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the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire
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Middle East politics
Situated in the country currently known as Turkey, the Ottoman Empire comprised of combined states that were located in the Middle Eastern part of the world. The Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in the 18th century. The leaders of the empire were intent on expending its territories so as to make it the most successful empire during this period. The Ottomans thus made it priority to strengthen their alliance taking any opportunity that they had. The Empire was structured differently from the other empires such as the Roman Empire. At the top of the list was the Sultan who was the absolute leader in that all the decisions he made were final and thus could not be challenged. The Ottoman Empire was defined by prosperity, success and hard work. These were qualities that were instilled in all the newly formed states. Despite this, the empire experienced some upheavals that led to its decline. The fall of the empire led to the rise of independently run states that proved to be successful on their own. This was brought about by various factors that to date have played a big role in the growth and development of these states (Mitchell, p. 237).
This research paper looks at the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire. It focuses on the existing Arab states that were part of the empire during the 18th century. It later analyses the factors that prevented the states from merging into a concrete union that would have proved advantageous in the long run.
The 18th century was a pivotal time in the history. Most of the countries were scrambling for new territories so that they could expand on their empire. The expansion of territories, though difficult was very important for the strategic position of the countries. The Ottoman Empire was one of the countries that took advantage of the weaker territories. These territories were forced to take on some of the policies, cultural aspects and lifestyle of the empire. These empires were assigned new leaders that brought about different ideas that proved to be a threat to the survival of the empire. Apart from this, there were other factors that led to the decline of the empire and the birth of new Arab states (Blanning, p. 129).
One of the most important factors to note concerning the decline of the Ottoman Empire was that the empire begun to lose its grip periodically. This shows that the decline of the empire was expected lasting up to more than three centuries. It was difficult to manage the activities of all the states due to the wide landscape the territories. One of the reasons that led to the deterioration of the empire was the fact that it was surrounded European states. These states did not only have a different political structure, they also varied in areas of social standing and religion. The European countries were more advanced in regard to the rate of growth and development they were experiencing. Some of these features led to the rulers of the ottoman states to question the way in which they were ruled. This later triggered the need to separate the states so as to strengthen the power at the grassroots. The aggressive expansion of the Europeans was so effective to the point that some of the sultans choose to adopt their system of governance (Carter, p. 287).
The Arab states later formed their own form of identity in that they broke away from the principle authority and formed their own alliances. This led to differentiation within the states. Despite this the states managed to maintain some similarities that reflected on the Ottoman Empire. The location of the empire enabled the states to trade with the Europeans who were intent of expanding their territories. These goods were of a higher quality and cheaper prices than the goods that were created in the states. This eliminated the need for trade amongst the states further exposing and making themselves vulnerable to the Europeans. The influence of outside countries such as the USSR threatened the survival of the empire. The Russian army was intent on driving away some of the states from the capital of Istanbul. Istanbul was repeatedly threatened by the outside forces to the extent that they had to seek refuge outside the empire. This situation was not ideal for the success of the empire in that the breakage signalized a weakness in the empire (Mitchell, p. 234).
The first countries to be separated from the empire were Romania and Bulgaria; these countries were taken over by powerful Russia. The Russian authorities did not waste time taking over the political, economic and social structure of the states. With a new system of government, the two territories grew into their own and thus formed their own identity. The formation of their own structure made the countries strangers to the empire to the point that they were unable to unite when they got their own freedom. This forced the countries to adapt to their newly acquired lifestyle shunning the traditional norms that their forefathers were accustomed (Findley, p. 161).
The next countries to deflect from the empire were Cyprus and Egypt. These two countries are presently located next to Greece and Libya respectively. When Britain took control of these two states, it ensured that they adopted the system of all the other British colonies. This meant that both countries were adopted a democratic style of governance that were defined by the introduction of the three executive wings of power. The Egyptians were predominantly a Muslim state at this period in time. This may have been influenced by their previous colonialist who was Islamists in nature. The British however did not place emphasis on the need to convert the Egyptians. In the case of Cyprus which is part of current Greece, the island was divided into the north and the south that were Muslim and Christian respectively. The fact that the island consisted of differ nationalities led the country to integrate and form its own culture which was influenced by the strong presence of their new masters. The factors played a big role in the continued separation of the two states. Both Egypt and Cyprus managed to get their independence from England at different points in their history. They were then forced to develop further on their own and form newly independent countries that were in charge of their own sovereignty (Findley, p. 162).
