Decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire

In the 18th century, the <a href="/facts/Ottoman_Empire/6QvfTRsg">Ottoman Empire</a> faced threats on numerous frontiers from multiple industrialised European powers as well as internal instabilities. Outsider influence, rise of nationalism and internal corruption demanded the Empire to look within itself and modernise. Kickstarting a period of internal reforms to centralize and standardise governance; European style training regimens for the military, standardized law codes and reformed property laws were initiated to better collect taxes and control the resources within the borders The period of these reforms is known as the <a href="/facts/Tanzimat/I83H2yXu">Tanzimat</a> starting in 1839.
Despite the Ottoman empire's precarious international position, the central state was significantly strengthened. The process of reforming and modernization in the empire began with the declaration of the <a href="/facts/Nizam-I_Cedid/jQT845oe">Nizam-I Cedid</a> (New Order) during the reign of Sultan <a href="/facts/Selim_III/FDfLKSNQ">Selim III</a> and was punctuated by several reform decrees, such as the <a href="/facts/Edict_of_G%25C3%25BClhane/VG2rCVB8">Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane</a> in 1839 and the <a href="/facts/Ottoman_Reform_Edict_of_1856/UtIQLMIx">Hatt-ı Hümayun</a> in 1856. Over the course of the 19th century, the Ottoman state became increasingly powerful and rationalized, exercising a greater degree of influence over its population than in any previous era.
Despite these attempts at revitalisation, the empire could not stem the <a href="/facts/Rise_of_nationalism_in_the_Ottoman_Empire/BH5168C7">rising tide of nationalism</a>, especially among the ethnic minorities in its Balkan provinces, where the newly implemented administrative and infrastructural reforms often intensified local tensions and nationalist movements rather than alleviating them. Numerous revolts and wars of independence, together with repeated incursions by Russia in the northeast and France (and later Britain) in the North African <a href="/facts/Eyalets/1fe45cCd">eyalets</a>, resulted in a steady loss of territories throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
By 1908, the <a href="/facts/Ottoman_Modern_Army/HjKCNAzo">Ottoman military became modernized and professionalized</a> along the lines of Western European armies. The period was followed by the defeat and <a href="/facts/Dissolution_of_the_Ottoman_Empire/bVR0w48o">dissolution of the Ottoman Empire</a> (1908–1922).

Decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire open-in-new

Decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire