<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Ottoman Empire (/ ˈɒtəmən /; Devlet - i ʿAlīye - i ʿOsmānīye), also historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of southeastern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries . It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt (modern - day Bilecik Province) by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman . After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire . The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror . </P> <P> During the 16th and 17th centuries, at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire was a multinational, multilingual empire controlling most of Southeast Europe, parts of Central Europe, Western Asia, parts of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa . At the beginning of the 17th century, the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states . Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries . </P>

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