A World Made Simple: Law and Property in the Ottoman and Qing Empires

The Ottoman government was clearly responding to domestic concerns, many of which were exacerbated by international pressures. Unlike the case of eighteenth-century Fujian, however, these Ottoman efforts were part of a conscious, European-style, state-building project and were specifically designed to address, in part, the challenge of European expansion. The Ottoman Land Law was promulgated as part of a larger reform project of centralization and Europeanization called the Tanzimat Reforms. These reform efforts themselves unfolded within the context of profound historical transformations in the latter centuries of Ottoman rule. The challenges posed by European capitalism and colonial expansion cast a newer, more disturbing light on the decentralizing state structure and inclined the Ottomans to embark on a concerted programme of fundamental reform. The Ottoman government felt that communal ownership discouraged the sorts of investments and improvements in agriculture that were necessary to increased production.