the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul. The seizure of the bank lasted 14 hours, resulting in the deaths of 10 of the Armenian men and Ottoman soldiers. The Ottoman reaction to the takeover saw further massacres and pogroms of the several thousand Armenians living in Constantinople and Sultan Abdul Hamid II threatening to level the entire building itself. However, intervention on part of the European diplomats in the city managed to persuade the men to give, assigning safe passage to the survivors to France. Despite the level of violence, the incident had wrought, the takeover was reported positively in the European press, praising the men for their courage and the objectives they attempted to accomplish. Economy Economically, the empire had difficulty in repaying the Ottoman public debt to European banks, which caused the establishment of the Council of Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt. By the end of the 19th century, the main reason the empire was not overrun by Western powers was their attempt to maintain a balance of power in the area. Both Austria and Russia wanted to increase their spheres of influence and territory at the expense of the Ottoman Empire but were kept in check mostly by Britain, which feared Russian dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. Image gallery Bibliography References Further reading Finkel, Caroline. Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. (2005) Palmer, Alan. The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire (1992) Stoianovich, Traian. "Factors in the Decline of Ottoman Society in the Balkans," Slavic Review (1962) 21#4 pp 623–632 in JSTOR 19th century in the Ottoman Empire