Ottoman Empire (jan 1, 1299 – jan 1, 1923)

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The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic, so-called "gunpowder empire" that existed in present-day Turkey and the surrounding area. Because of the empire's wide variety of non-Islamic cultures, the government employed the millet system, in which religious minority communities were allowed to have their own court systems based on their religious laws. The Ottoman Empire also had an elite military group, members of which were called Janissaries. The Janissaries were recruited through a process called the Devshirme, which began as a punishment but eventually evolved into a system where Christian boys were taken from their homes and trained to become good fighters.

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