GROWTH OF THE
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
APEH chapter 16
Ottoman Empire

After taking much of southeast Europe in the 16th
century, Ottomans were treated as another
European power in the 17th century
 Highly
 Led
effective government
by sultans or viziers (Prime Ministers)
 Constantinople was splendid with thriving population
Topkapi Palace
Ottoman Empire

Millet System:
 Millet=independent
region
 Self-governed by religious leaders
 Collected
taxes
 Regulated behavior, maintained courts, schools, houses of
worship, and hospitals

Many Jewish
people, who were
cruelly oppressed in
Western Europe
(aka Reconquista),
moved to Istanbul
and found Turkey to
be a “haven” = a
mass migration of
Jewish people soon
followed
Ottoman Empire

Devshirme
 Christian
youths captured(sometimes given) by the
Ottoman agents and recruited for the Imperial civil
service and standing army
 Converted
to Islam
 The brightest 10% entered the Palace school and were
trained for civil service
 The others were sent to Turkish farms and were trained for
toughness = Janissaries
 Janissaries were the elite army corps who were absolutely
loyal to the Sultan
Maintaining the Empire

Sultans reproduced only with concubines
 One


son each
Son’s sent to govern a province
System erodes under Sulleiman
 Has
children with slave he married
 This
 Used
give power to the wife
arranged marriages for children
 Married

into noble families, spreading political power
Bureaucratic administration