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| 1869 |
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| Military reorganization was designed to apply the Prussian model of a small peacetime and large wartime force. It systematized three categories of military service: active service (nizamiye) of four years, reserve duty (redif) of six years, and service in the local defense forces (mustahfiz) of eight years. Financial problems stood in the way of achieving the target of a wartime army of 700,000, while domestic security tasks continued to require a relatively large standing army. | 1 |
| The Regulation for Public Education created the framework for a modern system of state education in the empire. It systematized the hierarchy of elementary and secondary schools developed in the previous three decades, laying out their terms of study, curricula, graduating examinations, and modes of funding. The law called for free compulsory education for all children until the age of 12. In the succeeding years the number of public schools and students expanded at a limited pace, due in part to lack of budgetary resources. Numerous private schools established by the religious minorities and foreign missionaries thrived in many parts of the empire. | 2 |
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| 1870–76 |
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| PROMULGATION OF THE OTTOMAN CIVIL CODE (MEJELLE). This was the chief legal achievement of the Tanzimat period, creating a code that endured until the end of the empire and carried over into many of the successor states. Formulated under the direction of the able official Jevdet Pasha, its 1,851 articles were anchored in the provisions of Islamic law instead of replacing them with a completely secular code, as some reformers wanted. The Mejelle was to be applied by the new, secular nizamiye courts, whereas family law, which it did not cover, continued to be applied by the traditional shari’a courts. | 3 |
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| 1870–1914 |
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| Development of American and French missionary schools. American Protestant missions set up schools in the empire beginning around 1830, but most actively after 1870. By 1914 there were 23,500 students enrolled in 430 American schools. The French established a considerably larger network of schools, attended by close to 90,000 students in 1914. The foreign schools catered largely to local Christians. | 4 |
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| 1870, March 13 |
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| Treaty of London, in which the European powers and the Ottoman Empire essentially accepted the Russian unilateral repudiation (on Oct. 31, 1870) of the neutralization of the Black Sea, established in the Treaty of Paris of 1856. Russia was allowed to build a fleet on the Black Sea once again, and in return the Ottomans were permitted to open the Straits in peacetime to warships sent by their friends, if needed to ensure enforcement of the 1856 treaty. With this strategic victory Russia was soon able to pose a formidable threat to Ottoman interests. | 5 |
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| Sept. 13 |
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| Death of Ibrahim Shinasi (b. 1826), one of the leading journalists and intellectuals of the Tanzimat period. He was among the pioneers of modern Ottoman literature, and as a member of the Young Ottomans, he served as a prominent voice against the authoritarian direction of government reforms. | 6 |
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