Dani said 3/18...

Sorry I posted it late. My internet was not working last night. Well done, Dani!

Hello everyone. So to recap on our lesson today, we mainly discussed the decline of the Ottoman Empire, and their attempt at revitalizing their expired power.

Yesterday we left off discussing the economic problems of the empire which included large debt from the shifting of trade routes, which resulted in financial aid from European powers. The Ottomans also granted the Europeans special privileges such as trade without taxation, and extraterritorial rights. We know this is yet another country Europeans have extraterritorial rights (the first being China), therefore it is clear this is yet another indication of Europeans’ increasing dominance over inferior countries. Today, we studied reforms enacted during the rule of Mehmed the II, extending into the rule of the Young Turks.

Mehmed II, aware of the changing world around him decided to implement reforms that would mimic western ideas. Before he could reinforce these changes, his first task was to overpower the Janissaries. They strongly opposed of changes, and when a sultanate attempted to reform, the Janissaries immediately rebelled. Being the clever man he was, Mehmed II formed his own private army, and brought in European troops to train them. When he tried to once again, employ other reforms, the Janissaries refused, but this time, Mehmed II brought in his private troops, they beat the Janissaries, so now they couldn’t refute any more changes.

After the defeat of the Janissaries, Mehmed II modernized the army, set up secular schooling, built telegraph lines and roads, and so on. Even though the size of the empire significantly shrank, it had achieved the most stability since Suleyman. After Mehmed’s death, other leaders continued these reforms; some being, changed taxes, equal rights, an end to the devisirme system, and a greater emphasis put on the extraction of religious ideas in education. Conservative Muslims certainly refuted theses changes because as we can tell, these alterations are based off Western ideas, and the Muslims connect westernization to Christianity, therefore they were strongly against this process of change; they feared it may be a threat to their religion. This time frame of radical reforms is known as the Tanzimat era, and it lasted from 1839 (the end of Mahamed’s rule) to 1876.

In 1876, a man by the name Abdul Hamid II came into power. Initially, he supported the idea of ruling alongside a constitution; however, a year and a half later, he disproved of this method of governing, and decided to get rid of the constitution, parliament, and any threats that stood in his way. He ruled solely as one leader, and continued reforms concerning education and the military.

In 1909 Hamid is overthrown by the Young Turk Party. Ironically, the members of this group were neither young, nor Turkish. They referred to themselves as Turkish because the vast majority of citizens are Turkish, and their goal is to appease the young Turks of the empire because they are the “future” of the country. This political party brought about many democratic, enlightment ideas such as universal suffrage, freedom of religion, free public education, equality for women, secularizing the state, and improvement of the education system. The group puts Rashid into power, and he “ruled” from 1909-1918. Ruled is put in quotations because he is seen more a figure head, instead, the Young Turk Party controls administrative policies.

Although many reforms are made, the Ottomans continue losing wars, thus becoming weaker. Once World War I hits in 1914, the Ottomans entered complete turmoil, and collapses at the end of the war. A major thing you have to realize is the Ottomans were able to survive for so long because European nations supported them financially in order to maintain the balance of power in Europe. Furthermore, the empire found it necessary to enact modernized/ westernized reforms because that was the only method of gaining more power. Their attempt may have failed because it’s difficult to implement homogenous rules to a set of heterogeneous people, or it may have failed because of the strong tension between Muslims and Christians, or even from their poor economic and militaristic strength.

That’s pretty much it for the decline of the Ottomans; remember to study for the test on Monday (1750-1914). I would write out the major topics that will appear on the test, however it is quite a lot, and I think everyone was here today, so they should have it written down. If you don’t, you can always ask me, and I can lend it to you, and I’m sure others will have it as well. Basically, study the major concepts we went over including major events regarding revolutions, westernization, modernization, imperialism, nationalism, and industrialization.

The next one to blog will be Eliner.