playable demonstration of the game's naval combat was showcased at the convention later in July 2008, where it was estimated that the game would ship in 2009. The land combat was demonstrated at the later 2008 Leipzig Game Convention in August 2008.

At the convention, Creative Assembly announced that the game was out of the, and that they were aiming for a release date of 6 February 2009.On 28 October 2008, it was announced that the game would be released on content delivery system on the official release date of 6 February; the game requires Steam to install and run for both retail and electronic versions and is integrated into Valve's programme to allow updates and multiplayer to function more efficiently. The game's release was delayed in December 2008 to allow for the development of extended multiplayer features, with a new release date for March 2009. A of the game, featuring the and the, was released over Steam on 20 February 2009. The game was released on 3 March 2009. Since release, Empire: Total War has been subject to updates delivered through the Steam system, aimed at optimising performance and removing any bugs remaining in the game.James Russell, the lead designer on the project, stated in an interview that the 18th century was chosen as the setting as 'it's a fabulously colourful period.

The 18th century is the great age of fighting sail, and it's the obvious arena in which to set our spectacular new sea battles.' Russell also stated that the dynamic and far-reaching changes of the era, from political revolutions such as the, economic revolutions such as the to military revolutions such as the widespread use of, gave the 'opportunity to develop some really interesting new features and gameplay dynamics that make for a lot of variation'. Animation was used extensively to make characters seem more lifelike. For increased authenticity, research was conducted into 18th-century aspects such as, although designers also observed the of actors in related films and TV series, such as.Empire: Total War ships with nine different versions of box art, eight of which represent the major faction for the market the game is sold in, and one general international version. For instance, German customers are presented artwork displaying colours with the and Prussian army uniforms, whilst the American artwork shows the American revolutionaries and the. A version of Empire: Total War entitled Special Forces incorporates six elite faction-specific units:, the, and the Ottoman.

Additionally, three retailers were provided with a special unit for customers to receive; customers were given the, buyers from were able to receive the and customers buying from received the. A further 14 units were added with the objective of increasing graphical and unit variety among the factions. These 14 units were released as part of the game's 1.3 patch in June 2009; accompanying the update was a second set of 14 units, released as for purchase. Release Empire: Total War was released on 3 March 2009 to the North American market, on 4 March in Europe, on 5 March in Australia, and on Christmas Day in Japan. The game has become the fastest selling Total War title to date; Empire topped British video game sales charts for all platforms in the week of release, the first PC exclusive title to do so in a year and a half.

The game was reported to have sold nearly double the number of. In the United States, Empire: Total War and its Special Forces edition were ranked as first and second respectively in the PC sales charts for the week of release. The game's Australian version debuted as the top PC game; across all platforms Empire: Total War was ranked fourth, behind,. Sega reported the game sold 810,000 units worldwide during their last period of 2008. However, consumer response was hampered by technical problems arising from incompatibility with certain released after the game's development was completed and reports of installation problems with the Steam content delivery system.

In an interview with IGN, Studio Communications Manager Kieran Brigden discussed the problems inherent in developing such a huge and ambitious game, saying: 'Are there some issues with Empire? Yes there are.'

As part of its post-release support, he said that Creative Assembly is planning on addressing issues with stability and performance, as well as adding improvements for gameplay and artificial intelligence.Mike Simpson, Creative Assembly's studio director, started a blog in October 2009, in a deliberate attempt to engage with the game's user community and counter some of the negative reaction which the game had received. He explained The Creative Assembly 'were not entirely happy with the state of Empire: Total War when it went out', but felt the user rating of 67 percent was unfair, stating that his reason for blogging was a concern that the negative ratings could even damage the amount of money available for developing future games. In later posts he described the February 2009 release date as 'commercial reality', and explained why they had hit significant problems with the game's AI close to release.

Simpson describes the campaign AI as 'by far the most complex code edifice I’ve ever seen in a game', and said that they had reached a tipping point where consideration of too many factors led to an which 'disagrees with itself chronically and often ends up paralysed by indecision'. It was only after patch 1.5—six months after the original release—that Simpson felt comfortable sending it to friends of his, having previously been too embarrassed about the flaws.

With regard to the battle AI, Simpson said that the lead battle AI programmer had left to return to his family just before the end of the project. The battle AI at that stage struggled to beat good players even with an obvious level of handicapping, and it had taken some time for other programmers to understand three years' worth of code; progress had been 'frustratingly slow' as they strived for a game where real world tactics would work.

Expansion In September 2009, an expansion titled The Warpath Campaign was announced for release the following month, as was the next game in the series,. The campaign, released as, focuses on the battles of the Europeans and Native Americans throughout most of North and Central America. The new campaign expands the North American territories and features 5 new playable factions:,.

New researchable technologies were also added, along with the new scout and shaman agents and new faction-specific objectives. Napoleon: Total War, released February 2010, focuses on the life of, building upon the technology used for Empire: Total War. Napoleon was released as a standalone game rather than an expansion for a number of reasons, mostly to do with technical limitations; according to Mike Simpson 'the level of detail required to successfully depict the Napoleonic Wars is an order of magnitude greater than we were working to with Empire: Total War'.

Empire and Napoleon Total War Collection – Game of the Year was then released on 1 October 2010 joining both games together, including all of the available downloadable content.Reception ReceptionAggregate scoreAggregatorScore90/100Review scoresPublicationScore9/109/109.5/10B8.5/108.6/10GameZone9/109.5/1094%Empire: Total War received 'universal acclaim' according to the website. Reviewers praised the large scope of the game's strategy map noted that the game 'takes a great deal of its design philosophy from the events and trends of its era', which enabled the game to reasonably reflect the challenges faced by the factions' historical counterparts. Praise was also given to the extensive number of factions, down to very small factions such as the and a renegade settlement., reviewing for, described the campaign map as 'endless' and due to the large amount of content, observed that he had managed to complete the entire campaign without even visiting the Indian theatre of play (approximately a full one fourth of the playable game world); a factor that enhanced the game's replayability.

