So, the Ottomans.
On the one hand, they held onto Belgrade until 1867, and managed to make a good go of it as late as the Great War. On the other hand, it's hard not to feel like they underperformed; they fell behind their western names technologically, they didn't adop tthe printing press for centuries, etc. You see a lot of great ideas; a Suez canal, a Volga-Don canal, Ottoman naval assaults on Diu, etc, but none of these happened due to institutional inertia.
How can we get an Ottoman Empire that keeps up with the west?
On the one hand, they held onto Belgrade until 1867, and managed to make a good go of it as late as the Great War. On the other hand, it's hard not to feel like they underperformed; they fell behind their western names technologically, they didn't adop tthe printing press for centuries, etc. You see a lot of great ideas; a Suez canal, a Volga-Don canal, Ottoman naval assaults on Diu, etc, but none of these happened due to institutional inertia.
How can we get an Ottoman Empire that keeps up with the west?