Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire
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History of the Ottoman Empire |
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| Periods: | |
| Rise (1299–1453) | |
| Growth (1453–1683) | |
| Stagnation (1683–1827) | |
| Decline (1828–1908) | |
| Dissolution (1908–1922) | |
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This page is an organizer page for the national awakening under Ottoman Empire. There is also a limited section under History of the Balkans. This page summarizes issues related with the Ottoman Empire. Each uprising has multifaceted issues and details covered under each page.
Nationalism caused the break-down of millet concept. With the rise of national states and their histories, it is very hard to find reliable sources on the Ottoman concept of a nation and the centuries of the relations between House of Ottoman and provinces, which turned into states. Unquestionably, understanding of Ottomans concept of nation helps us to understand what happened during the decline period of the Ottoman Empire.
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[edit] Ethnic Romanian
The movement, which was started about the same time by the Pandur leader Tudor Vladimirescu, as a mainly anti-Phanariote revolt encouraged by local boyars and the Filiki Eteria, soon acquired an anti-Greek tendency. The Eteria had occupied Moldavia and shared in Wallachia's administration with Tudor himself; Vladimirescu was assassinated after a major disagreement with his upper-class supporters, including Eterists.
The Ottomans intervened to reestablish tutelage, effectively destroying the Eterist structure in the Danubian Principalities; faced with the betrayal of Phanariote rulers, who had identified with the cause of Greek nationalism, and assured that an administration by locals would remin loyal in front of Imperial Russian intervention, Sultan Mahmud II consented in 1822 to the nomination of two native boyars, Ioan Sturdza and Grigore IV Ghica as hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia.
[edit] Ethnic Greek
The position of educated and privileged Greeks within the Ottoman Empire improved in the 17th and 18th centuries. As the empire became more settled, and began to feel its increasing backwardness in relation to the European powers, it increasingly recruited Greeks who had the kind of administrative, technical and financial skills which the Ottomans lacked. From about 1700 Greeks began to fill some of the highest offices of the Ottoman state. The Phanariotes, a class of wealthy Greeks who lived in the Phanar district of Constantinople, became increasingly powerful. Their travels to Western Europe as merchants or diplomats brought them into contact with advanced ideas of liberalism and nationalism, and it was among the Phanariotes that the modern Greek nationalist movement was born.
Greek nationalism was also stimulated by agents of Catherine the Great, the Orthodox ruler of the Russian Empire, who hoped to acquire the lands of the declining Ottoman state, including Constantinople itself, by inciting a Christian rebellion against the Ottomans. However, during the Russian-Ottoman War which broke out in 1768, the Greeks did not rebel, disillusioning their Russian patrons. The Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774) gave Russia the right to make "representations" to the Sultan in defence of his Orthodox subjects, and the Russians began to interfere regularly in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire. This, combined with the new ideas let loose by the French Revolution of 1789, began to reconnect the Greeks with the outside world and led to the development of an active nationalist movement.
- In 1821 the Greek revolution, striving to create an independent Greece, broke out on Romanian ground, supported by the princes of Moldavia and Muntenia.
- A secret Greek nationalist organisation called the Friendly Society (Filiki Eteria) was formed in Odessa during 1814. On March 25 (now Greek Independence Day) 1821 of the Julian Calendar/6 April, 1821 of the Gregorian Calendar the Orthodox Metropolitan Germanos of Patras proclaimed the national uprising. Simultaneous risings were planned across Greece, including in Macedonia, Crete and Cyprus. The revolt began in March 1821 when Alexandros Ypsilantis, the leader of the Etairists, crossed the Prut River into Turkish-held Moldavia with a small force of troops. With the initial advantage of surprise, and aided by Ottoman inefficiency, the Greeks succeeded in liberating the Peloponnese and some other areas. Saint Gregory V, the Patriarch of Constantinople was martyred by the Turks in 1821 in reaction to the Greek War of Independence.
On January 22, 1822, Korinth, the key to the isthmus, passed into the Greeks' hands, and only four fortresses--Nauplia, Patras, Koron, and Modhon--still held out within it against Greek investment. Not a Turk survived in the Peloponnesos beyond their walls, for the slaughter at Tripolitza was only the most terrible instance of what happened wherever a Muslim colony was found. In Peloponnesos, at any rate, the revolution had been grimly successful.
In 1832 A Greco-Turkish settlement was finally determined by the European powers at a conference in London; they adopted a London protocol (February 3, 1830), declaring Greece an independent state under their protection. (Greece has lost 50000 people and Ottomans 15000, Russia 10000 and Egypt 5000)
[edit] Ethnic Bulgarian
The rise of national conscience in Bulgaria led to the Bulgarian revival movement. Unlike Greece and Serbia, the nationalist movement in Bulgaria did not concentrate initially on armed resistance against the Ottoman Empire but on peaceful struggle for cultural and religious autonomy, the result of which was the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate on February 28, 1870. A large-scale armed struggle movement started to develop as late as the beginning of the 1870s with the establishment of the Internal Revolutionary Organisation and the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee, as well as the active envolvement of Vasil Levski in both organisations. The struggle reached its peak with the April Uprising which broke out in April, 1876 in several Bulgarian districts in Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. The barbaric suppression of the uprising and the atrocities committed against the civilian population increased the Bulgarian desire for independence. They also caused a tremendous indignation in Europe, where they became known as the Bulgarian Horrors[1]. Consequently, at a Conference held in Constantinople, European statesmen proposed a series of reforms. However, the sultan refused to implement them and Russia declared warRusso-Turkish War, 1877-78. During the war Bulgarian volunteer forces (in Bulgarian опълченци) fought alongside the Russian army. They earned particular distinction in the epic battle for the Shipka Pass [2].
