History of Çanakkale: Troy, the Dardanelles and the 1915 Campaign

Çanakkale’s history is inseparable from the Dardanelles — the narrow strait that makes it one of the most strategically significant geographical chokepoints in Eurasian history. The strait has been contested, crossed, bridged, fortified, and forced by armies and navies from Xerxes in 480 BCE to the Allied fleet in 1915 CE. The modern city derives both its name (from the pottery — çanak — trade of the Ottoman period) and its national significance from this geography.

Bronze Age — Troy

The most ancient significant event in the Çanakkale region predates the Greek and Roman periods by more than a thousand years. Troy (Troya/Truva), 30km south of the modern city, was a Bronze Age fortified city at the entrance to the Dardanelles — controlling trade between the Aegean and the Marmara/Black Sea.

Troy I–IX: Nine successive cities were built on the Hisarlık mound between approximately 3,000 BCE and 400 CE. The city identified with Homeric Troy — Troy VIh or Troy VIIa — was a substantial Bronze Age fortification destroyed around 1180 BCE.

The Trojan War: The historicity of the Trojan War remains debated. Hittite records mention a city called Wilusa in the general location of Troy, and a conflict involving the Ahhiyawa (plausibly Mycenaean Greeks). Whether a real conflict of this scale occurred around 1200 BCE is uncertain; that Bronze Age Troy was a significant and contested city is confirmed by archaeology.

Schliemann: Heinrich Schliemann excavated Troy in the 1870s, discovering the mound at Hisarlık and identifying it with Homeric Troy. His methods by modern standards were destructive — he cut through the upper layers to reach what he believed was Priam’s Troy, destroying much of the Troy VIIa evidence. The jewellery he identified as “Priam’s Treasure” was actually from Troy II (1,000 years earlier). The controversial finds are now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow after passing through German and Soviet hands.

The Dardanelles in Ancient History

The Dardanelles (the ancient Hellespont) was strategically critical in the ancient world for two reasons: it was the only sea route from the Aegean to the Black Sea (and thus the grain trade from the Ukrainian steppes), and it was the only practical crossing point between Europe and Asia in the region.

Xerxes’ bridge (480 BCE): The Persian king Xerxes bridged the Hellespont to invade Greece — a feat of ancient engineering (two boat-bridges of 314 and 360 vessels lashed together). When the first bridges were destroyed by storms, Xerxes reportedly ordered the sea to be whipped (300 lashes) as punishment. The second bridges held and the Persian army of hundreds of thousands crossed into Europe.

Alexander’s crossing (334 BCE): Alexander the Great crossed the Dardanelles in the opposite direction — from Europe to Asia — to begin his campaign against Persia. He reportedly threw a spear into the Asian shore as he landed, claiming Asia as “spear-won.”

Athenian and Spartan interests: Control of the Hellespont was critical to Athens’s food supply from the Black Sea. The decisive battle of the Peloponnesian War (Aegospotami, 405 BCE) was fought at the Dardanelles — the Spartan admiral Lysander destroyed the Athenian fleet there, ending Athenian power.

Byzantine and Ottoman Control

Byzantine fortification: The Byzantine Empire maintained fortifications on both shores of the Dardanelles as a defensive line against naval invasion from the Aegean.

Ottoman conquest (1354): The Ottomans crossed the Dardanelles to Europe in 1354 — the beginning of Ottoman expansion into the Balkans. The strait became an internal Ottoman waterway rather than a frontier.

Mehmed II and the Strait Castles (1452): Sultan Mehmed II built the two Dardanelles castles — Kilitbahir on the European shore and Çimenlik (Ottoman Kale-i Sultaniye) on the Asian shore — as part of his preparations for the siege of Constantinople. The castles controlled the strait and prevented Western naval relief from reaching the Byzantine capital.

Fall of Constantinople (1453): With the Dardanelles controlled by the new castles, Byzantine Constantinople was isolated. Mehmed II took the city on 29 May 1453. The Dardanelles castles played a decisive supporting role.

The Ottoman Period

Ottoman Çanakkale grew as the garrison town for the Dardanelles fortifications. The pottery trade — çanak (bowl) kale (castle) means “bowl castle” — gave the city its modern name.

