The Ottoman Empire for several centuries was a great power, whose possessions during the heyday of the XVI-XVII centuries. extended to Europe, Asia and Africa. Having captured Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultans supplemented their title with the title "Emperor of the Romans," asserting the continuity of the Ottoman Empire not only from the Arab caliphate, but also from the Roman Empire. Turkish troops in the XVI century. defeated the Venetian Republic, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland even the Holy Roman Empire and in 1529 besieged Vienna. At the pinnacle of its power, the empire stretched from the gates of Vienna to the Persian Gulf, from Crimea to Morocco. In the XVII century. the Turks captured territories west of the Dnieper and became the main opponent of the Russian Empire for the next two centuries. The Ottoman Empire lasted until 1922 and survived all the other great empires of Europe - Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian - except the British.