Answer:
During the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was one of the world’s most expansive empires. By the outbreak of World War I, however, the Ottoman Empire was in a state of rapid transition and decay.
In 1683, the Ottomans invaded Austria with an army of 200,000 men and laid siege to Vienna, a city they had long coveted.
It took a massive combined force of Austrians, Germans, and Poles to defend the Austrian capital and drive the Ottomans from central Europe.
This defeat, along with the inept leadership of several weak sultans, saw Ottoman expansion stall during the 1700s.
Internally, the Ottoman Empire was also suffering from a failing economy.
Centuries before, the Ottomans ruled the world’s richest empire – but by the 1800s they had long been overtaken by the trading strength of the British, French, and other European powers. By the 1870s the Ottomans owed more than 200 million pounds to European banks; the annual repayments on their loans and interest comprised more than half the national revenue.
