"Ottoman Military Organization (1800–1918)" In
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1 Ottoman military either a catastrophic defeat on the battlefield or an invasion of their country. However, organization (1800–1918) even before their military defeats at the end GU¨ LTEKIN YILDIZ of the eighteenth century the Ottoman polit- ical elite did not hesitate to make military The long nineteenth century was an age of technology transfers from Europe or to reorganization for the Ottoman military. employ non-Muslim experts in arms Many European and American observers production. at the time glorified this process as a reform On the other hand, the motivations that signified the “westernization” of the behind the late Ottoman military reorgani- military. This attitude was reproduced in zation and state-building efforts were not the twentieth century by scholars of Middle triggered by foreign affairs alone. Recent Eastern and Ottoman history in the context studies on Ottoman economic history have of “modernization.” In a rather Orientalist shown that increasing privatization and approach, they constructed a linear, pro- monetization in the Ottoman land-based gressive story about the so called moderni- economy from the mid-seventeenth cen- zation of Turkey, which seemed designed tury on strengthened local elites as tax to justify the emergence of a secularist collectors and suppliers of military man- and westernist regime in post-Ottoman power on behalf of central government. As Turkey founded and monitored by a consequence of this the Ottoman politi- praetorian generals. According to this ver- cal system became rather decentralized sion, lateOttoman history from the middle and contractual. Local magnates and gov- of the eighteenth century to the first ernors in various parts of the empire, but quarter of the twentieth had represented especially in Egypt, the Balkans, Anatolia, a confrontation between the so-called and Iraq, proved to be an additional reformist/progressive statesmen in favor of force in Ottoman high politics, alongside westernization and their conservative/tradi- the palace, the bureaucracy of the Sublime tionalist opponents. It was argued that as a Porte, the religious bureaucracy, and the consequence of successive defeats against Janissaries. For the central government non-Muslim/European forces the “progres- in Istanbul, the hidden agenda behind sive party” in the Ottoman bureaucracy had the military reforms of the nineteenth finally discovered Europe and came to century was the restoration of its monop- believe that the state could be saved only oly of coercion – which was expected to if the Ottoman military was reorganized ensure its monopoly of political and fiscal in the fashion of its non-Muslim power. adversaries. In fact, the dynamics of late Ottoman military reform were not much different THE OTTOMAN SEARCH FOR than its contemporary rivals in continental “NEW ORDER” IN THE AGE Europe. Looking at the history of modern OF NAPOLEONIC WARS European warfare, one can easily conclude that the defeated often tend to imitate the The first modern attempt to form the victorious, in the hope of taking revenge. nucleus of a new regular and standing central Each of the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian army instead of the existing organization of military reforms in the mid-eighteenth and Janissaries, which had constituted the main early nineteenth centuries had followed body of the Ottoman infantry since the The Encyclopedia of War, First Edition. Edited by Gordon Martel. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2 fifteenth century, was made by Sultan Selim other ranks. Though this was not large, the III in 1792. Following defeat by an Austro- taxes levied to finance it caused remarkable Russian coalition, he asked his top bureau- disquiet among local magnates, peasants, crats for proposals regarding the reorganiza- and urbanites throughout the empire. The tion of the army. Almost all of them were of New Order was crushed only fifteen years the opinion that new “state soldiers” should after its creation in May 1807 by a popular be recruited and trained in accordance with uprising led by Janissaries during the contemporary European techniques of “drill Russo-Ottoman War of 1806–1808. A few and discipline.” Existing Janissaries, merce- months later, the Ottoman capital was the naries, and forced volunteers, they argued, stage of a second violent confrontation had not proven to be obedient and skilled between the troops of Alemdar Mustafa soldiers. Pasha on the one side and Janissaries on the The new regiments formed with the sul- other. Mustafa Pasha, an ambitious local tan’s approval were called the New Order governor from the Balkan town of Ruschuk (Nizam-i Cedid). To avoid the resistance of (located in today’s Bulgaria), invaded Istan- opponents (including the Janissaries), they bul to support the dethroned Sultan were presented to the public as a branch Selim III. He was appointed grand vizier of the existing army. However, with their and, although he was not able to prevent two barracks built outside