CHRONOLOGY OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1301 - 1923

1301

♦ Osman founds the Ottoman dynasty in Anatolia

1320

♦ Osman leaves his son Orhan in charge of the Ottoman empire and
 Orhan hires Alaeddin Pasha, not an Osman, as vizier (prime minister)

1324

♦ Osman dies and his son Orhan becomes king of the Ottomans

1326

♦ The Ottomans led by Orhan take Bursa and make it their capital

1331

♦ The Ottomans conquer Nicaea

♦ The Ottomans inaugurate the first madrasa in Iznik

1335

♦ The Karaman state moves its capital to Konya

1345

♦ The Ottomans conquer Bergama

1346

♦ The Ottomans of Orhan help Byzantium's co-emperor John VI
 Cantacuzene win the civil war with John V Paleologues and Orhan  marries Cantacuzene's daughter Theodora

1354

♦ The Ottomans occupy Gallipoli, first outpost in Europe

1360

♦ Orhan dies having doubled the size of the state and is succeeded by his
 son Murad/Murat (son of Theodora) as sultan of the Ottomans, who hires
 Candarli Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha as vizier (the first one to be called
 grand vizier)

1361

♦ The Ottomans led by Murad I conquer Adrianople, change its name to
 Edirne and make it their capital, leaving only one major city, the distant
 Trebizond, to Byzantium

1364

♦ The Ottomans defeat an allied army of Hungary and Serbia at Edirne

1370

♦ The Ottoman sultan Murad marries the Bulgarian  princess Tamara

1391

♦ The Ottomans, under Bayazid I, conquer most of western and central
 Anatolia

1393

♦ Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, son of Murad, besieges Constantinople

1397

♦ The Ottomans defeat the Turkomans of Konya/Karaman in Anatolia

1398

♦ The Ottomans annex the Turkomans of Sivas in Anatolia

1402

♦ Tamerlane  defeats the Ottomans at Ankara and captures Ottoman
 sultan Beyazid I who dies in captivity

1405

♦ Tamerlane dies and the end of a civil war among Bayazid's sons,
 Suleiman rules on Ottoman Europe and Mehmet rules on Ottoman
 Anatolia

1411

♦ Suleiman Ottoman, helped by Byzantium, is killed by his brother Musa
 Ottoman leading an army of Turks and Balkans

1413

♦ Mehmet Ottoman kills his brother Musa with help from Byzantium and
 recovers all the Ottoman territories lost during the civil war, and makes
 Persian and Turkish the official languages of the government instead of
 Greek

1421

♦ Ottoman sultan Mehmet I dies and is succeeded by his son Murad II

1430

♦ The Ottomans defeat an alliance of Venetia and Hungary

1451

♦ Muhammad/Mehmet II succeeds Ottoman sultan Murad II

1453

♦ The Ottoman Turks under 20-year old Mehmet II capture
 Constantinople/Byzantium

1454

♦ The Ottomans grant Venetia the right to trade in Ottoman lands, the
 only western power allowed to do so Ottoman sultan Mehmet II restores
 the Greek Orthodox church under Gennadius Scholarius

1455

♦ Ottoman sultan Mehmet II builds the grand bazaar of Istanbul

1461

♦ The Ottomans conquer Trebizond

1473

♦ The Ottomans defeat the White Horde of Mongol khan Uzun Hasan and
 conquer Anatolia west of the Euphrates

1475

♦ The world's first coffee shop, Kiva Han, opens in Istanbul

♦ The Ottomans conquer Genova/Genoa's colonies of the Black Sea and
 subject the Crimean Tatars

1477

♦ Istanbul has 80.000 inhabitants of which 9.486 Muslim households, 3.743
 Christian  Greek households, 1.647  Jewish households, 818  Christian  Armenian  households, 267 Christian  Slavic households

1478

♦ The Topkapi palace is inaugurated in Istanbul

1479

♦ The 16-year war ends with Venetia losing most of her territories along
 the Aegean Sea to the Ottomans

1481

♦ Mehmet II dies and is succeeded by Beyazid II who defeats his brother
 Cem

1484

♦ The Black Sea becomes an Ottoman lake

1492

♦ The Ottoman Empire gives asylum to the Sephardic Jews expelled from
 the Christian kingdoms of Spain

1493

♦ First Jewish printing press in Istanbul

1512

♦ Selim I defeats his brothers with help from the janissaries and the
 janissaries force his father Beyazit to abdicate in Selim's favour

1513

♦ Selim I kills all his brothers, nephews and eventually his own sons
 except for Suleiman

1514

♦ The Ottomans of Selim I defeat Shah Ismail I Safavid army at Chaldiran
 (Iran/Persia) thereby conquering Kurdistan and Armenia

