Government of The Ottoman Empire - Vassal States

Vassal States

See also: Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire had many vassal states of varying size attached to it. Vassals paid taxes to the sultan and often contributed with troops in various Ottoman military campaigns. Many of the imperial provinces were vassal states before being reduced to provinces. A vassal state that never became a province was the Khanate of Crimea in the region around Crimea, north of Black Sea - it would fall to Russia instead (1774–83; later in modern Ukraine).

• A special case was the Greek orthodox 'monastic republic' of Mount Athos, where Constantinople was only represented by an aga (officer) as its agent in Karyaes.
• As the empire weakened militarily, it would inevitably lose control through foreign victories (Russia took large chunks of territory; the Christian empires helped ever more parts of the Balkans secede, often after a vassalic stage, such as the hospodars) but also see real control over some of its (mainly remote) provinces slip away to a state of little more than formal sovereignty over tributary, de facto autonomous states.

The latter happened in North Africa: the Beys/Deys of Tunis and Algiers established themselves as 'regencies' and even Egypt went its own way under its great khedive Mohammed Ali - they would in turn be subjected to European colonial dominance, as protectorates, of France and Britain.