World History 10th Grade

Question

What were the Ottoman Turks origianlly, before they became an Empire?

Answer 1

The Turks were a nomadic, pastoralist people who originally lived in Central Asia. They are related to other steppe peoples from that region such as the Huns, Ughurs, and Tatars. Since Central Asia is primarily flat land (steppes), the Turks emerged as expert horsemen, which allowed them to migrate into Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in the 11th century CE.

From there, the Turks began to gradually chip away at Byzantine lands in the region for the next several centuries, which led to the outbreak of the First Crusade in 1095. The term "Ottoman" simply refers to the next dynasty after the first generation of Turks, the Seljuks. The Ottoman dynasty may be said to have begun with the reign of Osman, who established hegemonic rule over the Turks in 1299. By that point, the Turks had conquered all of Anatolia. In the following centuries, the Ottomans would expand their rule by conquest over the Levant, Egypt, North Africa, parts of Arabia, and even into the Balkan states of Eastern Europe. This Ottoman Empire lasted until 1922, when the Ottoman Empire was finally dissolved given the secular reforms of Mustafa Kemal and the Young Turk movement, which gave rise to the modern nation-state of Turkey.