ABSTRACT
Various economic and political developments that began in the early eighteenth century marked Europe’s emergence as a global force. Loss of the Crimea marked a new turning point for the Ottomans. This region was regarded as one of the empire’s true heartlands, since for centuries Crimean cavalry units had been essential in Ottoman campaigns in Europe and the Middle East. European societies had already begun to feel the effects of similar military changes. The new types of weapons, warfare, and troops that started to appear in Europe during the sixteenth century had a huge impact on political, economic, and social trends over the next two centuries. In 1792, Sultan Selim hired a staff of renegade German, Russian, and French officers to train a group of peasant soldiers in new European military techniques, using muskets provided by the British embassy. All the social, political, and economic trends occurring in the Ottoman Empire were also happening in Iran, but in a very different context.
