How Foreign Loans Undermined the Ottoman Empire: A Debt-Driven Decline (1854-1914)

Views: 551 The Ottoman Empire, often described in its later years as the “sick man of Europe,” did not fall solely from military defeats or territorial loss. A major factor in its decline was financial: its dependence on foreign borrowing, mounting debt, and the loss of fiscal sovereignty. Between roughly the mid-19th century and the early 20th century, the Empire’s weaknesses in taxation, its military and administrative demands, and its attempts at modernization pushed it into repeated borrowing from European lenders on onerous terms. As the debts spiraled, so too did political and territorial vulnerabilities, setting up foreign control over …

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