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To say that the history of Turkey is a crossroads of cultures may sound like a cliché, but in this case it takes on its full meaning.
The particular geographic location of what is today Turkey has facilitated the settlement and cultural and commercial exchange of the most ancient civilizations, even millennia before our era.even millennia before our era.
This is evident in the Bosphorus Strait the Bosphorus Strait (Istanbul), the symbolic border between Europe and Asiabut also in Anatolia, a vast Anatolia, a vast territory of obligatory passage through to go from Africa to Europe by land, or from ancient Mesopotamia and Persia to the Old Continent.
In addition, the great extension of its coastline (more than 7,000 km) favored (more than 7,000 km) favored the naval development of those who lived here, including the powerful Ottoman Empire, especially from its Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.
In that vast period of time known as Prehistory, in which the human being was transiting and advancing until History (in the IV millennium B.C., with the emergence of the first written documents), the varied inhabitants of the territory of present-day Turkey played a key role: they were pioneers, in many aspects, as we can understand today thanks to the different archaeological evidences.
For example, during the Paleolithic, around the 10th millennium BCBC, it was built Göbekli Tepewas built in southeastern Anatolia, near the present-day city of Sanliurfa: it is considered the oldest sanctuary in the world. the oldest sanctuary in the world and a first spark of civilization, in the words of some historians, for being the first great religious construction of the human being.
Its spectacular and enigmatic pillars could represent priests.
Mysterious is also the fact that two millennia later it was deliberately buried… to the good fortune of archaeologists and travelers today, because that favored its good preservation.
Another important spark for civilization was Çatalhöyukin southern Anatolia (near Konya): what is considered to be the world’s the world’s first city.
Sus orígenes se remontarían al 6500 B.C. approximatelyThe area stretched from Mesopotamia to the Levantine Mediterranean coast and, due to its good environmental conditions, facilitated the development of the first centers of cultural development.
In fact, Çatalhöyuk did not arise by chance: its location on clay soil next to two mounds might have favored primitive agricultureThe Neolithic period was the key to the ‘later Neolithic revolution’, thus abandoning the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that was still the majority in Paleolithic Anatolia.
Among its hallmarks, the Seated Woman of Çatalhöyuka baked clay statuette, perhaps a symbol of fertility due to its exaggerated physical features, which can be seen in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
The peoples of Anatolia were also very very advanced in the use of metals: they soon assimilatedThey soon assimilated the techniques and advances coming from Mesopotamia that led to the emergence of powerful kingdoms based on these copper utensils (Chalcolithic or Copper Age). Copper Age, in the IV millennium B.C.).
El mejor ejemplo de ello fue quizás el reino de Alaca Höyükan important site where evidence of this metallurgical activity has been found.
However, the name Alaca Höyük is more closely associated with the name of the civilization that later occupied this site during the later Bronze Age (around 1,800 BC). 1,800 BC): the powerful Hittite civilizationcivilization, which moved its capital to Hattusa (also in the present-day province of Çorum, in central Anatolia).
Hattusa was a large city and some sources estimate that it may have had a population of about 50,000 inhabitants. about 50,000 inhabitants.
Entre los tesoros arqueológicos encontrados en su yacimiento (declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad) están su state archive The fact that the language was written on clay tablets in different languages, such as Akkadian or Luvite, shows its capacity to absorb aspects of other cultures and civilizations.
But undoubtedly, the most important language from a historical and linguistic point of view is the language itself. Hittite (or needs), which is considered to be the oldest Indo-European languagefrom the Anatolian branch (now extinct).
In other words, it can be considered an indirect ancestor of most of the languages spoken in Europe and America, such as Spanish, Italian, German or English.
Its splendor arrived towards the XIV-XIII centuries B.C., moment in which it was an authentic empire, arriving even to rival with Egypt even rivaling the Egypt of the Ramessid dynasty..
De hecho, una de las batallas más míticas de la Antigüedad fue la de Qadesh (1274 BC)The battle of Abu Simbel, which pitted this empire, ruled by Muwatalli II, against the Egypt of Ramses II.
That battle was a draw… although Ramses II ‘sold’ it as a victory, erecting the famous monuments of Abu Simbel.
