Early Socialism and the Impact of the Paris Commune on the Ottoman Political Imagination in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to re-examine the thinking, motivation and causes for the development of early socialism and its transformation in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century. The first part of the paper will engage with the socialistic aspirations and political language of the radical branch of the Young Ottomans, in the writings of Mehmed, Reşad and Nuri Beys. The second part will reconstruct the debate between the detractors and defenders of the Paris Commune of 1871 regarding the meanings, effects, and possible threats or benefits of socialism, to rediscover what the Ottomans meant by socialism and what the Commune and socialism meant to them. The article will demonstrate that socialism did not meet with a delayed response in Turkey, contrary to what conventional historiography claims. In fact, the Ottomans were aware of these developments. Just as elsewhere, 1848 and, more importantly, 1871 were important turning points in the Leftist discourse within the Ottoman Empire. This early development of Ottoman socialist perspectives means that Ottoman Empire is more accurately considered as an active participant in the global intellectual trends of the nineteenth century, rather than as a passive observer.