During the regression period to save the Ottoman Empire Abdulmecid and Abdulaziz issued essential changes in the political institutions. They declared three firmans considering, human rights, and renovation of the administrate institutions. Sultan Abdulmecid declared Gulhane Hatt-i Humayun (1839) and Islahat Fermani (1856), and Abdulaziz declared another decree in 1860. With these decrees, European institutions were imitated without searching the real reasons of the state’s economical and social decline. Thus, a dilemma emerged among the social structure and the mentality. Consequently, the institutions based on the Islamic thoughts and the institutions imitated from Europe were came across. These two different views caused chaos and confusion among the society, and the reform decrees failed to solve the Empire’s problems.

The Ottoman Empire was in need of Europe’s economic support and she could have reached this support by giving many privileges to the European countries. As a result of these privileges, foreign capital and investments destroyed the domestic industry. So the Ottoman State became a semi-colonised state and European States controlled the economy and the resources.

Under these conditions, the Reform Decrees effected the social and economic lives very negatively.

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