Institutional Change and the Longevity of the Ottoman Empire, 1500–1800

The central bureaucracy of the Ottoman Empire adapted the empire's economic, monetary, and military institutions to changing circumstances with a degree of flexibility and pragmatism that permitted the empire to endure longer than contemporary empires in Asia and Western Europe. However, because it directed its policies primarily toward preserving the traditional order, including its own dominance, it tended to stifle capital accumulation in private hands and the creation of a broad power base, thus ultimately leading to the empire's disintegration.