Religiöse Struktur im Osmanischen Reich in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts „1844-1856“ – 59,4 % Muslime und 40,6 % Nicht-Muslime

I dont know what it is but my brain refuses to process charts with dark oceans/not blue.

I work with charts in my my line of work, and nightmode/dark mode works. But a mix just confuses me.

crazy to think that so many areas of the world that have always experienced ethnic and religious war (Levant, Caucasus, Balkans), managed to find relative stability for centuries under the Ottoman empire.

I don’t want to be apologetic here about the Ottoman empire, and the Ottoman rule was still brutal in many cases and unequal, but it’s indeed true that it turned out to be quite successful (similar to the Roman Empire in ruling over very different peoples) until the era of Nationalism came about.

It’s shocking how much the demographics of this region shifted in the 19th and 20th century.

Millions of Muslims expelled or killed in the Balkans and millions of Christians expelled or killed from the Middle East.

It’s up there with the expulsion of Germans after ww2, the holocaust, the partition of India, the Nakba, and the expulsion of jews/muslims from Spain as one of the most major events in shaping the demography.

Thessaloniki used to be a Jewish majority city, Belgrade in Serbia had a Muslim majority, Izmir in Turkey had a Christian majority.

Again, the Cristian population in Asiatic area appears as scattered dots while the Muslim minority in Europe as solid blocks? Hmm…

Systematically conversation into Islam exactly on coastal regions because of easier trade

Arent there some christians missing in egypt?

These maps are based on Ottoman census reports. These reports have consistently been proven to under report Christian populations.