Ming Empire Vs Ottoman Empire

Short Paper #2 Many empires have come and gone. They rise to great power and then after they fall we can analyze the reasons for the decline of the empires. Yang Lian and Mehmed Pasha both wrote about the decline of their societies. The Ming Empire and society were impacted by invading forces and dealt with rebellion from within its own country as well and the Ottoman Empire encountered financial issues within itself. All of which were reasons and causes for the empire's declines and falls.
The Ming empire was faced with foreign forces invading a valued trade partner, "in the 1590's the Japanese invaded china's client state, Korea"(YL,129) Trade is essential for the success of an empire. Times only got harder for the people of China after experiencing poor harvests and tax increases. The lower class was the ones being impacted the most. " From the 1580s onward, however, emperors ignored or were distracted from dealing with these new challenges. They paid a price for their indifference: rebellion overwhelmed the government and
brought about the fall of the Ming in 1644"(YL,129) The fall of the Ming empire was due to ignorance from the upper class that was in power and could have been avoided, is what Yang Lian was incorporating in his writing.
"Along with battlefield defeats, fiscal crises, internal turmoil, and palace intrigues, another sign of Ottoman decline in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the appearance of numerous plans for reviving the Empires fortunes."(MP, 206) Mehmed Pasha focuses on the financial issues the Ottoman empires was facing. And through his writing provides details as to what the issue was and how they should have been correctly done. "The business of the treasury is among the most important and essential affairs of the Exalted Government. The man who is chief treasurer needs to know and understand... the Treasury employees who for their own advantage are the cause of ruin and destruction to the government service in obtaining tax farms." (MP,207) Mehmed Pasha believes the issue was within the treasury department and that was the root of many other problems. As a result of the Treasury being poorly managed, according to Mehmed Pasha other programs suffered in consequence. "...it is certain that in their appointed placed each battalion is deficient, some being perhaps half lacking and other even more, nevertheless they let the salaries be sent from here for all. As for the extra money they get, they have agreed to divide it amongst themselves." Through Mehmed Pasha's writing, we can feel the frustration. The decline could have been avoided if it were not for the greed of the people in power.
Yang Lian and Mehmed Pasha saw similar issues going on.
They both wrote about the internal issues within the Empires. The people within an empire make up the empire. The people will only take so much oppression and injustice before they begin to rebel against the power that is ignoring their needs. Both the Ming and Ottoman empires were faced with defending themselves from foreign invasions. The way Yang Lian and Mehmed Pasha wrote about the empires was very different. Yang Lian writes about the decline of the Ming Empire, whereas Mehmed Pasha writes about the symptoms of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Providing information as to why they were declining and how the job should have been done correctly. Similar to one another they see the decline and fall of the empires to be blamed on the flaws of humans. I personally would agree with each of their writings, in that ignorance and greed can cause be causes to bring down powerful
empires.