Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

After WWI the Ottoman Empire fell many countries emerged and one of them was Turkey. Mustafa Kemal rose and then led Turkey and modernized it in many ways. Mustafa Kemal helped modernize Turkey by following ideas of the Europeans and Americans rather than continuing to use the Muslim tradition. He also made Turkey more secular by separating religion from things like education, cultural and legal affairs. Mustafa replaced the religious traditions with modern western traditions such as the clothing they wore. This means that they started to wear suits, ties and shoes rather than the traditional clothing. Religion was separated from everything and he banned religious things like the fez which was a hat worn by people of the Muslim faith. He called the fez something that someone who is uncivilized would would wear and he was trying to make Turkey more modern. Mustafa also restructured the economic system and cared for the poor. He said that the real master of the country is the villager. The word secular means to separate religion from other things such as education, culture, etc.