The Collapse of Ottoman Empire - Essay Example

The Ottoman Empire knew as the Turkish Empire was a Sunni Islamic state established by Oghuz Turks under Osman I in 1299. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman Empire was meticulous at the height of its supremacy under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (Khater, 2004). Since, the Ottoman Empire was an outstanding multilingual empire and multinational controlling much of Southeast Europe, the Caucasus, North Africa, Western Asia, and the Horn of Africa (Gelvin, 2005). However, following a lengthy epoch of military setbacks against European powers, the Ottoman Empire progressively declined in the late 19th century. Therefore, we shall candidly try to explicate the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th and early part of the 20th and analyze the reform efforts of Mahmet Ali and the Young Turks.

The forces that shattered this old and once-powerful state was the loss of the Empires to Europe, and indeed the horrific conflicts caused by WWI hence amplifying instability and chaos. It divulged it to external assault by the European opponent and deteriorating its control over the resources and population is claimed to rule. Conversely, reform attempts in the Ottoman Empire by Mahmet Ali and the Young Turks were efforts of updating the economic administration, and military of the Islamic empire that united much of the Islamic world in the Levant (Gelvin, 2005). However, due to decline in economic factors and political corruption associated with Ali and the Young Turks destabilized them in the face of Europe’s expanding power. Consequently, the empire lost its military and technological superiority.  Read More