SUMMARY OF:

TURKEY A MODERN HISTORY

A summary made by: Iliass Derouich

 The title implies that there is such a thing as modern history (or even modern Turkey) and
hence is the result of periodization. The author discusses this aspect of the book with the
reader, rather than suggesting that it is in some way the unavoidable work of history itself.
The European economy is based on the work of scholars who support and apply
Wallerstein's dependency theory to explain how Turkey came to occupy a subservient place
on the periphery of a capitalist world system. Historians who are informed by the concept of
modernization see developments in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey as a struggle between
traditionalists and reactionaries.
In 1800 the governmental system could still be characterized as patrimonial: it formed an
extension of the sultan's household. According to the Ottoman ideology, society in the empire
was organized around a – theoretically strict – distinction between a ruling elite, which did not
pay taxes and was entitled to carry arms. The Ottoman elite exercised power through an
extended household, a 'great tradition', based on written Islamic sources and a secular code
of conduct. There was an exceedingly wide chasm between this civilization and the almost
illiterate rural population. One link between the elite civilization and popular culture was
formed by the mystical orders or fraternities.
The military weakness of the Ottoman Empire led to a permanent fiscal crisis. War, once an
important source of income for the empire, had become a loss-making industry. In the
provinces, both Asiatic and Europe, the eighteenth century had witnessed the rise of the
ayan. Selim III's government was ineffective when it came to financing reforms. He had
alienated the military by his efforts to create a new army and the majority of the ulema
disliked French influence. The first ambassadors were by all accounts less than effective in
representing the Ottoman people to Europe.
The Philiki Hetairia, a Greek patriotic society founded in Odessa in 1814, had been busy
founding cells throughout the Balkans. The rebels were badly organized and divided among
themselves. But the Ottoman army in 1821–24 signally failed to defeat them. The Russians
received the diplomatic prize they had aimed for in the treaty of Hünkar İskelesi, concluded
in. The policies of Sultan Mahmut II from 1826 onwards determined the direction that
Ottoman reform efforts would take. They were ultimately aimed at strengthening the central
state through building a modern army.
Launched the first Ottoman newspaper, the Moniteur Ottoman with its Ottoman-language
equivalent, the Takvim-i Vekai, in 1831. He brought the holdings of the religious foundations
under government control. Institutions resembling a treasury department and a justice
ministry also evolved.
The sultan sent a small group of students to Europe in 1827 for the first time. Europe and of
a European language led to new types of education. Problems hampered efforts to reform
during Mahmut's reign and those of his successors undermined by five main factors. Mahmut
II's reforms had to be executed through the people, such as the provincial notables, whose
abuses the reforms were intended to terminate. The economic developments of Mahmut II
and his immediate successors must be understood in the context of worldwide economic
trends. Great Britain had emerged from the Napoleonic wars without real rivals as a global
trading nation.
Mahmut's death did not mark the beginning of a period of reaction, as Selim III's death had in
1807. In June 1841 Mehmet Ali accepted the loss of his Syrian provinces in exchange for the
hereditary governorship of Egypt. The most violent inter-communal conflict of these years
was fought out in Lebanon. Britain declared war in March 1854 after mediation by France,
Britain, Austria, Prussia and Prussia failed. A peace conference was held in Paris in
February–March 1856 and produced the Treaty of Paris. Although the war had been fought
to defend the Ottoman Empire it had to accept peace terms.
The Victorian age saw a marked increase in piety and the activity of missionary societies.
The army, now called the nizamiye troops, was expanded and given modern European
equipment. Efforts to establish a fairer and more effective system of taxation were also
made. In 1840 a reorganization of the system of taxation was announced. In 1864 a new law
on provincial organization introduced a complete hierarchical system of provinces. The
canon law of Islam, the şeriat, was never abrogated, but its scope was limited almost
completely to family law.
The period of the Tanzimat coincided with the mid-century economic boom in Europe.
Ottoman economy into the capitalist system progressed faster than before. Priority was given
to the creation of professional training colleges for the bureaucracy and army. Secularization
was also the most important trend in education during this period. Many of the reform policies
of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries were implemented by lesser
bureaucrats. But many of the lesser bureaucrats had only a superficial knowledge of the
West, combined with a snobbish rejection of traditional Ottoman ways. The first Ottoman
newspaper was started in Sultan Mahmut's days but was more an official bulletin than a
newspaper in the modern sense.
After the death of Fuat Pasha and Ali Pasha, Ottoman reformers were in temporary eclipse.
The crash on stock exchanges in 1873 marked the beginning of the Great Depression in the
European economy. Ottoman Empire could no longer pay interest on older loans and had to
default on its debt. In spite of their inexperience and the lack of representative traditions in
the empire, many members genuinely tried to represent the views of their constituencies
responsibly. The parliament almost totally failed in its legislative functions, partly because the
constitution allowed the sultan and his ministers to govern by decree, but it was an effective
forum for criticism of the government’s conduct of affairs – so effective and irritating, in
fact, that on 14 February 1878, the sultan prorogued it indefinitely. This, to all intents and
purposes, meant the end of the constitutional regime and, from this time on, Sultan
Abdülhamit II not only reigned but also ruled as an absolute monarch for 30 years.
Railway construction, requiring as it does much greater investment, was far slower to
develop, but still, the mileage was greatly extended in these years. French and British
companies had built the first railways in the Ottoman Empire. Macedonia was connected to
the capital, as was the interior of Anatolia with the building of the Anatolian railway, which
reached Ankara in 1892 and Konya four years later. ‘Baghdad railway’, which caused a great
deal of tension between the great powers in the years before the First World War.

In combination with the railway lines connecting the ports to the productive hinterland, the
steamships speeded up the integration into the capitalist system of some areas and some
sectors of the Ottoman economy. Improved education led to increased literacy, creating a
market for the Ottoman press, which expanded rapidly under Abdülhamit in terms of both the
number of publications and circulation figures.