Common Factors in the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Bosnian Serbian conflict

Common Factors in the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Bosnian Serbian conflict

Students of history who approach it with the view of collecting facts and dates will often neglect the value of abstracting common patterns from the rise and fall of empires, and the causes of war in particular periods. The ability to abstract patterns of development and decline is essential for understanding and adapting to society as it is

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shaped by world events. A comparative analysis of the factors in the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Bosnian Serbian conflict will reveal some general causes despite the differences in time and circumstances.

Daniel Goffman, in The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (2002) identified the strong sultanate as a main factor in the cohesion of the Ottoman Empire. However the source of its strength would also prove to be the cause of its decline. When the Sultan’s successors showed signs of incompetence, the various factions vying for power within the empire increased activities that led to social instability. Goffman describes in this manner:

However invincible the Ottoman military machine seemed through much

of the sixteenth century, however coherent Ottoman society seems to

have become, and however much money poured into the state coffers,

as a monarchy the empire remained dependent upon the abilities of a

single man. Even though fortune, and prudent and inventive principles

of succession brought a series of competent sultans to the throne, any

despotism, reliant as it is upon whims and fancies as well as discretion

and wisdom, is inherently unstable. (Goffman 2002)

Avigdor Levy (1992), in The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire, attributes the decline of the

Ottoman empire in the early decades of the nineteenth century to the weakness of the Ottoman

military: The nadir of Ottoman military weakness

was reached only at the end of the eighteenth

century and the early decades of the nineteenth.

At that time, also the internal disintegration

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of the state had approached a critical point and

the central government lost effective control over

many of its provinces. (Levy, 1992)

However Levy cautions against viewing the period from 1600-early 1900s as a

process of continuous decline of the Ottoman Empire. Instead, he characterizes it as

punctuated by extended periods of recovery, stability, and even ascent.

Turnbull (2003) in The Ottoman Empire 1326-1699, agrees with Goffman and

Levy on the point that a strong sultanate and a strong military were key factors in the

ascendant periods of the Ottoman Empire, and