Centralization & the Ottoman Empire: An Integral Role in the Golden Age

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Though, the use of superlatives is often incorporated with regards to understanding and defining many geopolitical structures that have existed since the dawn of tim. It is not an exaggeration to state that the Ottoman Empire was one of the longest lived, richest, and most successful empires that the world has ever seen. Beginning in 1299 and lasting up until the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1922, the 623 year span of time in nearly continual power that this Empire was able to exercise was unmatched at that time; either within Europe or elsewhere in the World. The key to this great wealth and power was due to the fact that the Ottoman Empire existed upon the nexus of trade between Asia and Europe. Occupying this important chokepoint, the Ottomans were able to derive a great deal of riches based upon control and management of the trade that flowed between that of the East and West. Much like that of the Byzantines before them, the Ottoman Empire served as a link between Europe and Asia, and greatly benefited from the profits of the exchange that was perennially flowing over these geographic boundaries; this era came to be known as the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire. Although there can be many identifications and definitions for the means by which the Ottoman Empire was able to exert such a powerful degree of influence, military right, and cultural dynamism. It will be the purpose of this analysis to discuss and analyze the means by which a continual process of centralization can ultimately be understood as one defining force, that allowed the Ottoman Empire to thrive throughout this period of the “Golden Age.” Whereas other lesser powers had grown powerful, wealthy and then almost mysteriously vanished into the... ... middle of paper ... ...e undertaken. Works Cited Ener, Mine. “Religious Prerogatives and Policing the Poor in Two Ottoman Contexts.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35, no.3 (2005): 501-511. EBSCO. Cicek, Kemal. “The Cambridge History of Turkey. Volume 3: The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603-1839.” Journal of the Economic &Social History of the Orient 52, no.1 (2009): 153-158. EBSCO. Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. New York: Longman, 1997. Michael, Michalis N. “Local Authorities and Conflict in an Ottoman Island at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century.” Turkish Historical Review 2, no. 1 (May 2011): 57-77. EBSCO. Streusand, Douglas E. Islamic Gunpowder Empires Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Boulder, Colo: Westveiw Press, 2011.

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