TimeMaps

Anatolia
1500BC

The Hittites are an Indo-European people from the steppes who have established a powerful, war-like kingdom in Anatolia. They owe much of their military success to a technology originating from their steppe homelands, the chariot.

The Hittite kingdom, based on its central Anatolian capital, Hattusa, has by this period reached a high level of civilization.

Further west, on the Aegean coast, such cities as Troy and Miletus participate in the Aegean civilization, and have developed close links with Crete and mainland Greece.

Anatolia
1000BC

The old Hittite empire has been destroyed by invaders from Europe, in about 1200 BC. However, their civilization has been preserved in several small city-states in southern Anatolia. Small and weak though these are, it is probably here that the alphabet was first developed – a major step forward in civilization.

On the west coast, the old cities have disappered (Troy famously so) in the upheavals of the previous centuries which destroyed the Aegean civilization, and immigrants from the Greek mainland have settled the coasts and islands of the Aegean with their small, tribal communities.

Anatolia
500BC

This region has been the scene of competing kingdoms and empires for the past few centuries, but its strategic location for trade, as well as its mineral deposits, has enabled its cities to grow wealthy. The kingdom of Lydia, with its legendary kings Midas and Croessus, was fabled for its riches.

The culture of this kingdom was heavily influenced by the Greek cities on the coast, amongst the leading centres of Greek civilization. The cultural transmission between the Asia Minor and Greece has not been all one way, however. The former originated the invention of metal coinage, a major contributor to greater economic efficiency.

The whole of Asia Minor has now fallen under the dominion of the mighty Persian empire.

Anatolia
200BC

After 546 Anatolia was dominated by the Persian empire. Under powerful satraps, however, the subject peoples retained a large measure of self-rule. Under the Persians, Greek civilization spread througout the region, and this process was reinforced afer 334 BC when Alexander the Great drove the Persians out. After Alexander's early death, the Seleucids of Syria eventually gained the upper hand, but their hold on the region was never strong. Independent kingdoms soon covered much of Asia Minor. Despite this, Asia Minor was a centre of Hellenistic civilization.

Anatolia
30BC

With its large, Greek-style cities, Anatolia remained a centre of the Hellenistic world. Increasingly, however, it felt the shadow of Rome falling across it, and from 133 BC onwards more and more of it passed under Roman rule. By 63 BC, after long years of severe warfare, the Roman general Pompey the Great completed the conquest of Asia Minor.

Anatolia
200AD

For the first two centuries of the Roman empire, Asia Minor experienced almost unbroken peace. Prosperity followed, and the large and wealthy cities of the region thrived, continuing centres of a flourishing Greek-speaking culture.

Anatolia
500AD

The 3rd century saw Asia Minor experience a taste of the chaos visited upon other parts of the empire by Germanic invaders, but the 4th century was again a period of renewed peace. The region achieved added prestige as a major centre of the new official religion of the empire, Christianity.

In the 5th century, Asia Minor, with its large and wealthy cities, was one of the leading centres of Graeco-Roman civilization.

Anatolia
750AD

The wars between the Byzantines and the Persians in the 7th century, followed almost immediately by a century of Muslim raids and invasions, turned much of Anatolia into a devastated war zone. The population declined drastically, due both to warfare and plague; trade and industry shrank; cities vanished; and society became much more militarized. Although Anatolia remains within the Byzantine empire - and indeed, is the key recruiting ground for the Byzantine army - it is no longer the location for the numerous and wealthy cities of the classical age.

A new provincial system has been introduced into the region from the 630s onwards, built around units of local government called "themes" . These are units of military administration, which organizes the local population as a type of militarized peasantry. This very effective defensive arrangement has kept the Muslim forces at bay.

Anatolia
979AD

During the 9th and 10th centuries, Anatolia has experienced peaceful conditions. Trade and industry have revived and cities have flourished again. The "theme" system of military provincial government, introduced in the 7th century, and the militarized Anatolian peasantry on which it depends, has kept this region free from conquest by Muslim forces. Anatolia remains a key part of the Byzantine empire, and has continued as the main source of manpower for the Byzantine army.

Long-term social trends are at work which are undermining this situation, however. As time has gone on, local landowners have encroached on the land of independent peasants. This is undermining the ability of the Byzantine government to recruit soldiers from this source of manpower, and is forcing it to place greater reliance on foreign mercenaries. However, these trends have not yet totally ended the link between the tough Anatolian peasantry and the Byzantine army.

