“Twins in Spite of Themselves”: Spanish and Ottoman Empires’ “Issues of Decline” in XVIIIth Century
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Spanish and Ottoman empires had more similarities that could be found at first glance. Both experienced the take-off as leading force in Europe and Asia respectively, being for a while the most fearful and powerful states during XVI, faced economic and political blunders in XVII century and slightly ended with stagnation in XVIII century (as conventional wisdom says). Using comparative method and cultural analysis, article tries to answer a question – how unique or regular was that issues which stroke Spain and Ottoman Empires, how deeply they were engaged in so called decline narrative, created in XIX century European historiography and is it possible to create common trend for empire`s stagnation using not only historical sociology method (sociology of revolution used by Jack Goldstone and Teda Skocpole) and world-system analysis provided by Immanuel Wallerstein, with emphasis on history of ideas or begriffsgeschichte by Reinhardt Kosseleck. Main results are going to provide a more correct view on the status of Spanish and Turkish Empires during the XVIII century. Despite that Ottomans and Spaniards had obvious differences in political distribution, economic capabilities, warfare tactics and external actions, almost simultaneous decline was based on clear and exact reasons: lack of industrialization (production with high surplus value), hush incorporation of Ottoman and Spanish Empires into World-Economy, lack of defending tariffs, ineffective fiscal system and policy, devastating and lasting wars, decreasing price for agricultural products, down warding Kondratieff cycle, rigid political and social units, which constrain strict political actions. These gaps made the Empire’s decline possible notwithstanding those problems which they had previously. Oppositely, major European states (England, France, Prussia) had made reversed actions, which took a long time, but made European “take-off” inevitable, assured their economical breakaway to further domination over the Ottomans and Spaniards as well.
Downloads
Article Details
References
Potter, S.J, Saha, J. (2015). Global History, Imperial History and Connected Histories of Empire. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 16 (1), pp. 1-36. [In English].
Vasunia, P. (2011). The comparative study of empires. Journal of Roman Studies, 101, pp. 222-237. [In English].
Cooper, F. (1996). “Race, ideology, and the perils of comparative history”. AHR, no. 101 (4), pp. 1122–38. [In English].
Faroqhi, S. (2019). The Ottoman and Mughal Empires: Social History in the Early Modern World. London and New York: IB Tauris. [In English].
Akçetin, E., Faroqhi, S. (2018). Living the Good Life: Consumption in the Qing and Ottoman Empires of the Eighteenth Century. Leiden: Brill. [In English].
Dem’yanenko, M.A. (2021). Yspanskaya y Rossyjskaya ymperyy v XV–XVIII vekax: prolehomeny k sravnytelnomu analyzu. SPb.: Yzdatelstvo Evropejskoho unyversyteta v Sankt-Peterburhe. [In Russian].
Ranke, L. (1845). Ottoman and Spanish empires in sixteenth and seventeenth century / transl. W. Kelly. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. [In English].
Bowen, W.H. (2010). The Spanish and Ottoman Empires in the Mediterranean, 1714–1914. The Journal of the Middle East and Africa, No. 1, pp. 84-96. [In English].
Ağır, S. (2003). The mentalities of “decline” in the Spanish and Ottoman empires. BA Thesis. Middle East Technical University. [In English].
Marchetti, C., Ausubel, J. H. (2013). Quantitative Dynamics of Human Empires. International Journal of Anthropology, no. 27(1–2): 1–62. [In English].
Scheidel, W. (Ed.) (2009). Rome and China: comparative perspectives on ancient world empires. New York: Oxford University Press. [In English].
Ignacio, J., Ucendo, A., Limberger, M. (Eds.) (2012). Taxation and debt in early modern city. London: Pickering & Chatto. [In English].
Simal, J.L., Martykanova, D. (2015). Ferdinand and the Sultan: The Metaphor of the Turk and the Crisis of the Spanish Monarchy in the Early Nineteenth Century. Contributions to the History of Concepts, Volume 10, Issue 1. pp. 1–26. [In English].
Emrence, C. (2008). Imperial paths, big comparisons: the late Ottoman Empire. Journal of Global History, no. 3, pp. 289–311. [In English].
Hargreaves-Mawdsley, W.N. (1979). Eighteenth century Spain, 1700-1788. London: The Macmillan Press. [In English].
Premo, B. (2017). The Enlightenment on trial : ordinary litigants and colonialism in the Spanish empire. New York: Oxford University Press. [In English].
Bal, F. (2011). Ottoman-Spanish economic relations in the sixteenth century: rivalry in the Mediterranean. International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 2 No. 21, pp. 296-306. [In English].
