So, the Ottoman Empire once ruled land on three continents; at its height, it produced
cultural marvels, connected the east and west through trade, and its Sultans were recognized
as Caliphs, or “successors” of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and the leaders of Islam.
But the 20th century and the outbreak of WW1 found the Ottomans on their last legs, and
in its aftermath, the empire fell to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his secular Republic of Turkey
So then, what caused the slow decline of the Ottoman Empire—the so-called sick man of Europe?
And how and why was it ultimately finished off?
Well, traditionally, the start of the decline of the Ottoman Empire is marked with two successive
events: first, the death of the tenth Ottoman Sultan, known as Suleiman the Magnificent
in the West, whose reign was a golden age of culture, domestic reform, and territorial
expansion for the Ottomans, and then second, the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 which saw a
coalition of Christian states, the Holy League, smash the previously hegemonic Ottoman navy.
Lepanto put an effective end to Ottoman expansion, but the Turks were able to hold on to most
of Suleiman’s conquests for the next century; the Holy League fell apart immediately after their victory.
During that period, the Empire wasn’t so much declining as it was stagnating.
Granted it did lose most of Hungary, but even still, stagnation is arguably too harsh a
word as significant Ottoman advancements in scholarship, art, and medicine continued through
the 17th century.
However there were three not totally distinct problems on the horizon.
For one, the Empire was incredibly religiously and ethnically diverse; that was particularly
problematic in the European Ottomans territories where Christian Slavs and Greeks, had next
to nothing in common with Sunni Muslim Turks.
Though even their fellow Muslims caused trouble, with the Arabs in particular viewing the Ottomans as conquerors.
That was mitigated somewhat by the Millet System which gave Ottoman religious communities
fairly significant autonomy, though at the same time the Millets also made it more difficult
for the central government to actually get things done.
For another, local Ottoman governors, or Pashas, were gaining a tendency to seize power for themselves.
Notably, Ali, Pasha of Yanina, and then especially Muhammad Ali of Egypt.
That weakened the state further, and contributed to the Ottomans’ third problem.
By the early 1700s, European imperialism was kicking into gear, and the Ottoman Empire
was increasingly looking less like their contemporary, and more like a target.
In 1768 a Russo-Turkish War broke out.
The Seventh one, in fact (the Russians and Turks really didn’t like each other).
However, this was the first highly consequential one, and out of it birthed the Eastern Question.
Russia’s victory over the Ottomans and their seizure of the Crimea, combined with the successful
Greek War of Independence 50 years later, made it clear that the Ottoman Empire could
no longer effectively stand up to Europeans militarily.
So Europe naturally had to ask, well what should happen to it?
And different states came to very different conclusions.
Russia was perhaps the most radical of Europe’s great powers and it pursued the destruction,
or at least the subjugation of the Ottomans.
The Russians also had a natural affinity with their fellow Orthodox Slavs in the Balkans,
and could potentially benefit from seizing ports in the Black and Mediterranean seas.
Then there was the Austrian Empire, arguably the Ottomans oldest rival, which was somewhat split.
On the one hand, they shared a large border with the Turks, which made grabbing some easy land...
tempting.
On the other hand though, Austria had its own Slavic subjects, and had the Ottomans
completely fallen apart, Slavic nationalism could have, and (spoiler alert) eventually
did, play a part in dooming their Empire.
That left Britain and France who both saw, until WW1 anyway, the survival of the Ottomans
as in their best interests.
For quite different reasons.
Britain rivalved Russia in central Asia and was subsequently intent on opposing them at
every available opportunity, hence why they supported the Turks.
Britain was also concerned with protecting their trade routes to India, especially, after
1859, the Suez Canal in Ottoman Egypt.
France was mostly interested in using the Ottomans to cut off British trade.
In sum, the Ottoman Empire’s fate was no longer wholly its to dictate, but that didn’t
mean that the Turks weren’t going to give it a damn good try.
In 1808 Sultan Mahmud II came to head the Ottoman Empire, and it was under him that
Ottoman government and society began to modernize.
It was also under him that the Empire lost Greece, but hey, you win some, you lose some.
His most notable reform was the abolition of the Janissary Corps in 1826.
Once a powerful fighting force of technically enslaved but also very privileged warriors,
and the most important military arm of the Sultans, by the reign of Mahmud II the Janissaries
had become decadent, ineffective as a military unit, all too happy to leech off of the state,
and not at all willing to give up their power.
In the so-called Auspicious Incident, Mahmud II announced the creation of a new army, importantly
after he had already assembled it, and used them to crush the Janissaries on the streets
of Constantinople.
Almost all of the Corps 135,000 members fled the country or were executed.
With the Janissaries out of the way, the sons of Mahmud II (he died in 1839), were able
to continue his reforms in an era known as the Tanzimat, or the Reorganization.
