Abdülhamit II

1842 - 1918

Ottoman sultan, 1876 - 1909.

Abdülhamit II assumed the Ottoman throne in perilous times. The two previous sultans, Abdülaziz and Murat V, had been deposed - the former primarily for financial incompetence, the latter for mental incompetence. The Ottoman Empire was at war with Serbia and Montenegro, and war with Russia threatened.

International Affairs

In international affairs, the main disaster of Abdülhamit's reign came at its beginning - the Russo - Turkish War of 1877 - 1878. In addition to the loss of more than 250,000 dead and the influx of more than 500,000 refugees into the empire, the war resulted in the largest loss of Ottoman territory since 1699. Under the terms of the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, the Ottomans lost the Kars-Ardahan region of northeastern Anatolia to the Russians, Serbia's and Montenegro's borders were extended at Ottoman expense, Romania and Serbia became independent, northern Bulgaria was made an independent kingdom, southern Bulgaria (Eastern Rumelia) became autonomous, and Austria's occupation of BosniaHerzegovina was sanctioned.

Losses of territory and administrative control over his empire might have been greater had Abdülhamit and his ministers not acted resolutely. Ceding Cyprus to Britain ensured that the British supported the Ottomans at the Congress of Berlin. The congress overturned the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, under which almost all of Ottoman Europe was to have been lost. Instead, the Ottomans retained Thrace, Macedonia, and Albania.

The only other war fought by Abdülhamit's army, in 1897 with Greece, was a success, although the European powers forced the Ottomans to renounce their territorial gains. The powers also obliged the Ottomans to make Crete autonomous under a high commissioner, Prince George of Greece, in effect putting the island under Greek control.

Abdülhamit accepted losses that were blows to Ottoman prestige while retaining the empire's core territory. France seized Tunisia in 1881; Britain, Egypt in 1882. Although neither territory had been under Ottoman control, the losses indicated the empire's weakness to both the Europeans and the Ottomans. In 1886 that weakness forced the Ottomans to accept the de facto unification of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. The European powers also compelled administrative changes in Macedonia and eastern Anatolia.

In eastern Anatolia, the powers did not bring about significant changes, despite strong sentiment in the West in favor of Armenian independence. From 1894 to 1896, Armenians in eastern Anatolia rebelled, killing Muslims and Ottoman officials. Ottoman troops and local Muslims responded in kind. Diplomatic conflict, however, among Britain, France, and Russia, forestalled any European intervention, and Ottoman offers of administrative changes were accepted by the powers.

Domestic Affairs

Like the Tanzimat reformers, Abdülhamit was concerned with the centralization of authority, the regularization of the state system, and the development of the economy. He blended these goals with the traditional ideal of Ottoman rule - an Islamic state in which all power emanated from the sultan. Although at first he accepted limited democracy, a constitution (1876), and a parliament (1877), he prorogued the Parliament within a year and ruled
personally. His concept of reform was improvement of finances, infrastructure, administration, and education, not a transition to democracy.

Abdülhamit was more financially adept than his predecessors. Upon taking power, he inherited the debts that had led the empire into bankruptcy under Abdülaziz. He persuaded the European bankers to accept partial payment, so nearly half of the Ottoman debt was forgiven (the Decree of Muharram, 1881). The price, however, was the loss of financial independence. Valuable sources of state revenue (taxes on silk, fishing, alcoholic spirits, official stamps needed for all legal documents, and tobacco, as well as the tribute from Eastern Rumelia, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, and Montenegro) were ceded to the European-controlled Public Debt Administration. In effect, Europeans became tax collectors in the Ottoman Empire. The empire was left with too few financial resources, and as a result, borrowing resumed.

Economic development of the empire was a first priority of Abdülhamit's rule. Improved roads increased almost sixfold. Many government-sponsored enterprises thrived - such as mining and agricultural exports. Local industry developed as well, although European manufactures and the Ottomans' inability to levy protective tariffs slowed growth considerably. The telegraph and railroad systems experienced major growth. Fewer than 186 miles (300 km) of railroad track had been laid in Ottoman Asia before Abdülaziz's reign, and trackage grew threefold under Abdülhamit. By the end of Abdülhamit's reign, feeder lines ran to major ports, and trunk lines (the Baghdad Railway and the Hijaz Railroad) were under construction. The length of telegraph line nearly tripled. In education, the number of teachers and schools approximately doubled. The increase, however, was mainly in provincial capitals and, especially, Constantinople (now Istanbul).

Abdülhamit was vilified in the European and American press as the Red Sultan, an image primarily based on press accounts of events in eastern Anatolia, Crete, and Macedonia. He also was known as no friend of liberal democracy, an accurate assertion. In his concern for his personal rule and the continuation of a powerful sultanate, he took action against all manifestations of democratic reform. All publications were censored. His secret police spied on bureaucrats and intellectuals, on the lookout for revolution as well as malfeasance.

Abdülhamit was extremely concerned with his position (historically inaccurate) as caliph of the Muslims. Expenditures from his privy purse included donations to Islamic groups in Asia and Africa, as well as to Islamic revolutionaries against Christian rule. His view of the Ottoman Empire was traditional - a Muslim empire, not a Turkish state. This naturally put him at odds with the Turkish nationalism that developed during his reign.

A combination of economic pressures, foreign interference in the empire, and his own autocracy led to the demise of Abdülhamit's sultanate. In 1907, Bulgarian and Greek revolutionaries in Ottoman Macedonia were fighting guerrilla wars against Ottoman troops and each other. Russia and Austria had forced the sultan to accept European "controllers" over Macedonia. Officers of the Ottoman army in Macedonia felt, with justification, that Abdülhamit had placated the Europeans instead of punishing the guerrillas who were killing Muslim civilians, and that fear of the army had caused the sultan to keep needed support and supplies from them. Abdülhamit's fears were largely justified; army officers had been organized into revolutionary cells since their days at the military academy. They had opened communication with revolutionary groups in western Europe, and some had organized their own rebel bands. A poor harvest in 1907 reduced tax revenues, and salaries were in arrears, causing further disaffection.

Abdülhamit, however, defused the threat of revolution in 1908 by reinstating Parliament and calling elections, deciding to rule as a constitutional monarch. Those who opposed his rule, known as the Committee for Union and Progress, became a major force in the Parliament. Abdülhamit's mistake came in 1909. Conservative reaction against the new Parliament led to a revolt in Constantinople and the expulsion of the Committee for Union and Progress's parliamentary delegates and officials. Abdülhamit associated himself with the revolt to regain power. The Macedonian army, however, proved more powerful than the rebels. They converged on Constantinople, took control, and reinstated the Parliament. On 27 April 1909, Abdülhamit was deposed and exiled to Salonika. At the onset of the First Balkan War in 1912, he was moved to the Beylerbeyi Palace on the Bosporus, where he died in 1918.

Bibliography

Brown, L. Carl. Imperial Legacy: The Ottoman Imprint on the Balkans and the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.

Davison, Roderic H. Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774 - 1923. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.

Findley, Carter V. Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 1789 - 1922. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 3d edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700 - 1922. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Shaw, Stanford, and Shaw, Ezel Kural. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Vol. 2: Reform, Revolution, and Republic, 1808 - 1975. Cambridge, U.K., 1977.

— JUSTIN MCCARTHY