It has become a frequent critique that the buffer zones between the European metropolis and the formally colonized peripheries have been understudied by the histories of global power structure. By the same token, intellectuals of these buffer zones and their criticisms of colonialism and global hierarchies have been overshadowed by the canonical figures of decolonization. The case of the late Ottoman Empire as one of these buffer zones and the ways in which Ottoman intellectuals had faced the threat of colonization have not also been sufficiently discussed in the literature. This paper aims to provide an overview of the Ottoman case as a missing element in the scholarship by focusing on the Unionist intellectual Ahmed Riza and his major work, La Faillite Morale de la Politique Occidentale en Orient (1922). The paper first suggests the concept of “space of subjugation” as a theoretical tool to understand the spaces between metropolis and formal colonies, and situates the late Ottoman Empire and the Turkish case within this context. It will be argued that colonial criticism is embedded in spaces of subjugation, whether formally colonized or not, and thus the intellectual agendas in the geographies of informal colonialism were considerably similar to the intellectual agendas of formal colonies. The concept of space of subjugation implies an experience of modernization outside the borders of the core countries, with a peculiar self-perception of belatedness and a search for model. By using the framework of space of subjugation, the paper then will focus on the Unionist politician and author Ahmed Riza, and his work, La Faillite Morale de la Politique Occidentale en Orient as an example of an Ottoman intellectual’s critique of ideas and prejudices constructed within the colonial context. It will be suggested that Ahmed Riza offered an early version of the later critiques of Orientalism by maintaining that colonialist practices cannot function without a specific set of ideas behind them. The paper also discusses how Ahmed Riza, as a positivist, defended Islam as a civilization against various types of Orientalist prejudices, and concludes by highlighting the risk of nativism in Ahmed R?za’s perspective. The main argument of the paper is that the late Ottoman Empire can be revisited as a space of subjugation, and as an Ottoman intellectual, Ahmet Riza’s book needs to be read as a well-formulated analysis of global hierarchies and as a critique of colonialism and Eurocentrism.