Other reviews echoed this sentiment; stated that 'even a short, 50-year campaign can take a good amount of time to complete, given that each turn requires strategic thinking on multiple fronts'. Praise was further bestowed on the refined interface, introduction of a technology tree and level of strategic thinking required for the campaign map. However, some reviewers noted inconsistent behaviour with the campaign artificial intelligence; noted that it could perform illogical choices, such as 'the occasional suicidal war between and ', while was critical of the artificial intelligence in a number of areas, including the inability to mount a naval invasion or utilise effective strategies on the campaign map.The real-time land battles in Empire were considered well constructed. Expressing that The Creative Assembly had effectively implemented what it had learned since Shogun: Total War, described the addition of personal firearms and friendly fire as something that 'changes the tactical nature of the game much as it did in real life', and noting that the player controls and enemy AI were 'competent'.

Felt that the real-time aspects captured 'the cinematic brilliance of it all without ever falling back on obvious exaggerations or pretenses' and that the controls, specifically in relation to unit formation, were much improved. GameSpot put the real-time land battles as 'enjoyable to command and enjoyable to watch', particularly commending the amount of detail in each model and animation for every soldier, points carried in several other reviews.

However, GameSpot thought that the artificial intelligence could appear 'confused' in some circumstances, and the 'second opinion' review said that 'the enemy AI falls apart from time to time'. In addition, Eurogamer felt that units' pathfinding abilities in fort sieges were insufficient, and Game Informer also criticised pathfinding around obstacles.Naval combat was subject to more criticism than land battles. Described the visuals in a naval battle as 'incredible', but stated that the controls were 'frustrating; genuine naval tactics fast disappear out of the window as the player struggles to bring their navy’s cannons to bear on the enemy'. PC Gamer UK reciprocated this view, but noted that naval strategy was a 'deeply difficult task' for a developer, and that 'The Creative Assembly have done the best that their game template would allow'.

IGN praised the graphical quality of the naval battles and stated that 'trying to line ships up correctly, making the most of the wind and choosing targets appropriately is very rewarding', but that 'the formations and pathfinding leave a lot to be desired'. GameSpot commented that 'the AI seems incapable of managing a naval battle with much success'.Despite criticisms, most reviews were ultimately favourable to Empire: Total War.

While IGN felt that the game 'drags a bit and there are some small, rough edges in the tactical battles', the game still 'deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the greatest names in gaming history'. 1UP.com finished by saying 'For all its problems, it's undoubtedly progress', while Eurogamer felt that issues 'limit the game to being merely one of the games of the year,' but implied that a post-release patch could deal with these flaws. GameSpot summarised that the game was 'complex and rewarding' and GameSpy praised the game for 'the simplified interface elements, great campaign, and much-improved map and information screens that make this the most accessible Total War yet, and a great place for those unfamiliar with the series to get started'., while acclaiming the game 'spectacular' and 'lovingly historical', criticised the documentation and concluded that the game falls apart due to its bad AI. The Game Informer reviewers criticised the AI, but still described the overall game experience as 'fantastic' and 'outstanding'. GamePro provided a dissenting opinion; although describing Empire: Total War as a game with a potential that 'with some extra tweaking, could have proven itself an excellent title', noted that it 'has a heap of problems that need resolving' with bugs. PC Gamer UK enthusiastically proclaimed the game as 'one of the most playable, important and accomplished games ever created'.The downloadable content The Warpath Campaign was criticised by Game Watcher for not integrating into the original campaign and for only adding a few new units.

Concerns were also voiced about the difficulty curve, though the reviewer felt the DLC provided players a challenge by playing as the technologically backward Native Americans against the European interlopers. References. ^ Ocampo, Jason (22 August 2007). Retrieved 27 July 2016. Butts, Steve (23 August 2007). Retrieved 27 July 2016.

Archived from on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2016. ^ O’Connell, Mark (27 November 2007). Retrieved 21 August 2008. ^ Butts, Steve (18 April 2008).

Retrieved 27 July 2016. Breckon, Nick (13 November 2008). Retrieved 27 July 2016. 'Empire: Total War (Preview)'. January 2009. ^ Edwards, Tim (27 August 2007).

Archived from on 14 June 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2016. Jenner, Laura (24 October 2008).

Retrieved 27 July 2016. GameSpot staff (6 October 2008). Retrieved 27 July 2016. Strategy Informer. Archived from on 5 September 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2016. Miller, Jonathan (27 October 2008).

Retrieved 27 July 2016. Team, IGN PC (22 January 2009). Rossignol, Jim (1 December 2009). Toko, King (25 May 2013). 'Fighting Battles'. Empire: Total War (manual). Pp. 26–32.

Korda, Martin (16 September 2008). Archived from on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2016. ^ Chiappini, Dan (16 July 2008). Retrieved 27 July 2016.

Henning, Jesse (27 August 2008). Archived from on 9 March 2009. Retrieved 3 March 2009. Sega (22 August 2007). Archived from on 19 December 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2016. ^ Butts, Steve (13 March 2009).

Retrieved 27 July 2016. Magrino, Tom (22 August 2007). Archived from on 19 December 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2016. Peterson, Tracy (10 July 2008).

Retrieved 27 July 2016. Calvert, Justin (22 August 2008). Retrieved 27 July 2016. Onyett, Charles (21 August 2008). Retrieved 27 July 2016.

Breckon, Nick (12 December 2008). Retrieved 27 July 2016. Breckon, Nick (11 December 2008).

Retrieved 27 July 2016. Onyett, Charles (20 February 2009). Retrieved 27 July 2016. 3 March 2009. Archived from on 31 March 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2016.

