How did a small frontier tribe in Anatolia become a 600-year empire and why did it ultimately collapse?In this deep dive, we sit down with Micheal Talbot, an expert Ottoman historian and producer of the Netflix series ‘The Ottomans’ to unpack how the Ottoman Empire rose from obscurity to conquer Constantinople, dominate the Middle East, challenge Europe at Vienna, and eventually collapse after World War I.We explore how the Ottomans built power on the Byzantine frontier, how Mehmed II captured Constantinople, how Suleiman expanded across three continents, and how internal reform, military stagnation, nationalism, and global war brought the empire to an end.⸻What we cover:• How a minor Anatolian tribe became a global empire• The conquest of Constantinople and the claim to Rome• The Janissaries, slavery, and imperial power• The expansion into the Arab world and rivalry with the Safavids• Vienna, Russia, and the limits of Ottoman expansion• Reform, nationalism, and the “Sick Man of Europe”• The Young Turks, World War I, and imperial collapse• Whether the Ottoman legacy is misunderstood today