Reform and Rupture

This third book traces how the Ottoman Empire tried to reinvent itself—and why reinvention was not enough. Beginning with reformers who believed a modern army and a rule-bound bureaucracy could save the state, it follows the Tanzimat project, the growth of new schools and publics, and the arrival of steam, telegraph, and rail. These changes produced opportunity and conflict at once, strengthening central authority while sharpening questions of citizenship, language, and belonging. As Balkan nationalisms and Great Power rivalry escalated, constitutional experiments collided with authoritarian security politics, culminating in the Young Turk era and the empire’s descent into near-continuous war. Moving through the Arab provinces, the Balkan crucible, and the catastrophic pressures of World War I, the book shows how governance, identity, and survival became inseparable—until occupation and resistance remade sovereignty itself. The story ends in 1922–1923 with the abolition of the sultanate and the emergence of a new political order, revealing how modern state-building grew out of imperial crisis rather than replacing it cleanly.