19 May 2010. Kim C. (22 May 2008). Retrieved 27 July 2016. O'Connell, Mark (14 July 2008). Retrieved 2 November 2008. (29 October 2008).

Archived from on 3 November 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2016.

Brigden, Kieran; Lusted, Jack; O'Connell, Mark (20 May 2009). Retrieved 25 May 2009. Rossignol, Jim (22 June 2009). Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 27 July 2016.

Ivan, Tom (10 March 2009). Archived from on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2016. Crossley, Rob (10 March 2009). Archived from on 12 March 2009.

Retrieved 27 July 2016. Howson, Greg (10 March 2009). Retrieved 27 July 2016. Burnes, Andrew (10 March 2009). Archived from on 8 April 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2016. Cowan, Danny (13 March 2009).

Retrieved 19 March 2009. Kozanecki, James (12 March 2009).

Archived from on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2016.

(in Japanese). Retrieved 11 September 2009. Martin, Matt (9 March 2009).

Retrieved 10 March 2009. O'Connell, Mark (1 October 2009). Retrieved 22 May 2010. O'Connell, Mark (3 November 2009).

Retrieved 22 May 2010. ^ O'Connell, Mark (9 October 2009). Retrieved 22 May 2010. O'Connell, Mark (10 November 2009). Retrieved 22 May 2010. ^ Robinson, Joe (13 October 2009).

Game Watcher. Retrieved 28 July 2016. O'Connell, Mark (14 January 2010). Retrieved 22 May 2010. ^.

Retrieved 28 July 2016. Edge staff (April 2009). 'Empire: Total War'.

Edge (200): 114. ^ Gillen, Kieron (27 February 2009).

Retrieved 28 February 2009. ^ Bertz, Matt (May 2009). Retrieved 14 March 2009. ^ Dagley, Andrew (26 March 2009). Archived from on 12 June 2009. Hunt, Geoff (15 April 2009). Retrieved 28 July 2016.

^ VanOrd, Kevin (9 March 2009). Retrieved 28 July 2016. ^ Rausch, Allen (3 March 2009). Retrieved 4 March 2009. 15 April 2009.

Archived from on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2016.

Liebman, Dan (15 March 2009). From the original on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2016. Snider, Dave (11 March 2009). Retrieved 28 July 2016. Lee, Alexander (2 March 2009).

Retrieved 28 July 2016. ^ Butts, Steve (6 March 2009). Retrieved 28 July 2016. ^ Rossignol, Jim (March 2009). Bath, United Kingdom: Future plc (198): 54–59. Archived from on 4 March 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2016.

^ Goodfellow, Troy (5 March 2009). Archived from on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2016. ^ James, Dave (2 March 2009).

Archived from on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2016. Chick, Tom (17 March 2009). Archived from on 21 March 2009.

Retrieved 28 July 2016.External links. at.

at.

Further information:, andAs the Seljuk declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the. One of these beyliks, in the region of on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman I (d.

1323/4), a figure of obscure origins from whom the name Ottoman is derived. Osman's early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the. It is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the lack of sources surviving from this period. The theory popular during the twentieth century credited their success to their rallying of religious warriors to fight for them in the name of, but it is now highly criticised and no longer generally accepted by historians, and no consensus on the nature of the early Ottoman state's expansion has replaced it. Painting from 1523.In the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the.

Osman's son, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of in 1326, making it the new capital of the Ottoman state and supplanting Byzantine control in the region. The important port city of was captured from the in 1387 and sacked. The Ottoman victory at effectively marked in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe.

The in 1396, widely regarded as the last large-scale of the, failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottoman Turks.As the Turks expanded into the Balkans, the became a crucial objective. The Ottomans had already wrested control of nearly all former Byzantine lands surrounding the city, but the heavy defence of Constantinople's strategic position on the Strait made it difficult to conquer. In 1402, the Byzantines were temporarily relieved when the leader, founder of the, invaded Ottoman Anatolia from the east. In the in 1402, Timur defeated the Ottoman forces and took Sultan as a prisoner, throwing the empire into disorder. The, also known as the Fetret Devri, lasted from 1402 to 1413 as Bayezid's sons fought over succession. It ended when emerged as the sultan and restored Ottoman power.The Balkan territories lost by the Ottomans after 1402, including Thessaloniki, Macedonia and Kosovo, were later recovered by between the 1430s and 1450s.

On 10 November 1444, Murad repelled the by defeating the Hungarian, Polish, and armies under (also King of Hungary) and at the, although Albanians under continued to resist. Four years later, John Hunyadi prepared another army of Hungarian and Wallachian forces to attack the Turks, but was again defeated at the in 1448. Expansion and peak (1453–1566). Defeats the of under the command of at the in 1538The son of Murad II, reorganized both state and military and on 29 May 1453 conquered. Mehmed allowed the to maintain its autonomy and land in exchange for accepting Ottoman authority.

Due to tension between the states of western Europe and the later Byzantine Empire, the majority of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman rule as preferable to Venetian rule. Albanian resistance was a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion on the Italian peninsula.In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a.

The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective. It also flourished economically due to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia.Sultan (1512–1520) dramatically expanded the Empire's eastern and southern frontiers by defeating of, in the. Selim I established, and created a naval presence on the. After this Ottoman expansion, a competition started between the and the Ottoman Empire to become the dominant power in the region.(1520–1566) captured in 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of the as part of theand, after his historic victory in the in 1526, he established Turkish rule in the territory of present-day Hungary (except the western part) and other Central European territories. He then laid in 1529, but failed to take the city.

In 1532, he made another on Vienna, but was repulsed in the., Wallachia and, intermittently, became tributary principalities of the Ottoman Empire. In the east, the Ottoman Turks from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of and naval access to the.

