Ottoman Imperialism

The end of the 13th century would date the beginning, of what would become the largest and most influential Muslim empire since the prophetic and caliphate eras, the Ottoman Empire. The empire ruled over three continents for more than 600 years. Its capital, Constantinople, was at the center of the world at the time being. Wealth, territory, knowledge, art and modernization flourished through the empire. At the turn of the 18th century however marked the decline of the empire, which ultimately leads them to the Brink of World War I, where everything was lost. This would inaugurate a new group of Turk nationalists; known as the Young Turks, who would reform the infrastructures of government. They were an ideological movement that aimed to destroy
The Ottomans began to face many problems dealing with foreign affairs, economic crises and nationalism revolts in all provinces. Fisher tells us that this essentially initiated the beginning of many struggles and issues the Ottomans and their constitution would endure over the course of the century (294). The younger citizens, especially those in European and Arab countries, lost sentiment for Ottoman patriotism, and began to push for nationalism. Many reforms would be made to try and improve equality within the state. This time period would become recognized as the Tanzimat era. Tanzimat derives from the Arabic word for reorganization or reform. Tanzimat was a reform system set up by the grand vizir, Mustafa Reshid, who tried to develop a constitution that would push for more Western and modern civilization. One main reform that came from the Tanzimat was under The Judicial Council, creating laws that arose from western civilization and disposed of laws that arose from Islam. The Tanzimat ideology was embodied in young Ottomans who were educated in the Western world or in institutes similar to those in the Western world. These young Ottomans grew interests in subjects as philosophy, politics, and biography and were open to new ideas and modernization, and pushed away conservative Muslim Ottoman ideology
Although the party itself was wiped out, the manifesto they pushed through the final years of the Ottoman Empire influenced the next generation of Turks and nations that would form in place of the empire. The Young Turks, lost in the war, but won the bigger fight. The fight against repressive and conservative institutions. They started a trend within the Middle East that would shape for a more modernized and free, society. The Young Turks had framed an institute and infrastructure of ideas that were totally contradictory to those of the original Ottomans. Ultimately, essentially the same reasons the early Ottomans found themselves successful were the same reasons they found themselves failing. The lack of change and stubbornness of the Ottomans pushed for change, and provoked the formation of the Young Turks. The nations to follow will forever be influenced from both groups and how they impacted