OTTOMAN EMPIRE - DAY 4 OF 6 · ~3 MIN
Reform, Russia, and the Tanzimat
It is 1826 in Istanbul, and Mahmud II is moving against the Janissaries. The corps that once embodied Ottoman central power has become, in royal eyes, an entrenched obstacle to military and administrative renewal. The ruler is destroying one of the empire's foundational institutions in order to save the empire itself.
Contents — 7 sections
- OPENING SCENE
- WHY "DECLINE" IS TOO SIMPLE
- RUSSIA AND THE NEW STRATEGIC THREAT
- MAHMUD II AND THE BREAK WITH THE OLD ORDER
- THE TANZIMAT
- CONSTITUTIONALISM AND ITS LIMITS
- WHAT DAY 4 CHANGES
OPENING SCENE
It is 1826 in Istanbul, and Mahmud II is moving against the Janissaries. The corps that once embodied Ottoman central power has become, in royal eyes, an entrenched obstacle to military and administrative renewal. The ruler is destroying one of the empire's foundational institutions in order to save the empire itself.
This is the essential nineteenth-century Ottoman dilemma in one scene. Survival now requires breaking institutions that once made survival possible.
LOCKED AFTER THE PREVIEW
What's in the rest of Day 4
- WHY "DECLINE" IS TOO SIMPLE
- RUSSIA AND THE NEW STRATEGIC THREAT
- MAHMUD II AND THE BREAK WITH THE OLD ORDER
- THE TANZIMAT
- CONSTITUTIONALISM AND ITS LIMITS
- WHAT DAY 4 CHANGES