Download AP World History POD #17 – Sick Old Man of Europe

AP World History
POD #17 – Sick Old Man of Europe
Empire In Crisis
Class Discussion Notes
Bulliet – “The Ottoman Empire”, pp. 662-663
Setting the Scene …
 “During the eighteenth century the central
government of the Ottoman Empire lost much
of its power to provincial governors, military
commanders, ethnic leaders, and bandit
chiefs. In several parts of the empire local
officials and large landholders tried to
increase their independence and divert
imperial funds into their own coffers.” (Bulliet,
p. 662)
Fragmentation of Power - House of Saud
 A kingdom located in the Arabian peninsula
 Followed the fundamentalist and puritanical
principles taught by the 18th century scholar
Muhamad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
 They took control of the holy cities of Mecca
and Medina and deprived the Ottoman sultan
of the honor of organizing the annual
pilgrimage
Fragmentation of Power - Egypt
 Factions of mamluk slave-soldiers purchased
as boys in Georgia and nearby parts of the
Caucasus and educated for war reasserted
their influence
 These soldiers had ruled Egypt between
1260-1517 until they were defeated by the
Ottomans
 With the growing weakness of the Ottomans
these mamluks revived the slave –soldier
tradition to reemerge as local military forces
Muhammad Ali
 After the Napoleonic Army of France withdrew from
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Egypt, there was a power vacuum
Commander of a contingent of Albanian soldiers sent
to restore imperial Ottoman control
1805 – he assumed the place of the official Ottoman
governor
1811- dispossessed the mamluks of their land and
privilege
Established schools and military training in the
French style as well as the first newspaper in the
Islamic world
Built modern factories to outfit his new modern army
Ibrahim
 Son of Muhammad Ali
 The improved quality of the new Egyptian army had
proven itself on the battlefields during the Greek War
of Independence
 Ibrahim led the troops into Syria where he was
confronted by the by the sultan’s army when they
marched into Anatolia in 1839
 The road to Istanbul appeared to be open until the
European powers intervened and forced a withdrawal
to the present-day border between Egypt and Israel
 Muhammad Ali remained Egyptian emperor until his
death in 1849 but he was under the control of the
sultan (his family continued to rule until 1952)
Janissary Resistance
 Despite being an inefficient force, the
Janissaries used their remaining political
power in Istanbul to prevent Sultan Selim III
to abandon efforts to train a modern
European-style army
A time for change and reform…
 By the dawn of the early 19th century it had
become extremely apparent that the Ottoman
Empire was in dire need of reform…this
would come during the Tanzimat Era