of Istanbul city the execution of Sultan Selim III, Alemdar center, and their French-style uniforms, tried to revitalize the military reforms and drill, and training techniques, they clearly enlisted his own mercenaries as “state sol- indicated the intention of restructuring diers” to form the nucleus of a new central the military. imperial army. Thereafter he summoned With close relations to the new republican some of the leading magnates from different regime in France, the Ottoman government regions of the empire to come to a compro- did not hesitate to ask the French ambassa- mise concerning the future of the state. dor in Istanbul for an official military mis- Accepting a constitution-like document sion – consisting of officers, technicians, and called “The Treaty of Union” (Sened-i drill sergeants – to train the new recruits ˙Ittifak) in September 1808, these members and to improve the armaments industry. of a burgeoning local bourgeoisie hoped Soon after the arrival of the French mission, to legitimize their existing power and however, the Egyptian expedition of wealth in return for assisting the Ottoman Napoleon in 1798 interrupted Franco- army when requested to do so. However, the Ottoman diplomatic and military relations. traditional Ottoman leadership in Istanbul Ironically, one of the regiments of the New did not tolerate these newcomers and orga- Order troops trained by French officers suc- nized a plot against them. Istanbul once cessfully resisted the invading Napoleonic again became the center of a civil war, with forces. Joining the anti-Napoleon coalition the rebels successfully postponing the “new of European states, the Ottoman govern- order” reforms for the next twenty years. ment replaced the French military mission with British and German officers and tech- nicians who succeeded in improving train- DESTRUCTION OF THE JANISSARIES: ing, arms manufacturing, and rebuilding of COUP D’E´TAT OR MILITARY REFORM? fortifications. The nucleus of the new army consisted of The Greek Rebellion in Wallachia and the approximately ten thousand officers and Morean Peninsula (1821–1826) was a 3 turning point in Ottoman history. After five However, only three weeks later, on June years of counterinsurgency operations, the 14, the last Janissary mutiny in Ottoman Ottoman central government was able history broke out. This movement was led to quiet the uprising, but not without the by middle- and low-grade officers who were military support of its semi-independent supported by civilian Janissaries such as governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha. porters, coffeehouse owners, and manual The rebellion demonstrated that the laborers. However, the palace and the Janissaries, coerced volunteers, and merce- Sublime Porte were better prepared than naries were nothing more than an unco- their predecessors had been for a violent ordinated and disorganized association of clash in the center of the Ottoman capital. fighters compared to the recently established Cannons fired upon the Janissary barracks, regular army and navy of Muhammad Ali while other military forces, joined by stu- Pasha. The latter had inherited the unfin- dents of religious schools and Muslim inhab- ished project of the late Sultan Selim III itants of Istanbul, marched against the rebels. and he attempted to form a standing army The government forces put down the mutiny consisting mainly of conscripted native on the same day it began. Approximately two Egyptian Arab peasants trained by French thousand rebels were executed in Istanbul officers and led by Turkish, Albanian, and and many more were banished either to Circassian commanders. Sultan Mahmud II, frontier fortresses in the Balkans or to pursuing a policy of eliminating the local their home provinces. Two days later, holders of power in Anatolia and the Balkans on June 17, it was officially announced that to restore the sultan’s authority in these ter- the Janissary Corps was abolished through- ritories, did not keep his promise to grant out the empire. more land and tax revenue to Muhammad With the exception of some provinces Ali in return for his support against the (including Bosnia) where Janissaries were Greek rebels. Instead, the sultan initiated able to resist for several months because of a military reorganization project to enable their close commercial and social bonds him to confront his main domestic rival. with local officials and powerholders, the After the news from Morea that the rebels abolition of this four-centuries-old institu- had finally been defeated on April 23, 1826, tion was realized more easily than expected. discussions about forming a new military Although the estimated number of Janissar- force were restarted in Istanbul following ies at the time was seventy thousand, only eighteen years of silence. thirty thousand of them were combat sol- Only one month later, at the end of May diers; the rest were officials and civilians 1826, the newly established musketeer infan- who received the pay that originally had try companies appeared on the training gone to combat soldiers, but which had ground.