Expansion, Revolutions, and Reform

THE ISLAMIC WORLD HIST 1301 | History Expansion, Revolutions, and Reform From the Ottoman state's founding until the seventeenth century, when it reached its zenith of strength, its geographical location provided a significant benefit. The early empire rested on the border between Europe and Asia for almost its whole history, having been born there. The Ottoman sultan was able to establish his power from a capital city sandwiched between the two continents following the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Mehmed II called on the people of the empire to relocate to Istanbul, his new capital, in order to revitalise the region's economy. The city's population had been steadily declining over the preceding few centuries, making this inevitable. Initially, Mehmed provided free lodging to anybody who relocated there willingly; thereafter, he gave the order for thousands of Turks, Jews, Serbs, Armenians, and Greeks to live in the city. Though he would not live to witness it, Istanbul became the dominant European metropolis within a century, housing close to half a million people and controlling both land and maritime trade between Europe and Asia. The Ottoman Empire expanded its dominance into Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and North Africa throughout the course of the following century. The Egyptian Red Sea fleet, commanded by the Ottomans, fought the Portuguese for supremacy in the Indian Ocean by deploying ships to the Straits of Malacca and troops and weapons to support ally kings in India. Sultan Suleiman I's ascent to power in 1520 is typically seen as the Ottoman Empire's zenith. Under his leadership, Ottoman forces proceeded to expand into the Balkans by capturing Serbia and Hungary. In 1529, they besieged Vienna, which was the capital of the Habsburg Empire at the time. The Habsburgs lived in perpetual fear of Ottoman military invasion, notwithstanding the fact that Vienna was never taken. In an attempt to establish an anti-Habsburg alliance, Queen Elizabeth I of England—who was also a foe of the Habsburgs—sent military advisers and an ambassador to Istanbul. Even with the Ottoman alliance with England, the Ottomans' fight against the Habsburgs swiftly came to a standstill and stayed that way for several years. Modern Algeria is the westernmost point of Ottoman territorial expansion in North Africa; to the east, it reaches the Persian Gulf's coasts and draws formal boundaries with Safavid Iran. Suleiman was known as "the Magnificent" throughout Europe due to his military prowess, control over the Mediterranean region, the opulence of his capital, and the wealth that flowed through the empire. All Ottomans, however, referred to Suleiman as “the lawgiver.” Prior to Suleiman's reign, the majority of Ottoman people were ignorant of their legal rights. Despite the fact that Ottoman law was founded on sharia, some interpretation was necessary in areas like taxation, land administration, and penal law. As a result, these laws were typically created by decree. Several sultans published ordinances during the period of two and a half centuries, which were occasionally contradictory and frequently significantly different from one another. Suleiman examined the laws, made sure they adhered to Islamic law, and then he established a single, unified code of law for the empire, which stood for three centuries. Additionally, he commanded that the new legal code be extensively disseminated so that every Ottoman subject was aware of their legal right to a fair trial and judgement in court. Suleiman became well-known as a compassionate leader because to his measures. While leading an expedition into Hungary in 1566, Suleiman passed away. To avoid demoralising the troops, his death was kept a secret for two months. Only when they returned to Istanbul was his death made known in time for his son's coronation as Selim II. Historians have frequently characterised the Ottoman Empire's post-Suleiman era as one of gradual decline, culminating in the empire's dissolution starting in the nineteenth century. According to this mostly European perspective, Ottoman geographical overstretching and the growth of European military force are to blame for the decline in Ottoman authority. According to this perspective, the winds of change started to blow in 1571 when the Holy League—a coalition that included the Spanish Empire, the Papal States, Venice, and Genoa—destroyed the Ottoman navy in a naval battle at Lepanto, Greece. The battle essentially destroyed Ottoman naval superiority in the eastern Mediterranean, as well as Ottoman zeal for continuing its naval struggle with Portugal, the Netherlands, and France in the Indian Ocean. This defeat pulled back the curtain on Ottoman invincibility myth. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Ottoman military technology was eclipsed by European technology. Subsequently, European kingdoms gained control over Ottoman territory, especially in the Balkans and western portion of North Africa. It was acknowledged at court that although the empire's land conflicts against the Habsburgs in Europe lasted for another hundred years and resulted in a second unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1683, the cost of foreign wars was rising while the amount of territory and economic gain was decreasing. Russia's increasing strength posed a threat as well from the north. Russian soldiers began to advance southward over the steppes and into Ottoman territory in the seventeenth century. In 1696, Russian soldiers under Tsar Peter the Great briefly took control of the Azov region in the Crimea, which was ruled by the Ottomans, near the Black Sea. Russia's growth accelerated once more in the late eighteenth century, eventually taking it far into Ottoman territory and giving it control of the Black Sea's northern shore. Russia, sometimes with Austria's assistance, gradually eroded Ottoman dominance over the Balkans until, throughout the nineteenth century, its might supplanted Ottoman rule in the area. Historians have improved upon this previous analysis of the Ottoman fall in more recent times. The more recent perspective holds that the Ottoman emperors were persuaded to attempt improving the efficiency of their authority over their core region by the dangers posed by the Safavids in the east and Europe in the west. They dispatched delegates to evaluate local systems and offer suggestions for changes back home to a number of European nations as well as Mughal India. To educate Ottoman soldiers, a number of European military consultants were dispatched to Istanbul, while Ottoman scientists and engineers were sent to European colleges to further their education in engineering, history, and military modernization, as well as to explore opportunities for their application back home. These changes enabled the Ottoman Empire endure until the twentieth century, despite the fact that it had grown weaker by the nineteenth century.