Why didn't the Ottomans Colonise the Americas? (Short Animated Documentary)

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Why didn't the Ottoman Empire colonise the Americas? Mostly, it was geography and a confidence that it wouldn't change the balance of power.

Sources:

Law in China or Conquest in the Americas: Competing Constructions of Political Space in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire by Baki Tezcan in: Journal of World History, Vol. 24 (2013).

The Era of Suleyman the Magnificent: Crisis of Orientation by Subhi Labib in: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 10 (1979).

[HistoryMatters]

Hi all. This episode was late (and less animated) than usual because Final Cut Pro decided it wanted to die and so I had to delete all of my current ongoing projects (yay!).


Next week's episodes will be:


'Did Appeasement work?' and 'How did Ethiopia stay independent during the Scramble for Africa?'.

[heronb.]

*reads title*
*opens EU4*
time to change history again

[attempt]

Chile: coasts are the best
Ottoman empire: *I know*

[ironmantis]

So the Ottomans were Blockbuster
And Spain was Netflix

[AndinoKiwi]

The main idea behind Columbus first voyage was to find a western sea route to the East Indies (India and southeastern Asia), because the historical route was no longer available to the Europeans after the rise of the Ottoman empire. The Ottomans, of course, had no problems getting access to the spices from the East Indies, and, therefore, seeking a new route was totally unnecessary to them. Once everyone understood that a new continent had been discovered, and the potential economic benefit of getting access to it, it was probably too late for the Ottomans to attempt anything on the Americas.

[Umut_]

Oh pls. Ottomans are already so powerfull i can't even imagine them with American colonies in Eu4

Edit: Not anymore. Thx to paradox, they can't even expand into Aq qoyunlu now

[MayDayMei]

Imagine if they'd settled Cuba first and it was just Island Turkey.

[Beyonder]

Ottoman Sultan: We just wanted europeans to move to new world so we can take Europe for ourselves

[Vikanjr]

They colonized Australia! Haven’t you played EU4?

[ElladanKenet]

Paradox Games aside, I think the biggest issue with t he Ottomans was that they were simply too busy. Maintaining the trade network, fighting rivals, keeping things together. That's a lot of work.


Spain, without having to worry about most of that, was able to easily redirect efforts to other ventures. Not to mention geography helped.

[blazaybla]

One of the history professors in the masters program I was in told me that the amount of gold coming to Spain from the western hemisphere and flowing east was actually a major cause of destabilization due to insane inflation and contributed to the downfall of the Ottomans

[arkadiuszjuszczak]

Becouse they didn't pick colonization ideas.

[rfij]

Jesus christ i have this question on my mind since i played Age Of Empires III...

[henrythemuthafuckineighth]

What I love about this channel is it answers questions I didn’t know I had.

[Turgineer]

British Empire: Let's attack weak countries.

Otto-man Empire: Let's attack the strongest countries.

[turkepic]

Imagine if Turks called Peru "Hindi" turkey🦃 in Turkish. That would be extremely confusing.

[essenceofenglish]

That is historically correct. Great job! I liked the video and subscribed already.

[meandmetoo]

It's obvious when you play EU4.

Colonial range, and conquering is generally more efficient.

[Armorius]

When is the video about the Orthodox view of the Protestant reformation coming?

[oliversherman]

I love your channel keep up the great stuff!