The peace treaty that followed the battle is considered by many experts as the first in history.
However, the fall of this fall of this empire and this civilization arrived soon after and abruptly, perhaps by invasions and destructions at the hands of the so-called ‘peoples of the sea’.
from the coasts of Greece.
Only the remnants of that culture remained in the form of peoples that are usually classified as Neohitites’.who facilitated the arrival of Mesopotamian influences to the other side of the Aegean.
In fact, the epicenter and leadership in the region was shifting to the shores of the Aegean, where the exchange between its islands and mainland Greece was increasingly fluid.
One of the most important kingdoms of the time, back in the thirteenth century BC, was Troywhose capital was located on Hisarlik Hill (now a World Heritage archaeological site) in the province of Çanakkale.
The name of Troy is forever linked to their war against Greece (13th-12th centuries BC) and to the famous horse introduced by the Greeks in this city.
Both the conflict and the stratagem are in tween reality and mythologybut it serves to make us see that the west and southwest coast of Anatolia was one of the most important territories for classical Greece.
In fact, it is believed that Homerwho narrated the famous war in his Iliadmay have been born in Smyrna (Izmir) some century later and, therefore, know so many details about the conflict.
Istanbul was also founded by Greek settlers, under the name Byzantium or Byzantium, in the 7th century BC.
And to the surprise of many, Greek mythology places many of its key episodes in the terrain of present-day Turkey.
For example, the ancient Phrygiawhose kingdom came to extend over much of northwestern Anatolia and whose most famous kings included Midaswho turned everything he touched into gold, back in the 8th century BC.
In reality, the Anatolia that remained under the Greek circle of influence or dominion was only a part of it, but there were more.
Other peoples of renown were the Lycians and the lidios.
Estos últimos fueron pioneros en algo fundamental en nuestros días: fueron the first to mint official coins, in the 7th century B.C., with an alloy of gold and silver.with an alloy of gold and silver.
However, from eastern Anatolia, however, came the push of the another power that sought to halt the advance of the Greek colonies in Anatolia, which extended along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.
We are talking about Persia who, for this purpose, invaded central Anatolia, subduing precisely the Lydians under the orders of famous emperors such as Cyrus, Darius I and Xerxes, who established satrapies throughout Asia Minor.
But the Persians were were stopped by the Greeks in medical battles in the medical battles and, above all, they were forced to retreat in the wake of Hellenic expansion with Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCwho, despite the brevity of his rule, sowed the seeds of the Hellenization of Anatolia.
With the division of his empire and the decline of Alexander’s successors in this territory (the Seleucids and the Seleucids), different peoples and cultures of the most varied different peoples and cultures settled in Anatolia.from the Armenians to the east, around Lake Van, to the Seleucid and Pergamon kingdoms to the west, passing through the Galatians and the Galatians in the kingdom of Galatia in central Anatolia.
The latter were Celtic tribes from central Europe who, after conquering Thrace and Istanbul, crossed the Bosporus and founded the kingdom of Galatia in the 3rd century B.C., with capital in Ankyrai.e. Ankara.
In this context in which Anatolia was a mosaic of peoples (Seleucids, Galatians, Armenians …), the next civilization began to emerge: the Romans.Sometimes, annexing the territories through diplomatic agreements, and other times, by means of warlike conflicts.
This annexation was very early, even in republican times, forming the province of Asia, with its capital at Ephesus (129 BC).
And in the times of imperial Rome, the frontier reached as far as Persia, encompassing practically all of Anatolia.
The importance of Roman civilization lies not only in those five centuries of direct rule, but above all in the legacy left behind in the form of the Byzantine Empire, from 395 A.D. To understand this change, we must go back to the time of Emperor Constantine I the Great (280-337). Emperor Constantine I the Great (280-337)who went down in history for designating Christianity as the official religion of the empire: his greatest contribution to the history of Turkey was to have founded ‘a new Rome’ in ancient Turkey. a ‘new Rome’ in the ancient Greek city of Byzantium.by revelation of angels.
He called it Constantinople (present-day Istanbul).
Years later, after the death of Emperor Theodosius (395), the ancient Roman Empire divided into two: that of the West, in decline and with its capital in Rome, and that of the East, prosperous and governed from Constantinople. of the East, prosperous and governed from Constantinople..
