The rise and fall of the “sick man of Europe”
The Ottoman Empire was established in 1299 and remained in place until 1922. For more than 600 years it shaped the history of many nations in the Middle East and Europe, and represented an important stage of leadership and flourishing for Islam..
Context
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 completely changed the course of history. Sultan Mehmet II, by conquering the “Second Rome”, put an end to the Middle Ages; after this event, Spain and Portugal, in their search for new trade routes to Asia, indirectly reached America, expanding their dominion around the world, but at the same time facing a constant threat to the weak integrity of Christian Europe: the Ottoman Empire. Constantinople, a bridge between the West and the East, became the capital of the Ottomans, thus representing the beginning of the consolidation of their power.
From a small Turkish state in Anatolia, it grew into an ever-expanding empire, dominating territories in Africa, Asia and Europe for over 500 years. The architect of the empire's greatest apogee is undoubtedly Sultan Suleyman. Known in the West as "The Magnificent" and in the East as "the legislator", he was the protagonist of the so-called "Golden Age" of the Ottomans in the 46th century. With a reign of XNUMX years, he is the sultan who remained in power the longest. Among his most successful expeditions are the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean, Belgrade in the Balkans and Buda in Hungary. With each victory, the Ottoman Empire became not only a major military power on the world stage, but also a major power in the Middle East. a multicultural center that housed different religions and nations under the Islamic law.
What was done to integrate the new and different communities in each territorial conquest?
We can answer that question by analyzing the method of conquest applied by the Ottomans. The «jihad» ( Arabic ) was the main basis of the empire's expansionist policy, and the variety of verses and hadiths on jihad guided every conquest carried out in Ottoman-Islamic history.
Jihad in Spanish literally translates as effort or struggle, this Arabic term means using all possible means to fight and exert force in order to successfully accomplish a task. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, jihad is learning the religious orders, living according to them and teaching them to others; embrace good and avoid evil; transmit Islam, and fight the enemy. In Islamic literature it has mainly been used to refer to combats against non-Muslims.[I]
Every Ottoman ruler saw himself as the leader of the Muslim world, which meant protecting Islam and expanding its power, but under certain conditions. Through Jihad, the Ottomans on the one hand managed to win wars against non-Muslim states located in Eastern Europe, which posed a direct threat to “Islam”, and on the other hand they fulfilled (in most of the conquests) the prohibitions that Islam demanded through Jihad: not killing children and women of the enemy, not killing the sick, clerics and elderly in the conquered territories, and not imposing Islam by force.
The result of its application was the continuity of the non-Muslim population of the new Ottoman territories. The most representative case is the Balkans. After defeating the Serbian army in Kosovo War of 1389, the Ottomans established a social order based on agriculture, which adapted well to the conditions of the time in the Balkans, where they settled permanently. They implemented a political structure that did not discriminate against religion or racial discrimination. In the conquered regions, the Balkan peasants were not forced to abandon their customs and traditions, they were able to freely practice their religion, their tax burden was reduced, making them feel safe and comfortable in the Ottoman order. [ii]
As the empire expanded further, the number of Muslims continued to grow. The predominantly Christian population of the Balkans was joined by Christians and Jews from the Middle East. Social and political integration was achieved through the system of the "Millet».
Millet is an Arabic word that can be translated into English as "nation." Each of the non-Muslim religious communities with official recognition within the empire was part of this system.
For the Turkish historian İlber Ortaylı, The millet system was a form of organization and legal status which arose from the submission of followers of monotheistic religions to the authority of Islam after the annexation of a region to the empire, under an "ahidname" or treaty that granted protection.[iii] It was not the language or ethnicity of the people that determined the administrative decisions of the empire, but their religion. In other words, religion was the most important element within the Ottoman administrative and social organization. OK with Islamic law, Christians and Jews were part of the people of the «"holy book" They were not forced to convert to Islam, they enjoyed a certain autonomy and also guaranteed religious freedom, but being under Muslim rule they had limited power, as well as the obligation to pay a special tax called "cizye". The Cizye tax was collected in the empire until 1855.
