Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

decentralization, Moldova, simplistic, Islamic, radical, key, contemporary, 1798, Bulgarians, erosion, Yemen, 350, Croce, Suleiman, interrupted, supremacy, nationalism, Vienna, Europe, Russians

•

it is customary in the writing of Middle East history to start the modern era with Napoleon invading Egypt in         1798

•

this issued in a long period of rapid and               radical change

•

but there is an assumption that the beginning Middle East history with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt

•

that the modern era was created through European influence and                   supremacy on an era that is in decline and stagnant

•

Benedetto           Croce: history is always writing about                         contemporary history

•

all history is written from the point of view of the present and as the present changes all the time, with the changes of the present, we have a changing view of the past, and our ideas about the past and the way we write about the past, change all the time

•

thesis of decline

•

since mid-16th century, the Ottoman Empire was in a       350-year linear decline

•

the empire did not expand after                 Suleiman

•

the empire was in constant retreat in terms of territory ever since the first defeat at             Vienna in 1529

•

the empire weakened over the centuries in comparison to Northern and Western             Europe

•

but far less in comparison to Southern Europe and Russia

•

the second defeat at Vienna in 1683 ushered in a second wave of territorial contraction

•

however, some defeats dealt to the                 Russians in 1711 in               Moldova

•

Middle East as stagnant society

•

the "sick man of Europe"

•

however, continued to enjoy unquestioned               Islamic legitimacy

•

even when rebellions brought down the ruling Sultan, the legitimacy of the empire remained intact

•

this remained true until the rise of ideas of                       nationalism in the last 19th and early 20th centuries

•

resurrected only by Western enlightenment

•

difficulties faced by the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century

•

territorial losses as exemplified by the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt

•

Nationalist uprisings in the Balkans

•

e.g. the Greeks, the Serbs, the                     Bulgarians who gradually throughout the 19th century broke away from the Ottoman Empire

•

Western advance and advantage

•

progress of science and technology was clearly superior than that in the Ottoman Empire

•

but in 1878, the Ottoman Empire was still large, from           Yemen to Libya to Turkey

•

many rebellions were a sign of weakness

•

Ottoman Empire in the 17th century

•

growing                                 decentralization

•

rising social classes

•

some argue this was an indication of a decline of the empire

•

some argue that this was not a sign of decline

•

to say that Napoleon is the beginning of the Modern Era in the Middle East is too                     simplistic

•

the European input added great momentum to a process that had already begun

•

some even say that Napoleon                       interrupted a local process of modernization

•

no one has offered an alternative periodization

•

the way to express the Middle East modern era now is:

•

the Napoleonic phase was a       key to a new period of rapid change, but one that added a quantum leap forward to an already ongoing process

•

the colonial interaction, with all its obvious negatives, created an unprecedented measure of rapid change in economics, politics, and in the sphere of ideas and the               erosion of tradition

•

"ideas are more dangerous than occupation since ideas will erode beliefs and traditions, while occupation will come and go"