690 Ch. 18 • The Dominant Powers in the Age of Liberalismimperial administration. Sultan Mahmud 11 (ruled 1808-1839) had reor
ganized the treasury and ordered a census of the empire in 1831. Mahmud
IPs successors decreed further reforms during the period known as
Tanzimat—the “Reorganization”—that lasted from 1839 to 1878. By the
Rose Chamber (Gulhane) Decree of 1839, the sultan guaranteed the life
and property of all Ottoman subjects and their equality before law, while
initiating military conscription and a more organized system of taxation.
Other changes followed: the establishment of penal and commercial
codes, the reform of justice, and the implementation of more central gov
ernment control over regions, reducing the autonomous power of the gov
ernors through the creation of a more modern bureaucracy. Such reforms
pleased the governments of Britain and France, in part because Ottoman
markets were now more open to foreign trade, but also because these gov
ernments viewed the stability of the Ottoman Empire as necessary to tem
pering Russian dreams of further expansion toward Constantinople and
the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.
A century earlier, perhaps as much as 80 percent of the population of the
Ottoman Empire in Europe had been Christian. Each religion had the right
to worship freely, and non-Muslims had access to Islamic courts. Christians
and Muslims got along for the most part very well. The structure of the
empire had for centuries encouraged the conversion of Christians to Islam,
because Christians were considered second-class subjects and faced a heav
ier tax burden then did Muslims. Intermarriage was fairly frequent. In the
late eighteenth century, the sultans had begun to tighten their control over
the various religions in the empire. Each religious community—Greek
Orthodox, Jewish, and Armenian—was organized into what became known
as the “millet” system. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the sultan
brought the hierarchy of Muslim religious and cultural leaders (the ulema)
under administrative control. In addition, stories of persecution of Muslim
minorities in Russia and suspicion of the Western powers toward Islam con
tributed to the gradual emergence of Islamism in the Ottoman Empire. Reli
gious leaders began calling for a return to the fundamental values of Islam.
At the same time, however, Turkish economic development brought the
emergence of a group of prosperous merchants who turned away from and
even rejected the organization of communities along religious lines. Officials
(memurs) replaced the old Ottoman ruling class, which had originally been
drawn from the servants of the sultan’s household, who had held positions in
the imperial administration and army. The Ottoman ministries of the inte
rior, finance, and foreign affairs, among others, reflected Western influence.
Yet the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire seemed probable. Egypt
appeared on the verge of achieving independence. Russia stood poised like a
vulture to profit from its once-powerful rival’s weakness, a situation that
came to be called the “Eastern Question.” Russia presented itself as the pro
tector of Slavic and Orthodox Christian interests in the Balkans, encourag
ing agitation against the Turks. Christian minorities within the Ottoman