Major European Borders in 1957
History Behind The Major Border Changes
After a long series of wars in the Balkans leading up to 1914, The Ottoman Empire was in a terrible state of decay, and was losing massive amounts of territory in nearly all of its European colonies. Most of its control had been diminished to countries in the Middle East. One large factor behind the eventual collapse of the Ottoman Empire was the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. It was because of this revolution that Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdülhamid II was forced to restore the constitution of 1876. In doing so, the Sultan relinquished much of his power over the empire to the Committee of Union and Progress, spelt the end of the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress would successfully push for the partitioning of the entire empire, 39 new countries were created out of the land formerly controlled by the Ottomans. The bulk of this territory however, would be reorganized into the Republic of Turkey in the year 1923, and Sultan Abdülhamid II was exiled.
Collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the East
Although Austria-Hungary has arisen as a major power in the 19th century and was one of the main Central Powers in the First World War, it had been in steady decline for much of the early 20th century. This decline was largely due to the incompetence of the Austrian high command during the First World War, and its inability to properly defend against the Russians and Serbians. Officially, the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire occurred in 1918, as it was dissolved by the armistice of Villa Giusti. Austria then become the First Austrian Republic, and Hungary became the Kingdom of Hungary. In addition to this split, the land formerly controlled by the Austro-Hungarians was further dissolved and mainly given to the nations of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania in 1920.
Fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Because of the Nazi defeat in the Second World War, Germany was into two sections; East Germany, and West Germany. This period in German history is known as the division of Germany. Germany was completely stripped off all of its territorial gains that it made leading up to the end of the Second World War, and also lost land in east Poland, as well as the Soviet Union. It was the Cold War period (1947-1991) that saw Germany divided between allies of the western nations, and the Soviets to the east. Actual Germans had very little influence in the country’s affairs at this point in its history, as the leaders of the east (The German Democratic Republic) and the leaders of the west (The Federal Republic of Germany), were mainly influenced by either Allied governments, or Soviet governments, and their respective political motives.
Germany Divided
Background of Major National Figures
Selim I, known as 'Selim the Grim', was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. His reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly his conquest between 1516 and 1517 of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, which included all of the Levant, Hejaz, Tihamah, and Egypt itself.
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Selim's conquest of the Middle Eastern heartlands of the Muslim world, and particularly his assumption of the role of guardian of the pilgrimage routes to Mecca and Medina, established the Ottoman Empire as the most prestigious of all Sunni Muslim states. His conquests dramatically shifted the empire's geographical and cultural center of gravity away from the Balkans and toward the Middle East.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkish Revolutionary and the 1st President of Turkey
Adolf Hitler was born on the 20th of April 1889, and died on the 30th of April 1945. He was a major German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, and arose to be the Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, Hitler jump started The Second World War in Europe with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. Hitler's choices, actions, and motives leading up to, and during, the Second World War were the single greatest factors behind the termoil and choas in Germany in the 20th century.
Adolf Hitler, German Fuhrer
Sultan Abdul Hamid II
By the end of his reign, Evan III had tripled the territory of Muscovy, and ended the dominance of the Golden Horde over his territory. Ivan III is also well know for renovating Moscow's Kremlin, and laying the foundations for what later became called the Russian state. He was one of the longest-reigning Russian rulers of all time.