The Dardanelles Straits Conventions: European powers repeatedly attempted to regulate navigation through the Dardanelles in the 19th century — the strait’s control of access to the Black Sea made it one of the most diplomatically contested geographical features in the world. The 1841 London Convention established the principle that no warships could pass through the Dardanelles in peacetime.

The Crimean War (1853–1856): Britain and France intervened on the Ottoman side against Russia, with the Dardanelles as the key strategic access. Allied fleets passed through the strait to the Black Sea — marking the first use of steam-powered warships in a major conflict.

The 1915 Campaign — Gallipoli and Çanakkale

The Gallipoli campaign (Çanakkale Savaşları — the Çanakkale Battles in Turkish) is the defining event of modern Çanakkale history — and one of the defining events of both Turkish national identity and Anzac heritage.

Strategic context: The Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia) needed a supply route to Russia, which was under pressure on the Eastern Front. Forcing the Dardanelles would open the Black Sea route, potentially knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war, and relieve pressure on Russia.

The naval attempt (February–March 1915): A combined Allied fleet attempted to force the strait directly in February and March 1915. The heavily fortified shores, the minefields, and the mine-layer Nusret combined to defeat the attempt — three battleships (HMS Ocean, HMS Irresistible, and the French Bouvet) were sunk on 18 March 1915 by the Nusret’s minefield.

The land campaign (April 1915–January 1916): After the naval failure, Allied land forces (British, French, Australian, New Zealand, Indian troops) landed at Cape Helles (southern tip of Gallipoli) and Anzac Cove (west coast, halfway up the peninsula) on 25 April 1915. The Turkish forces under Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk) held the high ground and the campaign became a nine-month stalemate.

Casualties: Approximately 55,000 Allied dead (including 8,709 Australians and 2,779 New Zealanders); approximately 86,000 Ottoman Turkish dead. The campaign ended in Allied evacuation in December 1915–January 1916.

Mustafa Kemal: The Turkish defensive success at Gallipoli was significantly shaped by Mustafa Kemal’s command of the Anafartalar group. His famous order — “I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die. In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can come forward and take our places.” — is one of the most cited military commands in Turkish history. The Gallipoli campaign established Kemal as a national hero and contributed to his authority to lead the Turkish War of Independence.

Turkish national significance: The Gallipoli victory is foundational to Turkish national identity — the successful defence against a major Allied assault confirmed the viability of Turkish resistance and set the psychological conditions for the War of Independence (1919–1923). Çanakkale Geçilmez (“Çanakkale is Impassable”) is a Turkish national slogan still used today.

Anzac significance: Gallipoli is the defining event of Australian and New Zealand national identity — the Anzac legend of courage, sacrifice, and mateship under extreme adversity is central to both nations’ sense of national character. 25 April (Anzac Day) is a national holiday in both countries.

Post-1923

The modern Turkish Republic established sovereignty over the Dardanelles under the Lausanne Treaty (1923) and the subsequent Montreux Convention (1936), which established the current regime governing strait passage — Turkey controls transit; commercial shipping has free passage; warships of Black Sea states have specific rights; warships of non-Black Sea states are limited in size and duration.

The Çanakkale Bridge (1915 Çanakkale Köprüsü), opened in 2022 on the 107th anniversary of the 1915 campaign, crosses the Dardanelles near Çanakkale — at 3,563 metres, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time of completion. It connects the European and Asian shores in 6 minutes by road.

Historical timeline

Period	Event
c. 3000 BCE	Troy I — first occupation of the Hisarlık mound
c. 1180 BCE	Destruction of Troy VIIa (possibly the Homeric Troy)
480 BCE	Xerxes bridges the Hellespont to invade Greece
405 BCE	Battle of Aegospotami — end of Athenian power
334 BCE	Alexander crosses to Asia
1354 CE	Ottomans cross the Dardanelles into Europe
1452	Mehmed II builds Kilitbahir and Çimenlik castles
1453	Fall of Constantinople; Dardanelles fully Ottoman
18 March 1915	Allied fleet defeated in Dardanelles; Nusret mines sink 3 battleships
25 April 1915	Allied landings at Cape Helles and Anzac Cove
January 1916	Allied evacuation; Ottoman defensive victory
2022	1915 Çanakkale Bridge opens — world’s longest suspension bridge

For the battlefield sites, see things to do in Çanakkale.