Chapter Five - Military Constitutions in and after the Ottoman Empire

Summary

This chapter reconstructs the development of constitutional law in the Ottoman region from the earlier nineteenth century to the middle part of the twentieth century. It shows how constitution making in this setting gave extreme expression to general militaristic tendencies in constitutional law, as the imposition of norms of citizenship in the Ottoman Empire both induced deep lateral conflicts and stimulated external violence. This is exemplified through analysis of the imperial constitution at the end of the Tanzimat era and of sub-imperial constitutions in Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. The chapter reconstructs post-Ottoman lineages in constitutional law against this background, showing how internal and external conflicts persistently converged and military units assumed dominant nation-building roles.