The History of Turkey

Turkey stands where Asia and Europe meet, and its history stretches back thousands of years. The land that is now Turkey was home to the Hittites, the Greeks of Troy, the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman sultans. Each civilization left something behind, and together they make Turkey one of the most historically layered places on earth. This book traces that long arc from the earliest Anatolian peoples through the rise and fall of empires, the role of Constantinople as the heart of the Christian east, the six centuries of Ottoman power, and Ataturk's radical transformation of the country in the twentieth century. Ancient Anatolia from the Hittites and Phrygians through Greek colonization and the Persian Wars. The Roman and Byzantine periods including the founding of Constantinople. The Seljuk Turks, the Crusades, and the gradual rise of the Ottoman state. Six centuries of Ottoman conquest, administration, decline, and complex legacy. The fall of the Ottoman Empire, World War I, the Turkish War of Independence, and the establishment of the secular Turkish republic. Each era is explained in its own context, with attention to what came before and what came after.