How Did The Byzantine Empires Build An Empire

In the fourteenth century, in modern-day Turkey, there was an empire called the Ottoman Empire. They were a small army in the beginning of their journey. They wanted to rid of the very strong empire known as the Byzantine Empire. The first leader that the Ottomans had was Osman. He was the creator and founder of the Ottomans.
In the beginning of their war, they were stronger than most any other armies because they had a powerful short bow that other armies did not have. In the 1300’s they had captured their first enemy, the Mongols. In 1338, the Byzantines changed their capital from Rome to Byzantium. They then called their city Constantinople. They captured the city and everyone fled and they were the last to leave.
A miracle happened that helped the Ottomans out very much. The Byzantines had made a river and then a giant storm had come and changed the direction of the flow of the river. This made a
lot happen for the Ottomans. The religion has much to do with the growth of the empire and everything that contributed to them. They were Muslim and they did not really accept any other religion. By the 1400’s the Ottomans were now ruling over most of the empires, but they had not yet captured the Byzantines. Their next battle was the Byzantines. They had won and had the attention all over. Their army went from 400 to 4000 in their army.
Ozman believed that he was a very powerful leader and wanted power forever. He created a powerful Muslim army that then ruled Europe. The first city that they took was called Bursa. The Ottomans used starvation against them and they eventually surrendered. While this was happening the once most powerful empire was struggling to gain power.
They had gotten help from another empire and gained power again. In the 1350’s the Ottomans attacked the Balkans and they took the best young boys in the city and trained them to be future conscripts for fighting. The top boys at the end of training were sent to the castle and the rest were trained to be soldiers. They did all of this because they wanted to make the other religions like them.
Osman decided that he wanted to retire and become a scholar. He gave his 12-year-old son power. He then died in 1451. The second son at the age of 19 gained power for the second time. His name was Mehmet. Mehmet wanted to gain the power of Constantinople. They built two towers at the end of the river that flowed into Constantinople. This made it very hard to get resources to Constantinople. The population then sunk down to hardly anything. The Ottomans made a cannon that would blow down the door to Constantinople. In April 1453, Mehmet was ready to attack. He has 100,000 men outside of Constantinople. On April 7th, Mehmet sent his first troop into Constantinople. Mehmet sent his navy there too and the Byzantines were ready to attack. He was blocked by their army so he went around it. He picked up his boats and moved them across the land. Their destination was the golden horn. They made it into Constantinople and the city was in Ottoman and Muslim hands.

The church in Constantinople was entered and changed.
The Ottomans took out the Christian cross and put in a crescent moon. Christians were allowed to come back to the city if they wanted. They got tax cuts and benefits if they chose to. They then changed the name of their city to Istanbul. On May 3rd, 1481 Mehmet died. The Christians saw a good time to attack the Mehmet followers. In 1517 they had a ruler named Salim. Salim's army had captured Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina. Most religious places were captured. He died and they had a new ruler named Suleiman. His army captured Rhodes, Buda, and Yama.
Suleiman was then known as the greatest leader of the army. He hired a designer to redesign the castle to make it look more European. Suleiman had gotten married and this triggered many people of the city. They had many kids and this created new princes for the throne. Later on, they had really gotten married and they had two sons left. Her name was Roxy Lana. Her son died and they were left with one son. Roxy Lana died, and then in 1566 at the age of 72 Suleman died
too.
After his death, they realized that there was nothing left for the empire to conquer because they had already conquered it all. In the 1600’s they lose the military edge. Over the years they have had 10 powerful leaders. In 1595, 19 princes were murdered by outside empires. They then stopped fratricide. In 1826 the new sultan attacked the Janissaries. This sultan had stopped the era. The Ottomans were failing and they had nothing left to do. The new name given to the Ottomans was, The sick man of Europe.
In 1843, Topkapi, where Istanbul was located, was abandoned. The new sultan spent all of their remaining money on a new castle. In 1876, the Ottomans were declared bankrupt. When WWI came around, the Ottomans faced economic disaster. A way they thought they could gain their power back was by genocide. They moved the Turkish people to Syria and the Armenians. 3000 men, women, and children died.
The 20th century came around and the Armenians gained independence from the Ottomans. They did not like the Armenians because they were Christian. All of this war happened because of religion. They thought since the other empires believed different things, they thought they should just kill them because they did not believe what they believed.
How do place shape culture and the development of civilizations; how does culture shape individuals; and how do individuals shape place. The way the Ottomans made their culture grow by religion made the other surrounding empires worse. They had switched their religion because of the Ottomans, if they did not they would kill their city and rid of everyone and everything in it. They shaped everyone around them in a good and bad way. If things were not the way the Ottomans wanted, they would be killed and starved.
The Ottomans shaped everyone around them. When the Ottomans got big enough they felt that they could do anything to any empire because they had power. And the other empires gave them this power because they followed their traditions. The way the Ottomans believed was good at first, but they got out of control and all they wanted was power. Once they got into power the killed almost 1,000,000 people. This shaped everyone around them and impacted all of the lives around them.