Ottoman reform — Tanzimat and the CUP
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Flip to reveal answersWhat does 'Tanzimat' mean, and when did the era run?
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Question
What does 'Tanzimat' mean, and when did the era run?
Answer
Tanzimat means 'reorganization' — the Ottoman reform era from 1839 to 1876, launched by the Edict of Gulhane.
Question
What did the 1839 Edict of Gulhane promise?
Answer
Security of life, honour and property for all subjects regardless of religion; fair taxation; fair conscription — the opening statement of the Tanzimat.
Question
What did the 1856 Edict of Reform (Islahat Fermani) add?
Answer
Full legal equality for non-Muslims (millets) — right to testify in court, hold office, serve in the army — issued partly under pressure from Britain and France after the Crimean War.
Question
Name three political/administrative changes of the Tanzimat.
Answer
New provincial councils (1864 Vilayet Law), secular Nizamiye courts alongside sharia courts, and new secular schools training an official class.
Question
Who was Sultan Abdul Aziz and why does he matter to the Tanzimat?
Answer
Sultan 1861–1876; let reforming ministers (Ali and Fuad Pasha) run policy at first, but turned autocratic and extravagant after their deaths, provoking the crisis that produced the 1876 constitution and his own deposition.
Question
What was the 1876 Kanun-i Esasi?
Answer
The Ottoman Empire's first written constitution, creating an elected parliament and limiting the sultan's power — but suspended by Abdulhamid II within two years.
Question
Who were the Young Ottomans and what did they want?
Answer
1860s-70s intellectuals (e.g. Namik Kemal) who wanted constitutional government blending Islamic and European liberal ideas — direct ancestors of the 1876 constitution.
Question
What was the CUP and when did it emerge?
Answer
Committee of Union and Progress — a secret reformist/nationalist movement (the 'Young Turks'), formed in the 1890s among students and army officers opposed to Abdulhamid II's autocracy; seized power in the 1908 revolution.
Question
What triggered the 1908 Young Turk Revolution?
Answer
CUP-linked army officers in Macedonia (Enver Bey among them) mutinied and marched on Istanbul, forcing Abdulhamid II to restore the 1876 constitution rather than face civil war.
Question
What happened in the 1913 coup d'etat?
Answer
After Balkan War defeats discredited the government, CUP leaders (Enver, Talat, Cemal) stormed the Sublime Porte, killed the war minister, and set up a one-party military dictatorship — the 'Three Pashas' regime.
Question
How did the CUP's approach to minorities change over time?
Answer
It began (1908) promising Ottomanism — equal citizenship for all peoples — but after 1913 shifted to Turkish nationalism, culminating in the 1915 Armenian genocide during WWI.
Question
Compare the Tanzimat and the CUP as reform movements.
Answer
Tanzimat (1839-76): top-down, sultan-led, Ottomanist, legal/administrative. CUP (from 1889): bottom-up, officer/intellectual-led, increasingly nationalist, ended in authoritarian one-party rule.
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Topic 10.4 hub
The Ottoman Empire and the creation of Türkiye (c.1790–1938)
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