The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was the largest state in the Islamic World in the 1500s. It was created by a variety of Turkic warrior groups in the 14th century. Little did they know at the time that they're creation would last for hundreds of years (up until the early twentieth century). Rapidly expanding, the Ottoman empire became one of the most powerful empires, if not the most powerful, during the 15th century. The Ottomans signified the beginning of the Turks becoming the dominant people of the Islamic world. They even ruled over the Arabs who were the creators of the Islamic faith. The two main goals of the Ottomans were to bring unity back to the Islamic world and to serve as the protectors of the faith. Before the Ottomans came along, Christendom had, for a long time, been overpowering the Islam world. However, the formation of the Ottoman Empire caused the tides to turn. The empire was so powerful that it was able to seize Constantinople and end Christian Byzantium altogether. With these christians out of the way, Ottomans took over as the successors to the Roman Empire. Constantinople was not the end of siege from the Ottomans. They continued to conquer cities all throughout Europe and expand both politically and with their military for quite some time. Europeans began to fear the "terror of the Turk."