Its very interesting to see how the Janissaries’ and Ottoman’s picked boys for their army. Fathers brought their own sons to a church to hopefully be picked. The reason this process took place in the church was because the empires could not pick anyone who was Muslim. They also could not take anyone who was married, or son of widow, or was the village idiot. So at least they had very specific things they were looking for. They even stressed the correct shape of the boy s head. I wonder if that is one big reason of their success. Not even the U.S. army is that selective, and during this empire people wanted to be a part of this.

There are similarities between the U.S. army and them due to the fact that they have benefits like either free college, or being able to support their family. Even some people now want to join the army because they want to help their country. Both groups have some reason why people would join which is what an empire wants, although they are both still very different.

I found it to be very interesting to learn that the Ottoman empire allowed others in the community to have their own religion. The idea of toleration is one that is rarely found when a group takes over another area. Most of the time these groups force their ideas onto everyone. The idea of toleration meant that the Ottomans would tolerate anyone of any religion, allow people to practice and live their religion, but they had to wear clothes to mark what religion they were. Despite all of this Christians were not allowed to build new churches.
Its so different the way countries go about conducting their matters in today’s world compared back to the 1300s. The way empires went about getting what they wanted seemed more powerful in the sense that people knew that they meant business.
They showed more intelligence than most empires back in the day. Their training for combat was extensive, and their use of weapons and horses was very effective as well as difficult. I would be impressed even to this day to see someone standing on a galloping horse shooting any sort of weapon, not to mention how amazed I would be if they hit their target.