In 1900, at the dawn of
a new century in the 700th year of its existence,
the Ottoman Empire began to die a violent,
climactic death. The forces that destroyed this old
and once powerful state catapaluted the Middle
East, Europe, and indeed the world, toward
increased instability and chaos. Out of the ruins
of the Ottoman Empire arose the forces that
contributed, directly or indirectly, to some of the
most long-lasting and horrific conflicts to afflict
the world since 1914. Both World
Wars, the Holocaust, the rise and reign of
Soviet Communism in Russia, the Arab-Israeli
wars, the various Iraq
wars and the terrorism that shook the world on
September 11, 2001 are all related. All these
events and the world-wide violence that ensued,
originated, to some degree, with the death throes
of the Ottoman Empire.
By 1900, the Ottoman Sultan could claim rule
over a domain that stretched from the deserts of
Libya in Africa to the snow-covered mountains of
Armenia and Kurdistan.
This ruler controlled the oil fields and marshes of
southern Iraq and the mountain valleys of Bosnia on
the Austrian border. The Sultan's flag flew along
the shores of the Adriatic Sea near Italy in Europe
and down to the southern tip of the Arabian
Peninsula in West Asia. Between these geographic
extremes, lay a vast and diverse empire containing
multiple ethnic and religious groups, many of whom
disliked each other more than they disliked Turkish
rule. These groups, over the hundred years prior to
1900, had begun to idenfy themselves as distict
national groups rather than as subjects of the
Ottoman Empire.
The disintegration of the Turkish Ottoman Empire
accelerated in the Twentieth Century. By 1923, the
Ottoman Empire was destroyed, replaced by a
significantly smaller country simply known as
"Turkey;" a nation stripped of most of its
non-Turkish lands and peoples. Also, several
smaller nations were born out of the dead body of
the Ottoman lands in the Middle East, including the
states of Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and
yet-to-be-born state of Palestine. In addition,
Arabia began its transformation into a country
ruled by the al-Saud family, who seized the current
Ottoman territory in Arabia, including the holy
cities of Mecca and Medina. Out of the remaining
carcass of Ottoman-ruled Europe, Albania became an
independent nation for the first time in over 400
years.
The destruction of this very old empire began
much earlier, but the events of the Twentieth
Century bear special significance for the end of
the realm begun by the Turkish tribal leader
Osmanli in the year 1300. This is a tale of
revenge, deceit, conspiracy, war in the name of
empire-building, war in the name of
nation-building, war in the name of God and
religion, and war in the name of vengeance.
The Last Wars
of the Ottoman Empire
From 1897 to the signing of the Lausanne Treaty
in 1923, the never-ending internal and external
conflicts eventually tore apart the Ottoman Empire
and sent it to the graveyard of dead nations. As
described in the individual sections for each
conflict, the Ottomans were engaged in many
conflicts, including: Uprisings in Albania (1897,
1908, 1910, 1911 and 1912), a chaotic and
multi-sided uprising in Macedonia (1903-1912), a
long rebellion by the people of the Yemen for
self-rule (1904-1911), a political revolution by
part of the Ottoman Army, led by a group called the
"Young Turks."
In addition to the internal rebellions, foreign
enemies picked apart the Ottoman Empire through
land seizures, attacks and invasions. A list of
these foreign wars and foes includes: the annexation
of Ottoman Bosnia by Austria (1909), Bulgaria
declaring full independence from the Ottomans
(1909), war with
Italy (1911-1912), wars
with Greece (1897, 1912-1913, 1920-1922),
Montenegro (1912-1913), Serbia (1912-1913),
Bulgaria (1912-1913, and a second Balkan War in
1913), the Arab tribes ruled by the al-Saud family
(1913), the World War
One Allies (Britain, France, Italy, Australia,
New Zealand, Russia) from 1914 to 1918.
The climax to this long list of wars and
conflicts was the Turkish War of Independence. This
struggle by the Turks to create a non-Ottoman
Turkish nation was opposed by Greece, Britain,
France, and Italy. In addition to all the military
actions mentioned above, several coups and
uprisings among the Turks themselves took place, as
well as the infamous "Armenian Massacres."
*The modern nation of Greece was born after
its long War of Independence from the Ottoman Turks
(1821-1832). In the eyes of most historians, the
Greece of today is different from the Greek
Byzantine Empire of the Middle Ages (also known as
the Medieval Period). That Greek empire fought many
wars against the young Ottoman Empire. The Turks
finally completed their conquest of the medieval
Greeks in 1453, when they captured the Greek
capital of Constantinople. The Turks turned the
city into their capital, later renaming it
Istanbul. The Turks then ruled the Greeks for
nearly 400 years.