Upon the end of the war the San Stefano Treaty was signed and Bulgaria was granted autonomy.
[edit] Ethnic Serbian
- Main article: First Serbian Uprising
Serbian national movement represents one of the first examples of successful national resistance against the Ottoman rule. It culminated in two mass uprisings at the beginning of the 19th century, leading to national liberation and establishment of moder Serbian state. One of the main centers of this movement was Belgrade Pashaluk(Turkish:Belgrad Paşalığı), the territory which will become the core of reestablished Serbian national state.
There is a number of factors that contributed to its rise. Above all the nucleus of national identity was preserved in form of Serbian Orthodox Church which remained in one form or another autonomous throughout the period of ottoman occupation. Adherence to Orthodox Christianity is still considered important factor in ethnic self determination. Furthermore, the principality of Montenegro, which was at a time considered an integral part of Serbian national body was never completely subjugated by Ottomans. Both of these entities preserved links with medieval Kingdom of Serbia keeping the idea of national liberation alive.
The other group of factor steam from regional political events during the period of Ottoman rule, 17th and 18th century in particular. At the turn of 19th century the region of Belgrade Pashaluk had a relatively recent experience of Austrian rule, as a result of Treaty of Passarowitz. Although the territory of northern Serbia was reverted to Ottoman rule according to Treaty of Belgrade, the region saw almost continuous warfare during 1700s. As a result Ottomans never established full feudal order in Belgrade Pashaluk. Free peasants owning small plots of land constituted the majority of population. Furthermore most of leaders of future armed rebellions earned valuable military knowledge serving in Austrian irregular troops, Freikorps. Proximity of Austrian border provided the opportunity of getting needed military material. Serbian national leaders could also count on financial and logistic support of fellow Serbs living in relative prosperity in Austrian Empire.
The immediate cause for the start of First Serbian Uprising was mismanagement of the province by renegade Janissary troops which managed to seize power in Belgrade. However fulled by initial success the rebellion quickly grew in full fledge war of national liberation, with clear aim to spread armed struggle to other Ottoman regions inhabitation by Serbian population.
Though ultimately unsuccessful, this First Serbian Uprising paved the way for the Second Serbian Uprising of 1815, which eventually succeeded in Serbia.
Resurrected Serbia would eventually become a center of resistance to Ottomans, actively supporting liberation movements in neighboring Christian lands, especially Bosnia, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Serbia would go on to fight a series of, largely successful wars with Ottoman empire culminating in First Balkan War of 1912.
[edit] Ethnic Bosnian
The Ottoman Sultans attempted to implement various economic reforms in the early 19th century in order to address the grave issues mostly caused by the border wars. The reforms, however, were usually met with resistance by the military captaincies of Bosnia. The most famous of these insurrections was the one by captain Husein Gradaščević in 1831. Gradaščević felt that giving autonomy to the eastern lands of Serbia, Greece and Albania would weaken the link between Bosnia and the Ottoman Empire. He raised a full-scale rebellion in the province, joined by thousands of native Bosnian soldiers who believed in captain's prudence and courage, calling him Zmaj od Bosne (the Bosnian dragon). Despite winning several notable victories, notably at the famous Kosovo polje, the rebels were eventually defeated in a battle near Sarajevo in 1832 after Gradaščević was betrayed by Herzegovinian nobility. Husein-kapetan was banned from ever entering the country again, and was eventually poisoned in Istanbul. Bosnia and Herzegovina would remain part of the Ottoman empire until 1878. Before it was formally occupied by Austria-Hungary, the region was de facto independent for several months.
[edit] Ethnic Albanian
- Main article: National awakening and the birth of Albania
[edit] Ethnic Armenian
[edit] Ethnic Kurd
The system of administration introduced by Idris remained unchanged until the close of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29. But the Kurds, owing to the remoteness of their country from the capital and the decline of Ottoman Empire, had greatly increased in influence and power, and had spread westwards over the country as far as Angora.
After the war the Kurds attempted to free themselves from ottoman Empire control, and in 1834, after the Bedirkhan clan uprising, it became necessary to reduce them to subjection. This was done by Reshid Pasha. The principal towns were strongly garrisoned, and many of the Kurd beys were replaced by Turkish governors. A rising under Bedr Khan Bey in 1843 was firmly repressed, and after the Crimean War the Turks strengthened their hold on the country.
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 was followed by the attempt of Sheikh Obaidullah in 1880 - 1881 to found an independent Kurd principality under the protection of Turkey. The attempt, at first encouraged by the Porte, as a reply to the projected creation of an Armenian state under the suzerainty of Russia, collapsed after Obaidullah's raid into Persia, when various circumstances led the central government to reassert its supreme authority. Until the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 there had been little hostile feeling between the Kurds and the Armenians, and as late as 1877-1878 the mountaineers of both races had co-existed fairly well together.
In 1891 the activity of the Armenian Committees induced the Porte to strengthen the position of the Kurds by raising a body of Kurdish irregular cavalry, which was well-armed and called Hamidieh after the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II. Minor disturbances constantly occurred, and were soon followed by the massacre of Armenians at Sasun and other places, 1894 - 1896, in which the Kurds took an active part. Some of the separatist Kurds, like the separatist ultra-nationalist Armenians, aimed to establish a separate Kurdish state.
However the majority of the population preferred to join the Turkish Independence War. Some of the Kurdist groups sought self-determination and the championing in the Treaty of Sèvres of Kurdish autonomy in the aftermath of World War I, but the Turkish resurgence under Kemal Atatürk made coalition with the local majority groups and prevented such a result. Kurds backed by the United Kingdom declared independence in 1927 and established so-called Republic of Ararat. However it was not a real state and not supported by the masses.
