Decline of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires
Overview
Decline of the Ottoman, the Safavid, and the Mughal Empires
The decline of the Mughal, the Ottoman, and the Safavid Empires confirmed the advantages enjoyed by the West as a whole, as well as select European powers in particular. By the late nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was being referred to as the “sick man of Europe,” a reference that also could have been applied to the Mughal and the Safavid empires, had each not already expired. European advantages stemmed from Western industrialization and advances in military and maritime technology, along with the organizational improvements and innovations that accompanied industrialization.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the internal factors that led to decline in the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries and show how the growing commercial and military power of European nations facilitated that decline.
- Define the term “Gunpowder Empire” and evaluate whether the Mughal, the Ottoman, and the Safavid empires should be defined as one.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Battle of Lepanto - 1571 naval engagement between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League, won by the latter, and marking the beginning of the decline of the former
gunpowder empire - term referring to the Mughal, Ottoman, and Safavid empires
Safavid Decline
The Safavid empire was the first of the three gunpowder empires to collapse, falling to Afghan forces during the early eighteenth century. Shi’ites dedicated to Shi’ite domination of Persia paved the way for this fate. During the seventeenth and into the early eighteenth centuries, Shi’ite efforts to curtail freedom of expression and even limit freedom of religion within the confines of Islam prompted local, grassroots resistance. In the early eighteenth century, Afghans took advantage of this widespread unrest to seize Isfahan, the Safavid capital. The dynasty ended in 1723, although its remnants were restored temporarily under Nadir Shah Afshar—founder of the short-lived Afsharid empire—but were extinguished at the end of the eighteenth century. During the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century the sovereignty of the Qajar empire—successor to the Afsharid empire—was continually compromised by the British and the Russians, along with other Western imperial powers. This fate illustrated the inherent vulnerability of the Safavid empire.
The Reign of Aurangzeb and the Decline of the Empire
The decline of the Mughal empire, the second of these three empires to fall, was a more gradual process driven more directly by European imperialism, particularly British and French expansion. The last of the great Mughals was Aurangzeb Alamgir. During his fifty-year reign, the empire reached its greatest physical size. The Bijapur and Golconda Sultanates, which had been reduced to vassaldom by Shah Jahan, were formally annexed. But the empire also showed unmistakable signs of decline. The bureaucracy had grown corrupt; the huge army used outdated weaponry and tactics. Aurangzeb restored Mughal military dominance and expanded power southward, at least for a while. But Aurangzeb was involved in a series of protracted wars: against the sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda in the Deccan; the Rajputs of Rajasthan, Malwa, and Bundelkhand; the Marathas in Maharashtra; and the Ahoms in Assam. Peasant uprisings and revolts by local leaders became all too common, as did the conniving of the nobles to preserve their own status at the expense of a steadily weakening empire. From the early 1700s the campaigns of the Sikhs of Punjab—under leaders such as Banda Bahadur—inspired by the martial teachings of their last Guru: Guru Gobind Singh, who posed a considerable threat to Mughal rule in Northern India.
Most decisively, the series of wars against the Pashtuns in Afghanistan weakened the very foundation upon which Moghul military might had rested. The Pashtuns formed the backbone of the Muhgal army and were some of the most hardened troops. The antagonism showed towards the erstwhile Mughal General Khushal Khan Khattak, for one, seriously undermined the Mughal military apparatus.
The increasing association of Aurangzeb's government with Islam further drove a wedge between the ruler and his Hindu subjects. Aurangzeb's policies towards his Hindu subjects were harsh and intended to force them to convert. Temples were despoiled and the harsh "jiziya" tax (which non-Muslims had to pay) was re-introduced. In this climate, contenders for the Mughal throne were many, and the reigns of Aurangzeb's successors were short-lived and contended with strife. The Mughal Empire experienced dramatic reverses as regional nawabs or governors broke away and founded independent kingdoms, such as the Marathas in the south and the Sikhs in the north. In the war of 27 years from 1681 to 1707, the Mughals suffered several heavy defeats at the hands of the Marathas in the south. Additionally, in the early 1700s the Sikhs of the north became increasingly militant in an attempt to fight the oppressive Mughal rule, and they had to make peace with the Maratha armies. Furthermore, Persian and Afghan armies invaded Delhi, carrying away many treasures, including the Peacock Throne in 1739.