The millet system was made up of: Orthodox Christians, Armenians and Jews. The Jews were mostly those expelled from England, France, Spain and Portugal; A variety of heterodox Christians, including Protestants, Unitarians, and Russian Molocans, received refuge in the Ottoman Empire joining those already present within the territory. [iv]
The patriarchs and other authorities of non-Muslims were in charge of issues such as the organization of rites, the election and dismissal of the clergy, the income and expenses of the temples, the education and training of children. [v]
The Ottoman state managed to maintain the coexistence of many different nations in its social and political structure for a long period of time. The millet system was an advance for the conditions of that time; It provided stability to an empire that needed administrative solidity for its expansionist projects.
«The sick man of Europe»«
The main characteristic of empires is constant territorial expansion. Every empire always aspires to conquer new territories; when he stops doing so, as history has shown, it is a sign of his fall and soon demise.
Sultan Suleyman attempted to take Vienna, the heart of Christian Europe, on two occasions. After the second attempt to conquer Vienna in 1683, the Ottoman Empire began to weaken. The Ottomans did not experience days of light and progress again since that event.
The reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent marked the peak of Ottoman greatness, but after his death, Ottoman decline was slow but steady.
Between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, Ottoman military and administrative power entered a period of "darkness." An influential factor in the beginning of the fall of the empire, It was the sultans themselves, and their deteriorated central power. After Suleyman, inexperienced sultans rose to the head of the empire. For example, Sultan Suleyman's son Selim I is remembered not for his expeditions or his interest in state affairs like his father, but by the nickname "Drunkard" for his frequent drinking of alcohol.
Sultans also came to power at a very young age, such as Sultan Mehmet IV, who became the highest authority in the empire at the age of 6. A child at that age had no idea about the administration of an empire, and this is where the sultanas mothers - or "valides" by their name in Turkish - gained prominence in their intervention in the affairs of the empire. The sultanas mothers formed the so-called «sultanate of women» (1533-1655), a period characterized by the constant influence exerted by the wives or mothers of the sultans. The most remembered sultana mother in Ottoman history is "Kosem», Behind every decision of her son, Sultan İbrahim I, was she. She did not let him reign, worsening the collapse of the Ottomans.
The inability of the sultans to administer the empire had a disastrous effect. However, It is not possible to ignore other internal and external factors.
The Ottoman Empire remained outside the development processes such as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment that began in Europe between the 15th century and the 13th century. As Europe advanced, the Ottomans fell. The positive sciences played an important role in the development of the West, making unimaginable scientific advances possible. Scientific curiosity allowed Europeans to consider new sources of knowledge outside the Christian domain. Unlike in the Western world, the Ottomans continued to adhere to tradition and religious education, they did not develop interest in science, generating technological backwardness in the industrial and military field.
The Ottoman educational system was based completely on a religious content, instead of providing young people with knowledge that would allow them to be productive in social and economic life. This situation made it almost impossible for the State to develop economically and socially.[vi] In an attempt not to "fall behind" Europe, Sultan Mahmut II takes a step and initiates a process of "Europeanization"He understood that it was not enough to bring the best scientists of the time, so he decided to send Ottoman students to Europe, with the purpose of getting to know Europe, its civilization, the reasons for its progress, the level it had reached in science and technology, and upon returning to apply this knowledge and "revive" the Ottoman Empire; understand what innovations should be made in the military, industrial and technological fields and, consequently, determine a program and a roadmap for innovation, education, culture and industrialization.[vii]
The results were not what was expected. The professionals, upon returning to the empire, play an important role in the emergence of another problem that completely destroyed the integrity of the empire. After living for a long period of time in European society, a large number of students had adopted European values and principles. They notice that It is not enough to apply scientific knowledge and industrial improvement, but it is also necessary to separate religion from state affairs. Thus, an important Western movement begins, and its main result will be the abolition of the caliphate when the current Republic of Turkey is established.
