At its height under Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566AD), the Ottoman Empire spanned three continents and controlled critical nodes of global trade, religion and geopolitics. While often remembered for their military conquests and imperial dominance, the Ottomans inadvertently triggered one of history‘s greatest turning points – the Age of Exploration and the rise of the West. Through the story of the fall of Constantinople and Europe’s desperate quest for new trade routes, this talk will look at how Ottoman expansion forced Europe to innovate, colonise, and ultimately dominate the globe. Was the Empire an unwitting catalyst for modernity?
Tim is a professor of Anthropology and History, whose research, while at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, was on Byzantium and the East Mediterranean. He is a regular contributor to the Adult Education programme at St Albans Cathedral.
This lecture will be available on Zoom only. Attendance is free to members; £5 for non-members. Please click on the button above right, and register your option. You will then receive confirmation of your registration by email return. Registration closes at 3.30pm on Tuesday 16 September.
All those registered will be emailed the Zoom joining instructions by 4pm on the day of the lecture. If you have not received this by 5pm, please contact us using the email address below. NB. If you are registering two or more members to attend via Zoom, and want each of them to receive the link in their own email inbox, these details need to be entered at registration.
If you have any questions, please email Gill Girdziusz via lectures@stalbanshistory.org
Image above: Ottoman Empire in 1566 by Chamboz (Wikipedia)
