The Ottoman Empire in the Tanzimat Era by Yonca Köksal

Author:Yonca Köksal [Köksal, Yonca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Modern, General, Middle East, Turkey & Ottoman Empire, Political Science, World, Middle Eastern, Social Science, Sociology, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429812514
Google: IBaGDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-02-01T01:34:37+00:00

Conclusion

Local intermediaries secured both state and local offices and controlled both vertical and horizontal brokerage in Ankara. They were central players and had a high degree of control over local relations. However, the changing structure of the Tanzimat put several pressures on them. Earlier privileges of notables such as the ayan were abolished, and local intermediaries had to utilize other positions they controlled. For example, being a tax collector was always a favorable position since it maintained economic linkages between the state and local groups. Most intermediaries also gained posts in local councils that preserved their power in local decision making. They also utilized their patronage ties; they married into other notable families, appointed their supporters to local bureaucracy and activated their mercantile ties through tax collection and trade.

Yet this was not a complete success story for local intermediaries. The reforms challenged existing structures and local networks with the centralization of provincial administration. Both the state and local players were not completely sure about the rules of the new game at the beginning. The new Tanzimat regime had to emerge in this under-defined arena of interactions. There were well-defined new regulations and laws for sure, but nobody – including the statesmen – had previous experience with them. Under this uncertainty, local actors employed the tools that were available to them.131 They used their previous control of both vertical and horizontal relations and utilized the local and state posts they held. The decision to shift between the state and local positions was a temporal decision based on actual constraints in the network. Yet these actors were not rational interest maximizers. Their positioning in the local network shaped their goals and actions. The flexibility to shift between the state and local positions minimized the tension between being a state agent and a local representative, and the local elite continued to be key players in local administration.

The reform outcome shows limited changes given the limited economic development, relatively secure geopolitical location, disconnected local structure and extractive state policies in the province of Ankara. The Ottoman state was able to maintain social control in broad terms even as many of its reforms foundered. Tribes were settled, and the bureaucracy was centralized gradually. Yet strong local families survived, and they controlled both state and local positions in the province. In the absence of local support and contribution, limited state funding did not improve local conditions much in Ankara. However, changes in the province of Ankara started a process that is similar to Edirne. Throughout the Tanzimat era, the centralization of state rule increased with the arrival of state officials from the imperial center and the sedenterization of tribes. The loosely connected local network that was dominated by a few local intermediaries started to change as the role of the powerful Cabbarzade family waned. The introduction of socioeconomic development projects, though limited in scope, contributed to local development and increased connections at the local level. The next chapter illustrates this local structure and the outcome of the Tanzimat reforms in the province of Edirne.

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