Another reason for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was the nationalism. The nationalist movements that began with the french revolution They had very negative consequences for an empire as multinational as that of the Ottomans. Nationalist movements in the Balkans, especially by Serbs and Greeks, caused the empire to struggle for a long time and lose important territorial possessions. At the same time, he had to deal with uprisings by Armenians and Kurds in Anatolia and Arabs in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula.
The slow bleeding of the Ottoman empire would continue during the 100th century until the beginning of the XNUMXth century. A weak empire, without political or military power, receives its final blow in the First World War. The main reasons for the Ottomans' involvement in the war are still a matter of debate. After XNUMX years, it has not been clear whether his participation was conscious and voluntary or whether he was forced to go to war in order to defend himself; Was it possible to remain neutral in that context?
To learn more about Turkish nationalism: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: the abolition of the last caliphate
Germany wanted to benefit from the geopolitical position of the Ottoman Empire, and thus open new fronts. The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers to form the Triple Alliance with the signing of the Turkish-German Alliance of August 1914. The bombardment of the Russian Black Sea ports with the support of Germany led to the official entry of the sublime gate to World War I on October 28, 1914. The war between the Central Powers and the Triple Alliance ends in 1919, with disastrous results for the empire that was once a threat to Europe.
Once the war is overEngland and France divided the Ottoman Middle East at the San Remo conference in 1920., this fact was nothing more than the mere formalization of the Sykes-Picot Agreement agreed upon 4 years earlier. Thus, the future of the Arab world that we know today remained in the hands of the colonial powers of that time; Lebanon and Syria for France, and for England, Palestine and Iraq. The West designs the borders of new Arab states to its liking, originating a problematic process of political and demographic transformation.
In Anatolia, the sultan loses religious legitimacy, and his government from Istanbul, political power. After Istanbul was invaded by the English, Ankara becomes the center of the national struggle, and thus the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) was established in 1920. The sultan's rule is perceived by the Turkish nationalist movement as detrimental to the protection of national integrity; The last Mehmet VI was willing to agree to the conditions imposed by the Western powers. The leadership of Mustafa Kemal and the Young Turks was crucial to the formation of the Turkey we know today, through the TBMM he abolished the power of the sultan in 1922. Sultan Mehmet VI spent the rest of his life in exile in Italy.
The Ottoman Empire was established in 1299 and remained in place until 1922. For more than 600 years it shaped the history of many nations in the Middle East and Europe. Modern Turkey has inherited not only culture, tradition and rich geostrategic position, but also serious territorial and social problems that continue to challenge the formulation of its foreign policy.
[I] CİHAD, İslam anksiklopedisi, Diyanet. Accessed May 2, 2021. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/cihad
[ii] Milliyetçilik ve Emperyalizm Yüzyılında Balkanlar ve Osmanlı Devleti, Sacit Kutlu, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, İstanbul 2007.
[iii] Ortaylı, İ. (2004). Ottoman studies (Vol. 10). İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi.
[iv] Öztürk, F. (2014). The Ottoman Millet System. Güneydoğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi, (16), 71-86.
[v] Karataş, A.İ. (2006). Osmanlı Devleti'nde Gayrımüslimlere Tanınan Din ve Vicdan Hürriyeti. Uludağ Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 15(1), 267-284.
[VI)Osmanlı Devletinin Çöküş Nedenleri. Accessed May 8, 2021. https://www.osmanlidevleti.gen.tr/osmanli-devletinin-cokus-nedenleri/
[VII] Çolak İ. (sf). Osmanlı'nın Avrupa'ya gönderdiği talebeler. Somuncu baba Dergisi. (203). Viewed at https://somuncubaba.net/dergi/203-sayi/osmanlinin-avrupaya-gonderdigi-talebeler/
Internationalist from the University of Selçuk, Türkiye. My life is oriented towards learning new cultures, which, the more remote and unknown, the better!
Passionate about international politics, history and diplomacy; with great perception of international cooperation. He speaks Spanish, English and Turkish; and, through my writings, I will try to explain the world around us to you in a clear and simple way.
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