old_abe

How powerful was the Ottoman Empire during their prime (1600s?) Where do they stack up against other great empires?

h1story

It was quite powerful conquering much of arabian world and even europe ( balkans ) ... Empire collapsed because they could not keep with european industrialization, interior problems and nations of balkans rising and fighting for independence

UberCryxic

Quite powerful in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, though I have an ancillary question. Why is this topic in the 'Ancient Times' section? Historians traditionally define the end of ancient times at 476 with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Ottoman Empire did not fall until after World War I, and that's in the twentieth century. You can see how this placement here is a little weird....

h1story

A little correction ... the beginning of the end of ottoman empire was in 19th century when Berlin congres took place and final fall was after balkan wars really. World War one was really just the final end. Everything important happened earlier.

es_bih

It was immensly powerful. Holding a state similar in land mass to the Roman, and later Eastern (Byzantine) Roman Empire after Justinian's reconquests. It was so powerful indeed that European supporters of the coming of the Judgement Day identified Turks as the "evil" that will conquer the world and usher in the rule of the anti-Christ. To instil that level of fear requires a lot of power.

stung

They were probubly the most powerful state around and they stack up the same as any other big empire.there all the same really.