Lana Albasri

Mr.Stankiewicz

DE Ancient History

09.Dec.2016

The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Turkish Republic

Many people heard about the Ottoman Empire and how strong it was, but they do not

know what were the key factors and the main events that caused such a strong empire to fall and

caused a new republic to form.

Around 2000 B.C. the Turks first lived in Central Asia, then they moved toward Asia

minor and other regions in Europe. When the settled; they established many states and empires

such as the Great Hun Empire, the Gokturk Empire, the Uygur Empire, the Avar Empire, the

Hazar Empire, the Great Seljuk Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.

According to A Brief Outline of Turkish History, the Great Seljuk Empire started declining when

the Mongol occupied Anatolia in 1243, which enabled a principality called the Ottoman

Principality to establish an independent state in Anatolia (in a city called Eskiehir) in 1299.

According to the New World Encyclopedia, like all other empires, the Ottoman Empire ruled for

more than 600 years and passed through six phases: rise, classical age, transformation,

stagnation, decline, and dissolution.

The Ottomans rapidly expanded their territory through conquests to preserve the Islamic

civilization. By time, the Empire controlled Anatolia, The Middle East, Parts of North Africa,

and parts of Southeast Europe. But at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Ottomans lost

some of their strength due to the presence of sultans who took the throne lacking the required

skills or had little training in governance. For example: Mehmet III left the power to his mother
and Mahmud I was interested in poetry. The great territory loss that the Ottoman faced was

during the nineteenth century all the way to the twentieth century they lost some of their lands

in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries as well but this loss did not have a huge impact

on the empire.-

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the Greek war of independence took place.

According to the New World Encyclopedia, most of the Greeks did not have basic political rights

while they were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Some of them, however, were part of the

Ottoman Empires bureaucracy, which enabled such Greeks to pay for education in other

European countries. Over there, they were exposed to the enlightenment ideas and the reasons of

the French revolution. When they came back to Greece, they shared everything they have learned

from European universities to rise the education level of the Greeks who could not travel and to

strengthen their national identity. The most influential and important figures was Rigas Feraios

whose death pushed the Greeks toward claiming independence.

The Greek rebellion started in many Greek cities and villages in 1821 to kill all the Turks

on the Greek soil, which led to many massacres such as the Tripolitsa massacre, the massacres of

Monemvasia and Nawarino, Acrocorinth massacre, massacre of Athens and Acropolis, and the

Nauplia massacre. According to Turkish Coalition of America, many historians wrote about the

aggression of the Greeks during the rebellion. For example: George Finlay wrote that the Turkish

in Greece were killed without any mercy or remorse. The historian William Phillip wrote that the

Turks were tortured by the Greeks before they were slaughtered and the Greeks did not regard

neither sex nor age. The Greek rebellion ended after several years when the Greeks realized that

there are no more Turks and their legacy was establishing an independent state.
 The Ottoman Empire also lost Algeria and Tunisia. According to Lutsky, when Algeria

was under the control of the Ottoman Empire, it was suffering from a sharp decline because

people did not support or improve industry, they were focused on faming artistic crafts and

cultivating olive trees and palm trees.

The French Napoleon I considered Algeria as an indispensable foreign market for the

industrial development of France. (Lutsky) and therefore he prepared his troops to conquer

Algeria in 1808 but due to the defeat in Spain and Russia, he was not able to send them.

In 1830, king Charles X conducted Napoleons plans of the conquest of Algeria. In

response, the Algerians resist through a bloody fighting led by Abd El-Kader who was a

courageous soldier, and used the classical tactics of the guerrilla warfare (Lutsky) against the

French troops. In 1832, the French and the Algerians signed the Desmichel treaty that

acknowledged all Western Algeria except for three coastal towns.

Abd El-Kader became the ruler of Western Algeria. Despite that, he followed a simple

life style and worked on illuminating the feudal relations in Algeria. Eastern Algeria, however,

decided to fight the French colonization independently of Abd El-Kader because they were ruled

by a bey named Ahmed. In 1835, the French violated the treaty by invading the territory of Abd

El-Kader and the bloody fighting started all over again. It ended with another peaceful agreement

between the two sides the Tafna treaty of 1837- that called for acknowledging Abd El-Kaders

rule not only in Western Algeria, but also in central Algeria. The French agreed to this because

they wanted to concentrate all their efforts on the campaign against Constantine, where the

second breeding ground of anti-French opposition was located. (Lutsky).