1515

♦ The sultan forbids the printing press

1516

♦ The Ottomans of Selim I defeat the Mamlukes and annex Syria and
 Palestine

1517

♦ The Ottomans of Selim I conquer Egypt and western Arabia (end of the
 Mamluk empire)

1519

♦ Celal leads a revolt against the Ottoman sultan

1520

♦ Selim dies and his only surviving son Suleiman becomes the ruler of the
Ottoman Empire with no succession war

1522

♦ The Ottomans under Suleiman capture Rhodes from the Knights of
 Saint John, the last Christian outpost in the eastern Mediterranean

1523

♦ Suleiman appoints a foreigner, a Christian from Greece, Pargali Ibrahim
 as grand vizier, thus weakening the Turkish aristocracy and empowering
 the slaves

1526

♦ The Hungarian army is defeated at the battle of Mohacs by the
 Ottomans of Suleiman and Hungary is partitioned between the Ottoman
 Empire and the Hapsburgs, with Hungary proper under Ottoman
 occupation, Transylvania as a Turkish protectorate and Slovakia is
 annexed by the Hapsburg Monarchy

1527

♦ There are 27,000 Janissaries

1529

♦ The mufti of Istanbul executes the dervish Ismail Mashuki that the
 masses consider a saint

1531

♦ Suleiman marries the Christian Ukrainian slave girl Roxalana, the first
 sultan to marry one of his slaves and the first sultan to have a wife since
 Orhan

1534

♦ The Ottomans capture Baghdad from the Safadi’s, helped by a popular
 insurrection of the Sunnis, but the Safavids survive in eastern Iran,
 Azerbaijan and the southern Caucasus

♦ The Ottoman queen mother dies and Suleyman's wife Hurren Sultan
 becomes the most influential woman of the empire

1535

♦ The Ottomans sign a Capitulation agreement with France that opens
 its market to French merchants and makes France its main Western ally

♦ The number of Jewish households in Istanbul has multiplied by five
 since 1477

1536

♦ Suleiman executes grand vizier Pargali Ibrahim, the victim of intrigues
 by Hurrem Sultan and the French ambassador

1544

♦ Hurrem Sultan manages to have her son-in-law Rustem Pasha
 appointed grand vizier of the Ottomans

1547

♦ The Ottomans conquer Sana (Yemen) and southern Iraq

1550 - 1557

♦ The mosque of Sultan Suleiman (Suleymaniye Mosque) in Istanbul built
 & concecrated

1555

♦ The Ottoman empire conquers Mesopotamia from the Safadi Empire
 with the Peace of Amasya

♦ The false Mustafa leads a revolt against the Ottoman ruler in Thrace
 and Macedonia but Mustafa is captured and killed and thousands of
 rebels are executed

♦ Coffee is introduced in Ottoman Turkey

1558

♦ The powerful sultan's wife Hurrem Sultan dies and her two surviving
 sons, Selim (helped by the janissaries) and Beyazit, fight for the right to
 succeed Suleiman, with Selim winning and Beyazit fleeing to Safadi Iran

1560

♦ The Safadis deliver prince Beyazit to the Ottomans to be executed

1561

♦ The new grand vizier Sokullu Mehmet marries Selim's daughter Esma
 Sultan, creating a new powerful harem at the Ottoman court

1565

♦ The Ottomans conquer Malta

1566

♦ Suleiman dies (having conquered Hungary, Transylvania, Tripoli,
 Algiers, Yemen, Iraq, Rhodes) and Selim II succeeds him with Sokullu
 Mehmet as grand vizier

1570

♦ The Ottomans conquer Cyprus from Venetia

1571

♦ At the battle of Lepanto an army formed by the Pope, Spain, Venetia
 and Genova destroys the Ottoman navy, thus halting Ottoman expansion
 in the Mediterranean

1574

♦ The Hafsid dynasty collapses in Tunisia and is replaced by the Ottomans

1574

♦ Ottoman sultan Selim II dies and Murat/Murad III succeeds him killing
 his five brothers on the day of accession, his mother Nurbanu (an
 Orthodox Christian by birth) becomes Valide (queen mother and co-
 regent), while grand vizier Sokullu Mehmet's wife Esma Han and Murat's
 wife Safiye Sultan vie for power

1579

♦ The Ottoman sultan Murat III executes grand vizier Sokullu, responsible
 for nepotism and corruption at court

1580

♦ Ottoman sultan Murat/Murad III and Felipe II of Spain sign a treaty
 dividing spheres of influence in the Mediterranean between Ottomans
 and Hapsburgs, dividing Muslim and Christian Mediterranean

