Describe the reason for the decline of the decline of the ottoman empire
Answers
The Decline of the Ottoman Empire was also caused by internal factors which had to do with the way the Ottomans organized their Empire on the one side and the upcoming nationalism of the peoples. Beside that its downfall is the result of all kind of political factors in the wider context: “The great game” so to speak. It is important to understand that the Fall of an empire is never caused by a single factor but is more often the result of all kinds of things which come together. I hope to shed some light on a few of those factors.
The Ottoman Empire was multi ethnic and multi religious. Peoples within the empire were allowed their own identities and were mostly ruled by local elites. They had some autonomy as long as they payed their taxes and filled the Ottoman Armies. The empire had been a unity solely because of the strength of its armies but there was not a binding cultural “Ottoman” identity like for example the people of Great Britain who all are Brits. Moreover there was a clear difference between those who where genuine Turks and those peoples who were conquered. The latter were considered second rate civilians.After de defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the situation before the French Revolution was restored by the Congress of Vienna and it was secured by the five great powers: Great Britain, Frans, Austria Hungary, Russia and Prussia. But in 1848 the revolution broke out again and the Ancien regime came crushing down. Newly elected liberal governments were looking at ways to unite their people and to legitimize their power. The answer was found in Political Nationalism. So in this period a lot of “identities” were literally created by governments and reinforced by means of the arts and the publication of the common history of peoples. A lot of stories were literally invented (The invented identity) to unite people around a central government. For example the Scotts got their Kilts, which was an invention by an English Merchant who thought that short skirts would be prudent when men were working near machines that made cloths)
The final blow to the Ottoman Empire was the fact that they lost in the First World War. In the Treaty of Sevres the winners humiliated the Ottomans. Turkey was reduced to a small area around Ankara, Anatolia was divided between the UK France and Armenia, the Brits got Irak and Palestine and the French Syria en Lebanon.