The fate of the Ottoman Empire in World War I

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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire lost its territory continuously, some becoming independent one after another, and some being taken by Britain and France. At that time, the Ottoman Empire had the idea of reforming and trying to modernize the country in order to compete more effectively with Europe, but this was not done at that time, and it was only done later under the Kemal of Turkey.

In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was further reformed by the Neo-Ottomans. Known as the first constitutional period in the history of the Ottoman Empire, which included the writing of the Constitution of 1876 and the establishment of the Ottoman Parliament, they gradually introduced Western models of constitutionalism, civil law, education, and industrial development into their country. Railways and telegraphs were built throughout the region, and schools and universities were opened. A new group of military officers, teachers, lawyers, and so on began to emerge one after another.

When these men appeared, they challenged the traditional leadership of Islamic scholars. Generally in Islamic countries, especially in theocratic Islamic countries. The laws of countries that have made Islam the state religion are Shari'a law, called Shari'a. The power to interpret this Shari'a law is formed on the basis of doctrinal interpretation, and the teachings of Islam are a great constraint on the daily life and behavioral norms of Muslims. It plays a regular role.

Who is the one who explains the doctrine? The people who explained the doctrine were Islamic scholars, and these people were of a relatively high rank.

So the first constitutional period soon came to an end. Because it was opposed by conservative forces.

At that time, the Ottoman Empire's autocratic Sultan Abdulhamid II abolished the parliament and constitution, and supported the dictatorship, and Abdulhamid ruled completely by his own various decrees for the next 30 years, so he was gradually dissatisfied with the people, so many people stood up against his rule. In this regard, Sultan Abdul Hamid II also did many extreme things.

Here we have to mention a well-known party called the Young Turks. The Young Turks succeeded in seizing power in 1908 and began the Second Constitutional Period. This led to the Ottoman Empire's multi-member and multi-party elections in 1908.

At that time, the Young Turks split into two parties, the pro-German and pro-authoritarian United Progressive Council, and the pro-British, pro-devolved Liberal Concord. The former was formed by a coalition of ambitious officers and radical lawyers.

After a power struggle between the two parties, the Joint Progressive Council won and established a military and political rule. At that time, Talat Pasha became the prime minister, but in the Ottoman Empire, the prime minister was called the Great Veccher, and an officer named Enver Pasha in the Joint Progressive Council became the Minister of Defense.

And German-funded modernization programs were established throughout the Reich. Anville Pasha chose to ally with Germany, which actually brought the Ottoman Empire into the rhythm of Germany to a certain extent. At that time, Germany was indeed very advanced, such as economic strength, scientific and technological strength, and military strength.

Originally, the Ottoman Empire and Britain formed an alliance to counterbalance Russia. However, the British demanded that the Ottoman Empire transfer its official capital, Edirne, to Bulgaria after its defeat in the First Balkan War.

As a result, the Turks were so angry that Britain ceased to be allies but traitors. In this way, the Turks' support for Britain was cut off. As a direct result, the Young Turks were divided into two parties. Like the pro-British Liberal Concorde, he could not win, mainly because it was a matter of sovereignty, because no one could accept it.

After the second constitutional reform, the Ottoman Empire completely fell to Germany. At the same time, there is a new trend in the Middle East, that is, the revival movement of the Islamic faith, which wants to mention a famous person, that is, this person's thoughts include many later actions, which have a great impact on many terrorist organizations in the world now, his name is Muhammad ibn Abdowa Habi, his ideas later evolved into a sect of Islamic fundamentalism in the 19th century called Wahhabis, Wahhabis and the Saudi family in the Middle East at that time worked together, This led to the establishment of Saudi Arabia.

The early Ottoman Empire was also able to effectively suppress the power of the House of Saud and eliminate the First Saudi Kingdom. But the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself and the alliances between the Kingdom and European countries such as Britain inevitably weakened the influence of the Turks in the Arab region.

In 1878, the Ottoman Empire was gradually entering its final years. As a result of the Treaty of Cyprus, the British took over Cyprus from the Ottomans, although the Cypriots initially welcomed British rule, hoping that they would bring prosperity, democracy, national liberation, national self-consciousness, national independence, and so on. They soon discovered that this was a dream, for not only were the natives not getting the rights they wanted, but more of them were concentrated in the hands of the British High Commissioner and the London government.

