Alan Warwick Palmer (1926–2022)

Fascinating history of probably the longest surviving empires in history. An empire that should have collapsed long ago but was really bandaged and tenuously held together through a combination of slavery (the Janissaries were drawn primarily from Christian families), bribes, religion, state sponsored feudalism, subterfuge, clever alliances and not true statecraft and efficient administration.

The empire that lasted from around 1450 until 1922, seemed to have produced only one Sultan of any show more consequence, Suleyman I the magnificient. These Ottomans had been knocking at the gates of the Byzantine Empire that directed it's power from Constantinople. Finally in the mid 1440s was able to push through and inherit the rich legacy left behind by this Eastern remnant of the erstwhile Roman empire.

Many believe that it was primarily religion that helped this ramshackle empire survive for as long as it did. All the Sultans including Suleyman depended heavily on the Ulema and Shariat for advice and direction so there was little evidence of separation of Church and State as is the case even today. After the prophet there were several caliphates whose caliphs were his direct descendents such as the Abbasid, Ummayad, Fatimid and eventually the Ottoman Caliphate.

Towards the end the fate of the empire was increasingly being dictated by the whims and fancies of the five great powers of that age Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia and Germany. With England and France providing much of the financial assistance to keep the perenially bankrupt empire afloat and Germany providing the weaponry and military assistance that helped it retain a semblance of power.

This fairy tale gone wrong does have a happy ending, it did find it's super hero in the form of Mustafa Kemal. This formidable guy who singlehandedly managed to achieve several superhuman feats, unthinkable in a predominantly Islamic state. As one of the founders of a new Nationalist movement he managed to get on his side a bulk of the well trained and professional Ottoman Army that rebelled against the weak sultan. With this he managed to wrest control of a lot of territory lost in earlier campaigns and frittered away by weak sultans who signed away vast swathes of territories in treaties and pacts drawn up by the great powers.

The greatest feat of all is perhaps the establishment of a secular federal republic and the abolishment of the Caliphate and the toning down of it's attendant institution the Ulema. A state that survives to this day and carries on the vision laid out by it's enlightened founder. There are several such theocratic states that could use a Mustafa Kemal. show less

Fascinating history of probably the longest surviving empires in history. An empire that should have collapsed long ago but was really bandaged and tenuously held together through a combination of slavery (the Janissaries were drawn primarily from Christian families), bribes, religion, state sponsored feudalism, subterfuge, clever alliances and not true statecraft and efficient administration.

The empire that lasted from around 1450 until 1922, seemed to have produced only one Sultan of any show more consequence, Suleyman I the magnificient. These Ottomans had been knocking at the gates of the Byzantine Empire that directed it's power from Constantinople. Finally in the mid 1440s was able to push through and inherit the rich legacy left behind by this Eastern remnant of the erstwhile Roman empire.

Many believe that it was primarily religion that helped this ramshackle empire survive for as long as it did. All the Sultans including Suleyman depended heavily on the Ulema and Shariat for advice and direction so there was little evidence of separation of Church and State as is the case even today. After the prophet there were several caliphates whose caliphs were his direct descendents such as the Abbasid, Ummayad, Fatimid and eventually the Ottoman Caliphate.

Towards the end the fate of the empire was increasingly being dictated by the whims and fancies of the five great powers of that age Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia and Germany. With England and France providing much of the financial assistance to keep the perenially bankrupt empire afloat and Germany providing the weaponry and military assistance that helped it retain a semblance of power.

This fairy tale gone wrong does have a happy ending, it did find it's super hero in the form of Mustafa Kemal. This formidable guy who singlehandedly managed to achieve several superhuman feats, unthinkable in a predominantly Islamic state. As one of the founders of a new Nationalist movement he managed to get on his side a bulk of the well trained and professional Ottoman Army that rebelled against the weak sultan. With this he managed to wrest control of a lot of territory lost in earlier campaigns and frittered away by weak sultans who signed away vast swathes of territories in treaties and pacts drawn up by the great powers.

The greatest feat of all is perhaps the establishment of a secular federal republic and the abolishment of the Caliphate and the toning down of it's attendant institution the Ulema. A state that survives to this day and carries on the vision laid out by it's enlightened founder. There are several such theocratic states that could use a Mustafa Kemal. show less

Like England’s Charles II, the Ottoman Empire took “an unconscionable time dying.” Since the seventeenth century, observers had been predicting the collapse of this so-called Sick Man of Europe, yet it survived all its rivals. As late as 1910, the Ottoman Empire straddled three continents. Unlike the Romanovs, Habsburgs, or Hohenzollerns, the House of Osman, which had allied itself with the Kaiser, was still recognized as an imperial dynasty during the peace conference following World show more War I.

The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire offers a provocative view of the empire’s decline, from the failure to take Vienna in 1683 to the abolition of the Sultanate by Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) in 1922 during a revolutionary upsurge in Turkish national pride. The narrative contains instances of violent revolt and bloody reprisals, such as the massacres of Armenians in 1896, and other “ethnic episodes” in Crete and Macedonia. More generally, it emphasizes recurring problems: competition between religious and secular authority; the acceptance or rejection of Western ideas; and the strength or weakness of successive Sultans. The book also highlights the special challenges of the early twentieth century, when railways and oilfields gave new importance to Ottoman lands in the Middle East.

Events of the past few years have placed the problems that faced the last Sultans back on the world agenda. The old empire’s outposts in the Balkans and in Iraq are still considered trouble spots. Alan Palmer offers considerable insight into the historical roots of many contemporary problems: the Kurdish struggle for survival, the sad continuity of conflict in Lebanon, and the centuries-old Muslim presence in Sarajevo. He also recounts the Ottoman Empire’s lingering interests in their oil-rich Libyan provinces. By exploring that legacy over the past three centuries, The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire examines a past whose effect on the present may go a long way toward explaining the future.
From: Goodreads show less

If this was an attempt to place Marie Louise in a better light than history has hereto placed her, it failed miserably. The only thing that it shows she was clever about was hiding her illegitimate children, & her second & third marriages from her family.
Neither does it dispel the low opinions of her treatment & utter isolation of he eldest child, the King of Rome. The old theory “out of sight, out of mind” in regards to her relationship to Bonaparte, sure rings true from the pages. show more After Bonaparte’s exile, it seems that Marie Louise’s only concern was her possession of Parma & her illicit affair with Neipperg. show less