The Ottoman Land army in the period of Sultan Abdulaziz (1861-1876)

The Ottomans, like all the Turkish states in history, tried to maintain andstrengthen its military structure and power. The Ottoman Land ForcesOrganization was transformed into the change and development processesrapidly after the end of the 18th century to the period of Sultan Abdulaziz (1861-1876). In this process, the effort was began to establish more modernized andnational army by abolishing the Janissary Army.The Sultan Abdulaziz took an outstanding step in the nationalisation ofThe Ottoman Land Forces, in its numerical increase, and also in themodernisation of military industry by taking into account the preceding reforms.The Ottoman Land Forces were separated into three parts, namely Nizamiye(Regular Army), Redif (Reserve) and Müstahfız (Reservist) by the Regulation ofthe 21 June 1869.It was intended to increase the number of soldiers by extending the periodof the obligation of military service from 12 years to 20 years. The principles ofenlisting in the army were determined again by putting the Regulation of NewMilitary Conscription with 77 articles into force as from March 1870.According to the Regulation of 1870, all muslim citizens were obliged to dothe military service and the Ottoman Land Forces were separated into 6 armies.The number of the Ottoman Land Forces at the end of the peirod of SultanAbdulaziz reached the number of 600.000 soldiers.It can be said that the policy followed by the Ottoman state in order totransfer the western military technology was achieved at a desirable level.In spite of the Ottoman financial straits, the Sultan Abdulaziz gave greatimportance to exportation of military equipments from the European countriesthrough getting into dept to persons or to companies, to the production of someequipment in the Ottoman factories, to mining the raw materials and to build therailroads for military service.During the period of Sultan Abdulaziz, in which there emerged a fewforeign policy issues, the outstanding steps were for some matters such as theobligation of military service for all the Ottoman citizens, the strengthning ofmilitary institution and the military educational system, the increase in thenumbers of the Ottoman Land Forces and its modernization.