Why did Ottomanism fail?

The idea of national identity was a relatively new one in the Ottoman Empire, and was an import from Europe. With students being sent abroad, especially to Paris, for study, Ottoman embassies being set up in many European capitals and the opening of the Translation Bureau in 1833, more and more European ideas were filtering into the Ottoman Empire. The idea of nationalism was developed in France after the revolution there in . However, whilst the Ottoman bureaucrats used these European ideas to come up with Ottomanism and a common citizenship for the whole empire, the Christians in the European provinces were also beginning to adopt the idea of nationalism, but in a more local context. They began to push for independence. The idea of breaking away from the Ottoman Empire was also popular because it was seen as a way to mitigate the influence of probably foreign hegenomy over the area. Aided by the European powers, which had always had influence in the Ottoman Empire representing the Christian minority communities, they began to develop ideas of national identity. They saw themselves as Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs or Albanians, and not as Ottomans. They did not feel any loyalty towards the Sultan or the empire. During the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire lost nearly all of its European territories, which either claimed independence or were annexed by other European countries, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia. By 1912, Ottoman Europe consisted of only 170,000 square kilometres and a population of 1.9 million people. The loss of most of Ottoman Europe proves that neither the Balkan provinces of the empire nor the European Powers respected the territorial integrity of the Ottoman state, and that minority groups within the empire preferred national affiliations to Ottoman citizenship, thus undermining Ottomanism.

The constitutional government demanded by the Young Ottomans was set up in 1877. In many ways it represented Ottomanism, a forum in which the Ottoman ideal found expression, with representatives from all religious and ethnic groups of the empire coming together to discuss issues such as the appropriate official language of the empire and provincial reorganisation. To a large extent, the politicians involved did not push for the specific interests of their nation, being concerned rather with their immediate constituencies or the empire as a whole. Blocs not tied to religious or ethnic groupings emerged. This can be seen, for example, amongst the Arab politicians who had no clear common interests or sense of Arab unity. This Ottomanist government was short lived, however, as Abdul Hamid suspended the constitution and dissolved the government in 1878, after only two years. This was obviously a severe blow to Ottomanism.

This contradiction became a particular problem for t

Some topics in this essay:
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