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What Is Turkish History?

Turkish history covers the story of the land we now call Turkey — a stretch of territory bridging Europe and Asia that has been home to some of the oldest civilizations on Earth. But it’s also the story of a people: Turkic nomads from Central Asia who migrated westward, built one of history’s largest empires, and then — in a remarkably short period — reinvented their entire society as a modern secular republic.

Anatolia Before the Turks

Long before anyone called this place “Turkey,” Anatolia was already ancient.

Catalhoyuk, in south-central Turkey, is one of the world’s earliest known settlements — people lived there from roughly 7500 to 5700 BCE, making it older than Stonehenge by about 4,000 years. Excavations have revealed densely packed mud-brick houses, elaborate wall paintings, and evidence of early agriculture. No streets — people entered their homes through holes in the roof.

The Hittites built a major empire here between roughly 1600 and 1178 BCE, rivaling Egypt and Babylon. Their capital, Hattusa (near modern Bogazkale), controlled much of Anatolia and parts of Syria. The Hittites were among the first peoples to work with iron, and they signed what many historians consider the first known peace treaty — with Ramesses II of Egypt after the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE.

After the Hittite collapse, Anatolia fragmented. The Phrygians moved in (you’ve heard of King Midas — he was Phrygian). The Lydians invented coined money around 600 BCE. Greek colonies dotted the Aegean coast — Troy, Ephesus, Miletus. Then the Persians conquered most of it. Then Alexander the Great took it from the Persians. Then the Romans absorbed it.

Under Rome and its eastern successor, the Byzantine Empire, Anatolia became one of the wealthiest and most urbanized regions in the world. Constantinople — founded by Emperor Constantine in 330 CE on the site of ancient Byzantium — served as the capital for over a thousand years.

The Turkic Arrival and the Seljuks

The people who would eventually give Turkey its name weren’t originally from the region at all. Turkic peoples were nomadic herders from the Central Asian steppes — modern Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and western Mongolia. They began migrating westward in waves starting around the 6th century CE.

The critical moment came on August 26, 1071. At the Battle of Manzikert (modern Malazgirt in eastern Turkey), Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan defeated the Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV. The Byzantine army was shattered, and Anatolia lay open to Turkic settlement. Within a generation, Turkic tribes had spread across most of the peninsula.

The Seljuks of Rum (the name “Rum” comes from “Rome” — they still thought of themselves as occupying Roman territory) established a state centered on Konya. They built beautiful mosques, madrasas, and caravanserais — the roadside inns that kept Silk Road trade flowing. The Seljuk period (roughly 1077-1307) was a cultural golden age that blended Persian, Arabic, and Turkic traditions.

Then the Mongols showed up. Their invasion in the 1240s shattered the Seljuk state and left Anatolia divided among dozens of small Turkic principalities. One of those principalities, in the far northwest near the Byzantine border, was led by a man named Osman.

The Ottoman Empire: 600 Years of Power

Osman I founded what would become the Ottoman Empire around 1299. It started small — just a frontier principality raiding Byzantine borderlands. But the Ottomans had advantages: a strategic location, a talented ruling family, and a remarkable ability to absorb and integrate conquered peoples.

The empire expanded steadily. Orhan (ruled 1326-1362) captured Bursa and made it the capital. Murad I (1362-1389) crossed into Europe, conquering much of the Balkans. The big prize came on May 29, 1453, when Sultan Mehmed II — just 21 years old — conquered Constantinople after a 53-day siege. The city’s legendary walls, which had repelled attackers for a thousand years, fell to massive cannons and a fleet dragged overland on greased logs to bypass a chain blocking the harbor.

Mehmed renamed the city Istanbul (though the old name persisted in Western usage for centuries) and made it the Ottoman capital. Under Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), the empire reached its peak: it controlled southeastern Europe from Hungary to Greece, the entire eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, most of North Africa, and Iraq. Ottoman armies besieged Vienna in 1529. The empire’s population topped 25 million — one of the largest states in the world.

How the Ottomans Governed

The Ottoman system was surprisingly flexible for its era. The millet system granted religious minorities — Christians, Jews — a degree of self-governance. Each community managed its own religious courts, schools, and charitable institutions. This wasn’t equality by modern standards, but it was more tolerant than most European states, where religious minorities faced frequent persecution or expulsion.

The devshirme system was more controversial. Christian boys from the Balkans were taken as children, converted to Islam, and trained for military or administrative service. The best became Janissaries — elite soldiers — or high-ranking bureaucrats. Some rose to become grand viziers, the empire’s most powerful officials after the sultan. The system was coercive, but it also created one of the few paths to power that didn’t depend on noble birth.

