In 1554 and again in 1556,[1] Ferdinand named Busbecq ambassador to the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent. His task for much of the time he was in Constantinople was the negotiation of a border treaty between his employer (the future Holy Roman Emperor) and the Sultan over the disputed territory of Transylvania. He had no success in this mission while Rüstem Pasha was the Sultan's vizier, but ultimately reached an accord with his successor Semiz Ali Pasha.

Indeed the Portuguese built up their eastern empire with an astonishing speed. They used their naval power to gain control over the Indian Ocean by occupying a number of strategic points and to divert the stream of merchandise - particularly spices - from Asia to Portugal via the Cape of Good Hope by blockading the entrance to the Red Sea and the Gulf,

Secular Kemalist rhetoric relieved some of the international concerns about the future of Armenians who had survived the 1915 Armenian genocide, and support for Kurdish self determination similarly declined.

On 19 February 1915, British and French ships began a naval assault on the Dardanelles. The fighting culminated in a heavy setback for the Allies on 18 March due to large losses from Turkish mines. ... The Dardanelles campaign remains one of the First World War's most controversial episodes.