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THE TANZIMAT REFORMS

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The Tanzimat Reforms took place in the Ottoman Empire for a time period of 40 years; between 1830 and 1870. They were specifically Educational, Political and Economical Reforms and were undertaken with the intent to halt the decline of the Ottoman Empire through western modernization. These Reforms focused greatly on the education sector of the Ottoman Empire. Through these, the domination of the Islamic Clerics in Ottoman Education was reduced by a considerable amount. The Sulan constructed schools and universities based on western designs; they believed that the people would develop necessary skills to excel in the modern society. The Political Reforms were implemented to grant Non-Muslims of the Empire equal rights with the Muslims. The power of the Sultans was restricted and was evenly divided among the populations. Although many extremist Islamic religious leaders were against this, the Ottoman government stood firm and ensured that these Reforms succeeded. The Economics and Financial Reforms attempted to liberalize the Ottoman Economy in order to generate enough capital to compete with the Europeans. New banks were made, a new tax system was introduced, the Sultan decided to lift trade barriers and abandoned protectionism.




THE IMPACT OF THE TANZIMAT REFORMS ON THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE



The Tanzimat Reforms bought about tremendous political, educational and economic changes but the impact was not as great as the Ottoman Empire hoped. The impact was primarily upon the educational, economic, political and military sector. The standardization of taxes made sure that the taxes weren’t being misused. Their educational sector was non-secular prior to the reforms but gained secularity through the reforms which paved way for western or European influences into their educational system. The purpose of this was o ensure that the coming generation had the modern skillset to run the society and compete with the modern revolutionizing world. The influence of the Islamic Clerics on the educational system was decreased. Moreover, the discrimination against the non-Muslims came to a halt as the introduced reforms fulfilled the promises of equality by imposing the principles of equality which were previously not followed. In return, the ruler asked for was loyalty. However, the Sultan still had absolute authority over the Ottomans so although the rights of every citizen were guaranteed but they were still technically at the Sultan’s mercy. Another major impact was that The regulation of the codes of law by the state courts instead of the priests (who previously had virtual control) was a clear indication of the transformation into a contemporary state from the previous theocratic state. Another one of the major changes could be considered the economic change due to the end of religious direction of the economy. This ultimately led to a more economically thriving society. The main reason for this was the increase in trading relations between the Ottomans and Europeans. As the main aim of the Tanzimat Reforms was to somehow modernize the Ottoman Empire therefore the increase in trade led to the import of modern technology and thus, led to the modernization of economy. Because of the introduction of land codes in these reforms, non-Muslims, including Jews were able to purchase land. With this right, Jews bought land in the region of Palestine (modern day Israel and Palestine) and Jews migrated to this area as it was closer to the Holy Land. In effect, the Tanzimat Reforms were partly responsible for the creation of Israel. The people of Lebanon had mixed views about Tanzimat, leading to ethno-religious uprisings. Europeans and Ottomans contested winning the loyalty of the local inhabitants as the English and French claimed to protect the rights of Minorities. From the Muslim population's view, the Tanzimat's change regarding giving non-Muslims equal status, brought huge backlash and violent demonstrations and contributed to the Armenian Genocide. However, to implement these reforms a hefty budget was required so the Ottomans started taking loans that they could not payback and ended up being indepted by 31million pounds.



WERE THEY SUCCESSFUL?

These reforms did introduce many western ideas and concepts to the Ottoman empire, which at the time were thought to be the equivalent of progress. However, towards the end of the Crimean War, these reforms gave more economic and political power to middle class Christians and undermined Muslims. Many Muslims just saw these reforms as outside influence on the world of Islam as Europe was considered to them as the land of the infidels. The Tanzimat Reforms were unable to preserve the Ottoman Empire, which was the core reason for these reforms. The Empire was unable to reform itself and become a modern entity without losing its Islamic traditions. Following the West’s idea of modernism was difficult as it meant losing their traditional ideology. Modernism wasn’t difficult to be introduced in Europe as already secularism was on the rise due to religious wars which ended up taking lives of thousands of people. Religion had always been a dominating role in politics for the Ottoman Empire. Wars in the West were caused by religion, but the Empire had different perspectives on faith and religion. These reforms contradicted the beliefs of the Islamic scholars and were not well adopted hence failed to save the empire. The reforms were considered to be against Sharia and were never accepted by religious segments. Interestingly, the reforms intended to strengthen the Empire played a part in its demise; at-least in the case of Balkans, nationalism was sparked and the reforms of the Tanzimat provided the perfect circumstances for secession as one by one the Balkan states gained independence. They introduced advanced Western concepts and institutions which although conflicted with the values and traditions, modernized the Empire. While some Turks benefitted from the reforms, the impact was very shallow. These are the reasons as to why I believe the reforms were unable to be effective.




BIBLIOGRAPHY


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