In October of 1837, the French were able to seize Constantine and the Eastern part of

Algeria. The people of that region asked Abd El-Kader to send his troops to Constantine. This
led him to declare war on France. This time, the size of the French army was twice the size of the

Algerian army, they had sophisticated weapons that the Algerian army lacked and they adopted

new mobile tactics (Lutsky). In contrast, Abd El-Kader who did not have a very large number

of soldiers; kept supporting them through moral motivation, he also kept following his classical

tactics. After four years, the French were able to take over and dismiss Abd El-Kader from

Algeria, which decreased the strength of the Ottoman empire. The Ottomans also lost parts of

Cyprus during the eighteenth century which weakened them as well.

In the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire was under a huge pressure because it lost

larger portions of its territory as well as its involvement in world war I. According to the

International Encyclopedia of the First World War, in 1908 some of the Turks revolted against

the policies of the Ottoman Sultan, Abdulhamid II. This was known as the Young Turk

Revolution that led to giving the opposing Turks some positions in the government, which in turn

led to the restoration of the Turkish constitution.

The revolutionaries who formed the Committee of Union and Progress(cup) were the

ones who dragged the Ottoman Empire to a series of tragic wars and events. According to

Yanikdag, the Balkan wars started in 1912 when Montenegro declared war on the Ottomans and

a few weeks later, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece joined to attack the Ottomans, which caused the

Ottomans to lose 33% of their territory and 16-20% of their population. In addition, this defeat

put millions of Muslim Turks in the Balkan under a foreign rule that treated them unfairly, which

caused them to be killed or to be sent to Istanbul.

Yanikdag wrote that The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este

(1863-1914) in Sarajevo and Austro-Hungarys ultimatum to Serbia were the main reasons

behind the search for allies among the Great Powers by the Young Turks, which led to a secret
alliance between the Germans and the Ottomans. The Germans viewed the Ottomans as a

liability in WWI.

It was very hard for the Ottomans to reach the war field due to the absence of railroads

between East Anatolia and West Anatolia, which caused the military troops to travel on foot. In

addition, the Ottomans did not have enough money to supply their troops because they were

depending on some foreign countries at that time. They did not have a good communication

network, and they did not have many doctors for the troops. Despite that, they decided to go to

the war and keep fighting until the end.

During WWI, the Ottomans fought on four intensive fronts: the Caucasus, the

Dardanelles (Gallipoli), Sinai-Palestine, and Mesopotamia-Iraq. (Yanikdag) As well as other

fronts such as Arabia-Yemen, Iran, Azerbaijan, Romania, Galicia, and Macedonia. (Yanikdag).

Yanikdag also mentioned that when the war started, Istanbuls market was negatively

affected; which led to postpone the payments of the debts, the implementation of war taxes, and

a reduction in salaries. During the war (1914-1918), however, the prices went up leading people

toward poverty, and the Russians bombed the coal works on the Black Sea coast which led the

Ottomans to get coal from Germany to fuel the trains, but they relied on wood instead because

the imports were inadequate. This led to starvation among people due to cutting trees that were

the main sources of food. Ali Fuad Erden who was Cemal Pashas chief of staff (1883-1957),

wrote in his memories once: at nights, the peace and silence in Beirut [which was an Ottoman

state back then] could be disturbed only by the whimpers of those dying of hunger. In fact, those

voices would not last long, as the poor people would die soon (Yanikdag) Starvation was not

among the Ottoman civilians only, but also among the Ottoman soldiers because they were not

able to get food due to transportation problems, and empty farms whose farmers escaped in
specific parts in Anatolia to avoid the Russian invasion, which affected the Ottomans ability to

fight in the war. In addition, the number of orphan children rose dramatically. Most of these

orphans the males in particular- were sent to Germany to learn new skills.

According to Yanikdag, when WWI ended in November of 1918, the victors invaded

Istanbul the Ottoman capital-. France, Italy, and England invaded the former Ottoman

territories of Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, as well as the South-eastern and South-western Asia

Minor. In 1919, Britain allowed the Greeks to occupy the Western part of Anatolia the city of

Izmir in particular- which led the Ottomans to sign the treaty of Sevres that called for creating

spheres of influence in Anatolia, and an independent state for the Armenians because they were

treated unfairly by the Ottomans. All these dramatic events caused the Turkish Nationalist

Movement whose leader was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to become stronger.

According to Sumer, Ataturk was a colonel who fought in WWI and in 1916, he became a

general. Right after WWI until 1922, his army was able to fight the foreigners in the Turkish War

of Independence at which all of the Turks contributed. Then the treaty of Lausane that drew the

boundaries of Turkey was signed in 1923, and after a few months the Turkish Grand National

Assembly was established, which declared the formation of the Turkish Republic and made

Ataturk first president of the republic.

When Ataturk became a president, he created a series of reforms that represented the

foundation of a secular and a modern republic. These reforms included the separation of religion

and state, introducing a new educational system, co-education for boys and girls, the right of vote

for women, using the Latin alphabet instead of the Arabic one, working on strengthen the

relations between Turkey and the other countries, and maintaining peace at home, peace in the

world (Kemal Ataturk) to preserve world peace.

