The Ottoman Empire and the Establishment of OPDA Essay

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire started with the World War I and multiple Iraq wars of terrorism made to their empire. The frequent rebellions and attacks in their territory eventually lead

The Ottoman Turks emerged on the periphery of the Byzantine Empire and the Saljuk Turks. Under a Turkish Muslim warrior named Osman, raids were conducted in western Anatolia on Byzantine settlements and a vast number of Turks were united under his banner. Those Turks who flocked to Osman's banner and followed him into the history books came to be called the Ottomans. The word Ottoman, fits these Turks well as it roughly translates from Turkish as "those associated with Oman."

The Ottoman had several scenes of decline and each one had marked their history and are linked with it so I will explain each one. The armistice of 1918 ended the fighting between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies but didn´t bring stability or peace to the region. The British controlled Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful states during the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. In the twentieth century, this empire grew weaker

The Ottoman Empire actually began to take shape several centuries before the dawn of the early modern period. However, its complete development didn’t take place until 1453 when a Turkish conquest resulted in control of Constantinople. The Ottomans, also known as the Osmanli group of Turks, were not the original Turkish people involved in Middle Eastern affairs. The success of the Ottoman Empire rested on two main

Coming into the nineteenth century, the Ottomans did not have many strong leaders, and generally carried themselves as weak. This was a great opportunity for the West to jump in, for they thrived because of the weaker regions. The Ottomans had relied so heavily on the Europeans in their commercial activity, and had eventually had certain areas of their region become targets of Western expansion. As time in this century moved on, the Ottomans continued to become weaker, now needing to rely even more on Europe’s military. Despite efforts to stand on their own, and even help from Great Britain, the Ottomans were eventually used by Western European countries to resist expansion from Russia.

In this essay I will break down and give background on the conflicts between the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires. I will compare and contrast a few of the economical differences between these empires.

The ottoman empire originated in the late 12th century near the city of Constantinople by Turkish natives who began to build an empire after their leader, Osman. The Ottoman Empire was run by a small ruling class with the sultan in the highest position. Interestingly, the Ottomans allowed their subjects to live under the laws of their own separate religions. The Ottoman Empire put a strong focus on industrialization. They focused on developing many cities into commercial and industrial centers.

The main goal of these reforms was to move the non-Muslims from an inferior national to a full subject of the Empire. The thought was that if the Sultan gave his minority subjects more rights, per say, than they would not form a separatist movement. Or worse the subjects separatist movement lobby international support; for example, in the Greek national movement in 1821. The Greeks were assisted by France, Romanov Russia, and The United Kingdom. In this way two causes for the Armenian genocide interweave. At the same time as nationalistic centrifugal forces are pulling the Empire apart, Europe is sticking their hands in Ottoman internal affairs. The Tanzimat Reforms were really a failure, and did not promote equal citizenship among citizens. Nor

3)The fall of the Ottoman state is often attributed to the failure of its economic structure. The otomman state had the following princibals:

Today, there are virtually no multinational states remaining and one would be hard-pressed to find a government that has remained in place since the pre-World War I era. In that sense, it is highly unlikely that the Ottoman Empire could have survived the tumultuous 20th Century. Nevertheless, it may have had a chance. If not for European intervention, Ottoman reforms may have succeeded. However, even with those reforms, they had to compete with the rise of nationalism, which would have been difficult.

The elite standing army called janissaries spent the winter win Istanbul (Goldschmidt Jr., and Davidson 141). The Janissaries were becoming corrupt and using their authority to gain personal exclusive rights from the sultans instead of keeping to the training that made them an elite force and staying on top of new weaponry (Goldschmidt Jr., and Davidson 141). The janissaries used the Ottoman Empire to further their wealth while taking up more remunerative careers (Goldschmidt Jr., and Davidson 141). The military was lagging behind on the times. While other nations became more modern with their industries, the Ottoman Empire remained in the past (Hooker). By 1699 the military had become so unwound that they were forced to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz signing over Hungry to the Habsburg Empire despite the fact that the Ottomans outnumbered the Habsburg military (Goldschmidt Jr., and Davidson 141).

During the mid to late 1800’s, Turkey lost many pieces of land by losing the war in 1829, and the Russo-Turkish Wars. Turkey lost Algeria and Tunisia to France, and Cyprus and Egypt to the United Kingdom. However, Cyprus and Egypt remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1914. During the 1890’s a group of students and military officers secretly banded together and opposed Sultan Abdülhamit’s strict policies. The most influential group of these people was the Committee of Union and Progress. In 1908, members of this group revolted against Abdülhamit in order to force him to reinstate a constitutional government. This group made Abdülhamit surrender his throne in 1909. In 1914, the newly reinstated Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers. In 1915, the Allies tried to gain control of the

The Bosnian Crisis came directly out of this Revolution and led to tensions between powers. The Young Turks, a fairly new political group, had considerable power in the Ottoman Empire and took western ideals and tried to implement them in the Empire. As Ivan Gueshov, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria at the time describes it, “the Young Turkish Committee constitutes the only organized force in Turkey…[that] possesses power enough to impose its will.” The group’s dominant stance on the Empire’s politics allowed it to generate great change in the country’s leadership. The group overthrew the Sultan in power at the time, Abdulhamid II, and replaced him with Mohammed V. They tried to restore the 1876 constitution in the Ottoman empire which had never taken effect in the nation’s politics. They were, “eager to instill among all the various peoples of the Ottoman Empire a sense of Ottoman identity, and thus forestall its further disintegration. The Young Turks were also determined to modernize the Ottoman armed forces.” The effects of this revolution by the Young Turks were felt by people throughout the Balkans, especially by Austria and Russia, who desired control in the Balkans before any of the changes suggested by the Young Turks were implemented in the Ottoman Empire. Austria’s main objective was the overtaking of Bosnia, due to their already established rule over the region in the past. Russia, on the other hand, was focused on gaining control of the Black Sea Straits, as

Ottoman Empire was an Islamic empire, which ruled Middle East and some other parts of the world for almost 400 years. On one hand Ottoman Empire became an ally with Germany in the First World War and on the other hand some of the Arab leaders held a revolt against the empire, which were the main reasons of its collapse. While Arab leaders were dreaming of an Arab unification, European powers were seeking their interest and try to secure the territories they took over in the war period. Versailles conference was held between Arab and the European leaders to define borders and create new states. Due to weakness of Arab leaders and their lack of experience most of the decisions were made in favor of the Europeans expectations of the state. And as a result Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon were emerged (Pappe, 2005) and (Fawcett, 2005).