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The Sick Man Shows Signs of Recovery: The Ottoman Empire in the Aftermath of the Congress of London 1854-1866
The stirring military performance of the Ottomans against the Russians in the brief and bloody struggle for the Black Sea had caught many observers off guard, with numerous predictions that the Russians would hammer the Turks into submission until the British and French could respond by molibilising troops. [1] The Ottoman armies fighting the Russians to a stalemate had shown that the old empire was still functional as a fighting machine, though the great modernisation reforms continued afoot. In 1855, following the signing of the peace, the Edict of Imperial Reform (Islâhat Hatt-ı Hümâyûnu) was proclaimed which guaranteed the freedom of religion and equality under the law previously established under the 1839 Edict of Gülhane. The new reform extended the previsions of the previous edict by applying them to all citizens of the empire regardless of creed. [2] The reform also established reform committees for each community, composed of it's leading members. [3] The Civil Service which had greatly expanded as part of the reforms, was now open to all minorities while conscription was also extended to them as well. [4] The reforms established a national police force, the Gendarmerie which was extensively modelled on the French organisation. Like the civil service and the military this organisation was open to all Ottoman subjects, while all legal disputes were now held under "mixed tribunals" while all judicial proceedings were now public, while the penitentiary was reformed which included the abolition of corporal punishment. A further reform was the introduction of linguistic autonomy in judicial affairs and education, with minority languages granted equal status in regards to education (which saw the public school system extended by degree to cover the majority of imperial territory) and in judicial judgements, though both were subject to the newly established Ministry of Education and Ministry of Justice. [5] A programme of public works was instituted, with the construction of schools, hospitals, granaries, modernisation of the road network and the canal system within the empire in order to improve internal communications. The government also introduced plans to begin construction of a railway network and the establishment of a central bank, and borrowed money from British and French banks in order to part finance the war with the Russians. The strong military performance of the Ottomans encouraged further reform proposals, with plans to gradually industrialise and modernise the economy, through foreign capital. [6]


Abdülmecid, the reformist Ottoman Sultan

The autonomies granted to the Danubian Principalities, had encouraged the Romanian unionist movement which sought to unify Moldavia and Wallachia into a political union. Nominally under the suzerainty of the Ottomans, the principalities, under their respective rulers Grigore Alexandru Ghica and Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei had begun modernisation programmes, with the establishment of a gendarmerie in both principalities, the abolition of Roma slavery [7] and a conservative land reform which termed peasants as tenants and allowed them more freedom in moving between boyar properties. In Moldavia, censorship was abolished in 1856, which saw a flourishing in both literature and the press in the period. Following the Treaty of London, which granted further autonomy to Moldavia and Wallachia, plans to unify the principalities came afoot, though it faced fierce resistance from conservative factions and was greeted with distrust by both the Austrians and Ottomans. Following petitions to the French, the Moldavian cause for unification eventually had backing from a major power: the elections in 1858, saw the conservative anti-unionist candidacy of Gheorge Bibescu [8] defeated by the Moldavian liberal Alexandru Ioan Cuza who secured victory in both principalities and exploiting an ambiguity in the text of the Treaty of London declared himself Prince of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which following extensive negotiations between himself and the Sultan saw recognised in 1861, with the establishment of a unified parliament and cabinet reponsible to Cuza. The recognition and diplomacy, which had long consumed Cuza's state building efforts now took a back seat to the "immediate reforms" he had promised in 1859. In 1862, the new constitution declared the country the Principality of Romania with it's capital at Bucharest, though it's nominal suzerainty to the Ottomans remained intact.


Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, sometimes referred to as Prince Alexander I

Cuza introduced a programme of reforms aimed at modernising the country. The first was the secularisation of monastic lands, which seized the lands held by the Eastern Orthodox Church and transferred their ownership to the state. Compensation offered by the Romanian government at around 82,000,000 leu was accepted by the Church after a series of prolonged negotitions. [9] The issue land reform, with the abolition of the corvée system and the transferral of land ownerhsip to the peasants would prove to be a far thornier issue, with the conservative landowning classes viewing any reform that would reduce their economic power as a threat. The reform, was problematic since around two-thirds of land remained in the hands of the landowners, while a new levy introduced to defray the cost of the abolition of duties perfomed under the corvée system created a heavy burden on the majority of peasant landowners and ruined the poorest. The consolidation of land also bouyed the Boyars, who retained the birt third through consolidation, selling off their more undesireable plots to the newly emancipated peasant landowners. The poorly implemented land division devised under the scheme further complicated matters. A bill devised to grant the peasants title to the land they worked was defeated, as was a counter-proposal to abolish peasant dues and responsiblities while retaining boyar control of the land in question. In the end a compromise system of sorts, pushed through by the Conservative government of Barbu Cartagiu maintained a limited form of the corvée system in some lands, though the old privileges of the boyar class had been eroded. [10] More successful reforms, such as the introduction of a criminal code modelled on that of France and a publicly funded system of public primary schools, and began military reforms to establish a modernised Romanian army. The issue of land reform would continue to dog his government and in 1865, he was deposed in a coup. [11]

The new government looked abroad for a monarch, eventually settling on the figure of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders the second son of Leopold I of Belgium and the younger brother of Leopold II. Philippe, after several months of negotiations accepted the crown becoming Prince Phillip I of Romania (Filip I) in January 1866 with the promulgation of a new constitution that year extensively modelled on that of Belgium, with extensive freedoms guaranteed. Whether the new order would be able to secure the land issue, or whether it would default back to semi-serfdom was however anyone's guess.


Prince Phillip I of Romania

BRIEF NOTES

[1] The British and French did mobilise troops, though the quick proclamation of a peace rendered the process moot. Neither the Austrians or Germans mobilised their armies despite the diplomatic pressure to do so.
[2] The new extension of religious freedoms was part of a programme of encouraging loyalty on the party of minority subjects to the Ottoman state.
[3] The bodies were designed to discuss reforms necessary for both the Ottoman state and for the respective communities, and were composed of the leading members of each community.
[4] The conscription issue was controversial, but was seen as necessary in government circles as a payoff for the increased rights and responsibilities granted to minorities under the reforms.
[5] Respectively titled the Council of Instruction and the Tribunal Council, but referred to in the west by the aforementioned titles.
[6] The extensive loans leveraged by the government would see the gradual development of an modernised transport network, with European engineers imported as advisors. The loans would also partially fund further military reform, and the extension of the shipping capacity of the empire.
[7] The Roma had been subjected to slavery throughout the centuries, but following the increased radical tendencies within Romanian society the issue became more important politically, and by the 1850s abolition was a real possibility. In the aftermath of abolition however, the Romanian government adopted a widespread policy of social integration which consisted of four policies: the placing of Roma within villages (and not the fringes), the encouragement of inter-ethnic taxes, the banning of the Romany language in preference to Romanian, and the assimilation of Roma children into the newly established system of compulsory education. The policies were continued by both the Cuza government and the governments of Prince Phillip.
[8] A previous prince of Wallachia during the 1840s.
[9] The church had initially rejected the compensation offer, but faced with the prospect of losing their land and receiving nothing in exchange they eventually accepted.
[10] They still remained the most influential group, and formed the bulk of supporters for the Liberal and Conservative parties. Their influence would continue to dominate Romanian society long after the reforms had been introduced.
[11] A coalition of Liberals and Conservatives angered by the reform attempts overthrew him and sent him into exile in France, where he eventually died.

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