The Grand Strategy of the Ottoman Empire, 1826-1841
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THE GRAND STRATEGY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1826-1841 THE GRAND STRATEGY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1826-1841 By VEYSEL ŞİMŞEK, B.Sc., MA A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Veysel Şimşek, September 2015 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2015) McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario (History) TITLE: The Grand Strategy of the Ottoman Empire, 1826-1841 AUTHOR: Veysel Şimşek, B.Sc. (Istanbul Technical University), MA (Bilkent University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Virginia H. Aksan NUMBER OF PAGES: ix, 303 Lay Abstract Grounded in archival research in Turkish historical repositories, this thesis examines the Ottoman ruling elite’s efforts to ensure the empire’s integrity and re-establish central authority by military-bureaucratic reform and internal negotiation in the second quarter of the 19th century. Going beyond the standard institutional histories and Eurocentric narratives of the Eastern Question, it explores how the Ottoman sultans and bureaucrats mobilized the empire’s political, military, and ideological resources to achieve their broader goals of reversing collapse and resisting European political-military challenge. ii Abstract This dissertation examines the Ottoman grand strategy during the turbulent years of war and reform between 1826 and 1841.The concept of grand strategy utilized in my thesis does hereby not refer to purely military matters. It is rather a notion that explains how a political authority strives to realize its long-term aims through mobilization of its available instruments and resources. During 1820s-1840s, facing grave internal and external threats, the Ottoman grand strategy was directed at defending its existing possessions and re-establishing the center’s authority throughout the empire. To ensure their aims, Ottoman decision-makers initiated a radical bureaucratic-military reform agenda and mobilized available fiscal, military and ideological resources at their disposal. The majority of the existing scholarship tend to interpret the Ottoman reforms in an overly descriptive or superficial manner, therefore neglecting the Ottoman decision- makers’ perceptions, plans, and broader goals as well as the subsequent effects (and repercussions) of those policies within the empire. The “Eastern Question” literature, which is mainly based on European sources, often ignores the Ottoman agency and obscures the rather complex nature of Ottoman policy-making by assessing it within a facile “modernist-reactionary” bipolarity for the period in question. With my holistic approach and utilization of unused archival material, I will contribute to the existing knowledge about Ottoman policy-making and political-military transformation during the era in question. I argue in my thesis that the imperial center consciously, if frantically, responded to the internal and external challenges by tightening its grip around its subjects and making far-reaching changes in its governmentality. Aided by an expanding and diversifying military-administrative bureaucracy, Ottoman rulers managed to collect more taxes, create and expand a disciplined army, limit the power of provincial notables, standardize governing practices and pragmatically used their newly established European embassies to achieve their foreign goals. The social and economic costs of these policies were also immense, as I clearly underline in my study. Many common subjects and members of the higher classes expressed neither optimism nor pleasure about the top- down reforms and state policies. They were heavily taxed, suffered from rampant inflation, while tens of thousands of men were pressed into the new military formations to serve until they became disabled, deserted or died. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to first thank Dr. Virginia H. Aksan, my Doktormutter in every way, from whom I have learned a lot as a teacher as well as a prominent historian of the Ottoman Empire. I will be forever grateful for her kindness, generosity and guidance during my graduate studies at McMaster. I am also indebted to Dr. Tracy McDonald and Dr. Martin Horn, members of my examining committee, who continuously shared their knowledge in their areas of specialisation and enriched my approach in studying Ottoman history in a global context. Wendy Benedetti and Debby Lobban, administrative secretaries of our department, have always been extremely kind and did not hesitate to go out of their way for me. I am also deeply obliged to Dr. Gwyn Campbell and the Indian Ocean World Center at McGill University, for providing me an excellent research environment and a research position that enabled me to complete my dissertation. I also owe a lot to my past professors from Turkey who patiently re-trained me as an Ottoman historian after studying engineering. I am forever indebted to my academic advisor at Bilkent University, the late Dr. Stanford J. Shaw, who unfortunately could not see the final version of my research that I had commenced under his direction in 2005. I also wish to express my gratitude to my other teachers Dr. Christoph K. Neumann, Dr. Halil İnalcık, Dr. Oktay Özel, Dr. Ali Yaycıoğlu, Dr. Hakan Kırımlı and Prof. Norman Stone who broadened my horizons as a student of Ottoman history in Turkey. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, to whom I dedicate my dissertation. Without their continuous love and support, it would not have been possible for me to write it. iv Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Sources ........................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1: Ottoman Empire, 1500-1830: A Political and Military Chronology ............... 17 1.1 Ottoman-Russian Rivalry, 1700-1792 ...................................................................... 22 1.2 Selim III and Nizam-ı Cedid ..................................................................................... 30 1.3 Greek Revolution (1821-29) and the Ottoman-Russian War of 1828-29 ................ 37 1.4 The First Ottoman-Egyptian War, 1831-33 ............................................................. 45 Chapter 2: Destruction of the Janissary Corps, 1826 ......................................................... 50 2.1 Vampires, Janissaries and the Ottoman State ........................................................... 50 2.2 Mahmud II and the Janissaries, 1808-1821 .............................................................. 56 2.3 The Corps’s Last War: Janissaries in the Greek Revolt (1821–1826) ..................... 70 2.4 The Eşkinci Ocağı Project and the Janissary Response, May 1826 ......................... 77 2.5 The Opposing Forces, June 1826 ............................................................................. 82 2.6 Mahmudian Regime, Politics of Religion and the “Auspicious Event”................... 95 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 99 Chapter 3: Creating the Army of Mahmud II and Tanzimat, 1826-1846 ........................ 101 3.1 Ottoman Quest for the Ideal Soldier and Army, c. 1600-1840 .............................. 101 3.2 Ottoman Military Recruitment, c. 1400-1800 ........................................................ 112 3.3 The Making of Ottoman Conscription: Origins and Implementation, c. 1750-1830 ...................................................................................................................................... 121 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 138 Chapter 4: Ottoman Population Censuses, c. 1820s-1840s ............................................. 140 4.1 Ottoman Fiscal-Cadastral Surveys, 1400-1800 ...................................................... 140 4.2 Knowing and Locating the Regime’s Enemies: Population Censuses in Istanbul, 1821-29 ......................................................................................................................... 142 4.3 Counting the Men: Provincial Censuses, 1830-32 ................................................. 148 4.4 Utilizing the Census Data for Military-Fiscal Policies c. 1830 .............................. 154 4.5 Ottoman population surveys, 1832-1844 - or did the “1844 Census” really happen? ...................................................................................................................................... 164 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 168 Chapter 5: Imperial Power, Ideology and the Ottoman Peoples ...................................... 171 5.1 Expansion of the Regular Army, 1826-1846 ......................................................... 171 5.2 The Selection and Social Background of Ottoman Conscripts .............................. 175 5.3 Voluntarism vs. Compulsion: Why Did the Men Serve (or Not Want to Serve) in the Ottoman Army? ...................................................................................................... 182 5.4 Conscription and the Peoples of the Empire .......................................................... 194 5.5 Recruiting the Non-Muslims into the Ottoman Armed Forces .............................. 204 v 5.6 Islam and the Ottoman Soldiers