1. The Ottomans built the largest Muslim empire in the modern era.

2. The Ottoman Empire reached its height under Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1500s.

3. However, by the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire had declined. The Ottomans lacked modern technology.

4. Europeans competed for land in the once great empire.

5. World War I only worsened matters. The Ottomans had allied themselves with the Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Central Powers lost the war.

6. France and England took control of some lands in the Ottoman Empire.

7. But some young Turkish nationalists decided it was time for a change.

8. They led a revolutionary movement against the authoritarian Sultan, Abdulhamid II.

9. The leader of the Young Turks, Mustafa Kemal, known as Ataturk or father of the Turks, was a nationalist and the founder of modern Turkey.

10. The Young Turks established a constitutional government.

11. Under Ataturk’s leadership, they modernized and westernized Turkey. They encouraged secularism and granted universal suffrage (voting).

12. As first President of Turkey from 1923 until 1938, Ataturk shaped the modern nation of Turkey.

13. He gave the Turkish people last names and abolished the Fez. He even replaced Arabic script with a modified Latin alphabet.

14. While many changes occurred that benefitted the Turkish people, Armenians (an ethnic group living in the region) were massacred by the hundreds of thousands.

15. And the Ottoman Empire was no more. Yes, Turkey was a modern nation built on change.