Ottoman Wars, 1700-1870: An Empire Besieged 1st Edition

by Virginia Aksan (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0582308077

ISBN-10: 9780582308077

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The Ottomans 1700-1923: An Empire Besieged (Modern Wars In Perspective)
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The Ottoman Empire had reached the peak of its power, presenting a very real threat to Western Christendom when in 1683 it suffered its first major defeat, at the Siege of Vienna. Tracing the empires conflicts of the next two centuries, The Ottoman Wars: An Empire Besieged examines the social transformation of the Ottoman military system in an era of global imperialism

Spanning more than a century of conflict, the book considers challenges the Ottoman government faced from both neighbouring Catholic Habsburg Austria and Orthodox Romanov Russia, as well as - arguably more importantly from military, intellectual and religious groups within the empire. Using close analysis of select campaigns, Virginia Aksan first discusses the Ottoman Empires changing internal military context, before addressing the modernized regimental organisation under Sultan Mahmud II after 1826.

Featuring illustrations and maps, many of which have never been published before, The Ottoman Wars draws on previously untapped source material to provide an original and compelling account of an empire near financial and societal collapse, and the successes and failures of a military system under siege. The book is a fascinating study of the decline of an international power, raising questions about the influence of culture on warfare.

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From the Back Cover

The Ottoman Empire had reached the peak of its power, presenting a very real threat to Western Christendom when in 1683 it suffered its first major defeat, at the Siege of Vienna. Tracing the empire’s conflicts of the next two centuries, The Ottoman Wars: An Empire Besieged examines the social transformation of the Ottoman military system in an era of global imperialism

Spanning more than a century of conflict, the book considers challenges the Ottoman government faced from both neighbouring Catholic Habsburg Austria and Orthodox Romanov Russia, as well as - arguably more importantly – from military, intellectual and religious groups within the empire. Using close analysis of select campaigns, Virginia Aksan first discusses the Ottoman Empire’s changing internal military context, before addressing the modernized regimental organisation under Sultan Mahmud II after 1826.

Dr. Virginia Aksan is Associate Professor in the Department of History at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. She has written for numerous journals and is the author of An Ottoman Statesman in War and Peace: Ahmed Resmi Efendi, 1700-1783 (1995).

About the Author

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0582308070
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (April 26, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 620 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780582308077
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0582308077
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.07 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 1.4 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,795,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,466 in Turkey History (Books)
- #2,701 in Military History (Books)
- #8,115 in Russian History (Books)

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Excellent Scholarship - Pity that this Work is not in Stock

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2008

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This is one of the Longman "Modern Wars In Perspective" series, and if the other books in the series are a good as this one, the military historian should buy them all. One learns something on every page. Even the fact that the Ottomans never considered themselves Turks -- that name was given them by Europeans until the Ottomans finally recognized it in the 19th Century and used in order to more closely identify the dynasty with its subjects. In many respects this volume is Volume Three to my two-volume set of Turkish History by Knolls which only goes to 1704. However, this new volume clearly eclipses Knolls' work.

This period is worth several long volumes, and author Aksan has done an incredible job in boiling it down to a little over 500 pages. For much of the time covered by the author, the Ottomans were treated somewhat dismissively by European monarchs, and became know to American students in their classrooms as "The Sick Man In Europe." The military men in the Balkins that fought the Ottomans, however, maintained a somewhat different attitude.

Warfare between the Balkan Christians and the Muslim Ottomans was brutal in the extreme and totally without mercy. The frontier repeatedly exploded in murder, rape, torture, slavery, and human degradation of the most extreme kind. Yet the people on both sides soldiered on in wars without end. Lands were depopulated and turned into wasteland, then re-populated and developed only to be destroyed again a few years later. Such was the cycle of life on the Ottoman-Balkan border.

Given such a subject it is remarkable that the author has produced such a compelling read. This she accomplishes by the skilful mixing of campaigns with individual accounts, informative descriptions of people, institutions, armies, courts and governments, and personalities and actions of the major players. I found this book to be difficult to put down.

