Ottoman Empire Series | Episode 3: Why Did Slaves Run the State?

[The System Most Misunderstood by Modern People]

When people hear the word "slave,"
what kind of image comes to mind for most?

Having freedom taken away.
Being forced into heavy labor.
Being bought and sold.
Being whipped into working.

Certainly, such slave systems existed in many places throughout world history.
However, the Ottoman Empire's slave system was vastly different.

Of course, from the perspective of modern values,
the slave system itself is not something to be affirmed.
But to understand history, one must view the systems of the time through the structures of that time.

In fact, in the Ottoman Empire,

slaves became the highest-ranking state officials.
Slaves led the military.
Slaves assisted the Emperor.
Slaves managed the empire.

Such things actually happened.
This is extremely unusual in world history.

Slaves, who would normally be the ones being ruled,
were running the state itself.
Why was such a mechanism created?

The answer lay in the "design of loyalty"
that the Ottoman Empire conceived.

[The Greatest Enemy Was Not Outside, But Inside]

As a state grows,
enemies do not appear only from the outside.
What is more frightening is the inside.

Powerful nobles,
local lords,
prestigious families,
warlords.

While they support the state, they sometimes hijack it.
Looking at world history,
many great empires have been weakened more by internal strife than by external enemies.

The Roman Empire was like that.
Chinese dynasties were like that.
European countries were like that.

When powerful nobles become stronger than the Emperor,
the state splits.

The Ottoman Empire naturally understood this danger.
That is why they arrived at one bold conclusion:

"Do not rely on family lineage."

If you seek loyalty through blood ties,
the state will surely break.
Then, the state should cultivate loyalty itself.

From here, a highly original system in world history begins.

[The Concept of the Devshirme System]

The Ottoman Empire had
a system called the Devshirme system.

It was a system where the state periodically gathered young boys from Christian populations in places like the Balkans
and educated them.
In modern times, it is often discussed critically as "boy conscription."
Certainly, since they were separated from their families, there were harsh aspects for those involved.

On the other hand, historically,
there were not a few who received an education through this system
and greatly elevated their social status.

What is important is not good or evil.
It is what they were aiming for as a state design.
The boys

received Islamic education.
Learned to read and write.
Learned administration.
Learned military arts.
Learned etiquette.
Their career paths were decided according to their abilities.

If excellent, to the court.
If even more excellent, to the bureaucracy.
And the most excellent ones

became Grand Viziers.
Commanders-in-chief.
State central figures.

They were promoted this far.

In other words, the state
was cultivating human resources from scratch.

[Choosing by Ability, Not Lineage]

In Europe at the time,
many important positions were monopolized by nobles.
Birth was everything.

But the Ottoman Empire was different.

Having ability.
Having loyalty.
Being able to serve the state.

That was the most important thing.
Of course, it was not a perfect meritocracy.
But for the time, it was surprisingly flexible.

In fact, among the successive Grand Viziers,
there are many who came from the Devshirme.

In other words, many of the top officials who supported the Emperor
were not prestigious nobles.
They were human resources cultivated by the state.

In modern corporate terms,
it is like an employee who was trained from a new graduate becoming the president,
rather than someone from the founding family.

That is why in the Ottoman Empire,
capable human resources were supplied continuously.

[They Could Pledge Loyalty Precisely Because They Were Slaves]

This is the most important point.
They had no one to pledge loyalty to other than the Emperor.

Not local lords.
Not powerful families.
Not local magnates.

The state cultivated them.
The state educated them.
The state gave them status.

Therefore, the one to whom they returned the favor was also the state.
Normally,

family is the top priority.
The clan is the top priority.
The hometown is the top priority.

But those from the Devshirme were different.
The state was their greatest place of belonging.

In other words, the Ottoman Empire
designed loyalty itself as a system.

This was the core of the human resource system
that supported a state that lasted for six hundred years.

[An Unknown Secret Story: From Slave to Grand Vizier]

In history, there are countless figures who grew up from the Devshirme system.
The prime examples are the many figures who later became Grand Viziers.
They became the Emperor's closest aides,

handled diplomacy,
led armies,
managed imperial finances,
and organized laws.

In other words, they handled the management of the empire itself.

In an era when nobles dominated politics in Europe,
in the Ottoman Empire, "human resources cultivated by the state" were running the country.
Herein lay the Ottoman Empire's greatest originality.

And this group of human resources directly under the state
did not end with administration.

They were also applied to the military.

From there, the "Janissary Corps,"
feared as the world's strongest, was born.

[The Janissaries, Feared as the World's Strongest]

Even if the state cultivates excellent human resources, the empire cannot be protected by that alone.
To maintain a vast territory, overwhelming military power is necessary.
Therefore, what the Ottoman Empire built was a standing army that was groundbreaking in world history.

That was the Janissary Corps.

Janissary means "new army."
Many of them were boys raised through the Devshirme system.

They received state education from a young age,
accumulated military training,
learned discipline,
and had loyalty to the Emperor drilled into them.

In other words, they were

"professional soldiers cultivated by the state."

[Why Were the Janissaries Strong?]

At the time, in many countries, when war broke out, nobles would gather soldiers to fight.

Farmers in peacetime.
Soldiers only in wartime.
Or each lord would have their own army.

This was common.
But the Ottomans were different.

