Ottoman Empire Was a Sick Old Man

Ottoman Empire was a sick old man that just collapsed

The Ottoman Empire was perhaps amongst the short-lived glories that history has seen yet. Many scholars believed that the power of the Caliphate ruling over the Empire had started declining from early 1680s; yet, there are also many others who feel that the historical accounts of the Empire show that it was a dynamic and ever-advancing Empire that had an intricate design for political and administrative leadership, which over a period of time brought it decline earlier than necessary (Faroqhi, 2004). In this paper, we will focus on the statement that "the Ottoman Empire was a sick old man that just collapsed" by highlighting some of the strong points as well as weaknesses of the Empire so as to provide support to the statement or negate it.

Perhaps, one of the strengths of the Ottoman Empire was their approach to leadership. They prioritized military strength, geographical expansion, agriculture and conservative property rights to be higher than the advancements of industries and markets (Faroqhi, 2004). While many Western researchers believe this to be a weakness, I believe it was one of their primary strengths because they were able to have administrative control that complemented the territories they had conquered i.e. The areas they had conquered followed similar administrative patterns and the Caliphate in the Ottoman Empire merely strengthened this structure and set right its flaws.

Another major strength of the Ottoman Empire was its economic strength and vitality (Deen, 2007). The major reason for this economic strength was the increase in the importance of the port cities and infrastructure like railroads and harbours. This led to the rise of cities and towns in the region as well as the increase in job opportunities and foreign investment from the neighbours as well as the foreign territories that wanted to use the water ways in the area (Deen, 2007).

One of the reasons for the downfall of the Ottoman Empire was its rigidity towards not adapting out of the agrarian economic structure that they already had. This meant that they still had a weak capital structure and could not capitalize on the industrial advancements that were being initiated all over the world. Even though, the Ottoman Empire never really recorded a deficit in export rates or GDP, the fact was that the global trade was expanding fast and the Ottoman Empire was not expanding with it (Deen, 2007).