Although the Austrians and the Russians were the principal adversaries, the Ottomans also had to deal with Serbian revolts and the Greek rebellion of 1821-27 that resulted in Greek independence. And, of course, every historian knows about the elimination of the recalcitrant Janassaries in by Mahmud II in 1826. The Ottomans were forced to confront revolts fairly regularly throughout their empire during this period; in Constantinople (Istanbul (a corruption of the Greek "eis teen polin" or "into the city") became the name of the city only in 1924 after the expulsion of the Ottoman ruling family & became official in 1927), among the Kurds, the Wahabis in Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro. Even Napoleon got into the action with his invasion of Egypt, and the subsequent French campaign into the Holy Land and Syria. This was an empire constantly at war with short intervals of peace to prepare for the next war.

The various sultans (there were 13 from 1700 to 1885) attempted various reforms in the Ottoman system with varying success. Maintenance of the army was constantly a severe problem, and when the new model army was disasterously defeated by the Egyptians at Nizib in 1839, the Ottomans practically went on life support. Yet the Ottomans showed amazing resilience, re-grouping and reforming in spite of the mishandling and alienation of his subjects by the Sultans. It becomes a fascinating account of defeat, resurgence, misrule and reform. The author weaves her way through all of this with clear and precise prose, somehow always maintaining the interest of the reader.

For anyone wishing to learn something of the pre-20th century history of the primary Middle Eastern Power, this book is it. Among other things, it shows that there was little to no fertile ground for democracy to form in the Middle East, and the legacies of the Ottoman Empire continue today. This is an important book for Americans to understand what the Ottomans were experiencing while the United States progressed from British colonies, through its revolution, the Civil War, mastery of its land mass from the Atlantic to the Pacific and growth into a world power.

This book is highly recommended.

19 people found this helpful

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Bryan Gibby

No Apologies necessary, Ms. Aksan

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2009

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War is a fact of life; even more so when political, ideological, and religious conflict is engendered between three empires intent on dominating the same small plot of ground (ie, the Balkans). Ms. Aksan has no need to apologize for studying Ottoman warfare and for bringing her insightful and interesting conclusions to readers more familiar with Mehmet the Conqueror or Suleiman the Magnificent (also known as the Law Giver) than they are with Selim III and Mahmud II. The latter two Sultans definitely earned their places in the pantheon of Ottoman greats. Sadly, far less is known of these two reforming figures and the incredible external and internal challenges they faced in attempting to "reform" their society.

"Reform" can be a dirty word, especially when it is perceived as a failure, which is one of the historical myths Aksan tackles (most students of the era know it as the "Eastern Question" -- what to do with the Ottoman Empire when it collapses). Truth is, all societies "reform", they have to in order to survive. Aksan's narrative demonstrates the resiliency and recuperative qualities of the Ottoman state from the disasterous 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz to the finale of the Crimean War in mid-nineteenth century. As should be expected, the narrative is comprehensive and entertaining, the analysis is incisive, and the comparison of the Ottomans to the Austrian Hapsburgs and Russian Romanovs is particularly beneficial.

Primary sources capture well the complexities of fighting and sustaining armies in the Danube basin, the Caucusus frontiers, and in the Fertile Crescent. Although the causes, conduct, and consequences of war are adequately covered, for this reviewer, the meat of the book is focused on the effects that battle had on military institutions -- which in the Ottoman case, really meant effects on society and culture at large. 19th Century Ottomans had to begin asking themselves tough questions, such as what it means to be "Turkish" as they witnessed the Chrisitian millets and provinces slowly slip from the Ottoman orbit. The reformation of the janissary corps was likely akin to severing one's right arm, but it needed to be done, as the corps by the 18th century was incapable of winning on the battlefield and yet was the most efficient economic macro-parasite feasting on the dwindling Ottoman treasury. How Mahmud II eliminated the janissaries and attempted to re-invent a more national and hence more obedient army is an interesting tale of playing against the odds (the gambit was a failure militarily, but it likely saved the Sultanate). One can wonder how 19th century history would have been different had Mahmud's "Asakir-i mansure" (Triumphant Soldiers) succeeded.

