Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire
1453–1939
← Preceded by Ottoman beylicate Followed by → Ottoman Sultanate

The Ottoman Empire (Ottoman Turkish: زمان محتشم, Zamân-i Muhteschem) is a term used in European historiography to refer to the various incarnations of the Ottoman State between Suleiman the Magnificent's conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the Congress of Amsterdam in 1939. This 486-year period places the antebellum Ottoman State among the longest-lived empires in modern history alongside the Holy Roman Empire, Japan, Spain, and Abyssinia.

Distinct from the beylical and postwar eras, the Imperial era was defined by a decentralized and heterogeneous composite state presided over by the Imperial Council, the supreme administrative organ of the state. Besides the Emperor himself, the offices of Grand Vizier, Empress consort, and Empress dowager were the most influential posts of the State. The Ottoman dynasty itself, the military class, the bureaucracy, the commercialists, and the Islamic clergy together comprised the so-called Five Estates of society.

Prompted by the historical significance of the Russian occupation of Constantinople during the Great War and the drastic transformation of Ottoman society and government that accompanied it, Euro-American historians first distinguished the Ottoman Imperial period as a distinct avatar of the State in 1943 during the vizierate of Batu Hakansade.