An overall view of structural changes in Turkey: The republican era (1923-1983) - I. The Ottoman heritage

Abstract

Any comprehensive research about The Republican Turkey has got to start off with a brief analysis of the Ottoman Turkey for the very simple reason that the contemporary Turkey is what is left, both geographically and historically-and for that matter in its entirety-out of the Ottoman Empire, after the decisive defeat of World War I. With this contention before concentrating fully on our selected focal point, namely that of structural changes in the Republican Turkey it is apt to mention briefly some of the salient features of the later years of the Ottoman Empire. An Empire which had reached its peak in the XVI. Century, surpassed the other majour European powers economically, militarily, technologically and culturally, but lost its superiority in the last two centuries of its 627 years reign due to maltifarious factors generated both within and without and finally disintegrated into more than two dozen nation states, The Republican Turkey being one of them.