The Decline of The Ottoman Empire - Assignment Example

The Decline of the Ottoman Empire North Africa, Middle East, as well as Central Asia encountered transformation fundamentally between the 17th and 19th century. Prior to the 17th century Ottoman empire was feared and revered throughout Europe and Asia then known as Eurasia as one of a great power that was ruling supreme the entire region without any difficulty. Where its rules were not prevalent the states of Persia and Khanates in Central Asia reigned supreme as well as was left without curtailment of freedom. After 17th century there were setbacks that were brought about in the hands of enemies of Europe that weakened the ruling power of Ottoman Empire. The possessions in Europe had slipped gradually and decaying internally gave freedom for certain territories outlying in North Africa in benefiting the power of gaining autonomy. Various territories were taken into French, Italian as well as British empires creating the fear of erosion of the power of ottoman. By the end of the 19th century the dwindling Ottoman Empire was named with a nickname Europe’s sick man. There are periodical reforms with efforts that were kept lively during the 18th century but could not protect the empire from registering a decline later due to upheavals of power. Various reforms were formulated at the outset of the 19th century but the outbreak of First World War brought about the holocaust of Ottoman Empire. The transformation enabled Turkish state to take over Ottoman Empire and cloaked it with modernity that is worth memory and reconnaissance of the history of growth and upheaval and further rising up to the mark with modernity. The steady collapsed of the Ottoman Empire and power of balance created one of the crucial sources of issues of foreign policy during the 18th century. The question in the east amazed various diplomats and perplexed them for a few decades. The imperialism in Europe also ushered in some blows to various states in the neighboring regions and in the territories of Middle East. The countries of Persia, Egypt, Central Asia, and Caucasus were empowered by the countries of Russia and British with their control in the 18th century (McCannon, 2010). The Ottoman Empire when it was Eurasia the problem of heavy taxation created problems on the part of people in contributing to the growth of economic activities and development. The rulers were not able to formulate suitable policies that created havoc for the purposes of establishment of peace and satisfaction on the part of general public towards the performance of the government in terms of tax policies. During those days there were problems that created dismay for appreciating the governmental policies for ensuring a powerful thrust and boost of the economy and its further development for the purposes of achievement of economic performance. Various aspects of performance of the economy declined including parameters of performance such as inflation deficit and availability of funds for the purposes of creating a good climate for the people. In this manner they have a sense belonging to the state in terms of explosion of entrepreneurs and businessmen in the country for the purposes of generating more employment opportunities and creation of more economic activities. In the light of higher taxation measures it is essential that more economic activities should also be generated for creating higher income that would enable people to save some amount of money for their needs. The government failed to look into this aspect during the Ottoman Empire that brought about the decline spontaneously. Later in the 18th and 19th century the transformation towards modernity gave a fillip to the development of the economy with lower levels of taxation that induced the industries and business circles to setup their expansion plans for the growth for economic activity and revenues. The frequent wars and enemy conflict generated a feeling of insecurity in the minds of various people and industry captains to generate policies to sustain their revenues without growing for certain time. This was also a major factor that generated a bottleneck for the improvement of revenue and growth with a wait and watch approach until the security of the government of the state to settle down. This is one of the major factors that caused a decline in the performance of the economy and its functional parameters. Only after the beginning of 20th century the element of modernity was infused that gave an impetus for the development of the conditions of the economy for ensuring a positive thrust for generation of growth, employment, income and operational efficiency. Various measures were formulated including more budget allocation towards agriculture and industry as well as tertiary sectors for establishment of a planned growth for a rich performance of the country. However, the outbreak of First World War in early 20th century created a fear that was overcome after the great depression in 1939 brought about more freedom in the operations under the garb of Turkish state and the country marched towards progress by formulation of more economic policies conducive to growth. It is appreciable that Middle East is very rich in oil as well as exports and the reserves and strength of the economy is strong and the industrial development is quite appreciable. Hence this is a treatise on the historical transition of an economy and the state to mastermind its development over a period of time from the level of insecurity to the level of security except in certain countries that are neighboring that is kept under supervision of the Untied Nations task force after the outbreak of United States attack on Iraq (Brix et al., 2001). The disability of the Ottoman Empire to manage its economy and finance the army was compelled to keep control for involvement in the formulation of policies as well. This was meant for the purposes of creating a climate that is bereft of all plausible capabilities for the development of the economy and also for participation in the selection process of economic and financial wizards would could be involved in policies and implementation for the development of finance as well as the conditions of the economy. The military had to express such an opinion and created a climate for its control until the situation brought the levels of empires such as the Middle East in certain countries where the development has been successful and constantly improved. (Reid, 2000). The conversion of nationalism into capitalism are creating a socio-economic benefit became an impediment with the weakening of the rulers to bear the cost of wars and conflict including payments to the generals and army staff. Hence, after the Turks came into power they could generate the production of oil that was exported and substantial revenues were generated for coughing up adequacy of funds for withstanding not only payments to various factors in the government but also for ensuring budgetary allocations. Consequentially the government of Ottoman Empire registered a decline until it came under the cloak of the Middle East with the development of natural resources that could benefit their economy by clubbing the countries as oil rich countries. Presently the Arabs with their richness in their oil reserves and also with setting up of certain big projects with foreign investments in their countries for the development of business enterprises as well as the economy would enable a climate that would encourage more foreign direct investments, foreign exchange revenues as well as a situation of creation of surplus in the budget for the development of the economy and managing the same through budgetary control (Lenski, 1984). Various sultans and vazirs tried to bring about corrective measures for the development of the economy but the problems of inflation and corruption created a situation of anxiety but the government was steadfast and became successful in 1900 after First World War. The infusion of silver in such countries and rich production of oil made them important in the world for ensuring growth of trade and development. The trade and exports registered a stupendous increase after 1950s and various modern methods of generation of oil through the process of drilling on high seas created a favorable climate for the development of the economies that is worth reckoning. The control and coordination with the armed forces have enabled success in this process for registration of a stupendous growth for the development of various philosophies that would create an impetus for further growth. The concept of the economic policies have been revised and liberalized for ensuring various vistas for driving dramatic growth for ensuring good results (Sugar, 1993). In this treatise the decline of Ottoman Empire has been discussed in detail and an analysis of the declined of its economy and its process of growth after one or two centuries with the efforts of the government and involvement of the armed forces staged an increase in the 19th century. Presently the states covered in the Ottoman Empire are amongst one of the leading countries in the world in terms of richness of natural resources and abundance of foreign exchange reserves and industrialization in the certain sectors such as steel as well as oil and silver including bullion. The role of the economists in coordination with the empire and the government including armed forces is considered to be appreciable with accolades to experts in the production of oil. Work Cited McCannon, John. Barrons AP World History. 4th ed. New York: Barrons Educational Series, 2010. 257-59. Print Brix, Emil Klaus Koch, and Elisabeth Vyslonzil. The decline of empires. N.p.: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2001. 21-44. Print Reid, James & Franz, J.. Crisis of the Ottoman Empire. Steiner Verlag, 2000. 59-61. Print Lenski, Gerhard E. Current issues and research in macrosociology. Netherlands: Brill Archive,, 1984. 31-32. Print Sugar, Peter F. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman rule, 1354-1804. Vol. V. United States Of America: University of Washington Press, 1993. 187-94. Print Read More