Bowen, W.H. (2016). From holy war to technocracy, 1571–1924: The Spanish and Ottoman Empires in the Mediterranean. The Journal of the Middle East and Africa, no. 7 (3), pp. 257-268. [In English].
Ünal, A.Ç. (2015). The first Spanish ambassador to the Sublime Porte: Juan de Bouligny and his early activities in Istanbul based on his diary. MA Thesis. Istanbul: İstanbul Şehir University. [In English].
Tabakoğlu, H.S. (2010). XVIII. yüzyılda Osmanlı-İspanya ilişkileri. Yüksek lisans tezi. Istanbul: İstanbul üniversitesi. [In Turkish].
Veinstein, G. (1999). Inalcik’s views on the Ottoman eighteenth century and the fiscal problem. Oriente Moderno. Nuova serie, No. 1, pp. 1-10. [In English].
Nişancıoğlu, K. (2014). The Ottoman origins of capitalism: uneven and combined development and Eurocentrism. Review of International Studies, Vol. 40 (2), pp. 325-347. [In English].
Akarlı, A.O. (2001). Growth and retardation in the Ottoman economy, the case of ottoman Selanik 1876-1912. PhD Thesis. London school of economics and political science. [In English].
Duranoglu, E., Okutucu, G. (2009). Economic Reasons Behind the Decline of the Ottoman Empire. Master thesis. Bergen: Norges Handelshøyskole. [In English].
Bulut, M., Altay, B. (2021). The Ottoman economy (1870-1913): the preliminary second generation estimates. Turkish journal of Islamic economies, no. 9 (1), pp. 95-118. [In English].
Clark, E. (1974). The Ottoman industrial revolution. International journal of Middle East studies, no. 5, рр. 65-76. [In English].
Mann, M. (2012). The sources of social power. Vol. II: the rise of classes and nation-state 1760-1914. New York: Cambridge university press. [In English].
Rosés, J.R., O’Rourke, K.H., Williamson, J.G. (2007). Globalization, Growth and Distribution in Spain 1500-1913. National bureau of economic research, working paper, No. 13055, 55 p. [In English].
Escosura de la, L.P., Nogal C.A. (2007). Searching for the roots of retardation: Spain in European perspective, 1500-1850. Madrid: Universidad de Carlos III de Madrid. [In English].
Aram B., Yun-Casalilla, B. (2014). Global Goods and the Spanish Empire, 1492–1824: Circulation, Resistance and Diversity. London: Palgrave Macmillan. [In English].
Roses, J.R. (2003). Why Isn’t the Whole of Spain Industrialized? New Economic Geography and Early Industrialization, 1797–1910. The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 995-1022. [In English].
Güvemli, B. (2017). The role of accounting in the industrialization efforts of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Spanish Journal of Accounting History, no. 27, рр. 74-100. [In English].
Prados de la Escosura, L. (1999). Economic growth and backwardness, 1780-1930. Spanish history since 1808. London: Arnold Press. pp. 179-190. [In English].
Martinez-Carrion, J.M. (2016) Living standards, nutrition and inequality in the Spanish Industrialization: an anthropometric view. Revista de historia industrial, no. 64, рр. 11-50. [In English].
Prados de la Escosura L, Nogal, C.A. (2013) The rise and fall of Spain, 1270-1850. Economic History Review, no. 66, pp. 1–37. [In English].
Escosura de la, L. P., Sanchez-Alonso, B. (2020). Economic Development in Spain, 1815-2017. Oxford encyclopedia of economics and finance. Oxford: Oxford university press, pp. 1-25. [In English].
Escosura de la, L. P., Nogal, C. A. (2007). Searching for the roots of retardation: Spain in European perspective, 1500-1850. Madrid: Universidad de Carlos III de Madrid. [In English].
Rosés, J.R., O’Rourke, K.H., Williamson, J.G. (2007). Globalization, Growth and Distribution in Spain 1500-1913. National bureau of economic research, working paper, No. 13055, 55 p. [In English].
Genç M. (1995). L`économie Ottomane et la guerre de XVIIIe siècle. Turcica, no. 27, pp. 177-196. [In French].
Pamuk, Ş. (2001). The price revolution in the Ottoman Empire reconsidered. Int. J. Middle East Stud, no. 33, рр. 69–89. [In English].
Freitag, U. (Eds.). (2011). The city in the Ottoman empire : migration and the making of urban modernity. London: Routledge. [In English].
Genç, M. (1994). Ottoman industry in the Eighteenth century: general framework, characteristics and main trends. Manufacturing in Ottoman Empire and Turkey: 1500-1950. New York: State university of New York press, pp. 59-86. [In English].