The Sultans weren’t stupid; they could see that their Empire was declining in both territory
and influence, so the reforms were aimed primarily at self preservation.
A key goal during the Tanzimat was to foster a sense of “Ottomanism,” or Ottoman nationalism,
among the disparate peoples of the empire, and that was done by reducing the influence
of Millets, and increasing central power.
Among other policies, universal conscription was implemented (previously only Muslims were
allowed to serve as soldiers), the legal system was reformed with inspiration from the 2nd
French Empire, a national census was introduced, and eventually in 1869, a common Ottoman citizenship
was declared without regard for ethnic or religious identity.
Though while they aimed to strengthen the Empire, the reforms of Mahmud II, and his
sons Abdulmejid I, and Abdulaziz didn’t manage it, and during the Tanzimat period
the Ottomans continued to become just a puppet for European interests.
In Egypt, for example, the governor, Muhammad Ali, was rather upset that he hadn’t been
rewarded for helping the central government attempt, and fail, to put down the Greeks.
So naturally, he seized Syria, and there really wasn’t much that the Ottomans could do about it.
His actions split the European powers (Russia and France supported Ali, while Britain wanted
him deposed), and it was ultimately those Europeans who intervened and ended the crisis.
Not the Turks.
Ali gained hereditary rule over Egypt and it effectively ceased to be Ottoman territory.
The Tanzimat came to an end in 1876, when Sultan Abdulaziz was overthrown and eventually
replaced with his nephew, Abdul Hamid II.
He came to power with the tentative backing of the Young Ottomans, a secret society which
sought to create a constitutional system for the Empire.
For about a year the Sultan's power, for the first time ever, was not legally absolute,
and he ruled alongside a parliament.
Unfortunately for the Young Ottomans, Abdul Hamid turned out to not be so sympathetic
to their cause, and the parliament sat for only about a year before he dissolved it and
scrapped the constitution in the midst of the Twelfth Russo-Turkish War.
I did say that the Russians and Turks hardly got along.
That war, which saw the Ottomans humiliated and the Russians reach the gates of Constantinople
itself, ended with the Treaty of San Stefano, which, three months later, was overridden
by the deliberations of Europe’s great powers at the Congress of Berlin.
Chaired by Germany’s charismatic Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, the Congress redrew the
map of the southern Balkans to suit Europe.
Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro, which had de facto been independent for decades, were
recognized as sovereign powers, and expanded.
Bulgaria, which Russia had originally wanted to become a large puppet of theirs, was reduced
in size and remained, technically, subordinate to the Ottomans.
The Bulgarians officially declared independence in 1908 without any real resistance.
The Congress also saw Bosnia occupied by Austria-Hungary, Cyprus by the UK, and eventually, Thessaly
annexed by Greece.
Over the next few decades, the Turks continued to lose land to Europeans: Tunisia fell to
France in 1881, Egypt to Britain the next year, Libya and the Dodecanese to Italy in
1912, and then over the course of the two Balkan Wars they were forced out of almost
all of their remaining territory in Europe.
While all that was going on, in 1908 a new society, the Young Turks, carried out a revolution
and restored constitutional monarchy to the Empire; Abdul Hamid II was deposed the following year.
The next two Sultans acted, for the most part, as puppets of the new parliament.
Which decided to align the Empire with the Central Powers at the outbreak of WW1.
Their hope was to retake lost Balkan territory, prove that the Ottoman Empire was still a
force to be reckoned with, and to gain the support of a European power: Germany.
During the war, the Ottomans closed the Turkish straits to Entente shipping, which saw them
attempt to land at Gallipoli in 1915 in an attempt to secure Constantinople.
They miserably, spectacularly, and famously failed and the Ottomans, led by, among others,
one Mustafa Kemal, held their positions.
Other than that though, the Empire had some trouble.
With aid from Britain, most of the Arab world was lost to the Ottomans by 1917.
The same year that Greece joined the war against them.
By 1920, the Turks were spent and they signed the Treaty of Sevres[sev-ruh] with the Entente.
Something that Kemal wasn’t a fan of, as it gave up much of the Turkish homeland to
Europeans.
He founded the Turkish National Movement and fought against several European states, Greece
in particular, to ensure that Turks would remain in control of Anatolia and eastern
Thrace.
He also abolished the centuries-old Ottoman sultanate, which he saw as anachronistic and
an enemy of modernity, and replaced it with the Republic of Turkey.
Its parliament gave Mustafa Kemal the title “Atatürk,” or “father of the Turks”
in 1934.
His republic was recognized by the West through the Treaty of Lausanne, and has stood
until the present day.
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As the Ottomans declined in the Middle East, new powers rose to take their place; one of
which was Saudi Arabia.
You can find out how the House of Saud came to power in the video to the left, and as
always, I’ve been James and thank you for watching Look Back History.