Why the Ottoman Empire rose and fell. ... Control of some of the world’s most lucrative trade routes led to vast wealth, while its impeccably organized military system led to military might.

In 1453, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) marked the end of the Byzantine Empire and the beginning of Ottoman control over key trade routes linking Europe with Asia.

Introduction : an empire of the mind -- Selim the navigator : 1512-1520 -- Ibrahim Pasha and the Age of Reconnaissance : 1520-1536 ... their main rival for control of the lucrative trade routes of ...

Already drained by the bursts of the bubonic plague during the Black Death around 20 years earlier, the trade was weakened even further by the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire. The truly decisive ...

Most Americans don’t know that their morning cup of coffee connects them to the Ottoman Empire. Few are aware that this bygone Muslim state helped to birth Protestantism, America’s dominant ...

The Last Days of the Ottoman empire: 1918-1922. By Ryan Gingeras. Allen Lane; 368 pages; $47.95 and £30. A s it turned out, more than six centuries of Ottoman rule ended with a whimper rather ...

A century after its demise, the Ottoman Empire may seem like a footnote — a geopolitical order that has long since disintegrated and been relegated to the annals of history, with little ...