Hist1: The fall of the last of the great Islamic empires (Ottoman) and the origin of Turkey (v1.0)

This is a completely factual essay. This essay was created from multiple public sources on the web. You have to be familiar with geography to understand the full context. 

The Islamic prophet Muhammad died in 632 CE. Significant expansion of Islam occurred during the reign of the Rashidun from 632 to 661 CE, which was the reign of the first four successors of Muhammad. Many caliphates were born.  A number of Muslim empires rose and fell in the swath of territory that includes north Africa, middle east, west Asia, central Asia, India, and parts of eastern Europe during the period 750 CE to 1922 CE. The last of these empires to fall was the ottoman empire (in 1922 CE). Islam also spread to other parts of the world like southeast Asia including Indonesia. A big part of this period was the golden age of Islam. The people of the Islamic world created numerous sophisticated centers of culture and science with far-reaching mercantile networks, travelers, scientists, hunters, mathematicians, physicians, and philosophers all contributing to the Islamic Golden Age. The expansion made it rich, and Trade was a major focus.

The ottoman empire was started by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Turkish Anadolu, also called Asia Manor) in the 13^th century and grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15^th and 16^th century. It grew by eating into the declining Christian Byzantine empire (which had its origins as the eastern part of the Christian roman empire of Constantine) and by taking advantage after the severe weakening of the surrounding regions due to the Mongol invasions during the 13^th and 14^th century. The ottoman empire continued for several generations encompassing at its zenith much of southeastern Europe to the gates of Vienna including Hungary, Balkans, Greece and parts of Ukraine, north Africa as far west as Algeria, and much of the middle east, and turkey. This essay focuses on the fall of this last of the Islamic empires - ottoman empire - and its legacy.

The ottoman empire declined steadily from 1566 to 1807. Mehmud II – the ruler at that end point - focused on internal reforms and his sons continued that. The Tanzimat is the name given to the series of Ottoman reforms promulgated during the reigns of Mehmud’s  sons Abdulmecid I (ruled 1839–61) and Abdulaziz (1861–76). They were largely successful.  The crisis of 1875 – 1878 was triggered by dissatisfaction due to draught in 1873 and floods in 1874, increased taxation, and greater liability to conscription. The increased taxation was due to a crushing debt burden and due to difficulty in getting credit due to a world financial crisis in 1873. There were uprisings. Ottoman efforts to suppress the uprisings led to war with Serbia and Montenegro (July 1876) and to attempts by European powers to force Ottoman reforms. It spiraled. Russia declared war in 1877 and the European powers also intervened. The ottomans were defeated. In the Treaty of San Stefano (March 3, 1878), the Ottomans were to recognize the independence of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro and cede territory to them, concede autonomy to a new state of Bulgaria, cede territory to Russia west of the black sea and eastern Asia Minor, institute reforms and pay an indemnity. A subsequent modification in 1878 gave Austria-Hungary control of Bosnia and Herzegovina (which were annexed in 1908), and the British got Cyprus. The Ottoman territories in Europe were reduced to Macedonia, Albania, and Thrace. It was a major defeat. By 1914 the ottomans had been driven out of nearly all of Europe and North Africa. It still controlled 28 million people, of whom 17 million were in modern-day Turkey, 3 million in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, and 2.5 million in Iraq. Another 5.5 million people were under nominal Ottoman rule in the Arabian Peninsula. 

World War I started in 1914. The Turk government had signed a secret treaty with Germany and established the Ottoman-German Alliance in August 1914. In 1915, the Russian Caucasus Army continued to advance in eastern Anatolia with the help of Armenian volunteer units and aided by some Ottoman Armenians. The Ottoman government decided to issue the Tehcir law which started the deportation of the ethnic Armenians, particularly from the provinces close to the Ottoman-Russian front, resulting in what became known as the Armenian genocide. Through forced marches and gang skirmishes, the Armenians living in eastern Anatolia were uprooted from their ancestral homelands and sent southwards to the Ottoman provinces in Syria and Mesopotamia. Estimates vary on how many Armenians perished, but scholars give figures ranging from 300,000 (per the modern Turkish state), 600,000 (per early estimates by Western researchers) to up to 1.5 million (per modern Western and Armenian scholars). The Arab revolt which began in 1916 turned the tide against the Ottomans at the Middle Eastern front. When the Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918, the only parts of the Arabian Peninsula that were still under Ottoman control were Yemen, Asir, the city of Medina, portions of northern Syria and portions of northern Iraq. These territories were handed over to the British forces on 23 January 1919. Under the terms of the Treaty of Sevres the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire was solidified. The new countries created from the former territories of the Ottoman Empire currently number 39. A Turkish national movement arose, which won the 1919–1923 Turkish war of independence under Mustafa Kemal Pasha.  The Sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922. Modern day Turkey was born. 

In this essay I try to give the broad context in broad brush strokes - The connection of many states today to the ottoman empire, and the connection of the ottoman empire to Europe, Africa, middle east, Russia, the roman empire, the Mongols, the world war I and Islam. The Ottoman Empire plays a central role in the history of a large area for a sustained period (the empire lasted for over 600 years), and it leaves its cultural, religious, ethnic and linguistic footprints there.