Today, coffee has become an indispensable beverage that most people consume every
day. Due to the fast pace of life and the increase in working hours, most people have made a
habit of coffee to keep their body vigorous. In this way, many coffee chains were opened,
such as Starbucks and spread all over the world. Since many American-based coffee chains
spread around the world, it may not be known where the basis of coffee comes from.
History professor Alan Mikhail explained the relationship between America, spread of
Protestantism and the Ottoman Empire, also he explained that the origin story of coffee which
have an important place in our lives, actually spread to the world thanks to the Ottoman
Empire.
Nowadays, the Ottoman Empire does not draw attention from the eyes of Europeans
and Americans historically, it is not known that the Ottoman state was a powerful and a great
state that influenced the history of many countries. Stating that this is wrong, Mikhail states
that even the discovery of America depended on the Ottoman state's domination of trade
routes at that time.
The most important period that increased the influence of the Ottoman Empire among
many countries is the period of Selim III. The reason for this is that Selim proved his
sovereignty by defeating the Mamluk Empire and expanded Ottoman territory. With the
important victories of Selim, the Ottoman Empire also had trade networks and large ports.
Because of the empire strengthening both economically and as a land, Islam got ahead of
Christianity in this period and spread rapidly.
The empowerment of the Ottomans was not the only reason for the weakening of
Christianity. The corruption of Christians in themselves and the use of rulers ‘religion’ as a
means of deceiving people drew the public reaction and the Protestant movement started
under the leadership of Marthin Luther. The Protestant movement spread to the world as
Catholics could not stop the spread of Islam and started to collapse. In other words, an
important reason for the spread of Protestantism was the rise of the Ottomans and Islam.
If we talk about the relationship between the coffee we mentioned at the beginning and
the Ottoman Empire, we can say that the Ottomans discovered coffee from Yemen and found
its use. Until the 18th century, coffee was an important economic resource for the Ottoman

Empire. In other words, the origin of coffee, which is consumed in large amounts all over the
world today, is based on the Ottoman Empire.
Selim's effect on America was realized as the Ottoman rule expanded from the
Atlantic to North America. Taking over Cairo and Jerusalem, the Ottoman Empire prevented
Europe's trade relations with China and India. In this way, the Ottoman Empire became a
leader both in terms of economically and territory.
As a result, the Ottoman Empire was an important power with high dominance in the
world until the First World War. Therefore, it is possible to see the Ottoman influence in the
history of many countries, although it is not noticeable today. Also we can say that most of
these effects occurred as a result of the successes of the Selim III.

This article is written by Esma Kaya.