This is a story of the beginning of the end of one of the most powerful empires in history - the Ottoman Empire.
source: Wikipedia
At the peak of its expansion, as a result of Mehmed II Fatih's and Suleiman the Magnificent's conquers, as well as those of their heir's, Ottoman Empire was stretching all the way from Arabia, İran and Syria across Northern Africa to the Balkans and Hungary.
The empire was considered very developed for the likes of 15th and 16th century. It was Europeans' nightmare. The empire seized its power via devşirme, the talking of the young Christian boys with a purpose of Islamization and incorporation whether in army called yeniçeri or on the court. It was these yeniçeri who held the empire at such a level. They were considered one of the strongest, and most disciplined armies in the world. in spite of this being so at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century began the fall of the Ottoman Empire, which was long and painful for all the Ottomans,it actually ended only in 1920, with proclamation of the Republic of Turkey. In this article I want to mention two main reasons for that.
The first reason is the firearms. The putting of firearms to use In Europe was meant the end of yeniçeri. They were very dicsiplibed, but rather traditional army. They could not handle the sole power of shooting from distance anymore. Thus failed the Siege of Vienna in 1683, followed by treaties of Karlovci in 1699 and Požarevac in 1718. This set the western borderlines of Ottoman Empire on Sava and Neretva rivers in favor of Venice and the Habsburg Monarchy. The Ottomans lost their de facto power on the Balkans that day.
The other reason is The French Revolution of 1789. This led to inner problems within the Empire. The Sultan's way of ruling was often autocratic, and with the empire losing some portions of territory and people realizing how much they are late in accepting cultural innovations Europe already accepted, they demanded a change, but sultan would not give up his position easily. And so this lasted for a few centuries until Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established the modern Turkey with more democratic values.
