Selim II and other subsequent Sultans (1566 – 1918)

Selim II and other subsequent Sultans (1566 – 1918)

Suleiman the Magnificent was a military genius, an astute politician, and a patron of the arts. Due to his formidableness as a leader, many of his successors fell short of the mark. He was the last great Sultan to rule over the Ottomans. In part due to the abolition of fratricide in 1595, when Sultan Mehmet III ascended to the throne by murdering a total of 19 young princes. Strings of coffins streamed out of the royal residences. By far, the most gruesome accession that the Ottomans had ever seen, prompting the abolition of a tradition which had helped them provide an unbroken line of 10 fierce Sultans. Right from the foundation of the empire.

The coronation of Selim II, Suleiman’s son, was a disgraceful one. He was met with a Janissary mutiny as soon as his father died and denied entry into the capital until he agreed to increase the salaries of the Janissarries, alongside other additional privileges. His Grand Vezir, Sokollu Mehmet, had to approve the disbursement of these additional funds from the treasury so that the Sultan could be allowed entry into Constantinople.

The Ottomans now entered a period of gradual decline. A number of the empire’s institutions began to fail. They did not match the rapid growth of the empire with invention and innovation, especially in terms of their military tactics. The number of raids on their merchant ships by pirates such as the North African Corsairs and the Knight’s Hospitaller, increased rapidly. They had made Cyprus their haven, and they used it as a base from which they could mount attacks on Ottoman seaports throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, forcing the Ottomans, under Selim II, to capture Cyprus from the Venetians in 1571 (culminating in the Battle of Famagusta).

Their defeat at Lepanto overshadowed the Ottoman victory at Famagusta. The Ottoman fleet fell at the hands of a coalition of Spain and Italian states. The Christians, however, failed to follow up on this minor victory. Probably due to the death of Pope Pius V, who had commissioned the crusade.

The Ottomans were reluctant to check the Moriscos revolt of 1568 – 1571. The Moriscos were Christian converts of Spanish descent, who were initially Muslims. They also failed to stop the growth of the Kingdom of Russia through the River Don and River Volga. Subsequently, the Ottomans were defeated by Catherine the Great in Crimea, 1774. Napoleon Bonaparte also overwhelmed the Ottomans in his occupation of Egypt in 1798.

The Janissaries were also gradually becoming unruly, thereby forcing Sultan Mahmud II to act in 1826. He accomplished this by rallying approximately 10,000 loyalists under the banner of the holy prophet Muhammad. They then proceeded to shell the Janissary barracks using artillery, which resulted in a fire that claimed up to 4000 Janissary lives. Many more were killed in the streets as they attempted to march towards the royal residence. Even locals joined in the fight because the native Turkish population hated many of the Janissaries. A considerable number of the janissaries were taken as prisoners and consequently executed. Others fled into exile or assumed a low profile by taking ordinary jobs, marking the end of the ancient Janissary guard. The Sultan replaced the Janissaries with a more modern and European like force.

During much of the 19th century, allegations of corruption, bribery, and nepotism. There was a lack of growth within the empire, in terms of of the military strategy and their economy. European entities began developing other trade routes, thereby bypassing Ottoman taxes. Consequently, denying the Ottomans active participation in the silk trade and causing a huge strain on Ottoman revenues. The Ottomans therefore earned the nick name ‘the sick man of Europe’.

In 1843, Sultan Abdulmejid abandoned the ancient Topkapi palace that was commissoned by Sultan Mehmet the conquerer 1459. He was heavily influence by Western cultures and even abandoned the Sultan’s traditional garb and began to model his dress more like a European ruler. He commissioned the construction of the Dolmabahçe palace, which also looked more like a European style royal residence. It took a total of 13 years to complete and sat on 11 acres of land. It had 285 rooms, 68 toilets, 6 Turkish baths and 46 ballrooms. The throne room, designed for special ceremonies, held a total of 2500 people. However, such grande works were uncalled for at the time. A time when the empire was experiencing a huge strain on their economy. The palace construction placed an additional burden on the empire’s shrinking revenue base. Such that the empire was faced with the threat of bankruptcy by the year 1876, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

Nationalistic ideologies began to take root within the empire. Christian entities within the empire managed to gain independence; Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Serbia. There also emerged a nationalistic force by the name of the Young Turks,. They managed to depose Sultan Abdul Hamid II, although just for a brief period in 1909, during the Young Turk revolution of 1908. They managed to force the Sultan’s hand in restoring the constitution that he had suspended earlier on in his reign, in 1878. The Sultan also agreed to re-open parliament, which had also been disbanded in 1878.

