Pax Ottomanica and the Resilience of Empires

Abstract

The article is a review of a new study by famous Russian historians V. S. Mirzekhanov and L. V. Lannik. This book analyzes the history of the Ottoman Empire in the period from the First Constitution (1876) to the Lausanne Peace Treaty (1923). The monograph consists of four chapters, an introduction and a conclusion. The authors review some traditional ideas about the history of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including the wide- spread thesis about the long-term and systemic crisis of Turkish statehood and the permanent socio-economic decline of the Ottoman Empire. The book shows the dynamic development of Turkey under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the attempts of the Ottoman government to find the optimal development model, taking into account numerous internal and external threats and risks. The book is based on both an in-depth analysis of historical literature and a careful and new reading of a large body of published historical evidence.