Romans conquer Anatolia.
Julius Caesar writes his famous
"Veni, vidi, vici" after a quick battle
in Central Anatolia. He meets Cleopatra in Antioch south of Anatolia.
After the birth of Jesus Christ, Christian Saints make Anatolia
their destination:
St Paul and St. Barnabas visit many cities in Anatolia.
Santa Clause (St. Nicholas) is born in the southern provinces.
Virgin Mary resides and dies in Ephesus.
The first christians who have fled Romans and Arabs find
refuge in the
underground cities of
Cappadocia
, where they carve churchs
in the lunar like landscape of the region.
The splitting into two of the Roman Empire will give birth to a new Roman
Empire in the East : Byzantine Empire.
Roman Emperor Constantin moved the capital of the Roman Empire
to the ancient city of Byzance, naming it Constantinople. Hence
the empire took the name of Byzantine Empire. Roman
Empire had been divided into two: "West" and "East".
For two centuries the Ceasars of this "East" Roman Empire considered
themselves as the sole possesor of Rome and Italy.
Byzantine Empire turned itself towards the Orient for the centuries
to follow.
Justinianus, the last Ceasar of the Roman Empire, conquers North
Africa and Spain making Mediterranean Sea a Roman lake again.
The church, St. Sophie, he had it built, stands as the greatest Christian
church on earth.
The empire hold possesion of Anatolia until, a new generation of
migration came from the steppes of Asia: The Turks.
The Seljoukites, descendents of a Central Asian tribe
migrates into Anatolia . Another tribe from
Central Asia running away from Mongol invasions headed by Thengiz Khan settles
in this peninsula. During
Mongol invasion
small turkish states bearing the name of their founder lives on the
periphery of Anatolia.
The Ottoman Empire is founded as a small Turkish state.
After conquering Constantinople in 1453 and ending Byzantine Empire,
Ottomans put an end to the Byzantine empire and rename
the city as
Istanbul
making it their capital.
Mehmet the Conqueror, Soliman the Magnificient and
successor sultans wage wars in many fronts invading the Balkans,
North Africa,
the Arabian peninsula in the south, Crimea in the north,
Hungary in the west.
Meanwhile, Mimar Sinan, the great architect, builts mosques which, today, are the
greatest work of art of Islam. Ottoman art included caligraphy, tiles making
in addition to architecture.
The Ottoman fleet in The Meditarranean becomes the stongest navy force and
sets up bases in France and North Africa.
By the 16th century the Ottoman
Empire had become one of biggest empires in human history.
Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 by Ataturk, the commander who fought the
Gallipoli wars as well as others. He brought Turkey all the laws and the
institutions which made Turkey a parliamentary, secular state. He became the only
leader in history to change alphabet to latin characters to increase literacy. His revolutions gave
Turkish women election and parliamentary representation rights as well as divorce rights, some of them long before countries like Italy
and France.
By pointing
at the flaws of Ottoman Empire, he put on the development track a
country which was lagging
centuries behind western technologies. Today Turkey is a moderately developed country.
I hope you've enjoyed your travel. You can find more info about
- Trojan Treasures
- Selcouki and Ottoman Caravanserais, hotels inhabited by traders, soldiers
and travellers such as Marco Polo, during 700 years.
- Lunar-like landscape of Capadoccia and its underground cities and churches
- Home of the two of the Seven Wonders of the World
- King Road, the Great Alexander took to conquer Persia
- Virgin Mary, Apostle John, St. Nicholas (Santa Clause), St. Paul
- King Midas
And many more in the ...
 Jewels of Anatolian History
 Back to Time Travel In History Page
 Turkey, a Travel at Warp Speeds
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