♦ A fanatical mob destroys the astronomical observatory of Istanbul

1583

♦ The Ottomans defeat the Safavids at Vilasa (battle of the torches) and
 conquer most of the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia)

1587

♦ Safadi king Shah Abbas I creates a gunpowder-based military force

1595

♦ Murat III dies, having fathered 130 sons and collected 40 concubines,
 and is succeeded by his son Mehmet III, who kills his 19 brothers and 20
 sisters, but real power is in the hands of his mother Safiye Sultan

1603

♦ Sunullah Efendi leads a revolt of religious students and the Sipahi
 cavalry against the Ottoman sultan but the rebels are massacred

♦ Mehmet III dies and is succeeded by his 13-year old son Ahmet I with
 power in the hands of his mother and the chief eunuch

1608

♦ Celali rebels are massacred by the Ottomans

1612

♦ The Ottomans sign a peace treaty with the Safavids returning the
 Caucasus

1617

♦ Ottoman sultan Ahmet I dies and is succeeded by his brother Mustafa,
 who had been kept in isolation during childhood, the first sultan with no
 experience, thanks to the victory of one of Ahmet's wives, Kosem Sultan,
 over the other, Mhafiruz Sultan

1618

♦ The chief eunuch arranges a coup that replaces Ottoman sultan Mustafa
 with Mhafiruz's son Osman II

1622

♦ The Janissaries depose Osman II and restore Mustafa as Ottoman sultan

1623

♦ Soldiers stage a coup that deposes Mustafa and makes the 11-year old
 Murat IV becomes Ottoman sultan, with power in the hands of his
 mother Kosem Sultan and the chief eunuch

1637

♦ The Ottomans abolish the devshirme

1682

♦ Beginning of the Hundred Year War between the Hapsburg monarchy
 and the Ottoman empire

1695

♦ Russia captures Azov on the Black Sea from the Ottomans, thereby
 ending Ottoman's domination of the Black Sea

1718

♦ “The Tuluo Period”. Damat Ibrahim becomes grand vizier of the
 Ottomans, inaugurating a period of peace and Westernization

1725

♦ The Ottomans conquer Tabriz, Armenia and Georgia from Iran

1729

♦ The first book is printed in the Ottoman empire (the first book ever
 printed in a Muslim country)

1730

♦ End of “the Tupil Period”. Patrona Halil leads a rebellion against the
 Ottomans that leads the sultan to execute grand vizier Damat Ibrahim
 and to Mahmut I, while the rebels spread terror in Istanbul

1774

♦ The Russians defeat the Ottomans and obtain cities of the Black Sea and
 Caucasus, the first time that the Ottoman Empire loses Muslim subjects  to a Christian power, and the right to build a Russian Christian Orthodox
 church in Istanbul

1787

♦ The Ottomans restore central government control over Egypt

1792

♦ Russia defeats the Ottomans and obtains Southern Ukraine with the
 Dniester as the new border

1793

♦ The Ottoman sultan Selim III proclaims the new order

1798

♦ Napoleon attempts to conquer Egypt from the Ottomans (Battle of the
 Pyramids), breaking the traditional alliance between France and the
 Ottoman Empire

1801

♦ The Ottomans and the British defeat Napoleon's troops in Egypt, while
 Russia annexes Georgia

1807

♦ The janissaries revolt against the Ottoman sultan Selim III who is
 replaced by Mustafa IV

1810

♦ There are 110,000 janissaries, up from 55,000 in 1800

1812

♦ The Russians defeat the Ottomans and annex Bessarabia (Moldovia) at
the Peace of Bucharest but abandon Serbia to the Ottomans

1814

♦ The Greek secret society Philiki Etairia stages an insurrection against the
 Ottoman Empire, and thousands of Greeks are massacred in Istanbul

1826

♦ The Ottoman emperor Mahmud II massacres the janissaries, strips the
 ulema of political power and expels the Sufis

1828

♦ The first steamship arrives at Istanbul, the Ottoman capital

1829

♦ Russia defeats the Ottomans and helps Serbia and Greece become
 independent

1831

♦ The first Ottoman newspaper is published

♦ The first Ottoman opera house is opened

1833

♦ The Ottomans and Russia sign a peace treaty at Hunkiar Iskelesi

1836

♦ A bridge across the Golden Horn is inaugurated

1839

♦ The new sultan, Abdul Majid/ Abdulmecid I, introduces secular law next
 to sharia and grants non-Muslims the same rights as Muslims, and bans
 the slave trade

1841

♦ The Straits Convention among Russia, Britain, France, Austria, Prussia
 and Ottomans limits Russian access to the Mediterranean and leaves the
 Ottoman Empire dependent on British and French protection from Russia