Some interesting tidbits -- Ottoman fortunes are pretty bright until the Russian empire comes into the contact zone beginning in the late 17th century. Fighting the Austrians was probably fun, fighting the Russians was simply dreadful. Who would need enemies if one could count on friends like Mehmet Ali, the Albanian-born servant of the Sultan who nearly crowned himself king of Egypt and nearly brought the empire to destruction? The empire was chronically short of cash, and the Sultan's governement tried every artifice they could to squeeze more from a dwindling tax base. (A good lesson for our modern day politicians!) Both reforming Sultans and their domestic opponents resorted to strong religious language and symbology to press their points. Although the previous Ottoman state relied on religious motivation to some extent to fuel its expansion, by the 19th century, Islamic convention is becoming even more personal for the empire. Perhaps it was inevitable as the Christian principalities were the first to be biten by the bug of nationalism and to be more easily identified with the Hapsburg or Romanov enemy.

This book does presuppose some grounding in Ottoman history and institutions, but not so much as to be inaccessable. The author included a fine guide to further reading with classic and more recent publications. A good chronology and glossary are also very helpful. The only criticism is the maps are few (three) and not well detailed. Place names will be unfamiliar to most readers, and because geography played such a decisive role in the Danube and the Caucasus, knowing relative distances and positions of key locations would only enhance the reader's visualization.

13 people found this helpful

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Andrew Wheatcroft

A fine book, worth the long wait

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2007

For whatever reason, this has been a long time coming: its arrival has been rumoured for years. Finally it is here, and the result amply fulfils the anticipation. Professor Aksan's scholarship in journal articles and detailed archival work provides a sure foundation for a study with a great range, over both time and space.

At no point does the quality or insight of the narrative falter, and reaching the author's conclusion in 1870, this reader's feelng is: what a pity it could not extend for another two decades to take in the events of the 1870s and 1880s. Few books of six hundred pages read so easily and with such assurance.

At last, students will have a reliable and usable text that will fill the vast gaps that hitherto existed in the study of Ottoman warfare. It redresses the imbalance created by the plethora of good work on the 16th and 17th centuries. Now the Ottoman military role and campaigning in the later period can be properly assessed, as Aksan provides a corrective to earlier (and sometimes mistaken) views of the military and Ottoman society. She shows how a number of western 'reformers' hired by the Ottomans presented a skewed and usually egotistical view of Ottoman capacity. By contrast, Habsburg commanders who experienced the sharp edge of Ottoman tenacity, speed, and courage in battle had a rather less dismissive view.

The author has synthesised a huge body of published material (although the coverage of German language sources is quite slender). The MODERN WARS IN PERSPECTIVE series has produced a series of remarkable books: this ranks with the very best.

29 people found this helpful

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The Moonraker

Monumental Coverage

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2012

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Despite the title this is not a detailed study of armies and battles. It is full of information about the political situation and the socio-economic issues. It is interesting but don't go to it expecting a traditional military history - eg troop types and their performance in the field are barely mentioned.

3 people found this helpful

J. Duducu

Worthy, well researched but too dry

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2010

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This is really a text book with all the advantages and pitfalls that type of book has. Virginia Aksan has done a formidable amount of research throwing light onto a much ignored area of Eastern European conflict. She also builds a very solid case that Ottoman decline had very little to do with a backward looking and decadent series of Sultans but instead was an empire faced with the insurmountable problem of being surrounded by aggressive and expansionist competitors.

This is an important study that shows almost all aspects of the Ottoman regime in this time, the disbanding of the Janissaries, the changes to the finances and logistics of the military and the attempts of the Sultans of the era to modernise their forces.

I say "almost all" because this book is simply called Ottoman Wars 1700-1870. Therefore this should be packed full of battles, sieges and last stands and it isn't. Aksan is far more interested in the cause and effects of war than war itself so the title is very misleading. This was always my frustration at modern history lectures at university World War 1 would get 3 lectures on causes, 3 on the repercussions of peace and 1 on the actual 4 year global conflict, I have never thought that kind of emphasis to be the right one and makes fascinating topics very dull. You can have your cake and eat it too, a book like "The Enemy at the Gate" by Andrew Wheatcroft gave you the politics, the logistics and the research but also explained the battles with passion and created an actual narrative. It was informative AND interesting. Virginia Aksan by contrast comes from the old school who believe a history book can only be one or the other.

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