Let Us Have a Piece

Russians were always there with the Germans.

Mavi Boncuk |

At the close of the Crimean War, Tanzimat reforms were supplemented by a similar statute promulgated in February 1856, named the Hatt-ı Hümayun (Imperial Edict), promising equality in education, government appointments, and administration of justice to all regardless of religion and race, influenced by the modern European ideas of the time. While the Tanzimat era was not without some successes, the ability of the Ottoman state to deal with ethnic uprisings was seriously called into question. Greece had declared its independence in 1829 and reforms did not halt the rise of nationalism in the Danubian Principalities and Serbia, which had been semi-independent for almost 6 decades; in 1875 Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Wallachia and Moldova declared their independence from the Empire.