Decline of the Ottoman Empire: Short Clip from Caspian Report

Here's a terrific 10-minute clip from Shirvan Neftchi for the Caspian Report about the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Neftchi notes that there was no single catastrophic event that caused the Ottoman downfall.  He notes that the empire was falling apart from the inside for centuries. The Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the Battle of Vienna in 1683 both weakened the empire.

But the decline of the Ottoman empire was very gradual and, according to this report, began with Venetian traders who, along with other European traders, put so much pressure on Ottoman guilds that the government banned Europeans from buying strategic raw materials.  This led to a large black market which eventually corrupted the bureaucracy.