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others in the tribe, and they were supposed to make decisions
based on what was best for the tribe. But after the rural sheikhs
and the important families in Baghdad registered their claims to
land, they were obliged to support the Ottoman government, which
could back up their land claims with military force. Most of the
ordinary tribesmen became little more than tenant farmers, with
their labor enriching the landowning families.
During the 19th century, contact with the nations of Europe
I
RAQ
40
The Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople, 1453. During the following century, the
Ottoman Empire extended its control into Kurdistan and Mesopotamia, in present-day
Iraq. Ottoman influence in the region would last until the second decade of the 20th
century.