In 1555, the became officially partitioned for the first time between the Safavids and the Ottomans, a that would remain until the end of the. By this partitioning of the Caucasus as signed in the, western, and (incl. Western ) fell into Ottoman hands, while southern, and remained Persian.and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to rule, became strong allies. The French conquests of (1543) and (1553) occurred as a joint venture between the forces of the French king and Suleiman, and were commanded by the Ottoman admirals. A month before the siege of Nice, France supported the Ottomans with an artillery unit during the 1543 Ottoman in northern Hungary.

After further advances by the Turks, the Habsburg ruler officially recognized Ottoman ascendancy in Hungary in 1547.By the end of Suleiman's reign, the Empire spanned approximately 877,888 sq mi (2,273,720 km 2), extending over three continents. In addition, the Empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the.

By this time, the Ottoman Empire was a major part of the European political sphere. Ottoman miniature about the showing Ottoman troops and as avant-gardeIn the second half of the sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire came under increasing strain from inflation and the rapidly rising costs of warfare that were impacting both Europe and the Middle East. These pressures led to a series of crises around the year 1600, placing great strain upon the Ottoman system of government.

The empire underwent a series of transformations of its political and military institutions in response to these challenges, enabling it to successfully adapt to the new conditions of the seventeenth century and remain powerful, militarily and economically. Historians of the mid-twentieth century once characterized this period as one of stagnation and decline, but this view is now rejected by the majority of academics.The discovery of new maritime trade routes by Western European states allowed them to avoid the Ottoman trade monopoly.

The discovery of the in 1488 initiated in the throughout the 16th century. Despite the growing European presence in the Indian Ocean, Ottoman trade with the east continued to flourish.

Cairo in particular benefitted from the rise of Yemeni coffee as a popular consumer commodity. As coffeehouses appeared in cities and towns across the empire, Cairo developed into a major center for its trade, contributing to its continued prosperity throughout the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth century.Under (1533–1584), the expanded into the Volga and Caspian region at the expense of the Tatar khanates. In 1571, the Crimean khan, supported by the Ottomans,. The next year, the invasion was repeated but repelled at the. The continued to invade Eastern Europe in a series of, and remained a significant power in Eastern Europe until the end of the 17th century.In southern Europe, a led by won a victory over the Ottoman fleet at the (1571).

Catholic arms killed over 30,000 Turks and captured or destroyed 200 of their ships. It was a startling, if mostly symbolic, blow to the image of Ottoman invincibility, an image which the victory of the Knights of Malta against the Ottoman invaders in the 1565 had recently set about eroding. The battle was far more damaging to the Ottoman navy in sapping experienced manpower than the loss of ships, which were rapidly replaced. The Ottoman navy recovered quickly, persuading Venice to sign a peace treaty in 1573, allowing the Ottomans to expand and consolidate their position in North Africa.By contrast, the Habsburg frontier had settled somewhat, a stalemate caused by a stiffening of the Habsburg defences. The against Habsburg Austria (1593–1606) created the need for greater numbers of Ottoman infantry equipped with firearms, resulting in a relaxation of recruitment policy. This contributed to problems of indiscipline and outright rebelliousness within the corps, which were never fully solved.

Irregular sharpshooters were also recruited, and on demobilization turned to in the (1590–1610), which engendered widespread anarchy in in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. With the Empire's population reaching 30 million people by 1600, the shortage of land placed further pressure on the government. In spite of these problems, the Ottoman state remained strong, and its army did not collapse or suffer crushing defeats. The only exceptions were campaigns against the of Persia, where many of the Ottoman eastern provinces were lost, some permanently.

This war eventually resulted in the, which ceded the entire Caucasus, except westernmost Georgia, back into Iranian possession. Austrian troops led by capture in 1717.After the the confirmed the loss of the Banat, Serbia and to Austria. The Treaty also revealed that the Ottoman Empire was on the defensive and unlikely to present any further aggression in Europe. The (1735–1739), which was ended by the in 1739, resulted in the recovery of Serbia and Oltenia, but the Empire lost the port of, north of the Crimean Peninsula, to the Russians. After this treaty the Ottoman Empire was able to enjoy a generation of peace, as Austria and Russia were forced to deal with the rise of.came about, including the establishment of higher education institutions such as the. In 1734 an artillery school was established to impart Western-style artillery methods, but the Islamic clergy successfully objected under the grounds of. In 1754 the artillery school was reopened on a semi-secret basis.

In 1726, convinced the Grand Vizier, the, and the clergy on the efficiency of the printing press, and Muteferrika was later granted by Sultan Ahmed III permission to publish non-religious books (despite opposition from some and religious leaders). Muteferrika's press published its first book in 1729 and, by 1743, issued 17 works in 23 volumes, each having between 500 and 1,000 copies. Ottoman troops attempt to halt advancing Russians during the in 1788.In 1768 Russian-backed Ukrainian, pursuing Polish confederates, entered, an Ottoman-controlled town on the border of Bessarabia in Ukraine, massacred its citizens, and burned the town to the ground.

This action provoked the Ottoman Empire into the. The of 1774 ended the war and provided freedom to worship for the Christian citizens of the Ottoman-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. By the late 18th century, after a number of defeats in the wars with Russia, some people in the Ottoman Empire began to conclude that the reforms of had given the Russians an edge, and the Ottomans would have to keep up with Western technology in order to avoid further defeats.(1789–1807) made the first major attempts to, but his reforms were hampered by the religious leadership and the corps. Jealous of their privileges and firmly opposed to change, the Janissary. Selim's efforts cost him his throne and his life, but were resolved in spectacular and bloody fashion by his successor, the dynamic, who in 1826. Receiving dignitaries during an audience at the Gate of Felicity,The (1804–1815) marked the beginning of an era of in the during the. In 1811, the fundamentalist Wahhabis of Arabia, led by the al-Saud family revolted against the Ottomans.

