Historical Perspectives: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: DID OTTOMAN REfORMS SUCCEED?

The industrial era was a period of massive political, economic, and social upheaval. Historians have argued over how effectively the Ottomans adapted to these changes.

A Long, Slow Decline Historians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, living in a period when Turkish power was low, generally viewed the Ottoman Empire as the “sick man of Europe.” Some mark its fall as beginning with its failure to conquer Vienna in 1683. In his widely used college textbook, A History of the Modern World (first published in 1950), R. R. Palmer stated that the long slide of the 19th-century Ottoman Empire put the empire “behind modern industrial nations in its scientific, mechanical, material, humanitarian, and administrative achievements.” Its reforms did little to stop the slide.

Strength Through Reforms Recent historians, living in a period of increasing Turkish influence in the Middle East, have seen more vigor in the Ottomans than did previous scholars. They have credited 19th-century reforms with providing a stable foundation for the success of the Republic of Turkey, established in 1923. For example, the historian Donald Quataert argued that the Ottomans stabilized the economy and gave Europeans more confidence to invest in railroads, ports, and public utilities. These projects provided a modern infrastructure for the empire, although at the loss of some autonomy for the Ottoman government.

While acknowledging the difficulties that capitulations caused, Suraiya Faroqhi emphasized that “more recent studies prove that Ottoman commerce and artisan production were more varied than they might appear at first glance.” Justin McCarthy called the changes in the Ottoman system “neither small nor cosmetic,” pointing to “human rights, a constitution, Christians in high office, a parliament, the middle class in charge of the state, and the power of Islam eroded” as evidence of progress on multiple fronts. McCarthy further suggested that the empire fell not because of lack of successful reforms or the failure to modernize but because of the military power of its rivals.

Develop an Argument: Evaluate the extent to which historical evidence supports one of the perspectives on Ottoman reform.