The fall of Ottoman Empire : A historical overview

 

The Fall of the Ottoman Empire: A Historical Overview

The Ottoman Empire was one of the greatest empires in the world from 1299 to 1922. It was a state that for centuries kept its flags of glory and splendor on the world map. The empire was at the height of its power, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, when its borders extended to North Africa, the Middle East and southwestern Europe. This great empire included 29 provinces and 3 vassal states, while it was feared in the political halls of Europe.

However, from the beginning of the 19th century, the signs of decline in the Ottoman Empire began to be noticeable. After 1566, 13 incompetent rulers successively sat on the Ottoman throne, whose weak rule gradually weakened the empire. The loss of conquered territories became the norm and the area of ​​the empire continued to shrink day by day.

 With the end of centralization, this vast empire began to lose its political unity. In the areas spread to the east and west, non-Muslim nations were used by foreign powers for their own interests. At the same time, Shia-Sunni riots, economic hardship, and administrative weaknesses seriously damaged the government's reputation.

After the Greek War of Independence in 1829, Greece formally declared independence. Then, in 1839, to protect the integrity of the empire, Sultan Mahmud II initiated reforms, which became known as Tanzimat. The aim of these reforms was to adopt the modern intellectual, governmental, agricultural, and legal systems of Europe. However, these reforms could not save the empire from disintegration.

In 1875, nationalist movements gained momentum in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Wallachia, and Moldova.  Finally, after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, these territories also declared independence, although these states had been under the influence of the Ottoman Empire in a semi-autonomous status for the previous six decades.

During the same period, a Serbian Jewish leader, Judah Solomon Alcala, returned to Palestine, where he founded the Jewish national movement, which later took the form of the Zionist movement.

In 1908, the Young Turk movement spread throughout the country. When the demands were not met, Sultan Abdulhamid II was deposed and exiled in 1909, and his brother Sultan Mehmed V was placed on the throne. At the same time, Austria-Hungary incorporated Bosnia and Herzegovina into its empire. Libya was lost as a result of the war with Italy, while most of the Balkans also seceded from the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Wars.

After 1908, the Council of Union and Progress was established, through which state affairs began to be conducted.  This assembly first reviewed the weak state of the navy and decided to strengthen the navy by collecting donations from the public. In 1910, a large sum of money was paid to Britain for the preparation of modern naval warships.

However, at the beginning of World War I, in view of the possible war with Germany, Britain added those ships to its navy instead of handing them over to Turkey. This immoral move caused great anger and resentment among the Turkish people and government. Taking advantage of this opportunity, German Kaiser Wilhelm II provided Turkey with two modern warships and thus brought Turkey into the war as an ally.

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The Turkish Air Force is considered one of the oldest air forces in the world. It was founded in June 1909, when two Turkish pilots attended the International Aeronautical Conference held in Paris. In 1910, more officers were sent to Europe for training, but due to housing and administrative problems, this training could not be completed. In 1911, Defense Minister Mahmud Şöket Pasha made the final decision to establish the air force.  That same year, officers named Feysa and Yusuf Kanan surprised the world by performing well in the international air examinations.

In 1912, the Air Academy was established in Istanbul, and thus the Ottoman Empire entered World War I with an organized air force.

Turkey formally entered the war in October 1914, two months after the start of World War I, and declared war on Russia. At that time, the Ottoman Empire had a land army of about 2.1 million, making it a major military power, but internal weaknesses and external pressures eventually led to the collapse of this great empire.

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