<P> The haraç, or capitation tax, though moderate and exempting those who paid it from military service, had long been made an engine of gross tyranny through the insolence and misconduct of government collectors . The Firman of 1834 abolished the old mode of levying it, and ordained that it should be raised by a commission composed of the Kadı, the Muslim governors, and the Ayans, or municipal chiefs of Rayas in each district . Many other financial improvements were effected . By another important series of measures, the administrative government was simplified and strengthened, and a large number of sinecure offices were abolished . Sultan Mahmud II gave a valuable personal example of good sense and economy, organised the imperial household, suppressed all titles without duties and eliminated all the positions of salaried officials without functions . </P> <P> In 1839, the Hatt - i Sharif proclamation launched the Tanzimat (from Arabic: تنظيم tanẓīm, meaning "organisation") (1839--76), period . Previous to the first of the firmans, the property of all persons banished or condemned to death was forfeited to the crown, which kept a sordid motive for acts of cruelty in perpetual operation, besides encouraging a host of vile Delators . The second firman removed the ancient rights of Turkish governors to condemn men to instant death at will; the Paşas, the Ağas, and other officers were enjoined that "they should not presume to inflict, themselves, the punishment of death on any man, whether Raya or Turk, unless authorized by a legal sentence pronounced by the Kadi, and regularly signed by the judge ." </P> <P> The Tanzimat reforms did not halt the rise of nationalism in the Danubian Principalities and the Principality of Serbia, which had been semi-independent for almost six decades . In 1875, the tributary principalities of Serbia and Montenegro, and the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, unilaterally declared their independence from the empire . Following the Russo - Turkish War of 1877--1878, the empire granted independence to all three belligerent nations . Bulgaria also achieved virtual independence (as the Principality of Bulgaria); its volunteers had participated in the Russo - Turkish War on the side of the rebelling nations . </P> <P> The government's series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modern conscripted army, banking system reforms, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the replacement of religious law with secular law and guilds with modern factories . </P>

What were the results of the efforts to reform the ottoman empire