Anatolia
1215AD

In the wake of the crushing defeat of the Byzantine army by the Seljuq Turks at Manzikert in 1071, the Byzantines lost eastern and central Anatolia.  Tribal bands of Muslim Turks occupied the land, replacing or absorbing the native population of the region.

With the break-up of the large Seljuq empire, a branch of the Seljuq clan founded the independent sultanate of Rum (“Rome”) in about 1080. Since then, in wars against its Crusader, Byzantine and Muslim neighbours, this sultanate has expanded across most of Anatolia and become a powerful and wealthy state. The sultans protect and promote trade, which has expanded due to the Crusader's demand for luxury goods from the east.

The court uses Persian as its official language, and is a major centre of Persian culture. The sultanate's bureaucracy is staffed by Persian officials. The army, however, is mostly composed of Turkish tribesmen, often more loyal to their local chieftains than to the sultan.

Anatolia
1453AD

In Asia Minor, the Seljuq sultanate of Rum suffered a destructive invasion by the Mongols (1293), and quickly fell apart. It was succeeded by numerous military chiefdoms under the control of Muslim Turkish warriors, called ghazis, committed to fighting against Christian Byzantium. One such ghazi, called Osman, established himself in a leading position on the Byzantine frontier. His successors captured the historic Byzantine cities of Nicaea (1331) and Nicomedia (1337), and had soon annexed the whole of north-west Anatolia, once the heartland of the Byzantine empire. From there, they crossed into the south-eastern corner of Europe and moved up into the Balkans.

The growth of this state - known to history as the Ottoman empire - was interrupted by a disastrous defeat at the battle of Ankara (1402) at the hands of Timur. However, the Ottoman sultans soon re-established their control, and reorganized their military forces around their fearsomely efficient palace army, the Janissaries. With this new force the Ottomans resumed their conquests, and this year, under sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror, they capture the city of Constantinople, finally extinguishing the Roman Empire and sending a shock wave throughout Europe.

Anatolia
1648AD

Asia Minor is the centre of one of the great empires of world history, the Ottoman empire.

After the capture of Constantinople (in 1453) the Ottomans continued their dramatic expansion, conquering Syria, Egypt and the Hejaz (1516-17), North Africa (1526), and Iraq (1555) and, in Europe, pushing the frontier far north, destroying the Hungarian army at the battle of Mohacs (1526), and going on to besiege Vienna, in the heart of Europe (1529).

The siege failed, and after Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-66), a succession of weak sultans ruled, under whom factionalism and corruption impacted upon the sound running and military effectiveness of the empire. The empire also experienced some economic decline, resulting from the diversion of trade away from the Middle East by European ships. Nevertheless, the empire has continued to expand, in both Europe and Africa, and reforming sultans, Osman II (1618-22) and Murad IV (1623-40), have done much to rectify matters. They have countered corruption, encouraged trade, industry and agriculture, and restored the efficiency of the army and administration.

Anatolia
1789AD

Repeated wars with Austria and Russia have lost the Ottomans the northern shores of the Black Sea, but have allowed them to regain territory in the Balkans. Ominously for the future, the Ottomans have been forced to concede to Russia, a measure of protection over the sultan’s Orthodox Christian subjects.

Internally, the central government of the empire has been weakening, as provincial notables establish a measure of autonomy in their various regions. The central government is forced into playing off one group against another, and so maintains the integrity of the empire. The government has taken some steps to modernize the army and administration, but these have been fiercely opposed by the privileged, but now-decrepit, Janissaries, as well as by the Ulema, the religious establishment, who are deeply suspicious of any western influence.

Anatolia
1837AD

Repeated wars with Austria and Russia have lost the Ottomans the northern shores of the Black Sea, but have allowed them to regain territory in the Balkans. Ominously for the future, the Ottomans have been forced to concede to Russia a measure of protection over the sultan’s Orthodox subjects.

The sultan’s government is carrying out effective reforms. The Janissaries have been eliminated, and the army and administration modernized.

Anatolia
1871AD

A wide-ranging series of reforms have allowed the Ottoman government to retain the integrity of the empire, in the face of sustained hostilities from Austria and Russia.

A movement known as the ‘Young Turks’ is spreading amongst the new, western-educated elite of the Ottoman empire. This is calling for a constitutional monarchy along European lines.

Anatolia
1914AD

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Anatolia
1960AD

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Anatolia
2005AD

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