Ottomanism

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Proclamation of the Ottoman Constitution of 1876

The Ottomanism ( Turkish Osmanlılık or Osmanlıcılık ) or Osmanentum was a concept which provided for the equality of all citizens of the Ottoman Empire, regardless of their religion. Ottomanism developed before the First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire .

Its proponents believed that Ottomanism could solve the empire's social problems. Ottomanism was influenced by thinkers like Montesquieu and Rousseau, as well as the French Revolution . It supported equality within the millet s . The idea went back to the Young Ottomans . Put simply, Ottomanism stated that all subjects were equal before the law. The essence of the millet system should not be abolished, but more secular organizations and political practices should be introduced. Primary education, conscription, poll tax and military service should be applied to non-Muslims and Muslims alike.

The Hatt-ı Hümayun of 1856, which promised full equality regardless of religion, and the Nationality Law of 1869, which established common Ottoman citizenship regardless of religious or ethnicity, were harbingers of Ottomanism. Ottomanism was rejected by many Muslims, but also by many residents of the non-Muslim millet s. It was viewed by the latter as a step to abolish their traditional privileges, while the Muslims viewed it as an elimination of their own preeminent position in the empire. There have been complaints that Ottomanism was a reaction to the Tanzimat , the era of the intensive restructuring of the Ottoman Empire by a bureaucratic elite.

Ottomanism revived during the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 and during the Second Constitutional Era. He lost most of the followers during the First Balkan War from 1912 to 1913.

See also

  • Neo-Omanism , a concept of Turkish domestic and foreign policy that has been burgeoning again since the turn of the millennium

credentials

  • The concept is contained under the section The era of Modern Reform: Tanzimat in "History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey" by Stanford J. Shaw , Ezel Kural Shaw.