Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire
Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire were contracts between the Ottoman Empire and several other Christian powers, particularly France. Turkish capitulations, or Ahidnâmes were generally bilateral acts whereby definite arrangements were entered into by each contracting party towards the other, not mere concessions.[1]
The Turkish Capitulations were grants made by successive
According to these capitulations traders entering the Ottoman Empire were exempt from local prosecution, local taxation, local conscription, and the searching of their domicile.
The capitulations were initially made during the Ottoman Empire's military dominance, to entice and encourage commercial exchange with Western merchants. However, after military dominance shifted to Europe, significant economic and political advantages were granted to the European powers by the Ottoman Empire.[2]
History
In the first instance capitulations were granted separately to each Christian state, beginning with the
Around 1535 a capitulation was made by Suleiman the Magnificent regarding France. These treaties facilitated the entry of European finished goods into Ottoman markets, granting certain tax and tariff privileges to European merchants, and even some extraterritorial legal rights to allow the French consul to exercise jurisdiction over disputes arising with French merchants instead of the local Islamic Sharia courts. These treaties were generally not disadvantagous to the Ottoman Empire while the Ottomans retained a superior military advantage.
France signed its first treaty of Capitulations with the
The Ottoman-French Treaty of 1740 marked the apogee of French influence in the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century. In the following years the French had an unchallenged position in Levant trade and in transportation between Ottoman ports. Near contemporary Ottoman capitulations to European powers such as Britain and Holland (1737), the Kingdom of Naples (1740), Denmark (1756), and Prussia (1761) were to offset and balance the capitulations granted to France in 1740.[5]
Status
Capitulations signified that which was arranged under distinct headings; the
According to Capitulations, and treaties confirmatory of them, made between the
Thus, although the Turkish capitulations were not in themselves treaties, yet by subsequent confirmation they acquired the force of commercial durable instead of personal nature; the conversion of permissive into perfect rights; questions as to contraband and neutral trade stated in definite terms.
Abolition
On 8 September 1914, the Ottoman Empire's ruling Committee of Union and Progress unilaterally abrogated the capitulations as part of diplomatic maneuverings with Germany and the United Kingdom as to whether the Ottoman Empire would enter World War I. This action prompted a joint protest from the German, Austro-Hungarian, British, French, and Russian ambassadors. The decision was put into effect in early October.[6]
As far as Turkey is concerned, the capitulations were abolished by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), specifically by Article 28:
Each of the High Contracting Parties hereby accepts, in so far as it is concerned, the complete abolition of the Capitulations in Turkey in every respect.[7]
Capitulations in Egypt ended in 1949 as stipulated in the Montreux Convention Regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt in 1937.[8]
List of capitulations
Capitulatory treaties were signed with the following states:[9][10]
- Venice (1454)
- France (1535, 1673, 1740)
- England (1579, 1675)
- United Kingdom (1809)
- Netherlands (1612, 1634, 1680)
- Austria (1615?)
- Russia (1711, 1783)
- Sweden (1737)
- Sardinia (1740, 1825)
- Denmark (1746 or 1756)
- Prussia (1761)
- Spain (1782)
- United States (1830)
- Belgium (1838)
- Hanseatic League (1839)
- Portugal (1843)
- Greece (1854 or 1855)
- Brazil (1858)
- Bavaria (1870)
See also
- Economic history of the Ottoman Empire
- Foreign relations of the Ottoman Empire
- French post offices in the Ottoman Empire
- Chester concession
- Ottoman Public Debt
- Ottoman Public Debt Administration
- Mixed Courts of Egypt
- Ahidnâme
- Protégé system
References
- ^ As regards technical distinctions, an agreement, an exchange of notes, or a convention properly applies to one specific subject; whereas a treaty usually comprises several matters, whether commercial or political.
- ISBN 978-0-8133-4374-7.
- ^ Three years in Constantinople by Charles White p.139
- ^ Three years in Constantinople by Charles White p.147
- ^ Robert Olson, "The Ottoman-French Treaty of 1740" Turkish Studies Association Bulletin (1991) 15#2 pp. 347-355 online
- ^ Fromkin, David (2010). A Peace to End All Peace. Ch. 7 pt. III.
- ^ In addition to Turkey, the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were parties to the Treaty.
- ^ Convention regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt, Protocol, and Declaration by the Royal Egyptian Government (Montreux, 8 May 1936) Art 1.
- ^ Lucius Ellsworth Thayer, "The Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire and the Question of their Abrogation as it Affects the United States", The American Journal of International Law, 17, 2 (1923): 207–33.
- ^ Philip Marshall Brown, Foreigners in Turkey: Their Juridical Status (Princeton University Press, 1914), p. 41.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Capitulations". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Bibliography
- Ahmad, F. "Ottoman perceptions of the capitulations 1800-1914," Journal of Islamic Studies, 11,1 (2000), 1-20.
- Boogert, Maurits H. van den (2005). The capitulations and the Ottoman legal system: qadis, consuls, and beraths in the 18th century. Leiden: Brill. xvi, 323p.
- Hoyle, Mark S. W. (1991). Mixed courts of Egypt. London: Graham & Trotman. xxvii, 206p.
- Maurits H. van den Boogert; Kate Fleet, eds. (2003). The Ottoman capitulations: text and context. Rome: Istituto per l'Oriente C.A. Nallino. pp. vii, [575]-727, 14p. of plates : ill., facsims.
- Longva, Anh Nga. "From the Dhimma to the Capitulations: Memory and Experience of Protection in Lebanon." in Religious Minorities in the Middle East: Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation (2012): 47-70. online
- Olson, Robert. "The Ottoman-French Treaty of 1740" Turkish Studies Association Bulletin (1991) 15#2 pp. 347-355 online
- Vlami, Despina. Trading with the Ottomans: The Levant Company in the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2014).