Greetings,
I am currently working on an essay wherein I try to analyse the question why the Ottoman empire began to "lag behind" in military power compared to the European powers (mainly the Habsburg Austrians of course) from the seventeenth century onwards, and I hope you can help answering my question, as I find it hard to compare the different factors on importance.
Please note that I am required to place the emphasis of the essay on matters military or connected with military culture. I am aware that the decline in might resulted from other interrelated processes as well as the military aspect, like decentralisation and weakening state power.
Currently I am using the military revolution debate (Parker, Roberts, Black etc.) as framework. This includes topics like the inefficient use of gunpowder, lack of modern fortifications and the general and increasing inability of the Ottomans to improve their army to modern standards. Connected to this are aspects such as the absence of modern scientific culture and good military academies.
I hope you can share your thoughts on the matter and maybe point me towards good sources I can use. Many thanks in advance!
How long is this essay supposed to be?
Suggesting things like "absence of modern scientific culture" is a bit of a red herring argument, since that is a cultural rather than a military argument, and one I don't think holds all that much water. I think you'd probably rather focus on an institutional/structural argument rather than a cultural one. What institutions were important in holding the Ottoman's back in terms of military reform? What structures of the empire might have made this difficult? Is it a problem inherent in those structures that made such reforms more difficult? I find arguments like this more sound simply because they achieve the same goal as the 'cultural' argument, but do so in a more focused (and in my opinion, more accurate and less possibly racist) manner. Was the Empire too big? Was it too backwards? Was it the Janissaries' influence? You should be careful as well to not ascribe the same causes throughout history. Was the 17th century defeat outside the gates of Vienna caused by military tactics/technology exclusively, or were there other issues facing the Ottomans?