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An Ottoman Global Moment

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An Ottoman Global Moment AN OTTOMAN GLOBAL MOMENT: WAR OF SECOND COALITION IN THE LEVANT A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In History By Kahraman Sakul, M.A Washington, DC November, 18, 2009 Copyright 2009 by Kahraman Sakul All Rights Reserved ii AN OTTOMAN GLOBAL MOMENT: WAR OF SECOND COALITION IN THE LEVANT Kahraman Sakul, M.A. Dissertation Advisor: Gabor Agoston, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This dissertation aims to place the Ottoman Empire within its proper context in the Napoleonic Age and calls for a recognition of the crucial role of the Sublime Porte in the War of Second Coalition (1798-1802). The Ottoman-Russian joint naval expedition (1798-1800) to the Ionian Islands under the French occupation provides the framework for an examination of the Ottoman willingness to join the European system of alliance in the Napoleonic age which brought the victory against France in the Levant in the War of Second Coalition (1798-1802). Collections of the Ottoman Archives and Topkapı Palace Archives in Istanbul as well as various chronicles and treatises in Turkish supply most of the primary sources for this dissertation. Appendices, charts and maps are provided to make the findings on the expedition, finance and logistics more readable. The body of the dissertation is divided into nine chapters discussing in order the global setting and domestic situation prior to the forming of the second coalition, the Adriatic expedition, its financial and logistical aspects with the ensuing socio-economic problems in the Morea, the Sublime Porte’s relations with its protectorate – The Republic of Seven United Islands, and finally the post-war diplomacy. iii This study demonstrates through the examination of the negotiations that led to the alliance with Russia and Britain (1799) –the Triple Alliance-, Ottoman-Russian Convention (1800), and the Treaty of Paris (1802) that the Ottomans were well-informed on European affairs and flexible as well as realistic enough to form an alliance with the traditional enemy Russia against the traditional friend France. This study also offers a unique opportunity to observe the way in which the Ottomans could wage war on the cheap and still mobilize its resources effectively owing to the reforms of Selim III and local notables –petty as well as great ayans such as Tepedelenli Ali of Yanya- in a time when the friend and the foe believed that the Sublime Porte was on the brink of collapse. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could not be done without the moral support and encouragement offered in abundance by my advisor Associate Professor Gábor Ágoston, and committee members Professor Virginia H. Aksan and Associate Professor Catherine Evtuhov. This study grew out of a paper I prepared for the graduate course on Imperial Russia offered by Professor Evtuhov in Fall 2003. I owe her deep gratitude for introducing me to the world of Imperial Russia and invaluable comments which eventually made me think about expanding my paper into a proper dissertation topic. “I wish to express my appreciation to Associate Professor Virgina H. Aksan who sent to me her various essays written on the topic, furnishing me with insight” reads the ‘Acknowledgements’ of my master thesis submitted in 2001. Present study shows that my gratitude grew even more over the eight years in between and I could not be happier for being in a constant state of indebtedness in such a way. She has suggested the present title of this dissertation which encapsulates the gist of my arguments: an Ottoman Global Moment. I could never imagine the outcome of our brief introductory interview with Professor Ágoston in front of the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul on a shiny day of the summer of 2001. Many doctoral students around me have envied me for the path he opened and led me through over the years: “lucky you” was usually the closing remarks uttered by my friends in any conversation over the way in which Professor Ágoston carried out his responsibilities as an advisor with an unfailing dedication and congeniality. My friends are absolutely right that I have been luckier than many doctoral v students in terms of the stimulating and warm treatment I received from my advisor and committee members. I owe a special debt to Georgetown community for the intellectual environment it offered to me. Department of History granted me non-service research fellowship for two subsequent years from Fall 2005 to Spring 2007 without which I could not undertake the painstakingly long research in the archives. The nine-month junior residential fellowship (September 15, 2008-June 15, 2009) offered in the final phase of my dissertation project by the Research Center For Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC) functioning under Koç University proved fruitful in many ways. Nine months of intense discussions with Byzantinists, Classicists, art historians as well as Ottomanists augmented my belief in comparative approach to history inspired by my advisor and the committee members. I would like to thank all 2008-2009 RCAC fellows and the RCAC staff whom proved to be great friends and colleagues. My special thanks go to the ‘Ottomanist group’ within the RCAC for tolerating my often sarcastic and spiteful remarks in our discussions without ever forcing me to give a presentation and run the gauntlet: Alyson Wharton, Amanda Philips, Fulya Ozkan, Leyla Kayhan Elbirlik, Seven Ağır, Tsameret Levy. I am grateful to the staff of the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (İstanbul), Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Arşivi (İstanbul), the British National Archives (London, Kew), the RCAC library, Aptullah Kuran Library (Boğaziçi Üniversitesi), ISAM library (İstanbul) and the Lauinger Library (Georgetown University) for their kind help in providing me with books and journals. Turkuaz Sahaf and Antiquariat, established by Püzant Akbaş and Emin Nedret İşli, has proved to be of tremendous importance for the Turkish intellectual vi community. The support of its owners and the staff –academic and otherwise- fed into this dissertation in many ways. I am indebted to Professor Evangelia Balta who read through Chapter 5 and supplied me with insightful comments as well as many studies. Our discussions with Professor Rossitsa Gradeva and Professor Dror Ze’evi prompted me to elaborate some of my arguments. Professor Selim Deringil, Professor Scott Redford, and Assistant Professor Meltem Toksöz have always provided moral support. Ali Yaycıoğlu, Başak Tuğ, Tolga Esmer and Associate Professor M. Aladdin Yalçınkaya have kindly sent me their dissertations. Mr. Gerasimos M. Vlachos provided generous feedback on the Ionian affairs. Eduard Sozaev –a publishing expert of Russian navy- has translated parts from Mordvinov which improved my arguments in Chapter 5 considerably. Ahmet Arslantürk and Emir Yener have supplied me with various studies during my research. Emrah Gürkan drew my attention to early examples of provisioning of foreign navies by the Ottomans. Asistant Professor Cengiz Kırlı and Metin Bezikoğlu have shared with me the transcriptions of two important documents. I am also indebted to my friends from İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi for their technical assistance in the preparation of the maps in this study: İsmail Erdem Ufuk and Onur Karahan. I should also express my deep gratitude for “the historians’ gang:” Günhan Börekçi, Fatih Yeşil, Assistant Professor Gültekin Yıldız, and Veysel Şimşek have always been patient enough to listen to my far-fetched ideas about their studies as well as those of mine. Rarely do the students working on the same topic engage in a sincere friendship and cooperation. Fatih proved to be an exception. vii All appreciation should go to those mentioned above without which this thesis would have remained incomplete. Needless to say, all errors and shortcomings in this dissertation are my own. Thanks are due to my all friends fortunately too numerous to cite here one by one for their support; Emel and Erkut Özbay proved to be exceptional hosts during my one-month stay in the DC for the oral defence of my dissertation. I must express my deepest gratitude and appreciation for my family. My mother Gülçin Şakul and my brother Kaan Şakul provided the familial love and affection which is all a doctoral student can ask for in the last phase of his studies. viii TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER UĞUR ŞAKUL ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………1 A description of the study: approaches, sources, and methods ………………………...1 A New Order in Search of Obedient Subjects and International Legitimacy …………….9 The general setting ……………………………………………………………………...9 The intellectual background …………………………………………………………..16 The imagined Ottoman absolutism …………………………………………………....23 Russian absolutism as viewed by the Ottomans ………………………………………30 Chapter 2 Ottoman Diplomacy and the System of Alliances ………………………………………49 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………49 Ottomans and the Revolutionary Wars ………………………………………………….53 Ottoman neutrality ……………………………………………………………………53 Ottoman-French alliance ……………………………………………………………...55 Opening of the Adriatic frontier: the demise of Venice ………………………………...59 Renewed French proposals for alliance ……………………………………………….62 The French invasion of the Ionians Islands …………………………………………...65 Ali Paşa and the French in Corfu ………………………………………………..69 The Morea and the French threat ………………………………………………..71 The Egyptian expedition ………………………………………………………………74 Ottoman-Russian Alliance
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