Osman I, a leader of the Turkish tribes in Anatolia, found The Ottoman Empire in 1299. The first capital of the Ottoman Empire was Söğüt. Osman, I was the first person who collected taxes. He expanded his kingdom, gathering many of the independent states of Anatolia under a single roof. Osman, I established a formal government and gave allowance for the ones who have different religions other than Islam. He had tolerance for the religion of the people he conquered. The Ottoman Empire continued to enlarge over the 150 years. At the same time, the Byzantine Empire ( the Roman Empire) was the most powerful in the land. In 1453, Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire, was captured by Mehmet II the Conqueror. He turned Constantinople into the capital of the Ottoman Empire and gave a new name for it as Istanbul. For the next 100 years, the Ottoman Empire would be one of the most powerful and the largest empires in the world.
When the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople, many of the scholars and artists went to Italy. This helped to initiate the European Renaissance. It also gave a reason to nations for beginning to search for routes of new trade to the Far East. It was the beginning of the Age of Exploration.
The Ottoman Empire reached its peak during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. He ruled the empire from 1520 to 1566. During this time the empire enlarged and included much of Eastern Europe including Hungary and Greece.
After Suleiman died in 1566, the Ottoman Empire began to collapse in a way. In 1569, much of Istanbul burned in a great fire. The Ottomans were defeated at the Battle of Vienna. It was the beginning of the decline of the empire in 1683. The empire faced economic competition from Europe and India and it was hard to expand for the empire. Poor leadership and internal corruptions caused to a point of no return for the Ottoman empire. This was the time for collapse. After the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established the Republic of Turkey in 1923. This was a milestone for Turkish people.