Decline of the Ottoman Empire
After a long decline since the 19th century, the Ottoman empire came to an end in the aftermath of its defeat in World War I, when it was dismantled by the Allies after the war ended in 1918. As the third of these three empires to fall, the Ottoman empire was the most successful in competing with the major imperial powers on their terms. The Ottoman empire did not finally collapse until the end of the First World Wars, having signed on as a co-belligerent with the Central Powers.
One of the early events marking the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire was the 1571 Battle of Lepanto. The Ottoman fleet lost this naval battle with the Holy League, an alliance of European states, in part because of the technological superiority of the Holy League fleet, specifically the European ships being propelled by sail rather than the oars on which the Ottoman ships depended. This battle foreshadowed a trend by which the Ottoman Empire would continue to stagnate in military and naval technology while the Western Powers would enjoy manifest advances in these areas, advances that would accelerate with the Industrial Revolution.
The final high point of Ottoman power also was the turning point that would mark the beginning of measurable Ottoman decline, the 1683 siege of Vienna, the second Ottoman siege of this city. In the first Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529 defenders of the city were able to outlast the siege and force an Ottoman withdrawal. This unsuccessful siege marked the farthest extent of Ottoman penetration into central Europe and the plateau of Ottoman imperial power. The Ottoman Empire was able to maintain its power and position on this plateau until the second siege of this city in 1683. It was part of the effort by Mahmud IV to expand Ottoman power into central Europe, in a war against the Austrian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, among other European powers, in central Europe. This Ottoman war effort was in part a confrontation between these European powers and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a religious conflict and crusade by each side, as illustrated by the primary source in this lesson, the 1683 Ottoman declaration of war against the Austrian Empire. In this declaration Mahmud clearly states intentions in what he hopes will be an existential war.
As in 1529 this second Ottoman siege in 1683 failed. A Polish force rescued Vienna and the Austrian Empire. This second failure by the Ottoman Empire in trying to capture Vienna reaffirmed the limits of Ottoman imperial power. Although not recognized at the time, this second unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Vienna marked apex of Ottoman expansion before its decline. Over the next two centuries European powers would continue to widen their technological superiority over the Ottoman Empire, among the other gunpowder empires, in warfare and industrialized manufacturing, along with expanding territorialy at the expense of a shrinking Ottoman Empire.
Decline and Modernization
Beginning in the late 18th century, the Ottoman Empire faced challenges defending itself against foreign invasion and occupation. In response to these threats, the empire initiated a period of tremendous internal reform that came to be known as the Tanzimat. This succeeded in significantly strengthening the Ottoman central state, despite the empire’s precarious international position. Over the course of the 19th century, the Ottoman state became increasingly powerful and rationalized, exercising a greater degree of influence over its population than in any previous era. The process of reform and modernization in the empire began with the declaration of the Nizam-ı Cedid (New Order) during the reign of Sultan Selim III (r. 1789 – 1807) and was punctuated by several reform decrees, such as the Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane in 1839 and the Hatt-ı Hümayun in 1856. By the end of this period in 1908, the Ottoman military was somewhat modernized and professionalized according to the model of Western European Armies.
During the Tanzimat period, the government’s series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modern conscripted army, banking system reforms, the decriminalization of homosexuality, and the replacement of religious law with secular law and guilds with modern factories.
Defeat and Dissolution
The defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908 – 1922) began with the Second Constitutional Era, a moment of hope and promise established with the Young Turk Revolution. It restored the Ottoman constitution of 1876 and brought in multi-party politics with a two-stage electoral system (electoral law) under the Ottoman parliament. The constitution offered hope by freeing the empire’s citizens to modernize the state’s institutions, rejuvenate its strength, and enable it to hold its own against outside powers. Its guarantee of liberties promised to dissolve inter-communal tensions and transform the empire into a more harmonious place.
Instead, this period became the story of the twilight struggle of the Empire. The Second Constitutional Era began after the Young Turk Revolution (July 3, 1908) with the sultan’s announcement of the restoration of the 1876 constitution and the reconvening of the Ottoman Parliament. This era is dominated by the politics of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the movement that would become known as the Young Turks. Although it began as a uniting progressive party, the CUP splintered in 1911 with the founding of the opposition Freedom and Accord Party (Liberal Union or Entente), which poached many of the more liberal Deputies from the CUP. The remaining CUP members, who now took a more dominantly nationalist tone in the face of the enmity of the Balkan Wars, dueled Freedom and Accord in a series of power reversals that ultimately led to the CUP seizing power from the Freedom and Accord in the 1913 Ottoman coup d’état, which led to establishing total dominance over Ottoman politics until the end of World War I.