Unable to defeat the Wahhabi rebels, the Sublime Porte had Mohammad Ali the Great, the vali (governor) of Egypt tasked with retaking Arabia which ended with the destruction of the in 1818. The of Serbia as a hereditary monarchy under its own was acknowledged de jure in 1830. In 1821, the on the Sultan. A rebellion that originated in Moldavia as a diversion was followed by the main revolution in the, which, along with the northern part of the, became the first parts of the Ottoman Empire to achieve independence (in 1829).

In 1830, the French invaded Algeria, which was lost to the empire. In 1831, Mohammad Ali revolted with the aim of making himself sultan and founding a new dynasty, and his French-trained army under his son Ibrahim Pasha defeated the Ottoman Army as it marched on Constantinople, coming within 200 miles of the capital. In desperation, the Sultan Mahmud II appealed to the empire's traditional archenemy Russia for help, asking the Emperor Nicholas I to send an expeditionary force to save him. In return for signing the, the Russians sent the expeditionary force, which deterred Ibrahim from taking Constantinople. Under the terms of Peace of Kutahia, signed on 5 May 1833 Mohammad Ali agreed to abandon his claim to the throne, in exchange for which he was made the vali of the vilayets (provinces) of Crete, Aleppo, Tripoli, Damascus and Sidon (the latter four comprising modern Syria and Lebanon), and given the right to collect taxes in Adana. Had it not been for the Russian intervention, it is almost certain Mahmud II would have been overthrown and Mohammad Ali would have become the new sultan, marking the beginning of a recurring pattern where the Sublime Porte needed the help of outsiders to save itself. The (1821–1829) against the OttomansIn 1839, the Sublime Porte attempted to take back what it lost to the de facto independent vilayet of Egypt, and suffered a crushing defeat, leading to the as Mohammad Ali was very close to France, and the prospect of him as Sultan was widely viewed as putting the entire empire into the French sphere of influence.

As the Sublime Porte had proved itself incapable of defeating the Egyptians, Britain and Austria intervened to defeat Egypt. By the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire was called the by Europeans.

The suzerain states – the, Wallachia and – moved towards de jure independence during the 1860s and 1870s.Decline and modernization (1828–1908). Main article:During the period (1839–1876), the government's series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modern, banking system reforms, the decriminalization of homosexuality, the replacement of religious law with secular law and with modern factories. The Ottoman Ministry of Post was established in Istanbul on 23 October 1840.received a Turkish for the in 1847, which was issued by Sultan who personally tested the new invention. Following this successful test, work on the first Turkish telegraph line (Istanbul-) began on 9 August 1847. The reformist period peaked with the Constitution, called the.

The empire's was short-lived. The parliament survived for only two years before the sultan suspended it. Fighting on the Russian side, from the Ottoman Empire in 1878 after the end of.The Christian population of the empire, owing to their higher educational levels, started to pull ahead of the Muslim majority, leading to much resentment on the part of the latter.

In 1861, there were 571 primary and 94 secondary schools for Ottoman Christians with 140,000 pupils in total, a figure that vastly exceeded the number of Muslim children in school at the same time, who were further hindered by the amount of time spent learning Arabic and Islamic theology. Stone further suggested that the Arabic alphabet, which Turkish was written in, was very ill-suited to reflect the sounds of the Turkish language (which is a Turkic as opposed to Semitic language), which imposed a further difficulty on Turkish children.

In turn, the higher educational levels of the Christians allowed them to play a larger role in the economy, with the rise in prominence of groups such as the indicative of this shift in influence. In 1911, of the 654 wholesale companies in Istanbul, 528 were owned by ethnic Greeks. In many cases, Christians and also Jews were able to gain protection from European consuls and citizenship, meaning they were protected from Ottoman law and not subject to the same economic regulations as their Muslim comrades. Was proclaimed Sultan of the Ottoman Empire after the.The (1908–1922) began with the, a moment of hope and promise established with the.

It restored the and brought in with a under the. The constitution offered hope by freeing the empire's citizens to modernize the state's institutions, rejuvenate its strength, and enable it to hold its own against outside powers. Its guarantee of liberties promised to dissolve inter-communal tensions and transform the empire into a more harmonious place. Instead, this period became the story of the twilight struggle of the Empire. The last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, leaving the country after the, 17 November 1922Members of movement who had once gone underground now established their parties.

Among them ', and ' were major parties. On the other end of the spectrum were ethnic parties which included, and organized under. Profiting from the civil strife, Austria-Hungary officially annexed in 1908.

The last of the was performed in. Despite which reconstituted the, the Empire lost its North African territories and the Dodecanese in the (1911) and almost all of its European territories in the (1912–1913). The Empire faced continuous unrest in the years leading up to, including the, the and two further coups in and.The began with the on the Russian Black Sea coast on 29 October 1914. Following the attack, Russia and its allies, France and Britain, declared war on the Ottomans. There were several important Ottoman victories in the early years of the war, such as the and the. Ambassadors at theBefore the reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries, the was a system with two main dimensions, the military administration and the civil administration.

The Sultan was the highest position in the system. The civil system was based on local administrative units based on the region's characteristics.

The state had control over the clergy. Certain pre-Islamic Turkish traditions that had survived the adoption of administrative and legal practices from Islamic remained important in Ottoman administrative circles. According to Ottoman understanding, the state's primary responsibility was to defend and extend the land of the Muslims and to ensure security and harmony within its borders in the overarching context of Islamic practice and dynastic sovereignty.The Ottoman Empire, or as a dynastic institution, the House of Osman, was unprecedented and unequaled in the Islamic world for its size and duration. In Europe, only the had a similarly unbroken line of sovereigns (kings/emperors) from the same family who ruled for so long, and during the same period, between the late 13th and early 20th centuries. The Ottoman dynasty was Turkish in origin. On eleven occasions, the sultan was deposed (replaced by another sultan of the Ottoman dynasty, who were either the former sultan's brother, son or nephew) because he was perceived by his enemies as a threat to the state. There were only two attempts in Ottoman history to unseat the ruling Ottoman dynasty, both failures, which suggests a political system that for an extended period was able to manage its revolutions without unnecessary instability.

