Ottoman Empire HIST102 Notes and Referances

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Notes - Fall of Ottoman Empire

from Brittanica

check out the following headings

The decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1566–1807 » Internal problems » Economic difficulties


Muslim and Jewish subjects singled out negatively


The decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1566–1807 » Internal problems » Social unrest


      • The decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1566–1807 » Imperial decline in the 18th and early 19th centuries


      • The decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1566–1807 » Imperial decline in the 18th and early 19th centuries » Contacts with the West

notes from headings

  • imperial decline due to earlier conditions (prior to 1566-1807) - further research...- corrupt/incompetant officials
  • weak central gov't, loss of most provinces to local ruling ayan or derebeis (so called in Anatolia) and klephts/hayduks (Europe)
  • due to lack of military resources (for suppression purposes)
  • local population prefered their rule as central gov't corupt
  • Balkans/Anatolia- currents of local nationalism among Balkan Christians- this development taken advantage of by local rulers to take control of their province fr. central gov't
  • local rulers gained control of taxes and therefore trade
  • private armies-mercinaries and slaves
  • provincial revolts
  • disrupted food supply
  • famine in major cities
  • unemployment, plague, riots, executions of officials by the people

***gov't could not resolve without major reform {ie. such as the type seen implemented by interactions w/ west Europeans in India, Japan, as described in our opening statement}


  • contacts w/ the west established 18th/19th c.
  • ambassadors sent to europe to sighn treatisies
  • entrance of european merchants/travelers/consuls***

isolation prior to, more research needed

  • Ottoman intellectuals began coresponding w/ others in europe

*** this western contact had "very limited consequences" [Brittanica- fall of the ottoman empire-contacts w/ the west]

  • few were exposed to western ideas, those who were shrugged them off as they did not fit into traditional thought patterns
  • the few who understood the implications of these new ideas ignored

*only signs of European influence - upperclass style of dress and adoption of French style dwellings/parties, and an obsession w/ growing tulips 

                                    - military advancements

{nothing appeared to happen on the revolutionary scale (ie. france) allowing social change leading to integration and stability}


*Military Reforms

  • had to form entirely new corps to handle new weapons (main body of military could not accept them) {what's with these guys and their traditional thought patterns??}
  • European instructors (European renegades { was this technology not ment to be shared?})
  • private "special mercinary bodies"
  • bulk of army remained unchanged- hostile to new corps, best equipped to suppress reform at home, but unable to challenge the west {looks like gov't regarded new ideas as reason for it's downward spiral...scape goat}
  • military reforms most successful and long lasting
  • modernized navy


  • built munitions factories (aid of european technicians)
  • technological schools to train ottoman officers
      • "limited efforts to rationalize Ottoman Administrative machinery {the real problem}, changed largley along traditional lines" {what do we call Ottoman gov't style? Autocratic?}


  • Napoleon Bonapart- French expedition to Egypt 1798-1801
  • Ottoman allied w/ GB and Russia to drive french out
        • Rise of Nationalism stimulated by "agents of Russia, Austria and Revolutionary France
  • 1809-39 MUhamud II a reforming Sultan
  • greatly increased western knowledge
  • tech schools
  • larger # of westerners in Istanbul during Era of French Revolution {hiding there? or shit disturbing on purpose}
  • broke Ottoman Isolation
  • set stage for 19th c reforms that transformed empire{what were these reforms? And there's nothing about the empire collapsing into smaller self governed bits!}



{why could western ideas not be taken up and implemented allowing Empire to retain borders and step into new era on equal ground w/ the west? What attitudes prevented this ?? Traditional thought?? What is the story on this?}



this information can be found at http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/434996/Ottoman-Empire

supplied to Brittanica by Stanford Jay Shaw, author of many books about Ottoman empire and with articles on various websites listed at bottom of article

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