History

Canakkale History

CANAKKALE IN PRE-HISTORIC PERIODS

Çanakkale, which is a bridge between the continents of Asia and Europe, has hosted important cultures from the period when humanity started settled life to the beginning of historical ages. The fact that it has been dominated by different societies for millennia shows different traces of the multicolored heritage it has created in its architecture and daily life.

Neolithic Period (New Stone Age)

The Neolithic Period (8000-5500 BC), in which people settled down and engaged in animal husbandry and agriculture, is called the Neolithic Revolution in terms of human history. The existence of village settlements belonging to this period is known in Çanakkale as well as in every region of Anatolia. The most important of these is Coşkuntepe, which is located on a high natural hill near Bademli Village in Ayvacık District. Here ca. He revealed that there was a people who earned their living especially from fishing and animal husbandry in 6000 years. On the same dates, Karaağaçtepe and Hamaylıtarla locations on the Gallipoli Peninsula and Uğurlu/Zeytinli locations on Gökçeada, BC. The existence of the first village settlements dated 6000 is known.

Chalcolithic Period (Copper Age)

Settlements representing the Chalcolithic period date back to approximately BC. Kumtepe, Beşik-Sivritepe and Gülpınar, which are inhabited by around 5000.

Bronze Age

Approximately BC. The Bronze Age, which covers between 3000 and 1200 years, is best represented by the Trojan settlement in the Çanakkale region. It has the appearance of a mound formed by ten separate settlement levels on top of each other. Troia is located at an important point connecting the Aegean Sea to the Marmara and Black Sea worlds.

It was understood that the gold finds found by Schliemann and known for many years as the treasure of the legendary Troia King Priam, actually belonged to the noble class that emerged in Troia II in the previous thousand years. The fact that it is a settlement with strong fortifications of up to five meters confirms how powerful a Bronze Age settlement Troy was.

It was found in Troia and dates back to ca. The Luwian inscription, belonging to the Anatolian group of the Indo-European language, on the seal dated 1200, can be accepted as the first known writing example in the Çanakkale region. It is known that Wilusa, mentioned in Hittite cuneiform documents, characterizes the city of Troia or the Troas region.

There are many Bronze Age settlements in Çanakkale apart from Troia. Examples of these are Kumtepe, Hanay Tepe, Beşiktepe, Larissa, Tuzla and Külahlı. In the eastern parts of Çanakkale, Bronze Age settlements are also known around Çan, Biga, Bayramiç and Yenice. (For example Molasses, Ümücükler, İkizce)

CANAKKALE IN ANCIENT AGES

Iron Age

With the end of the Hittite Empire in 1190, the Bronze Age was replaced by the Iron Age, during which some native Anatolian peoples dominated Anatolia. One of them is the Kingdom of Lydia, which will later take the Çanakkale region under their sovereignty. B.C. With the start of the Trojan Wars in the Çanakkale region around 1200, the Achaeans came to the region.

Colonial Cities in Çanakkale

B.C. At the end of two hundred years of Hellenic colonization between 750-550 years, many cities were established as a Hellenic trade colony in the region, mostly on the coast. Parion, Priapos, Abydos founded by Miletos; Sestos, Assos, Dardanos, founded by the Aeols, Hamaksitos, founded by the Ions; Lampsacus, which was founded by the Colophonians, are some of these colonial cities.

Lydian Dominion

BC in the Çanakkale Region. From the first half of the 7th century, we see that the Lydian State established a dominance. So much so that, during this period, colonial cities were established with the permission of the Lydian king. B.C. Towards the middle of the 6th century, Athens turned its direction to this region after winning the Salamis war with the Persians.

Persian Domination

Çanakkale Region BC. It recognized Persian sovereignty in the middle of the 6th century. The two great Persian emperors, Darius and Xerxes, always saw the Troas Region as a key point to reach Europe. According to Herodotus, it was Persian emperor Xerxes who built the first bridge to cross the Hellespontos from Asia to Europe.

B.C. By the beginning of the 4th century, some Troas cities started a common revolt against Persian domination. With the Antialkides Peace signed in 387, they completely surrendered to the Persians.

Hellenistic Period

B.C. In 334, Macedonian King Alexander the Great launched a great operation against the Persians and came to the Troas Region by passing the Dardanelles. He defeated the Persian army in the famous Battle of Granikos on the banks of the Koçabas Stream, near present-day Karabiga, and ended the Persian domination in the region.

After the sudden death of Alexander the Great, one of his generals, Antigonos BC. After 323, he took the Çanakkale region under his administration. A large city was established under the name of Antigoneia (Alexandria Troas) by bringing together the small, weak and scattered cities in the region that did not have a large population. However, the administration of the Çanakkale region changed again after the Battle of Ipsos (301 BC), and the administration passed from Antigonos in the east to Lysimakhos in the west.

B.C. Galatians, who were in economic difficulties in the Balkans at the beginning of the 3rd century, BC. In 280, they passed the Dardanelles and dominated the region. They could not stay here long and headed east. It was founded in the same period in the Kingdom of Pergamon. The region is It was connected to the Seleucid Kingdom between 280-188 years. B.C. In 190, the Romans and the Seleucid king III. After the war between Antiochus in Magnesia, the victorious Romans conquered the region with the king of Pergamon II, who helped them in gaining this success. They gave it to Eumenes (197-150 BC).

Roman period

Çanakkale Region Pergamon King III. After Attalos left his kingdom to the Roman Empire with a will in 133 BC, it was included in the Roman state system and connected to the province of Asia.

After the Roman Empire split into two in 395, the Çanakkale region was ruled under the domination of the Eastern Roman Empire. Emperor Justinian had a castle built in Sestos to control the passage of the strait.

Turkish Domination in Çanakkale

The appearance of Turks in the region coincides with the period of the Eastern Roman Empire. When the Anatolian Seljuk State collapsed at the beginning of the 14th century, they extended to the Aegean coast and began to settle in the Çanakkale region. The re-appearance of the Turks as a military power in the region started in 1095 with the advance of Çaka Bey to the front of Nara Cape. The Anatolian Seljuks, who retreated into Anatolia with the crusaders' capture of İznik in 1097, organized successive raids after the crusaders' withdrawal and took back the places they lost, reaching the Çanakkale region. they have advanced. During the Principalities period, Karesi Principality expanded its borders towards Çanakkale.

Ottoman Empire Period

Turkish domination in the Dardanelles was established during the Ottoman period. Although the Ottomans annexed most of the Karesi Principality lands in 1345, its dominance over the Dardanelles was realized in 1354 with the conquest of the Gallipoli Castle by Süleyman Pasha. Then, in 1356, after Gallipoli, the coasts of Rumelia were conquered until Tekirdağ. During the reign of Murad I, the entire Anatolian coast was under Ottoman rule, but the complete control of the Bosphorus was realized after the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehmed, after the castles he had built in 1462 in the narrowest part of the Bosphorus. After that, the Bosphorus both undertook the defense of Istanbul and kept its military importance by being the key to the domination plans regarding the Black Sea-Mediterranean passage...