As such, the last Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI (r. 1918–1922) was a of the first Ottoman sultan (d. 1323/4), which was unparallelled in both Europe (e.g. The male line of the House of Habsburg became extinct in 1740) and in the Islamic world. The primary purpose of the was to ensure the birth of male heirs to the Ottoman throne and secure the continuation of the direct patrilineal (male-line) descendance of the Ottoman sultans. Ottoman ambassador to the, in, 1913Throughout Ottoman history, there were many instances in which local governors acted independently, and even in opposition to the ruler.

After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, the Ottoman state became a constitutional monarchy. The sultan no longer had executive powers. A parliament was formed, with representatives chosen from the provinces. The representatives formed the.This eclectic administration was apparent even in the diplomatic correspondence of the Empire, which was initially undertaken in the to the west.The were calligraphic monograms, or signatures, of the Ottoman Sultans, of which there were 35. Carved on the Sultan's seal, they bore the names of the Sultan and his father. The statement and prayer, 'ever victorious', was also present in most.

The earliest belonged to Orhan Gazi. The ornately stylized Tughra spawned a branch of Ottoman-Turkish.Law. Main article:The Ottoman legal system accepted the over its subjects. At the same time the (or Kanun), a secular legal system, co-existed with religious law. The Ottoman Empire was always organized around a system of local.

Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part of a larger scheme of balancing central and local authority. Ottoman 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. The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Empire was aimed to permit the integration of culturally and religiously different groups. The Ottoman 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'. The entire system was regulated from above by means of the administrative Qanun, i.e.

Laws, a system based upon the Turkic and, which were developed in the pre-Islamic era. An Ottoman trial, 1877These court categories were not, however, wholly exclusive: for instance, the Islamic courts, which were the Empire's primary courts, could also be used to settle a trade conflict or disputes between litigants of differing religions, and Jews and Christians often went to them to obtain a more forceful ruling on an issue. The Ottoman state tended not to interfere with non-Muslim religious law systems, despite legally having a voice to do so through local governors. The Islamic Sharia law system had been developed from a combination of the; the, or words of the prophet;, or consensus of the members of the;, a system of analogical reasoning from earlier precedents; and local customs. Both systems were taught at the Empire's law schools, which were in. An unhappy wife complains to the about her husband's impotence,.The Ottoman Islamic legal system was set up differently from traditional European courts. Presiding over Islamic courts would be a Qadi, or judge.

Since the closing of the, or Gate of Interpretation, Qadis throughout the Ottoman Empire focused less on legal precedent, and more with local customs and traditions in the areas that they administered. However, the Ottoman court system lacked an appellate structure, leading to jurisdictional case strategies where plaintiffs could take their disputes from one court system to another until they achieved a ruling that was in their favor.In the late 19th century, the Ottoman legal system saw substantial reform. This process of legal modernization began with the of 1839. These reforms included the 'fair and public trials of all accused regardless of religion', the creation of a system of 'separate competences, religious and civil', and the validation of testimony on non-Muslims. Specific land codes (1858), civil codes (1869–1876), and a code of civil procedure also were enacted.These reforms were based heavily on French models, as indicated by the adoption of a three-tiered court system. Referred to as, this system was extended to the local magistrate level with the final promulgation of the, a civil code that regulated marriage, divorce, alimony, will, and other matters of personal status.

In an attempt to clarify the division of judicial competences, an administrative council laid down that religious matters were to be handled by religious courts, and statute matters were to be handled by the Nizamiye courts. Military. The in 1900The first military unit of the Ottoman State was an army that was organized by Osman I from the tribesmen inhabiting the hills of western Anatolia in the late 13th century. The military system became an intricate organization with the advance of the Empire.

The Ottoman military was a complex system of recruiting and fief-holding. The main corps of the included Janissary,. The Ottoman army was once among the most advanced fighting forces in the world, being one of the first to use muskets and cannons. The Ottoman Turks began using, which were short but wide cannons, during the. The Ottoman cavalry depended on high speed and mobility rather than heavy armour, using bows and short swords on fast and horses (progenitors of the racing horse), and often applied tactics similar to those of the, such as pretending to retreat while surrounding the enemy forces inside a crescent-shaped formation and then making the real attack.

The Ottoman 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 1740–1768.The modernization of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century started with the military. In 1826 Sultan Mahmud II abolished the Janissary corps and established the modern Ottoman army.

He named them as the (New Order). The Ottoman army was also the first institution to hire foreign experts and send its officers for training in western European countries. Consequently, the Young Turks movement began when these relatively young and newly trained men returned with their education.The vastly contributed to the expansion of the Empire's territories on the European continent. It initiated the conquest of North Africa, with the addition of and Egypt to the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Starting with the loss of in 1821 and Algeria in 1830, Ottoman naval power and control over the Empire's distant overseas territories began to decline. Sultan (reigned 1861–1876) attempted to reestablish a strong Ottoman navy, building the largest fleet after those of Britain and France.

The shipyard at Barrow, England, built its first in 1886 for the Ottoman Empire. A German postcard depicting the at the in the early stages of. At top left is a portrait of Sultan.However, the collapsing Ottoman economy could not sustain the fleet's strength for too long. Sultan distrusted the admirals who sided with the reformist, and claimed that the large and expensive fleet was of no use against the Russians during the Russo-Turkish War. He locked most of the fleet inside the, where the ships decayed for the next 30 years. Following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress sought to develop a strong Ottoman naval force.

