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  • If there is any lesson that can be learned from history,

  • it's that empires and countries come and go just like people do.

  • They both have their entrances and their exits that are sometimes graceful and sometimes not.

  • The Ottoman Empire almost seems like it's from ancient history,

  • but Nintendo was founded at the same time the empire was

  • still huge, and occupied parts of Europe and Africa.

  • The Ottoman Empire had already been in a very long decline

  • by this point, and

  • finally, officially ceased to exist on 1922.

  • That was nearly 100 years ago, but what would the Ottoman Empire

  • look like today if it were to suddenly and unexpectedly

  • come back into existence?

  • Let's imagine a hypothetical Neo-Ottoman Empire with

  • her borders restored to what they were at the Empire's territorial height

  • back in 1683, right before

  • the Ottomans lost the Siege of Vienna against the Polish and the Hapsburgs.

  • If this happened a total of 31 modern countries

  • across 3 continents would lose

  • some or all of their land their territory to the Ottoman's.

  • Despite looking big and scary on a map, it would all be a lot smaller than Australia.

  • Australia apparently needs to get their act together filling up all this land though,

  • because the Ottomans would have over 17 times

  • their population, at around 426 million people.

  • That makes the Neo-Ottoman Empire the third largest country in the world in terms of people.

  • Obviously staying behind the usual suspects; India and China.

  • The capital of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years was Constantinople, or Istanbul

  • and that still all this time later would be the largest and most important

  • city in the modern empire.

  • Most of the top ten largest cities in the empire today would

  • all be located in the Middle East except for two:

  • Algiers in North Africa and Bucharest deeper in Europe.

  • All of these cities and lands would mean that the Ottoman Empire today,

  • like it was hundreds of years ago, would

  • be a very diverse place with people from dozens of

  • different backgrounds and religions. Arabs would

  • make up the vast majority of the Ottoman Population at 48%

  • while ethnic Turks would come in at second place at

  • 14.5%. Because of the large amount

  • of territory in Eastern Europe, people from Slavic

  • backgrounds would make up 11% of the Neo-Ottoman population.

  • Followed up by large numbers of Kurds, Romanians, and

  • Greeks. Based on those numbers, the Arabic and Turkish languages

  • would be the most commonly spoken in the new empire.

  • Probably followed next by French, owing to the old French

  • colonial influencing places like Lebanon, Syria

  • and Algeria. Moving on to the never controversial religious

  • section of the video, The Abrahamic Phase would dominate the empire;

  • Islam would be the single largest faith divided between 56% Sunnis and 8% Shias.

  • Christians would make up an additional 22% and Jews another 2%, Atheists and Agnostics would make up

  • 3% while other beliefs and religions would make up the final

  • 9%. The Ottoman economy would definitely be a powerhouse with an estimated nominal GDP of around

  • $3,675 trillion US Dollars. This would put the empire roughly on a par with the German economy and make it the 5th largest economy

  • worldwide. The economic comparison with Germany is interesting though, because while the numbers appear similar,

  • they don't exactly tell the whole story.

  • Remember the Ottoman population is about

  • 426 million,

  • while Germany's population is just

  • a bit over 82 million,

  • but still manages a slightly larger sized economy.

  • This means that on average, a citizen from the Neo-Ottoman empire

  • would be significantly poorer than a citizen from modern Germany.

  • The poorest areas of the modern Ottoman state would be

  • Syria, Moldova, and Ukraine, while the wealthiest areas

  • would be Kuwait, Israel, and the territory taken

  • from Saudi Arabia. The large economy and population inside

  • the new Ottoman empire would make it capable of fielding the

  • largest military in the world, estimated to be around

  • 8.1 million soldiers strong to begin with.

  • Adding up all the territory included in the

  • empire and their contributions to national defense, and the Ottoman military

  • budget would be $137 billion dollars;

  • the third largest highest in the world, behind the military juggernauts

  • of China and the United States. When compared with other

  • hypothetical countries that I've come up with in previous episodes of this

  • series, the Neo-Ottoman Empire would match up

  • extremely well. It would a very comperable

  • population to a united Spanish Empire,

  • but a much lower economy. The Ottomans would have

  • a larger military to begin with than a reunited Mongol

  • Empire, but the Mongol manpower base of 1.9

  • billion people would probably cancel out that advantage

  • pretty quickly. Which ever way you look at it, a reunified

  • Ottoman Empire to the borders of 1683 would be a

  • true 21st century greatpower. There are

  • many problems that a modern Ottoman State would face though,

  • with territory taken from Russia, The European Union, Saudi Arabia,

  • and bordering Iran, the Ottoman Sate would face many

  • external enemies. In addition to the vast internal

  • differences that were part of the reason for the Ottoman Empire collapsing nearly

  • 100 years ago. Could the Ottoman Empire

  • survive in the modern world or would it come crashing down

  • all over again? Perhaps the best way of answering these questions

  • would be to create a fan-fiction website and there's no better way

  • of doing that than using Wix.

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