The Decline Of the Ottoman Empire

Thesis Statement: The decline of the Ottoman Empire was caused due to several economic setbacks, and changes in society. Some examples might include government and administration, military strength, and economic power. These were only some of the key figures in the decline of this empire.

Essay: The Ottoman Empire was one of the biggest empires in history. However, the empire started to decline slowly until it disappeared due to economic and society changes. This essay will compare the change in the Ottoman Empire between the golden age, and the decline period in government and administration, military strength, and economic power. I will also tell you in my own opinion what I think the worst decline in the Ottoman Empire was between government and administration, military strength, and economic power. In the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, they controlled parts of Europe combined with Asia. The empire was very powerful in it’s strong government and administration. The Ottoman gold age was during the life of the sultan “Suleyman the Magnificent”. He encouraged expansion of the empire and seized control and began taxes in the trade routes between Europe and Asia, He made use of the resources in the empire making it very independent. The golden age also saw a rise in knowledge, technology, and pushes for innovation. The disappearance of knowledge and power soon encouraged people to flee to other countries. The government soon became very weak as people started to be very unconnected from the government. This made it obvious that the empire was not able to control it’s law. The military force of the Ottoman Empire during the gold age, was one of the strongest in the world. The military was feared. They were very powerful by other countries due to the fact that they invaded strong and powerful countries. The sultan encouraged military expansion during this time paying them high salaries, in return for loyalty. The sultan also formed a special army made from very strong men that were trained and paid heavily, these men were called janissaries. When the government started to decline, it made the military focus on other things rather than training, which made it very weak. Because of this, the weapon innovation and technology fell which then caused the military to fall to one of the weakest forces in the world. The economic power of the Ottoman empire reached it’s peak during the golden age. The power of the country was very noticeable that the country was almost independent to it’s resources. Istanbul and other big cities were very important to trade. The trade mostly involved luxury goods, and traders that came from different areas to trade in goods from all over the world. However in the west, people started to make agreements with other countries which made them weak and not the middlemen in trade anymore. This resulted in a very weak economy and dependency to the west as products in the ottoman empire was bought from the west and national products were not being sold anymore. The country’s economical status disappeared causing it to fail due to increased external trade and influence. In my opinion, the worst decline in the Ottoman empire, would have to be the governmental and administrative control. Reformers tried to change the government but their tries failed due to the fact that the government did not support change and innovation anymore, they only focused on the people and art, not the government or military power. The government fell to a point that it did not even control it’s own territory anymore and some countries even separated from them. This just shows and describes how the government fell due to many economic setbacks and changes in society.