The fall of the Ottoman Empire - History of The Ottomans (1900 - 1922)

The 20th century for the Ottoman Empire was marked, or more accurately scarred, by one thing, collapse. Turkey's conquering power from the past 600 years would finally come to a humiliating end with the whole world watching. The sick man of Europe would be unable to overcome the devastation brought by the Balkans wars and events to follow. The first domino to fall was actually prior to the Balkan wars and is known as the Young Turk Revolution. The Young Turks, alongside other reformist groups making up the Committee of Union and Progress was a movement established by groups of young university students in favor of once again establishing a constitutional monarchy like the one that the Sultan Abdul Hamid II had established in 1876 and abolished two years later. As the Ottomans were pushed more and more into a defensive stance against the rest of Europe's powers, many of the Young Turks and other unionist reform supporters became further concerned with preserving their state. When the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 occurred, the Ottoman reformists felt that there was a potential for the diplomacy to extend into a partition of Ottoman-controlled Macedonia. Finally, in July of 1908, the revolution broke out, led by unionists such as Major Ahmed Niyazi, Eyub Sabri and Ismail Enver, and began to put heavy pressure on the Sultan to end his absolute rule and reinstate the constitution. Given the amount of support within the Ottoman military and the weak state of Abdul Hamid's rule, the revolution ended on July 24th, with the Sultan capitulating and restoring a constitutional monarchy. The Ottoman government now underwent a significant change, and a general election took place in November of 1908. The Committee of Union and Progress, or CUP, had great success and, as did many other former movements, established new political parties such as the Freedom and Accord Party or the Ottoman Socialist Party. The new system was messy, and many of the incoming politicians were working-class people with no experience running a government. Meanwhile, Sultan Abdul Hamid II had been able to maintain his title under the terms that his position was basically only symbolic. Matters were complicated in 1909, though, when the Sultan stirred up the Ottoman counter-coup, with his promises to restore the Ottoman Caliphate and Sharia legal system if his autocratic power was restored. Despite the fair amount of support, the counter-coup was quickly quelled after a short stint of control in Istanbul from Sultan Abdul Hamid's supporters. The Young Turk government was restored, and the Sultan was ultimately deposed and replaced by Mehmed V in a purely symbolic role. As stability within the empire continued, conflict in the Balkans suddenly skyrocketed. The Christians of Macedonia, including Serbs, Bulgarians, Vlachs, and Greeks, in addition to the Albanians, were heavily dissatisfied with the neglect they felt that they had received from the new Ottoman government, which was overly focused on centralized control. In 1912, the First Balkan War broke out with a declaration of war on Turkey by Montenegro on October 8th. The contestants of the conflict consisted of the Balkan League on one side, made up of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Greece, against the weakened Ottoman Empire. While Russia was not directly involved in the discord, they did give their favor to the Balkan League, which aimed to seize Macedonia from the Ottomans with their 750,000 strong army. The struggle was really only such for the Ottomans, as the Balkan coalition utterly routed their opponent on every front. All while the Balkan conflict carried on, the Ottomans were actually also locked into the Italo-Turkish War that started in 1911, after Italy demanded that the Turks give them territories in North Africa. The Ottomans refused, but Italy took the territories by force rather easily, stripping the Ottomans of some of their only remaining African possessions. Italy gained today's Libya and the Dodecanese Islands. The collapsing Ottoman Empire stood no chance against the allied Balkan powers, and by December 3rd, both sides were ready for an armistice. A brief revival of the conflict came after the coup in January of 1913, raiding the sublime port and the government buildings, and empowering the triumvirate of the Three Pashes. A peace treaty was finally signed in London four months later, and officially stripped the Ottomans of almost every European territory they had left, including Albania, which would become independent, and Macedonia, which would be split between the Balkan nations. Although the Turks were not extensively involved in the Second Balkan War, which came as a consequence of disorder between Romania, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria about the borders of their new Macedonian possessions, they did use the opportunity to retake Adrianople, in a violation of their previous armistice with Bulgaria. In 1914, general elections now confirmed the CUP's authority, and the Ottoman Imperial Government was established in January of that year. Although going into the First World War, the Three Pashas would remain the de facto rulers of the new military regime in the Empire. On October 28th, 1914, the Ottoman Empire officially entered World War I. After signing the Turco-German alliance, back in August of the same year, the friendly relations between Germany and Turkey played a significant role in the Empire's entry into the war. In addition to Turkish