The ottoman army in the Tanzimat period (1839-1876)

ABSTRACTThere is not any state in the history that has not got an army. Armies arethe most effective facts both in the foundation period and in the maintanenceperiod of the presence of the states. A strong army is the assurance of the securityof the homeland. Any state with a weak army has got no chance for presence. Theworld history is full of examples of this fact.Turks have always cared for and tried hard to develop his army. Thissituaiton had continued in the Ottoman period as well. During the progressionperiod of being an empire for The Ottoman state, which had just riders as armedforces, the land forces and navy had occured as army.In this thesis ?The Land Forces in Ottoman Empire in The AdministrativeReforms Period? has been examined. Before mentioning the main part, thesituation of the Ottoman army, the weaknesses in the administration andconsequently in the army, the efforts of relieving these weaknesses, defeats andlookouts for solutions and reform actions for rehabilition of Ottoman Army untilthe dynasty of Selim III has been considered. Selim III was the first person tonotice the weaknesses in administrative structure of the army and tried to found anew army with a modern style of that period called ?Nizam-ı Cedid?.Selim III and Mahmut II, who abolished Yeniçeri Ocağı, an army with oldsytle, and founded Asakir-i Mansuriyeyi Muhammediye, an army with a modernstyle, were the most important empires in the reform history of Ottoman Empire.By the help of the refoms of these two empires, the basis of the modern army hadbeen formed and step had been taken in the way to educating new army officers.After the foundation of military academy for land forces and decleraiton of theadministrative reforms the importance given to the army had been increased andin the dynasty of Abdulmecid the army had been reformed. In the first part of thethesis, ?Army in the Classic Period of the Ottoman Empire?, in the second part?Army in the Administrative Reforms Period of the Ottoman Empire?, and in thethird part ?The Structure of the Army in the Administrative Reforms Period ofthe Ottoman Empire? has been examined. The main references of the thesis arearchive documents and monographies related to the topic.