Los bárbaros y los problemas internos supusieron la caída del primero, pero en el segundo floreció una nueva civilización de Christian religionbased on Roman culture but with Greek language: the Byzantine Greek language: the Byzantine Empire.
This empire tried, as early as the fourth century, to restore the glory of its predecessors, for which it extended westward, dominating all of Italy, some parts of southern Spain and North Africa.
The Byzantines still felt themselves Romans and, in fact, the Turks called them, some time later, rum.
Su heyday perhaps came with Justinian (527-565)who had the most iconic temple of his time built: Hagia Sophia (Hagia Sophia).
After Justinian, the Byzantine Empire entered a great territorial and economic crisis, being forced to retreat to Thrace and Anatolia.
And in its own territory lived defeats at the hands of the new expanding civilization: the Arabsfrom the Arabian Peninsula, who brought with them a new religion: Islam. Islam.
Tomaron Ankara in 654 and arrived at the gates of Constantinople 15 years later.
However, this people did not materialize the conquest that they did achieve in the rest of the territories of the Near East and North Africa.
Therefore, this resistance, both of Byzantines and later peoples (of Muslim religion but non-Arab culture) has become a distinctive feature of today’s Turkey. (of Muslim religion but of non-Arab culture) has become a distinctive feature of today’s Turkey.
From the 11th century, after Basilius II, the Byzantine Empire began a deep crisis, with territorial losses in all the cardinal points.
The main culprits of the decline in the east were the Turkic (or Turkmen) nomadic groups, especially theespecially the Seljukscoming from Central Asia and of impetuous and belligerent character, the Seljuks came to take Baghdad and create their own empire their own empire which extended beyond the Abbasid one.
The Seljuks, after suffering defeats by the Byzantines (Orthodox Christians), the Fatimids of Egypt (Muslim Arabs) and even the Crusaders from Europe, ended up settling definitively in what is now Anatolia, founding the sultanate of Rumwith its capital at Konya, between the XI and XIV centuries.
Of Turkish ethnicity and language, the Seljuks had also integrated into their culture a strong Persian component. a strong Persian componentespecially in art, craftsmanship and architecture.
Something that would later be maintained in Ottoman art.
In fact, one of the hallmarks of present-day Turkey whose origin can be traced to this period is the samáthe dance-meditation of the Mevleví or whirling dervishes, created by these disciples of the great Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi in the 13th century.created by these disciples of the great Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi in the 13th century.
Precisely, in the thirteenth thirteenth centuryThe arrival of another invading people shook the Anatolian chessboard: the Mongols of Genghis Khan, who defeated the Seljuks of the Sultanate of Rum and hastened their end.
The result was a high fragmentation of the territory previously dominated by the Seljuks.
But in this fragmentation lies precisely the origin of the great empire that would end up dominating all of Anatolia in the following centuries: the Ottoman Empire.
At the same time, the Byzantine empire was languishing and its territorial limits resembled those of ancient Greece rather than those of a true empire.
The seizure and sacking of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 was an irreparable economic and moral blow.
And its conquest by foreign hands was a matter of time, something that was still delayed for a couple of centuries more.
If there is one thing that most modern-day Turks are proud of, it is the greatness of the Ottoman Empire, which became one of the most important powers during the Modern Age.
As we said above, the Ottomans were one of the Turkic peoples of the Seljuk Empire.in Asia Minor.
During the period of decadence of that empire, the tribal leader of the Ottomans, Osman (later Osman I) founded his own dynasty around 1300 (the Osmanli, the only one to rule this empire in its entire history) and forged a military power with an initial (the Osmanli, the only one to rule this empire in its entire history) and was forging a military power, with its initial capital in Bursa.
The Ottomans were a multi-ethnic political entity that absorbed absorbed a little bit of all cultures present in Anatolia at that time, with Greek, Islamic, Christian and Turkic elements.
In any case, it was an empire of Muslim religion, in which the sultan also adopted the position of caliph.
This Ottoman military power gradually imposed itself on the other neighbors that emerged from the dismemberment of the Sultanate of Rum, but above all, it was the Byzantine empire, but above all, it wasThe Ottomans were already on European territory, especially in the Balkans.
