Ancient Turkey

History of Turkey. According to the Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Modern Turkey makes up a large portion of a geographic location that was known as Asia Minor or Anatolia. This area is in between the Black and Mediterranean Seas and is located on the most southwestern part of Asia. Modern Turkey has previously been referred to as a variation of nations because it has historically been populated by a variation of different cultures. The earliest mention of the Asia Minor region stems all the way back to 2334 BCE and refers to the “The Land of Hatti” of the Akkadian Dynasty. This dynasty was made up of Hittite inhabitants who called their region Assuwa (later to be called Asia by the Romans). Around 1200 BCE, the Sea Peoples invasion of Assuwa

The Persian empire ruled this area until they were conquered in 333 BCE by the Greek king Alexander III of Macedon (also known as Alexander the Great). The Asia Minor was then colonized by a Greek man called Byzas and the Greek population in the region eventually became to be known as the Byzantine. After King Alexander’s death, the Asia Minor region entered another state of instability as it was led by Hellenistic governors and was involved in the wars of Alexander’s successors (the Four Wars of Diadochi). The instability remained until it was colonized by the Romans and officially became a Roman province in 133 BCE. Byzantium became such a significant part of the Roman Empire that Emperor Constantine I of Rome eventually devoted it to the capital of “New Rome” and named the city Constantinople in 330 CE. (Mark,

The Byzantine Empire survived the attacks of the Seljuk Turks with Byzantium King Alexios I Komnenos making agreements to help the European Crusaders and regain most of Byzantium land from the Seljuks during the 1090’s CE. The Byzantine Empire continued to flourish as a society of Roman, Greek, and Central Asian descendants. However, Anatolia continued to be a place of conflict between the Byzantines and the Seljuk Turks until the Byzantine Empire’s capital of Constantinople finally was conquered and established as the Ottoman Empire in 1453 CE. (Hussey,