WORLD HISTORY II / HOMEWORK HAND OUT

NAME: BLOCK:

OTTOMAN EMPIRE: RISE TO EMPIRE (from Ways of the World by R. Strayer, p. 425-428)

CENTRAL HISTORICAL QUESTION:WAS THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE SUCCESSFUL?

DIRECTIONS: Read the following article on the Ottoman Empire, annotate (underline key words, take notes in the margin) and respond to the following questions.

The Ottoman Empire was the creation of Turkic warrior groups beginning around 1300 from a base area in northwestern Anatolia (modern day Turkey) and swept over much of the Middle East, North Africa, and southeastern Europe to create the Islamic world’s most significant empire.

Within the Islamic World, the Ottoman Empire represented the growing authority of Turkic people, for their empire now included a large number of Arabs, who helped found Islam. The responsibility for holy cities- Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, now fell to the Ottoman Empire.

The Empire was the site of significant cross-cultural encounter. As it expanded across Anatolia (modern day Turkey), Christian populations converted in large numbers to Islam as the Byzantine state weakened and large numbers of Turks settled in the region. By 1500, some 90% of Anatolia’s region was Muslims and Turkic speakers. The climax of this Turkic assault (attack) on the Christian world of Byzantium occurred in 1453 when Constantinople fell to the invaders. Constantinople was renamed Istanbul, so the Christian city now became capital of the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

The Empire’s southeastern European domains, known as the Balkans (modern day

Greece, Bulgaria, Slovakia, etc.), witnessed Ottoman encounters with Christians, which

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WORLD HISTORY II / HOMEWORK HAND OUT

differed from Anatolia. There were far less conversions because the scarcity of Turkish settlers and the empire’s willingness to accommodate Christians. By the early 16th century, only 19% of the Balkans were Muslim, and 81% were Christian.

Many Christians welcomed Ottoman conquest because taxes were lighter and oppression less pronounced than under their former Christian Byzantine rulers. Christian communities such as the Eastern Orthodox and the Armenian churches were granted considerable freedom in regulating their internal social, religious, educational, and charitable affairs. A large number of these Christians- Balkan landlords, Greek merchants, government officials, and high-ranking clergy, became part of the Ottoman elite without converting to Islam. Jewish refugees, fleeing Christian persecution in a Spain that was recently “liberated” from Islamic rule, likewise found greater opportunity in the Ottoman Empire, where they became prominent in trade and banking circles.

In other ways, Turkish rule bore heavily on Christians. Through a process called devshirme (the collecting and gathering) Balkan Christian communities were required to hand over a quota of young boys who were removed from their families, required to learn Turkish, converted to Islam, and trained for either civil administration or military service in elite Janissary (military) units. Although it was a terrible blow for families that lost their children, the devshirme represented a means of upward mobility in the empire. Nonetheless, social gain occurred at a high price.

Even though Ottomans were tolerant within their borders, the empire itself represented an enormous threat to Christendom generally. The seizure of Constantinople, the Balkans, the Ottoman naval power in the Mediterranean, and the siege of Vienna in 1529 raised anew the “specter of a Muslim takeover of all of Europe.” Indeed, the “Terror of the Turk” inspired fear across Europe and placed Christendom on the defensive, even as Europeans were aggressively expanding across the Atlantic and into the Indian Ocean.

RESPONSE QUESTIONS:

1. How did the Ottomans build their empire?

2. What challenges did they face in building their empire?

3. What strategies did they develop to deal with these challenges?

4. What other strategies did they use to administer (rule) their empire?

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WORLD HISTORY II / HOMEWORK HAND OUT

5. Would you consider any of their empire-building strategies to be problematic? If so, which ones and why?

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