The Young Turk government had signed a secret treaty with Germany and established the Ottoman-German Alliance in August 1914, aimed against the common Russian enemy but aligning the Empire with the German side. The Ottoman Empire entered World War I after the Goeben and Breslau incident, in which it gave safe harbor to two German ships that were fleeing British ships. These ships, officially transferred to the Ottoman Navy, but effectively still under German control, attacked the Russian port of Sevastopol, thus dragging the Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers in the Middle Eastern theater.
The Ottoman involvement World War I in the Middle East ended with the Arab Revolt in 1916. This revolt turned the tide against the Ottomans at the Middle Eastern front, where they initially seemed to have the upper hand during the first two years of the war. When the Armistice of Mudros was signed on October 30, 1918, the only parts of the Arabian peninsula still under Ottoman control were Yemen, Asir, the city of Medina, portions of northern Syria, and portions of northern Iraq. These territories were handed over to the British forces on January 23, 1919. The Ottomans were also forced to evacuate the parts of the former Russian Empire in the Caucasus (in present-day Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan), which they had gained towards the end of World War I after Russia’s retreat from the war with the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire was solidified. The new countries created from the former territories of the Ottoman Empire currently number 39.
The occupations of Constantinople and Smyrna mobilized the Turkish national movement, which ultimately won the Turkish War of Independence. The formal abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate was performed by Grand National Assembly of Turkey on November 1, 1922. The Sultan was declared persona non grata and exiled from the lands that the Ottoman Dynasty ruled since 1299.
Primary Source: Ottoman Sultan Mahmud IV The Great Turks Declaration of War
This ominous statement accompanied the resurgence of war between the Ottoman Empire and Habsburg Austria. The sultan’s threat-laden declaration shows that religious and political questions were inseparable in the Turkish-Austrian rivalry.
Ottoman Sultan Mahmud IV (1683), “The Great Turks Declaration of War against the Emperour of Germany (At his Pallace at Adrinople, February 20, 1683)”
Mahomet Son of Emperours, Son to the famous and glorious God, Emperour of the Turks, King of Graecia, Macedonia, Samaria, and the Holy-land, King of Great and Lesser Egypt, King of all the Inhabitants of the Earth, and of the Earthly Paradise, Obedient Prince and Son of Mahomet, Preserver of the Towns of Hungaria, Possessour of the Sepulcher of your God, Lord of all the Emperours of the World, from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof, King of all Kings, Lord of the Tree of Life, Conquerour of Melonjen, Itegly, and the City Prolenix, Great Pursuer of the Christians, Joy of the flourishing World, Commander and Guardian of the Crucified God, Lord of the Multitude of Heathens.
We Command you to greet the Emperour Leopold (in case he desire it) and you are our Friends, and a Friend to our Majesty, whose Power we will extend very far.) Thus,
You have for some time past acted to our prejudice, and violated our Frendship, although we have not offended you, neither by War, or any otherwise; but you have taken private advice with other Kings, and your Council’s how to take off your Yoke, in which you have acted very Indiscreetly, and thereby have exposed your People to fear and danger, having nothing to expect but Death, which you have brought upon your selves. For I declare unto you, I will make my self your Master, pursue you from East to West, and extend my Majesty to the end of the Earth; in all which you shall find my Power to your great prejudice. I assure you that you shall feel the weight of my Power; and for that you have put your hope and expectation in the strength of some Towns and Castles, I have given command to overthrow them, and to trample under feet with my Horses, all that is acceptable and pleasant in your Eyes, leaving nothing hereafter by which you shall make a friendship with me, or any fortified places to put your trust in: For I have resolved without retarding of time, to ruin both you and your People, to take the 2 German Empire according to my pleasure, and to leave in the Empire a Commemoration of my dreadful Sword, that it may appear to all, it will be a pleasure to me, to give a publick establishment of my Religion, and to pursue your Crucified God, whose Wrath I fear not, nor his coming to your Assistance, to deliver you out of my hands. I will according to my pleasure put your Sacred Priests to the Plough, and expose the Brests of your Matrons to be Suckt by Dogs and other Beasts.
You will therefore do well to forsake your Religion, or else I will give Order to Consume you with Fire. This is enough said unto you, and to give you to understand what I would have, in case you have a mind to know it.
From German History in Documents and Images
Volume 2. From Absolutism to Napoleon, 1648-1815 Ottoman Sultan Mahmud IV’s Declaration of War on Emperor Leopold I, signed at Adrianople [Edirne] (February 20, 1683)
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