

During the 4th century, İstanbul  was selected by the Roman Empire to be the new capital, instead of Rome, by Constantine. It was a strategic choice: Built on seven surrounding hills – echoing that of Rome – the city would have control of the İstanbul Strait and easy access to the harbour of the Golden Horn. The city was re-organized within six years, its ramparts widened and the construction of many temples, official buildings, palaces, hamams and hippodrome.






But a century after the death of Suleyman, the Empire started to decline again. By the end of the 18th century, whilst the empire was in decline with more territory being lost to the West, and sultans becoming more interested in Western institutional models. There was a short-lived Ottoman parliament and constitution in 1876, and by the end of the World War I during which allied troops occupied the city, the once-great empire was in shambles.

This changed radically with the emergence of a prominent commander of the Turkish army, who entered the struggle for the Turkish nation. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was considered a hero after the 4-year long War of Independence, after which he established the Republic if Turkey in 1923. Moving the capital to Ankara, then a small provincial town in Anatolia, İstanbul  was simply the commercial and cultural centre, which it still remains today.