Abdul Hamid is also considered one of the last sultans to have full control. His reign struggled with the culmination of 75 years of change throughout the empire and an opposing reaction to that change. He was particularly concerned with the centralization of the empire. His efforts to centralize the Sublime Porte were not unheard of among other sultans. The Ottoman Empire’s local provinces had more control over their areas than the central government. Abdul Hamid II's foreign relations came from a “policy of non-commitment." The sultan understood the fragility of the Ottoman military, and the Empire’s weaknesses of its domestic control. Pan-Islamism became Abdülhamid’s solution to the empire’s loss of identity and power. His efforts to promote Pan-Islamism were for the most part unsuccessful because of the large non-Muslim population, and the European influence onto the empire. His policies essentially isolated the Empire, which further aided in its decline. Several of the elite who sought a new constitution and reform for the empire were forced to flee to Europe. New groups of radicals began to threaten the power of the Ottoman Empire.