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The History of Turkey Essay

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Throughout history, the middle east has often been the focus of news reporters. A middle eastern country that has not been exempt from this, is Turkey. Turkey has not only been a focus, but it also has had a very long, complicated history.

The history of turkey is a very long and detailed one. Turkey was originally settled by groups of farmers probably thousands of years ago. Today, historians call these people the Hittites. During their time, the Hittites were ruled by kings, and had their high officials buried in shaft tombs. Shortly after the Hittites moved in, Indo-Europeans moved into the area, and formed the kingdom of the Hittites, with the capital being Hattusa. The kingdom survived for hundreds of years. However …show more content…

This allowed the Turks to continue their influence. During the 1300’s, the Ottomans began to build an empire. By 1453, they captured Constantinople. The Ottomans changed the capital's name from Constantinople to Istanbul. During the 1500's, the Ottoman Empire expanded and reached the height of its power. After this time the empire began to fall apart. During the 1800's, the Ottoman Empire had fallen into such a state of depravity that it became known as "The Sick Man of Europe". In 1829, after losing a war against France, Britain, Russia, and Greece, the Ottomans were forced to give up control of the Danube River. During the mid to late 1800’s, Turkey lost many pieces of land by losing the war in 1829, and the Russo-Turkish Wars. Turkey lost Algeria and Tunisia to France, and Cyprus and Egypt to the United Kingdom. However, Cyprus and Egypt remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1914. During the 1890’s a group of students and military officers secretly banded together and opposed Sultan Abdülhamit’s strict policies. The most influential group of these people was the Committee of Union and Progress. In 1908, members of this group revolted against Abdülhamit in order to force him to reinstate a constitutional government. This group made Abdülhamit surrender his throne in 1909. In 1914, the newly reinstated Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers. In 1915, the Allies tried to gain control of the

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