Ottoman decline is cited as the paradigm for the Soviet empire’s collapse.

Evidence

More recently, the Ottoman decline has often been cited as a paradigm for the decline and fall of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. The parallels are indeed striking—both in the challenge and in the collapse. For a while it seemed that the Ottoman power—centralized, disciplined and inspired by a militant and expansionist ideology—would inevitably triumph over a weak, irresolute and divided Europe. But it did not, and in time the Europeans came to realize that the sick man was losing both his strength and his will. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1737

Categorization

Category: Connection Points

• XREF: Echoes the argument in ‘The Defeat of the Spanish Armada’ that even a would-be hegemon’s victory would not have changed Europe’s destiny; both books reject decisive-battle fatalism.

Related

• Europeans read Ottoman decline as a loss of strength and will, not mere power (similarity 0.89)
• Lewis frames Ottoman and Soviet decline as parallel paths needing a Kemalist savior (similarity 0.82)
• Ottoman decline stemmed from institutional resistance to Western science, not internal decay (similarity 0.80)
• Ottoman decline eventually made Western charges against the Turks partly accurate (similarity 0.79)
• Contemporaries overestimated Ottoman strength even as the empire was declining (similarity 0.78)
• Ottoman decline in the face of foreign threat produced genuine brutality toward subject peoples (similarity 0.78)