Why Was the Ottoman Empire Able to Grow so Large?
Chamboz, CC BY-SA 4.0
For centuries, the Ottoman Empire stood like a colossus in the Eastern Mediterranean, an unmovable object that constantly threatened the heart of Europe through its might.
Yet, despite its great extant power during the 16th and 17th centuries, the beginnings of this empire were rather humble.
When the Ottoman state was founded, its territorial extent was probably no larger than the size of a county in the UK, yet in little over two centuries, the Ottoman state expanded substantially, and at its peak, it stretched over a landmass of 5,2 million square kilometers, more than half the size of the modern United States of America.
Undoubtedly, the Sultans were not able to control their empire as much as modern heads of state, but considering the technology of the age, everyone else was in the same boat also, as decrees and orders had to travel at the pace of a horse or ship, rather than modern telecommunications.
The question we can ask is how? How was the Ottoman state capable of expanding over such a large landmass? And how were they able to maintain their control over it?
Political vacuum
From the 11th century, the Balkans and Anatolia, the future heartlands of the Ottoman Empire, were under the control of the Byzantine…