1853

♦ In the Crimean war Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire fight Russia
 (the first major war in which Christian countries side with a Muslim
 country)

1861

♦ Abdul Aziz ascends to the throne of the Ottoman Empire and
 inaugurates Western-style reforms

1870

♦ The university of Istanbul opens

1876

♦ Ottoman irregular troops massacre 4,000 rioting Christians in Bulgaria
 (Batak massacre)

♦ Ottoman sultan Abdul Aziz commits suicide and is succeeded by his
 nephew Murad V

♦ The intoxicated Murad V is deposed and his brother Abdulhamid II
 becomes Ottoman sultan

♦ The Ottoman constitution is proclaimed but largely ignored by the sultan

♦ The Cite de Pera opens in Istanbul's district of Pera at the peak of Pera's
 Parisian fad

1877

♦ The Ottoman parliament convenes for the first time

1882

♦ The Ottoman Empire can no longer pay interests on its debt and accepts
 a foreign debt administration

1889

♦ Ottoman army and navy officers organize the Committee of Union and
 Progress (the Young Turks)

1893

♦ A railway is inaugurated from the Bosphorus to Ankara

1894

♦ 250,000 Armenian Christians and 25,000 Assyrian Christians are
 massacred in eastern Turkey by regular and irregular Ottoman troops
 between 1894 and 1896

1905

♦ Mustafa Kemal founds the Fatherland Society

1908

♦ Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid II grants a parliamentary constitution and
 appoints Kamil as grand vizier but real power rests with the Young Turks
 led by Enver, Jemal and Talat

♦ The first parliamentary elections are held in the Ottoman Empire

♦ Women join in the celebration for the new parliament by showing their
 face in public for the first time

1909

♦ Tel Aviv is founded as a Hebrew speaking Jewish city in Ottoman
 Palestine
♦ Massacre of 20,000 Armenian Christians in Adana province by Muslim
 mobs

♦ The sultan proclaims shariia law to appease Muslim fundamentalists,
 Young Turks from Salonicca led by Mahmud Shevket march on Istanbul
 and depose Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid II who is succeeded by his
 brother Mehmed V

1914

♦ The Ottoman Empire enters World War I in an alliace with Germany and
 Austria against Russia, France and Britain

1915

♦ The Ottoman empire begins the massacre of Armenian Christians that
 will kill 1.2 million Armenians

♦ The Ottoman empire massacres 500,000 Assyrian Christians between
 1915 and 1920

1916

♦ Ottoman troops led by Mustafa Kemal defeat the British at Gallipoli/
 Canakkale

♦ The Ottoman empire massacres 350,000 Greek Pontians and 480,000
 Anatolian Greeks between 1916 and 1923

1918

♦ The Ottoman Empire is defeated in World War I

♦ Istanbul is occupied and divided by British, French and Italian troops

May 1919

♦ Greece attacks the Ottoman Empire to regain control of the old
 Byzantine territories and Turkey retaliates by massacring tens of
 thousands of Greek and Armenian Christians in its territories

June 1919

♦ Kemal organizes in the village of Ankara armed resistance against the
 European occupation and the Greek aggression while feminist Halide
 Edib holds a pro-nationalist rally in Istanbul

July 1919

♦ British troops, Greek troops and the sultan's troops battle Kemal's
 nationalists near Istanbul

April 1920

♦ Mustafa Kemal is elected president of Turkey and moves the capital from
 Istanbul to Ankara while the Greeks take Bursa and Edirne

Aug 1920

♦ The Treaty of Sevres grants independence to Armenia and calls for the
 establishment of an independent Kurdish state

1921

♦ Kurds found the Azadi society for independence

Sep 1922

♦Turkey wins the war against Greece, Mustafa Kemal enters Greek-majority Izmir and 200 thousand Greeks flee to Greece (tens of thousands of Greeks and Armenians are massacred in Smyrna or die in the fire that destroys the Greek and Armenian quarters)

Oct 1922

♦ Mustafa Kemal's general Refet enters Istanbul with minimal bloodshed,  and an exodus begins that will involve 150 thousand Greeks of Istanbul  by 1924

Nov 1922

♦ Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI, accused by the nationalists of being a
 puppet of the British, leaves Istanbul (end of the Ottoman sultanate) and  is succeeded by Abdulmecid whom Kemal appoints caliph

1923

♦ Turkey and Greece agree to exchange population, with more than one
 million Greeks leaving Turkey's Anatolia and 356,000 Turks leaving    Greece

Oct 1923

♦ After five years the last European occupation troops leave Istanbul while
 Mustafa Kemal (later renamed Ataturk) abolishes the Ottoman empire
 and declares Turkey a republic with capital in Ankara