Why didn't the Ottomans colonize the Americas?
Added 2025-01-16 22:24:59 +0000 UTCThe Ottomans were one of the most powerful empires in the world during Europe's Age of Exploration. So why weren't they also involved in colonizing the Western Hemisphere?
Comments
What an awesome quote!
Premodernist
2025-03-16 22:27:57 +0000 UTCOn the speculation of alternative history, I remember a great statement that has always stuck with me, something to the effect of, " In a universe where the Central powers were victorious, alternative history fans would have never predicted the series of events that led to Hitler's rise to power." Good video. I enjoyed.
Lirisa
2025-03-16 21:25:30 +0000 UTCOfficial historical narrative among layman in TR is this, "Foreigners (in this context the non-Muslim foreigners) did all the trade stuff and excluded from military while the Turks did all the fighting" Thus, the modern movements such as the Young Turks - Ittihad ve Terakki - Kemalist Regime aimed to create a "Turkish Bourgeoisie" and then place the republic on those people. This narrative also puts a distance between Ottoman leadership and today's Turks to some extent, because the general pop tends to think this was a treacherous policy to implement. Of course there were Ottoman merchants back in the day but my point is, even before coming to corporations and mercantile bodies, the trade itself was not as strong among Turks compared to the Europeans I suppose, because of the religion and culture. And later came the capitulations which further strengthened foreigners' hold on trade. I enjoy your content more than I anticipated. Feels refreshing. Thank you for the effort.
Oguz Bartu
2025-02-06 16:54:43 +0000 UTC14:00 I’d add that one of these companies still in existence today… the Hudson Bay Company:-)
Jborgzz
2025-01-29 04:11:10 +0000 UTCShips moved too slowly to experience jet lag. And in any case, there were no time zones back then. Every spot used its own time, where noon was when the sun was at its zenith at that exact spot. Since people almost always traveled at a walking pace (and ships were only a little faster) people didn't notice the time difference between locations when they traveled.
Premodernist
2025-01-26 22:04:51 +0000 UTCDid seafaring explorers experience jet lag? Were they able to determine that when they reached a new place that they were in a different time zone?
Madhav Nair
2025-01-26 19:52:28 +0000 UTCGood to know!
Funny_hat
2025-01-22 02:57:47 +0000 UTCYes, to some extent that's true. Why-questions can be very hard to answer, especially if it's getting more abstract and big-picture. A lot of times though we can figure out why someone did a thing because they wrote down their reasons, but people don't usually write down why they didn't do a thing.
Premodernist
2025-01-21 23:48:30 +0000 UTCI was taught that in school, about the Ottomans control of the trade routes, but I've since read that it isn't true.
Premodernist
2025-01-21 23:44:56 +0000 UTCThat'd be awesome if he joined
Premodernist
2025-01-21 23:43:43 +0000 UTC:28 TYRANT!
Jborgzz
2025-01-19 15:02:03 +0000 UTCGreat!
ty zj
2025-01-17 16:04:46 +0000 UTCThis was great because, being a total amateur myself, I would never have thought about this question in the first place. Now I’m going to get a bit philosophical. You said that a question of the form “why did X not happen?” is fundamentally unanswerable. And I don’t disagree, but it seems like the unavoidable conclusion here is that *all* why-questions are unanswerable, because you can rewrite “why did X happen?” as “why did the opposite of X not happen?”.
Karl Voelker
2025-01-17 01:53:05 +0000 UTCgreat video, never considered the corporation part of things. That is a really thought provoking point. I imaigne the "innovation" of corporations had a lot of other knock on effects too. Not sure if this is true but I'd also read that ironically, the Ottoman Empire's control over the land routes to Asia, through the Mediterranean and the Middle East actually spurred exploration by Spain and Portugal to find new routes.
Funny_hat
2025-01-16 23:09:31 +0000 UTCThe Premodernist / History Matters crossover topic we've all been waiting for! It's only a matter of time until James Bissonette becomes a patron here, too!
Peter Marino
2025-01-16 22:54:18 +0000 UTC
