Abdulmejid I

Abdulmejid became the 31st sultan on 2 July 1839, succeeding his father Mahmud II, and on his first day issued the Tanzimat Edict - drafted by his Foreign Minister Mustafa Reshid Pasha - launching the Tanzimat era of reorganization. His approach was mild-mannered, giving the Sublime Porte room to pursue reform projects aimed at integrating non-Muslims and non-Turks more fully into Ottoman society and encouraging Ottomanism to counter rising nationalist movements. He forged alliances with the United Kingdom and France, who fought beside the Ottomans in the Crimean War against Russia, and at the Congress of Paris on 30 March 1856 the empire was formally admitted to the Concert of Europe. Tuberculosis killed him suddenly on 25 June 1861 at thirty-eight, and his half-brother Abdul Aziz took the throne.