At the same time, the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and the division of Anatolia by the Allies caused a revolt from the Turks, who defeated the invasion of the Great Powers in the Turkish War of Independence, led by Kemal, the leader of the Turkish National Movement.

In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established, and Kemal, the founding father of the country, began a process of modernization and secularization of Turkey. The abolition of the caliphate, the emancipation of women, the imposition of Western dress and the use of the Latin alphabet and the neo-Turkish alphabet in place of the Arabic alphabet, and the abolition of the Islamic courts, in effect the Shari'a law.

Words from a strict point of view of history. That is, the Ottoman Turkish Empire inherited the original rule of the Middle East, but such a reform actually gave up its domination of the Arab world, and Turkey decided to break away from the Middle East and become culturally part of Europe.

Another important change that changed the historical pattern of the Middle East was the discovery of oil, first in Iran in 1908, followed by Saudi Arabia in 1938, which affected the entire Gulf countries, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Sudan, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.

Facts have proved that the Middle East has the world's easiest crude oil reserves, although in terms of reserves, Venezuela is ranked first in the world, but Venezuela's oil is heavy oil, if heavy oil is turned into a variety of chemical products, the cost is too high, it is not like the Middle East is all light oil, the cost of oil production is low. At the same time, the cost of refining oil was low, and as the most important product of the scientific and technological revolution, all the oil extracted in the Middle East at the beginning of the 20th century was sold. It promoted the development of the fast-growing automobile industry and other industries, which made the kings and chieftains of the oil countries very, very rich.

It allows them to consolidate power and also makes them happy to maintain Western hegemony on the ground.

The oil dependence on the Middle East and the decline of British influence have increased the interest of another major power in the Middle East: the United States.

Originally, oil production and extraction were monopolized by Western companies, but the local nationalization of oil capital and sharing rights, as well as the emergence of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, ensured that the balance of power was tilted towards the Arab countries, after all, oil is on other people's land, even if you, a foreign capital, have the technology, the workers and the equipment, I just won't let you extract oil. It's going to rot with me, and you can't do anything.

And the massive surge in oil wealth has also brought about a negative effect, that is, there is money, life is good, and the national government is unwilling to carry out corresponding economic, political and social reforms.

As a result, although the Middle East region is becoming richer and richer, the level of civilization of the whole society is gradually distancing itself from the advanced civilization level of the world.

By 1914, World War I had begun.

Earlier we said that the Ottoman Empire was pro-German, including the Minister of Defense Enver was very pro-German, so Austria-Hungary and Germany were allied and involved in the First World War.

At this time, the British saw that the Ottoman Empire was now in vain. He also allied with Germany and was involved in World War I, so he came up with the idea to try to persuade the Ottoman Empire to withdraw from the war.

But after the failure of the direct attack by Gallipoli in 1915. Britain turned its attention to exploiting the national awakening to make Arabic Armenia and Syria against Ottoman rule.

The British turned to the Hashemite family to help, and the king of the Hejaz, Hussein bin Ali, rose up and launched an Arab uprising to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire, and the British led the Allies won the war and seized most of the Ottoman territory.

At this time, only Turkey could survive in the Ottoman Empire. The war changed the involvement of Britain and France in the Middle East, and the Middle East state system was formed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

So far, why Turkey is one of the five major countries in the Middle East is because it has a historical accumulation, in fact, it is also very strong.

By 1918, when the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the British at the hands of the Arab uprising and the Battle of Bastan in Sinai, the Arabs saw an opportunity to gain independence and regain their territory. But it didn't get what it wanted, because the British and French betrayed the Arabs.

The British and the French secretly signed a Sykepico agreement to divide the Middle East into their own spheres of influence, and in 1917 the British announced the Belf Declaration, pledging to support the international Zionist movement and rebuild the country in Palestine, the historic Jewish homeland.

When the Ottoman Empire was dissolved, the Arabs declared themselves an independent state in Damascus, but it was too weak militarily and economically. Unable to confront the European powers, many of the surrounding regimes gradually became British and French protectorates.

Syria, for example, became a French protectorate, and as a Mandate of the League of Nations, the Christian coastal areas were divided into another French protectorate. It was the famous Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine that became the British Mandate, Iraq became the Kingdom of Iraq, and Faisal of Hussein bin Ali was appointed King of Iraq, and a large number of Kurds, Assyrians and Pucummen in Iraq, who had been assured by the British that they would allow your nation to have its own independent state, but now it seems that all of them are big pies.

End of this article.