Ottoman State Reforms From the Eighteenth Century to the Hatt-I-Sharif of Gülhane
Ottoman State Reforms From the Eighteenth Century to the Hatt-I-Sharif of Gülhane

Summary/Abstract: During the 14th-16th centuries the Ottoman state was based on a very well organised military and a highly centralised administrative system, and the borders of the Ottoman Empire grew rapidly. Profitable expansion, however, was halted by the long and exhausting wars at the end of the 16th century, and by the 17th century the Empire had started on a long, slow period of decline. From the first part of the 18th century several efforts were made to rejuvenate the diminishing power of the Empire, and it should be no surprise that the first attempts were so clearly derived from its historic military organisation system. In reality, the Ottoman government had been an army before it was anything else and Army and Government were still one. Initial attempts were directed at reorganising the military system of the Empire in the hope of returning to the Golden Age, when the power of the Ottoman Empire culminated as it controlled a huge territory stretching from the Near East to Central Europe - even threatening Vienna. The Ottoman Empire had to face two main challenges. The internal challenge came from the search for autonomy in the provinces, the weakening power of central government and the declining effectiveness of its army, a series of conflicts and demands for order, security and regulatory action often couched on moralistic and religious grounds. By contrast, advancing technology, economic systems relying increasingly on industry, new forms of government and administration which generated military power constituted the backbone of the external challenge. The aim of this paper is to pursue the developments of the attempts at reform during the 18th century and up to the promulgation of the Hatt-ı Sharif of Gülhane in 1839.

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