Ottoman Empire, Stage 2 - Background

In 1914 the Ottoman Empire controlled 2.4 million sq km of territory, including all modern Turkey and most of the Middle East. The Empire was dominated by Turks but also included Arabs, Kurds, Greeks, Armenians and other ethnic minorities. Officially the Ottoman Empire is an Islamic Caliphate ruled by an Emperor, Mehmed V, although it also contains Christians, Jews and other minority religions. For almost all 600 years of existence of the empire, these non-Muslim subjects suffered systematic discrimination and, at times, direct persecution.

Ottoman Mosque in Constantinople

In the decade before 1914 the empire underwent a series of political upheavals. The position of the Sultan was reduced to a puppet and the power was seized by the so-called 'Young Youth' - a group of educated Turkish military officers with a view to revitalizing the empire by introducing modernist reforms. Theoretically this includes ending official discrimination against non-Muslims, encouraging women's education and emancipation, and increasing the jurisdiction of secular law courts at the expense of the Islamic one. But this process had mixed results and broke down under war pressure, first in Libya and the Balkans (1911-13) and then against the Allies (1914-18).

Ottoman Kashmir Cavalry

Despite the ambitious agenda of its leaders, in 1914 the Ottoman Empire - which at its height had surpassed its European rival in wealth and power - now lags far behind all the great powers of Europe in economic, technological and military capacities. The reforms were also undermined by the newly emerging Turkish nationalism. The young Turks not only championed the idea of Turkish nationalism within the Ottoman Empire, but also the 'pan-Turkish' ideals - the 'reunification' of ethnic or cultural ethnic Tauans associated with ethnic Caucasus and Central Asia under Ottoman rule. This attitude - and the explicit increase of Turkish identity above all - is at odds with the reality of a multinational kingdom and serves only to inflame old ethnic and religious tensions among Ottoman societies.

Galata Bridge, 1800s

The pan-Turkic pursuit aims to guarantee a war with the Russian Empire, which now controls much of Central Asia and the Caucasus. Far from dodging this prospect, pan-Turkish supporters such as Enver Pasha, Minister of War, are actively seeking opportunities for the Ottoman Empire to engage in such conflicts with favorable terms. For the previous three centuries the Ottoman and Russian empires had fought more than a dozen wars apart from each other, with the Ottomans eventually losing large numbers of territories. The entry of Russia into the First World War by the Allies helped convince key Turkish leaders like Enver Pasha to dump their fate with Central Powers.

Erniğrul Cavalry Regiment

 Continued stage 3.........!!