In its first century of existence, the Ottomans were only surpassed on the eastern flank by the other great empire of the fourteenth century, Tamerlane’s Tatar.
Despite this, sultans such as Mehmet I and Mehmet II managed to consolidate this eastern frontier and concentrate their efforts on the great enterprise they had set themselves: the conquest of Constantinople. conquest of Constantinoplewhich took place in 1453The conquest of Constantinople , which occurred in 1453, is the date that marks the end of the Byzantine Empire and of Christian supremacy west of the Bosporus, including the territories of present-day Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria.
But the Ottoman Empire was not satisfied with the conquest of Constantinople, but tried to continue expanding its dominion in other territories, putting among its objectives Western Europe itself.
In fact, Mehmet II even conquered Otranto, in southern Italy, but his desire to march towards Rome did not succeed.
On the other hand, his successors were successful, in particular Selim I the Severein his southward progression, conquering Syria and Egyptas well as territories of the Persian Safavid empire (battle of Çaldiran, 1514) and the sacred cities of Medina and Mecca. and the sacred cities of Medina and Mecca..
One of the secrets of his success was the good organization of his army, sustained by the good preparation of the janissaries, many of them non-Muslims.
But sultans like Beyazit II made strategic decisions from the cultural, social and economic points of view, such as the welcoming with open arms the thousands of Spanish Sephardic Spanish Sephardic Jews expelled from expelled from those kingdoms in 1492The high level of education of this population contributed to the progress of Ottoman society and even today there are many Sephardic Jews living in cities like Istanbul.
The so-called ‘golden age’ of the Ottoman empire came with the reign of Suleiman I, nicknamed the MagnificentIn the middle decades of the 16th century, he sustained territorial expansionism in North Africa and, at the same time, undertook legislative reforms at the secular and religious levels, as well as promoting the arts.
To his current fame contributed his love story, very novelistic, with his wife Roxelanaof slave origin.
The Ottoman Empire seemed unstoppable and increasingly unsettled Western Europe, as their advances across the continent took them as far as Budapest and even laid siege to Vienna.
But the successor of Suleiman I, his son Selim IIHe did not know how to maintain the military vigor of his predecessors.
His nickname of ‘the Drunkard’ or ‘the Poet’ serves as an example to understand his main inclinations, while he derived the military command to his grand vizier.
The battle of Lepanto (1571) in Greek waters was one of the hardest and most decisive defeats of the time: the Holy League (Christian alliance between the Spanish empire of Philip II, the Vatican States and the Republic of Venice, among others) massacred the Ottoman fleet, which served as a the Ottoman fleet, which served as a brake on the expansionist policy of the Ottomans..
El fracaso en el segundo asedio de Viena en 1683 fue otro gran baño de realidad, tiempo después.
This was compounded by the economic shock of the opening of new trade routes to the East. new trade routes with the East thanks to the discoveries of the European navigators, which provided an alternative to the alternative to the routes controlled by the Ottoman Empire.
Since the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire, which hadthe Ottoman Empire, which had previously undergone a great expansion, entered a period of stagnation. period of stagnationin different senses.
Firstly, territorially; and secondly, socioeconomically: while in the West and in Russia scientific, industrial and military advances were being made, the same did not happen in this empire.
Or at least, not as fast, so the gap with its European neighbors was widening and the difficulty of managing such a vast empire was evident.
In fact, in the 18th century he could be considered a giant with clay feet. giant with feet of clay and the Napoleonic wars demonstrated the weakness of the Ottoman Empire, which was dragged down by the rivalry between the French and the English, and suffered the opportunism of Russia, which took advantage of the situation to try to annex some territories that remained under its dominion: Moldavia and Wallachia.
But the hardest blow came from came from within and was provided by nationalist nationalist sentimentThe Ottoman Empire, which had lit the fuse in other territories of the world, also took root in the Ottoman Empire.
Until then, its sultans had managed to hold together a very heterogeneous mosaic of peoples with different languages and cultures, but everything fell apart in this century: Greece became independent in 1830while in 1878, Greece 1878 Romania and the Balkan Romania and the Balkan countries.
The Ottoman Empire had tried to carry out social and legal reforms, even with a Constitution at the end of the century, which was abolished shortly afterwards.