opportunism and dislike of the Triple Entente nations, Germany had previously sent a military mission to Turkey, in which the Ottoman army and navy were organized under the leadership of Leman von Sanders, and greatly solidified the alliance between the involved authorities. The Germans also hoped that the Ottoman decision to join the side of the Triple Alliance would encourage Balkan states, such as Bulgaria, to support their cause as well. Meanwhile, the Turkish ambassador in Paris, Rafat Pasha, warned Enver Pasha, the Minister of War, not to join either side, as he believed that both alliances had the potential to shatter what little strength the Empire had left. Enver Pasha, on the other hand, was unfazed and insisted that the early victories of Germany proved that they would be on the winning side of the war. The earliest military action taken by the Ottomans during the First World War was an attack on Russia's Black Sea coast that triggered a quick response and declaration of war from Russia, Great Britain, and France. From there, the Ottoman Empire mostly fought within the Middle Eastern and Balkan theatres, and achieved significant victories near the start of the war, such as that at the Battle of Gallipoli. As the Turks were busy fighting on the world stage, they also faced revolts and a growing uprising from the local Arab territories. The decline of the Empire was put on fast forward, and they were now facing offensive attacks from every possible angle, although Enver Pasha maintained a stance of triumph nonetheless, insisting that the Ottomans must remain in the war to assist their allies, going as far as claiming to have contributed to the Russian collapse and revolution in 1917. Still, when Bulgaria was forced into an armistice after a successful offensive by the Allies at the Macedonian Front, the Ottomans were put in an impossible position without the Bulgarians' assistance. Subsequently, after multiple visits to their partners, the Ottomans' Grand Vizier Talat Pasha concluded that he and his ministry must resign in order to gain milder terms from the Triple Entente if the war-starting administration was no longer in control. Ahmed Izzet Pasha took the role of the Grand Vizier and quickly entered peace negotiations with the British, who were eager to come to terms with the Ottomans and exclude the French and Americans from any benefits it may bring about. The Armistice of Mudros was then signed on October 30th, 1918, ending Turkish involvement in the war. Unfortunately for the Ottoman Empire, the armistice not only failed to bring true peace, but it also marked the final leg of decline. With Enver Pasha's administration, himself included, no longer in power, the government was an unstable mess. Violence began to break out as law and order broke down, and the Western Allies began to march into Constantinople, under the claim that they needed to restore harmony throughout Anatolia. Given that the Armistice of Mudros had allowed for the Allied powers to invade if a need to restore order was present, there was not much that the feeble Ottoman authority could do to stop them. The occupation of Constantinople lasted until the Treaty of Sevres was signed on August 10th, 1920, which gave the European Allies control over Turkey's finances, a limit on their military numbers, and a significant amount of territory loss for the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire, which was soon to be abolished, had to relinquish all right to North Africa and Arab Asia, and the empire was partitioned between Greece, Armenia, France, Italy, and Britain. To complicate matters though, the treaty was never ratified due to an increasing nationalist movement throughout Turkey, leading to the Turkish War of Independence and the creation of the Grand National Assembly, which fought on one side of the war against the Sultan and the Western Allies. With the additionally unstable Russia backing the Turkish nationalists in hopes of developing a new communist ally and keeping the rest of Europe distracted from their own chaos, the revolutionaries were able to conclude a series of peace talks, ending in the Treaty of Kars, the Armistice of Madania, and the ultimate destruction of the Ottoman Sultanate, and the empire in its entirety. The final Sultan, Mehmed VI, left for exile on November 17, 1922, officially ending the collapse of one of the world's largest and long-lived empires in history. Under Mustafa Kemal, Turkey managed to regain territories in Anatolia and become independent. The new Turkish government earned international recognition through the following Treaty of Lausanne in the summer of 1923, officially replacing the Ottoman Empire with the Republic of Turkey. The history of the Ottoman Empire is vast and more than interesting, starting even before the Sultanate itself, with the arrival of the Turkish tribes of Anatolia, the Battle of Manzikert, the creation of various Sultanates, and then the start of the Ottoman Dynasty. This empire that existed for 600 years, dominated its neighbors, won battles and wars, expanded quickly and became a predator in this part of the world, achieving great success. But, as history has always shown us since the beginning of time, that every action has a reaction, every day becomes night, and every empire has its downfall. As other empires before them, the Ottomans did write their final page of history. Thank you for watching our episodes about the Ottoman Empire. You can buy me a Turkish coffee and massively support my work by joining my Patreon account. See you on the next video.