The Effects of the Janissaries not being abolished?

hey, all. i just started playing Assassin's Creed: Revelations, which focuses quite alot on Constantinople, and i was reminded of an idea i had a long time ago:

What if the Janissaries were not abolished by Mahmud II in 1826?

i know very little about the janissaries so far, but am fascinated by them. so i thought it would be an interesting AH concept if they were not abolished and persisted through the rest of the 19th century and even on into the 20th. perhaps, say, to World War I and the time of Ataturk?
 

Deleted member 14881

The russians would vassalize the Balkans Mehmet Ali would get the middle east unless the Ottomans can maintain the Jannisaries military prowess.
 
The russians would vassalize the Balkans Mehmet Ali would get the middle east unless the Ottomans can maintain the Jannisaries military prowess.

Pretty much this. The Janissaries vaunted military prowless had disappeared centuries before their abolishment. The Janissaries were ,by that point, the Ottoman's Praetorian Guard. They had little to no military ability, were vehemently opposed to any reform or change of the Ottoman state, and deposed any Sultan who tried to change things for the better. If the Janissaries lasted any longer than they did, the Ottoman state would continue to rapidly decline and would no doubt soon be partitioned and destroyed.
 

PhilippeO

Banned
agree with Emperor Constantine, as a military force Janissary must be abolished, they useless and hindering reform.

but perhaps they might survive as distinct class of people, like Samurai class or noble class in Europe and Japan. It would be subgroup of Turks, with distinct tradition and custom, most will be Bektashi Sufi, they might preserve orta names as their middle names, preserving army slang in their language, and intermarried among themselves.
 

katchen

Banned
Just before the Jannisaries were abolished, Tsar Nicholas I copied the concept by drafting non-Christians into the Russian Army before 12 years old.See Wikipedia Cantonist section Cantonist and ethnic minorities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonist. The Cantonist system may have weighed particularly heavily on Russians of Jewish and Polish Catholic descent.
 
If they survived past 1900, probably all thy would be doing is orchestrating coups and getting involved in palace intrigue.
 
Top