The Ottoman Empire and the creation of Türkiye (c.1790–1938)

The 19th-century European debate over what should happen to Ottoman territory as the empire weakened — driven by economic, religious and strategic interests.

It proved a European army could walk into Ottoman territory and win easily, exposing military weakness and creating the power vacuum Muhammad Ali later filled.

After French forces left in 1801, he seized power amid the chaos; the sultan recognised him as governor (wali) of Egypt in 1805 rather than fight him.

He nearly toppled the sultan, until Britain, Russia and Austria intervened in 1840 and forced him back to ruling Egypt alone.

Greek nationalism and resentment of Ottoman taxation and unequal treatment sparked a revolt starting in the Peloponnese.

British, French and Russian navies destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet, tipping the Greek war decisively in favour of independence (won 1830–32).

Economic (trade and markets), religious (claims to protect Christians), and strategic (control of the Bosphorus/Dardanelles straits).

To stop Russia gaining control of the straits and expanding its influence over the weakening Ottoman Empire.

The brutal Ottoman suppression of a Bulgarian uprising, which turned European public opinion against Istanbul and gave Russia a pretext to intervene.

San Stefano (Russia-Ottoman) created a huge pro-Russian Bulgaria reaching the Aegean; Berlin (renegotiated by the Great Powers) shrank Bulgaria, gave Austria-Hungary Bosnia-Herzegovina, and gave Britain Cyprus.

Russia declared war after the brutal Ottoman suppression of the Bulgarian uprising, presenting itself as liberator of Balkan Slavs; fighting included the siege of Plevna.

Algeria in 1830 (direct French invasion/annexation); Tunisia in 1881 (made a French protectorate).

Tanzimat means 'reorganization' — the Ottoman reform era from 1839 to 1876, launched by the Edict of Gulhane.

Security of life, honour and property for all subjects regardless of religion; fair taxation; fair conscription — the opening statement of the Tanzimat.

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.

New provincial councils (1864 Vilayet Law), secular Nizamiye courts alongside sharia courts, and new secular schools training an official class.

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.

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.

1860s-70s intellectuals (e.g. Namik Kemal) who wanted constitutional government blending Islamic and European liberal ideas — direct ancestors of the 1876 constitution.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Libya (Tripolitania and Cyrenaica), lost to Italy under the Treaty of Ouchy (1912).

Almost all remaining Ottoman territory in Europe was lost to Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro.

Sharif Hussein of Mecca led it, supported and armed by Britain (including figures like T. E. Lawrence).

One view sees genuine Arab nationalism; another stresses Britain's promises (Hussein-McMahon) were undercut by the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement — both nationalism and imperial manipulation were at work.

The harsh post-WWI peace that carved up Anatolia among Greece, Italy, France and Allied-controlled Istanbul — it triggered Turkish nationalist resistance.

He landed at Samsun in May 1919, officially to oversee demobilization, but instead organized nationalist resistance, formalized at the Erzurum and Sivas congresses.

The Battle of Dumlupınar (1922), where Kemal's forces routed the Greek army and drove it out of Anatolia.

The sultanate was abolished in 1922; the Republic of Türkiye was declared on 29 October 1923 with Mustafa Kemal as first president.

Recognition of an independent Turkish state within roughly its modern borders, ending foreign capitulations and involving a Greek-Turkish population exchange.

Secular civil law replacing sharia courts (1926), the Latin alphabet replacing Arabic script (1928), and abolition of the caliphate (1924).

State-led economic planning, with the state building railways, factories and banks because private capital was scarce.

The Sheikh Said Rebellion (1925, crushed by force) and the Free Republican Party (1930, dissolved by its own founder after gaining unexpected support).