 Ataturks death in 1938 caused a wave of sadness that affected the Turks. The presidency

was given to Ataturks chief lieutenant, Inonu. ( countrystudies) and Celal Bayar became the

new prime minister. Inonu promised to keep Turkey neutral during wars, but he also promised to

fight if any nation attacked Turkey. Right before WWII, the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact of

1939 prompted Turkey to sign a treaty of mutual assistance with Britain and France

(countrystudies) but in 1941, Turkey signed a treaty with the Nazi Germany right before the

invasion of the Soviet Union by the Axis powers and in 1944, Turkey broke its diplomatic

relations with Germany, then in 1945, it attacked Germany to participate in a Conference on

International Organization. ( countrystudies)

After WWII, the first multiparty elections were held and the Democratic Party won the

majority of the votes. Its primary accomplishments were legalizing the call for prayer in Arabic,

and changing some of Ataturks civil laws. During the same time, the Soviet Union was trying to

expand its territory which led Turkey to form good relations with the U.S. through allowing the

U.S. to establish many military bases on the Turkish soil as well as accepting the American

initiatives of training the Turkish soldiers.

During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Turkey had to deal with some domestic events

that caused the government to be unstable. these events included the civil war between the Kurds

and the Turks that is still taking place in our modern day, the coup of 1960 whose members

seized the buildings of the government, and in 1990s, an Islamic Party rebelled against the

government and was able to win some victories, but it was overthrown by the military. All these

events did not weakened Turkey because of its contribution in many international events such as

sending an infantry brigade to the Korean Peninsula to serve under UN command.

(countrystudies) to take a pro-western stance during the Cold War, participating in the European
Recovery Program that was held by the U.S. , becoming a member in the Council of Europe, and

applying for a membership in the European Union and it was accepted in 1964.

In 2003, the former mayor of Istanbul, Recep Erdogan, was elected as a prime minister of

Turkey then he became the president in 2014. According to Sumer, when Erdogan took control,

he established a moderately Islamic government that gradually moved away from most of

Ataturks reforms and ideas. Today, many Turks believe that the main intention of the current

government is transforming Turkey to an Islamic state, which was inferred from the governments

acts such as choosing religious candidates to be hired and rising conservatism.in addition,

statistics indicate that the number of women who cover their hair with a scarf rose sharply.

In July of 2016, due to the continuous pressure of the current Turkish government upon

its citizens, a coup was led to overthrow the president but it was unsuccessful, an dth emembers

who committed the coup were punished by the government.

A remarkable transition from more than a 600 years old empire to a republic that passed

through a series of events, was conducted by Mustafa K. Ataturk who is considered as one of the

most important and significant figures in history, because of the loss of territories, WWI, and the

determination of the Young Turks who led the Turkish War of Independence can be easily

traced. In addition, for a better understanding and a better analysis of the events that caused the

Ottoman Empire to fall and the Turkish Republic to rise, there are many fiction and non-fiction

books that explain such a thing in depth. For example: The Ottoman Road to War by Mustafa

Aksakal, The Ottoman Centuries by Patrick Balfour, Ataturk: The Biography of the Founder of

Modern Turkey by Andrew Mango, The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East,

by Eugene Rogan, and the Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern

Middle East by Sean McMeekin.

Work Cited
 "A Brief Outline of Turkish History." A BRIEF OUTLINE OF TURKISH HISTORY.

Turkish Cultural Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Aksakal, Mustafa. "The Ottoman Road to War in 1914." Cambridge University Press.

N.p., 09 Dec. 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

"Greek War of Independence and Its Toll on Turks." Greek War of Independence and Its

Toll on Turks. Turkish Coalition of America, 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

"Greek War of Independence." Greek War of Independence - New World Encyclopedia.

New World Encyclopedia, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.

Lutsky, Vladimir Borisovich. "Modern History of the Arab Countries by Vladimir

Borisovich Lutsky 1969." Modern History of the Arab Countries by Vladimir Borisovich Lutsky

1969. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.

"Ottoman Empire." Ottoman Empire - New World Encyclopedia. New World

Encyclopedia, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Sumer, Aynur Uluatam. "Atatrk's Reforms Empowered Turkish Women and Set an

Example for the Developing World - Ataturk Society of America." Ataturk Society of America.

ASA, 03 Nov. 2015. Web. 06 Dec. 2016

"Turkey after Atatrk." Turkey after Atatrk. Countrystudies, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.

Yanikdag, Yucel. "Ottoman Empire/Middle East." New Articles RSS. International

Encyclopedia, 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.