This paper assumes that the Ottoman Empire was not a passive audience of imperial competition of the nineteenth century, but involved in the imperial struggles by undertaking aggressive measures with an imperialist mind and strategy. Herein, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Ottoman ruling elites identified the Red Sea as a strategic region. Thus, the Ottomans reoccupied the highlands of Yemen, and San’a by an imperial military expedition to secure Ottoman rule in the Arabian Peninsula. This paper aims to comprehend the governing strategies enforced in the province immediately after the reoccupation, which contradicted the aims of such Tanzimat reforms as general conscription. In particular, using Asakir-i Hamidiye, a local army created in 1880, as a case study, this paper probes the decision made by Ismail Hakkı Pasha, the provincial governor (vali) of Yemen at the time, to organize a native army instead of conscripting Yemenis into the imperial army. Based upon archival research in the Prime Ministry Archives in Istanbul and a survey in the provincial newspaper, The San’a Gazetesi, this paper discusses the establishment of the native army as a part of Islahat (reform) projects of Ismail Hakkı Pasha. It argues that the fear of the vali that the population would shift their loyalties to the British in the south led to his application of integrationist strategies. Ismail Hakkı Pasha aimed to integrate the population into the imperial system; hence he sought governing practices that would be adoptable to local customs and practices. As a response to the resistance of the Yemeni population to the conscription, Ismail Hakkı Pasha sought a strategy to accustom the Yemenis to imperial military institutions and practices. To this end, he initiated the formation of a native army. This paper will show the differences of Asakir- Hamidiye from militia forces organized in the frontiers in terms of its organization, training, and order while suggesting to treat the Asakir-i Hamidiye as part of broader strategies of Ottomanization and of integrating frontier populations into the empire.