The Armenian Genocide

Although the Turkish government has hitherto been reluctant to term the events as genocide, others such as Canada, France and the United States have gone as far as to classify it as a holocaust. It is the second most sudied holocaust after the Jewish holocaust. Although the official figures vary between different jurisdictions due to the attempts by the ottomans to cover up the atrocities. The genocide occurred in a series of waves perfectly executed to exterminate the Armenian population.

It first began with the capture of 250 Armenian technocrats and intellectuals. They were taken to concentration camps and eventually deported or executed. These attempts were accompanied by a propaganda drive by the Ottoman government in an attempt to justify their actions. They purported that the Armenians were attempting to side with the Russians, who were one of the Ottomans’ many enemies at the time. What is even more outrageous is how the Ottomans institutionalize these mass deportations through passing a series of legislations such as the Tehcir law, which allowed them to deport and consfiscate the property anyone deemed to be the enemy of the empire. Subsequently, they forced one and three quarters of a million of ethnic Armenians to march over 160 kilo metres of desert terrain in the Syrian desert, without enough food and water. Hundreds of thousands died. There were other atrocities perpetrated by the Ottomans such as mass burnings (up to 5000 people at a time) and drowning of especially women and children. Official reports document that up to 80,000 people were burned across 90 different Armenian villages. The official death toll is between 300,000 – 500,000. News papers at the time reported that thousands of bodies were strewn across the desert.

World war 1

When world war one began in 1914, the Ottomans sided with the axis powers. A choice which many pundits have argued was the ultimate downfall of the empire, because they chose the losing side. Despite the fact that they fought bravely, under General Mustafa Kemal, in the battle of Gallipoli and managed to defeat allied ships (French and British) as they attempted to capture Istanbul, on 5th February 1915. The war culminated in the treaty of Sevres that was signed on 10th August 1920 by Sultan Mehmet VI. One thing was clear after the war; the need for the dissolution of the Ottoman empire. The Ottomans were forced to surrender all non-Turkic territories. Portions of these territories were given to Greece, France, Italy and Britain. The treaty aided superpowers such as Britain and France in curving out their spheres of influence in the region, through the British mandate for Palestine and the French mandate for Syria and Lebanon (we will discuss this further in subsequent articles).

The Turkish War of Independence

The treaty of Sevres lead to a spring up of nationalistic feelings among the Turkish citizenry. Mustafa Kemal, who had not lost a single battle during the world war, formed a provisional government based in Ankara. He then rallied his nationalist forced and led them in capturing the occupied Turkish territories in Anatolia, from Greek, British, Ottoman and French forces (Although the allies deployed very little of their forces). The war led to the treaty of Lausanne. The treaty formally recognized the Grand National Assembly, led by Mustafa Kemal, which consequently abolished the Ottoman sultanate. Marking an end to the dynasty that had lasted over seven centuries. The treaty also officially recognized the republic of Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal was the last of the fierce leaders to be born by the Ottoman empire. He brought with him a number of sweeping changes to the republic– among them– he separated the state from the church. Abolished Ottoman traditional garbs and introduced a number of reforms that favoured women such as the right to voting, way ahead of other Western states. He also made the bold move of abolishing the alphabet used by the Ottomans, which was of Arabic origin. This move effectively brought the literacy levels of the empire to zero, within one night. He introduced the Western alphabet system. His gamble paid off, however, soon the literacy levels increased five fold. The last of his radical reforms, was to instruct everyone to adopt a western last name. Mustafa Kemal himself had one chosen for him by the national assembly. He was given the name Ataturk (father of Turkey).

Mustafa Kemal died on November 10th 1938 at the age of 57. Hitherto, the clock inside Mustafa Kemal’s bedroom at the Dolmebahce place is frozen at 9:05 a.m, the time of his death. Turkish people commemorate his death by stoping and remaining silent for a brief period, every year on the day he died.