Austria also played a big role in the separation of the Ottoman Empire. Located near Russia, the country had defined itself as an authority in this part of the world. This was proved when they took control of Bosnia which was originally integrated into the empire. Austria went on to rule the new state for a long period which once again influenced the country to adapt to the formation of its own system of governance that was relative to their colonial masters. The exit of Austria from Bosnia, gave the country the freedom to govern itself using their own representatives. The remaining states were left at the mercy of both France and Britain who agreed to divide the countries into equal territories (Carter, p. 287).
The division of the remaining parts of the empire led to the complete disintegration of the once powerful states causing the empire to collapse. The empire was however not removed from the geographic map in that the Turks survived the wrath of the Europeans. Like most of the states of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey consisted of both Christians and Muslims. The country went on to develop their own system of governance maintaining some of the laws that were upheld by the sultans. Turkey grew to become one of the westernized Middle Eastern states in the present day. This may have been brought about by the fact that part of the country was located in Europe.
The separation of the empire was that of a gradual kind in that it occurred during different phases. The separation thus reflected the formation which was also done periodically. This factor might have been the reason for the lack of integration between the states of the Ottoman Empire. The fact that the empire was dissolved by different countries was the main cause for the information of different countries which later adopted new ideologies. These conflicting ideologies made it impossible for the unification of the former states once they acquired their freedom (Blanning, p. 127).
The colonization of a state involves changing the political, economic and social-cultural structure to resemble the one of the colonial masters. Once a country is taken over, it is force to change all aspects of their lives to reflect their current rulers. The Ottoman Empire occupied a large area that made it difficult for the rulers to maintain some form of organization. This encouraged the provincial leaders to disintegrate from the central government forcing the empire to become weak. The weakening of the empire led to the colonization of most of the states by the power hungry Europeans who enforced their cultures on the new territories. This played a big role in the creation of newly formed countries that had their own identity. The formation of independent states made them form their own influential governments that were capable of managing their own affairs. This meant that there was no need for the former member of the empire to integrate into a concrete union (Blanning, p. 126).
In conclusion, the Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful and influential empires that were created in the 18th century. This had its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages was that the central government could not prevent the split of the states when attacked by the Europeans. The colonization led to the formation of independent states that adopted new ideologies making the states have their own identity. The lack of the same political, social-cultural and economic structures led to the development of new successful countries that could not compromise on their sovereignty by reuniting to form a concrete union.
Works Cited
Mitchell, Stephen. A History of the Later Ottoman Empire, AD 284-641: The Transformation of the Ancient World. Oxford University Press. 2006.
Blanning, T. (2003). The culture of power and the power of culture: Old regime Europe 1660-1789. Oxford University Press. 2003.
Carter, Charles. The Soviet Union and the PLO since the war in Lebanon. The Middle East Journal 40(2) 285-305.
Findley, Carter. A monetary history of the Ottoman Empire .Journal of inter-disciplinary history, 33 (1)161-163.2009.
A Guide To Ethical Living
A Guide To Ethical Living
Ethical living is the development of the right attitude that influences ideas and decision making processes in accordance with ethics and moral values. Ethical living is particularly concerned with maintaining the right principles in regard to environmental cases, consumerism, and animal welfare. Presently it is more of a personal initiative rather than an organized social movement. Ethical living is a development of sustainable living where an individual starts by taking a series of small lifestyle changes with the aim of reducing their general effect on the environment. Deciding to start living ethically is as easy as beginning to switch off electric lights or plugging off electrical appliances like the television when leaving a room, recycling products that do not decompose like paper bags, using public means of transport rather than personal vehicles, and even using environment friendly modes of transport for example a bicycle. It may also involve buying local organic produce and even going a step further to re-use waste water. With the popularity of ethical living gaining momentum, various environmental movements propose that the duty of ethical practice be enforced on large businesses which include production firms and multinational corporations. They base their argument on the fact that individual lifestyle changes have less significant effects to the environment than changes caused by the large corporations and industries if they decide to operate ethically.
In general terms an individual or a multinational corporation which decides to live or operate ethically needs not to incur any extra monetary cost or employ any form of extra physical effort to practice it. Living or practicing an environment-friendly activity or in other terms living ethically should be encouraged and both governmental and voluntary groups should come up with ways of educating and advising the society on how and why they should practice the virtue of ethical living. The following is an ethical living action plan whose ideas and recommendations, if adhered to, will make ethical living a reality.
