The Crescent of the Sultan

What some book friends may not understand is what exactly the protagonist wants to reform, and they seem to have not seen it at all.

In fact, this is due to the subject matter itself. Foreign history is a niche in the entire History Channel, and the Ottoman Empire is a niche among niches.

For example, if I write about the Ming Dynasty, everyone can guess how to write about the Ming Dynasty, because it is just the three axes, all of which are badly written.

But the Ottoman Empire is different. The first reader's understanding of its own history is definitely not as good as that of our country. Secondly, the time period I selected is not a highlight moment.

The combination of these two means that everyone has less understanding, so everyone doesn't quite understand what the protagonist's situation is, and why there has been no movement despite the constant calls for reform.

So let’s make it clear that the prerequisite for reform is to have power. Does Selim have it? No!

I said in the writer's words in Chapter 43 that the power of the Ottoman Sultan was actually very divided, and this was only the central power (everyone must be clear here, centralization and absolute monarchy are not either centralized power or absolute monarchy) Yes, these are two different concepts and should not be confused).

What is the situation in Selim? The central power has been divided, and the local power is too great (this is actually due to the state system of the Ottoman Empire. I wrote before about why the Ottoman Empire did not annex Wallachia and the Moors. Davia actually failed to mention something. The wealth the Ottoman Empire extracted from the two principalities through the tax farming system was far greater than its own direct rule. The former was four times as much as the latter.

This led to the Ottoman Empire being very fond of using the tax farming system and developing a large number of local tycoons, including the Anatolia region.

But this group of powerful people was different from the vassal towns in the late Tang Dynasty. They were not as big as the vassal towns, so they did not dare to directly confront the central government. The central government was basically able to appoint governors with a single word.

But the central government cannot go too far. If it goes too far, everyone will get whatever situation they want.

The problem is that there are many powerful locals, decentralization of power at the central level, centuries of accumulated abuses, integrated interest groups, and the eyes of Austria and Russia.

In this case, if we directly reform it, we will be courting death.

Therefore, we must first centralize power (here refers to the concentration of power in the hands of the monarch), reduce vassals, win over, suppress, divide and disintegrate opponents.

What is needed to achieve these goals? For example, force is indispensable, so everyone will see a situation of partial reforms while centralizing power and reducing vassals.

This gives you a sense of why the protagonist does this and that for a while, as if there is no plan.

Some book friends asked if the main character’s fundamentals were not obvious, so I directly answered that he had no fundamentals.

Because the needs of the current vested interest groups basically conflict with Sudan's reform direction, this situation is not normal.

Finally, a book friend asked me to talk about my reform plan. In a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, given the examples I mentioned above, how else can it be reformed?

In fact, everyone who reads historical texts should have understood that the fundamentals of Sudan are very important. Who is Sudan’s fundamentals?

This has to go back to the issue of the Ottoman Empire’s state system that I mentioned before. Basically all its grassroots communities were controlled by local powerful people.

For example, the central government once directly appointed the governor of a province. However, the original governor was unwilling and won the election through direct universal suffrage and refused to step down. The central government had no choice.

Finally, I would like to ask for my reading and collection. The collection and collection ratio has almost halved compared to before, and the same is true for new collections.

If you book friends still don’t understand anything in the future, you can leave a message and I will answer it.

Niche themes are not easy to do, let alone a niche within a niche. I hope everyone can support it.