The Ottoman Navy Foundation was established in 1910 to buy new ships through public donations.The establishment of dates back to between June 1909 and July 1911. The Ottoman Empire started preparing its first pilots and planes, and with the founding of the Aviation School ( Tayyare Mektebi) in on 3 July 1912, the Empire began to tutor its own flight officers. The founding of the Aviation School quickened advancement in the military aviation program, increased the number of enlisted persons within it, and gave the new pilots an active role in the Ottoman Army and Navy. In May 1913 the world's first specialized Reconnaissance Training Program was started by the Aviation School and the first separate reconnaissance division was established. In June 1914 a new military academy, the Naval Aviation School ( Bahriye Tayyare Mektebi) was founded. With the outbreak of World War I, the modernization process stopped abruptly. The fought on many fronts during World War I, from in the west to the Caucasus in the east and in the south.Administrative divisions.

In 1795The Ottoman Empire was first subdivided into provinces, in the sense of fixed territorial units with governors appointed by the sultan, in the late 14th century.The (also Pashalik or Beylerbeylik) was the territory of office of a (“lord of lords” or governor), and was further subdivided in.The were introduced with the promulgation of the 'Vilayet Law' ( Teskil-i Vilayet Nizamnamesi) in 1864, as part of the Tanzimat reforms. Unlike the previous eyalet system, the 1864 law established a hierarchy of administrative units: the vilayet, /, and, to which the 1871 Vilayet Law added the.

Main article:Ottoman government deliberately pursued a policy for the development of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, successive Ottoman capitals, into major commercial and industrial centres, considering that merchants and artisans were indispensable in creating a new metropolis. To this end, Mehmed and his successor Bayezid, also encouraged and welcomed migration of the Jews from different parts of Europe, who were settled in Istanbul and other port cities like Salonica. In many places in Europe, Jews were suffering persecution at the hands of their Christian counterparts, such as in Spain after the conclusion of Reconquista. The tolerance displayed by the Turks was welcomed by the immigrants. A European bronze medal from the period of, 1481The Ottoman economic mind was closely related to the basic concepts of state and society in the Middle East in which the ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power, and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous. The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact.

The Ottoman economy greatly expanded during the early modern period, with particularly high growth rates during first half of the eighteenth century. The empire's annual income quadrupled between 1523 and 1748, adjusted for inflation.The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Ottoman Empire more than any other Islamic government and, until the 17th century, they were the leading organization among all their contemporaries. This organization developed a scribal bureaucracy (known as 'men of the pen') as a distinct group, partly highly trained, which developed into a professional body. The effectiveness of this professional financial body stands behind the success of many great Ottoman statesmen. The was founded in 1856 in; in August 1896, the bank was by members of the.Modern Ottoman studies indicate that the change in relations between the Ottoman Turks and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in the significance of the land routes to the East as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and Mediterranean as parallel to the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself.

The, also known as the that opened the Ottoman markets directly to English and French competitors, would be seen as one of the staging posts along this development.By developing commercial centres and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the Empire. But in all this the financial and political interests of the state were dominant. Within the social and political system they were living in, Ottoman administrators could not have seen the desirability of the dynamics and principles of the capitalist and mercantile economies developing in Western Europe.In the early 19th century, had an advanced economy, with a comparable to that of leading countries such as, and higher than the overall average income of. Economic historian Jean Barou estimated that, in terms of 1960 dollars, Egypt in 1800 had a per-capita income of $232 ($1,025 in 1990 dollars). In comparison, per-capita income in terms of 1960 dollars for France in 1800 was $240 ($1,060 in 1990 dollars), for in 1800 was $177 ($782 in 1990 dollars), and for Japan in 1800 was $180 ($795 in 1990 dollars).Economic historian argues that contributed to in the Ottoman Empire.

In contrast to the of, Japan, and, the Ottoman Empire had a policy, open to foreign imports. This has origins in, dating back to the first commercial treaties signed with France in 1536 and taken further with in 1673 and 1740, which lowered to 3% for imports and exports. The liberal Ottoman policies were praised by British economists such as in his Dictionary of Commerce (1834), but later criticized by British politicians such as Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who cited the Ottoman Empire as 'an instance of the injury done by unrestrained competition' in the 1846 debate.There has been free trade in Turkey, and what has it produced? It has destroyed some of the finest manufactures of the world. As late as 1812 these manufactures existed; but they have been destroyed.

That was the consequences of competition in Turkey, and its effects have been as pernicious as the effects of the contrary principle in Spain.Demographics. Under Ottoman rule in 1900Censuses of Ottoman territories only began in the early 19th century.

Figures from 1831 onwards are available as official census results, but the censuses did not cover the whole population. For example, the 1831 census only counted men and did not cover the whole empire. For earlier periods estimates of size and distribution of the population are based on observed demographic patterns.However, it began to rise to reach 25–32 million by 1800, with around 10 million in the European provinces (primarily in the Balkans), 11 million in the Asiatic provinces and around 3 million in the African provinces. Population densities were higher in the European provinces, double those in Anatolia, which in turn were triple the population densities of Iraq and and five times the population density of Arabia.

View of and the on the, c. 1880–1893Towards the end of the empire's existence life expectancy was 49 years, compared to the mid-twenties in Serbia at the beginning of the 19th century. Epidemic diseases and famine caused major disruption and demographic changes. In 1785 around one sixth of the Egyptian population died from plague and Aleppo saw its population reduced by twenty percent in the 18th century. Six famines hit Egypt alone between 1687 and 1731 and the last famine to hit Anatolia was four decades later.The rise of port cities saw the clustering of populations caused by the development of steamships and railroads.

Urbanization increased from 1700 to 1922, with towns and cities growing. Improvements in health and sanitation made them more attractive to live and work in.