A good population if not all people should learn and practice vegetarianism. From health statistics, it is estimated that sixty to seventy percent of almost all diseases and approximately a third of most cancers are connected to diet. This notion and the wish to live ethically have attracted different individuals to vegetarianism although others have diverse reasons to be vegetarians. Most of the individuals are perceived to be vegetarians so as to live longer or sustain healthy lives and perhaps perform their part in reducing pollution. Others make the move with the wish to protect the Earth’s natural resources while others are morally opposed to consuming animals. Scientific analyses have proved numerous advantages linked to a plant based diet plan and in fact, advice the majority of the population to eat calories through fruits, vegetables and grain products. They continue to argue that vegetarians have very low chances of contracting long term degenerative diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and particular kinds of cancer which include; colon, breast, lung and stomach cancer. A good number of vegetarians have acknowledged the destruction the meat business is bringing to our environment. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approximately 174,000 miles of contaminated rivers come from chemicals and animal waste products from factories. Livestock farming activities that that also pollute the environment include waste from enclosed animal activities and pesticide spraying. Another advantage of people going vegetarians is that all the grain generated and meant to feed animals for slaughter is going to benefit the vast population of human beings and in so doing save them the cost treating the many diseases associated with animal products. Finally the population is going to save a considerable amount of money spent on treating diseases resulting from food borne illnesses resulting from the consumption of food reach in proteins like fish, poultry and meat. In essence vegetarianism is a vital practice to individuals who wish to live ethically.
Another strategy in achieving ethical living is by coming up with successful home based business. Ordinary individuals who have never thought of becoming entrepreneurs are highly advised to use a successful home based business to be able to if possible compete with the chief executive officers in the leading companies and other multi-millionaires. The first role to play in building a successive home based business is opting for a legitimate home based business to start with and come up with an attainable competitive advantage. For instance learning new skills and being able to access upper edge technologies and systems at your reach for example the web site for marketing will be advantageous. An individual with the tools for doing business, systems and technology in place, he or she can comfortably copy and master the marketing strategies of all successful businessmen globally and in fact come up with other methods of transacting business most marketers know nothing about to come up with a successful home based business. The major problem comes with the majority of individuals spending a lot of time searching for a business instead of taking the first step to start one however below are the major requirements in building a successful home based business; to begin with one need to have a lawful ethical business with a products that have stand alone value and a compensation plan that can give a worthwhile money making prospect. Secondly an individual need to have privileged information to understand the essential marketing principles. Third and most important the person must have an established marketing system that will heavy lift your business. Finally the individual ought to have a qualified coach and mentor to inculcate him on the smart marketing and direct him through the process. Because of the above mentioned strategies, home based business industry is rapidly growing with incredible wealth opportunities for all persons bold enough to grasp the moment and take action.
People and the society as a whole should learn to buy homegrown products. This exercise however must not be treated as an issue of advocating for racism in pretence of living ethically but allows an individual to watch those products that are miles and miles away. For instance, an individual residing in the United Kingdom buying a lamb from New Zealand thousands of miles away comes with a lot of environmental hazards that can be done away with by simply buying one locally. The fumes from the vehicle transporting the lamb will definitely pollute the environment all the way depriving the innocent population the fresh air they dearly need. The loud noise from the very vehicle will pollute the otherwise serene environment in the country sides as it traverses through and considering the distance, millions of people will be affected by the lone desire of an individual who had an alternative of buying the same lamb locally. Individuals especially those on holidays should be advised to spend their vacations at home rather than flying abroad. I believe this option will save them the money and the stress associated with such endeavors and in so doing save the planet from undesired climatic changes.
Individuals should learn and practice buying fair-trade goods. Among the goods that can be fair-traded include wine, rice ice cream, honey, cereals tea, bananas, chocolate and even beer and always remember that they must have the Fair-trade logo. The logo simply indicate that the products have met the required standards in that all the people involved in the chain of production have toiled in logical conditions for reasonable pay and hence “fair-trade”. Not that these products are any expensive compared to the top brands but the money realized from the sale of these products goes the poverty ridden people. It is therefore not like giving money to charity because these people have worked for it rather than beg and therefore they are accorded dignity as well.
People should learn to live like the ancient Shaolin monks of China who possessed very little but lived a rich life. Despite the harsh and extreme martial art system they trained and the meditation they undertook, these people had extremely few belongings, practiced vegetarian diet and were so keen not to waste any of their natural resources. Today people are advised to donate clothing and other domestic items that are not in use to those in need, maintain a basic essential wardrobe that is suitable for all social events and keep away from up-to-the-minute clothing. Their spending desires should be limited as much as possible and finally to sustain the economy, people are advised to buy food and clothing to those in need and cannot afford them.
