The comparison between "two sick men" is not very interesting. But given that some people like to look down on the history of other countries, it's good to talk about it. I don't think the Ottoman Empire is weaker than we are, especially in the spirit of resistance
(1) The historical truth is that the Ottomans blocked the thunder for us for six hundred years
The international situation facing Siman is much more dangerous than ours, as a bridgehead against Europe, the Arab Empire and the Ottoman Empire have resisted a possible european invasion for China for more than a thousand years. The Ottomans went to war with almost all the great powers, and fought not for thirty or fifty years but for more than six hundred years. On the contrary, our threat is much smaller.
Because of its geographical location, if the European powers want to hand over to China, they must first collide with the forces in West Asia and North Africa. Therefore, the Arab Empire (632-1258) and the Ottoman Turkish Empire (1299-1922) have always faced the southward movement of European powers. Earlier, it was the older Empire of West Asia such as the Second Persian Empire (221-654).
Specific to the Ottoman Empire, its main competitors were Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, Tsarist Russia, Austria-Hungary and other countries. By the mid-19th century, the world's four great powers, Britain, France, Russia, and the West (Banga), were in direct confrontation with Turkey, and although Germany, one of the most important powers in the middle and late period, did not directly confront it, its ally Austria-Hungary also directly confronted Turkey.
We have been invaded by the British since 1840, but in fact, the "Opium War" did not have much impact on China, mainly cultivating a large number of spiritual inheritors such as Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan, who rose ten years later through the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement" to carry out the foreign affairs movement. All members of the Western-style and resistance factions, including the "Four Masters of Zhongxing", were more or less influenced by Wei Yuan in terms of "self-improvement", among them, Zuo Zongtang was the inheritor of the "Lin Wei Spirit".
The real threat posed to us by the West was only after the Second Opium War, especially after the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. It's not that long. And because the West came relatively late, and it came together in the same period, the Qing Dynasty was a "great unified country", and the powers could not reach a consensus on the issue of "annexing" China. So, our fate is much better than the Ottomans.
(2) Ottomans were destined to be decomposed because of their geographical location, and they were too close to the great powers, especially to Tsarist Russia. Because of the six-hundred-year war with Europe, the Ottomans were more advanced in ideology and military weapons than we were. But what the Ottomans are inferior to us is "unity."
Because the Ottomans controlled the territory of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, although the religion in its territory was mainly Islam, there were also many Catholics, Christians, and Orthodox Churches. Therefore, it is bound to have a very large direct contradiction with the Arab nation, the Persian nation, Tsarist Russia, And Britain, France, Austria (Germany), and it is close at hand.
In the six-hundred-year war, the Ottomans also chased after the European countries, but in the 19th century, because the European countries successively carried out bourgeois revolutions, the Ottomans fell behind, so they were passively beaten, especially by the Tsarist Russia for more than a hundred years, and was completely defeated in the 19th century. Even so, with the support of Britain and France, Tsarist Russia was defeated in the Crimean War of 1856 (the Ninth Russo-Turkish War) and recovered all the territories lost in the previous eight wars.
After becoming the "sick man of West Asia", the military instructors and weapons of the Western powers entered on a large scale. Therefore, whether it is the army or the navy, Turkey's degree of advancement and autonomy is higher than ours. Therefore, Turkey will be valued by Germany as one of its allies even during world war I.
Therefore, the Ottoman Empire was not weak!
It was only because the Ottomans chose to ally with Germany and wanted revenge, and as a result, they bet on the wrong treasure, resulting in the division of most of the territory and the Transformation of the Ottoman Empire into Turkey.
Because, some of us don't like Turkey, we take it for granted that the Ottomans are weak. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was hundreds of years older than we were in resisting Western invasions, and Istanbul was one of the prides of the West, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) (Constantinople).