Ottoman Empire ends; Republic of Turkey (1923)

Things happened, and the rest is history

1. 01

   The Young Turk Revolution of 1908

   Event

   What happened

   In July 1908 officers and officials of the Committee of Union and Progress, backed by army units in Macedonia, force Sultan Abdulhamid II to restore the constitution of 1876. Parliament reopens. In April 1909 a counter-revolt in Istanbul is put down by troops, and Abdulhamid is deposed.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The revolution raised hopes for equal citizenship among the empire's peoples, but those hopes faded. Within a few years the Committee dominated politics, and after a coup in January 1913 it ruled with little restraint. These men led the empire into the First World War.

   Sources

   1. BookHanioğlu, M. Şükrü. Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902-1908. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
   2. BookZürcher, Erik J. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 1993.
2. 02

   The Balkan Wars, 1912 to 1913

   Event

   What happened

   In October 1912 Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro attack the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman armies are defeated, and by the Treaty of London in May 1913 the empire loses almost all its European lands except eastern Thrace. The victors then fight each other in a second war, and the Ottomans retake Edirne in July 1913.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The wars cost the empire its richest European provinces and sent hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees into Anatolia. Many officers took the lesson that the empire was weak and surrounded by enemies. This helped shape the mood in which the empire entered the First World War a year later.

   Sources

   1. BookHall, Richard C. The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War. London: Routledge, 2000.
   2. BookZürcher, Erik J. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 1993.
3. 03

   The Ottoman entry into the First World War

   Event

   What happened

   In August 1914 the Ottoman government signs a secret alliance with Germany. In late October 1914 Ottoman warships, including the German-crewed Yavuz and Midilli, bombard Russian Black Sea ports. Russia, Britain and France then declare war on the empire in early November.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The empire fought on the Caucasus, Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Sinai and Palestine fronts. It held the Dardanelles in 1915 but lost Baghdad in 1917 and Jerusalem in 1917, and an Arab revolt began in 1916. The war strained the empire's economy and population and ended in its defeat.

   Sources

   1. BookMcMeekin, Sean. The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908-1923. London: Allen Lane, 2015.
   2. BookAksakal, Mustafa. The Ottoman Road to War in 1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
4. 04

   The Armenian deportations and mass killings, 1915 to 1916

   Event

   What happened

   From April 1915 the Ottoman government arrests Armenian leaders in Istanbul and then orders the deportation of Armenian communities from eastern Anatolia and elsewhere toward Syria. Large numbers die from massacre, starvation and disease. Most historians estimate the deaths at around a million or more.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Most historians and many governments describe these events as genocide. The Turkish state has long rejected that term and disputes the intent and the scale. The events destroyed the old Armenian presence in Anatolia, and they shaped the demographic base of the later Turkish republic. The question remains politically contested.

   Sources

   1. BookAkçam, Taner. A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006.
   2. BookSuny, Ronald Grigor. They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.
5. 05

   The Armistice of Mudros and the occupation

   Event

   What happened

   On 30 October 1918 the Ottoman government signs the Armistice of Mudros aboard HMS Agamemnon. The Ottoman army is demobilised, the straits are opened to the Allies, and the Allies may occupy strategic points. British, French and Italian forces occupy Istanbul in November 1918 and formally tighten control in March 1920. Greek troops land at Izmir in May 1919.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The occupation, and especially the Greek landing at Izmir, set off armed resistance in Anatolia. The Ottoman government in Istanbul was under Allied pressure, and a rival nationalist movement formed in Anatolia. This division led to the war of independence.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryArmistice of Mudros. Agreement between the Ottoman Empire and Britain, signed 30 October 1918.
   2. BookZürcher, Erik J. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 1993.
6. 06

