Turkey

Abstract

Turkey emerged from the multinational and multicultural Ottoman Empire after a series of wars. Territorial decline of the Ottoman Empire started in the seventeenth century with the Austrian acquisitions of Croatia, Dalmatia, Hungary and Transsylvania and the Polish acquisition of Podolia, and continued throughout the next two centuries. During the nineteenth century, the territorial losses on the Balkans accelerateddramatically with the independence of Greece in 1830, autonomy of Serbia in 1830 and independence in 1878, the autonomy of Romania in 1829 and independence in 1877. Northern Bulgaria became independent in 1878 and acquired Eas Rumelia in 1885; finally declaring independence in 1908. Serbia in 1878 received Macedonia and Austria Bosnia-Herzegovina (annexed in 1908); finally the full independenc of Montenegro was acknowledged.