ABSTRACT
With the succession of Selim III in 1789 the Ottoman empire entered an era of transition which, during its nineteenth-century phase, was to become known as the Tanzimat (meaning, literally, regulation). In effect, this process served as a bridge between the decline of the traditional order and the establishment of the Turkish republic in 1923. The change was initiated and sustained from the top as a series of sultans and statesmen attempted to impose on their country some of the administrative, military and educational institutions of the West, in the belief that without such reforms their state would eventually collapse in the face of external attacks and internal chaos.
