The Diplomatic Background of Austria’s and Prussia’s Military Assistance to the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s

Abstract

The primary goal of the paper is to put the assistance of Austria and Prussia to the Ottoman military reforms in the 1830s into the context of diplomatic relations within the Eastern Question, and explain why the Sublime Porte asked the two German Powers for their officers, why only the Prussians were finally employed in 1837. Furthermore, the paper also evidences the fact that the collaboration of the two German Powers with Sultan Mahmud II in his reformatory effort must be viewed not only in the diplomatic but also social context and that the changes in the Ottoman army had been attentively observed by Austria’s and Prussia’s diplomats, and Austrian Chancellor Metternich in particular, long before the employment of the two Powers’ officers in the Near East was officially discussed with the Ottoman authorities; the Viennese cabinet had even provided the education of several Ottoman youths in its Technical military academy. The paper is finally intended as a brief contribution to the relations between Central Europe, represented in this case by the two most important members of the German Confederation, and the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s.