Ottoman Empire Dbq

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The Ottoman Empire began to be known as the “sick man” of Europe towards the middle of the 19th century . Its memories of magnificence and estates as a prodigious realm were blurring. To restore their empire to its past express, the Ottomans would endeavour an arrangement of their own reforms. Guided by the standards of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and so on, the Ottomans trusted that by spreading equality all through their domain, alongside recently discovered nationalist sentiment, the Empire would at the end of the day be incredible. Amid the rule of Sultan Mahmud II (1808-1839) it was made clear that all subjects were equivalent paying little respect to doctrine. Taking after his rule was the youthful Sultan Abdülmecid who,…show more content…
In essence, ottomanism stated that all subjects were equal before the law. However, with the continuous identification of the religious creed with ethnic nationality, the ottoman millet system, which had been a vital idiosyncrasy of the Ottoman Empire, was abolished. Millet was a separate legal court pertaining to "personal law" under which a confessional community was allowed to rule itself under its own system . Peaceful coexistence and securing egalitarian relations between Muslim community and non-Muslim communities was one of the most fundamental characteristics of this system. Therefore the relatively separate but interactive coexistence of different religious groups within the same society relied on it. This system began to degrade with increasing ottomanism. The religious minorities were not ready to give up millet status and be ottomanized. This was because of the two most important consequences of the ottoman reform; the first was in relation to conscription in the army, and the second being the effect on the tax…show more content…
The factors that came along with citizenship were not accepted by the non-muslims. This created political tension in the empire. The goals of the Tanzimat to restore the former grandeur of the Ottoman Empire were constrained due to the Ottomanism reform. It disrupted the former peaceful relations between the different religious groups. Therefore the Ottomanism reform’s attempt to promote equality among all the subjects in the Ottoman Empire backfired which lead to the Tanzimat positive impacts being limited to few economic and social spheres of the Ottoman
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