We ended the last segment in the mid-16th century when the Ottoman Empire (the “OE”) was being led by Suliman The Magnificent. At that time, the OE was arguably the most powerful and respected nation-state in the world. During Sulieman’s long reign (1520-1566), the OE expanded westward as far as Hungry and extended its reach along the entire Mediterranean coast of North Africa. Over the next century or so, additional territory was added. This map the OE at maximum size in 1699.
Among the Monarchs of his day, which included Henry VIII and Charles V, Sulieman was certainly the most powerful, respected, and envied. He had tremendous wealth and unchecked power. Sulieman was more than just a monarch. In addition to being Sultan, he was also recognized as the Caliph, the spiritual leader of Islam. So, both church and state were co-equal partners embodied in that single individual. Though it would add additional territory subsequently, an argument can be made that the OE reached its apex during the reign of Sulieman and then began a slow decline over the next three and half centuries. Let’s examine some of the reasons for the Empire’s decline, One reason dates from Sulieman’s death:
1. Mediocre to totally incompetent rulers. Sulieman had 8 sons yet only three were capable of succeeding him: Mustafa, Bayezid and Selim. (One son was a hunchback and the others died by natural causes.) As a result of disinformation about Mustafa and miscommunication relating to Bayezid, Sulieman executed them leaving only Selim II, who was mediocre at best. He was the first Sultan not to go personally on campaign. Also, he was an alcoholic and was openly gay. None of that sat well with his military leaders. Following Selim II, there was a long string of less than competent Sultans.
2. The Age of Discovery and the shift of the trade routes from East to West. As we all know, it was access to the spices from the Orient that lured both Columbus and Magellan to make their famous voyages. The Portuguese controlled the eastern sea lanes around Africa and so a western route was hoped for. Not well known is that when the Victoria, the only one of Magellan’s ships to return to Spain, and the next to smallest of the five ships that left 3 years earlier, unloaded its cargo of spices, its value more than paid for the cost of the entire expedition. That gives an idea of the profits that had been going to the Ottomans who controlled the land routes between Europe and the Indies. The European sea traders significantly reduced those profits.
3. Advent of the Renaissance followed by the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the Renaissance, the Muslim world had been the intellectual and scientific center of the world. A case can be made that when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453 and the best educated minds from Byzantium scattered to Italy and beyond, this supercharged the Renaissance so that in time, the Western Europeans would eclipse the Ottomans with technological advances. The Industrial Revolution, which followed two and half centuries later, allowed the Western Europeans to further outstrip the conservative Ottomans, who were hamstrung by super-conservative institutions such as the Janissaries.
4. The Janissaries. Janissaries began as an elite corps created through a system of child levy enslavement by which Christian children were taken from regions of the Empire, converted to Islam and then incorporated into the Ottoman army. (Similar to the Mamelukes.) They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms. They served as shock troops and were greatly feared in the West. Over time, though, they went from being a key source of the Ottomans’ military success to being a reason for the Empire’s failure. They became a dominant force within the Ottoman court to the point that they played a role in choosing Sultans and on occasions, assassinated ones they opposed. The biggest problem they presented was that they were opposed to change – particularly as it related to modernizing military tactics and weapons. As a result, the Ottoman military, which had been state-the-art in its heyday, started falling behind the other powers beginning in the 17th century. In 1807, a Janissary revolt deposed Sultan Selim III, who had tried to modernize the army along Western European lines. The new Sultan, Mahmud II, played the long game and in 1826, he notified the Janissary generals that he planned to modernize, knowing they would revolt. When they did, he had a force at the ready with artillery that killed over 4,000 Janissaries and those who survived were beheaded. Following that, the Ottoman Empire undertook a modernization plan. They made progress, but remained weak relative to the major European powers, including Russia.
5. Centuries of Wars with Russia. There were a series of 12 wars between the two beginning in 1568 and ending in WWI. Only one of those wars, the fourth one which ended in 1711, went fully in the favor of the Ottomans. In the years between 1712 and 1807, the Russians wrested from the OE some of its territory in the Balkans and the Caucasus. The map below begins in 1807 and shows the “Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire” between then and WWI.
Looking at this map, it is obvious why Russia fought so many wars with the Ottomans – Russia needed a warm water port and ideally one that would give them open access to the Mediterranean and the world at large. The Russians’ ultimate goal was to control both Crimea and the two straights at Constantinople. They obtained the first, and had it not been for the Bolshevik Revolution, they may well have obtained control of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. As it is, Turkey owns those critical waterways, and could technically close them to Russia. The many wars with and defeats by the Russians greatly diminished the military might and the morale of the Ottomans.
6. The Rise of Nationalism. The rise of nationalism in Europe was stimulated by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Defined: “Nationalism calls on people to identify with the interests of their national group and to support the creation of a state – a nation-state – to support those interests.” Rule by monarchies and foreign control of territory was replaced by self-determination and newly formed national governments. Keep in mind that the OE was not so much a country as it was an assemblage of people groups and in some cases, previously existing nations such as Egypt and Greece.
In 1821, Greece became the first nation to declare itself independent from the OE and by 1830, it made good its endeavor. People groups in the Balkans began forming nations and breaking away. Among them were Bulgaria, Moldova, Rumania, and Bosnia. That the rise of nationalism did not completely unravel the OE before WWI is surprising.
Palestine was not among the sections of the OE that showed an interest in breaking away and becoming an independent nation. Even though 85% of its inhabitants were Muslims, they were from different sects, spoke different languages and had different cultures. So too were the Christians and Jews living in Palestine in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
As we know, WWI spelled the end of the OE. They did not have to become a combatant since, unlike the initial belligerents, they did not have a treaty that obligated them to come to the aid of an ally if that ally was attacked by an adversary.
Concatenations into a World War. Let’s pause to review how a single assassination resulted in a world war: When the Arch Duke of Austria-Hungary (“Austria”) was assassinated in June 1914 by a Serbian nationalist, Austria made harsh demands on Serbia which Serbia rejected and so Austria invaded Serbia. Serbia had an alliance with Russia which required the Russians to attack any Serbian invader; so, Russia declared war on Austria. Austria had an alliance with Germany which required Germany to attack an invader of Austria, so Germany declared war on Russia. France had an alliance with Russia which required it to declare war on Germany. Great Britain got involved when Germany invaded Belgium.
The decision to enter WWI on the side of Germany proved to be the death nell of the Ottoman Empire. it made logical sense at the time for the Ottomans to join in an alliance with Germany and Austria Hungary against Serbia, Russia, France, and Great Britain. That assumed that their team, the Central Powers, prevailed. They didn’t. The defeat of the Central Powers by the Allies resulted in the fall and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the people living in Palestine would find their future in the hands of the victors of WWI and especially Great Britain. They would not prove to be wise and judicious overlords.
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