Reform Of The Ottoman Empire Mahmud Ii Dynasty

During the late 18th century and the early 19th century, domestic and international environment of Ottoman Empire changed profoundly. As the industrial revolution of Western Europe proceeded, European powers intensified the expansion to Ottoman Empire in the fields of military, foreign affairs, economy and culture. Meanwhile, under the influences of international environment, domestic Muslim and non-Muslim community were experiencing drastic transition, and a series of rebellions, revolts and independence movements exploded. Facing such international pressure and internal crisis, MahmudⅡ, who ascended the throne in 1808, urged reform of military, political, economic, religious and educational fields. To view from the attribution, the reform introduced by MahmudⅡwas exogenous.The severe international and internal situations caused the exogenous modernization to adopt the form of centralized, from-top-to-bottom reform. By embarking on programs of the reform, MahmudⅡbuilt up the centralized military and administrative structure, and weakened power of religious class and the local notable. However, centralized reform obstructed Ottoman Empire's development towards modern society.Comparing the reform urged by MahmudⅡand the one by Muhammad Ali of Egypt, the thesis arrived at the conclusion: The centralized, from-top-to-bottom reform meets the internal requirement of traditional polities'modernization, and the contradiction between centralization and development towards modern society is the inner contradiction of such modernizing process. The modernization of traditional polities required enlightened monarchs to resolve the contradiction on the premise of political stability, which means striking a balance between the centralized, from-top-to-bottom reform and the from-bottom-to-top development towards modern society, thus making the whole state advance gradually in the direction of modernization. Both MahmudⅡand Muhammad Ali successfully urged the reform of modernization, and maintain political stability, but they did not make significant achievements on development towards modern society.