External threats and internal transformations
During the eighteenth century in the Ottoman Empire was almost constantly at war with one or more of its enemies – Persia, Poland, Austria and Russia. Under the terms of the humiliating Treaty of Kuchuk-Kaynarja that the Russian-Ottoman war of 1768-1774 ended, left the Porte of the Tatar Khanate of Crimea, the autonomy of the Trans-Danubian provinces, allowed Russian ships free access to Ottoman waters and agreed have to pay a large indemnity.
The consequences of the decline of Ottoman power, the vulnerability and the appeal of the Kingdom of the large farms, the feelings of nationalism among its subjugated peoples, and the periodic crises that are of these and other factors in order to European diplomats composed in the nineteenth century as the “Eastern Question” known. In 1853 Tsar Nicholas I of Russia described the Ottoman Empire as a “sick man of Europe”. The problem from the viewpoint of European diplomacy was how to dispose of the empire in a way that no one power would be an advantage to win at the expense of others, and upset the political balance of Europe.
To the first crisis of the nineteenth century on the European response to the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) was. In 1827 an Anglo-French fleet destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino, when the Russian army as far advanced as Edirne before a truce was called in 1829. The European powers forced the Porte to Greek independence under the London Convention recognized in 1832.
had Muhammad Ali, an Ottoman officer, the Pasha of Egypt, appointed by the Sultan in 1805, had given substantial aid to the Ottoman cause in the Greek war. If he was not rewarded as promised for his support, he moved to Syria in 1831 and pursued the retreating Ottoman army deep into Anatolia. In desperation, the Porte appealed to Russia for support. Britain then intervened to withdraw the restriction, Muhammad Ali from Anatolia to Syria. The price paid by the Sultan for his support of Russia, the Treaty of Hünkar Iskelesi of 1833. were in accordance with this agreement, the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits closed to the demand for Russian naval vessels of other powers.
Was taken over by Muhammad Ali in 1839 and Ottoman forces were again defeated. Russia waives his rights under the 1833 Treaty and joined with the British efforts to the Ottoman Empire to assist militarily and diplomatically. Under the London Convention of 1840 Muhammad Ali was forced to abandon his claim to Syria, but he was recognized as hereditary ruler of Egypt, nominally under Ottoman suzerainty. As part of an Additional Protocol in 1841 committed to the gate of the Straits to warships of all powers to close.
The Ottoman Empire fought two wars with Russia in the nineteenth century. The Crimean War (1854-56) pitted France, Britain and the Ottoman Empire against Russia. Under the Treaty of Paris which ended the war, Russia abandoned its claim to the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire to protect and waives the right to intervene in the Balkans. Was again between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in 1877. Russia opened hostilities in response to the Ottoman suppression of uprisings in Bulgaria and Serbia to the threat made by the Ottomans. The Russian army had driven through Bulgaria and reached as far as Edirne, where the gate of the terms by a new agreement has been fixed, the Treaty of San Stefano. The contract reduces Ottoman holdings in Europe, Eastern Thrace and created a large, independent Bulgarian state under Russian protection.
The refusal to accept the dominant position of Russia in the Balkans, as the other European powers of the Berlin Congress 1878th This meeting was attended by private Europeans a much smaller, autonomous Bulgarian state under Ottoman suzerainty agreed nominal. Serbia and Romania were recognized as fully independent states, and made the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austrian administration. Cyprus, although technically still part of the Ottoman Empire, was a British protectorate. For all his efforts the war, Russia received only minor territorial concessions in Bessarabia and the Caucasus. In the course of the nineteenth century, France took Algeria and Tunisia while Britain’s occupation of Egypt began in 1882. In all these cases, the occupied territories once belonged to the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire had a dual economy in the nineteenth century, consisting of a large subsistence sector and a small colonial-commercial sector, in conjunction with the European markets and the control of foreign interests. Empire of the first railroads, for example, were built by foreign investors, the cash crops of the coastal valleys of Anatolia – the tobacco, grapes and other fruits to bring – to Smyrna (Izmir) for processing and export. The cost of maintaining a modern army without a thorough reform of economic institutions reached incurred as a result of more tax revenue. Heavy borrowing from foreign banks in the 1870s created the Ministry of Finance and the company to increase new loans to pay for the interest in older, a financial crisis that in 1881 the gate, the administration of the Ottoman debt, a commission for foreign investorsrequired result. The debt is transferred to the Commission collected public revenues and the proceeds directly to the creditor in Europe.
The 1860s and early 1870s saw the emergence of the Young Ottoman movement among Western-oriented intellectuals who wanted to see the kingdom recognized as an equal by the European powers. You adopt Western political institutions, including an efficient central government, an elected parliament and a constitution. The “Ottomanism” They talked for an integrated dynastic state that would subordinate Islam to secular interests and help called non-Muslim subjects in representative parliamentary institutions.
In 1876, the Sultan of a hapless fetva (legal advice), the deposition of Midhat Pasha, a reformist minister for understanding the politics of the Young Turks. His successor, Abdul Hamid II (reigned 1876-1909), came to the throne with the consent of Midhat and other reformers. In December of that year, on the eve of war with Russia, said the new Sultan Constitution were designed based on European models, the high-level political, military and religious officials, led by Midhat had. The design of the substance of the Young Ottoman program, created this document, a representative of the Parliament, which guarantees freedom of religion, and the planned expansion of free expression. Abdul Hamid II through the adoption of constitutionalism was a temporary tactic to gain the throne, but. Midhat was dismissed in February 1877 and was later murdered. The Sultan said the Kingdom first dissolved Parliament, but within a year.
Unrest in Eastern Rumelia with the European powers led to the unification of the province, Bulgaria, in 1885. Meanwhile, Greek and Bulgarian partisans carry on a running battle with Ottoman troops in Macedonia. In addition, the repression of revolutionary activities in Armenia 1894-1896 cost about 300,000 lives and brought the European public opinion against the Ottoman regime. External support for a rebellion in Crete caused the door to declare war on Greece in 1897. Although the Ottoman army defeated the Greeks decisively in Thrace, the European powers forced a compromise peace, Crete under Ottoman suzerainty, while the installation of the son of the Greek king as his governor instead.
More isolated from Europe than it is for half a century, could include the Ottoman regime to support only from Germany, offered their friendship Abdul Hamid II, a friendly alternative to the British and French intervention. In 1902 Germany was granted a 99 years concession for the construction and operation of a Berlin-to-rail Baghdad. Germany continues to invest in the Ottoman economy, and German officers held training and management positions in the Ottoman army.
The opposition to the regime of the Sultan was sitting between the Westernized intellectuals and liberal members of the ruling class to keep. Some continue to “Ottomanism” while others argued for pan-Turanism, the Union of Turkic peoples in and outside of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish nationalist ideologist of the time of the writer Ziya Gökalp, the Turkish nationalism was founded in the Ottoman Empire. Gökalp went much further than his contemporaries, but with the demand for the introduction of the vernacular instead of the Ottoman Turkish. Gökalp advocacy of a national Turkish state in the folk culture and Western values also play an important role in revitalizing foreshadowed events would be a quarter-century into the future.
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