Fall of the Ottoman Empire

Paper Summary:

This paper addresses the gradual decline of the Ottoman Empire as a result of many mitigating factors, centralized and weak power in the ineffectual sultanate, nepotism, capitulations, military weaknesses, economic crisis and opposing European development and strength. The paper points out that the empire, which had been marked by extreme pluralism and demonstrative social order, in the face of massive variances of culture and economies in a huge empire faced internal and external strife that eventually toppled it. The development of the Ottoman Empire, which had begun under the auspices of economic power, was demonstrated in technological development and place-based economics, as well as social and religious tolerance. The paper concludes that, ultimately, the Ottoman empire fell because these progressive ideals were disseminated into a culture that demanded adherence to traditions that were archaic and contrary to continued economic and social development.

From the Paper:

"European trade agreements were not an unusual economic situation in the Ottoman empire. Many in fact date back to the beginning of centralized development. As a mater of rational congress, individual and state sponsored cooperation was offered to European entities to facilitate profit and the export of goods that were thought essential to Europe and therefore Europeans and their traders were willing to pay well for. One clear example of this is the age old spice trade that could not reach Europe without some transgression across Ottoman lands. (Goffman 181) (Sicker 10) (Barsoumian 174) To some degree the centralization of power also demanded the continued centralization of economic dominance, by the state, so these age old compromises and pacts that were the development of regional propriety began to be seen by the central government as in need of its own official stamp. So, as an extension of the egalitarian manner in which individual principalities and faiths were allowed relative independence the state created trade capitulations to further develop European trade control."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Barsoumian, Hagop. "9 The Dual Role of the Armenian Amira Class within the Ottoman Government and the Armenian Millet (1750-1850)." Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society. Ed. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis. New York: Homes & Meier Publishers, 1982. 171-180.
• Goffman, Daniel. The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Greene, Molly. "The Ottoman Experience." Daedalus 134.2 (2005): 88.
• Heper, Metin. "The Ottoman Legacy and Turkish Politics." Journal of International Affairs 54.1 (2000): 63.
• Johnson, Robert. "The Decline of the Ottoman Empire, C. 1798-1913: Robert Johnson Puts the Decline of a Once-Great Empire into an International Context." History Review (2005): 3.

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