The process of decentralization and decline was as complicated as was the structure affected. Much was, indeed, internal, within the Ottoman body politic itself. But also at work were conditions and developments outside the empire, outside the ability of even the ablest sultans and ministers and most efficient of bureaucrats to control or remedy: the increasing power of the nation-states of Europe, whose political, economic, military, and cultural advances in particular left them far stronger than what the great fifteenth- and sixteenth-century sultans had faced, thus requiring the empire not only to regain what it had but to advance and develop if it was not to fall further behind.

Analysis of the decline must proceed on different levels. One must remember that the process was a gradual one, in which seeds of decay crept into the Ottoman body politic and society over many centuries; that because of the basic strength of the system, and in particular the internal substructure of Middle Eastern society, the trend was not noticeable within, and for long years Europe failed to recognize the decline or attempt to take advantage of it. Thus the empire was able to survive far longer than might otherwise have been the case. Ottoman decline in fact was not very apparent to Europe until well into the seventeenth century, leaving the sultans with a respite that could have been used to remedy the decay but that instead lulled them into a false sense of confidence, depriving them of the stimulus to reform until it was, indeed, too late.

The Political and Military Factors of Decline

It is often difficult to isolate one particular element as the principal cause of decline.