Türkiye

Few landscapes preserve as deep a human record as Anatolia. On the Konya plain, the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük was inhabited for some 1,400 years, roughly between 7100 and 5700 BCE. Its densely packed mudbrick houses, entered through the roof, and its wall paintings, reliefs and figurines document the transition from village life to a proto-urban world; the site was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2012.

In the Bronze Age, central Anatolia became the heartland of the Hittites, an Indo-European people who built an empire from their capital Hattusa (near modern Boğazkale). Hattusilis I made Hattusa his seat in the 17th century BCE, and under rulers such as Suppiluliuma I the Hittites rivalled Egypt, clashing with the pharaohs at the Battle of Kadesh and producing some of the earliest known international treaties.

On the Aegean coast at the mound of Hisarlık stood Troy, the city of Homer's Iliad. Excavations begun by Heinrich Schliemann in 1870 revealed not one city but a sequence of settlements spanning some four thousand years; the level known as Troy VI–VII is the likeliest candidate for the Troy of legend. The Hittite world and the wider eastern Mediterranean were swept away around 1200 BCE in the Bronze Age collapse.

Turning points

1. c. 7100 BCEFormation

   The Neolithic town of Çatalhöyük

   On the Konya plain, the streetless settlement of Çatalhöyük flourished for over a millennium (c. 7100–5700 BCE), one of the world's best-preserved Neolithic towns, with roof-access houses and elaborate wall art.

   [1] [3]

2. 17th century BCEPolitics & Power

   Hattusa becomes the Hittite capital

   King Hattusilis I established Hattusa in north-central Anatolia as the capital of the Hittite kingdom, the seat of a Bronze Age empire that would rival Egypt.

   [4] [7]

3. c. 1274 BCEWar & Rupture

   Battle of Kadesh and the Hittite–Egyptian treaty

   The Hittites under Muwatalli II fought Ramesses II of Egypt at Kadesh; the conflict ended in one of history's earliest surviving peace treaties between the two empires.

   ↗See the data

   [4] [7]

4. c. 13th century BCECulture & Ideas

   Troy of the Iliad

   The fortified city at Hisarlık (Troy VI–VII) corresponds to the era of the Trojan War remembered in Homer's Iliad; the layered ruins were excavated from 1870 and inscribed by UNESCO in 1998.

   [2] [5]

5. c. 1180 BCECatastrophe

   Bronze Age collapse

   Around 1200–1180 BCE the Hittite state and Hattusa were destroyed amid the wider collapse of eastern Mediterranean civilisations, ending Anatolia's first great imperial age.

   ↗See the data

   [4] [7]

Figures of the era

After the Bronze Age collapse, Greek settlers colonised the Aegean coast, founding cities such as Ephesus, Miletus and Smyrna, while inland kingdoms — Phrygia, Lydia and others — rose and fell. Lydia, under kings like Croesus, is credited with minting some of the world's first coins. The region passed under Persian rule before Alexander the Great's conquests spread Hellenistic culture across Anatolia in the late 4th century BCE.

Rome absorbed Anatolia from the 2nd century BCE, and the peninsula — 'Asia Minor' — became one of the wealthiest, most urbanised parts of the empire. It was also a cradle of early Christianity: Paul of Tarsus was an Anatolian, the seven churches of Revelation lay in the west, and the great ecumenical councils of Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451) met on Anatolian soil.

In 330 CE Constantine the Great refounded the Greek town of Byzantium as Constantinople, a 'New Rome' guarding the Bosporus. As the western empire fell, the Greek-speaking Christian state of the eastern Romans — the Byzantine Empire — endured for over a thousand years, reaching a high point under Justinian I, who built the Hagia Sophia in the 530s. Repeated wars with Persians and Arabs strained the empire, and in 1071 the Seljuk Turks shattered the Byzantine army at Manzikert, opening Anatolia to Turkic settlement.

Turning points

1. c. 547 BCEPolitics & Power

   Fall of Lydia and Croesus

   The wealthy Lydian kingdom of western Anatolia, credited with pioneering coined money, fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia, bringing Anatolia under Persian rule.

   [7]

2. 11 May 330 CEFormation

   Constantine refounds Constantinople

   Constantine the Great dedicated the rebuilt city of Byzantium as Constantinople, a new Christian capital on the Bosporus that would anchor the Roman and then Byzantine state for over a millennium.

   [8] [9]

3. 537 CEReligion

   Justinian completes the Hagia Sophia

   Emperor Justinian I inaugurated the great domed church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the masterpiece of Byzantine architecture and for centuries the largest cathedral in the world.

