1. *Ottoman Empire: External Pressures from Europe or Internal Ignorance* A. Trade Routes The wealth of the Ottomans was largely due to their presence on trade routes. However, European expansion and imperialism created new trade routes that bypassed Ottoman territories. Vast amounts of revenue began to disappear from the economy since the state collected tariffs on all good passing through the Empire. B. Ottoman Empire and Industry The economic relationships between the Ottomans and the Europeans shifted as Europeans increasingly bought only raw materials from the Ottomans, and then shipped back finished products manufactured in Europe. Since these finished products were produced with new, industrial methods, they were far cheaper than similar products produced in Ottoman territories. C. Greek Independence of 1821 The revolution that broke out in Greece in 1821 was primarily a nationalist uprising against the Ottoman Empire. While Congress of Vienna discouraged nationalism and revolution, European conservatives like Austria and France aided the Greeks in their revolution and disrupted the balance of power. Was it because of Christianity? Was because of greed? Was because of power?

2. In 1875, the Slavic peoples living in the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina led an uprising against the Ottomans in order to gain their freedom. The general weakness of the Ottomans led the two independent, neighboring Slavic states, Montenegro and Serbia, to aid the rebellion. The rebellion was part of a larger political movement called the Pan-Slavic movement, which had as its goal the unification of all Slavic peoples, most of whom were under the control of Austria, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire, into a single political unity under the protection of Russia. The Russians allied with the rebels and declared war against the Ottomans. The war went very badly for the Ottomans, and by 1878 they had to sue for peace. Under the peace treaty, the Ottomans had to free all the Balkan provinces, including Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria. Russia also took substantial amounts of Ottoman territory as "payment" for the war. E. The Balkan Rebellion of 1876 The Ottoman Empire had a dual economy in the nineteenth century consisting of a large subsistence sector and a small colonial-style commercial sector linked to European markets and controlled by foreign interests. Europeans saw the benefit of investing the Ottoman Empire in order to increase their wealth and prestige. For Example, the Ottoman regime could count on support only from Germany, whose friendship offered Abdül Hamid II a congenial alternative to British and French intervention. In 1902 Germany was granted a ninety-nine-year concession to build and operate a Berlin-to- Baghdad rail connection. Germany continued to invest in the Ottoman economy, and German officers held training and command posts in the Ottoman army. F. European Investors The first major Ottoman war was the Crimean War (1854-1856). Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Russia had slowly been annexing Muslim states in Central Asia. By 1854, Russia found itself near the banks of the Black Sea. Anxious to annex territories in Eastern Europe, particularly the Ottoman provinces of Moldavia and Walachia (now in modern day Czechoslovakia), the Russians went to war with the Ottomans on the flimsiest of pretexts: the Ottomans had granted Catholic France the right to protect Christian sites in the Holy Land (which the Ottomans controlled) rather than Orthodox Russia. That, according to the Russians, justified going to war with the Ottomans. The war soon became a European war when Britain and France allied with the Ottomans in order to protect their lucrative trade interests in the region. The war ended badly for the Russians; however, the war demonstrated the helplessness of the Ottoman Empire. The Crimean War initiated a decline in Ottoman morale and a helplessness. Europeans, for their part, no longer saw the Ottomans as an equal force to be reckoned with, but as a tool to be used in larger European concerns. D. The Crimean War