ABSTRACT
During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the reforms Muhammad Ali and Mahmud II had inaugurated to revitalize their armed forces were extended into nonmilitary areas by their successors. The period from 1839 to 1876 is known in Ottoman history as the Tanzimat and marks the most intensive phase of nineteenth-century Ottoman reformist activity. During the Tanzimat, military improvements continued to receive attention, but the sphere of state-sponsored reforms was consciously extended to other areas as well. The Young Ottomans represent an attempt to reconcile the new institutions of the Tanzimat with the Ottoman and Islamic political tradition. European diplomats rushed in to protect European creditors. The numerous crises of the Eastern Question significantly influenced Ottoman foreign and domestic policies during the second half of the nineteenth century. The deposition of Isma'il and the accession of the weak Tawfiq gave the European powers freedom to arrange the disbursement of Egyptian revenues as they saw fit.