   [9]

4. 26 August 1071War & Rupture

   Battle of Manzikert

   The Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan defeated and captured the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV at Manzikert, breaking Byzantine control of the interior and opening Anatolia to Turkish settlement.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [6]

Figures of the era

In the wake of Manzikert, Turkic tribes spread across Anatolia. The Seljuks of Rûm established a sultanate centred on Konya, presiding over a flourishing of Islamic art, architecture and learning — the era of the poet and mystic Rumi. The Mongol invasions of the 13th century fragmented Seljuk power into a patchwork of Turkish principalities, or beyliks, competing on the Byzantine frontier.

Out of one such frontier emirate in north-western Anatolia rose the Ottomans. Tradition dates the dynasty's foundation to around 1299, under Osman I, whose name the dynasty bears. His successors expanded rapidly: Bursa fell in 1326 and became an early capital, and by crossing into Europe the Ottomans took Adrianople (Edirne) and won the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, encircling a shrinking Byzantium.

A shattering setback came in 1402, when the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) defeated and captured Sultan Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara, throwing the empire into a civil war known as the Interregnum. The dynasty recovered, and in 1453 the young sultan Mehmed II besieged and stormed Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire and making the city — increasingly called Istanbul — the Ottoman capital.

Turning points

1. c. 1077Politics & Power

   Sultanate of Rûm at Konya

   Seljuk Turks established the Sultanate of Rûm in Anatolia, with Konya as its centre, fostering a rich Islamic culture associated with the mystic poet Rumi.

   [11] [6]

2. c. 1299Formation

   Foundation of the Ottoman emirate

   Osman I, leader of a frontier emirate in north-western Anatolia, is traditionally regarded as founder of the Ottoman dynasty around 1299, giving his name to the empire.

   [6] [11]

3. 15 June 1389War & Rupture

   Battle of Kosovo

   Ottoman forces under Murad I defeated a Serbian-led coalition at Kosovo, cementing Ottoman dominance in the Balkans even as Murad died on the field.

   ↗See the data

   [11]

4. 28 July 1402War & Rupture

   Battle of Ankara and the Interregnum

   Timur (Tamerlane) crushed and captured Sultan Bayezid I at Ankara, plunging the Ottoman state into a decade of civil war before it recovered.

   ↗See the data

   [11]

5. 29 May 1453War & Rupture

   Fall of Constantinople

   After a 53-day siege, Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire; the city became the Ottoman capital and Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [11]

Figures of the era

The 16th century was the Ottoman golden age. Süleyman I, called 'the Magnificent' in Europe and 'the Lawgiver' (Kanuni) at home, reigned from 1520 to 1566 over an empire spanning the Middle East, North Africa and south-eastern Europe. His armies took Belgrade and Rhodes, won at Mohács in 1526, and besieged Vienna in 1529; his court patronised a flourishing of architecture under the master builder Sinan and codified Ottoman law.

The empire remained a great power into the 17th century, but its second siege of Vienna in 1683 failed, and the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 forced major territorial losses for the first time. Over the following centuries the Ottomans steadily lost ground to Russia, Austria and rising nationalist movements in the Balkans, while struggling to reform their military and administration.

Reform efforts known as the Tanzimat (from 1839) sought to modernise law, the army and the state, and a short-lived constitution was granted in 1876. In 1908 the Young Turk Revolution restored constitutional rule, but successive wars — in Libya, the Balkans and beyond — stripped away most remaining European and African territories. By 1914 the much-diminished empire, often called 'the sick man of Europe', stood on the brink of a final, catastrophic war.

Turning points

1. 1520–1566Politics & Power

   Reign of Süleyman the Magnificent

   Süleyman I presided over the Ottoman Empire at its territorial and cultural height, from Hungary to the Arab lands, codifying law and patronising the architecture of Sinan.

   [13] [11]

2. 1529War & Rupture

   First Siege of Vienna

   Ottoman armies under Süleyman besieged Vienna, marking the high-water mark of Ottoman expansion into central Europe before withdrawing.

   ↗See the data

   [11] [13]

3. 1699Politics & Power

   Treaty of Karlowitz

   After the failed 1683 siege of Vienna, the Treaty of Karlowitz ceded Hungary and other lands to the Habsburgs, the first major Ottoman territorial retreat in Europe.

   [11]

4. 1839–1876Politics & Power

   The Tanzimat reforms

   A wave of modernising reforms reorganised Ottoman law, taxation, education and the military in an effort to halt the empire's decline and integrate its diverse subjects.

   [11]

5. 1908Politics & Power

   Young Turk Revolution

   The Young Turk movement forced Sultan Abdülhamid II to restore the constitution, ushering in a turbulent constitutional era dominated by the Committee of Union and Progress.

   [11] [16]

Figures of the era

The Ottoman Empire entered the First World War in late 1914 on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Its forces repelled the Allied landings at Gallipoli in 1915–16, where a young officer named Mustafa Kemal distinguished himself, but the war elsewhere went badly, with defeats in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Arab provinces.

