Ottomanism As The Policy Of The State In The Tanzimat Reform Era

Abstract

French Revolution which Europe also affected the Ottoman Empire. Growing nationalism, culture and nation-state concept in the West had so much influence on non-Muslim communities of the Ottoman Empire living in Rumelia. The Ottoman Empire that had so many political, administrative and military problems faced a new problem. The Ottoman Empire did not have an alternative planned and programmed way of solution for the the idea of growing nationalism. Hovewer, a new concept emerged as the series of measures which were introduced during the reign of II. Mahmud continued also in the Tanzimat Reform Era. In short, with this thought called Ottomanism, it was aimed to unificate non-Muslims under the umbrella of the Ottoman Empire. It was possible to see traces of the idea of Ottomanism in Tanzimat Firman, Islahat Firman, Citizenship Law 1868 and the first constitution the Kanun-i Esasi. The idea of the State for holding non-Muslims together and the Ottomanism policy was not accepted by non-Muslims and the policy was resulted as a failure.