European Capitalism and the Late Ottoman Empire
Cyrus Taheri
History 594
Dr. McCarthy
Introduction
On the eve of World War One, the Ottoman Empire spanned a territory of 1.7 million square kilometers, comprising of present day Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Iraq and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Its population was over 23 million, of which three fourths were found in Anatolia. Although the Empire had gone through a period of substantial economic transformation and growth in the 19th century, especially towards the latter end of the century, it was considerably poorer and less developed than industrial European countries, in terms of real gross domestic product (GDP), both per head and cumulative. The Ottoman GDP in 1913 (at current prices) was $370 million and the GDP per head was roughly $171. Compare these figures to $226.4 billion and $4,921 respectively for the United Kingdom, $257 billion and $676 for British India, $138.7 billion and $3,485 for France, $257.7 billion and $1,488 for Russia, $244.3 billion and $3,648 for Germany, $100.5 billion and $1,986 for Austria2. It has to be noted, however, that in terms of GDP, the Ottoman Empire was significantly richer than neighboring Egypt and Persia. In the context of competing with European Imperialism and Finance, though, this would not be enough. World War One would be the actualization of the desire to defeat and colonize the former Ottoman Empire, manifest in the partitioning of the defeated Turks in the Treaty of Sevres. In this paper, I hope to explore and analyze these economic relationships between the Ottoman State and Western powers to better understand why the Turks were destined to lose the First World War.
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...ly became evident in the rapid collapse of most of the enterprises.”6
Alongside the state sanctioned industry, the same service and trade related industries continued to grow and took on characteristics of capitalist accumulation. However, these forms of small scale production took on ethnic and religious characteristics. Keyder gives a Marxist analysis of the politicized nature of the nature of these entrepreneurs. He claims that class and Nationalistic antagonisms grew side by side through the domination of economic output by Greek and Armenian minorities, who, according to him, “could receive protected status from the European powers which effectively placed them beyond the reach of Ottoman law and tax authorities…the multi-ethnic social structure of the empire had prepared for an ethnic division of labor that eventually culminated in a class differentiation”.7
my interest the most. They were the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. If you compare and contrast both the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe during the 16th Century through the 18th Century, you will see that there are a number of similarities as well as differences when you look at the expansion of the states. You will also see many of these contrasts as well when you look in terms of each states military and commerce. Although the Ottoman Empire existed before the 16th century and
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argues attributes of state building worked in Europe was because of industrialization prop up by capitalism. The state became powerful in bringing the producers under its supervision. Charles Tilly argues, war formulates state and duress exploitation played a vital part in the establishment of the European states. In addition, Tilly makes it very lucid that in Europe, state making and mercantile capitalism reinforced each other (Tilly 1985). By this, he means the four main aspects of state building:
imperialism. This shall be done by examining further developments of his theories, as well as criticisms. For example, D.K Fieldhouse argued that there needed to be a “greater emphasis on economic reasons” as well as elements of “formal and informal empires” (Robinson and Gallagher) throughout the colonisation of Africa. In addition, by analysing the colonisation of diverse African coun... ... middle of paper ... ... Power, it is generally agreed that “if any nation had upset the world’s balance
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Development of Modernism and Structure of Fahrenheit 451 Society It will be discussed in this paper effects of modernism upon society on Fahrenheit 451 and criticism of Fahrenheit 451’s society; how does modernism influence the society, how does it formulate structure of society on Fahrenheit 451. Rad Bradbury in his futuristic tale of a society where all printed material is banned, chose the title Fahrenheit 451, since that is the tempereture at which book paper catches fire and starsts to burn
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