The Janissaries continued training all year round.
They were an army even when there was no war.
The state paid their salaries.
The state also managed their equipment.
The chain of command was also unified.

A standing army, which seems natural in modern times, was extremely advanced for the time.
Moreover, they had no entanglements with local lords or powerful nobles.
The only one they pledged loyalty to was the Emperor.

Therefore, the chain of command did not get disrupted.
Military control did not collapse either.

The Ottoman Empire had shifted to the idea of "cultivating soldiers"
rather than "gathering soldiers."

[The Elite Corps That Shook the World]

The Janissary Corps was an existence feared by European countries.
They had strict discipline and were excellent at group combat.
Furthermore, they are known for actively introducing firearms from an early stage.

In the 1453 Siege of Constantinople,
they breached walls that had been considered impregnable through tactics combining cannons and infantry.

Medieval warfare had a large aspect of relying on the individual bravery of each person.
But the Ottomans were different.

They fought as an organization.
They fought with discipline.
They won with a mechanism.

This idea would have a major influence on later modern armies.

[The Reason Why Slaves Were Made Top Officials]

Here, I want to think about it again.
Why did the Ottoman Empire dare to make heavy use of people from slave backgrounds?

It was not because there was a shortage of human resources.
It was to protect the state.

If powerful nobles dominated both the military and politics, they would eventually become a threat to the Emperor.
In history, there are countless examples of that.
Therefore, the Ottomans

did not create "strong nobles."

Instead,

they chose the path of cultivating "strong human resources directly under the state."

In other words, what they cultivated were not slaves.
They were elites who prioritized loyalty to the state above all else.

Of course, this system also had serious problems from the modern perspective of human rights.

However, from the perspective of state management at the time,
this mechanism was functioning surprisingly rationally.

【An Unknown Secret: The Janissaries Eventually Shook the State】

Ironically, the Janissaries who supported the empire
eventually became the empire's greatest problem.
Over many years, they became a privileged class.

Marriage and commercial activities, which were originally prohibited, became permitted,
and they transformed from soldiers into a massive interest group.

Furthermore, they gained enough political power to oppose reforms and depose emperors.
In this way, the "state-run army"
eventually changed into a pressure group that controlled the state.

Then, in 1826, Emperor Mahmud II, who sought to push forward with reforms,
made the decision to dismantle the Janissary corps by force.
This event is known as the "Auspicious Incident,"
and the corps that had lasted for about 500 years disappeared from history.

The system that supported the state eventually became an obstacle to state reform.
Here, too, we can see the structure of history repeating itself.

【Differences from Previous Kingdoms】

Let's organize this again.
Many kingdoms

have powerful nobles who possess armies.
↓
The nobles dominate politics.
↓
They conflict with royal authority.
↓
The state splits.

They held this kind of structure.
However, the Ottoman Empire was different.

The state cultivates talent.
↓
It possesses an army directly under the state.
↓
It appoints based on ability.
↓
It institutionalizes loyalty to the emperor.
↓
It maintains centralized power.

In other words, the Ottomans

did not "run the state by lineage," but rather ran the state through a system.

This was the decisive difference from other kingdoms.

【The Reason Only the Ottomans Kept Getting Stronger】

The Ottoman Empire had a structure where talent circulated.

The state cultivates talent.
↓
It appoints based on ability.
↓
The military and bureaucracy support the state.
↓
Centralized power is strengthened.
↓
Territory expands further.
↓
It accepts new talent.
↓
The governing capacity of the entire state increases.

In other words, the Ottoman Empire was a state that circulated
not only territory, but also talent.

【This Was State Design】

The Devshirme system
The Janissary corps
Appointment based on meritocracy

These are not independent systems.
Everything is connected by a single philosophy.
That is the idea that

"loyalty to the state is created by a system, not by birth."

It does not rely on lineage.

It does not rely on blood ties.
It does not rely on local powers.
The state itself cultivates talent, and the state itself provides a place for them to excel.

Therefore, loyalty was fostered not to the individual emperor, but to the organization called the "state."
Behind the fact that the Ottoman Empire lasted for over 600 years

was this consistent state design.

【Summary】

The Ottoman Empire was not a state that used slaves.
To be precise, it was a state that created

a "system where the state cultivates and utilizes talent."The Devshirme system was a mechanism for talent development.

The Janissary corps was a mechanism to utilize that talent for national defense.
And those with ability could become generals or even Grand Viziers.
Of course, there are aspects of that system that cannot be accepted by modern values.

However, historically speaking, this idea was extremely innovative for its time.
A state is not something supported only by bloodlines.

It is the system that cultivates talent that supports the state.
The Ottoman Empire was one of the states in world history that

implemented this most thoroughly.

Next Episode Preview

Ottoman Empire Series |
Episode 4: Why Did the Empire Stay United Despite Different Religions?

In Europe at the time, religious differences were a cause of war.
However, in the Ottoman Empire, not only Muslims, but also Christians and Jews coexisted while maintaining their respective faiths.
At the center of this was the "Millet system."

Why was the Ottoman Empire able to maintain a multi-ethnic empire for over 600 years by utilizing "differences" rather than erasing them?
We will unravel a religious governance mechanism that is extremely unique even in world history.

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★Please take a look if there are any articles you are interested in.

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