Late Ottoman Empire
1789-1807 | Sultan Selim III ; undertakes military reform leading to Janissary uprising. |
1798 | Napoleon in Egypt |
1805-1848 | Muhammad Ali controls Egypt |
1808-1839 | Sultan Mahmud II |
1826 |
Mahmud II’s proposed military reform sparks Janissary uprising; Janissary massacred beginning substantial reforms |
1826-1839 | Mahmud II reforms: European style military, secondary education (undermining mosque schools), land reform, postal service, telegraph, road-building |
1828-1829 | Russian-Turkish War: Russian protectorate rejected by Concert of Europe |
1830 | Greece independent |
1839-1876 | Tanzimat (“reorganization”) era, including legal reform (undermining ulama), primary and secondary schooling |
1867 | Serbian independence |
1876 | Reformist coup installs Sultan Abd al-Hamid (r. 1876-1909), but he dissolves parliament and constitution, exiled liberals. Continued military and police reform, but political repression. |
1882 | Ottoman Empire defaults on foreign loans; foreign administration of debt |
1889 | Ottoman Society for Union and Progress (a.k.a. theYoung Turk Party) established: “universal suffrage, equality before the law, freedom of religion, free public education, secularization of the state, and the emancipation of women.” (BZ 909) |
1909-1918 | Young Turk Era: Sultan Mehmed V Rashid a figurehead for Young Turk rule. Arab and Slavic resistance to Turkification creates serious tensions |
1919 | Ottoman Empire broken up into Turkey and League of Nations Protectorates |
Late Russian Empire
1828-1829 | Russian-Turkish War: Russian attempt to establish protectorate rejected by Concert of Europe |
1853-1856 | Crimean War: Russia v. Britain, France, Sardinia, Ottomans |
1861 | Tsar Alexander II (r. 1855-1881) liberates serfs: “it is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait until the serfs begin to liberate themselves from below.” (BZ 913) |
1864 | zemstvos (local assemblies) created, representing all classes, but subordinate to tsar and dominated by nobility Judicial revision including appellate courts, trial by jury, private attorneys “whose professional standards contributed to a decline in judicial corruption.” (BZ 913) |
1873-1876 |
Anarchist and socialist activity in the countryside met with harsh repression |
1876 | Land and Freedom Party, a splinter group off the Narodniki (populist) land reform movement, begins to promote assassination to prompt reform |
1881 | Alexander II assassinated by Land and Freedom party terrorist wing (People’s Will). |
1892-1903 | minister of finance Sergei Witte’s industrialization program emphasizing railways (including Trans-Siberian), savings banks, protective tariffs, foreign investment in industrial resources (steel, coal, petroleum). |
1894-1917 | Reign of Tsar Nicholas II: oppressive but otherwise weak. |
1897 | Trade unions and strikes outlawed; work day limited to 11.5 hours. |
1904-5 | Russo-Japanese War ends with obliteration of Baltic Fleet in Tsushima Straits |
1905-7 | Bloody Sunday massacre of workers petitioning for elected assembly leads to widespread unrest and formation of the Duma |
1917 | Communist Revolution |
© 2004 – Jonathan Dresner