The Ottoman Empire was a great power for several centuries, whose possessions during the heyday of the 16th and 17th centuries. spread to Europe, Asia and Africa. Having captured Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultans added the title “Emperor of the Romans” to their title, asserting the succession of the Ottoman Empire not only from the Arab Caliphate, but also from the Roman Empire. Turkish troops in the 16th century. defeated the Republic of Venice, Hungary, Czech Poland, and even the Holy Roman Empire and besieged Vienna in 1529. At the height of its power, the empire stretched from the gates of Vienna to the Persian Gulf, from the Crimea to Morocco. In the 17th century. The Turks captured territories west of the Dnieper and became the main enemy of the Russian Empire for the next two centuries. The Ottoman Empire lasted until 1922 and outlived all the other great empires of Europe - Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian - except the British. How did the Ottoman Empire come into being? How did a small Asian state become the most powerful empire in Europe and Asia during the time of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent?