WI: Napolean fights for the Ottomans...

European history during the Napoleonic period is not my forte, but I've always been intrigued by the possibility, either due to a revolution going wrong, or other happenstance, to Napoleon switching his allegiance to the Sublime Porte and fighting for them. He had a fairly high level of respect for Islam and Empire for a western man of his time. ALso, Selim III was interested in modernizing and westernizing the Ottoman military. Finally, the Ottomans and the French had fairly close relations through this period.

Someone with a deeper understanding of this era in history could probably fill me in on the best POD, but let's assume Napoleon works his way into the Ottoman hierarchy and gains a fairly high rank in the military (would probably necessitate conversion, but I doubt Napoleon would really care). What would the ramifications be for the Ottomans? Would his military and administrative skills be enough to reverse the long-term decline of the Ottomans?
 
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Well, let us assume for whatever reason the Napoleon is kept from advancing within the French Military. No promotions, and all of his victories going to some other guy could force his hand into leaving, for a while at least, and becoming a mercenary for the Ottomans. Not sure he'd see much action except putting down rebellions in the Balkans, but you never know...
 
Well, let us assume for whatever reason the Napoleon is kept from advancing within the French Military. No promotions, and all of his victories going to some other guy could force his hand into leaving, for a while at least, and becoming a mercenary for the Ottomans. Not sure he'd see much action except putting down rebellions in the Balkans, but you never know...

Might be fun to consider the Ottomans...with Nappy-reformed military...coming into the French Revolutionary Wars (there would likely still be wars going on between Revolutionary France and the rest of Europe, but they obviously wouldn't be called the Napoleonic Wars in the ATL) in about 1805 as an ally of the French, with Nappy commanding the Ottoman army as it stomps on Austrian and Russian armies in southeastern Europe. :D
 
Reforming the empire's military wasn't as simple as getting one French guy to do it all. It required a long-term plan of reform of many aspects of society and government that couldn't be done overnight. The Ottomans did manage it, as evidenced by being able to beat the British with inferior numbers during WWI for the first three years of war.

Napoleon has no chance of being some sort of supernatural reform dude, leading the Ottoman army to victory over Russia or something like that.

Where he could make a difference, though, is in the artillery arm, which was up to snuff by Western standards. An artillerist like Napoleon could probably make a significant difference in doctrine, drill, tactics, and training.

That's not nothing, but it's not going to change the game, either. It could set a basis for somewhat better results in reform later, but then it could also result in reforms that die when he leaves. It wasn't until the late 1820s that reform gathered enough impetus to be an irreversible trend.
 
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