Port cities like Salonica, in Greece, saw its population rise from 55,000 in 1800 to 160,000 in 1912 and İzmir which had a population of 150,000 in 1800 grew to 300,000 by 1914. Some regions conversely had population falls—Belgrade saw its population drop from 25,000 to 8,000 mainly due to political strife.Economic and political migrations made an impact across the empire.

For example, the and Austria-Habsburg annexation of the Crimean and Balkan regions respectively saw large influxes of Muslim refugees—200,000 Crimean Tartars fleeing to Dobruja. Between 1783 and 1913, approximately 5–7 million refugees flooded into the Ottoman Empire, at least 3.8 million of whom were from Russia. Some migrations left indelible marks such as political tension between parts of the empire (e.g. Turkey and Bulgaria) whereas centrifugal effects were noticed in other territories, simpler demographics emerging from diverse populations. Economies were also impacted with the loss of artisans, merchants, manufacturers and agriculturists. Since the 19th century, a large proportion of Muslim peoples from the Balkans emigrated to present-day Turkey.

These people are called. By the time the Ottoman Empire came to an end in 1922, half of the urban population of Turkey was descended from Muslim refugees from Russia. Language. Was the last of Islam and a member of the.In the Ottoman imperial system, even though there existed a hegemonic power of Muslim control over the non-Muslim populations, non-Muslim communities had been granted state recognition and protection in the Islamic tradition. The officially accepted state of the Ottomans was Sunni.Until the second half of the 15th century the empire had a Christian majority, under the rule of a Muslim minority.

In the late 19th century, the non-Muslim population of the empire began to fall considerably, not only due to secession, but also because of migratory movements. The proportion of Muslims amounted to 60% in the 1820s, gradually increasing to 69% in the 1870s and then to 76% in the 1890s.

By 1914, only 19.1% of the empire's population was non-Muslim, mostly made up of Jews and Christian Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians. Writing on a tile, depicting the names of, and the first, c.

1727Turkic peoples practiced a variety of before adopting Islam. Influence in Central Asia was ensured through a process that was greatly facilitated by the.

Many of the various Turkic tribes—including the, who were the ancestors of both the Seljuks and the Ottomans—gradually converted to Islam, and brought the religion with them to Anatolia beginning in the 11th century.Muslim sects regarded as heretical, such as the, and, ranked below Jews and Christians. In 1514, Sultan Selim I ordered the massacre of 40,000 Anatolian Alevis ( ), whom he considered a for the rival Safavid empire. Selim was also responsible for an unprecedented and rapid expansion of the Ottoman Empire into the Middle East, especially through his. With these conquests, Selim further solidified the Ottoman claim for being an Islamic caliphate, although Ottoman sultans had been claiming the title of caliph since the 14th century starting with Murad I (reigned 1362 to 1389). The caliphate would remain held by Ottoman sultans for the rest of the office's duration, which ended with its abolition on 3 March 1924 by the and the exile of the last caliph, to France.Christianity and Judaism. Depiction of a shop in, Ottoman EmpireThe Ottomans absorbed some of the traditions, art and institutions of cultures in the regions they conquered, and added new dimensions to them.

Numerous traditions and cultural traits of previous empires (in fields such as architecture, cuisine, music, leisure and government) were adopted by the Ottoman Turks, who elaborated them into new forms, resulting in a new and distinctively Ottoman cultural identity. Despite newer added amalgamations, the Ottoman dynasty, like their predecessors in the and the, were thoroughly Persianised in their culture, language, habits and customs, and therefore the empire has been described as a empire. Intercultural marriages also played a part in creating the characteristic Ottoman elite culture.

When compared to the Turkish folk culture, the influence of these new cultures in creating the culture of the Ottoman elite was clear. And bazaar, Constantinople, c. 1895was a part of Ottoman society, with most slaves employed as domestic servants. Agricultural slavery, such as that which was widespread in the Americas, was relatively rare. Unlike systems of, slaves under Islamic law were not regarded as movable property, but maintained basic, though limited, rights.

This gave them a degree of protection against abuse. Female slaves were still sold in the Empire as late as 1908. During the 19th century the Empire came under pressure from Western European countries to outlaw the practice. Policies developed by various Sultans throughout the 19th century attempted to curtail the but slavery had centuries of religious backing and sanction and so slavery was never abolished in the Empire.remained a major scourge in Ottoman society until the second quarter of the 19th century.

'Between 1701 and 1750, 37 larger and smaller plague epidemics were recorded in Istanbul, and 31 between 1751 and 1801.' Education. Completed in 1577 by, the greatest architect of the classical period of Ottoman architectureDuring the, it was under the influence of the highly ornamented styles of Western Europe;, and other styles intermingled. Concepts of Ottoman architecture concentrate mainly on the.

The mosque was integral to society, and communal life. Besides the mosque, it is also possible to find good examples of Ottoman architecture in, theological schools, hospitals, and tombs.Examples of Ottoman architecture of the classical period, besides Istanbul and, can also be seen in Egypt, Eritrea, Tunisia, Algiers, the Balkans and Romania, where mosques, bridges, fountains and schools were built. The art of Ottoman decoration developed with a multitude of influences due to the wide ethnic range of the Ottoman Empire. The greatest of the court artists enriched the Ottoman Empire with many pluralistic artistic influences, such as mixing traditional with elements of.

Decorative arts. Ottoman Imperial Museum, today theOver the course of Ottoman history, the Ottomans managed to build a large collection of libraries complete with translations of books from other cultures, as well as original manuscripts.

A great part of this desire for local and foreign manuscripts arose in the 15th century. Ordered, a Greek scholar from, to translate and make available to Ottoman educational institutions the geography book of. Another example is – an, and originally from – who became a professor in two madrasas and influenced Ottoman circles as a result of his writings and the activities of his students, even though he only spent two or three years in Istanbul before his death.