Abdülmecid's greatest achievement was the announcement of the Tanzimat Edict upon his accession, prepared by his then Foreign Minister Mustafa Reshid Pasha, which effectively began the reorganization of the Ottoman Empire in 1839.

Abdülmecid forged alliances with the major powers of Western Europe, namely the United Kingdom and France, which fought alongside the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War against Russia.

When Abdülmecid acceded to the throne on 2 July 1839, he was only sixteen and inexperienced, and the affairs of the Ottoman Empire were in a critical state.

At the same time, the empire's fleet was on its way to Alexandria, where it was handed over to Muhammad Ali by its commander Ahmed Fevzi Pasha on the pretext that the young sultan's advisers had sided with Russia.

However, through the intervention of the European powers during the Oriental Crisis of 1840, Muhammad Ali was obliged to come to terms, and the Ottoman Empire was saved from further attacks while its territories in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine were restored.

Abdülmecid was also the first sultan to listen directly to the public's complaints on special reception days, which were usually held every Friday.

He travelled to İzmit, Mudanya, Bursa, Gallipoli, Çanakkale, Lemnos, Lesbos and Chios in 1844 and toured the Balkan provinces in 1846.

In compliance with his father's express instructions, Abdülmecid immediately carried out the reforms to which Mahmud II had devoted himself.

By these enactments it was provided that the sultan's subjects of all classes should have their lives and property protected; that taxes should be fairly imposed and justice impartially administered; and that all should have full religious liberty and equal civil rights.

The scheme met with strong opposition from the Muslim governing classes and the ulema, or religious authorities, and was only partially implemented, especially in the more remote parts of the empire.

[1] The first modern universities and academies in the European tradition were established in 1848, coinciding with the founding of an Ottoman school in Paris.

When Lajos Kossuth and his comrades sought refuge in Turkey after the failure of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the sultan was called on by Austria and Russia to surrender them, but he refused.

This major foreign loan was followed by those of 1855, 1858 and 1860, which culminated in default and led to the alienation of European sympathy from the Ottoman Empire and indirectly to the later dethronement and death of Abdülmecid's brother Abdülaziz.

[16] The opponents formed the Society of Fedâis [tr] which sought to eliminate Abdülmecid and put Abdulaziz on the throne in order to prevent the European states from acting like a guardian.

Meanwhile, the financial situation deteriorated and foreign debts, which were taken under heavy conditions to cover the costs of war, placed a burden on the treasury.

The Grand Vizier Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, who criticized this situation harshly, was dismissed by the sultan on 18 October 1859.

He was also the first sultan whose harem assumed a defined hierarchical structure which included four Kadın, followed by four Ikbal, four gözde and a variable number of minor concubines.