Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire : Ottoman Westernization and Social Change

What are the causes of imperial decline? This work studies the Ottoman empire in the 18th and 19th centuries to argue that the Ottoman imperial decline resulted from a combination of Ottoman internal dynamics with external influences. Specifically, it contends that the split within the Ottoman social structure across ethno-religious lines interacted with the effects of war and commerce with the West to produce a bifurcated Ottoman bourgeoisie. This bourgeoisie, divided into disparate commercial and bureaucratic elements, was able to challenge the sultan but was ultimately unable to salvage the empire. Instead, the Ottoman empire was replaced by the Turkish nation-state and others in the Balkans and the Middle East. This work will appeal to students of sociology and Ottoman studies. Importantly, focusing on the process of class formation, Gocek offers a comprehensive understanding of the critical role of the emerging Ottoman bourgeoisie in social change. Ottoman social structure, she argues, interacted with the effects of war and commerce with the West to produce a divided bourgeoisie, part commercial, part bureaucratic. Though powerful, the bourgeoisie was weakened by its opposing factions; it was strong enough to challenge the power of the sultan, but too divided in the end to salvage the empire. Taking full account of both Ottoman internal dynamics and external influences, the book presents a revisionist approach to modernization that may well apply in many other non-Western contexts. It will be of strong interest to historians and sociologists of the Middle East, and of all non-Western countries Contents......Page 8 Introduction: Class Formation and the Ottoman Empire......Page 12 1 Ottoman Structure, Social Groups, and Westernization......Page 29 2 War, Ottoman Officials, and Western Institutions: Rise of the Bureaucratic Bourgeoisie......Page 53 3 Trade, Ottoman Merchants, and Western Goods: Rise of the Commercial Bourgeoisie......Page 96 4 "Civilization," Ottoman Intellectuals, and Western Ideas: Polarization Within the Bourgeoisie......Page 126 Conclusion: The Emergence of a Bifurcated Ottoman Bourgeoisie......Page 147 Appendix......Page 152 Notes......Page 154 References......Page 194 B......Page 218 C......Page 219 E......Page 220 F......Page 221 I......Page 222 M......Page 223 N......Page 224 P......Page 225 S......Page 226 T......Page 227 W......Page 228 Z......Page 229 The momentous changes in Western countries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did not occur in the same manner outside the West. The reasons why have long been the subject of debate. Early explanations, fraught with Western bias, have now been largely rejected, but their hidden assumptions persist and are ripe for reevaluation. In Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire, Fatma Muge Gocek challenges the contention that Westernization or the absence of a bourgeoisie caused Ottoman decline. She presents instead a revisionist account of the decline, one that reveals the unique complexities of social change in a non-Western context and proposes a truer paradigm for non-Western social change ## Abstract The book examines the process of Westernization and social change during the 18th and 19th centuries in the Ottoman Empire. Using empirical analysis of archival documents and historical chronicles, the book questions the prevailing scholarly interpretation that Westernization leads to social change. Rather, it argues that social change precedes and contributes to the process of Westernization. Examining the process of Westernization and social change during the 18th and 19th centuries in the Ottoman Empire, this study uses archival documents and historical chronicles to argue that social change precedes and contributes to the process of Westernization In 1866, the Ottoman statesman Cevdet Pasha and the French ambassador Moustier had a long discussion on the nature of the Ottoman empire during a voyage from France to Constantinople.