Ankara | Location, History, Economy, & Facts - Britannica

History

While the date of the city’s foundation is uncertain, archaeological evidence indicates habitation at least since the Stone Age, and a thriving Phrygian town was located in the area at the end of the 2nd millennium bce. Alexander the Great conquered Ankara in 333 bce, and in the 3rd century bce the town served as the capital of the Tectosages, a tribe of Galatia (the ancient name for the region around Ankara). In 25 bce Ankara was incorporated into the Roman Empire by the emperor Augustus.

As a city of the Byzantine Empire, Ankara was attacked by both the Persians and the Arabs. About 1073 Ankara fell to the Seljuq Turks, but the Crusader Raymond IV of Toulouse drove them out again in 1101. The Byzantines, however, were unable to maintain their control, and Ankara became a bone of contention between the Seljuqs and their rivals among the Turkish frontier lords. After 1143, Seljuq princes fought among themselves for possession of the city. With the establishment of the Seljuq empire, Ankara declined.

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In 1354 the city was captured by Orhan (Orkhan), the second sultan of the Ottoman dynasty, and it became a part of the Ottoman domains in 1360. Ankara was besieged during the Anatolian campaign of Timur (Tamerlane). In 1403 it again became subject to Ottoman rule, and in subsequent centuries it regained its importance as a commercial and urban centre because of its location on the caravan route to the East.

After World War I, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Turkish nationalist leader, made Ankara the centre of the resistance movement against both the government of the Ottoman sultan and the invading Greek forces; he established his headquarters there in 1919. Ankara was declared the capital of Turkey in 1923.