The key transformations that pushed the empire toward a remodeling of state–society relations coincided, taking effect from the end of the seventeenth century through the beginning of the nineteenth century. Two connected processes pushed the state toward a recalibration of state–society relations: one mainly economic, the increasing commerce with western Europe and the overhaul of the tax system starting in the late seventeenth century; and the other political, the increasing empowerment of different social groups in the nonstate arena. The social transformation discussed in prior chapters had indigenous roots that adapted to social and economic conditions. Even if these indigenous forces did not pose a serious threat to the state, changes in them affected Ottoman central elites deeply, signaling an inevitable challenge to the premise of empire: state control through segmentation and vertical integration. That such internal reorganization was occurring during a period of intense warfare when the Ottomans were in a rather grim international position with respect to foreign affairs intensified the risks for the empire and made the role of the state even more critical.

Given such internal transformations and international exigencies, the Ottomans chose to embark on a period of remodeling and centralization that would result in the construction of a modern state. Yet, the new forms of centralization – conceived as responses to international threats, to Balkan demands for autonomy and independence, as well as to internal transformations of regional- and provincial-level administration – were without a doubt dissimilar to past imperial forms of centralization.