Explanation: The Ottoman Empire began as a polity of nomadic Turkish tribesmen from Central Asia, whose main goal of expansion was to acquire grazing land so they and their herds could live comfortably.

They were so damn successful at doing so that they blossomed into one of the most powerful empires in the world at the time, conquering part of Europe, and even penetrating into Austria.

… but by the 19th and 20th century, their prior successes had faded under an increasingly moribund and corrupt state apparatus, the Ottomans having become known as ‘the sick man of Europe’, and they were reduced to dependence on their European allies, the empire itself eventually being dismantled after WW1.

At least they gave us nice foot rests to go with our chairs.

They Otto-know