Decline and the “Sick Man of Europe”

Ottoman decline was long, contested, and complicated. The empire lost its technological edge over Europe during the 17th century. Military defeats mounted — the failed second siege of Vienna in 1683, the loss of Hungary, and devastating wars with Russia. By the 19th century, European diplomats called the Ottoman Empire the “Sick Man of Europe.”

The 19th century saw repeated attempts at reform. The Tanzimat reforms (1839-1876) tried to modernize the legal system, guarantee civil liberties, and create a more efficient bureaucracy. A brief constitutional period in 1876-1878 gave way to the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II. The Young Turk revolution of 1908 restored the constitution, but the empire was already unraveling — Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania had all gained independence.

World War I finished the job. The Ottomans entered on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914. They fought on multiple fronts and suffered catastrophic losses. The Armenian Genocide of 1915, in which an estimated 1 to 1.5 million Armenians were killed, remains one of the darkest chapters in Ottoman history. When the war ended in 1918, the empire was occupied by Allied forces and carved up under the Treaty of Sevres.

Ataturk and the Birth of the Republic

Out of that wreckage came one of the 20th century’s most remarkable political transformations.

Mustafa Kemal — a military officer who had distinguished himself at Gallipoli in 1915 — organized resistance against the Allied occupation and Greek invasion of western Anatolia. The Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923) was brutal, but Kemal’s forces prevailed. The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 recognized the borders of a new, independent Turkish state.

On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, with Ankara — not Istanbul — as its capital. Kemal became the first president and launched a series of reforms so sweeping they’d be hard to believe if they hadn’t actually happened.

He abolished the sultanate (1922) and the caliphate (1924). He replaced Islamic law with a secular legal code borrowed from Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. He adopted the Latin alphabet in place of Arabic script — in 1928, essentially the entire literate population had to learn to read all over again. Women gained the right to vote in 1934, a decade before France. He even banned the fez, that iconic Ottoman hat, replacing it with Western-style brimmed hats.

In 1934, a law required all Turkish citizens to adopt surnames. Kemal chose “Ataturk” — “Father of the Turks.” He died in 1938 at age 57. His legacy remains enormous and, in Turkey, largely untouchable — criticizing Ataturk is still illegal.

Modern Turkey: Democracy, Coups, and Identity

Post-Ataturk Turkey has been a complicated mix of democratic aspiration and authoritarian intervention. The country transitioned to multiparty democracy in 1946, but the military — which saw itself as the guardian of Ataturk’s secular legacy — staged coups in 1960, 1971, 1980, and (less directly) 1997.

Turkey joined NATO in 1952, positioning itself firmly in the Western camp during the Cold War. It applied for European Economic Community membership in 1987, and formal EU accession negotiations began in 2005, though they’ve essentially stalled.

The conflict with Kurdish separatists, primarily the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), has been a defining issue since 1984. The fighting has killed an estimated 40,000 people, displaced millions, and remains unresolved.

The rise of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, first as prime minister in 2003 and then as president from 2014, reshaped Turkish politics. Erdogan’s supporters credit him with economic growth and giving voice to religious conservatives long marginalized by the secular establishment. Critics point to democratic backsliding, media crackdowns, and the consolidation of presidential power after a failed coup attempt in 2016 and the subsequent constitutional referendum in 2017.

Why Turkish History Matters

Turkey sits at a crossroads — literally and figuratively. Its history connects the ancient Near East to medieval Islam to modern European geopolitics. The questions Turkey grapples with today — secularism versus religious identity, democracy versus authoritarianism, East versus West — are versions of questions the country has been asking, in one form or another, for over a century. Understanding Turkish history means understanding one of the most consequential fault lines in the modern world.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the Ottoman Empire founded?

The Ottoman Empire was founded around 1299 by Osman I, a tribal leader in northwestern Anatolia. It grew from a small principality into one of history's most powerful empires, eventually controlling territory across southeastern Europe, western Asia, and North Africa until its dissolution in 1922.

Who was Ataturk and why is he important?

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) was a military commander who led the Turkish War of Independence and founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923. He enacted sweeping reforms including abolishing the caliphate, adopting the Latin alphabet, granting women the right to vote, and secularizing the legal system. He remains the most revered figure in modern Turkish history.

Why is Istanbul historically significant?

Istanbul — formerly Constantinople, and before that Byzantium — has been a major world city for over 2,500 years. It served as the capital of the Roman Empire (from 330 CE), the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Its position straddling Europe and Asia made it a crucial trade hub and strategic prize throughout history.

What civilizations existed in Anatolia before the Turks?

Anatolia (modern Turkey) hosted the Hittites (1600-1178 BCE), Phrygians, Lydians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Byzantines before Turkic peoples arrived in significant numbers after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The region also contains Catalhoyuk, one of the world's oldest known settlements, dating to roughly 7500 BCE.

Further Reading

• Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism
• Britannica: History of Turkey
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Turkey
• Wikipedia: History of the Ottoman Empire