   The Treaty of Sèvres, 1920

   Event

   What happened

   On 10 August 1920 representatives of the Ottoman government sign the Treaty of Sèvres with the Allies. It leaves the Ottomans a small state in Anatolia, places the straits under international control, gives Greece Smyrna and eastern Thrace, and provides for an autonomous Kurdish area and an Armenian state. The Ankara nationalists reject it.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The treaty was never put into force. The Turkish nationalists' military success in the following two years made it unworkable, and it was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The memory of Sèvres still shapes Turkish political rhetoric about foreign pressure.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryTreaty of Sèvres. Treaty between the Allied Powers and the Ottoman Empire, signed 10 August 1920.
   2. BookFromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.
7. 07

   The Turkish War of Independence

   Event

   What happened

   In May 1919 Mustafa Kemal lands at Samsun and begins organising resistance. Congresses at Erzurum and Sivas in 1919 set out a nationalist programme, and in April 1920 a Grand National Assembly opens in Ankara. Nationalist forces defeat the Greek army at Sakarya in 1921 and at Dumlupınar in August 1922, and Izmir is retaken in September 1922.

   ↓ The rest is history

   An armistice at Mudanya in October 1922 ended the fighting. The nationalists now held the strongest position and could negotiate new terms with the Allies. The war ended the Greek presence in western Anatolia and set the stage for a new state.

   Sources

   1. BookZürcher, Erik J. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 1993.
   2. BookMango, Andrew. Atatürk. London: John Murray, 1999.
8. 08

   Abolition of the sultanate and the Treaty of Lausanne

   Event

   What happened

   On 1 November 1922 the Ankara Assembly abolishes the sultanate, and the last sultan, Mehmed VI, leaves Istanbul on a British ship on 17 November. The Treaty of Lausanne, signed on 24 July 1923, recognises Turkey's new borders and ends the capitulations. It provides for a compulsory exchange of Greek Orthodox and Muslim populations between Greece and Turkey.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The republic was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, and Ankara was the capital. The caliphate was abolished in March 1924. Around a million and a half people were affected by the population exchange. The treaty remains the basis of Turkey's borders.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryTreaty of Lausanne. Treaty of peace between the Allied Powers and Turkey, signed 24 July 1923.
   2. BookHirschon, Renée, ed. Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey. New York: Berghahn Books, 2003.
9. 09

   The Sick Man of Europe

   Popular belief

   The legend

   People often say that Tsar Nicholas I called the Ottoman Empire the sick man of Europe, and that it was in steady, unbroken decline for a century until it collapsed. The empire is pictured as a ruin waiting to fall.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The phrase is attributed to Nicholas I in conversations with the British ambassador in 1853, recorded in British diplomatic papers. Historians now stress that the empire reformed and adapted through the 1800s, including the Tanzimat reforms from 1839, and that its end was not inevitable. Its collapse came from defeat in a world war, not from slow decay alone.

   Sources

   1. BookQuataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
   2. BookFinkel, Caroline. Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. London: John Murray, 2005.
10. 10

    Osman's dream

    Origin story

    The legend

    Osman, founder of the dynasty, sleeps in the house of the holy man Sheikh Edebali and dreams that a tree grows from his body. Its branches cover the world, and mountains and rivers rise beneath its shade. The sheikh tells him that his line will rule a great empire.

    ↓ The rest is history

    The story is first found in Ottoman chronicles written well over a century after Osman lived around 1300, and no contemporary source records it. Its purpose was to give the dynasty a sacred origin. Little is firmly known about Osman himself. The empire the dream predicted ended in 1922, when the sultanate was abolished.

    Sources

    1. BookKafadar, Cemal. Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
    2. BookFinkel, Caroline. Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. London: John Murray, 2005.
11. 11

    The Sykes-Picot line that drew the Middle East

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Many people say that in 1916 two diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, drew a line on a map that created the borders of the modern Arab Middle East.

    ↓ The rest is history

    The Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 was a secret Anglo-French plan for zones of influence, and it was revealed by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Its lines were not the final borders. Later settlements, including the San Remo conference in 1920 and the mandates, changed them, and local politics and later wars mattered too. The agreement was an influence, not the whole cause.

    Sources

    1. BookFromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.
    2. BookRogan, Eugene. The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. New York: Basic Books, 2015.