It was clear that the empire was in crisis (Tsar Nicholas I even called it “the sick man of Europe”, according to some historians).
And in his process of decompositionIn the midst of this process of decomposition, many foreign powers were rubbing their hands together in an attempt to weaken and seize territories from the Ottomans.
For example, the British and French in Arabia, instigating the Arab Revolt Arab Revolt for the creation of a unified Arab state with Palestine and the holiest sites of Islam.
Or the Russian empire in northeastern Anatolia.
And even the Greeks, in Thrace.
In this context, it had exploded World War I, with the Ottoman Empire fighting on the side that was ultimately defeated (along with the Austro-Hungarian and German empires, among other powers).
The Treaty of Sevres (1920) It formalized the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, reducing it to a small strip in Anatolia, with large areas controlled by Greeks, Italians, British and Armenians, and with Istanbul under the status of International Zone.
It was never ratified and never entered into force, but was interpreted as a humiliation for the Turks.
The Treaty of Sevres was, in fact, the fuse that ignited the so-called War of Independence. War of Independencethe one waged by the Turks in their nationalist outburst of resistance and rejection of resistance and rejection to the consequences of the First World War.
And, above all, how defense against the Kingdom of Greece whose army, moved by a desire to restore under its control the Anatolian territories that were once part of classical Greece, was advancing towards Ankara.
The leader of that resistance was Mustafa Kemalcommander who organized the Turkish troops to finally expel the Greeks. expelling the Greekswhich is commemorated every year on the so called Victory Day (August 30, 1922)..
Con el Tratado de Lausana de 1923, se trazaban así las borders of modern Turkeywith foreign powers outside them.
And Turkey adopted its form of secular Republicdriven by Mustafa Kemal, who assumed the presidency and changed his ‘political name’ to the more famous ‘Atatürk’.which means “father of all Turks”.
It was a milestone for a Muslim country, promoting democratic institutions and approving universal suffrage, as well as the possibility for women to be elected.
However, this democratic impulse was not free from an authoritarian conception of government. authoritarian conception of governmentparadoxical as it may seem: opposition and freedom of the press were severely restricted, and Turkish culture was linked to national identity. Turkish culture was linked to national identity.The small minorities were the main victims.
In particular, the Kurdish minority, whose population is located in the southeast of the country and led revolts for the recognition of certain cultural rights, including the use of the language.
The Armenian minority was also another of the victims, which had experienced dark episodes even before the advent of the Republic, such as the alleged massacre of 1915.
Also in this context, population exchanges population exchangesThe Turkish government, for example with Greece, to encourage Turkish nationals residing in that country to return to Turkey and vice versa.
This, according to many experts, hurt Turkish society and economy, as many highly educated people left the country and took their knowledge and experience with them.
Indeed, one of the measures of the modern Turkish state was the exclusive official status of Turkish as a language and the adoption of other measures that brought it closer to the West. measures that brought it closer to the WestThe country’s democracy was consolidated, although not without threats, such as the use of the Latin alphabet or the Gregorian calendar.
Since then, and especially since the mid-twentieth century with the support of the United States and the country’s entry into NATO, democracy has been consolidated, although not without threats such as the intervention of the army in the 1970s, in the midst of a period of chaos.
At the end of the 20th century, Turkey’s process of rapprochement with Europe became evident with its manifest desire to join the European Union, although today it still seems a long way off.
In fact, it does not seem to be a priority at present, as the country has settled into what some experts call the “neo-Ottomanism”that is, a republic that, despite its theoretical secularism, has adopted a more Islamic slant in its economy, its legislation and, ultimately, in its day-to-day life, driven mainly by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (AKP party)..
Among the most important measures taken in recent decades is its extraordinary improvement of infrastructure, of which Istanbul’s mega-airport is a good example, as well as an efficient highway system.
Tourism is a thriving sector in the country, given the extraordinary potential at all levels.
But this is not incompatible with Turkey’s industrial muscle, which has positioned itself as ‘the factory of Europe’, according to some experts, in sectors as diverse as armaments, textiles and automobiles.
In addition, agriculture is also key to its trade balance, thanks above all to the export of different types of oil.
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