Ottoman

Empire was founded by Othman in 1300 A.D. on the ruins of the old Saracen, Seljuh, and Mongol powers. Osman’s son, Orkhan, conquered all Asia Minor, and Orkhan's son, Soliman, invaded Europe. Muhammed I. and his grand-vizier, Ibrahim created the Turkish navy about 1420, and Muhammed II. took Constantinople in 1453. The consequent dispersion of learned Jews and Greeks over central and western Europe was one of the main causes of the Reformation, as they took with them the New Learning, with its canons of evidence, etc. The O. E. was at its highest under Soliman II. between 1519 and 1566. The first great defeat by sea was at Lepanto in 1571, by the combined Spanish and Venetian fleets the first great defeat by land was at St. Gothard; in 1664. With the 18th century Ru ia, under Peter the Great and Catharine II., was extended to the Black Sea, and became, naturally, the permanent enemy of the Turk. The 19th century has seen the gradual curtailing of the Ottoman territory in Europe, and a glorious prospect of the Sublime Porte disappearing from European politics.