The decline of the Ottoman empire
century Sultans to offer such capitulations as were to have so disastrous an impact during the nineteenth century.
When approaching this question, it is important that one distinguishes between a decline and the fall. While the Empire only fell in 1918 when the British invaded, it had been ‘the sick man of Europe’ for almost a century before, propped up by the great powers who needed a force to combat Russian power in the east. Clearly, the Empire had declined by the nineteenth century as evidenced by the problems that existed throughout that century. Thus, it is clear that the cause for its downfall cannot be found in the that century as is laid out by the traditional school of thinking. The developing financial problems of the Empire were what took it from its zenith to its nadir in the nineteenth century, and these were in large part caused by the discovery of the Cape Route in 1498. The inability of the Empire to industrialize alongside their adversaries in the west was caused by the breakdown in communications between east and west, and this in turn was the direct result of drop in trade caused by the new route. Furthermore, the state could not fund an industrial drive akin to that of the Russian Empire and the end of the nineteenth century as its finances were in such a poor state, also partly due to their being less trade. Considering that much of the land held by the Ottomans was not good farming land, trade had always been a vital part of its income. That is not to say that the Ottomans could not have adapted to overcome such a challenge. Where they were truly lacking was in the mechanisms of peacetime governance. The culture and systems that Osman I founded in 1299 proved to be effective only for an expanding, warring nation, and ineffective for the administration of a vast empire spanning across three continents. Thus, the 'why’ has been answered, and as for the when, while it seems paradoxical to claim that the seeds for the Empire’s downfall were sown in the year it was founded, that seems to be the case that the Empire was only to survive while it continued to expand.
Bibliography
Black , J. (1999) Eighteenth-Century Europe. London Breuilly, J. (2016) The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. Oxford Davis, P. (2001) 100 Decisive Battles. Oxford Emrence, C. (2007) ‘Three Waves of Ottoman Historiography, 1950 - 2007’, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 41.2: 137-151 Finkel, C. (2006) Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1923 . London Goodwin, J. (1999) Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire. London Lewis, B. (2001) The Middle East. 2000 Years of History from the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day . London (2005) From Babels to Dragomans. London Treasure, G. (2003) The Making of Modern Europe. 1648 – 1780. London
144
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs