Turkish-African social and cultural relations predate the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923, and go back to the predecessor Ottoman Empire. At its height the empire encompassed large parts of what is today described as the Balkans, which included modern Greece, large parts of North Africa, the present Middle East and at its core was the Asia Minor. By the late nineteenth century, and rather belatedly, through the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt, was already finding its way into the Sudan in the shape of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium. Westwards, it had already insinuated itself into some areas of West Africa. Where it had not established its physical presence in the form of military or bureaucratic presence, it had established diplomatic and political contact, like in the case of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
One of the main reasons for the long life span of the Ottoman Empire in many of these areas was its well developed millet system which provided an opportunity for the various ethnic, religious and linguistic groups to exercise a certain amount of autonomy . Like its predecessor Roman Empire, it was multi-ethnic in all its senses. The Ottoman Empire was also perceived as a Muslim Caliphate with its capital in Istanbul. Although there were significant Christian populations under its wings, especially in the Balkans, the core of the Empire remained Islamic and Islamic ethnic groups were naturally co-opted in its administration as the local representatives of the Sultan along with the bureaucrats sent from Istanbul. Many of these diverse peoples did see themselves as part of the Islamic Caliphate, well into the early twentieth century when European powers began to meddle directly into Ottoman affairs by instigating the various non-Turkish groups to rise against their rulers. The European powers had their own hidden agendas, namely the dismembering of the Empire and then sharing he spoils.Surprisingly, this was totally oblivious to the various non-Turkish groups who were the subject of this instigation. This led to what came to be dubbed the Arab Awakening led, paradoxically by T. E. Lawrence, the famous Lawrence of Arabian. By the 1920s virtually all the objectives of the European powers, which were acting in concert, had been achieved, namely the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and the realignment of its pieces to meet European imperial designs.