The Auspicious Incident and the End of the Janissaries

The Auspicious Incident (Vaka-i Hayriye) refers to the dramatic destruction of the Ottoman Janissary corps by Sultan Mahmud II on June 15, 1826. Though violent and tragic, the event was labeled “auspicious” because it removed a powerful obstacle to reform and allowed the Ottoman Empire to begin building a modern army suited to the challenges of the nineteenth century.

The Janissaries were originally founded in the late fourteenth century as elite household troops of the Ottoman sultans. Recruited through the devshirme system and trained under strict discipline, they were among the most professional and effective soldiers in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Promotion within their ranks was largely merit-based, not hereditary or tribal, giving the Ottomans access to a deep and highly capable pool of military talent. This system played a crucial role in the empire’s rapid territorial expansion and long period of military dominance.

Over time, however, success bred complacency. By the early seventeenth century, the Janissaries had become acutely aware of their own importance and began to use their power for personal and political gain. They gained the right to marry, own property, and operate businesses, blurring the line between soldiers and civilians. Their growing wealth and influence allowed them to dominate politics, intimidate officials, and even depose sultans through palace coups. Military innovation, especially European-style reforms, threatened their privileged position and was consistently resisted.

The first Janissary revolt occurred in 1449, when they successfully demanded higher wages. From that point onward, each new sultan felt compelled to reward them with bonuses and pay increases. This pattern of appeasement encouraged further corruption and indiscipline, echoing the decline of similar elite forces such as Rome’s Praetorian Guard or Russia’s Streltsy. By the early nineteenth century, the Janissaries were widely viewed as a disruptive, outdated force that weakened the state rather than defending it.

The crisis came in June 1826, when the Janissaries revolted in Constantinople against Sultan Mahmud II’s attempt to form a new, Western-trained army. This time, the sultan responded decisively. Loyal troops and artillery bombarded the Janissary barracks, killing thousands. Estimates suggest that between 6,000 and more than 20,000 Janissaries were executed, imprisoned, or exiled, and the corps was formally abolished throughout the empire.

In the aftermath, Mahmud II established the Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye (“Victorious Soldiers of Muhammad”), a modern standing army modeled on European lines. The Auspicious Incident thus marked a turning point: the violent end of an obsolete institution and a crucial step toward Ottoman military and administrative modernization.
The Auspicious Incident and the End of the Janissaries

The great power of Spain in the 16th century

By middle of the sixteenth century Spain was the greatest power in Europe. It was Spain golden age. The dominions of Philip II (1556 – 98) of Spain stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific: his continental territories included the Netherlands in the North and Milan and Naples in Italy.

Spain was among the first European states to create a strong national monarchy, late in the 15th century. In 1580 Philip II became king of Portugal, uniting all the states of the Iberian Peninsula. With the addition of Portugal’s Atlantic ports and its sizeable fleet, Spanish maritime power now was unsurpassed. Spain was also a great cultural and intellectual center.

The fashions and tastes of its golden age dominated all the courts of Europe. The expansion of Spanish domination and the increase of Spain’s wealth and prestige was reflected in a self conscious spirit of national pride that could be seen in the story of Don Quixote, the knight who tilted at windmills in search of greatness in the novel published by Miguel de Cervantes between 1605 and 1615.

The Spanish Conquest was a watershed event on the colonization of the New World and the 16th century expansion of the Spanish Empire, which became one of the first and for a time, the greatest seafaring empire of Western Europe amid a time when other nations sent out competing voyages of discovery and exploration.

As a result of the voyages of Christopher Columbus and other explorers, from 1492 through the 16th century, Spain claimed the entire Caribbean Basin, most of Central and South America (excluding Brazil) and the southwestern portion of the modern United States, including all or parts of California.

In the New World, Spain created an efficient and highly bureaucratic colonial government headed in Madrid.

In Mediterranean Spain alone stood out against the expansion of Ottoman power. The sultan’s navy continually threatened to turn the Mediterranean into a Turkish lake, while his armies attempted to capture and hold Italian soil. All Europe shuddered at the news each Ottoman advance. Pope called for holy wars against the Turks but only Philip heeded the cry. From nearly moment that he inherited the Spanish crown he took up the challenge of defending European Christianity.

For over a decade Philip maintained costly coastal garrison in North Africa and Italy and assembled large fleets and larger army to discourage or repel Turkish invasions. This sparring could not go on indefinitely, and in 1571 both sides prepared for a decisive battle.

A combined Spanish and Italian force of over three hundred ships and eighty thousand men meet an even larger ottoman flotilla off the coasts of Greece. The Spanish naval victory of Lepanto was considered one of the great events of the sixteenth century, celebrated in story and songs for the next three hundred years, though the Turks continued to menace the Mediterranean islands, Lepanto marked the end of Ottoman advanced.

Spanish naval power was dented by defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. During the 17th century, Spanish political and economic power declined.
The great power of Spain in the 16th century