ABSTRACT
Thrust on the throne by Mustafa Alemdar Pasha, Mahmud IIfaced three significant crises which would determine whether or not the empire survived: the resumption of the Russo-Turkish war not terminated until the treaty of Bucharest in 1812; the Greek and Serbian revolts, which extended to 1830; and the invasion of greater Syria and Anatolia, 1831-40, by Mehmed Ali Pasha and his son, Ibrahim. The first two are the subject of this chapter. The reforms of Mehmed Ali, and Mahmud II’s own reforms, will be the focus of the following chapter. The confrontations between the Egyptian army and the new Ottoman forces in Anatolia and Syria are described in Chapter Nine.
