The Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire was founded in the late thirteenth century and last until the early twentieth century. This empire was “one of history’s greatest military empires”(564 McKay, Hill, Buckler) that was centered around the present day country of Turkey. The Ottoman Empire, once, at its peak had controlled a vast area extending from the Balkan Peninsula to the Middle East and North Africa in the middle of the sixteenth century. This …showed first 75 words of 282 total…

…showed last 75 words of 282 total…fight and administer. Some of these children rose up to the ranks of the Sultan’s bureaucracy. The others formed an elite group of the Sultan’s army called the Janissary Corps. The Janissaries were governed by different laws and had the privilege of protecting the sultan. There devotion to such discipline had made them a powerful army allowing them to conquer and rule the most powerful empire in the world during the sixteenth century.