The Ottoman Empire

In the late 1200s A.D. a group of Turks who called themselves the ‘Ottoman Turks’ after Osman, one of their first rulers, began to build an empire in Eastern Europe.

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In 1453 the Ottoman Turks were able to conquer the City of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, ending the Byzantine Empire forever. The Ottoman Turks made Constantinople the capital of their new empire, eventually changing its name to Istanbul. From Istanbul, they moved outward, building an empire that would remain until the early 1900s.