How the Ottoman Balkan Wars Lost the Empire's Heartland

The 1894 Sasun Resistance That Shook the Ottoman Empire

In the summer of 1894, in the mountainous Sasun region of the Ottoman Empire, Armenian villagers and fedayi fighters rose up against Kurdish aghas and the Hamidiye regiments. The revolt was brutally suppressed by Ottoman troops, leading to thousands of deaths and the first major international outcry over the 'Armenian Question'. This episode dives into the prelude: the tensions under Sultan Abdülhamid II, the role of the Armenian revolutionary committees (Hunchaks and Dashnaks), the ambiguous orders of the Vali of Bitlis, the siege of the village of Semal, and the massacre that followed. We explore how the Sasun resistance—though a military failure—forced the Great Powers (Britain, France, Russia) to intervene, resulting in a commission of inquiry and the May 1895 Reform Programme that Abdülhamid never truly implemented. Lucas and Luna discuss the echoes of this event in later Ottoman history and the long shadow it cast over the Armenian struggle for rights within the empire. #SasunResistance #1894 #ArmenianQuestion #HamidiyeRegiments #KurdishAghas #SultanAbdülhamidII #HunchakParty #DashnakParty #Bitlis #Semal #OttomanReforms #May1895ReformProgramme #GreatPowers #Massacre #ArmenianFedayi #History #FexingoHistory #OttomanEmpire Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1876 Ottoman Constitution: Reform That Backfired

In 1876, the Ottoman Empire adopted a constitution and elected a parliament, a bold attempt by reformist statesmen like Midhat Paşa to avert collapse. But Sultan Abdülhamid II, who had ascended the throne amid crisis, soon suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament, ushering in three decades of autocratic rule. This episode explores the brief constitutional experiment known as Kanun-ı Esasi: its creation by the heyet-i ayan and heyet-i mebusan, the role of the Young Ottomans, the 1876 coup that deposed Sultan Abdülaziz, and the war with Russia that Abdülhamid used as pretext to prorogue the parliament. We discuss why the constitution failed, how Abdülhamid's hamidiye system replaced it with centralized despotism, and the lingering legacy of that aborted parliamentary moment for the later 1908 Young Turk Revolution. #KanuniEsasi #MidhatPasa #AbdulhamidII #YoungOttomans #1876Constitution #OttomanParliament #HeyetiMebusan #OttomanReform #SultanAbdulaziz #RussoTurkishWar #ConstitutionalMonarchy #Tanzimat #OttomanEmpire #History #FexingoHistory #MiddleEastHistory #19thCentury #ReformAndReaction Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1914 Ottoman Naval Blacklist That Sank the Economy

In 1914, as the Ottoman Empire teetered on the edge of World War I, the British government placed the Ottoman Navy on a blacklist of firms banned from British shipyards. This episode traces how that decision, born from the seizure of two dreadnoughts—Reşadiye and Sultan Osman-ı Evvel—already paid for by public subscription, triggered a financial and diplomatic crisis. We join Lucas and Luna as they explore the role of the Ottoman Navy League, the public fundraising campaigns that turned naval construction into a national obsession, and the fateful moment Winston Churchill ordered the ships held. They discuss how the blacklist, combined with the existing capitulations and the Public Debt Administration, strangled Ottoman maritime trade and pushed the empire closer to the German alliance. #OttomanEmpire #NavalBlacklist #WinstonChurchill #Reşadiye #SultanOsmanıEvvel #Dreadnoughts #OttomanNavy #Capitulations #DüyûnıUmûmiye #WorldWarI #OttomanGermanAlliance #Churchill #NavalHistory #1914 #MiddleEast #History #FexingoHistory #Empire Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1908 Boycott That Crippled Austria-Hungary

In October 1908, Austria-Hungary unilaterally annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, setting off a diplomatic crisis that sparked a massive Ottoman consumer boycott of Austro-Hungarian goods. This episode of Why the Ottoman Empire Slowly Collapsed explores how the 1908 boycott—organized by the Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress (İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti)—became a powerful tool of economic warfare, mobilizing port workers, merchants, and ordinary citizens from Selanik to İzmir. We follow the role of finance minister Mehmed Cavid Bey, the impact on Austrian trade, and how the boycott revealed a new kind of nationalist resistance that bypassed the weakened state. But the victory came at a cost: it deepened Ottoman reliance on Germany and set the stage for the alliances of World War I. #1908Boycott #BosnianAnnexation #AustriaHungary #OttomanEmpire #YoungTurks #ItthatveTerakki #MehmedCavidBey #Selanik #Izmir #EconomicWarfare #Nationalism #DiplomaticCrisis #ConsumerBoycott #BalkanHistory #OttomanEconomy #FexingoHistory #History #MiddleEast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1839 Tanzimat Decree That Tried to Save the Ottoman Empire

Long before the Young Turks or World War I, the Ottoman Empire faced a crisis of survival. In 1839, under Sultan Abdülmecid I, the empire launched a sweeping reform movement known as the Tanzimat. This episode focuses on the Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif, the imperial decree that promised equality before the law, security of life and property, and a modernized tax system. We explore how this decree was a response to the defeat by Mehmed Ali of Egypt, the influence of reformist statesmen like Mustafa Reşid Paşa, and why the decree ultimately failed to stem the empire's decline. We discuss the role of the millet system, the impact of European pressure, and the contradiction between Islamic law and new secular codes. The Tanzimat's legacy — from the Meclis-i Mebusan to the Düyûn-ı Umûmiye — shaped every later reform, and its failures sowed the seeds of the 1908 revolution. A close look at the moment when the Ottoman state tried to reinvent itself — and what went wrong. #Tanzimat #GülhaneHattıŞerif #AbdülmecidI #MustafaReşidPaşa #MehmedAli #OttomanReform #MilletSystem #NizamıCedid #IslahatFermanı #KanunıEsasi #Meclis-iMebusan #OttomanEmpire #19thCentury #Reform #MiddleEast #FexingoHistory #History #OttomanDecline Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]