SS7H2a: Explain how European partitioning in the Middle East after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire led to regional conflict. After the destruction of Baghdad and the Abbasid Empire by the Mongols in 1290, the Ottoman Empire came into power. It was dominated by the Turks and centered in what is modern-day Turkey. The Ottoman state was born on the frontier between Islam and the Byzantine Empire. Turkish tribes, driven from their homeland in the steppes of Central Asia by the Mongols, had embraced Islam and settled in Anatolia. The Ottoman Turks began to absorb the other states, and during the reign (1451–81) of Muhammad II they ended all other local Turkish dynasties. In the late 14th century, the Ottomans started to use Janissaries (which means “new troops” in Turkish). They were conscripted youths from Christian families in the Balkans. After conscription, they were defined as the property of the Sultan, and practically all of them converted to Islam. They became known for their military skills. In 1453, they conquered Constantinople (which had been founded as the capital of all Christendom by Constantine himself), renamed it Istanbul, and made it the capital of their Empire. Here the leaders are called Sultans ("emperors").

The Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire expanded into southeastern Europe (the Balkans and Hungary) and then east and south into Iraq, Arabia, and Egypt.

Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I (nicknamed 'the Magnificent' in Europe and 'the Lawgiver' in the Islamic World) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566. While he may have been seen as dangerous to the outside world, he was known as a fair ruler within the empire, fought corruption, and was a great supporter of artists and philosophers. He was also noted as one of the greatest Islamic poets. He earned his nickname the Lawmaker from his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman law system. The laws that he gathered covered almost every aspect of life at the time.

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman died in 1566, the night before victory at the Battle of Szigetvar, in Hungary. He is buried in a mausoleum with his wife Roxelana at the Suleymaniye Mosque. After rising to its peak under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Empire gradually began to deteriorate before the increasing technological and industrial might of the European nations.

http://youtu.be/RdWZvq4yvLU

The End of the Ottoman Empire By the beginning of WWI in 1914, the Ottoman Empire had shrunk in size. It had weakened because it tried to rule such a huge empire with leaders who could not manage to hold on to the territory. When WWI began, the Ottoman Empire decided to join forces with Germany and Italy against the rest of Europe and the US. They lost the war, and as a result, the Ottoman Empire was overthrown, and Ottoman territory was broken up into a number of smaller countries in what is now known as the Southwest Asia.

http://youtu.be/BYtMYZVfk3Q

Carving up the Ottoman Empire

http://youtu.be/vKtjvjC8RHw

Conflict follows . . . The European politicians who decided where the boundaries of these new countries would be paid little attention to the ethnic and religious groups who were already living in these areas. The new boundaries that were drawn did not take into consideration the concept of nationalism (the idea that countries are most successful if the people who live there share some common cultural, historic, or religious beliefs). As a result, there has been a lot of conflict. Many different groups tried to live together in countries that were created by those who did not realize the problems some of these new boundaries would cause.

Ataturk, the Father of the Turks The Turkish defeat in the First World War (in which the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany and the Central Powers) finally discredited the Young Turks, however, and paved the way for the success of a new nationalist movement under the leadership of an army officer named Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." The nationalist government under Ataturk, dedicated to leading Turkey in the direction of secularism and Westernization, abolished the sultanate, declared a republic, and eventually (in 1924) abolished the caliphate as well.