The end of the Ottoman Empire

As the map on the left shows, it was one sprawling empire, the fall of which created so many countries we are familiar with today.  (Click on the map for a clearer, detailed, view)

A historical footnote to the fall of the Ottoman Empire:

Ertugrul Osman - the would-be sultan known in Turkey as the "last Ottoman" - has died in Istanbul at the age of 97.

Osman would have been sultan of the Ottoman Empire had Turkey's modern republic not been created in the 1920s.
As the last surviving grandson of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, he would have been known as his Imperial Highness Prince Shehzade Ertugrul Osman Effendi.
Born in Istanbul in 1912, Osman spent most of his years living modestly in New York.

And, equally fascinating:
Ertugrul Osman is survived by his wife, Zeynep, a relative of the last king of Afghanistan.