Ottoman Empire Series | Index

Every day, we
work with people of different ethnicities,
interact with people of different religions and cultures,
and live by using goods and services across national borders.
We take this for granted.

However, the mechanism of "uniting people with different values into a single nation"
was never something to be taken for granted.

Different ethnicities.
Different religions.
Different languages.

There is an empire that maintained a massive state for over six hundred years,
which would normally have fallen apart.
That is the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire was not merely an Islamic state.
A mechanism for governing different ethnicities.
An autonomous system for each religion.
State management that appointed personnel based on ability.
A military system that boasted being the strongest in the world.
And control of trade routes connecting Europe and Asia.

It was an empire that perfected a
“mechanism for managing a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state over a long period,”
which is rare in human history.

And what is interesting is that even though the empire itself has disappeared,
its influence still remains in the world today.

Middle East issues.
Ethnic issues in the Balkan Peninsula.
The situation in the Black Sea.
International politics surrounding the Bosphorus Strait.

Many of the world situations we see in the news
are on the extension of the order built by the Ottoman Empire.
In other words, the Ottoman Empire is not a thing of the past.
It is an empire that we still need to know in order to understand the modern world.

In this series,

・How the Ottoman Empire was born,
・Why it became a world empire,
・What kind of mechanism it used to manage a multi-ethnic state,
・Why it prospered for over six hundred years,
・And why it declined,
・And what it left for the modern world,

will be unraveled in 8 episodes from the structure of "state management."
Knowing the Ottoman Empire is not about learning Islamic history.
It is about knowing the origin of the problems that modern international society faces.

Please stay with us until the end.

Ottoman Empire Series List

Episode 1: How did the small state of Osman become a world empire?
Why did a small frontier state in Anatolia
grow into a world empire that ruled three continents?
We will unravel its starting point from geography, strategy, and state design.

Episode 2: How can a multi-ethnic state be united?
Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Serbs, Bulgarians.
What was the Ottoman Empire's governing mechanism
that kept different ethnicities united for over six hundred years?

Episode 3: Why did slaves run the state?
Grand Viziers of slave origin.
The boy levy system.
Personnel appointment based on meritocracy.
Why did the Ottoman Empire support the state with "ability" rather than "status"?

Episode 4: Why was the empire united even with different religions?
Not just Muslims.
An empire where Christians and Jews also coexisted.
We will explore the role played by the "Millet" autonomous system that suppressed religious conflict.

Episode 5: How was the world's strongest army created?
The Janissary corps.
Thorough training.
Introduction of the latest weapons.
Why did the Ottoman Empire remain the world's strongest military state for centuries?

Episode 6: Why was the Ottoman Empire able to dominate the world economy?
The Bosphorus Strait.
The Dardanelles Strait.
Silk Road trade.
Controlling the key points of logistics connecting East and West
was the greatest weapon for the empire's prosperity.

Episode 7: Why did one of the world's largest empires decline?
Success experience.
Institutional fatigue.
The Industrial Revolution.
Changes in the world economy.
Why did the massive empire that lasted over six hundred years lose the competition with modern states?

Episode 8: What the Ottoman Empire left to the world [Final Episode]
Multi-ethnic governance.
Religious coexistence.
International trade.
And the origin of the modern Middle East.
We will summarize the true legacy that the Ottoman Empire left to the world.

★This is the post index.
★Please take a look if there are any articles you are interested in.

Post Index ★Introducing all episodes
Post Index 2 ★Explaining the benefits of reading by series

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