Doğu, E., Rhodes, R.I. (1975). Western capitalism and the disintegration of the Ottoman empire. Economy and History, no. 18, pp. 41-60. [In English].
Reeves-Ellington B. (1999). Incorporation of the Ottoman Empire into the Capitalist World-Economy, 1750-1839. Binghamton Journal of history. [Online]. Available from: https://www.binghamton.edu/history/docs/bing-journal-history-1999.pdf [In English].
Pamuk, Ş., Williamson, J. (2009). Ottoman De-Industrialization 1800-1913: Assessing the Shock, Its Impact and the Response. National bureau of economic research, working paper. [In English].
Zürcher E.J. (2017). Turkey: a modern history. New York: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd. [In English].
Yildirim, O. (2006). Ottoman Guilds (1600-1826): A Survey. The Return of the Guilds. Utrecht: Utrecht University, pp. 1-20. [In English].
Escosura de la, L.P. (1990). The loss of colonial empire and its economic impact on Spain. The economic effects of French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Leuven: Leuven University Press, pp. 79-85. [In English].
Grafe, R., Irigon, M.A. (2006). The Spanish Empire and Its Legacy: Fiscal Re-distribution and Political Conflict in Colonial and Post-Colonial Spanish America. London: London school of economics. [In English].
Adanir, F., Faroqhi, S. (Eds.) (2002). The Ottomans and the Balkans : a discussion of historiography. Leiden: Brill. [In English].
Birdal, M. (2010) The political economy of Ottoman public debt: Insolvency and European Financial Control in the Late Nineteenth Century. New York: I.B.Tauris Publishers. [In English].
Agoston, G, Masters B. (2009) The encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Facts on File. [In English].
Grant, J. (1999), “Rethinking the Ottoman ‘Decline’: Military Technology Diffusion in the Ottoman Empire Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries” Journal of World History, no. 10, pp. 179-201. [In English].
Grant, J. (2002). “The Sword of the Sultan: Ottoman Arms Imports, 1854-1914”. The Journal of Military History, no. 66, pp. 9-36. [In English].
Gökakın, B.Ö. (2006). The Ottoman Empire and the European international society: a theoretical-historical analysis. PhD. Dissertation. Ankara: Bilkent university. [In English].
Pamuk, S. (2012). The Evolution Of Fiscal Institutions In The Ottoman Empire, 1500-1914. The Rise of Fiscal States: A Global History, 1500–1914. New York: Cambridge university press, pp. 304-332. [In English].
Çamlı, A. Y. (2021). “Was The Irrational Management System Why The Ottoman Did Not Adopt Capitalism?”. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, Sayı 44, ss. 15-25. [In English].
Evrensel, A., Minx, T. (2017). An institutional approach to the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Cogent Economics & Finance, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, pp. 1-16. [In English].
Coşgel, M.M., Miceli, T.J., Rubin, J. (2012). The political economy of mass printing: Legitimacy and technological change in the Ottoman Empire. Journal of Comparative Economics, no. 40, pp. 357-371. [In English].
Sariyannis, M. (2016). Ottoman ideas of monarchy before the Tanzimat reforms: towards the conceptual history of Ottoman political notions. Turcica, no. 47, pp. 33-72. [In English].
Gomez-Diaz, D. (2007). Industrial revolution in Spain. Encyclopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1920. Westport: Greenwood Press, pp. 383-388. [In English].
Genç, M. (1994). Ottoman industry in the Eighteenth century: general framework, characteristics and main trends. Manufacturing in Ottoman Empire and Turkey: 1500-1950. New York: State university of New York press, pp. 59-86. [In English].
Fieldhouse, D.K. (1982). The Colonial Empires A Comparative Survey from the Eighteenth Century. New York: Macmillan. [In English].
Wallerstein, I. (2011). The modern World-System: The second era of great expansion of the capitalist world-economy, I730s-1840s. Berkeley: University of California Press. [In English].
Dursun, S. (2007). Forest and the State: history of forestry and forest administration in the Ottoman Empire. Doctoral dissertation. Sabancı university. [In English].
Charotti, C.J., Palma, N., dos Santos, J. (2022). American Treasure and the Decline of Spain. Economics discussion series. Manchester. [In English].
Klein, J. (1920). The Mesta: A study in Spanish economic history 1273-1836. London: Oxford University Press. [In English].
Pamuk, S. (2012). The Evolution Of Fiscal Institutions In The Ottoman Empire, 1500-1914. The Rise of Fiscal States: A Global History, 1500–1914. New York: Cambridge university press, pp. 304-332. [In English].
Casey, J. (1999). Early modern Spain: A social history. New York: Routledge. [In English].