Against this backdrop, in 1915–16 the ruling Committee of Union and Progress carried out the systematic deportation and mass killing of the empire's Armenian population. Beginning with the arrest of Armenian leaders in Constantinople on 24 April 1915, the regime drove Armenians on death marches into the Syrian desert amid massacres, starvation and exposure. Most historians regard these events as genocide — the first genocide of the 20th century — with estimates of the dead generally ranging from around 600,000 to as many as 1.5 million.

Ottoman defeat in 1918 was followed by Allied occupation and the punitive Treaty of Sèvres (1920), which would have dismembered Anatolia. Rejecting the treaty, Mustafa Kemal organised a nationalist resistance and a rival Grand National Assembly in Ankara in 1920. The ensuing War of Independence (1919–1922) defeated Greek, Armenian and French forces and expelled the occupiers.

Victory was sealed by the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923, which recognised the sovereignty of the new Turkish state within roughly its modern borders. The sultanate had already been abolished in November 1922, ending more than six centuries of Ottoman rule and clearing the way for a republic.

Turning points

1. 1915–1916War & Rupture

   The Armenian Genocide

   From 24 April 1915 the Ottoman government deported and massacred its Armenian population in death marches and killings across Anatolia and into the Syrian desert; most historians recognise these events as genocide, with deaths estimated from roughly 600,000 to 1.5 million.

   ↗See the data

   [14] [15]

2. 1915–1916War & Rupture

   Gallipoli campaign

   Ottoman forces repelled an Allied attempt to seize the Dardanelles; the defence brought the officer Mustafa Kemal to national prominence.

   ↗See the data

   [16]

3. 1919–1922Independence

   Turkish War of Independence

   Mustafa Kemal led a national resistance and a new Grand National Assembly in Ankara, defeating Greek, Armenian and French forces and ending the Allied occupation of Anatolia.

   ↗See the data

   [16]

4. 10 August 1920Politics & Power

   Treaty of Sèvres

   The Allied treaty with the defeated Ottoman government proposed partitioning Anatolia among Greece, Armenia, Italy, France and others; rejected by the nationalists, it triggered the War of Independence.

   [16] [11]

5. 24 July 1923Independence

   Treaty of Lausanne

   Replacing the Treaty of Sèvres, the Lausanne treaty secured international recognition of Turkey's sovereignty and borders, the legal foundation of the modern state.

   ↗See the data

   [16] [11]

Figures of the era

On 29 October 1923 the Grand National Assembly proclaimed the Republic of Turkey and elected Mustafa Kemal its first president. Over the following years Atatürk drove a sweeping programme of reform: the caliphate was abolished in 1924, religion was separated from the state, the legal system was secularised on European models, the Latin alphabet replaced the Arabic script in 1928, and women gained the vote in national elections by 1934. Ankara became the capital in place of Istanbul.

Atatürk died in 1938 and was succeeded by İsmet İnönü. After the Second World War, in which Turkey remained largely neutral, the country moved to multiparty politics: the 1950 election brought the opposition Democrat Party to power in the first peaceful transfer of government. Turkey joined NATO in 1952, anchoring it firmly in the Western alliance during the Cold War, though its politics were repeatedly interrupted by military coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980.

Turkey was recognised as a candidate for European Union membership in 1999, and the early 2000s brought rapid economic growth under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AK Party. Constitutional changes approved by referendum in 2017 and enacted in 2018 transformed the parliamentary system into a powerful executive presidency. In June 2022 the country registered its official name at the United Nations as 'Türkiye'.

Modern Türkiye is a populous, strategically pivotal state bridging Europe and Asia, a member of NATO and the G20, custodian of an extraordinary archaeological heritage, and a country still debating the balance between secular and religious identity that has run through its republican century.

Turning points

1. 3 March 1924Religion

   Abolition of the caliphate

   The Grand National Assembly abolished the Ottoman caliphate and separated religion from the state, a cornerstone of Atatürk's secular reforms; a new constitution followed in April 1924.

   [16]

2. 1928Culture & Ideas

   The alphabet and language reforms

   Turkey replaced the Arabic script with a new Latin-based Turkish alphabet in 1928, part of reforms that sharply raised literacy and reoriented the nation toward Europe.

   [16]

3. 1950Politics & Power

   First multiparty election

   The Democrat Party won a landslide in the 1950 election, ending nearly three decades of one-party rule and marking Turkey's first peaceful transfer of power.

   [17]

4. 1952Politics & Power

   Turkey joins NATO

   Turkey became a member of NATO in 1952, cementing its strategic alignment with the West throughout the Cold War.

   [16]

5. June 2022Politics & Power

   Registered at the UN as 'Türkiye'

   At the government's request, the United Nations registered the country's official name as 'Türkiye' in June 2022, replacing 'Turkey' in international usage.

   [19] [18]

Figures of the era