Lawrence.
Posted on 02/02/2020 10:33:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
The Ottoman Empire was once among the biggest military and economic powers in the world. So what happened?
At its peak in the 1500s, the Ottoman Empire was one of the biggest military and economic powers in the world, controlling an expanse that included not just its base in Asia Minor but also much of southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The empire controlled territory that stretched from the Danube to the Nile, with a powerful military, lucrative commerce, and impressive achievements in fields ranging from architecture to astronomy.
But it didn’t last. Though the Ottoman Empire persisted for 600 years, it succumbed to what most historians describe as a long, slow decline, despite efforts to modernize. Finally, after fighting on the side of Germany in World War I and suffering defeat, the empire was dismantled by treaty and came to an end in 1922, when the last Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed VI, was deposed and left the capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul) in a British warship. From Ottoman empire’s remains arose the modern nation of Turkey.
What caused the once awe-inspiring Ottoman Empire collapse? Historians aren’t in complete agreement, but below are some factors.
It was too agrarian. While the industrial revolution swept through Europe in the 1700s and 1800s, the Ottoman economy remained dependent upon farming. The empire lacked the factories and mills to keep up with Great Britain, France and even Russia, according to Michael A. Reynolds, an associate professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. As a result, the empire’s economic growth was weak, and what agricultural surplus it generated went to pay loans to European creditors. When it came time to fight in World War I, the Ottoman Empire didn’t have the industrial might to produce heavy weaponry, munitions and iron and steel needed to build railroads to support the war effort.
It wasn’t cohesive enough. At its apex, the Ottoman empire included Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Macedonia, Romania, Syria, parts of Arabia and the north coast of Africa. Even if outside powers hadn’t eventually undermined the empire, Reynolds doesn’t think that it could have remained intact and evolved into a modern democratic nation. “The odds probably would have been against it, because of the empire’s tremendous diversity in terms of ethnicity, language, economics, and geography,” he says. “Homogenous societies democratize more easily than heterogenous ones.”
The various peoples who were part of the empire grew more and more rebellious, and by the 1870s, the empire had to allow Bulgaria and other countries to become independent, and ceded more and more territory. After losing the losing the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars to a coalition that included some of its former imperial possessions, the empire was forced to give up its remaining European territory.
Ottoman Empire map The Ottoman Empire at its greatest extent in 1683.
Peter Hermes Furian/Getty Images
Its population was under-educated. Despite efforts to improve education in the 1800s, the Ottoman Empire lagged far behind its European competitors in literacy, so by 1914, it’s estimated that only between 5 and 10 percent of its inhabitants could read. “The human resources of the Ottoman empire, like the natural resources, were comparatively undeveloped,” Reynolds notes. That meant the empire had a shortage of well-trained military officers, engineers, clerks, doctors and other professions.
Other countries deliberately weakened it. The ambition of European powers also helped to hasten the Ottoman Empire’s demise, explains Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Centre at St. Antony’s College. Russia and Austria both supported rebellious nationalists in the Balkans to further their own influence. And the British and the French were eager to carve away territory controlled by the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East and North Africa.
It faced a destructive rivalry with Russia. Neighboring Czarist Russia, whose sprawling realm included Muslims as well, developed into an increasingly bitter rival “The Russian empire was the single greatest threat to the Ottoman empire, and it was a truly existential threat,” Reynolds says. When the two empires took opposite sides in World War I, though, the Russians ended up collapsing first, in part because of the Ottoman forces prevented Russia from getting supplies from Europe via the Black Sea. Tzar Nicholas II and his foreign minister, Sergei Sazanov, resisted the idea of negotiating a separate peace with the empire, which might have saved Russia.
The Battle of Sarikamish The Battle of Sarikamish between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, 1915.
Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
It picked the wrong side in World War I. Siding with Germany in World War I may have been the most significant reason for the Ottoman Empire’s demise. Before the war, the Ottoman Empire had signed a secret treaty with Germany, which turned out to be a very bad choice. In the conflict that followed, the empire’s army fought a brutal, bloody campaign on the Gallipoli peninsula to protect Constantinople from invading Allied forces in 1915 and 1916. Ultimately, the empire lost nearly a half a million soldiers, most of them to disease, plus about 3.8 million more who were injured or became ill. In October 1918, the empire signed an armistice with Great Britain, and quit the war.
If it weren’t for its fateful role in World War I, some even argue that the empire might have survived. Mostafa Minawi, a historian at Cornell University, believes the Ottoman Empire had the potential to evolve into a modern multi-ethnic, multi-lingual federal state. Instead, he argues, World War I triggered the empire’s disintegration. “The Ottoman Empire joined the losing side,” he says. As a result, when the war ended, “The division of territories of the Ottoman Empire was decided by the victors."
Number one reason: DEBT.
Sure, Just like all of those other highly advanced social and economic muslim countries.. Horse feathers.!!
The turning point was when the Cossacks
defeated the Hassocks
Lawrence.
The destruction of the Ottoman empire, regardless of the reasons, is a good result for the rest of the world.
JoMa
“Homogenous societies democratize more easily than heterogenous ones.”
...so do ones that aren’t dominated by Islam and Sharia Law.
That’s no small omission - to discuss the decline of the Ottoman Empire and not even question this is willful ignorance.
Reason #1: Islamists apply 6th century reasoning to 20th century problems.
Reason #2-6: See reason #1.
Yep, 19 and 20 century technology and communications eliminated the concept of castle sieges, multi-century wars with armies trudging overland, mountains as barriers that would keep an enemy out etc.
It's not that old time wars were not brutal, they were, but telephones and airplanes changed the entire concept of warfare.
The once safe castle on top of the hill, became an easy target, not a safe place for the king.
It was already known as the sick man of Europe.
Yes it would.
Essentially the Ottoman empire was kept alive from the early 1800s onwards by the British and the French.
They didn’t want the Austrians or the Russians to grab hold of the empire, so they kept it alive artificially. Go no further than the Crimean war of the 1850s to see this
Nearly half the empire’s population were Christians in 1810. They were dhimmis then, but by 1840 they were given nearly equal rights, under pressure from Russia, France and the UK (the latter two of whom kept the empire artificially alive.)
Even in the Arab world, places like Syria and iraq were 25% to 30% Christian
Ibn Schiff?
The Islamic Roman Empire. At its greatest extent it encompassed all the Roman territory except for Italy and Spain.
America is failing....
Let those words roll around in your mind for a moment and think what this poster is saying. Best economy in the world and leading not following, and they say we are failing
Care to illuminate us with examples ....Comrade?
When it was expanding, the Ottoman Empire had a superior military and conquered more and more territory until it reached a sort of natural limit--it failed to conquer Persia and failed twice to capture Vienna. Hungary was about as far as they could control with pre-modern logistics.
They became complacent and stagnant and the Christians found their rule oppressive. In the 19th century the Christian nationalities of the Balkans slowly threw off the Turkish yoke until by 1912 all the Turks had left was the area near Constantinople which they still have. They lost the Arab countries because of WWI.
In the 19th century there were attempts to replace the traditional Islamic system with one with equal rights for everyone who would then have an Ottoman identity. The Muslims didn't like it, the Christians wanted freedom rather than an Ottoman identity, and the reforms were slow to be actually implemented.
Islam has not built a single modern and successful society outside of a few tiny nations with a lot of oil in the ground, and as successful as those few tiny nations are they are riddled with internal strife and division held in check only due to their form of governance - dictators.
Bismarck was brilliant. It’s too bad he wasn’t around in 1914. I doubt he would have allowed WWI to happen.
He was intensely disliked by KWII, and in his bitterness refused to explain to the no-doubt-qualified younger foreign policy mavens his treaty system, which had kept the peace in Europe for almost 30 years by the time of his death -- a treaty system that was his alone.
KWII was a damn fool, which became apparent to the people of Germany when it as far too late.
thanx I am currently watching Ottoman series on Netflix dramatized version
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