How Successful Was The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was one of the longest and most powerful empires in the World that lasted six centuries. The empire was established by Osman I as a small but powerful state in present-day Turkey in the late 1200s and grew into a vast empire whose territories covered lands in Asia Minor, North Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe as far as modern-day Czech Republic. The Empire was strategically divided into a central and provincial government. The Ottomans established a bureaucracy through which the sultan, the supreme leader and his council made key decisions, maintained absolute power and controlled of the administrative, military and economic affairs of the empire. This system enabled the Sultan to appoint provincial and religious who ensured that

The central government lost its ability to control its territories. The Sultan lost much of his absolute control over the administrative and military affairs of the empire, relinquishing some of his authority to provincial leaders who seized the opportunities to expand their governing powers and acquired new wealth and lands once belong to the empire. As a result agricultural production plummeted, prompting government officials to impose heavy tax quotas on the already struggling peasants. Local leaders consolidated their powers and no longer answer to the central government and appointed their own successors from their relatives. The Janissary, who was once the protectors of the empire and the sultan, became one of the empire’s biggest problems as they rebelled against reforms. These factors weakened the once powerful Ottoman Empire and curbed its ability to face off more modern and technologically advanced European forces, which led to massive territorial losses in Europe to the