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Decline of the Ottoman Empire

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The Decline of the Ottoman Empire The decline of the Ottoman Turks Empire despite the interventions to save it has always attracted the attention of historians. The decline which started in the second half of the 19th century is believed to have been as a result of conflicting political and social aspect in the empire as well as the economic situation of the empire. This led to the dismissal of the ottoman rulers by the Europeans as competent rulers who could lead the empire to modernization. The empire was faced with rebellions from the people, corruption of the administrators, economic difficulties and military deterioration, and was as a result called the sick man of Europe. Although there are a few recorded primary sources of data …show more content…

Although there were attempts by Sultan Selim to revive the weak military, the Ottoman military was unable to resist the attack by the Egyptians. The attempt by the nationalist sultan to modernize the military to fit the western style was faced with opposition from the conservative Islam clergy which led to the Balkan uprisings. One of the major reasons that caused the fall of the empire is conservativism as opposed to nationalism (Jaschke, p 12). While the then flourishing European nations had embraced the idea of a nation state, the Balkans had no idea of its benefit. The resulting uprisings as the Serbs revolted against the mistreatment by the traditional military and political class and fought for their autonomy in the early 19th century, the empire became weak as other European societies developed. This was followed by the defeat by the Egyptians and the Russian (Johnson, p 3). Towards the mid 19th century, the main cause of the problem had already been revealed and mechanisms were put in place by the new rulers to save the empire. The internally developed social, political and military changes which were imported from the other European countries by default led to the establishment of the New Ottomans. However, interventions were too late and the new empire depended on the support of European powers (Johnson, p 4). Work Cited Jaschke, Gotthard: "The Moral Decline of

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