The story of Mahmud II birth is very amazing. It began in … Latin America. A ship with the family of a planter was returning from the French colonies in America to his historical homeland, when in the Mediterranean it was attacked by the pirates-Muslims. The pirates saw on the ship a very beautiful girl, who was sold to the sultan’s harem. The girl became the most loved wife of the sultan, and gave birth to the future ruler of the Empire – Mahmud II. Few people knew that the relative of the sultan’s young wife was Josephine, who in some years became … the wife of the emperor Napoleon. In this amazing way, Istanbul became related with Paris.
The reformer
Half-French and half-Turkish Mahmud II was as important for his country as Peter I for Russia, or Napoleon for France. Mahmud II made everything in order for his country not to fall behind in the technological aspect. He called to Turkey the best technologists of Europe, reformed and equipped his army with the best and newest weapons. Namely during his rule the 300 year epoch of janissaries, who were the threat of the whole East and Europe, ended. Janissaries, who were dissatisfied with these reforms, rebelled, and in some time whole Istanbul was involved in the fight. Government army and citizens, who remained faithful to Mahmud, stifled the rebellion, and almost all janissaries were killed.
The beginning
The beginning of Mahmud II rule was quite bloody. Becoming a sultan as a result of a plot, he made everything in order that the former sultan, who was a brother of Mahmud, never came to power again. He was killed by a hired assassin, as well as the advocates of the former sultan Mustafa IV were executed. After it, Mahmud could reform the country and army.
Secular country
Hundred and fifty years before to Ataturk, who made Turkey a secular republic, Mahmud II tried to weaken the influence of the religion on the subjects of the Ottoman Empire. In the country, there appeared book-printing, literature, journalism, penal and procedural codes. Sultan fought with corruption, but unsuccessfully. As his contemporaries recalled, in the Ottoman Empire it was possible to buy and sell everything, especially with the help of officials. Mahmud eagerly began to reform the State machinery that caused its agitation.
The results of his rule
On the one hand, Mahmud managed to rise up the country and take off the possible collapse. On the other hand, Serbia, Moldova, Walachia, Egypt, and Greece were lost. Even his kinship with the great emperor Napoleon did not help, for namely he took Egypt from the Ottoman Empire…
