The acquisition of Anatolia by Rome happened in
stages. Some of the Kingdoms – Bithynia, Pergamon – were granted
to Rome by their last ruler. Some kingdoms – Pontus, portions of
the Seleucid kingdom – were conquered. And some parts remained a
part of successors to the Seleucid Empire – the Parthians and the
Sassanids.
Early
Imperial Rome became late Imperial Rome and Late Imperial Rome became
the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. The Eastern Roman Empire
retained control of Anatolia during this time, inheriting the Roman
Empire’s territorial disputes with the Sassanids and then, in the
7th century, with the expansion of Islam.
The
expansion of Islam was a traumatic event for the Byzantine Empire.
The recovered provinces of Northern Africa were swept away. Egypt,
the breadbasket of the Byzantines as it had been for the Romans, was
gone. Jerusalem, the Holy City, was swallowed up as was all of Syria
and even parts of Armenia and far eastern Anatolia.
This
process in the East and South, combined with the invasion from the
North of nomadic tribes - the Bulgars, Slavs, Hungarians, Pazterneks,
Pechenegs, and Turks – started the slow slide of disintegration of
the Byzantine Empire as geographic portions were lopped off in both
the West and the East. The process accelerated in Anatolia when, in
A.D. 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert in Eastern Anatolia, the
Byzantine Army was destroyed, allowing penetration from the east of
the Turks.
The
story of A.D. 1071 to A.D. 1453 is the long, slow story of the loss
of Byzantine Anatolia to the Turks. First was the Seljuks, until
they were dissolved and a series of local Turkish warlords fought for
control. The period of warfare ended with the rise of Osman, the
founder of what would become the Ottoman Empire (A.D. 1299 – A.D.
1923).
The
Ottoman Empire’s early history is overall one of
going from victory to victory. In within 100 years, they had moved
from central Anatolia across the continent to the Balkans. They
continued on this track (albeit with some short lived defeats) slow
devouring the remaining lands of the Byzantine Empire until in A.D.
1453 they conquered Constantinople.
The
Ottoman State continued to expand until it met with a series of
defeats – the Battle of Lepanto in A.D. 1566 by sea (for those
readers that remember, we visited the town of Nafpaktos last year,
near where this battle took place) and the Siege of Vienna in A.D.
1683 when, defeated by the Western Powers at the Siege of Vienna, it
began a long 200 plus year loss of
territory throughout Europe, Africa, and the Near East through a
combination of local movements of peoples and the growing colonial
powers. Even as these territory losses occurred, the heartland of
the Ottomans – Anatolia – remained firmly in their grasp.
As a
result of their loss in World War I (A.D. 1914-1918), the Ottoman
Empire was broken up and Anatolia occupied by the victorious powers
(France, Great Britain, Greece, and Italy). The counter reaction to
this was the War of Turkish Independence (A.D. 1921-1923) led by
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, which eventually saw the end of the Ottoman
sultanate and caliphate and the foundation of the modern Turkish
state, largely within the borders of Anatolia (as well as the small
slice of Europe which encompasses Istanbul and Edirne).
This
all comes to bear on the trip, because when one says “I am going to
Turkey”, what one is really saying is that I am going to a place
with thousands of years of history and culture packed into a fairly
small area. Yes, there is a dominant culture – the Turkish one –
but it exists within and around the voices of thousands of years.
I see what you mean by "a very brief history," and why. I'm glad I wasn't a school child there, having to learn and memorize all those events, people, and dates!
ReplyDeleteLeigh, it is an impressive amount of history.
DeleteOne of the things that I commented to The Ravishing Mrs. TB on is the fact that one could see perhaps not quite as many Greek ruins in Turkey as in Greece, but certainly a large amount.