Another applicable and easier way of living ethically is by using compost. Individuals should buy the cheap and the easy to manage compost bins to deal with the compostable leftover food scraps. If this alternative is not applicable people should give the food scraps to community organizations that can make use of them.
The final work plan I am going to suggest is the recycling used water for other appropriate use. For example sink water can be reused to wash floors, the car, flush the toilet or to irrigate the garden. If your dishwasher cleans the dishes thoroughly then skip the pre-rinse procedure to save on water. It is also wise to have a full load for you to do laundry.
Conclusion
This research article has in details expounded on the various applicable choices an individual can practice in order to live ethically. The article has detailed the vast advantages of practicing vegetarianism among them avoiding diseases associated with animal products. The article has also implored on why and how to build a successful home based business other than advocating for persons to buy home grown products. The research article has also campaign for people to buy Fair trade products, advised people to learn and practice living with less assets, come with easy to manage compost giving an alternative to it and finally the article has mentioned the various ways of recycling water.
A Great teacher is an inspiration
“A Great teacher is an inspiration”. This means that they never fail to inspire their students and the people around them. I have found great pleasure in learning and teaching language for as long as I can remember. Whenever I look at my past life, I realize I have had an inherent desire for teaching. In my younger days, I always opted to play in school rather than play at home with my siblings. Despite the degree of teaching that I may pursue, I knew that teaching was my ultimate desire. Whether I was referred to as a nursery school teacher, an ‘ustazah’ (a person who teaches religion), a primary or high school teacher or a professor in college or university, I knew what my target was: to become a teacher.
However, the path to becoming a teacher was an easy one. The decision to become a teacher was almost crushed. My parents did not give me much of a chance to become what I wanted to be after college. At that point in life, I felt that I was denied the chance to fulfill my dream. I had already chosen to further my studies and take to Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). On the contrary, I was forced to take science stream at a matriculation college. To my parents, and the society in general, science stream is by far the most important and superior of all other subjects. As a result, I got enough marks to secure a place in the university. At university level, my matriculation results denied me a chance to take TESL as a course. Fortunately, I managed to pull my self together in my second semester. I decided to improve on the course I was doing so that I would improve on my grade and from then on get above 3.0 each semester. Despite all these hurdles, I did not give up my dream of pursuing teaching as a career. In my fourth semester, I went to appeal to the Academic Department for a course change from Bachelor of English to a Bachelor of Education. However, I received a letter a few weeks later stating that the program would not accept new students. This was in regard to the quota approved by the ministry of education was up to capacity.
Even though I lacked an opportunity to teach, I took up any events that would require me to teach or share knowledge. Such programs like the National Language Camp organized by the University of Putra, Malaysia in partnership with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development for school children is still very memorable as I had the role of a facilitator. The event was tiresome but I did not stop to relax. It was very exhilarating and it offered personal satisfaction that I had been dying for. The experience of teaching the students was very overwhelming. Whenever I involve myself in programs that require teaching English to school children or in orphanages always elicits much passion. It rouses me to become a volunteer in other programs as well as being a teacher in programs that involve community service or deal with the disabled. I have since learnt that we can be inspiring in a great many ways. When I was a Liaison Officer (L.O) in the FESPIC games in 2006, cultural differences brought out the best in me. Being a L.O implies that you shoulder the burden of being the connection between the designated contingent and the outside world during their stay in Malaysia. Being foreigners, they do not understand our ways, culture, language, or how activities go on in our country. Our main task was to facilitate their stay in our country as well as tend to their needs at any time they request. Though it was challenging, I found it to be a rewarding experience. Our leadership skills were brought to test as we learnt to execute our tasks independently. The most rewarding part was the opportunity to communicate with different people from different countries. It was an honor being an ambassador for my country.
Presently, with a pointer of 3.75 in my masters program, am glad that things turned out the way they did. As ambassadors, we were required to be on top of our game. We had to be committed, dedicated, and efficient and not to mention punctual at all times. Another important aspect that was to be portrayed as we showed them around the school was the importance we placed on our values. They were to be relayed inform of politeness, respect, and unity of our culture. This shaped me to becoming a success-driven individual who would stop at nothing to achieve his dreams. This enthusiasm to become a better person has roused my passion and led me to apply for a chance to pursue the career of my dreams and achieve the immeasurable experience acquired from teaching.
In summary, I am who I am because of the significant life experiences that have shaped me. I believe that my passion and enthusiasm for teaching and learning language satisfy the longing I have for in life. I further believe that I have a great deal to give back to the institution that helps me realize my potential and improve in teaching, learning, and life in general.