Turkish Nationalism. Nationalism and economic reasons brought the Turkish people united to revolt against the Ottoman Empire under a leader called Mustafa Kemal. He is seen as the national hero of Turkey, which made Turkey into a strong republic state.

History Essay

uring the early 1900s, many Empires collapsed, such as the Ottoman Empire. Nationalism and economic reasons brought the Turkish people united to revolt against the Ottoman Empire under a leader called Mustafa Kemal. He is seen as the national hero of Turkey, which made Turkey into a strong republic state.

Before Mustafa Kemal came into sight, the Ottoman Empire was already surrounded by many problems. First, economic problems were brought because of New World silver and new trade routes from China to Europe. It caused gold to flew out of Ottoman’s Empire, which led them experienced disastrous inflation. Moreover, many wars were lost which caused the Ottoman Empire paying concession while the new idea of reform coming from Europe started to affect the people. The first time where Turkey started to bring out reforms is during the Tulip Period (1718-1730). They started to bring European culture in, where they never brought before. After the defeat of the war with Russia, Sultan Selim lll launched a reform program called the New Order but was stopped by conservative people.

In the beginning of 19th century, more people demanded change so Sultan Muhmad II brought western culture and military. However, the people demanded more than that, they wanted freedom and liberal. In the 1850-1860s, intellectuals known as the New Ottomans engaged people with Tanzimat policies about fatherland, freedom, and constitutionalism. The Tanzimat policies brought to a change for the government, which parliament and constitution is formed in 1876. Nevertheless, the failure in war with Russia and European demands of Sphere of Influence in Middle East called for the change back for the form of government. By the late 1880s, the government ...

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The last domino that led to the fall of the Ottoman Empire was WW1. Just before that, the despotism was ended by young Turks and again replaced by parliamentary government. However, under influence of some Young Turks, the Ottoman Empire entered the German side for WW1 and finally lost. Although with its defeat, Mustafa Kemal won the battle of Gallipoli towards Britain, which was seen an impossible success and made him the leader of Young Turks. Even with its defeat, winning Western allies, especially Greeks, tried to occupy the heartlands of the Ottoman Empire, but unlike China, all Turks went to fight for independence and finally in 1923, overthrew the more than 600-year-old Ottoman Empire. They drove away the Western Imperialist countries, and formed the Republic of Turkey. Under the command of Mustafa Kemal, the Republic of Turkey abandoned traditional clothing like fez and veil. Many Islamic laws and traditions are also abolished. Turkish people also started to have European names and their writing is updated in the Roman alphabet. Therefore, we can conclude that Turkey changed a lot towards Europe when Mustafa Kemal was President.

Ottoman, just like the other Empires, was ended by revolt because of nationalism. Every empire has a problem, that the state has many different nations, which always caused conflict. The fall of the Ottoman Empire, let us see the power of people when united; it also let us know about nationalism.

Bibliography

Chambers, Richard L. “turizm.net.” n.d. http://www.turizm.net/turkey/history/ottoman3.html (accessed Dec. 3, 2010).

“turism.net.” n.d. http://www.turizm.net/turkey/history/ataturk.html (accessed Dec. 3, 2010).